Mountain Man's Proposal

by Lauren Wood

  He put his hand into the shadows and came back with a gun wired to go off when the tripwire was set off. It was a sawed-off shotgun most likely found in the back alley during unsavory negotiations.

  “I said it was crude, but it is rather effective. It seems Henry’s concerns were not unfounded as you previously thought. I’m not one to believe in a coincidence. Whoever has sent you those letters have escalated to where they want to see you dead. I was hoping Henry was wrong, but one look at the letters confirmed to me you were playing with fire.” He pulled out a pair of wire snipers and went ahead in making sure the ambush couldn’t be used again in the same way.

  “I was a little reckless, but you were derelict in your duties.” He looked confused by my comment and I was prepared to defend myself. “If you were serious about protecting me then you would have gone first.” He didn’t seem to know what to say.

  “You make a valid point. There was a small part of me that believed there was nothing to worry about. It didn’t seem possible for someone like you to make enemies. I stand corrected. I promise not to make that mistake again. We now know the threat is tangible. It means we’re going to have to be connected to the hip from this moment on. I will be living with you.” He said it like it was a matter of fact. I wasn’t sure I was ready for a roommate with the ability to make me toss and turn into the wee hours of the night frustrated beyond reason.

  “You’re not the only one who made a mistake. I wasn’t taking this seriously. From this moment on, I will have my head on a swivel to the best of my ability. I will let you do your job without making any waves. I don’t like the idea of you living with me, but it’s a small price to pay to continue breathing.” There was something about him making me believe there was something he wanted to say to get it off his chest.

  “I never wanted this to happen again.” It appeared he was about to say something important, but then he shut down like a wall had come down around his feelings.

  I stumbled on my heels finding out too late one of them had broken from all the weight that I had been putting on it with my foot hanging precariously in the air. I didn’t mean to fall into his arms. It felt good to be safely wrapped up in those very huge biceps of his.

  “You’re going to have to be more careful and not so accident prone.” I was always a bit of a klutz and breaking a bone or cutting myself was common growing up. There was no way for him to know that without personal knowledge.

  “Henry has to learn to keep his mouth shut even when he is drinking too much. I don’t particularly enjoy people knowing there’s a weakness behind the cold and calculating stare in the business boardroom.” It didn’t seem to affect him. He carried me like I was light as a feather.

  It was nice to be this close to him even though I had no designs on mixing business with pleasure. It didn’t mean it didn’t occur to me. I didn’t think it was a good idea to make his job any more difficult than it already was.

  I had sailed the seven seas with the world as my oyster. I only had one life to live and I was going to make the best of it. Shying away from the unknown was not in my vocabulary. It didn’t matter if it was skydiving from the top of my building in the middle of the night or taking the hand of an impressionable young man and corrupting his thoughts by making him scream my name in the throes of passion.

  “I want to put you down, but I’m not sure it’s a good idea.” I ran my hands through his hair and down until I was scratching the nape of his neck. My lips were close enough to kiss him, but I was waiting for him to break the ice.

  “I’m in no hurry to put my feet back on solid ground.” His mouth parted and I could see the semblance of the tip of his tongue trying hard not to snap forward.

  “It has to be the heat making us feel this way. Lilly…Lila… we shouldn’t do this and we both know it’s the wrong thing to do.” I knew a Freudian slip when I heard one. Some woman named Lilly was still holding onto his heart with an iron grip.

  We were staring at each other and then he pressed his lips to the crimson color of mine. It was soft, but then there was this demand for more which came from the insertion of his tongue. It searched out and found the target he was after. It was an electrifying experience and had me losing focus on the reason why I had brought him into my employment in the first place.

  We were ravenous animals, ferocious in nature and we didn’t come up for air for a full minute. I didn’t need any confirmation of his arousal. It was quite evident when I looked between us. Our lips finally separated long enough for us to catch our breath.

  “I really should know better than to get personally involved with my clients. Let’s forget this even happened.” He put me down on my feet and I couldn’t help but look below his belt.

  All I wanted to do was to wake up in the morning and see his eyes. To hold him tight and keep him close to my heart was becoming more important by the second. I would have gladly met him halfway, but he was the one who put the brakes on to a screeching halt.

  “You are probably right, but I do feel it’s necessary to do this.” I grabbed him and squeezed to feel it pumping against my fingertips. “Forgive me. I wouldn’t be able to sleep at night without at least finding out what I was going to be missing out on. I was hoping for a little bit less real estate, but it’s not your fault you are blessed with an anaconda between your legs.” I was kneading his love muscle like I would if I was making bread.

  He wasn’t trying to stop me and he stood there quite rigid in more than one way. I had a hold of him with a power unknown to him. I was slowly tearing down the wall between us. I was discovering the length of his manhood by climbing the throbbing flesh of his appendage.

  I wasn’t breathing and everything was at a complete standstill. If he was expecting mercy then he was barking up the wrong tree. I had some intense feelings to work out. I was using his body to get over the one I lost. I attempted to unzip his fly, but his hand stopped me from making that kind of forward action.

