The Mountain Man's Virgin

by A. J. Wynter

  “It’s just the one, you know that.”

  That’s what Lawrence always said when I asked about what his family did for a living. He never gave me a straight answer. it was always, “It’s a family business.” Sometimes he said that they were involved in acquisitions, sometimes he said consulting. I hadn’t wanted to seem like I was prying, or that I was an idiot. I mean, was I supposed to know what someone meant when they said that they were in consulting?

  We were met by a butler in full traditional garb. He opened the passenger door and grasped my hand with his white-gloved one to help me out of the car. I think that he said, welcome, but it was hard to hear over the rushing sound of the water from the marble sculpture in the centre of the circular driveway.

  I smiled at the butler. “Hello.”

  My mind was racing. How was I going to get out of here? Would Jeeves call a cab for me after I broke things off with Lawrence? I definitely couldn’t walk back to the city. It would take at least an hour to get back to the main highway from here.

  “Winfield, my man,” Lawrence smiled and clapped the butler on the back. The man was stiff, to begin with, but I caught him take a sharp breath as Lawrence attempted familiarity.

  “Master Locklear. It’s a pleasure to see you, Sir. What time should I request dinner?”

  Two other equally formally dressed men --footmen?-- grabbed our bags out of the trunk and whisked them into the house. My knowledge of hired help was limited to what I learned from binge-watching Downton Abbey last year when I had the flu.

  “We will take dinner in the suite, Winfield. I thought this was all arranged.”

  “Sir, I will check in with Chef Parson and ensure that your dinner is sent up promptly at… how does 8 p.m. sound?”

  I glanced down at my watch. It was already 7:00 p.m. My stomach growled, but I wasn’t going to let myself get wrapped up in this creepy fairy tale world.

  “Make it 9:00, Winfield,” Lawrence said and winked at the butler. He remained stoic and nodded his head.

  “As you wish, sir.”

  “Come on Lucy, let’s go,” Lawrence said and strode down the hallway.

  “Thank you, Winfield,” I said to the butler. I hesitated. I wanted to ask him to call a cab for me, but Lawrence grabbed me by my hand and dragged me down the hallway. My feet plodded along the green-carpeted hallway and I gawked at the ornate oil paintings that should’ve been in a museum.

  I tried to pay attention to our route as we wound our way through the hallways of the mansion. If I wanted to get back to Winfield and out of here, I needed to be able to find my way back to the front entryway.

  To my surprise, there was another staff member waiting in front of a pair of ornately carved doors at the end of the hallway. This man didn’t say a word, just opened one of the doors. Lawrence pulled me into the room. I turned to try to catch the man’s name or just meet his eyes, but he disappeared behind the heavy door.

  Goosebumps rose all over my body when I felt Lawrence’s breath on the back of my neck. Not the kind of shivers you get from the anticipation of a man’s touch; they were the skin-crawling kind. I needed to get out of there.

  I looked up to see the second most romantic setting I had ever seen in my life. I briefly wondered if I would spend the rest of my waking days comparing every moment to the crackling fire and plaid quilts of Mick’s cabin. Here, rose petals were strewn from the doorway in a thick pathway that led to a huge four-poster king-sized bed with a perfectly flat crisp white duvet. Jazz music lilted through the room from speakers that were concealed somewhere in the oak-paneled walls. The floor-to-ceiling windows soared at least twenty feet, and I could hear the waves crashing against the cliffs below. Dusk was setting into the grayness of the drizzly evening, and the only thing visible through the window was a far-off lighthouse blinking its warning to any sailors passing by.

  “Do you like it, Lucy?” Lawrence pulled back my hair and whispered into my ear.

  I turned to look Lawrence in the eye. I had to tell him that it was over. I expected to feel sadness when my eyes met his, but I didn’t. His eyes didn’t look tender like Mick’s. They looked dark and cold, and how could I have never seen this before-- slightly reptilian.

  “Lawrence, I… we need to--”

  My breakup speech with interrupted by Lawrence’s lips pressing against mine.

  I pushed back against his shoulders. “Lawrence. I can’t do this,” I said and took a step backward.

  Lawrence reached out, grabbed my hand, and yanked me back - hard. I could feel his hard-on against my lower belly as it strained against his pants.

