Kept by the Woodsman: An ex-MMA Fighter Mountain Man Romance

by Ambrielle Kirk

  “I’m very sorry,” I repeated. “Thanks for leaving my key on the bed, by the way. So…we’re even?”

  I watched him fold his arms across his chest and frowned. His dark eyes flashed with curiosity.

  “Anyway…” I said and glanced at the ground, trailing off. “I left a note on the first day I came to talk to you.”

  “A note?”

  I nodded eagerly and took another gentle step in his direction. “Yeah. When I came back the next day and saw the note still sitting in the same place I’d stuck it, I just figured that whoever lived here wasn’t home. That’s why I um…broke in.”

  “What was the note about?” he asked.

  “I’m doing a story on mountainside and homestead living. My name is Tyra. I want to ask you a few questions.”

  “Me? Why me?” he grumbled.

  "Well, you're the guy who owns Silencer Construction right? And you have been living in the mountains for quite some time. Isn't that right?" I was hoping he didn't ask me how deep I had delved into my research to find someone like him.

  “Who told you this?”

  “You’re Saul and you own Silencer,” I said, observing his reactions carefully. “You’ve done work for a lot of folks in the town and the surrounding cities. People talk and your services come highly recommended. They said you were a nice guy and that you recently made your home in the mountains after moving away from the city, so…here I am.”

  I hoped my friendly attitude and sincere apology was enough to earn me a few questions but judging by the cynical way his brow began to furrow and the lines crinkled on his forehead, he didn't believe a single word I said.

  Thunder crashed and rolled overhead, making me shriek and duck like an idiot.

  “The thunder is louder up here,” he advised.

  “Yeah.” I eased my way back up into a standing position. “I can see that.”

  In the next few seconds, big welts of rain began plopping onto my skin. I instinctively glanced up at the sky and the bottom dropped out. Sheets of rain slashed at me from all directions like a slap in the face. I could barely breathe through the howling wind.

  He backed up, inching towards the front door. “You might want to come on the porch,” he offered.

  I followed him to the porch where he picked up a white towel and mopped it down his face and torso. I pulled my bottom lip between my teeth, cursing myself as I gawked at every inch of his hardened core. A trail of sleek, dark hair led down into his pants. There was a huge, noticeable bulge pushing against his fly. I tore my gaze away and lifted my palm to my face just in time shield my eyes from sand blowing into it.

  Gusts of sand and wind pushed against me from all directions. It sounded like some kind of tornado was barreling right in this direction. The howling in the distance was also loud as hell.

  I had no intentions of screaming my questions at him, so I asked, “Can we go inside?”

  He turned around and hesitated, but as he saw me standing there pitifully soaked to the bone as my stringy hair stuck to the sides of my face, he relented.

  “Come on,” he said and waved me into the cabin.

  Chapter Eleven

  Saul

  I sealed the front door shut behind us, sheltering us from the torrential squalls that now wailed through the walls of the cabin. I stared at the gorgeous woman dripping water all over the floor. My eyes trailed down a few inches south to her voluptuous chest. I could see her nipples through her soaked shirt. They were perky and playful.

  I swallowed hard and tried to resist the temptation to race up to her and touch them, squeeze them, and kiss her soft and tantalizing lips.

  Dribbles of water trickled down her cheeks from her soaked hair. Her eyelashes were full and dark. Her eyes stared through me with innocent, provocative curiosity that loomed above my soul and threatened to crush me.

  “I’ll uh…get you a towel to dry off with.” I coughed.

  “That sounds good.” Tyra blushed and gave me a shy smile as she glanced around the cabin, subtly pretending like it was her first time inside even though we both knew better.

  “Just wait there,” I announced and then tromped off to retrieve a towel from the linen closet in the hallway.

  I plucked up the towel, along with a fresh one for myself and tried to calm my racing heart. I’d never had a woman in my home, so I figured that was the reason why I was overreacting.

