When she had finished, she stood back and looked at herself in the mirror. She had worked miracles on herself in the past, and she was now starting to think that she had pulled one off here too. She pulled her cell phone out of her back pocket and opened up the Notes app. She wrote down… how to perfect the I don’t care look… “Great, that’s something I can write tomorrow,” she grinned.
She wandered back through to the living and kitchen area and started to try and light the fire in the fireplace. It was difficult, and she hadn’t done anything like that since she had been a Girl Scout, but she was determined she was going to create a nice welcoming environment in the cabin and let Evan see that she was taking care of it.
She lit a few candles around the room which were scented and let the subtle twang of coconut and vanilla flow through the open space. She opened a bottle of sparkling water and poured herself a glass, and then she flicked on the TV for a bit of background noise and scrolled through the channels until she found something that looked easy, breezy to watch and something that would neither distract them too much or be so boring that there was no point in it being on.
She finally found a home renovation show and she left it on and sat back on the couch whilst she waited.
It was only seven-thirty and already her nerves were kicking in and her anticipation was high.
Should I be laying out some snacks? she thought. But then she shook her own head and banished the idea. Evan was coming to see her to talk about their annulment. He wasn’t coming for a date or to wine and dine her, or vice versa. She cursed herself for being so foolish, and then on the table her phone pinged, and she could see she had a message.
She picked it up and looked at the screen and her heart dropped.
She had been assuming she would be seeing Evan’s name, telling her that he was running a little late or that he was on his way… but instead the name peering back at her was none other than Reggie.
He still wasn’t going to let go.
She hadn’t heard from him in a day and she had hoped that she had finally managed to shake him.
It would appear she had no such luck.
She opened the message and read it slowly, and she felt sick to her stomach…
R: I know where you are Monica, and I’m coming to find you. We need to talk.
She put her head in her hands and tried not to feel overwhelmed. Reggie was out looking for her, and if he didn’t already know where she was, then he would no doubt be able to find his way.
“But how?” she said aloud.
As she looked up at the ceiling and prayed that it was just Reggie being weird, she heard the roar of a loud engine coming closer and closer. It was so loud that the ground seemed to shake underneath her feet. She stood up and walked quickly toward the window, and as she peered through the blinds she felt herself relax and light up inside.
It was Evan.
Riding a goddam motorcycle.
Just when she thought he couldn’t get any more perfect, he went and did this.
“Man, you are in so much trouble, Monica,” she whispered to herself. “So much trouble.”
11.
The bike was big, and Evan maneuvered it expertly into place. Monica stood back from the window slightly so that he wouldn’t be able to see that she was watching him, and she felt a little twinge between her legs.
God, he looked sexy.
She bit her lip and had to remind herself to breathe.
He cocked his leg over the side of the bike and stood up straight. Monica swallowed hard when she saw that he was wearing low slung jeans, big boots, a belt with a silver buckle and a black t-shirt that was clinging to him in all the right places.
They were almost in matching outfits and she felt herself blushing. They really were in sync with a lot of things.
She ran her hands through her hair and poofed it up slightly, and then she took a deep breath before she stepped toward the door. She reached for the handle before Evan had a chance to knock and when she opened it, he was standing there with his fist raised.
“Oh,” he half-laughed. “Eager?”
He stepped inside, and Monica laughed as he passed.
“More like I couldn’t not hear you coming,” she said as she peered past his shoulder and onto the driveway. “What is that thing?”
“My bike,” he grinned. “She’s a beauty, isn’t she?”
“I guess you could say that,” Monica replied. “I’ve never been on one of them, but I can imagine it feels pretty exciting.”
“It is,” he said as he crossed his arms over his chest and eyeballed her.
She closed the door quietly behind her and then they stood staring at each other for a moment.
“How are you finding the place then?” he asked as he turned and looked around. “The old cabin certainly looks as if it’s being loved.”
“Yeah,” she smiled. “I really do love it here, I wanted to give it a bit of TLC.”
He wandered into the main living area and picked up one of the candles. He held it up to his face and looked deep into the flame.
Monica loitered by the doorway and her heart beat hard in her chest. She wanted so badly for him to just throw off his clothes and run toward her. She wanted him to sweep her up into his arms, tear at her t-shirt and her jeans and make love to her right there on the cabin floor.
She felt a trickle of sweat run down between her breasts. She really was getting hot under the collar just by looking at him.
“Can I get you a drink?” she asked to try and calm her dirty mind.
“You got any beer?” he asked as he slumped down onto the couch and extended his arms out wide along the back.
“Sure,” she smiled as she walked over to the refrigerator, pulled open the door and grabbed a bottle. She flicked the cap off with an opener and then she handed it to him.
“You still off the booze?” he asked her jokingly.
“For the foreseeable future,” she smirked. “I was never a big drinker anyway.”