  “Oh, come on, Lucy. I know that you wanted to wait until we were married, but I thought that tonight could be our special night.”

  He thought that I was talking about sex. “That’s not what I mean.”

  “Well, get over here, my fiancée.” He turned and tried to drag me toward the bed.

  I dug my heels in and ripped my hand from his. “Will you listen to me?” I screamed.

  I had never once raised my voice to Lawrence and this seemed to catch him off guard. He sat down on the edge of the bed and patted the duvet beside him. “Come, love. Sit.”

  “I prefer to stand,” I said.

  “What has gotten into you?” Lawrence asked. He stood up and grabbed me by both of my shoulders and pushed me down onto the edge of the bed, the way that you make a child sit if you want them to listen to you.

  “I think that we need to take a break.”

  There. I got it out. That wasn’t so hard after all.

  “A break? Are you fucking kidding me?” Lawrence raised his arms and dramatically swept them across his body like a game show model. “Do you see all of this? What I have done for you?”

  “Lawrence. I just need some time,” I pulled off my engagement ring and held it out to him.

  “Lucy. I thought that you were a smart woman. Now I see that you are just a stupid cunt.” I recoiled at the c-word. Lawrence snatched the ring from my fingertips, stomped over to the huge French doors, flinging them open dramatically. Then, to my surprise, he tossed the ring out into the darkness of the night.

  “I need to go.”

  “All this.” Lawrence wandered around the stone room. “All this. And you still won’t fuck me.”

  “Is that all you want from me?” I had never been afraid for my life, not even waking up next to a naked mountain man in bed with me, but at that moment, staring at the rich boy’s flaring nostrils, I felt an overwhelming cold dread. I started to back towards the door as Lawrence continued to pace the room like a rabid dog.

  “After everything I did for you. You would be NOTHING without me. NOTHING.”

  “I can’t believe I ever considered marrying you.”

  Lawrence started to laugh. I hadn’t known that men were capable of cackling, but here was my fiancé, doubled over laughing like a cartoon witch. “You stupid girl. I was never going to marry you.”

  I need to go,” I whispered.

  “What?” Lawrence stopped pacing and stared at me.

  “You heard me. I need to leave.”

  “How much?”

  “What?” I was confused. “What do you mean, how much?”

  “How much money?”

  “Money? What are you talking about?”

  Lawrence rushed past me and stood with his back to the double doors, blocking the exit. “How much money would it take for you to get naked, lie down on that bed over there, and let me pop that cherry of yours.”

  “You’re a monster.”

  “One hundred thousand buys a lot of chemo,” he smirked.

  He was right, but if Alanna was going to disown me for not following my heart, she would never forgive me, or herself, if I prostituted myself out for chemotherapy treatments.

  “I wouldn’t let you touch me for a hundred million dollars,” I seethed through my teeth. “Now, move out of the way and let me leave.”

  “Oh, come on, baby. I know you’re not
that stupid, and I know how much you love your sister.”

  I glanced around the room frantically looking for another way out, but my heart jumped into my throat as I realized that the only way out was either out the window and down a cliff, or through the doors behind Lawrence.

  I felt the tears welling up in my eyes, but I wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of seeing me cry.

  “Listen, you either get some money for giving me your virginity, or you don’t. Either way, I’m taking it, so why don’t you be smart about it.”

  My heart sank. Up until that point, I never thought that Lawrence was capable of physically hurting me. I could see that I had been wrong and backed away from him. He lunged at me and I sprinted around the bed, hurtling onto the covers and over the other side of the bed with Lawrence scrambling after me in hot pursuit. I was able to bound across the bed in two steps and hit the other side with well-practiced footwork, the jump not impacting the strength and speed of my stride.

  I made it to the doorway in five fast steps, not looking back to see how close Lawrence was to catching me. I reached for the lever on the door, flung it open wide and burst into the cavernous hallway. Freedom. I felt a whoosh in the air behind me as Lawrence sailed into me with a rugby tackle, grasping me by my left foot. I felt the air explode out of my chest as I hit the floor hard. I gasped and tried to catch my breath, my survival instinct taking over. I flailed around on the carpet, able to twist through Lawrence’s grip so that I was on my back. I kicked at his face with my free foot and screamed. I made contact and heard Lawrence howl in pain and releasing my ankle.