  “Here you go,” I said and gently handed over the towel while patting myself dry with another one.

  “Thanks,” Tyra sighed gratefully.

  I tried not to leer at her as she bent over and dragged the towel up and down her tanned, toned legs. Her shorts were insanely tiny and tight as they clung damply to her skin, leaving little to the imagination. I wondered if she always interviewed people looking like that. Was this some kind of plow to get all the mountain men she wanted to interview to talk?

  Her shirt lifted slightly as she raised her arms with the towel over her head to crinkle dry her hair. My eyes flashed over her partially exposed navel that had a little emerald stud inside, a piercing that made her even sexier. Where had this chick come from out of the blue like this?

  When she glanced up at me, I immediately flicked my eyes to the floor.

  “So, I hope you weren’t too busy or anything.” She chuckled nervously.

  “I was,” I said, shrugging. “Now, it’s raining.”

  She sighed. "I can come back if you want."

  “What kind of man would I be if I let you drive out in that? That would totally debunk my nice-guy reputation, wouldn’t it?”

  She grinned at me. “So, can I ask you a few questions? At least until the rain stops coming down so hard?”

  She was gorgeous. I hated to see her leave so quickly because I wanted to continue to subtle ogle at her.

  “I’ll compensate you for your time. A hundred dollars or so. How does that sound? I promise it won’t take long.”

  Did she really think I was interested in a hundred dollars or so? She would soon find out that monetary currency meant nothing in these mountains.

  Curious as to what it was that this sexy, daring chick wanted to know, I beckoned her inside with a wave of my hand. “Have a seat.”

  She followed me into the living room and sat down on the couch. I had already decided that I’d have to be nice for the time being. I’d feel terrible if I sent her back out with the worse of the storm raging through.

  “Would you like me to make a cup of tea or coffee for you?” I asked.

  “No.” She shook her head. “I appreciate the offer, but I’m good.”

  “Okay,” I grumbled and sat in the leather chair beside the couch. I placed my hands on my knees and waited.

  "Can I have your name?" She asked as she pulled a notepad from her purse. I watched as she clicked the pen and placed the tip on the paper.

  “Um…you already have my name.”

  She looked up, blankly. “Right. Saul.” She scribbled something onto the paper. “Last name?”

  “That’s none of anyone’s business, but I’m sure you probably already know that too since you searched through my stuff after you broke into my cabin,” I told her.

  "I said I was sorry," she said, swallowing visibly. "This is my first assignment away from the city, and I made a mistake."

  “Fair enough.” I shrugged. “Next question.”

  I watched her eyes dance over my face and shoot straight down to my lap. I noted the way she licked her lips as she examined me. I wasn’t quite sure, but it looked like she wished to ask me more than just my name. If I had a dollar for the number of times I had caught her glaring down in the direction of my cock, she wouldn’t need to pay me shit—I’d have a hundred dollars already.

  “How long have you lived here?” she continued.

  “A while,” I stated vaguely.

  Tyra raised an eyebrow and paused. Her pen dangled a few inches above the notepad. “How long is a while?”

  “Abo
ut five years,” I said and leaned back in the chair as I scratched the bridge of my nose.

  “And you were born in the city, right?”

  I nodded. “Right.”

  “Why did you move away from the city? That was a drastic change of scenery for you, wasn’t it? To just get up and leave the city behind and kind of hide out in the mountains…?”

  I found this question odd for someone doing a story about mountain living. What did it matter why I had moved here? I hesitated before answering because I was a little unnerved. I almost felt like I was being played for a fool.

  “What were you saying before? About getting some kind of compensation for agreeing to discuss my life with you?” I placed the bug of reminder in her ear.

  “I…” she started.

  “Is this interview about my past city life or my current mountain life? Because my past is off limits.”

  “Okay. Fine. Do you have many visitors up here in the woods?” she asked, ignoring me as she continued to scribble on that damn pad of hers.

