Joel didn’t talk about his bear side with humans, but he also didn’t lie. Which meant that the only thing there was to do for the next few days was to talk as little as possible. He would give Anna the gruff, silent treatment. If she tried to be friendly and talk to him, he’d shut that down quickly by giving her terse, one-word answers. With any luck, she’d take the hint sooner rather than later. He needed her to stay out of his way until the road was cleared and she could make her way back down the mountain.
In the meantime, these were going to be the longest two or three days of his life.
Chapter Six
Anna would never admit it out loud, but she was extraordinarily grateful that Joel had given her a piggyback ride to the cabin. As it was, by the time they got there, she could hardly feel her fingers or toes anymore. She didn’t know how much more of that cold she could’ve handled, and she knew that it would have taken her almost twice as long to get back as it had taken Joel, even though he’d been carrying her on his back.
When they stepped inside, the warmth of the cabin felt like it was enveloping her in a hug, and she wanted to cry again. She’d been starting to think that she might actually die out there in the snow. It felt almost surreal that she was standing here now in a warm, safe cabin.
She wouldn’t cry, though. Joel didn’t seem like the type who appreciated crying. His face, although handsome and kind, was set in a bit of a hard line. He was a man who had seen some hard times. Anna could see that written all over his face, even though she didn’t know the details. He definitely didn’t seem like the type who thought it was worth crying over life’s little catastrophes—or even life’s big catastrophes. Getting stuck in a blizzard and nearly dying seemed like a pretty big catastrophe, but Anna wasn’t going to complain about it to him. What right did she have to complain, anyway? Joel had warned her that the blizzard was coming, and she had foolishly ignored him. It was her own damn fault that she’d been stuck out there.
Anna figured she should at least say thank you to Joel. As soon as she managed to peel off the thick ski mask that Joel had given her, she did just that.
“I really appreciate this. I know I probably didn’t deserve to be rescued after ignoring everyone’s advice and going up the mountain, but I’m grateful that you helped me out, anyway.”
Joel only grunted in response. Then he moved to the fireplace to stoke the large fire that had already been burning when they arrived.
Anna bit her lower lip and decided not to say anything else for the moment. It didn’t take a genius to know that Joel was annoyed with her. Instead of focusing on Joel, she decided to focus on looking around the cabin. The place was surprisingly nice.
It was small, but cozy. The main area contained a living room, dining room, and kitchen. Two doors led to what must have been a bedroom and a bathroom, and if those rooms were anything like the main area, they were decorated tastefully. This surprised Anna, considering that the owner was a grumpy, bachelor mountain man.
As Anna thought this, she suddenly realized that she didn’t know for sure that Joel was a bachelor. She’d just assumed that because he’d been eating alone at the diner that he didn’t have a wife or girlfriend, but that had been a pretty big assumption.
“Do you live alone here?” Anna asked, unable to hold back her curiosity.
Joel gave her a sharp look. “Yes, and I don’t usually have visitors. Especially when those visitors are strangers.”
Anna felt her face heat up from the chastising tone of his voice.
“Sorry,” she said. “I’ll be out of here as soon as possible.”
“That you will. Unfortunately, as soon as possible is probably going to be a few days.” He looked her up and down, appraising. Anna was tempted to cower under his gaze, but instead, she decided to appraise him right back.
He was tall. Taller than she’d realized when she saw him sitting down at the diner. He was also incredibly muscular. She’d been able to tell through his flannel shirt at the diner that he was strong. But now, he had stripped down to a white t-shirt, and there was no mistaking the size of his muscles. His biceps must have been the size of her thighs.
Anna took a good look at his face. Once again, she couldn’t keep her heart from skipping a beat at the sight of it. His rugged, handsome features were a far cry from the looks of most of the men she knew back in California—and that was a good thing.
“Go sit by the fire,” he said gruffly. “You need to warm up. How are your fingers and toes?”
“Cold,” Anna said. “But I can still feel them.”
