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  I don’t know what was stranger. Some women telling me to put it away like she did or the fact that it was done so casually. It was like no one there seemed to get that they were interrupting a very intimate moment. I felt like I was being sent to the kid’s table and I wanted to know why they were there as well. Was it because I was an outsider that I wasn’t allowed to hear what is going on?

  “I’d rather stay and hear what’s going on.”

  Molly started to disagree, but she waved me off like it didn’t matter anyways.

  “Someone burned down the restaurant. They think that I’m sympathetic to the corporation rolling in here and I guess they wanted to show me a lesson. If people around here knew how much I’d given up to leave Nome the way it was, this would have never happened. But the restaurant is gone and I had to make sure you weren’t there or something hadn’t happened to you as well. I’m not too worried about a building, but I had to make sure that you were alright Denise.”

  “Yeah I’m okay.”

  She smiled at me. “I can see that. I will let you two get dressed. I need you to talk to Jimmy and see if you remember anyone acting strange today and stuff like that. Sorry to have come in on you. It wasn’t my intention. I really was afraid something had happened to you.”

  Denise told her that it was okay and we watched them not just leave the bathroom, but the tiny house altogether. It was a little better, but I was still stuck in a very small bathroom and I walked out into the rest of the house where I could stand up better and started to get dressed.

  “Sorry this didn’t turn out like I had it happening in my head. I was thrown off with the house and the busting in bosses.”

  She giggled and shook her shoulders. “That’s just my luck all the time on display. I surprised we got that far.”

  I wanted more and Denise seemed uninterested. She kissed me quickly on the cheek, but then she was going outside and talking to Molly. It was a big deal of course, but what we had done was as well. It was as if we hadn’t ever even been together and that hurt my pride more than anything else. I’d found heaven in those couple of minutes of rutting and fucking. Now she acted like that hadn’t just happened and I can’t say that I liked the feeling it gave me very much.

  When I got outside, I pulled the jacket closer to me. My body was wet from not properly drying off and the short hair on my fair head was helping the water cling to me and make me colder. I scanned for Denise and she was talking to a police officer about who had come in the day before and what, if anything had been said that was going to explain who would have burned it down. Arson was a common crime up here and it was usually some form of revenge. The newcomers, me, coming in weren’t helping matters, but I was hoping that the town was starting to move on from the anger. Many of the people I talked to were very nice and I think I had made some real friends while I was here.

  Denise smiled my way before she turned back to the police officer and I was debating if I was going to wait around or not.

  “You should wait. It won’t take that long.”

  I turned to see her boss Molly staring back at me and she had this funny look on her face. I wasn’t sure what to say, but it was like she had read my mind. I wanted to stay and talk to her, but at the same time I felt like an idiot standing here waiting around after everyone had seen me naked.

  It was a tough call, but Molly’s words convinced me that I wanted to stay and instead of standing around, I talked to a few guys that I knew there. Then I saw Charlie and I relaxed a little bit. I needed a familiar face at the moment and I knew that it was going to be easier now that he was here.

  The sooner they got their information, the sooner I could get back inside that tiny doll house she calls a home and finish what we started in the shower. The floor had to be a better pick than the shower anyways.

  Chapter 11

  Denise

  “You waited.”

  “Of course. You ready to go get some breakfast?”

  “It’s the middle of the night Ethan and now there isn’t going to be a place to get any breakfast in the morning. I can’t believe this happened.”

  I couldn’t believe that he was still here. I was embarrassed to no end, but I had to stay and face all of those people. This is where I lived, so I wasn’t going anywhere and I wanted to make sure that whoever did this to Molly’s place paid for it. She didn’t deserve it, especially if it had anything to do with outsiders coming in. I was far more sympathetic to them then she was and it didn’t make sense to me. We were careful to keep the politics off the menu. I certainly didn’t make any comments, but it was bound to come up, daily.

  “I’m sorry Denise. Let me make you something or at least get you a cup of coffee. You look like you need something.”

  “I do, but I think I need something a little stronger than coffee after the night I’ve had.”

  “It wasn’t all that bad, was it Denise?”

  He had this look of desire on his face that before sent me over the moon, but now I was worried that he was going to pull me in again. I was never so embarrassed in all of my life and now the rumors were going to be different. Now there would be talk about how loose I was and I was sleeping with the enemy. None of it was going to work out well in the end. This much I knew because I knew my luck. I can’t look at him like that when he wants more.

  “No, it’s wasn’t bad at all Ethan, but after tonight I don’t think we should be seen with each other for a while. People are going to have a lot to say and I don’t think that we should stoke the fire any more than we already had.

  “What does it matter what they think Denise?”

  “Well seeing as my place of employment was burned down because she let you guys come in and eat, imagine what kind of flack I am going to get getting caught naked in a shower with you? It’s not going to end well and I don’t think that we should make it a bigger point then it already is. People here in Nome are funny about outsiders and anyone that takes up with one.”

