The Lake_Part One_Mountain Men Bad Boys Romance Novella

by Lenna Tate

  “Not always,” he smirked.

  “Good.” I was withering under his stare. I needed to get back inside. I needed to put my head under the cold water faucet again.

  “I just wanted to clear that up,” Axton shrugged and took a step backward. Unaware of what my own body was doing, I leaned forward, following after him. “I’m sure I’ll be seeing you.”

  His smirk told me he was referring to when he had seen me sunbathing. My face flushed again.

  “Maybe.” I could have slapped myself for saying something so lame.

  His thin lips twisted at the corners, another knowing smirk as he gave me one last look before stepping off my porch and walking back to his own cabin.

  The moment he was out of sight the breath rushed back to my lungs and I quickly shut my door and leaned my forehead against the cool glass.

  Maybe Megan had been right. Maybe I needed to explore.

  Maybe I could learn to forget how much of an asshole Axton East had been when I first met him.

  For the sake of my book.

  Chapter Six

  Axton

  “What the fuck is wrong with this thing?” I yelled down at the stove, throwing a fist into the kitchen countertop. For the last ten minutes I had been trying to turn the burners on, and not a single one would catch and light fire. It had been five days since we’d arrived to the cabin, but not a one of us had tried to cook anything on the stove yet. We had been surviving on cold sandwiches and beer, mostly because we weren’t used to cooking our own meals. Back at home in New York City we either ordered our food or had private chefs to do the cooking for us.

  But I was craving something hot. Anything. Next to the stove I had a log of hamburger meat, and the fixings for a good burger. I was starving for something cooked, something good. But I couldn’t get the damn stove to turn on, and I hadn’t the slightest clue of how to fix it.

  Benji and Wyatt had both gone into the town to stop at the convenience store and sight see. From what I understood, there was only the Quick-E Mart, a post office, and a few basic houses in the town. Not anything I wanted to take time out to explore.

  I spun the knob on the stove one more time, but the only thing that happened was a few dry clicks. No fire.

  “Shit,” I groaned and ran a hand through my hair. Frustration was making me angry, and it didn’t help that my desperate hunger was turning me into a monster.

  Needing a breather, a moment to calm down before I burned down the damn cabin, I stepped out the kitchen door and onto the back deck. It was still early, the sun still rising in the sky. The lake was a crystal blue, and the air was unnervingly silent. It made me uncomfortable. I was starting to miss the buzz of the city, the noise of honking cars and the shuffle of thousands of feet moving down the sidewalks. I had never experienced anything like Colorado before. Not even on the other vacations I had taken.

  Glancing across the lake, my gaze wandered to the other dock. Wren’s cabin. Since apologizing to her, I hadn’t seen her once. She was probably doing everything she could to avoid me. It had seemed crystal clear that she hadn’t accepted my apology. She thought I was a jerk, and she wasn’t wrong. But what did it matter? Why did I give a shit about what some random girl living in the middle of nowhere thought about me?

  I squinted. She was on her dock, letting her feet dangle into the water. She was wearing the bikini again. My hands clenched into tight balls. Her body was spectacular, even if she was the complete opposite of the type of woman I usually went after. Even from the distance I was at from her, my eyes were focusing in on the curve of her spine, the sheen of her skin glistening under the shine from the sun.

  “Hey!” I called out, ungracefully, waving an arm in the air.

  She jumped. Shit. All I had done was scare her since moving into the cabin. Her face turned to me, and she stared for a few seconds before offering a hesitant wave back at me.

  I hopped down the side of my deck and spanned the distance between us quickly. “You busy?” I asked, trying to act casual. Like I hadn’t been about to blow up the world a few minutes beforehand.

  “Why?” She was skeptical as she stared at me through thick black sunglasses. Her pink lips were scowling, and she didn’t make any motion to stand up. Just stared at me like I was some diseased, contagious monster that had shown up to ruin her day.

  I pursed my lips and let out a low breath. I wasn’t usually one to ask for help. “I can’t get my stove to light.” I avoided actually forming a question.