“That’s good. Go sit by the fire and I’ll see if I have any clothes that might come remotely close to fitting you.”
Too late, Anna remembered her bag of clothes and toiletries that she’d brought. She’d left it in the SUV, and she had a feeling that Joel wouldn’t be too keen on trudging back there to get it. The only thing Anna had brought with her to the cabin had been her camera. She was worried that the extreme cold temperatures might damage the camera if it was left out there too long. At least she knew in here it would be safe. And for now, she’d make do with wearing whatever clothes Joel could find for her.
“Don’t you need to sit by the fire and warm up, too?” she asked as he started walking toward the bedroom.
Joel looked annoyed. “No, I’m used to the cold. Now sit your ass down by the fire.”
With a sigh, Anna did as she was told. So far, Joel was certainly living up to the stereotype of a gruff, antisocial mountain man.
The warmth of the fire felt heavenly. Anna started to feel better almost instantly, despite the fact that the pants she currently wore were soaked from melted snow. She reached for her camera bag, and pulled her cell phone out of it. To her surprise, she still had no cell signal. She figured that there must at least be Wi-Fi here, so she went to check for available networks. Nothing.
“Don’t you have internet here?” she asked as Joel stepped back into the room and handed her a giant t-shirt and a giant pair of sweatpants. Anna eyed the clothes doubtfully. She’d be surprised if she could get those pants to stay up.
Joel pointed to the bathroom door. “You can change in there. And no, I don’t have internet. This isn’t the city where it’s as easy as just calling someone to hook up service for you and paying them a monthly fee. If I need internet or cell service I go into Bear Mountain Village.”
Anna stared at him as if he had suddenly grown an extra head. “You have to go to town just to use your phone?”
He shrugged. “It’s only a few miles down the road. And I’m in town every day, anyway. I don’t mind being a bit disconnected when I’m out here at my cabin.”
Anna shook her head in amazement. It was hard for her to imagine living in a house that was disconnected from the outside world, although she had to admit that the idea had some appeal. Joel’s life seemed like it was the opposite of hers. Her life was completely immersed in the rat race, and his was completely out of it.
She went to the bathroom and changed. She managed to pull the drawstrings on the sweatpants tight enough so that the pants didn’t fall down, but she still looked ridiculous. The shirt was almost a dress on her, and the pants looked like baggy clown pants on her legs. She felt a twinge of embarrassment at the thought of Joel seeing her like this, and then she got angry at herself for even feeling that embarrassment.
What did it matter what he thought of her? Yes, he was handsome. But the idea of anything ever happening between them was absurd. He lived up here on a mountain and she lived in the city in California. Besides, Joel had made it pretty clear that he didn’t like her. She’d never met anyone so gruff and abrasive.
Or so handsome.
No matter how hard Anna tried, she couldn’t escape the fluttery feeling that filled her stomach when she thought of Joel.
“You’re being ridiculous,” she said to herself through gritted teeth. Before she could think any more about Joel and whether it mattered what he thought of her, she walked
back into the main room.
Joel looked up at her and laughed. “That’s a good look for you.”
She glared at him. She would have loved to make some sort of smart retort, but she couldn’t think of anything that didn’t sound stupid. Instead, she grabbed her camera bag and went to sit by the fire again. Silently, she started to scroll through the pictures she’d taken. It wasn’t easy to see on the small screen of the camera, but the shots looked promising. Maybe she had actually gotten a few good photographs out of this whole ordeal.
The silence seemed to suit Joel just fine. He went to the kitchen and opened a can of beans. Then he poured hot sauce directly into the can and started eating the beans straight from the can.
Anna should have taken his many hints to keep her mouth shut, but she couldn’t help herself.
“You’re eating those cold and straight from the can? And did you really just dump a half bottle of hot sauce into them?”
Joel looked up and glared at her. “You’re nosy and annoying.”
He went and sat in one of the wooden chairs at the wooden kitchen table, making sure that his back was facing her.
