Page 4 of The Mountain Man's Determined Bride

He ran his fingers across the gauze taped on the aching part of his head where he remembered feeling the sticky liquid before. Apparently at some point during his rescue, she’d removed his face mask and bandaged his head. After he blinked a few times, coaxing his eyes to focus better in the dark, one look around confirmed his earlier thoughts. The family cabin hadn’t changed in, oh well at least before the last time he’d been there. Wondering if that held true as he assessed the rest of the room, Luke figured they still hadn’t added a bathroom, and his eyeballs were floating he had to go so bad. He lifted the blanket from his lap making sure she hadn’t left him stripped nude and smirked at that thought. He didn’t have anything though, that she hadn’t already seen. He wondered if she would still enjoy it, the naked part.

“Not really the time or place for that I suppose.”

Taking it extra careful, he pushed off the couch, ignoring the new aches and pains protesting throughout his body. Luke slowly felt his way through the rest of the cabin to the door. He didn’t have many clothes on, so he chose to relieve himself right off the back porch then went right back to his sofa bed. Such a short trip left him feeling as if he’d been trampled by the horses he trained every day. Before he even knew what hit him, his eyes were heavy with the impending sleep.

Presumably many hours had passed when Luke again awakened, this time in a fully lit cabin with the delicious aroma of breakfast and an extremely loud growling stomach.

Food.

He hadn’t eaten in hours or at least he thought. He really had no idea what time it was, but from the smell assaulting his senses, he only hoped she cooked enough for a starving man.

Luke found his clothes dry and folded on the end of the couch, so he dressed quickly before she made a surprise visit to the living room. Again, nothing she hadn’t already seen before, but it was at least the polite thing to do. He hesitated outside the kitchen, afraid of what she might say to him. They obviously hadn’t exactly been on speaking terms the last time he saw her or her retreating backside. Cute as it may have been. A nagging feeling surfaced … what if it hadn’t been her that rescued him after all?

Chapter Four

After she’d gotten the man into the cabin, she’d radioed dispatch on the hiker’s condition then contacted her uncle as well. She’d proceeded to tell her uncle what she thought of his shenanigans, but he claimed the reception was bad and he couldn’t hear her. Bad reception my ass, he’d set this whole thing up. Holly Search and Rescue probably played right along with his plan, that old fart.

Back up at the crack of dawn after little or no sleep, Morgan sulked at the cook stove, furious her uncle had purposely left out that tiniest but most important detail ofwhoshe had been going out onto the mountain to save and she was one hundred percent positive he’d known all along that it was Luke. How could hedoit, damn him? Her uncle knew how she felt about that man and what he’d done to her years ago. She wondered to herself, if he hadn’t been wearing his face mask when she found him and she could see his face, would she still have saved him?

“Yes dammit because that’s what I do.” She wasn’t happy with her revelation but she’d taken that oath to serve and protect in any crisis. No human being deserved to die like that even if itwashim.

Morgan fished the bacon strips from the icebox just outside the back door and slapped them in the cast iron skillet on the counter. A few droplets of water splashed on to the cook stove proved it to be hot enough when it sizzled. Ten or fifteen minutes to fry, add in some eggs and the man would be well fed.Mix in a whole day worth of sunshine and she could get that heart breaker off her mountain with ease. Only one problem…no sunshine. Morgan took another glance out the kitchen window where it continued to snow just as hard as it had throughout the night. Damn.

For six long years she’d stayed away from her home and family, had been working her ass off to keep Luke and his cheating ways out of her mind and heart for good. Then just one look this morning of him sound asleep on her couch opened the flood gates on her damned bruised and battered heart. All that time away hadn’t really been enough to make her forget him no matter how much she tried. Why on earth did they have to make guys like Luke? Why couldn’t she just forget him?

“Ouch!” Figures, every time he or at least thoughts of him managed to distract her, she got hurt. Now there would be little burn marks on her hand from the bacon grease popping out of the iron skillet. “That’ll teach me to not be paying attention.”

“Probably outta be careful with that bacon.”

“Ah! Jesus, you scared me.” Morgan dropped the fork she used for the bacon, then pointed it directly at him once she’d bent to pick it up. “Don’t sneak up on people like that.”

“No sneaking involved.” Luke raised his hands as if to surrender.

“You cook all that for me?”

“Yes, so you’ll leave and never come back.” Maybe if she didn’t turn around again, he’d just disappear into thin air.

After a couple minutes of silence Morgan turned to the living room, hardly believing it would be that simple, but relieved he was no longer standing in the doorway.

“That was easy.” But damn it all if the way he looked just about stopped her in her tracks. Took all her strength to keep a straight face.

With no idea where he disappeared to so quickly, and because she just knew itcouldn’tbe that easy to get him to leave, she took a deep breath to calm herself and walked to the fireplace to add more wood. When she turned to grab the last log, he was there handing it to her.

“I don’t need your help thank you.”

“You’re welcome and I didn’t figure you did. You’ve never needed anyone have you?”

What did he mean by that? Her parents left her when she needed them most. When she needed him, he sure hadn’t been there for her. Only person she could really rely on was herself.

* * * *

“What the hell are youdoinghere?”

So much for the warm welcome Luke had been hoping for. He pasted on a smile, praying she wouldn’t bite it off.

“I thought maybe you’d be happy to see me honey.”

“Shows how much you know and I am not your honey so don’t you ever call me that.”