Mountain Man Wanted

I was built to survive the wilderness, not a woman wrapped up in sunshine who can see right through me.

They say silence is safe. That if you don’t let anyone in, you can’t lose anything. I believed that—right up until Joely Windom crashed into my world. She’s loud, relentless, and way too curious for her own good. A city girl with a notebook full of questions and a laugh that echoes through the pines. She’s supposed to be passing through, writing some article that has nothing to do with me. Except now it does.

Now she’s in my cabin. In my space. Under my skin. And every wall I’ve spent years building? She’s tearing down with that damn smile. I’m not used to wanting. But I want her. Bad. She thinks I’m just another closed-off mountain man with too many secrets. She’s not wrong. But the second she looked at me like I was worth unraveling, something cracked wide open.

Now I’ve had a taste—of her laugh, her fire, her mouth on mine—and the silence I used to live in doesn’t feel like safety anymore. It feels like losing her. I don’t chase things. I don’t beg. But for her? I’d burn the whole forest down if that’s what it takes to make her stay.