“Help yourself to whatever you want in the kitchen,” he called over his shoulder. “You’ve got your choice of black beans, pinto beans, or refried beans. And there’s plenty of hot sauce to go around.”
Anna looked at his back and frowned. “Do you really survive on just beans all the time?”
“Beans and hot sauce,” came his sharp reply.
“How are you so muscular if all you ever eat is beans? That doesn’t seem like a balanced diet.”
“I eat a lot more than beans,” Joel said, still not turning around. “Usually, I eat all my meals down at the Bear Paw Diner. Poppy is the best cook around. Her food is good and cheap, and I like to be in the middle of the village to catch up with everyone on what’s going on. It’s only during blizzards when I’m snowed in that I eat here. I don’t mind beans and hot sauce for a few days.”
Anna shook her head even though Joel couldn’t see her. “You need a woman around to cook for you.”
As soon as she said the words, she regretted them. For a moment, silence hung heavy in the air. Then, Joel slowly stood and turned around. His eyes were dark with rage. They had a primal, animal look to them, and Anna cowered in her chair. She thought for a moment that he was going to tear her to pieces with his bare hands. Instead, he threw his can of beans across the room and pointed a finger in her direction.
“You need to mind your own business,” he yelled. Then he stormed into the bedroom and slammed the door behind him. Anna gulped and tried to sink lower into her chair. She could hardly believe that she had up to three more days of dealing with this man and his temper. Things were not off to a good start, but it was her own fault.
She needed to learn to keep her mouth shut. As she turned back to her camera screen, she vowed not to say anything more than necessary over the next few days. But Anna had always been a talker, and keeping quiet was going to be a challenge.
Especially when there were so many things she wanted to know about this mysterious mountain man.
Chapter Seven
Joel paced back and forth in his bedroom like a bear in a cage, which was pretty much what he was right now.
“This is ridiculous,” he said under his breath. Under any other circumstances, he would have kicked Anna out of his house the moment she’d made that smart-alecky comment about how he needed a woman.
In fact, under any other circumstances, he would never have let her into his cabin in the first place. Bear Mountain was no place for stuck-up, weak city girls. And he was pretty sure that’s exactly what she was. He had no idea where she’d actually come from. But wherever it was, it was nothing like Bear Mountain. That much was clear.
But the blizzard outside still howled as it threw heavy clumps of snow against his cabin’s walls and windows. The road was still just as impassable, and Anna was just as likely to die if Joel forced her to leave right now. He couldn’t do that. He might not be anything special as far as the rest of the world was concerned, but he was a man of honor. And men of honor didn’t leave women to die in blizzards.
No matter how much they deserved it.
Joel seethed as he walked back and forth. Who did this girl think she was, complaining about the fact that he ate baked beans straight from the can? So what if he’d never learned to cook? Why would he, when Poppy offered the best food in the state, and offered it damn cheap. He almost couldn’t shop at the grocery store as cheaply as he could eat at Poppy’s diner.
That was the way Poppy liked things. She ran the diner not to make money, but to make a life. She wanted a place where she could be a part of the Bear Mountain community. She fed the townspeople food, and they fed her soul with laughter, gossip, and the occasional heart-to-heart talk.
Anyway, it was none of Anna’s business what Joel ate. And what kind of person made fun of the man who had just saved her life?
Despite all of this, Joel could still feel his bear raging within him, demanding that he claim Anna.
“No,” he said aloud. “I don’t care how beautiful she is. I’m not making her my lifemate.”
Joel did have to admit that Anna was beautiful. He’d first caught a glimpse of her beauty when she was at the Bear Paw Diner. Her freckled face had seemed to glow, especially with her cheeks so pink from the cold. Her green eyes reminded him of emeralds.
Not that he’d seen many emeralds up on Bear Mountain, but he’d seen a few on tourists in Pine Springs. A lot of the wealthier tourists liked to wear expensive jewelry, even though Pine Springs wasn’t exactly the sort of place where you needed to dress up. It was more of an outdoorsy kind of town, but some wealthy people liked to show off no matter where they were. Joel had seen plenty of diamonds, sapphires, rubies, and emeralds.