  “Have you checked the pilot light?” Wren shrugged and glanced back out at the lake, her smooth legs glistening from the droplets of water that splashed up as she kicked her legs gently in the lake water.

  “The what?” I was getting even more angry. I didn’t like to look stupid.

  “The pilot light,” she repeated herself. She glanced back at me again with disbelief stretching a frown into her perfect mouth. I wanted to slap the look off her face. She was enjoying this.

  Heated, I folded my arms across my chest. “I didn’t.”

  “Well maybe you should,” she snapped back quickly.

  She was doing her best to stretch this moment out. She wanted me to look foolish. My only options were to tell her I had no idea how to check a pilot light, or to go back home hungry and still without a working stove. Hunger won over. “I don’t know how.”

  A bitter laugh rolled off her lips. “Would you like some help?”

  Shit, she was really milking the moment. “Yes I would.”

  “Okay, then.” She hopped up onto her feet in one fluid motion, and I couldn’t help but to glance at the perfect curve of her ass. The tiny curve that sat just beneath the black fabric of her bikini bottom. I grunted and shifted away from her, trying not to stare.

  She jumped off her deck into the grass next to me without a second thought.

  “No shoes?” I questioned.

  “No shoes,” she affirmed with a casual shrug.

  I snorted. Had I ever seen a grown woman walk outside barefoot? Besides on a tropical beach?

  Doing my best to ignore the fact that she was without shoes and without most of her clothing, I trudged back into my cabin. I pointed out the stove as if it had just committed a serious crime. “Quite sure it’s broken.”

  “I doubt that,” Wren shook her head and pushed past me to the stove. She swiftly pulled open a drawer, withdrew a long lighter, and then bent in front of the stove, testing out the burners for herself. Just empty clicks.

  “As I said,” I began smugly.

  “As I said,” she quickly interrupted, shooting me a glance over her shoulder. “It’s not broken.”

  I rolled my eyes and propped myself against the kitchen wall. Fine. Let the master do her work. I couldn’t wait to find out she was wrong so I could rub her face in it. And I was terrified she would get the damn thing working, only to make me look like an incapable idiot.

  Within a minute Wren had lifted the top of the stove and set it on the counter, pulled away at some knobs, and with the use of her lighter declared with dramatic pride, “VOILA!”

  I squinted. I couldn’t see what she had done. “That it?”

  She jutted her hip out and threw a hand on it, glaring at me. “Like you would have figured that out?”

  The accusation stung. Mostly because I knew she was right.

  “Here,” she tossed the lighter at me so she could reassemble the stove top. With a flick of her wrist she had the flame on the front burner roaring to life.

  A grin stretched across my face. “Holy shit.” Not only I was impressed with Wren, I was ecstatic to finally be able to eat a good burger. And becoming uncomfortably aware of how turned on I was by the brunette fixing my oven while wearing a bikini.

  Her lips were pinched into a smirk. “You’re welcome.”

  I stepped forward to put my hand over the flame, making sure the heat was real. “Thank you.” I hated saying those words, but she deserved to hear them.

  “Did you do s
omething to piss George off?” Wren was grinning wickedly up at me.

  A fire ignited in the base of my stomach. A flicker of anger. What was she getting at? “I don’t think so.” I was vague. I probably had.

  She laughed. My eyes shot to the gentle slope of her throat as she threw her head back. I didn’t even care that she was laughing at me. The noise her laughter made was beautiful.

  “I think he might have played a practical joke on you,” she pointed at the stove and eyed me up and down.

  “How funny.”

  “I think so,” she was still grinning as she shrugged. “We don’t exactly enjoy city folk.” She sounded like a country hillbilly the way she said it, and I clenched my fist in anger.

  “And what would you know about them?” I hated being judged for my lifestyle. I had been born into it, and I wasn’t going to let some random woman living in the middle of nowhere make me feel bad because I enjoyed my life, or because I preferred the city.

