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

by Ambrielle Kirk

  “Look, I don’t have anything just yet. I’ve barely gotten started. If you can give me a day or two, I should have all my work on the assignment in one neat little file for you. I’ll even email it to you before I leave this town.”

  “It’s been almost a week, Tyra. Time’s ticking.”

  I rolled my eyes. “I took a flight to get here and then another day or so to ask around and pinpoint exactly where this guy was. Give me a break.”

  “So, you’ve found him?” Peter asked, eagerly. “Wow…”

  “I think so. And he’s a fucking rude ass,” I said. “Look, I’m driving down a mountain and it’s raining. Can I call you back when I get back to the hotel?”

  “Sure. You’re alright, aren’t you?”

  I was surprised he asked. Usually, Peter was only concerned about himself and his well-being.

  “I’m fine. Talk to you later.”

  I hung up the phone and tossed it back into my purse. The moment I looked out the windshield, rain started coming down once again by the buckets full.

  I groaned and squinted through the blur of the rain bursting out of the sky and hitting my windshield with unbelievable strength. It was surreal as if I were trying to make it through Armageddon. When was this shit going to let up?

  I’d heard of the rainy season for these mountains and the fact that they had issues with flash floods around the area. I could never have guessed the magnitude of how damaging it could be to endure it in the flesh.

  My vision was incredibly hindered, no matter how tightly I hugged the steering wheel and leaned against the dashboard to see out the windows. I was losing the battle and couldn’t tell right from left or up from down.

  I would soon be at the paved portion of the road and I hoped from there it would be an easier terrain to conquer and pass. If not, I’d just have to sit it out on the side of the road until I could see clearly again. When I reached the milestone path, I gasped and slammed on the brakes as my life flashed before my eyes.

  “Shit!” I wailed and pounded the seat. I took a few deep breaths and tried to recover from the mini heart attack I was sure I just had.

  To my horror, the entire road had caved in and was being swallowed up into a sinkhole of asphalt, pavement and earth. There was no way to tell where the road began and the dirt ended. It was all blending in a swirl of impassible ground.

  I had no choice but to back up and try to find another path to cross. I pushed the gear into reverse and slammed on the gas. “Come on,” I begged the engine.

  The tires roared in protest under me, battling it out in a war with the mud. The car hitched and jerked a few times, but in the end, the tires relented to the mud.

  "Ahh!" I screamed and banged the back of my head against the headrest of the driver side seat.

  This couldn’t be happening to me. I needed to try again. I couldn’t believe I’d gotten myself into this mess. I’d even gone as far as to check the weather forecast before I’d left the hotel that morning to make sure it wasn’t going to rain. The weather app on my phone had indicated that the rains wouldn’t pass through until later that evening.

  I glanced around at my surroundings. Mud slapped against the windows as the tires continued to peel out. The engine roared, working overtime to give me the results I desperately needed.

  After nearly an hour of trying to reverse the car out of the goop, slop, and mud, I noticed another problem present itself. Plumes of smoke began to creep and billow out of the hood of my engine.

  I may have yielded to stupidity at the beginning of the day, but I’d learned my lesson from Mother Nature. If the engine was smoking, it might catch fire at any moment. I needed to heed the warning and bail. I hesitated for only a second and grabbed my purse.

  I headed away from the pothole in the road, tromping back uphill through the mud. Each step I took made a slapping, suctioning sound as I attempted to pull my legs against the gravity of the thickening mud.

  The rain pelted me in the face, eyes, and mouth. I was soaked to the bone in a matter of seconds as my clothes clung to my skin. Through the pouring rain, I trekked through the sludge, hoping that I didn't end up swept away in the river.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Saul

  The cabin was eerily quiet after Tyra’s unexpected and hurried departure. The silence was louder than the rain pounding on the metal roof above my head. Normally, I would probably be lulled to sleep by such a pacifying and tranquil sound. Not this time. My spirit was rattled with unease.

