Page 2 of Naughty With The Mountain Man
He shuts the door behind me and the silence settles thick around us. I take in the cabin—high ceilings, a stone fireplace, weapons on the wall (comforting?), and a large dog curled up by the fire. The dog lifts its head, looks at me, then promptly decides I’m not a threat and goes back to sleep.
“Good boy,” I whisper.
Micah crosses his arms. “You were supposed to stay with Nate.”
“Nate said you’d keep me alive.” I smile sweetly. “Besides, you’re sofestive.”
His eyes narrow. “This isn’t a vacation, Ellie.”
I know that.
God, Iknowthat.
I swallow the nerves, the tightness in my chest that hasn’t gone away since the third note showed up at my office mailbox.
“I got another package yesterday,” I say, softer now. “It had a broken partridge ornament and a receipt with my home address scrawled across it. Someone’s watching me. Someone who knows I work with kids who’ve seen too much. I didn’t know what else to do.”
Micah’s face doesn’t change, but I see something flicker behind his eyes.
He nods once. “You’ll stay here. You don’t go anywhere without me knowing. If something happens, you say my name first and loud.”
My heart thuds, not with fear, but something I can’t name yet. “Okay.”
“Don’t touch the weapons. Don’t let the dog fool you—he bites.”
I glance at the dog. He’s snoring.
Micah rubs a hand down his face like he’s already exhausted by my existence. “You hungry?”
“I could eat,” I say, because my coping mechanism is snacks and sarcasm.
He heads to the kitchen, and I drop my bag, heart still racing. I’m not sure if it’s leftover adrenaline or the fact that the grumpiest man I’ve ever met just offered me food.
Maybe both.
I look around the cabin again, this strange safe haven in the middle of nowhere, and tell myself this is fine. This is temporary. This is just a pit stop while we figure out who’s sending creepy holiday threats and why.
Still…
Something about the way Micah moves—with control, with quiet intensity—tells me he doesn’t doanythinghalfway. Not protection. Not grudges. And definitely not whatever it is I feel flickering between us like kindling.
Christmas just got complicated.
2
Micah
When Nate called, he made it sound simple.
“Just a favor,”he said.“Keep her safe. Lay low. Few days, max.”
What he didn’t say wasshewould be Ellie Bright. That she’d come blowing up my front porch like a damn snowstorm in lip gloss and red wool.
I thought maybe she’d cancel. Most people don’t like the idea of living off-grid with a man whose idea of hospitality is not pointing a rifle at you when you knock. But no—she showed up smiling, with boots not made for the snow, a suitcase she could barely drag, and eyes that looked right through me like she wasn’t afraid of a thing.
Too pretty.
Too cheerful.