  I sighed. “I’m alone for most of the time, but I’ll occasionally venture into town for supplies and things like that.”

  “Alone? Would you ever consider getting married?”

  “Married?” I parroted, meeting her gaze.

  Our eyes locked. I wanted to kiss her. I watched her as she shifted her weight and crossed her legs. Every mannerism she portrayed was sexy.

  “Yes.” She nodded with a warm and kind smile. “You know, having a wife might help ease up some of the loneliness you feel being up here all alone—”

  “I found your sex toy in your suitcase,” I blurted out of nowhere. I couldn’t help it. It was like my mouth exploded with the words before my brain had a chance to convince me it wasn’t a great idea. Or maybe I was just bored with questions that seemed to go nowhere.

  I was surprised by her reaction. Instead of being utterly appalled and embarrassed or running from the house, Tyra eyed me with a naughty flash of wildness.

  “My sex toy…?” She eyed me incredulously, but her face was a blushing shade of red. “You dug into my suitcase and found a toy. Is that what you want to talk about?”

  “With all due respect, Tyra, you stated that you wanted to ask me a few questions. You’ve asked more than a few. It’s time you compensated me for my overtime.”

  She arched an eyebrow.

  “We can go tit for tat. I ask one. You ask one,” I offered.

  “Okay.”

  The rain had slowed now. The clouds had dropped buckets of water, and now the drops against the roof sounded like a drizzle. She didn't make any moves to get up and leave, so I figured she wanted to play my game.

  “Have you ever been with a mountain man before?” I asked and leaned forward in my seat, close to her. The sexual tension ripped a hole through me and hovered like a storm cloud over the pair of us.

  “No. My turn,” she stated. “I noticed that you have a bumper sticker on your truck from Traverse City, Michigan. Is that where you’re from?”

  “I’ve lived there.”

  The bridge of her nose wrinkled. “Silencer Construction…is that the name of your business?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Saul. Silencer. That’s clever.” She nodded and scribbled something on her pad. “It has a nice ring to it.”

  “Do you need to write every detail down?” I asked, leaning forward a bit, trying to see what she had written about me.

  “I don’t want to forget anything,” she said. “Would you say that your construction business has picked up after moving out here or did you ever get contracts in the city?”

  “It’s not a business anymore. I just help folks out when I can. I did some work for a well-known business when I moved down here, and just like you said, word travels fast. Arrow Lake is a big town, but with a family vibe. People know people,” I told her.

  “Do you still have family in Traverse?” she asked, quickly, probably so I wouldn’t get my question in.

  “You haven’t been playing by the rules, Tyra,” I said.

  “With all due respect, Saul, you already know that I don’t play fair,” she teased.

  I grinned, running my hand down my face to keep from laughing out loud. This chick had spunk, I’d give her that. She had broken into my home purposefully and hadn’t even begun to back down with her probing questions.

  “Don’t you have a boss or something?” I asked. “If you’re going to treat me like this, I demand to speak to him?”

  She laughed. It was the most beautiful thing I'd ever heard in a while. "Nice try. So, what's your question? Oh, wait! Let me guess. You want to know more about my vibrator."

  “Now that you’ve brought it up…why do you need a toy? You’re a beautiful woman.”

  “I think you can answer that one. I’m alone, just like you. No boyfriend. And I happen to like having orgasms. Don’t you?”

  “Sure I do. Still doesn’t explain why a pretty young thang like you doesn’t have a man.”

  She tucked her notepad and pen back in her purse. “I just haven’t met anyone.”

  My chuckle came out like a snort. “You look like a born and bred city girl to me.”

  “I am. My city’s not that far from here.”

  “I’m sure there are men around where you come from. So, what kind of woman are you? Do you like to play hard to get or are you one of those women who are never pleased no matter what you do for them?”

  “Neither. Maybe the city boys aren’t for me.”

  "What did you think? That you'd have better luck out here in the mountains? I've been doing some thinking, and your story doesn't quite add up. Why would a city girl want my boring story?"