  The torrential rains were not relenting. The sky threatened to pour out at least several more inches of rain before it was said and done. I was worried about Tyra's safety. In retrospect, I had wished I'd gone after her before, or at the very least attempted to convince her into staying until the squalls had eased up somewhat.

  I paced the floor and stared nervously out the window, peeling the curtains back to stare into the haze of water splashing up against the glass like clear paint being splattered against the surface.

  I couldn't see more than a few inches in front of me, much less out into the yard. If I was this incredibly vision-impaired in the house and staring out the window, I couldn't imagine the fear and torment that might be ravaging Tyra right now, all alone in the woods.

  If I grabbed my rain gear and walked out to the yard, perhaps through some miracle, I'd find her. I jogged to the door and threw it open in a thrash. Bucket loads of water poured into the house. Stinging rain slapped me in the face like a hand to the cheek.

  I groaned and used all my force to slam the door shut before it flew right off the hinges or worse, impaled me. My narrow window of opportunity for fleeting to Tyra’s rescue had already closed. I could only hope that she made it down the mountain safely.

  I walked over to the fireplace and threw a fresh log onto the fire. The wood crackled and hissed, and the flame roared and flickered as vivacious life was fed into it. I ran a shaky hand through my hair.

  Walking over to stare out the window again didn’t help stifle my anxiety. I didn’t know why I cared so much about Tyra's safety. She was a pretty girl and seemed determined and motivated. I loved sexy chicks with good heads on their shoulders. She appeared independent and strong, two appealing factors when it came to my attraction to her. But she'd never be happy with a mountain man like me. She needed to stick to those city boys.

  I was hungry enough to the point where if she had stayed, I would have broken her. Even now, I craved what I knew I couldn’t have.

  At first, I couldn’t tell the difference between my dreaming state and my awake state. I was in between the foggy middle to where everything blended and there was no discernible fine line. The knocking became louder, more demanding.

  I jolted up from the couch like a lightning bolt. The rain was still spiraling down, although not as loud and harsh as before. I shook my head to erase the cobwebs in my dazed mind. Something was knocking against my roof. Probably an old tree branch or something had gotten caught in the shutters.

  After rising on the couch, I noticed two things right off the bat: I was hungry as heck and my dick was hard as a rock. The cause of the first was working all day in the yard and then neglecting to eat lunch, especially when little miss sexy ass showed up. The cause of the second was a result of little miss sexy ass showing up.

  I grumbled and dragged myself to the kitchen to heat up something for dinner. I took a container of stew from the refrigerator, grabbed a pot, and began heating up the food.

  As the stew warmed up, I leaned against the counter and my mind drifted again to Tyra. I had fun toying with her, but it seemed like she had affected me in more ways than I affected her. Why had she picked me to do the interview on? I was just one of the dozens of people hiding out in these mountains. Some of them hadn't even been to town in years. I liked my alone time and privacy just as much as the next guy, but from time to time, I went into town like an average guy.

  Even when I had lived in the city, I’d been a bit of a loner
. I got up at the break of dawn, trained, ate breakfast, did some work, got into trouble sometimes, went to my fights if I had one that week, and came back home to sleep and then do it all over again. The only thing that had changed was the scenery. I had moved to a place where no one would find me. But someone had found me…

  Something knocked against my cabin again. Only this time, the sound wasn't coming from the roof. I turned around and looked out of the window above the kitchen sink, but my view was blurred by loads of water cascading down from the roof.

  The knocking vibrated through me again.

  “Who the hell…?” I mumbled.

  I drifted over to the front door and pushed it open. “Oh my God,” I blurted out. I was frozen at what I saw in front of me. My muscles wouldn’t move. My mouth couldn’t utter any other words.

  Tyra was standing on the doormat, drenched. Her tiny body was hunched over. There was a bloody cut across her left knee. Her lips were blue, and her teeth were chattering. Fat droplets of water plummeted to the ground from her soaked hair. She didn't say anything. She peered up at me and her eyes were the cry for help, pleading for me to allow her inside.

