Mountain Man X2
True Love X2
Frankie Love
Contents
Mountain Man X2
1. Cedar
Birdie
2. Pine
Birdie
3. Birdie
Cedar
4. Birdie
Pine
5. Cedar
Birdie
6. Birdie
Pine
7. Birdie
Epilogue 1
True Love X2
More!
About the Author
Copyright © 2020 by Frankie Love
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Mountain Man X2
By Frankie Love
We live alone and spend our days in the woods, putting the past behind us.
But we spend our nights dreaming of a woman who could love our unconventional life.
When Birdie flies through the old-growth forest and into our lives, we know she is the one we’ve been waiting for.
But we aren’t asking for just one night.
Dear Reader,
Cedar and Pine aren’t your typical mountain men. And when they see Birdie, they won’t let her fly away. These men can chop down wood… but I promise they have no trouble getting hard!
xo, frankie
The Flirt Club presents True Love X 2 — a series of MFM romances with double the heat, double the heart, and double the happily ever afters! Guaranteed!
1
Cedar
The lake glistens and the sun shines and damn, I don’t regret for a minute moving out to the middle of nowhere with my oldest friend. Especially not when I’m swinging my axe and felling an evergreen. I’ve got a fine stack of wood, just about enough to finish my project.
A few weeks back, I decided to make an outbuilding. Pine, the man who is like a brother to me, gave me a hard time, asking why we needed one since we already have a garage. But I was dead set on it. Figuring I’d know what to use it for when the time came.
For now, I lift my axe and swing, the loud crack reverberating through the old-growth forest where we built our large cabin a year ago.
We inherited this piece of land on Broken Wing Mountain from our foster parents, the ones who raised us. We would come out here every summer when we were kids and pitch tents, catch trout in the lake, eat s’mores over the campfire, and hike the trails.
Then last year happened and our priorities changed. Our focus shifted. We needed a fresh start. After they passed, we left the city where we grew up. It never felt like home.
This place, though? It reminds us of family, and the tall trees that grow here are permanent, firmly planted.
I grunt, chopping down the hardwood. When I finish, I wipe my brow, seeing Pine come around the bend, a book in hand. All our lives I’ve been labeled the brawn, he’s the brains. And I don’t mind and neither does he. There isn’t a single thing we don’t seem to agree on and it’s why we’re such good friends.
“I’m headed to the lake, wanna come?” he asks.
I nod, resting the axe against the stump. “Did you pack any food?” I ask, eying his backpack.
“Yeah, wanna sandwich?” He knows my answer before I say a damn thing. He pulls out a hoagie and I eat as we walk on the trail toward the lake. We have a dock and a boat, and now that the weather is warmer, most nights I come out here and fish. Pine usually stays back and uses the dry sauna. We get along, but we still like our space.
I finish the sandwich and pull off my flannel shirt, then shrug off my pants. I run down the dock and jump into the lake with a cannonball, not waiting to see if Pine is following.
When I come up for air, I see Pine diving in, headfirst, after me.
It’s refreshing as all get out, and I ask Pine about his morning.
“I finished the book proposal,” he says.
“Finally,” I joke.
“You still planning on taking the trip next month?” he asks.
I nod. “Yep, it’s a ten-day hike in the Olympics. Should be a good group from a start-up in Seattle.”
I take people on hiking trips for a living. It works out nice, gives Pine and me a bit of breathing room from one another, and when he leaves on his book tours or for signings, I get the cabin to myself. It all works out.
We’re doing lazy backstrokes, feeling on the top of the damn world, when we hear a cry. It’s a woman’s cry, from further down the shore.
“Help!” she shrieks. “Help me!”
Birdie
Everything that could go wrong has. And now I am in the lake, struggling to stay above water.
“Help!” I cry again, wishing I had jumped in my stepdad Hank’s truck and hightailed it out of town instead of running from his run-down house and jumping into the small boat in the lake. I wasn’t thinking straight. I was thinking of one thing alone — get the hell away from the man who has tormented me for so long. I didn’t realize this boat has been left unused because there is a hole in the bottom of it.
The water started rising, and the boat sank deeper and deeper. I held onto the oar as the boat went underwater, and then I started swimming.
But I didn’t swim back toward the old shack. I started swimming across the lake to the place where I’ve seen smoke rising from a chimney. Someone is out here. And maybe it’s someone who can help me get away.
I should have left a long time ago.
But now none of that matters. All that matters is the fact I am not a strong swimmer and even though the shore is within sight, I’m not sure I can make it in time. My arms are exhausted and I can’t hold up my head.
“We’re coming,” a man’s voice shouts, cutting through my terror. I gasp, water entering my lungs. “We’re almost there!”
Two men swim up to me as my eyes close, as I sink beneath the ice-cold mountain lake water.
