by Marie Force
“Hey, Luce?”
“What, Colton?”
“I just . . . I don’t want you to think . . .”
“What don’t you want me to think?”
“That this is all I want from you.”
Her hands fell from his chest, and he instantly regretted that he’d stopped her from taking what they both wanted. “I don’t think that. You spent five weekends showing me that wasn’t all you wanted. I’m sorry if I was too forward—”
“You weren’t.” He took her hands and put them back where they were before he’d been stupid enough to stop her. “Now where were we?”
“I was just about to ask you to show me to your bed.”
“That I can do.” Keeping his hands over hers, he walked backward ten steps, which brought him to the bed in the corner of the room. “That about completes the tour of the house.”
“I like it.” She looked around him. “Are those flannel sheets?”
“You know it. A year-round essential in the mountains.”
He cupped her shoulders and ran his hands down until he encountered the hem of her dress, raising it up and over her head. “You’re so beautiful, Lucy,” he said, taking a greedy look at her sexy sheer, nude-colored bra and panties.
“I’ve never felt beautiful before,” she said softly, making his heart ache with what was starting to feel an awful lot like love.
He held her face in his hands and looked directly into her eyes. “You’re so, so beautiful. You take my breath away.”
“Bed, Colton. Now, please.”
Never one to have to be asked three times, he shed his shorts and pulled the down comforter back to reveal blue-and-green plaid flannel sheets. “After you.”
She crawled in ahead of him, giving him a spectacular view of her ass.
He was right behind her, reaching for her with urgency he’d never experienced quite so acutely before. The sound of a car horn made him groan almost as loudly as Sarah and Elmer were barking to welcome the visitor. “No way. Not now.”
“What?”
“Customer at the store.” He kissed her. “Don’t move. I’ll be right back. And don’t change your mind while I’m gone.”
“No chance of that, but you should really hurry.” She propped herself up on one hand, and all he could see was the plump tops of her breasts spilling out of her bra.
He moaned as he got out of bed, found his shorts and pulled on the T-shirt she’d taken off of him.
“It’s inside out,” she said with a giggle.
“I don’t give a shit. Everything is covered.” He could only hope his customer wasn’t observant because the T-shirt went only so far in hiding his erection. Colton had never expected to spend so much of this weekend feeling frustrated and aggravated. The universe seemed to be conspiring against him, which wasn’t fair at all.
Sliding his feet into a pair of old flip-flops, he clomped outside and groaned again when he saw Mrs. Andersen’s car. One of the town’s busiest busybodies, she was also a regular visitor to Colton’s mountain. And she liked to talk. As his grandfather would say, she could talk a dog off a meat wagon.
Most of the time he didn’t mind passing half an hour or so listening to Mrs. Andersen’s litany of health issues, including her most recent battle with gout. Today, however, he had much better things to do, and the vision of Lucy nearly naked in his bed nearly had him turning around and blowing off Mrs. Andersen.
But tending to customers was part of his job, so he didn’t do that. Rather, he pasted on a fake friendly smile and went to greet her.
“Oh, hi there, Colton. I didn’t think you heard my horn.”
“I heard it.” They’d probably heard it in Canada. “I’m tied up today, so I can’t linger, I’m afraid. What can I get for you?”
“Tied up with what?”
“Um, some, ah . . . business. Did you need syrup?”
“What kind of business?”
He had to tell himself to stay calm, to not scream, to not give her anything juicy that she could blab all over town faster than the speed of light. Her nosiness—and her presence—had succeeded in totally killing what had been a rather promising boner.
“Is there something I can get for you?” he asked again, determined to get rid of her once and for all.
“I’ll take a couple of gallons of Fancy Grade.”
“Right this way.” He led her into the retail store, got the syrup she wanted and rang up the sale on the old-fashioned cash register that dated back to when his grandparents ran the sugarhouse. Naturally, the drawer picked today to jam and none of the usual tricks would get it to open. Since he had no way to make change, he handed the two twenties back to her. “We can settle up next time.”
“Are you sure?”
“I’m absolutely positive.”
“Okay, then.” Right when he thought she was actually going to leave, she took a long, measuring look at him that made him feel like she could read his mind and knew exactly why he wanted her to go. “Is everything all right? You’re acting very strange.”
“Everything is fine.”
“While I have you . . .”
No! No, no, no!
“I was curious as to what you think about your sister marrying Nolan.”
“I’m thrilled with it. We all are. He’s a great guy.”
“But do you think she’s ready? I’d hate to see Nolan get hurt. He’s such a wonderful guy.”
“She’s ready, Mrs. Andersen, or she wouldn’t have accepted his proposal.” Colton hoped if he headed for the door she might follow him. No such luck. “We’re all looking forward to the wedding. It’s nice to see Hannah so happy. She certainly deserves it, wouldn’t you agree?”
“Oh yes, absolutely. The poor dear went through such an awful tragedy losing Caleb so suddenly.”
The very last thing in the universe Colton Abbott wanted to do right then was take a trip down that particular memory lane. Thinking about the brother-in-law he’d loved and lost always left him feeling hollow and sad.