  “Saul…”

  She swayed, and her eyelids fluttered like she was about to pass out. Just as her legs gave in from under her, I reached out and caught her.

  I pulled the door shut and hauled her inside the home. She looked at me through weary eyes as I carried her across the room and set her down on the couch.

  “What happened out there?” I questioned as I continued to stare at her as if she were a figment of my imagination. She was an oasis in my desert. She’d come back to me, but I had yet to determine the reason for her re-emergence.

  She was like the storm outside. Dangerous and flooding me with emotions I wasn’t prepared to be bashed with at this point in my reclusive life. The magnetic force for which she sucked me in was like being drawn to the eye of a hurricane, and I loved every second of the wild ride.

  Tyra still had yet to respond to me. She continued to tremble. Her muscles convulsed and shook. She was like a frozen, shivering block of ice.

  “Let me grab you another towel,” I said and hastily rushed to back to the linen closet. This time I brought her two.

  I began to dry her arms at first, then slowly crept down to her chest and then her waist. When I reached the bruise on her knee, she cringed.

  “Let me go get something for that. Don’t move.” I raced back into my bathroom to get a first aid kit and then brought it back out to her. I knelt down next to her and worked on cleaning and bandaging her knee. She eyed me like a hawk as my action spoke for us rather than words.

  “What happened?” I asked.

  “I fell. I tripped over something on the trail,” she said, her chest moving up and down as she breathed unevenly.

  “On the trail? Did you walk back here?”

  She nodded. “My car got stuck in the mud. I tried to get it out and then something started smoking.” Her voice was a humiliated whisper. She sagged her shoulders and hung her head in defeat.

  “Why did you come back here?” After tending to her bruise, I continued drying her off. I rubbed the towel on her upper back and shoulders.

  “I know you told me not to come back, but I didn’t know where else to go,” she said, quietly.

  My heart galloped in my chest. My throat swelled, and it became harder to breathe. Her nipples were showing through her shirt again, surging me with adrenaline and desire.

  “Don’t worry. Forget about what I said earlier. You can stay here,” I stated even though my voice sounded reluctant. The options were limited for both of us in a swampy situation like this.

  For the first time since walking in the door, Tyra glanced up at me with a pitiful gaze of desperation. “Thank you.”

  “Where’s your car now?” I asked.

  Tyra sniffed and wiped her nose with the back of her hand. She still wouldn't look at me, but I noticed the gratitude shimmering in her expression.

  "At the paved road. I think the lake was flooding it. I was too scared to go over it. I didn't think I would make it," she recounted in a terrified and trembling voice. "I could have tried, but…"

  “No. You’re right. If a section of a road caves, you absolutely should not drive over it,” I told her.

  She looked down at me with this big, brown eyes of hers. I almost got lost in them. And when she ran her tongue between her lips, I wanted to kiss her. Even though she was shivering, there was an intense amount of heat between us that was erupting like an invisible volcano.

  “Your clothes are soaked,” I pointed out. “You need to get them off so they can dry.”

  Tyra glanced around the room sheepishly, and then her eyes skirted back to me where they landed and locked in on me for mercy. She hesitated for a moment.

  “Are you cooking something?”

  “Yes.”

  “It smells so good,” she noted. I didn’t miss the loud growl coming from her belly.

  “You’re hungry,” I said.

  She looked away sheepishly. “Yeah.”

  “Let me fix you something to eat. The beef stew should warm you up a bit.”

  She nodded.

  “Here’s another dry towel,” I said, handing her a big oversized towel. “Why don’t you get out of those wet clothes and wrap up in this?”

  “But I don’t have any other clothes to wear. Just these.”

  “We can dry them for you. I have a washer and a dryer in the basement. I’m not exactly a Neanderthal. I’m sure you don’t want to catch hypothermia or something.”

