Aching for the Mountain Man - Page 2

The entire group had turned back to me by then, and their expressions were less than friendly. In fact, they were downright hostile.

“That’s exactly what we were trying to figure out,” one of the few women who were dressed appropriately for the assignment said. “Mops and brooms don’t seem to cut it.”

I pointed toward a gigantic dumpster. “It looks like we need to put all this debris in that dumpster over there.”

Everyone just stood staring in my direction instead of turning their heads to look where I was pointing. I was about to start that way, hoping they’d get what I was saying, when I heard a male voice behind me.

“You’re all working here today,” he said.

That explained why they’d been frozen. They weren’t looking at me. They were looking at the approaching man.

The voice was commanding, authoritative. Sexy.

I turned, fully expecting to see the dark-haired hottie from the video. I’d watched it enough times that I should have had his voice memorized by now.

But when I turned, I saw someone else entirely. Someone with a beard. Someone who looked nothing like my usual type but had my knees going weak anyway.

“You.” He pointed at me. “Come with me. The rest of you head to the trailer for a safety meeting.”

I stood staring at him like a deer in the headlights until he took a sharp turn. Without even looking at me, he headed off to my right.

Once I pulled myself out of my shock, I started after him. I had to find out what he’d singled me out to do.

2

MAC

Icould have grabbed anyone from that group of volunteers. There was the tall, bony woman in leggings and ballet flats who looked like she was heading out for dinner and a movie instead of a day of hard work on tornado recovery. There were young women, older women, and even a few women who dressed for the task at hand. But none of them were this gorgeous blonde with eye-popping curves and full, kissable lips.

I tried my best to shove her image out of my mind as I headed straight to the house with no roof. It looked like a giant with a machete had come along and chopped off the top.

We’d been lucky enough not to have rain since that night, but that luck was about to end. Rain was in the forecast. That meant a group of us would put a tarp on the home at some point today.

I stopped on the front stoop, turning back in the blonde’s direction. She was still walking across the front lawn, her stride determined. This was a woman who could handle her shit. She wasn’t like the others who’d shown up looking for the Cyclone Stud, as they’d called him online. No, she was here to work.

“They missed this house when they were doing water remediation,” I said.

Water remediation. Two words I’d never heard, let alone spoken. They’d become part of my vocabulary over the past few days.

“It hasn’t rained, but no telling how much water got in here the night of the storm.” I looked back over my shoulder at the door. “It’s our job to remove the contents.”

She came to a stop several feet away from me. More than several feet, actually. She was keeping her distance, like she was afraid to get too close.

“Just the two of us?” she asked.

The question threw me. I found myself staring at her, not sure how to respond.

“For now, yes,” I finally said. “We don’t need a bunch of people traipsing through here. Let’s just say I’m looking out for the owner.”

We both wore sunglasses. For me, they acted as a shield. I didn’t want this woman to see that my gaze kept drifting to her chest.

Damn, she had one hell of a rack. Maybe I should have chosen another woman to help. This one was sure to be far too distracting.

“Just the two of us,” I finally said. “The homeowner is away. I told her I’d take care of things for her.”

My helper still didn’t move. I couldn’t drag her into the house, and I had work to do. If she wanted to help, she’d follow. Otherwise, I’d just have to forget about the way her curves made my fingers itch to touch her.

Maybe I’d rub one out later, thinking of her. I might not even make it to lunch before I did that.