Page 8 of Snowed In with her Mountain Men

OAKLEY

“I still can’t believe we just left her there.”

The snow-covered pines rolled by, as Ryder guided us along the long, winding road up the mountain. His jaw was tight. I could tell he wasn’t any happier about this than I was.

But Jaxon had been pretty insistent.

“Look, it’s not like we didn’t help her,” he reasoned. “You saved her from violence. We gathered her things. We drove her into town, and set her up in the nicest hotel that had room for her.”

“Motel,” Ryder corrected him. “Not hotel.”

“Whatever.”

“Not whatever,” I grumbled. “That place is a shithole and you know it.”

Jaxon ignored me for a while, as he tended to do. Ryder was easy to read, but you never really knew what was going on behind Jaxon’s humorless brown eyes.

“This is what she wanted,” he finally said. “In fact, she insisted on it.”

“She didn’t want to be a burden,” I reasoned. “That’s the only reason why—”

“And she would’ve been,” he cut me off. He whirled in the front seat, looking back to where I sat, hands on my knees, in the Marauder’s huge cargo area. “Never lose sight of our goal. Remember what we’re doing up there, and why we’re doing it.”

I lowered my head, bouncing with the truck as it rumbled along.

Jaxon was right, but even so, I couldn’t help but feel terrible.

For whatever reasons she’d come here, Camryn was in way over her head.

Her cabin was completely shot to shit, even before the wolves showed up, and not nearly provisioned for winter.

And now she was stuck in some strange old town, with even stranger people — a fact I personally knew more than just about anyone.

And worst of all, she was stuck there alone.

Damn.

The rational side of me told me I shouldn’t care so much, but a much bigger part of me couldn’t help it.

Camryn wasn’t just alone, she was totally oblivious.

She’d driven thousands of miles to come here, all on the romantic notion of writing a book in some cozy, snowy cabin.

Instead, she’d picked the worst possible landlord; a man who’d abused her northern naivety and good nature.

He’d also rented her the mother of all teardowns.

Of course, it didn’t hurt that she was breathtakingly beautiful.

Even now, I couldn’t get the image of her out of my mind.

I was obsessed with that long, blonde hair, and how it spilled so perfectly down over her full, beautiful breasts.

Most of all though, I could remember how she felt when I first ran to her.

The softness of her skin. The feel of her curvy, feminine body, as she lay trembling in my arms.

I told myself I’d slept across from her in case she needed something, but I knew it was just to be near her.

Hell, I’d even studied her pretty face for most of the night.

While asleep, the worry lines on her forehead were gone.

Her expression was smooth, passive, peaceful.

Just like the slow, rhythmic breathing she enjoyed while basking in the firelight.

No, I definitely needed to see her again. If not for my own edification, then at least to make sure she was doing alright.

“One of us should probably check on her,” Ryder suggested abruptly, as if he’d somehow read my mind. “You know, the next time we’re in town.”

Jaxon grunted. “Why?”

“Because she’s got nothing. Nobody. Barely even the clothes on her back.”

“Give her your clothes, then.”

“Don’t be such a dick,” Ryder shot back. The knuckles gripping the steering wheel turned white. “You know what I mean.”

Jaxon frowned and looked out the window; as if the conversation were boring him. He was clearly getting annoyed.

“I know this much,” he eventually declared. “That girl shouldn’t be anywhere near the Rockies. She doesn’t belong here. If she were smart, she’d go straight back to Florida.”

The Marauder fell silent, perhaps because Jaxon had a point. Even so, I stared at my friend for a while, wondering just how much compassion he was actually burying beneath that tough exterior. He hadn’t always been this way, I knew that much. I just wished I’d known him before… well…

“I have a client on Thursday,” Jaxon relented, but not without adding a sigh. “I’ll check on her then, on the way back from the shop.”

I scoffed. “How magnanimous of you.”

“Look, what would you have us do?” he growled. “Take her on? Let her in on what we’re doing?”

I thought about it and shrugged. “Maybe. I mean, it’s not like we’d have to—”

“We’re running out of time,” Jaxon spat. “We only have the skid steer for another two weeks, and we need to be doing all we can with it. After that, it’s back to picks and shovels.”

“The ground’s too frozen for that,” Ryder argued.

“Bullshit. It just takes longer.”

“It takes forever ,” growled Ryder. “We should be waiting for spring anyway. It’ll be ten times easier.”

“Easier?” Jaxon’s lip curled back in a snarl. “You’re lucky Sarge can’t hear you right now. He’d kick your candy ass, then make you dig with your hands.”

I watched as Ryder’s knuckles grew even whiter. At some point he’d pull over, roll up his sleeves, and there would be an epic fight on the side of the road. I wouldn’t know whether to break it up or pelt them with snowballs.

“If Sarge were here, we wouldn’t have to dig,” I eventually pointed out. “That crazy old bastard’s probably laughing his ass off right now.”

At that, all three of us looked upward into the swirling gray sky.

“Amen to that,” smirked Ryder.