  “I know it will feel good, but I can’t let you get this close. My job is better when I can keep things professional. I hope you don’t take any offense. This isn’t going to happen. It doesn’t matter what you do to try to convince me otherwise.” It didn’t sound like his comments were directed at me. He was trying to bring his condition down to a low simmer.

  “I hear what you’re saying from your mouth, but your body seems to speak a different language. I take it as a personal challenge to seduce you into my bedroom. I will pull out every stop with only one thing on my mind.” I stood back from him to take in everything from the top of his head all the way down to his feet. Getting him naked was necessary to quell my curiosity once and for all.

  “It doesn’t matter what he wants. I have the strength to fight your advances. I doubt many in my current position could say the same thing. They would drive you up against this wall with strong and determined thrusts to make you moan in submission.” He was bringing about visions of sexual positions. There were many I had never had the fortune to try out.

  “Sometimes you should listen to the other part of yourself more often. It knows a good thing when it sees it. I don’t know if it’s too late to make you another one of my victims. I won’t give up easily.” He put his two hands on either side of me against the cool brick.

  “I could easily have you wrapped around my waist bouncing on my pole. If I wasn’t working for you then I would find the nearest motel and give the bedsprings a workout they will never forget. I can be a wild animal.” I was anxious to find out for myself. I was going to use every trick at my disposal to get him to see me in a different way.

  “I don’t like having my motor running and no place to go. I’m burning brighter than a candle. I’m not going to stand here and tell you I don’t want you. A man like you delicious and quite delectable should be savored like a fine wine.” The very thought of his cream touching the surface of my lips gave me a reason to squeeze him a little bit tighter.

  I pulled away from him leaving h
im flushed and the bulge not easily ignored. Disengaging the alarm from the door was a simple matter of punching in a four-digit code. I pressed on the bar and opened the door to a rush of cool air. We needed something to throw cold water on our parade.

  This time was different. He grabbed me and put himself in front of me where those half moons were calling my name. He looked both ways and then he shielded me until I was safely inside the car with him taking his position in the driver’s side.

  I had dodged a bullet literally and figuratively. If I had been alone, I would have surely been lying with a hole the size of a quarter in my skull.

  I acquired some valuable information. There was only one way to get this close to me. The person responsible had to be close enough to know my comings and goings. It was an inside job.

  Chapter four

  The meeting was conducted in a restaurant in the hotel where the client was staying. He was ready to sell his business for half of what it was worth. We both knew the reason why and it put me in a position of having some leverage in the game.

  “Does he really have to be here? He stands over there like some kind of ghoul. It makes me feel trapped at the mercy of a feral beast.” I did have the same sentiment when I first met him, but things had changed.

  “He is a necessary evil. Don’t pay him any mind. I have a figure. I believe that it’s more than fair considering the circumstances. You don’t want this company to fall into your wife’s hands after the divorce. Don’t be so surprised. I don’t take meetings without knowing all the facts.” I was showing my reputation was as good as people thought it was.

  He folded his hands in front of him and then he looked down at the piece of paper I had presented. His eyes betrayed his poker face. They widened considerably and his lip began to twitch. If I didn’t think it was possible, I could’ve sworn I could see dollar signs in his eyes.

  “This is a generous offer, but I’m worried that I’m selling myself too short. My wife is going to be breathing down my neck when she gets the divorce papers later this afternoon. I want to liquefy my assets and store them away in a private fund in the Caymans. That will be my retirement nest egg. I hate to ask this, but is there any way you could do a little better.” I was ready to tear up the piece of paper, but the company and its assets were something I had coveted for some time.

  “I would be very careful about what you ask for. You want to make sure that it’s not too greedy that I will feel offended. It’s not my place to give you another offer. Come back with a counteroffer if you dare to take a risk like that.” I waited impatiently. He scribbled out the amount I had given him to replace it with another. He kept it private with his hand covering the dollar amount.

  “I need all the money I can get. If I could, I would make sure she never saw one single dime of my fortune. She never contributed. Drinking herself into a stupor with several bottles of wine during the week is what was waiting for me at home at the end of the day.” He passed it back upside down like the big reveal was going to be some magic trick. I was an audience of one.

  I could only hope he didn’t overreach in his attempt to strangle a few extra dollars out of my pocket.

  “I’m going to give you one last chance to reconsider. The offer is still good until I turn over this paper. Are you a gambling man?” There was a bit of flop sweat accumulating along his hairline. He was debating on whether or not to grab it before it was too late.

  “We… we both know you’re getting an extremely good deal on the surface. There will be a necessity to restructure to make it profitable. I’m going to hold strong to the offer I just gave you back. I didn’t get where I am today by taking no risks.” I smiled sweetly and innocently making him think I wasn’t the viper everybody knew me to be.

  The offer was reasonable, but I wanted to make him sweat it out for a moment longer. He watched my reaction and I showed no visible crack in my demeanor.