But I don’t sink to the bottom… no. They lift me up. They have a hold on me.
I cling to them as they swim me back to shore.
2
Pine
“Is she breathing?” I ask Cedar as we lift her from the water. Once we get her on the dock, I see she looks frozen, eyes closed. Gone.
I lean down, pushing the hair from her face. Her delicate features have my heart pounding. She is beautifully fragile, and I feel like she’s the muse I’ve been looking for all these years. I’m a writer in the woods, finding solace in the quiet — but one look at her and I want to shout to the mountain tops. Shout that she is mine.
“Give her CPR,” I tell Cedar, knowing he’s been trained in his wilderness preparation courses.
He leans to her mouth, tilting her head back, her white-blonde hair wet around her shoulders, her sundress clinging to her body. She’s petite, small enough that I could scoop her up in my arms and make a nest for her to heal.
Cedar presses his hands to her chest, doing compressions, and I hate watching. I know if she was lucid she’d be in pain, but she is lifeless and so I reach for her hand, praying to the same God my foster grandma trusted, begging him to save this sweet woman’s life.
“Fuck,” Cedar grunts. “Do you have your cell?”
I nod, reaching for my backpack, but before I get to my phone to call 911, there is a sputter from her, water coughed up. She’s alive.
“Oh, thank God,” I cry, realizing I couldn’t lose this stranger. I know nothing about her except her beauty, but there is something about her that has me on edge, willing
to throw everything I’ve ever known away. Something about her has awoken a primal need within me to protect her. Be her man.
“You saved my life,” she whispers before closing her eyes once more.
“I would do anything for you,” Cedar says and I search his words, his eyes, for meaning. I see it clearly. He is as spun up with her as I am. I run a hand over my jaw, knowing that Cedar and I have always been like-minded, even if we don’t spend our days in the same line of work. We see the world the same way. It’s no wonder to me that he’s looking at this woman with the same desire as I am.
“We need to get her to the cabin, warm her up,” I say and Cedar nods, lifting her from the dock. I grab our clothes, our things. We run through the thicket quickly, not pausing to dress. There is only one thing that matters now: her.
Birdie
When I wake, I hear two men discussing something in a heated way.
“I need her,” one man says.
“So do I. My heart… When I looked at her, I knew…” the other explains.
I sit up in the center of a cozy bed with soft flannel sheets and a warm woolen blanket. Under them, I’m naked. Completely stripped bare.
I try to remember what got me here. To this strange place.
“Hey,” a man says, stepping inside the bedroom. He’s tall, with a big, thick beard and piercing green eyes the color of trees. His eyes search mine, telling me there is a story there that I’m dying to read. How can one look say so damn much? He’s in a pair of low-slung sweats and nothing else. It’s hard to notice much besides his muscles, a strong V leading my gaze. I swallow. Look up into his eyes. He says, “I’m Pine.”
Behind him, another bearded man enters the room. “And I’m Cedar.” Cedar is in a pair of jeans, the button undone, and I feel my core tighten as I look at him. His eyes are dark grey, like he’s been caught in a thunderstorm, and his body is huge, with biceps thicker than my waist, tanned and taut. He is chiseled, like he was born holding an axe.
“I’m Birdie… and you… you saved my life.”
They nod. Running their hands over their beards, they look at one another — and I feel tension in the room. Has my being here created a problem?
“Birdie?” Pine repeats. “That name… it matches you.” I can hear his thoughts about me: Fragile. Small. Broken wings.
“Same as your name matches your eyes,” I tell Pine. He smiles, sitting down on the edge of the bed. Cedar sits on the other side. “And same as your name matches your size — strong and tall.” He gives me a gentle smile, and I want to take his hand and lace my fingers with his and hold on tight. He is solid, and a man like him won’t let me break. The thought is absurd… but it’s my truth.
“What happened to you, Birdie?” Pine asks.
I lick my lips and notice both men shift on the bed. As if in pain. “You mean before you undressed me?”
“We had to,” Pine says. “You were blue, frozen. We had to warm you up.”
“Thank you,” I say, heat rising to my face. “I just… I’ve never been naked around men before.”
They cough, clench their jaws. “We didn’t mean to upset you,” Pine says. “We just needed to take care of you.”
I bite my bottom lip. “I’m not upset. I’m grateful.” I run a hand through my now dry hair. How long have I been sleeping here? “But I have to go,” I say. “I need my clothes back. I’ve got to go. Before…”
“Before what?” Cedar presses.
“Before he comes. Before he comes for me.”
3
Birdie
“Who is he?” Cedar asks forcefully, as if my words are a threat to him somehow.
“My stepdad, Hank… He…” I shake my head, tears welling up in my eyes. I blink them away, not wanting to cry over that man. He has already taken up too much space in my life.