“You could have fooled me,” Evan joked as he took a swig.
She retrieved her glass of sparkling water and went to join him on the couch. She instinctively left a sizable gap between them even though what she really wanted to do was practically sit on his knee.
“Are you all right?” he asked her. “You seem jumpy?”
Monica sighed and ran her hands through her hair.
“Jeez, is it that obvious?” she asked.
Evan raised his eyebrows and nodded his head before he sipped from the bottle again.
“I’m having trouble with someone from back home,” she said as she cast her eyes down toward her cell phone. “He sent me an odd message just before you arrived.”
“I see,” Evan said as he placed the bottle down on the table. “Boyfriend?”
“God no,” she gasped. “I don’t even know where any of this has come from, it’s like as soon as I decided to leave town he suddenly decided he was obsessed and confessed his undying love for me.”
“Well, he certainly has good taste,” Evan smirked and gave her a wink.
She felt her nipples stiffen.
God, he really did look good.
She cleared her throat and tried not to smile too wide. And she was about to rise to the challenge and flirt back, when Evan reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a roll of crunched up papers.
“Sorry about the state of them,” he said. “But you know, I was on the bike and all that.”
Monica laughed and reluctantly took them from him.
“Thanks,” she said. “I think…”
Evan sat back again and swigged his beer, and Monica looked down at the official documents in front of her. There were a lot of long words, and she was surprised that it was called a petition, as if they had to beg for the thing to go ahead.
“Jeez,” she sighed. “Looks intense.”
Evan nodded his head and looked at her.
“I read it all and it’s probabl
y more straight forward than it looks, but it’s one hell of a ball ache, that’s for sure.”
“At least we don’t have any kids or property to fight over,” she smirked when she saw that particular section.
“Ooh, I don’t know, what if you try and steal this place from under my nose,” Evan joked.
“Very funny,” she said with an eyeroll. “I’m pretty sure you can tell I’m not that kind of girl.”
Evan smirked and moved a little closer to her so that he could read the form again too.
As his arm touched lightly against hers, Monica felt a rush of longing and her whole body quivered. She was so attracted to him, and having him there with her, somewhere private and somewhere where they were truly alone for the first time, she was finding it hard not to jump on him and truly make him hers.
“How long do we have to fill this thing out?” she asked warily.
“Well, I’d say if we were going for a reason it would have to be consent… we were both so wasted it’s not like we could have truly consented to it going ahead, we weren’t of sound body or minds.”
They both looked at each other and laughed.
“Here,” he said as he pulled out his cell phone, he scrolled to something and then he began to read… “‘Consent! A party to the marriage lacked the capacity, i.e. the ability to consent or agree to the marriage, either due to a mental condition or due to the influence of alcohol, drugs, etc. An annulment action must be filed within six months of learning that one of the parties lacked the ability to consent to the marriage,’ I’d say we’re pretty much covered there,” he mused.
“So, six months then,” she smiled. “I thought it may have to be within like seventy-two hours or something.”
“Apparently not,” Evan took another swig.
There was a silence between them for a moment, and all Monica could hear was the intense sound of her own heart beating. Suddenly, she could feel the tension between them and it was making her nervous. She had never been very good at reading men, but there was something about Evan that spoke to her on another level. She could figure him out instantly, and she was certain about one thing… He wanted her just as much as she wanted him.
She brushed her hair over her shoulder and steadied herself, she knew that the second she looked into his eyes he was going to pounce on her and there would be no going back.
She waited a couple of seconds and then she let her eyes slowly trail up to meet his. He was looking directly at her, and his breath caught in his throat when their eyes locked together.
In that split second, the whole world seemed to spin. Monica felt light as a feather as Evan lunged toward her and swept her into his arms. He ran his hands through her hair and held her by the throat, and he kissed her so hard and passionately that she melted into his arms. She wrapped her arms around his waist and took hold of his muscular back, letting her nails trail up and down it and feeling the bulges of his incredible frame.
She gasped as he maneuvered her down onto the couch and she heard his bottle of beer go tumbling onto the ground. He ignored it and pushed her down hard into the cushions, putting his full weight on her and kissing her hard again.
She knew she was his.
She had the second she had laid eyes on him.
But being there with him and having him claim her like that was so incredible she knew she was never going to truly recover.
She wrapped her legs around him and their hot and heavy kisses became even more fevered and intense. She reached up and took hold of his face in her hands, and she opened her mouth as he slid his tongue inside to meet hers. Her whole body was aroused and turned on to him, and she could feel how hard he was inside his pants which only drove her into even more of a frenzy.
When their lips broke apart and they stared into each other’s eyes, Monica could see that he felt for her the same way that she did for him. Everything had been so crazy, they had barely had time to process all of what had happened, but the fact still remained…
They had met and had an instant connection. One that had spurred them both on, lit something inside of them, and led them to marrying each other on that very first night.