“Right. Well . . .”
“I suppose I should move along. I’ve got lots of errands to get done today.”
“It was good of you to come by.”
“I’ll be back soon to settle up with you.”
“Don’t worry about it.”
“Oh, I will. It’s all I’ll think about.”
He held her car door, waved her off and ran for the house, pulling at his clothes as he went and nearly tripping over his shorts when they tangled around his feet. At the edge of the bed, he stopped short when he saw that Lucy was sleeping. “You’ve got to be freaking kidding me,” he whispered.
Without opening her eyes, she said, “I am kidding you.”
“Seriously? Oh my God!” He pounced on her, tickling her until she screamed with laughter and begged for mercy. “That was so mean.”
“You should’ve seen your face when you thought I was asleep,” she said, wiping laughter tears from her cheeks. “Totally hilarious.” She curled her arms around his neck. “I bet you have lots of ladies from town who come up to buy their syrup right from the hunky mountain man who makes it, don’t you?”
“A few.” He nibbled on her neck and breathed in her bewitching scent. “God, I love how you smell.”
“How do I smell?”
“I don’t even know how to describe it. You smell like Lucy, which is the sweetest thing I’ve ever smelled.”
He felt her lips curve into a smile against his cheek.
“Let’s talk about these ladies who visit you. Do any of them ever come for more than syrup?”
“I’ve got the biggest case of blue balls in the history of the condition, and you want to talk about my customers?”
She reached down to cup his balls, making him jolt from the unexpected contact with his most sensitive place. “Are they really blue?”
“So blue.”
“We can’t have that, now can we?”
“It’s really not healthy.”
She pushed him over onto his back and began kissing his chest as she continued to caress his balls.
“Lucy . . .”
“What?”
“Just wondering what you’re up to.”
“Oh, this and that.” She emphasized her words with a squeeze that had him gasping. “I’m trying to properly diagnose your condition.”
He laughed even as he groaned.
Outside a car horn sounded.
“No. Absolutely not.”
Lucy dropped her head onto his chest and laughed.
“Don’t stop. I’m not going out there.”
“You have to go out there. It’s your business.”
“We’re closed today.”
“No, you’re not. The store is wide open.”
“Let them steal the syrup. I don’t care.”
“Yes, you do.”
A knock sounded on the door followed by a female voice calling his name. Colton froze when he recognized that voice. This could not be happening.
“Colton! Are you in there? Your truck is out here, so I know you’re home.” More knocking followed the comment.
Lucy leaned back and looked at him, her brow raised in inquiry. “Another of your admirers?”
“A friend. That’s all.”
“Uh-huh. Let me take care of this for you since you’re in such a bad way with the blue balls and everything.” She got up, retrieved her dress off the floor, turned it right side out and dropped it over her head.
“Lucy, wait.”
“Relax. I’ve got this.”
As she crossed the small room to the door, she ran her fingers through her hair and fluffed it up. She’d almost made it to the door when he realized he was lying there bare-ass naked, so he grabbed the comforter and covered his important parts, which had once again gone from raging and ready to shriveled up and dead. The extremes couldn’t be good for them, could it?
“Lucy . . .” When she ignored his final plea to ignore the visitor, he flopped back onto the bed, resigned to his fate. This was not going to be pretty.
CHAPTER 14
Pause. SNOW overnight, a bitter wind tearing down the valley all day. No chance of a sap run.
—Colton Abbott’s sugaring journal, April 2
In the time it took to walk across the small room, Lucy summoned her inner she-cat vixen and prepared to do battle. Unlike the visitor she’d heard Colton talking to outside earlier, this one sounded young. She’d bet there was no lack of women interested in spending some time with her mountain man.
Her mountain man. Where in the hell had that thought come from, and when had she begun to think of him as hers? Probably about five minutes after she met him, if she were being honest with herself.
Realizing she needed to pull out her biggest guns, she tugged the neckline of her dress down to put her considerable cleavage to good use.
She cracked open the door wide enough to poke her head out, but not wide enough that the strikingly gorgeous blonde on Colton’s doorstep could see inside. “May I help you?” Lucy whispered.
Cold brown eyes took a quick assessing look at Lucy and dismissed her as no significant threat. She was used to the instant dismissal as well as the disdainful look. She’d been on the receiving end of it from other women for most of her adult life. “Where’s Colton, and who are you?”
“I’m Lucy, and Colton is under the weather.”
“What does that mean? Under the weather?”
“He’s not well.”
Blondie took a step back. “Oh . . . Who are you again?”
“Lucy.”
“And you’re his . . . his . . . ?”
“Nurse,” Lucy said. “I’m his nurse. I was called in to manage his injury.”
“Injury? What injury?”
“Oh you didn’t hear?” Lucy grimaced dramatically. “The axe caught him. In a bad, bad place. Don’t tell anyone I told you this, but he might not be able to, you know, ever again.”
Blondie’s eyes got all buggy. “Ever?”
“Never,” Lucy said gravely. “It’s as bad as it gets.”
“God, that’s an awful tragedy.”