“Is he why you were in the lake?” Pine asks. “You were trying to get away?”
“You put that together quickly,” I say, cracking a wry smile. I brush the final tear away and nod. These men are strangers… yet they are sitting with me so intimately, it is as if we’ve known one another all our lives. It’s like we skipped past years of tiptoeing and jumped right into the heart of it all.
“We are here for you,” Cedar says. “I know we just met… but Birdie, it’s like you flew into our lives and we aren’t interested in letting you go just yet. Let us help you.”
I take a deep breath, the blanket tucked over my chest. I run my hand over it, wishing they would reach out and hold onto me.
But that’s asking too much. They don’t even know me. But God, now I want to know them.
“Hank threatened to kill me when I told him he needed to stop drinking. After my mom died six months ago, he hasn’t let up,” I explain. “And since he gives me a roof over my head in exchange for keeping up the house, I figured it wasn’t the worst deal.”
“Why did you stay if he was so cruel?” Cedar asks.
“I’m out of high school now, nineteen, and planned to leave as soon as I saved up some cash,” I tell them. “When he raised his hand, I knew enough was enough. I jumped in the boat and fled… and now… now I’m here.” I shake my head. “I know you must be wondering why I stayed so long… but it’s hard to get any work when I don’t have a car. I’m twelve miles out of town, and there are no buses running.”
“God, I wish we’d have known. We’ve been over here, on the other side of the lake, without any idea.”
“You haven’t been here long though, have you?” It’s been less than a year since the cabin was built and someone moved in. I just had no idea the someone was these two men.
“No,” Pine says. “We moved here after… well, the two people we loved most in the world were shot. Killed. And we couldn’t stay in the city after that. It felt wrong. And we wanted to live somewhere safe. Somewhere without any crime, any pain.”
“Oh,” I say, his words dawning on me. “That is terrible. You both lost the women you loved?”
“Women?” Cedar frowns. “No. We lost our foster grandparents. The two people who raised us — the only family we had besides one another.”
“You’re brothers?”
“Not technically,” Pine explains. “We were put in foster care at the same time, when we were in grade school. We lived with Louise and Joe until we were eighteen. And we’ve always lived together since then, through thick and thin.”
“I see,” I say, realizing these two men care for one another an awful lot. It’s refreshing and they seem all the more masculine for being there for one another. I’m jealous — I’ve never had anyone so devoted to me. It’s all I’ve ever wanted. “So it’s just you two here… no one else?”
“If you’re asking if we’re in relationships,” Cedar says. “Well, I won’t speak for Pine, but I’ve never seen the point in dating a woman if she wasn’t the one.”
“And you, Pine?” I ask, my heart strumming with emotions for these men I’ve never felt before. “Are you with someone?”
His eyes narrow as he looks at me deeply, as if there are a thousand words written in his heart. “I’ve been waiting for my one and only, too.”
“Oh,” I say, my words a whisper. “And how will you know when you find her?”
Pine cups my cheek with his hand, leaning close enough to kiss me. His fingers on my cheek make my skin burn with want and I close my eyes, wanting a kiss. Wanting him.
“I just knew,” Pine says. “The moment I saw you, I knew.”
His lips find mine and I whimper, his mouth warm and inviting, and my heart quickens. My lips part and his tongue finds mine, and I moan with pleasure at the sensation. My pussy is hot as his hands cup my cheek and I want more. So much more. I want this kiss to go on forever.
It deepens and intensifies, and I feel a charge between us grow, ignite. My body is on fire and the rest of the world begins to fade.
But then Pine pulls back, as if he’s been overcome with something. My lips press together. I’m tryin
g to understand what happened. “Shit,” he says, shaking his head, standing up from the bed. He walks to the door, leaving Cedar and I in his wake. “Shit,” he says again. “I can’t be in here.”
Cedar
Pine leaves the bedroom, grunting in frustration. He let his emotions take over, and I don’t blame him — I’m fixing to do the same.
But it’s complicated.
Birdie makes this complicated.
“What did I do wrong?” she asks, her eyes on mine, her fingers running over her pink swollen lips.
“Oh, sweet sparrow, you did nothing wrong. You are perfect just as you are.”
“Then why did he go… why did he walk away?” Her chest rises and falls, and my cock twitches with want. I know this sweet, perfect angel is naked in this bed and it’s hard to focus on anything else. I want her like I’ve never wanted anything.
But so does Pine. My best friend.
Fuck.
“It’s just that Pine and I both… we feel the same way about you.”
“And what do you feel?” she asks, her hand resting on my arm.
“I feel my heart splitting open, the way a log does when I chop it in two.”
“But you don’t even know me,” she says, her fingers against my skin, and it’s electric. It’s goddamn fire. I don’t want her to ever let go.
Mountain Man X2: True Love X2 Page 1