  “You’re killing me over here.” He got on his feet with a threatening gesture and somehow Morgan had his arm behind his back crying for uncle within seconds of it happening.

  “Let that be a lesson to you never to raise your voice or your fist in anger to any woman. I am going to accept this offer. I will make sure to have the papers drawn up before the end of the day. In fact, I will have them sent over to you by messenger before the end of the hour. We can dispense with the pleasantries.” I took the hand that wasn’t behind his back and shook it. This was a binding agreement in a court of law.

  “If you would be so kind to get your Neanderthal to take his hands off of me it would be appreciated.” I put my hand lightly on Morgan’s shoulder and felt the muscles flex underneath the palm of my hand.

  “Sometimes he doesn’t know his own strength. Go home and celebrate your good fortune without the prying eyes of your wife finding out about your duplicitous.” Morgan let him go, but he never took his beady eyes off of him the entire time that he was still in the room with me. He left like a scalded dog being chastised with a rolled up newspaper.

  “I didn’t ask you to make a scene. I know you were only acting on instinct.” I wasn’t angry, but he needed to know there was a time and place to use violence. I had to appreciate how easily he had come to my rescue.

  “Something comes over me in the moment. I’ve always had it, but it was awakened and honed into a weapon in the military. I would like to apologize, but I don’t think there’s anything to be sorry for.” He sat down and I ordered a couple of glasses of wine.

  “I get the feeling whatever comes over you translates into the bedroom. What we did in that stairwell was going outside of my comfort zone. I would love to say it won’t happen again, but I can’t do that. Even now, I’m sitting here and wondering what it’s going to take to get your clothes off. I don’t believe it makes me a bad person.” It was a bold and brazen thing for me to do, but the response was somewhat like a light bulb going off over his head.

  “I can’t deny the chemistry is off the charts. The moment I met you the only thing I thought about was having you over the top of your desk screaming at the top of your lungs. You would have my name on the tip of your tongue pouring out of your mouth at the moment of release.” It was nice to hear him lower his guard long enough to share what was in his heart.

  “This might interest you. I have a standing reservation and I can retrieve the keys to the penthouse suite by talking to the manager. I can see the pain in your eyes. It would make you feel better to get it out in the open.” The angst was familiar and I had seen that same look in the mirror. Guilt came with the territory when my business ruined people’s lives.

  “I can’t seem to move forward and it’s not like I can go back and change anything. I’ve never prescribed to losing myself in the bottom of a bottle or some other illegal substance. I did go through a bout of depression from leaving behind one of my comrades in arms.” I put my hand on his and made him look at me before he was able to chicken out.

  “There is no judgment in my eyes. You can consider me like a priest and it would be my honor to be your confessor.” I waited patiently with my thumb moving across his hand in a reassuring gesture.

  “We were pinned down in Iran by Isis. Connery ran out to retrieve one of the fallen. On that day, the bullet meant for him came swiftly and decisively. There was nothing any of us could do. I was determined to go out and bring him home. I’ve always lived with the motto never to leave anybody behind. I knew it was a suicide mission, but I was following the military code. It took four of them to pull me back while the bullets were flying around us. One actually took it in the shoulder to stop me from doing something monumentally stupid. To this day, I still feel like I let Connery down.” I listened and his moral compass was pointing true north. There was no doubt of his loyalty and desire to give back to the country that gave him everything.

  I had my laptop in front of me and I was doing a search on his name. The story he had just told me was only half of the reason why he felt he needed a second chance.
His fiancée was gunned down by a masked assailant on the street. He was there frozen in place by fear. He suffered a breakdown and he voluntarily committed himself for treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder.

  “Do I even attempt to mention Lily?” He pulled his hand away and grabbed my wrists with an ice cold stare.

  “I learned to forgive myself and found the real reason for not acting was what happened to Connery. Therapy has done me a world of good. What happened to Lily is in the past. I can still remember her face and laughter in the morning when I tickled her before she was going to work. I didn’t want to go on, but Henry convinced me my condition could be treated.” He had a healthy outlook, but he was always going to have a spot in his heart for her. I didn’t want to have it any other way.

  “It appears to me you’re ready for redemption. Making up for past mistakes is a cross that many of us have to live with. I want to help you and in the process, you will be able to thaw my frozen heart. I have no reason to think the sex will be nothing short of phenomenal. I hope there’s more to it than that. We can take this one step at a time. Take my hand and we will take this journey together.” His hand was shaking and he pulled it back several times before he finally sighed with resignation.

  “I feel it’s my duty to help you climb out of the empty space in your heart. We have something, but it remains to be seen if those feelings run deep. It comes down to whether or not we are both ready to make the leap of faith. To be vulnerable in each other’s eyes is not easy for either one of us.” His declaration made me stand up and offer him my hand which he readily took.

  Chapter five

  It was the awkward silence in the air quite suffocating and making me feel like one of us was going to have to say something. We stood in front of each other with the bed whispering our names. I focused on my breathing trying to quell the nerves from exposing me as a fraud.