For some reason, the emeralds were always his favorite. Probably because they reminded him of the deep green of the pine trees that covered Bear Mountain. And now, he knew, they would always remind him of Anna’s eyes.
But there was even more to Anna than her emerald eyes. The beauty that Joel had seen in her face at the diner paled in comparison to the beauty he saw with her here in his cabin. With all of her winter clothing removed, he could see her face fully, and what a truly gorgeous face it was. He could also see her red, curly hair, which had been almost completely hidden behind her hood at the diner. Now, she had let it down, and Joel found the bouncy, thick red curls mesmerizing.
Not to mention, she couldn’t hide her gorgeous curves, even under the t-shirt and baggy pants he’d given her to wear. He knew he’d made her mad when he laughed at her as she came out of the bathroom. But if he hadn’t laughed to act like he found the clothing hilarious, he wasn’t sure he could’ve hidden how turned on he was by the sight of her in his clothes. In fact, he was afraid to go back out to the main room of the cabin, because doing so would mean he had to look at her again. No matter how angry he was at her for making fun of his beans and hot sauce, he couldn’t deny that the sight of her did something to him, and to his bear.
This was not a good situation.
“Damn it. I shouldn’t be thinking like this. I need to get out of here.”
And then, it dawned on him. Maybe he couldn’t kick Anna out, but he didn’t have to stay.
Why didn’t I think of that before? he asked himself.
He flung the door open so quickly that Anna let out a little shriek and jumped. She nearly dropped her camera, which she’d been looking at. Joel was mildly curious about whether she’d actually managed to get any pictures before the blizzard hit, but he wasn’t about to ask her. The less he talked to her the better.
“I’m going out,” he said gruffly.
Anna looked at him like he was insane. “Now?”
“Yes, now. I don’t want to spend another minute sitting in here with someone who’s going to thank me for saving her life by making fun of my food choices.”
Anna looke
d chastised. “I’m sorry. I realize how that came across, but I wasn’t trying to be rude. I was just trying to make conversation.”
“You’re a bad conversationalist.”
Anna narrowed her eyes at him. “Says the man who responds in grunts half the time.”
“That’s it. I’m out of here.” Joel moved to the door and started donning his winter gear. He would have preferred to just strip naked in here and shift quickly on the porch, but that wasn’t an option with Anna around. He’d have to dress in his gear, walk out of sight, take off his gear, and then shift. It was a hassle, but it was the only way. He couldn’t risk letting her know that he had a beast within him.
“Okay, I’m sorry,” Anna said. “I just don’t know why you’re so short with me. What did I do to you, other than not listening to your advice about the blizzard? But that was putting myself in danger, not you.”
Joel looked up and gave her a death stare. “By not listening to me you forced me to rescue your ass from a blizzard. And now, I’m forced to have you as a house guest for the next two or three days. I don’t like house guests, which is why I’m leaving. I’m not spending all day with you here. I’ll be back sometime around nightfall. Try not to break anything, and whatever you do, don’t you dare leave this cabin. I’m not rescuing you from the snow again.”
Before Anna had a chance to reply, Joel pulled on the last of his winter gear and stormed out the door. He trudged through the blizzard for a few minutes until he was sure he was out of sight of the cabin. He probably went much further than he needed to, considering visibility was near zero at the moment. But he wanted to be on the safe side. Visibility was horrible right now, but it might not be so bad when he came back. He didn’t want to take the chance that he’d have to quickly shift and get dressed in view of the cabin where Anna might see him.
Bracing himself against the cold, Joel stripped out of his clothes and quickly began to let his bear out. It had been a long time since he’d shifted twice in one day. He felt a calmness come over him as his bear form took over. This was what he needed: to feel wild and free, and to let his bear run through the unforgiving nature of Bear Mountain.
Rescued on Bear Mountain Page 4