  I hated to say the very words that were coming out of my mouth, but from where he was from, I couldn’t see it being much different up there.

  “I’m from Alaska.”

  He sounded incredulous and if anyone wasn’t from here, it would have been hard to understand. “Yeah, but you’re not from Nome.”

  “So that’s it?”

  Ethan seemed upset and I tried to explain it better, but I just failed over and over again when I tried. There was no way to make it all better. I could try of course, but there was nothing that I could do. We had to chill out for a while after getting caught. I had lived here for a long time and I wasn’t ready to make enemies out of the very people that I served every day. I still didn’t know what I was going to do without a job and having Ethan around was just one more thing that I would have to deal with and I didn’t want to. I wanted this all to go away and for life to get back to what it was before. Before at least I could handle it.

  “Sorry Ethan. You aren’t staying long anyways so there wasn’t much more that it could be.”

  “You don’t know that Denise. We have something good going here.”

  I felt the same way and I wanted to tell him that he made me feel better than I had in years, but I was trying hard not to say such things. It was only going to make it harder and it was already considerably hard if I had to think about it.

  “It was always just temporary Ethan. That’s why it was so exciting.”

  Ethan looked like he wanted to say something and argue with me, but he finally just walked away and I could tell that he was mad. He had been waiting for me for quite some time and now he was leaving. I had really made him mad and I think at the same time I’d hurt him, but the latter was something that Ethan would never admit to.

  I had seen the look in his eyes. He was not happy about how everything had turned out and if I was honest with myself, neither was I. I didn’t like the idea of never seeing him again, but he was going to be gone soon anyways. It didn’t matter how badly I’d
wanted him to stay, it wasn’t something that was going to work out.

  I kept telling myself that as I went back inside and found the house big and lonely when I got back in. I could still smell Ethan in here, his cologne wafting through the whole house. This was my punishment. I was sure of it.

  Happiness doesn’t seem to last very long when it comes to men and my love life. I was doing myself a favor and making it easier for when he left. If I wasn’t too attached, I couldn’t get hurt.

  Chapter 12

  Ethan

  Women are so damn confusing. I thought I knew what Denise wanted, but she was quick to show me that I had no idea what was going ono in her head.

  It had been perfect, the hunt and then the walk back. We’d flirted and everything was going well. I got her naked in the shower, slid inside of her wet, tight hole and everything had felt like heaven.

  But that didn’t last very long and even though I was technically satisfied, it wasn’t in the way that I wanted to be. I wanted more than what I’d been given before we were so rudely interrupted and I was made to leave. It made Denise not want me anymore and that was the problem. How could she just walk away after what we’d done? I couldn’t and it bothered me that she seemed so less effected than I was. Was she not feeling the same way that I was about our short, but intense time together?

  Now I was sitting back at the hotel trying to figure out what the hell had just happened. My dick still smelled like Denise because I hadn’t had the opportunity to wipe her off yet.

  I didn’t. I lay in the bed and looked at the ceiling, not once thinking of anything else but the redhead. She had been fiery and everything that I thought she would be and more somehow. I don’t know what she was thinking when she tried to deny what was between us, but it didn’t matter because I wasn’t going to let her. It was just that simple.

  After I made it clear in my own head that I wasn’t going to back down and I wasn’t going to give up on her, I knew that I had to give her some time and then it was all going to be okay. She was going to be drawn back to me as I was drawn to her. I couldn’t have stop thinking about her, even if I tried.

  ***

  The next morning I was up and Denise was the first thing that I thought of. I would usually go to the restaurant and see her. It was what I had done since I had gotten here and I hadn’t missed a day yet. Now there was no restaurant, nowhere to get coffee and nowhere to see Denise. It wasn’t a good way to start my day. I wanted to see her and instead of thinking about it, I got dressed and made my way to the little gas station that I’d hit on my way into town. It could at least take care of one problem, while I figured out a way to take care of another one.

  I got me and Denise something to drink and made sure that I had enough cream and sugar packs for the both of us. I figured that after the night she’d had, Denise was going to need some caffeine to face this day. The place she went every morning had burned up last night, so I knew that her day was going just about as bad as mine was.

  When I got to her house, I was relieved that her car was there, but none of the lights were on and I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t want to wake her up if she was getting some rest, but at the same time I wanted to see her. I was feeling selfish and took my need to see her over her need to rest. I wanted to talk to her and make sure that all of the nonsense that she was talking about the day before was just that, nonsense. We weren’t going to stop seeing each other because it didn’t make any sense to stop. Not to me anyways.

  I moved to the door and knocked rather loudly. I figured that she was asleep still and that was why the house was dark. When I had to bang louder, I just assumed that she was a heavy sleeper and I was going to have to really wake her up. Either way, I knew that I had to see her. The house was small and as hard as I was hitting the door, she could hear me. I don’t care how heavy a person sleeps.

