Mountain Man's Proposal

by Lauren Wood

  “Me too honestly. He kind of calmed down after taking the two girls to the dance. He would never invite more than one female at a time. I guess he realized that he could have really hurt the girl’s feelings had he not been so smooth!” Sally laughed.

  “I still can’t believe he did that either. That kind of person would be the type you would expect to break up all kinds of marriages!” Lalena stated.

  “Exactly how I thought too. So when he really had me start checking the backgrounds of females he meant I didn’t do such a great job. That was when this woman slipped through. I don’t know what led up to his request. He has never told me. Just one day he walked in to the office and said, hey I met this woman I want to take her out. So I said what’s the big deal, you’ve taken several out before. He told me no to check to make sure she wasn’t dating someone or had a husband. I did a quick check, saw the divorce on file and thought it was good. He almost fired me after that day.” Sally stated.

  “Wow, it had to be odd though, for him to come to you and say check the background. You don’t know why he suddenly did it?” She questioned.

  “No I think it might have had something to do with this one girl. She had just broken up with her boyfriend and went out with Rico. He called her a few days after they had gone out the first time and she had gotten back with her boyfriend. Or that was what she said. The boyfriend told him that they had never split up, that his woman was just a freaking slut. At the time he had laughed about it when he told me. But it was right after that he asked me to check out his next date.” Sally explained.

  “Interesting, I learned something that I don’t think many people know about our mayor today.” Lalena commented.

  “Honey don’t get me wrong though, I would still caution you to run if he hits on you. He’s not going to be the kind to sweep you up and carry you off into the sunset. No he’s more the kind who will sleep with you, maybe a few times, if you’re someone he really likes. But after that he’ll throw you to the side. With the position you have, it would be a good idea to get involved with him. The only reason I’m telling you this is because I know Rico. He sees you as beautiful and perhaps even a challenge. So he’ll flirt with you, he won’t be able to help it. I don’t care if you flirt back with him, just don’t sleep with him if you can help it. I know he is something else when it comes to talking women into something they may not be sure about. But I can tell by looking at you that you find him attractive too. Just be careful okay? I don’t want you to get hurt, I like you.” Sally said.

  “I know it’s not a good idea. I’m not going to lie to you, yes I find him very attractive. I’m pulled to him in some way. But I know that nothing should happen between us. I plan to not let anything happen. However, some ideas on how to combat him when he makes my knees feel weak would be nice.” Lalena stated.

  Sally laughed. “You’re not the first one who said something about their knees being weak when he’s around. I don’t know how you can combat it, but if I figure something out I’ll tell you!”

  “I’m sure I won’t be the last one.” Lalena laughed.

  The two talked a bit more as they ate lunch. It was really nice, Lalena felt like she knew a bit more about the mayor, and knew she should continue to be cautious. However, she was nervous too; Sally had stated she was positive the mayor would hit on her.

  As they were busy talking about something else Lalena saw Rico walk into the restaurant. He headed directly to their table.

  “Why didn’t you tell me you were coming here?” He asked Sally. He barely looked at Lalena.

  “I’m sorry I figured you would go out with Mr. Jones after the meeting.” Sally stated.

  “Well I didn’t go out.” Rico commented.

  He seemed really uptight and on edge. Lalena wondered if he had gotten another threat or something.

  “You’re more than welcome to join us if you want.” Lalena offered.

  Rico looked at her, she saw the recognition in his eyes and a flash of something, and she wasn’t sure what. “I’m sure you girls have been quite busy talking about me. I would find myself at a disadvantage. Maybe next time.” He said and walked to the back of the restaurant.

  Sally leaned over to Lalena and said. “Don’t worry he probably is trying to get a blow job and would feel awkward doing it with you at the table.”

  “What they give him blow jobs at his table?” Lalena almost shouted out.

  “No they take him to the back room and do it, but still if you are sitting at the table he might feel odd doing it.” Sally laughed.

  Lalena rolled her eyes. “Really does he just let everyone sleep with him?”

  “No he has a list of women. Anyone who he sleeps with has a test for anything. If they come back positive he won’t touch them. He’s one of the most clean male sluts I’ve ever met!” Sally laughed heartily.

  Lalena had to join in; it was too funny not to laugh. But she was also a bit hurt that he hadn’t joined them at the table. In fact she was hurt that he hadn’t even seemed to have noticed her when he first walked in. Perhaps Sally was wrong and he wouldn’t hit on her. Maybe he didn’t find her as attractive as she had thought the night before.

  They left the restaurant before Rico did, but not before he watched as he was escorted towards the back by the little blonde waitress. Lalena felt her skin turn red and she had a flash of hurt. That could have been me with him, she thought.

  When she was back in the office she went back to the files to find Raymond Stock. Sally’s story might have some merit. Lalena figured it wouldn’t hurt her to go back into the files and read up on Raymond Stock a bit. If she remembered correctly he had been someone she had put to the side as not a serious threat.