  I scrambled to my feet and started running even before I was fully standing. I tried to remember our trip through the mansion and reversed the turns as I sped through the house as fast as I could. My body went into autopilot and I sprinted through that mansion as if I had designed it myself. I saw the main double doors and felt a sense of relief when I realized that they were unattended. I reached for the levers and burst out into the cold night air. As my own footsteps echoed through the courtyard at a fast pace, I could hear the equally fast pace of Lawrence’s footsteps as they echoed behind me.

  I rounded the corner of the manicured hedge line and crashed directly into a man running toward me. We deflected off each other and I screamed as I twisted down to the ground and felt a fire rip through my ankle. I heard the man groan and scramble to his feet behind me. I tried to stand up, but when the white light of pain flashed through my body, I knew that my ankle was broken. I started to drag myself down the pathway. I didn’t know who I had tackled, but I had the feeling it was the silent butler, who was loyal to Lawrence and his family.

  My heart was pounding as I tried to crawl away, but when I felt the strong grip on my good ankle, the pounding stopped, and my heart sank like a stone.

  Chapter 28 – Mick

  My driver was waiting outside the Founder’s club and he raised his eyebrows as I emerged from the building with the leggy brunette in tow. She teetered behind me, the click of her stiletto heels echoing between the buildings in the alleyway.

  My driver opened the door to the town car and helped Charlie climb inside. The look of surprise on her face when I shut the door behind her wasn’t unexpected.

  “Take Charlie wherever she wants to go,” I instructed my driver as he rounded the rear of the car.

  “Of course, sir,” he said and tipped his hat at me.

  Charlie rolled down the window, “You aren’t coming with me?”

  “No, I’m not.”

  “Well, then I’m going back inside,” she said and reached for the door handle.

  “That’s your choice, Charlie. But, that place isn’t what you think it is.”

  She looked at me skeptically but didn’t move to open the door, her slender hand resting on the handle. “They’re not eligible bachelors looking for women to date. They have scorecards they’re trying to fill up. If you’re into being a one-night thing, or into being used like that, feel free to go back inside.”

  “Scorecards?” she whispered.

  “It’s deplorable. I don’t know you, but you seem like a smart woman, and I’d hate to see anyone get tricked into that misogynistic game.”

  To my surprise, Charlie opened the door and stepped out into the misty evening air. Maybe she was into that kind of thing.

  “Suit yourself,” I muttered and wondered if I would ever understand women.

  “What kind of things are on these scorecards?” her dark eyes bored into me.

  “I don’t know the details, but I do know that if you’re a virgin, there’s a million-dollar prize on the line tonight.”

  I noticed that she was shaking and that her eyes were filling up with tears.

  “Hey,” I said, taking her hand. “My driver will take you wherever you want to go.”

  “Why were you inside then?” she ripped her hand back from mine, staring at me accusingly, waiting for an answer.

  I didn’t owe her an explanation, but I wanted to give her one. The real one.

  “I fell in love with a woman. A smart woman who fell for the games that those boys are playing.”

  Her posture softened, and she rested her hand on the top of the car.

  “Is she okay?”

  “I don’t know. Listen, I have to go tell her what I’ve discovered here and get her away from a terrible man. I’ve told you everything that I know. I’m sure that I’ll feel the wrath of disclosing the secrets of the inner circle of the AFC.”

  Charlie pulled her phone out of her purse and opened up a recording app.

  “What are you doing?”

  “There’s a story in there that needs to be told,” she said and dropped the phone back into her handbag.

  “There’s a lot of powerful and dangerous, men in there,” I warned. “I don’t think that’s the kind of hornet’s nest that you want to poke.”

  “It’s that kind of complacency that lets men get away with stuff like this.”

  “Please don’t,” I pleaded.

  “Get out of my way,” she said and sidestepped around me. “You have to rescue a damsel, remember? I’m a big girl. There’s a woman out there who needs your help more than I do. Get out of here,” she said and walked away from me.

  “Charlie,” I shouted and jogged after her. “My driver is going to stay out here. Here is his number.” I handed her his business card. He is going to wait here until you come out. If you need help, you message him immediately. He’ll know what to do.”