  Wren’s pale green eyes squinted up at me and she frowned. “I know plenty,” she threw back at me stubbornly. “I was one.”

  I scoffed. “And you didn’t like it?”

  “Not at all,” she shook her head. “I prefer the peace and quiet.”

  “Well I prefer having conversations with human beings instead of trees,” I retorted.

  Her mouth dropped. “This is the problem with people like you,” she spat. “You think people who aren’t in the city are inbred freaks. Just because we’d rather live peacefully.”

  I shook my head and stepped towards the front door. “And you aren’t judging me for choosing to live in the city?” She was being hypocritical, and I could feel the rage pulsing through my body. I wanted desperately to teach her a lesson. I wanted to show her how she could, and could not, talk to me. “Thanks for fixing the stove,” I added forcefully as I took another step to the front door. I wanted her the hell out of my cabin. It had been a mistake asking for her help, and it was something I wouldn’t do again.

  Wren got the hint, and pushed passed me to the door.

  She pulled open the front door on her own and turned to make one final dig. “Hopefully he didn’t play any more jokes on you.” Her voice was threatening, and there was a dangerous glint flashing through her eyes that made me pinch my fingernails against the palms of my hands.

  She didn’t wait for me to respond before going out the front door. But she wasn’t getting away as easily as she wanted. Benji and Wyatt had just showed up at that exact moment, and as I stepped onto the porch I watched them give each other a knowing glance before Wyatt flourished a quick bow directed at Wren.

  “Why hello,” Benji grinned devilishly as Wyatt grinned at her. She had propped both of her hands on her hips, staring incredulously at my idiot friends.

  “Please,” she muttered with a groan before ignoring them both and stomping off to her own cabin.

  We all turned to watch the sway of her hips. Wyatt’s mouth dropped and he pretended to drool while Benji came and clapped me on the back. “Already moving in on the neighbor lady, huh?”

  “Not even close.” I pushed his hand away from me.

  “So is she free game?” Wyatt chimed in.

  I shrugged. “Sure. Good luck with it. She’s impossible.”

  Benji and Wyatt both glanced at each other knowingly before going into the cabin. I gave more glance back towards Wren’s cabin before following after them.

  The thought of either one of them trying to hit on Wren was enough to make me sick to my stomach. I wanted to be the one to tame her.

  It was going to be a long summer.

  Chapter Seven

  Wren

  The glass window above my bed rattled, waking me from my sleep. I jumped, startled by the loud bass shaking my entire cabin.

  “What the fuck?” I sat up in bed, pressing my hand against the window. It was shaking beneath my touch, moving in rhythm to the music blasting from the cabin next door. I glanced at the alarm clock next to my bed. One in the morning. It was exactly what I had been scared of when those rich city boys had taken up residence next door to me. I knew they weren’t there to relax. Or be quiet.

  Without stopping to check a mirror I jumped into my leather boots and stormed outside. There was a pile of cars parked in the gravel patch outside, and clutches of men and women both inside and outside of the cabin next door to mine, all with drinks in their hands. Most of the women seemed already too dunk to function, wobbling around in their heels.

  I glanced over to see the shadowy figures of a man and woman in the backseat of a car, steaming up the windows as they tore at each other’s bodies.

  “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” I stared through the darkness at their cabin. All of the lights were on, and through the windows I could see even more people mingling. And then there was Axton, one arm draped around the shoulders of a very drunk blonde, while he gestured animatedly as he spoke.

  I grunted and stomped up the steps of their back deck. Along the way, I picked up several empty beer cans and one dry bottle of tequila.

  But I couldn’t get to the door before I heard one of Axton’s buddies behind me. “Oh, good morning!” He called out to me. I stopped in my spot, turning to glance at the blonde head of the idiot who had bowed to me earlier that morning. He was surrounded by women in bikinis, some of them with wet hair. I glanced over at the bubbling hot tub on the deck, only to see more empty cans lined along the rails.