  Checking the door knob, I realized that the door was unlocked and I pushed it open, calling her name out as I poked my head inside. I didn’t move inside of the small house because I didn’t want to surprise her, still thinking that she was here, but she wasn’t.

  I went all the way into the house and there was no sign of her. The bed on the loft was still made when I looked up there. It appeared that she had stayed the night elsewhere last night and an overwhelming need to know where she had gone took over me. I wanted to see her now and I was already sick of waiting.

  There was nothing I could do but leave the small house and try to figure out where she would be. There was too much time that had elapsed since I’d seen her last to even really guess. I knew that she was with Molly and I hoped that she was with her. I didn’t like the idea that she was with a man. I’d heard so much that she was hard to tame, yet that didn’t mean that I hadn’t started something and she was now going to do something to forget about me.

  It was something that I would do and I worried that she would be like me. I would have tried it now if I would have thought that it was going to work, but I knew better. I knew that there wasn’t going to be anyone to compare to her, so all I was going to do was waste my time if I was trying to find one like her. It was better for me to figure out what was going on with Denise. She felt the same as I did, I must have to remind her is all. But I have to see her and get my hands on her for her to be fully reminded.

  Chapter 13

  Denise

  “Why didn’t you tell me what was going on?”

  “With what?”

  Molly gave me this looks like I was messing with her, but I really wasn’t. It took me a minute to figure out what it was that she was talking about. I should have known that she was talking about Ethan. That was what she wanted to know about and I had had to answer a lot of questions about him as of late and I wasn’t sure what else to say.

  She’d asked me when I went over to her house for the night and now she was asking me again over breakfast.

  “Molly, I’m telling you that it just sort of happened. He came over to do some hunting and I don’t know one thing led to another. It was that sort of thing. It wasn’t planned or anything like that. It just happened.”

  She snorted and I laughed at her. “What do you want me to tell you? Do you want to hear a lie?”

  “Well it would have to be better than the crap you are giving me right now. I’ve seen the way the two of you look at each other. I would think that this had been going on for a while and I wasn’t made aware of it until now. I knew that you couldn’t be as lonely as you made it out to be.”

  She just didn’t get it. “I hadn’t been with anyone since I came here. That’s been a long time and it does get lonely. I think Ethan just filled a void for a little while, but it didn’t mean anything.”

  “If it didn’t mean anything, why him?”

  It was a good question, but it was one that I didn’t really have an answer for. I wanted to tell her that he was just there and I’d felt like it. But there had been something with Ethan or I would have ignored him like I did all of the other advances that I’d received since I’d gotten here. With Ethan I had wanted to. It wasn’t just something to do, but I should have kept my heart away from him.

  “I don’t know.”

  She didn’t like the answer, but I did increasingly not like all of the questions. I never remembered Molly being so nosy or me wanting to keep so much in.

  “Well there has to be something about him. A woman doesn’t wait that long for nothing and they certainly don’t just give it up after all that time to someone that doesn’t mean something to them. It doesn’t make sense and you’ve always made sense Denise.”

  I was about to deny the accusation that I really liked him. I didn’t. Ethan was just another man and he would soon be gone so there really wasn’t a reason to get all attached when I knew that he was going to be going back home soon and I would never see him again.

  “There is something about him and I’m not really sure what it is, but I can’t get enough of him. I know now that I was just being sill
y and I should have seen it for what it was a while ago. He’s going to be out of here before I know it and then what? Ethan was just a much needed distraction. That’s all.”

  Molly didn’t have an answer for my question and neither did I.

  “You’ve always said that you have to go where you are happy. It doesn’t have to be here in Nome. I’m starting to wonder if my happy place is somewhere else now that everything is changing.”

  I didn’t like the way she was talking, because it sounded like she wasn’t going to reopen the restaurant. She didn’t have to. Everyone in town knows that she married into one of the richest families in Nome and I knew for a fact that she was sitting on property that was worth a fortune. It wouldn’t be hard for her to get the restaurant going again, but now she was talking like she wasn’t going to be around to do it. I hated to think of her leaving because I'd worked with her for so long and I really liked Molly.

  “What are you saying?”

  She shook her head and shrugged her shoulders simultaneously. I could tell that she had a lot on her mind and here I was spilling my beans. I hadn’t even thought to think of how she was feeling about it all. It was her restaurant that these guys had burned to the ground. She could have been there doing paperwork just as much as I could have been there doing some sort of detail cleaning. Maybe her reaction was going to be to leave.

  “I don’t know, but I’m not feeling very good about this town right now, or the people in it. I want to wait and see what the police find out, but I have a feeling I know who did this and I don’t know what I’m supposed to do about it. It’s hard to imagine ever having this happen here. What if I start all over and they burn it down again?”

  She was more upset than I had known and I felt bad for not seeing it sooner. It was hard for her to keep it all in when she was supposed to be the strong one.