  Her eyes narrowed. “You’re calling me a liar?”

  “Not entirely. Although you did break into my home.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Okay, so maybe I do think I’d have better luck with someone other than a city boy.”

  I leaned back in my chair. “Stick to the city boys, sweetheart. I don’t know about any other man here, but this mountain man would break you in two.”

  “You seem so sure of that.”

  “I’m quite sure. Mountain men like it rough. And I’d fuck you good and hard to make sure you’d never forget.”

  “Mountain Man Saul Silencer likes it rough. He fucks women hard. Should I put that in my article too?” she asked, smugly, pursing her lips together.

  "Be my guest. I'd demonstrate it if you'd like. But there'd be no time to take notes or ask questions. You'd be on all fours while I fucked you from behind. You wouldn't need a little two-inch sex toy. You'd be screaming for an entirely different reason—a nine-inch reason. But first, I’d fuck your throat, and you’d know exactly why they dubbed me the Silencer.”

  Tyra gasped and stood up like a beam of light hurtling towards the sky. “I think I’ve…heard enough,” she panted. It was hard to tell the fine line between whether she was explosively turned on or frightened, or…both.

  I grinned. “I bet you have.”

  She snatched her purse off the floor. Her cheeks flushed crimson. "If you'll excuse me, I must be going now."

  I stood up and placed my hands in my pockets, watching her with entertained amusement as she barreled through the door in a flash.

  She let herself out and I watched as her cute little ass bounce as she marched and jogged down the steps toward her car. Her feet galloped through the sloshing puddles. Sunlight shined down on her like a beam, reflecting off her beautiful skin.

  When she took one last look at me before opening the car door, I gave her a smug smile.

  “If you think you’re safe here, think again. Don’t come back unless you want that physical demonstration like we talked about,” I called out to her.

  As I watched her drive away, I found myself hoping that she'd get down the mountain safely. Part of me even wished that she'd come back so that I could show her what it meant to make love on top of the world.

  Chapte
r Twelve

  Tyra

  My fingers were shaking so hard that it took me three attempts to get the key into the ignition and engage the engine. I glanced back at Saul’s cabin one last time. I watched as he stood there on the porch shirtless. He was the biggest, sexiest mountain man I’d ever seen. He was also rude and a bit of a jerk. I had not intended for our conversation to turn into a thesis on how a mountain man fucks a woman. I backed out and spun onto the main road, hearing the gravel crunch under my tires.

  My body wasn’t the only thing drenched. My heart pounded with arousal. My pussy tingled with desire. My panties were a soaking pool of passion and yearning. Saul had pushed every sexual arousal button I had in my body and yet here I was, frantically rushing away from his house in a flurry.

  It was still drizzling out, but at least it wasn’t pouring buckets like a little while ago. The roads were still a little tricky to navigate going downhill, so I kept both hands tightly on the steering wheel.

  “How the hell am I going to get down the mountain in this mess?” I groaned.

  I turned the wheel to dodge an enormous puddle of water that had turned into more of a swamp than anything else. My fingers slipped off the wheel and I nearly lost control of the car as the tires spun out underneath.

  Even through the chaos, my mind wandered back to Saul, imagining him running his rugged, masculine hands all over my body and grazing my senses with an ignition of fire and passion.

  I inhaled a hefty breath and ran a trembling hand through my wet hair.

  “You can do this, Tyra.” I had resorted to giving myself the occasional pep talk and this current moment was the perfect time to prevent myself from derailing…in the literal and physical sense.

  My cell phone rang and I huffed out in frustration. I eased up on the gas and plucked my phone out of my purse and answered it before looking at the caller ID.

  “Finally! I’ve been trying to reach you all day,” Peter exclaimed from the other end of the line.

  He thought I had new information for him about my assignment. It was the only reason he kept calling me like some damn bill collector. I should’ve known better than to answer my phone without checking first.