  I rolled my eyes started to pick up more of the cans, choosing to ignore his comment.

  One of the girls laughed, jeering at me as the man whispered in her ear. I caught the last bit of what he was saying, “That’s the babe Axton wants to bang.” I thought about throwing the empty bottle of tequila at his head, but figured that would derail my plans to scold Axton East for throwing this ridiculous party.

  A red-head crinkled her upper lip at me and whispered in her group, “What is she even wearing?”

  As I turned to go into the cabin, I noticed my faint reflection in one of the windows. My dark hair was a knotted mess at the top of my head, and I was wearing a white tank top without a bra and flannel pajama pants that were tucked into my untied brown work boots. I looked like a mess. But I hadn’t move to Colorado to let other people judge me for what I was wearing or what I looked like.

  If my hands hadn’t have been so full of empty cans and bottles I would have flipped her off. Or maybe let her know how stupid I thought she looked in the tight, sparkling red dress that just barely covered her vagina. How stupid she was for being at a party like the one Axton and his cheesy friends were throwing. That she didn’t actually mean anything to them, other than being a pretty piece of ass to squeeze and maybe sleep with, if they felt like it at the end of the night.

  But I didn’t. I was focusing all of my rage on one person. Axton East.

  He was still charming an entire group of people, his arm around a girl who could barely stand and kept pulling the strap of her dress up her shoulder. I scowled. A few people stopped laughing at what Axton was saying to stare at me. Silence began to fill the room, and eventually, Axton stopped talking to turn around and find out what everyone was staring at. Why everyone had stopped laughing at his pretentious jokes.

  His jaw dropped at the sight of me standing in the doorway.

  “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” I asked coldly, staring him down as I dropped my armful of trash onto the kitchen floor.

  The blonde girl under Axton’s arms squinted at me, her makeup badly smudged around her eyes. “Who’s that?”

  I shot her a glance and was about to answer when Axton said as calmly as possible, “Nothing to worry about.” He moved his hand away from her and stepped towards me. “I’ll be right back, guys.” He finished the shot that was in his hand before walking towards me, moving slowly as if I was a viper about to strike at any moment. I was.

  “Wren, maybe we could go outside?” He whispered when we got close enough.

&n
bsp; “Oh, am I embarrassing you?” I scowled and tried to pull away from him as he gently grabbed my arm and started to pull me through the house towards the front door.

  “Not at all,” he muttered under his breath, trying not to make a scene in front of his friends. “But I think you might be embarrassing yourself.”

  I cringed away from him and stormed towards the front door. “I don’t give a shit what any of these people think.” Throwing open the front door I stepped outside into the chilly night air.

  A couple making out on the porch didn’t stop to look at us. I picked up the nearest empty can and threw it at them.

  “Hey!” The girl yelled at me as I stomped down the steps.

  I could hear Axton apologizing to them behind me.

  When I reached the nearest patch of gravel that was overridden with drunk assholes and women without clothes I turned on my boot heel and glared up at Axton. “Seriously, what is this?”

  “What is what?” His ice-blue eyes narrowed on me.

  “This fucking party,” I shot back. He was going to fuck with me. This was going to be his moment of getting back at me for the morning, when he couldn’t figure out how to work his stove.

  He shrugged his broad shoulders. “I thought I’d invite some friends over for the night.”

  “Some friends?” I threw my hands into the air, tired of his attitude and ready to strangle him.

  “Yeah.” His face was a blank slate. I couldn’t tell if he was being serious, or just trying to provoke me further. I guessed the latter.

  “This isn’t a party lake.”

  “Why not?”

  “I live here,” I pointed at my own cabin, dumbfounded at how stubborn he was being.

  “Yeah, and I’m renting out a cabin for the summer,” he pointed at his own cabin, mimicking me.

  “I won’t have it.” I crossed my arms. “I’m going to call George.”

  Axton laughed cruelly. “You’re going to tell on me?”

  I pursed my lips. “Yeah. If it means getting you the hell out that cabin, I will tell on you.”