They may have been drunk and out of control, but didn’t alcohol always bring out the truth?
“Wow,” Evan breathed. “I’ve wanted to do that since we woke up on the floor of the bar and I remembered how we had been with each other the night before.”
“Me too,” she whispered. “That’s why I hid from you for two days. I was worried you wouldn’t feel the same.”
He cupped her face in his hands and kissed her delicately on the lips again.
“I can’t believe we’re married,” he laughed. His eyes lit up and she could see how wide his pupils were against the wonderful brown.
She didn’t know what to say, all she could do was hold him there and look into those eyes. He had awoken something inside of her that she knew would never die.
He was someone she had been waiting for.
12.
They lay together on the couch with their hands intertwined. Monica rested her head on his chest and she breathed him all in. She had wanted nothing more than to take it further, but she knew that for her to be sure that this could be something real, she had to hold off just a little longer. She wanted to make sure.
Evan kissed the top of her head and she looked up at him and smiled.
“Are you hungry?” she asked him.
“Very,” he said with naughty eyes.
She felt her pussy throb. God, she wanted him.
He smiled at her and kissed her again.
“So, tell me about the trouble you’ve been having with someone from back home,” he asked seriously.
Monica cringed and closed her eyes.
“He’s some idiot I used to work for,” she admitted. “I quit two weeks ago so I could write full time, and I think he just thought that I would go back after a couple weeks. But when he heard that I’ve skipped town, he went all weird and started harassing me. He keeps texting and calling and leaving strange messages.”
“Like what?” Evan said as he leaned up and looked at her sternly. “What’s he been saying?”
Monica sighed and reached for her cell phone.
“Well, for example, the last text he sent me just before you arrived said that he knows where I am and that he is coming for me…”
When she read it back again, a little chill rolled over her. It really was a sinister message. She didn’t like it one bit.
Evan took the phone from her and looked at the screen. She could see him swiping up with his thumb, and his brow furrowed before he closed it and put the phone back down.
“He’s clearly got some issues,” he said. “And I think you need to tell someone.”
“Really?” she asked with wide eyes.
“That last message sounds like a threat,” he said seriously.
She knew that it had, but she didn’t know whether it was because she was so emotionally involved in the situation that it seemed worse for her. But according to Evan, she had every right to be concerned.
“When he called me, it was the day after we had met and we had gotten married,” she said. “He was coming out with a whole load of weird stuff, asking if I’d left town because of someone else, if I was with someone… And in the end, I just said I was. I said I’d gotten engaged.”
Evan’s face broke into a smile.
“I mean, obviously, I could have told him the truth and said that I’d gotten married,” she smirked. “But, at that point, I hadn’t even accepted the fact myself, and I knew we would be getting it annulled, so…”
She had worried that he would have pushed her away when she told him this story, but it only seemed to make him want to pull her closer to him.
“Well, then,” he said, “then that’s how it’ll be.”
He looked into her eyes deeply, and he cupped her face again.
“You came here for a reason,” he said. “You came here
to escape and work. Granted, I kind of got in the way of that and fucked it up on the first night by giving you one hell of a distraction, but I want you to have what you came for.”
“Trust me, Evan, I don’t mind being distracted by you…”
He smiled and kissed her again. His hands were so strong, she longed for him to just pin her down on the couch and rip her clothes off.
Resist, Monica… Resist…
“Write back to him,” Evan said. “Call his bluff.”
She looked at him wryly as if she couldn’t even believe he was saying it.
“Seriously?” she asked him. “Don’t you think that’s a terrible idea?”
“Here,” he said, and he pressed reply… “You know where I am? Okay then Reggie, where am I?”
She watched him type it as he spoke the words and then he hit send.
“Oh, God,” she said. “Well, I can’t wait to hear back on this one.”
Within a couple of seconds, her phone pinged, and she had a reply.
R: You’re in Grey Mountain. And I am on my way.
“What the fuck…,” she whispered.
Evan snorted and sat back against the plush cushions of the couch.
“Seriously, babe, you don’t need to worry about him.” He cracked his knuckles and then traced a finger down her cheek. “You’re with me now. Do you think I’d let anyone mess with you?”
She felt something inside her flare up again.
“I’m with you?” she asked carefully.
Evan shrugged.
“I’d like to see where this could go…?” He said it as an open-ended question.
Monica couldn’t help but smile. That was all she wanted too.
“But what about the small issue of the fact that we’re married?” She laughed.
“We have six months to contest,” he winked at her. “I’ll speak to Jack and make sure he keeps the CCTV.”
They both burst into laughter, and then Evan wrapped his hand up in hers and kissed the top of it. It was a crazy idea, but she did feel incredibly safe with him. And if Reggie did turn up for any reason, she actually did have a husband who could protect her.
Accidental Mountain Man Page 7