  Her mind went back to the restaurant. It had been very odd to her when Rico had walked in and not said a word to her. She had expected something. But nothing, it had made her confused. Had she only imagined the things he had said to her?

  No she was sure he had made all the comments, and that they were flirty in nature. She was sure that if given a chance he would gladly take her to bed. Of course afterwards he would want nothing to do with her, but that would be her fault for falling for his act.

  “What act?’ She shrugged her shoulders so confused by lunch. “Maybe he’s bipolar or something?” She wondered.

  At least that would explain how he would go from flirting with her one time, and not even talking to her the next. Lalena tried to focus on the work once more. Sally’s warnings crying out clearly in her mind and the mayor’s actions in the restaurant as well.

  Perhaps this wouldn’t be as hard as she thought, it seemed the mayor had changed the way he did things. Even Sally had commented about it on the way back to the office. She had said something about how he hadn’t flirted with Lalena, Sally said she had been sure he would have been on that hard and fast.

  Chapter 4

  Rico was not happy when he walked into the restaurant and saw Sally and Lalena talking like two old friends. He knew his cousin all too well; she looked like she had a crush on the blonde woman. That would mean that she would be stopping any attempt by him to woe her.

  “Shit stop it Rico.” He thought quickly. You can’t woe her, she’s your protection; remember you went through all this in the morning? He shook his head. The best thing for him to do was ignore her.

  He had walked up and done just that, it had been quite hard to do. His eyes wanted to look at her, and only her. But instead he kept his eyes on Sally. Even when Lalena had asked him a question a few minutes later, he had barely looked at her.

  If this didn’t work, he had an alternative plan; he would get a blow job at lunch. He had spotted a little blonde girl waiting tables. That was the ticket; at least he could picture it as Lalena while she was licking his cock.

  The whole lunch he was angry even after he had gotten the blow job. He wanted to swoop up Lalena Swan and wrap her in his embrace. But he knew all too well that a woman would never hold his interest. For him to
do this to his head of security would mean finding yet another cop he could trust.

  Currently that was not something he felt comfortable doing. He was almost certain that the death threats were coming out of the police precinct. There were a ton of dirty cops on the force, and he wanted to clean it up.

  Opposition had been met at every corner as he had tried to get cops to turn on one another and tell their superiors who the dirty cops were. But he had tried to push on even so. He had even hired a private investigator from another city. Someone who he was certain couldn’t be part of the crime syndicate that was operating in his town.

  All he was trying to do was clean up this little town and make it great. But the press always remarked on his forays with woman. Not the good things he was doing in town. At times it was frustrating to Rico. He couldn’t help it he was attracted to females and them to him.

  It had started at an early age. He had been quick to mature. Rico had also been good at sports that helped out his popularity a lot through the years. If he hadn’t hurt his knee he might actually be a professional right now. His sport of choice had been baseball, he had always loved it. He was damn good at it too. But then when he was only a sophomore in high school, he had been a starter on the high school team, he had been hurt. The injury had cost him a lot. His dreams had slipped away overnight.

  However, it was then that he discovered his love of the political arena. He had asserted his charisma in that area and had become class president, and leader of about every club he could join. His dreams awoke under the veil of a mayor ship of the small town he lived in.

  As soon as he graduated from high school he put his hat in the ring for mayor. He didn’t win that year, he was far too young and a lot of the residents thought under experienced. During the next two years of the mayor’s term he had dove into the political field in any way he could. He had helped get many of the small problems in the town noticed and fixed.

  “Why don’t the papers ever focus on those things?” He had to wonder to himself. Instead when he saw his picture in the paper it would be with one of his dates. The comments would be about how the mayor had another beauty in his midst. Many times there were questions about whether he would ever settle down.

  The fact was that he hadn’t found one woman who could keep his attention long enough to stay around. He got bored rather quickly with them, and soon found that being in a relationship was far too much work. He had too many things he wanted to get done in his political life. Rico didn’t have time to raise a family or make sure a woman was happy.

  Sometimes he would wonder what it would be like to be settled down though. The thought actually scared him. He remembered watching his mother be so unhappy all the time. His father had been a workaholic and had never been home much. Perhaps the fact that his mother raised him helped him be more in tune with the female sex.

  He had to laugh as he remembered how he could handle females from such a young age. The two girls he had invited to the dance. The other guys in school hadn’t believed he had done it, and pulled it off. He still remembered talking to them before they went to the dance.

  “Look I know you two didn’t know I had invited both of you, but I did. Here’s the deal. I find you both extremely pretty, and couldn’t choose one over the other. So instead of being upset about this, you should actually be happy and congratulate each other.” Rico had told them that night.

  They had bought it, because he had been telling the truth, at least as far as he saw it. The two girls had become fast friends and in fact still talked to one another to this day as far as he knew.

  Rico smiled he had done a lot of good through the years, but he wasn’t a saint either. Unfortunately he had caused a few relationship strains for other people. Not that he had done it on purpose, he had always been last to find out that the girl he was dating was with another guy.