“Indeed it is. I’ll be happy to tell him you came by, but he’s on some serious painkillers. It might be a while before he’s lucid again.”
“Yeah . . . Um, sure. Tell him Angie was here, and I’m really, really sorry to hear about his . . . um, his injury.”
“I’ll be sure to tell him. It was so good of you to check on him.”
“I’d better go. I wouldn’t want to disturb him.”
“That’s very kind of you. I’m sure he’ll appreciate your consideration.”
Lucy watched Angie run more than walk to her car and smiled with satisfaction when Angie left a cloud of dust in her wake. That, Lucy thought, should take care of that. Pleased with herself and her quick thinking, she shut the door and turned to find Colton standing right behind her.
She let out a shriek of surprise.
Wearing only basketball shorts, he moved toward her, forcing her to back up until she was pinned against the door by his much bigger body. “You are positively evil, do you know that?”
“Evil is such a strong word.”
“Do you know it’ll take about fifteen minutes for all of Butler to know that I chopped up my boy parts with an axe?”
She batted her eyelashes, going for pure innocence. “Will it take that long?”
“Evil,” he said through gritted teeth.
“Look at the bright side.”
“Is there a bright side?”
“Of course there is.” She smiled brightly. “We won’t have any more visitors.”
“I’ll let you explain my devastating injury to my family at dinner since you’re the one who started the axe rumor.”
Lucy would never admit that she hadn’t given his family a single thought as she conspired to get rid of Angie—and anyone else who might be on the way up to visit—as expeditiously as she could. “Maybe they won’t hear about it,” she said hopefully.
“Oh they’ll hear, and so will we. You can count on that.”
She flattened her hands on his chest. “I’m really sorry.”
“No, you’re not,” he said with a bark of laughter. “You’re not the slightest bit sorry.”
“Well, I’m a teeny tiny bit sorry that your mom might hear the rumor and worry about you.” She looked up at him. “But I’m not at all sorry if my story keeps all the single ladies off your mountain for the foreseeable future.”
“Is that your way of saying you want to be exclusive?”
She recoiled in horror. “We aren’t already?”
Colton shrugged. “I wasn’t sure. You’ve been sort of uncertain about this whole thing from the beginning. You only told me yesterday that you want it to be a thing and not just a fling.”
Lucy couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “So you’ve been like . . . seeing other people between our weekends? How many other people? Angie and who else?”
“Wow, you sound kind of pissed.”
“Kind of?” Infuriated was more like it. Had he been playing her this whole time? She pushed hard on his chest, trying to dislodge him, but the beast wouldn’t budge. “Get off me!” She curled her hands into fists and pounded, which only hurt her hands when they connected with solid muscle. “Are you laughing?”
His entire body was shaking with silent laughter.
“This is not funny!”
“It’s hilarious from where I’m standing.”
She grabbed a handful of his chest hair and tugged. Hard.
“Ow! Shit!”
“Not so funny now, huh?”
“Lucy.”
“Let me go!
“Lucy.”
She pushed, she shoved, she pinched, but rather than take the hint that she wanted him gone, he kissed her.
“Lucy,” he said between kisses. “There’s been no one but you since the first time I laid eyes on you.”
&nb
sp; Since she was still struggling to break free of him, it took a second for his words to permeate the cloud of rage. And then she realized what he’d said and all her muscles went slack.
“There.” He kissed her again, softly. “No one else, Lucy. Only you.”
“You’re a beast.”
“You impugned my manhood.”
“So this was revenge?”
“Revenge is such a strong word.”
She punched him in the belly and howled when her hand connected with a cement wall of muscle.
He took her hand and kissed her poor knuckles. “Don’t hurt yourself, honey.”
“Don’t call me honey. I’m mad at you.”
Reaching for her other hand, he began walking backward to the bed.
Lucy resisted to the best of her ability, but he’d already proven that her strength was no match for his. That was how she found herself on top of him looking down at his adorably amused face, held in place by his incredibly strong arms. “You really are a twelve-year-old, you know that?”
Laughing, he raised a hand to tuck a curl behind her ear. “I thought I was fifteen, and besides, you had it coming. Did you really tell Angie, of all people, that I’d lopped off my junk with an axe?”
“I only said you’d had an accident. A bad accident. I never mentioned the word junk or the word lopped.”
“Yet she left here thinking Colton Abbott has been neutered.”
“I can’t help what conclusions she jumped to.”
“You knew exactly what you were doing, you little devil.” He framed her face with his big callused hands and drew her into a scorching kiss that he ended with a groan. “We have to go to my parents’ house. We don’t have time to be thorough, and I can’t let the boys get their hopes up again only to have them dashed. They can only take so much disappointment in one day.”
“Poor, tortured Colton. So used to being tended to by all the ladies in town. How do you handle the disappointment when things don’t go your way?”
“I don’t know. It’s never happened before.”
“You really are a beast. Now let me go so I can make myself presentable for your family.”
“You’re already presentable. You’re gorgeous.”
“Keep sucking up. You need all the points you can get right now after that nasty trick.”