  “You’re right.” She shrugged, looking around my cabin apprehensively.

  “I’ll be in the kitchen. I’ll bring the stew out to you.”

  “Okay. Wait. I…”

  “Yes?”

  Her attention dropped from my torso down to my fly. The way she pulled her bottom lip inside and ran her tongue along the seam of her mouth only made matters worse. Would she look at me the same with those big beautiful innocent eyes of hers if I led her to her knees and slid my cock in her mouth?

  As my eyes traveling across the drenched clothes sticking to her sexy body, I knew I wouldn't be able to contain myself this time. Her nipples were super taut and so tight and lickable that I could make out her areoles through her fucking shirt. My dick was already as hard as a rock. I wanted to rip off her clothes. I wanted to kiss away the fabric of pain and suffering from every fiber of her body until it was erased entirely. And then I would lose myself in her curves. I needed to lick every inch of her, bury my cock in her sweet pussy, and fuck her until she proclaimed that she was mine.

  She shook her head. “It’s nothing. It can wait until later, I guess.”

  “Well, just shout if you need me,” I said before turning around and heading off to the kitchen.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Saul

  I returned with a hearty bowl of beef stew and a glass of water for Tyra. She was sitting on my couch wrapped in nothing but a towel. Her hair was pinned up, but still damp. It was like seeing her for the first time. She was just that breathtaking. Her skin was flawless. I remembered how soft her skin felt when I was towel-drying her and bandaging up her knee. I wanted to touch her again.

  “Here you go.” I placed the bowl of stew and drink on the coffee table in front of her.

  “Thank you. This looks delicious. Did you cook this?” she asked, her jade green eyes beaming in approval.

  I grinned. “Yeah. When I lived in the city, all I ate was take-out. Mostly pizza. As you can tell, there aren’t a lot of choices for delivery out here. I learned how to cook and prepare my own meals fast.”

  She chuckled and gathered up the bowl of stew. She took a bite and pressed her lips together. “Oh my God! This is sooo good. My grandmother used to cook this for me and I loved it. This tastes just like her recipe.”

  “I guess I learned a little something then.”

  “Um…weren’t you going to eat t
oo?”

  “Yeah. I’m going to heat up some more for myself and I’ll be right back.”

  Something pounded against the side of the cabin and then knocked against the roof. The noise was enough to make Tyra jump. It even startled me a bit.

  I sighed and scratched my head. “You know what? I need to check something outside. I’m going to go take a look, see what I can fix, and be right back.”

  “Sure. It sounds like the storm’s still raging. Will you be okay?”

  Her question gave me pause and her concern for me warmed my heart. It had been so long since I felt like someone actually cared about what happened to me.

  “Nah.” I shook my head. “I’ll be fine. We get storms all the time. I just need to untangle whatever got caught on my roof before it does any further damage. I repaired my roof last spring and I certainly ain’t looking forward to doing that again.”

  “Gotcha.”

  “Sit tight. There’s more stew if you want it. I just have to heat it up on the stove.”

  She smiled. “Thanks.”

  I wasn’t sure how much time had passed, but it had to have been just under an hour. There was a tree branch stuck in one of the left-side gutters. The wind had been pushing against it, causing it to knock against the roof. I didn’t want to be gutter-less come the morning, so I dragged my ladder out of the shed and pried the branch from the gutter.

  When I came back into the house, Tyra was balled up in one corner of the couch fast asleep. There wasn’t a drop of stew left in either the bowl or on the spoon.

  I inched closer, looking down at her. She looked like an angel sent down from heaven just for me. Her legs were folded tightly under her, but I still had a nice view of her creamy thighs. I would’ve loved nothing more than to kneel down before her, spread her legs, and taste her pussy. I bet she was sweet, always wet and ready. How dare I think of the many ways I wished to destruct my angel and bend her to do my bidding? But I wanted to claim her and worship her body at the same time. I wanted to hear what it sounded like when she called my name as she unleashed those orgasms she craved.