  He thought back to the one girl, Julie, she had been the one who changed the way he looked at life. He actually thought he might like her enough to stick around. But she had lied to him, told him she was single.

  Imagine his shock when he was visited by the girl’s beau the next day after they went out.

  “Hey, what are you doing with my woman?” He had heard from behind him.

  Rico had turned around to see one of his best friends at the time. “What do you mean? I would know if she was dating you.” He had said.

  “No you wouldn’t we didn’t tell anyone. But she accepted my proposal of marriage just last week. Then I hear your out on the town with her last night. How could you?” He had asked.

  “Hey if I would have known I wouldn’t have gone out with her. She should have told me.” Rico had stated to him.

  “She says she did tell you and that you laughed about it. Told her that I wasn’t man enough for her and that you would treat her better.” His then friend had said to him.

  “Matt I really didn’t say anything like that, she never told me that you were dating, or hell engaged. Congrats that’s great; I promise I won’t see her again ever.” Rico had promised.

  “Damn straight you won’t see her again. Don’t try to lie and act like it was her. I know how you are with the girls. You want me to believe she’s lying. I don’t think so.” Matt had jumped at him and tried to beat him up.

  Rico had been a lot larger than Matt and could easily fend him off. But Matt had kept coming at Rico, so eventually he had simply just left. He couldn’t hit his friend. Or at least a guy who used to be a really good friend.

  Matt had packed up his stuff and took the girl and moved out of town. It had messed Rico up to hurt his friend so much. But he knew that he hadn’t lied. The girl had told him she was single, had never mentioned a word about being engaged. It was at that point that he had Sally begin checking his dates.

  Of course they had the one mistake afterwards, because Sally hadn’t understood just how important it was to Rico. Not only was it important to Rico, but to anyone else who might be involved with the woman whom he dated. He knew he couldn’t trust the women to always tell the truth, so he left it to Sally to check them out.

  “Women there nothing but trouble when it comes down to it. I should really give them up if I was smart. But I swear I’m addicted to them all. Perhaps that’s why so many guys pick only one woman and marry her. They don’t have to worry about all these other things. Oh shit who am I kidding look at poor Matt, she was his fiancée, and she still cheated on him.” Rico commented as he looked down at his desk.

  Chapter 5

  Lalena didn’t see Rico the rest of the day. She had hoped that he might approach her and at least talk to her. Say something nice, maybe something seductive even. Then her phone rang and she picked it up.

  “Hey honey, it’s me, I can get off early tonight if you want to go out to the movie or something. Maybe have a little bit of dinner to celebrate the new job?” It was Jake.

  “Hey Jake. Sure I guess if you want to we can.” Lalena answered. The fact was she didn’t know if she was all that interested in going out with Jake. In fact she only wanted him to spend time with her in the bedroom. Some of her that was wanted that, the other part of her mind wanted to settle down. The problem was the person she wanted was Rico, not Jake.

  As she hung up the phone she knew that she would have to eventually make a choice. But how could she make a choice that wasn’t hers to make. She could tell Jake that she wasn’t interested, she knew that. But she couldn’t tell Rico she wanted more from him. Hell right now he wasn’t even looking at her, let alone on the market for more.

  “How and why would I fall for a man who doesn’t want a relationship?” She asked herself. Then she thought about the comment, had she really fallen for him, or was it simply and infatuation?

  She would have to figure that out later on, right now she had to decide what to do with Jake. Her mind went immediately to their bedroom time. It was always so amazing with Jake, and she would hate to give that up. Especially since she wasn’t guaranteed anyth
ing with Rico. The fact was she probably wouldn’t get anything with Rico at all, just flirting. Lalena didn’t think that would be enough for her.

  It was at that point that she decided Jake was the better option. She should just be happy where she was right now.

  She got off and walked out the door, she said goodbye to Sally and didn’t even check to see if Rico was still there. Instead she decided to throw her attitude and energy into her relationship with Jake. She was almost positive that he was going to tell her he loved her soon. Lalena was willing to settle to be in a stable relationship.

  When she pulled up she saw Jake was already home. She went in and there was Jake, and the living room was filled up with balloons and some roses.

  “Hey honey, congratulations on your new job! I hope your day was great.” Jake hugged her and kissed her on the lips.

  “Thank you so much, I wasn’t expecting this at ll.” Lalena hugged him and kissed him back.

  “I missed you today. But I’ve been missing you more and more lately.” Jake admitted.

  Lalena didn’t say anything, though she had to admit she had thought about Jake several times today. “You’re so sweet, I thought about you a few times today too.” She admitted. Though she didn’t share any of the thoughts she had of Rico that day. She pushed those out of her mind; she needed to be here with Jake.

  “Come sit down with me I brought you a present too.” Jake led her to the couch.

  She sat down and wondered what he could have gotten her.

  “It’s not much, but it was all I could afford right now. Maybe once I get back on my feet I can give you something better.” Jake handed her a small box.

  She froze up all she could think was he was going to propose to her, she was on the fence on what she really wanted right now. This might lead to more problems than she could imagine. Lalena took the box slowly.