  She glanced back at my driver. He was one of the best drivers on my Seattle staff and he also doubled as security. If she was in danger, he was who she needed, not me. I felt terrible letting her wander back into the lion’s den, but something told me that there was nothing I could do to stop her.

  She snatched the card from my hand and shoved it in her handbag. “Go get your girl,” she said and disappeared back into the club.

  “Boss?” the driver asked. He held the car door open for me.

  “You stay here. That woman’s name is Charlie. She’s got your number. You need to make sure she’s safe.”

  “Looks like she can handle herself,” my driver said and laughed to himself.

  He was right. Just like Lucy, she was a strong-willed woman. Before I met Lucy, I wouldn’t have appreciated that quality in a woman, but she had changed me, she had made me see things differently. Before, all I would’ve seen was Charlie, naked, between the sheets of my bed. Now, I didn’t even feel a sexual connection to the beautiful woman, but I appreciated her moxie. I had Lucy to thank for that. She had saved me from myself; now I needed to save her from Lawrence.

  The social club was only a couple of blocks from my building, so I took off at a sprint.

  “Sir, do you need a ride?” my driver shouted.

  “No, you stay and do what I asked you to do,” I shouted back over my shoulder.

  The buildings seem to whizz by as I ran and Seattle’s constant drizzle quickly soaked my hair and sh
irt. My feet splashed through puddles and I dodged pedestrians as I made my way to my building. I pushed through the revolving door, my shoes squeaking as I ran through the marble lobby. The security guard nodded at me quizzically as I ran by.

  “Good evening, Mr. Mick,” he shouted.

  “Good evening, Harold. Unlock the rooftop please!” I yelled as I ran by his station and into the elevator. I punched the PH button and the high-speed elevator whisked me up through the floors until I burst out onto the rooftop. I knew exactly where Hearthstone Manor was located, where my Lucy was, and as far as I knew, Lawrence hadn’t live-streamed their liaison yet, but it could happen at any moment. I cursed myself for staying to pull Charlie from the club; wondering, could I have risked Lucy’s virginity, trying to save a stranger? But something told me that Lucy would’ve been proud of me.

  I fired up the chopper, the vibration of the craft buzzing adding to the adrenaline already flowing through my veins. As I lifted off and hovered over the building, I wondered if Lucy was going to be pissed at me. She had no idea that her fiancé was a leech of a human being. All she would see is me, busting in on her first time having sex. The idea of it made me shudder. Lucy didn’t deserve any of this, I pushed the stick forward, angling the helicopter sharply, pulling pitch, and navigated her north of the city.

  Chapter 29 – Lucy

  I felt the rain on my face and terror in my veins when the hand grasped onto my ankle. I clawed at the grass on the side of the pathway and could hear guttural screaming. It took a moment to realize that the terrible sounds were coming from deep within me. I couldn’t give up, but the grip on my ankle was so strong, like a vice.

  “Lucy, Lucy, stop. You’re okay now.” the rushing in my ears subsided as the stranger repeated, “I’ve got you. I’ve got you.”

  It wasn’t a lecherous, ‘I’ve got you now.’ It was a comforting ‘I’ve got you, you’re safe,’ the voice a familiar honey baritone.

  I stopped squirming and struggling against the grip and whipped around to face my captor. When my eyes met Mick’s, I screamed in relief and only then did the sobs take over, racking my body. Mick eased his grip on my ankle and knelt over me, protecting me from the rain with his broad body, drops dripping from his hair and streaming down my face. He held me against his warmth and stroked my face with his thumb. I grasped his thick forearms and the dirt from under my nails smeared along his skin. He pulled me in tightly to his body and I closed my eyes, letting my lashes brush against his neck. I held him tighter than I had held anything in my life, my fingers dug into his shoulders, sure to leave bruises. He pulled back and looked at me, his thick eyelashes clumped together like stars, “I’ve got you, Lucy,” he whispered and leaned in to press his lips against mine. My tears were now flowing freely, but with the warmth and comfort of his soft lips pressed against mine, my shaking began to subside. The tickle of his beard against my chin transporting me back to the safety and warmth of his cabin.