Page 7 of Autumn Feud With The Mountain Man (Ozark Mountain Men Falling For Love #1)

Thatcher

We woke up tangled in each other’s arms.

Last night had changed my life.

But we still hadn’t talked much. We didn’t know what we were.

Fuck buddies?

That was a given.

Friends?

I wasn’t sure about that yet.

Lovers?

It might be too soon to tell. Not on my end. I was ready to buy the package. But what about on her end?

I did get the strong feeling she didn’t hate me anymore, so I scratched enemies off the list.

I had the impression Shelby didn’t usually get too close to men. Or maybe she didn’t get too close to anyone .

“Morning,” I rumbled quietly while I stroked her cheek.

As sleep faded from her eyes, so did the sweet, dreamy look on her face.

“Morning.” She responded with less enthusiasm than I’d hoped for. There was no smile parting her lips. Only a furrowed brow and an instant look of worry.

Then it was as if industrious Shelby came back out to play. The one with a quick wit and a sharp tongue, and a twelve-foot buffer zone.

She gathered the sheet around her and stood up, tossing a portion of the blanket over my hard cock with hardly a second glance.

“Last night was… crazy. Can you believe we did that? Too much wine. It always makes me impulsive. Anyway, I’m going to take a shower.

I presume you need to get on your way? No need to wait for me before you leave. ”

Shelby disappeared around the doorway to her bathroom, leaving me lying in bed with a giant frown on my face.

She popped back into view for a moment with a big fake smile plastered on her lips. “Oh, and Thatcher, can we keep this little mistake private? I don’t need it to get all around town that I fucked the—”

“Trashman,” I finished the sentence for her, as my heart closed in on itself.

“I was going to say ‘the hot guy at the party’. But either way, I like to keep things private.”

I leaned back and groaned. Two things could happen. I could let her push me away, diminishing everything that happened between us last night. Or I could fight for her, the feisty, fragile, curvy siren who had captured my heart.

There was no choice. I had to fight for her. And I’d keep doing it until the day she told me to back off.

So I growled out, “That’s not how this is going to happen, Shelby.”

The fake smile slipped off her face, and for perhaps the first time, I saw the real woman behind the mask.

She looked at me, confused and afraid.

And I suddenly understood she’d had a lifetime of heartache. There’d been too many morning-afters in her life, all with the same outcome. Until she’d come to expect that.

So I took charge and told her, “I don’t dine and dash, Shelby. Go take your shower. I’ll come join you in a few minutes. Then we’ll have a conversation. After that, if you still want me to leave, I will. Okay?”

The confident, headstrong lawyer who could make grown men sink to their knees was gone. In its place was an insecure girl who’d never let herself love before. Or be loved.

Without any fight at all, she nodded her head, then disappeared from view. I heard the sound of the shower water shift and knew she’d just gotten in.

I’d give her a few minutes to get used to the idea that I was now a part of her life. And then I’d hop in and let my cock give her a reminder that it was a good thing to have me around.