4.

 

 “So are you going to tell me...” he said as he pulled his stool in closer to hers and she felt his warmth radiating from him.

“Tell you what?” she asked.

She was sipping her mojito way too fast and she could feel it already going to her head. She was feeling frisky and flirty, and she was enjoying every second of him paying her some attention.

The last date Monica had been on hadn’t exactly been the most fun. It had been a blind one set up by her mother’s friend, and she had done nothing but want to bail from the second she had arrived.

“Aren’t you going to tell me where you’ve come from?” he asked her with a wry smile. “One second, I was just sitting here, minding my own business, and then the next… boom…” He held his hands up and framed her face jokingly.

“Well, I was actually sitting here before you,” she said as she sipped her drink again. “And Jack will vouch for me there. So, I guess the real question, is where did you come from?”

She raised her eyebrows and he cracked his handsome face into a smile.

His jaw was perfectly squared off and his rugged looks were heightened with the twinkle in his eye. He was a rare mix of barbarian and gentleman, but Monica could tell he was also a whole world of trouble.

“She’s right,” Jack said as he slid up next to them on the other side of the bar. “She’s been here for a couple of hours now.”

She smiled and raised her hand to give Jack a high-five.

“But, unfortunately, Evan is a Grey Mountain man through and through…” Jack said with a raised brow. “So, I guess he’ll turn it around to where did you come from in general…”

Monica shrugged and smiled at him playfully.

Evan.

His name was Evan.

She bit her bottom lip and tried not to look at him with too much lust through her slightly drunken haze.

“I’m in town for work,” she said before he had the chance to throw something else at her. “I’m a writer. Well, I’m trying to be, anyway…,” she trailed off and tried to look wistfully into the distance.

Evan cleared his throat and took another swig of his beer. His hands were so big, and the way they were gripping the neck of the bottle made her spine tingle.

He was all man.

“So, you came to Grey Mountain to work?” he half smiled at her. “I don’t hear that very often, so I have to say, on this occasion, you’ve surprised me.”

“Oh, really?” she asked as she drained the rest of her glass and slammed it down on the counter.

“Another?” Jack asked as he swiped it away.

Monica nodded her head with a wide smile and Evan matched it. He drained the rest of his bottle and slammed it down on the counter too.

“What is that drink?” he asked with amusement, as he expertly ignored her previous question.

“A Mountain Mojito…” Monica teased. “I’d say it’s probably the perfect cocktail for a hardened mountain man like you…”

Evan crossed his arms over his chest and looked at her as if he wanted to spank her. She bit her lip again and squeezed her legs together.

“Make that two, then, Jack,” he said with even more mischief. “I can’t let the lady drink alone.”

Monica rolled her eyes with jest and crossed her legs at the knee.

“You sure?” Jack asked. “They’re pretty strong.”

Jack winked at Monica whilst Evan couldn’t see, and she stifled her smile.

“Just do it,” Evan said with a smirk, and then he ran a hand through his wiry hair.

“On sight, I never would have had you down as a cocktail drinker…” Monica teased. “But I guess looks can be deceiving.”

“Well, tonight is one of those nights where I don’t really give a shit what I drink. I just want to get wasted.”

“Well, then, you’re in luck…” Jack chipped in as he poured a big measure of rum into the bottom of a glass and winked.

“Lucky me,” Evan said.

“You want to get wasted?” she asked him, swaying a little on her stool.

Evan nodded his head and looked at her intently again. There was something about him that made her feel completely at ease with the situation, and as if she could just sit happily next to him for hours on end. Even a silence between them wouldn’t seem like a problem.

“I want to get so blind drunk, I can’t remember a damned thing tomorrow…” he said with a wicked grin.

Monica felt herself blushing and she shrugged her shoulders and smiled back at him knowingly.

“Well, then, I guess you’ll have to catch up, won’t you…” she said cockily as she spun a little in her stool at the same time as Jack handed her the mojito he had been making for her behind the bar.

She raised it to her lips and took a long sip.

When Jack passed one to Evan too, he raised his glass in between them and held her gaze.

“I’ll make a toast…” he said. “To your first night in town… and to not being able to remember anything come tomorrow…”

Monica clinked her glass against his and then she took a sip as they both held each other’s stare.

She had no idea what was going to happen between them, but she could already sense that it was going to be a whole lot of fun.

Evan wasn’t just trouble… He looked as if he could write a book about it.

He was exactly what she needed to help her past her first night on Grey Mountain and help her settle in without a hitch.

She sipped her drink, and the men next to the TV screen all whooped and cheered again as their team scored.

She was in a completely different world to the one she had woken up in that morning… but it felt damned good. And now, she was ready for the next phase of her adventure.

 

As the night passed by, Evan and Monica matched each other, drink for drink. His stool slowly got closer to hers, and she slowly found herself turning her knees so that they were bumping up against his. Each time their bodies made contact, she felt a jolt of something exciting and sexual. He was turning on all of her senses and making her come back to life.

“So, tell me more about this writing then,” he said before he downed a shot of whiskey all in one.

“Well, there isn’t a whole lot to tell as yet,” she admitted. “I quit my long-term job back in my hometown, so I could focus on this properly. I didn’t want to be a bar girl all my life, I wanted to work for myself and build my own dream… So, I finally decided to make a go of my blog once and for all.”

“And how’s that working out for you?” he asked her.

“It isn’t,” she said as she put her head in her hands and groaned. “I haven’t’ written a damned thing… and now I’m starting to panic.”

“So, you decided to go looking for a little inspiration?” he asked with a raised brow.

“Exactly,” she said as she raised her hand and pointed at him as if to say bingo!

He nodded his head.

“I can see why a change of scenery is a good idea,” he said. “And I guess you’ll get lots of new insights whilst you’re on the road.”

“Well, I’m not planning to travel too much further,” she said. “I think I’ll stay here for a while and soak up the silence. I’m going to lock myself away and work my butt off until I have something to put out there and share with the world.”

“Sounds good,” he smiled.

Their glasses were empty again, and Monica knew they had both already had too much. But she was enjoying his company, and all she wanted to do was have a fun night before the real work truly began.

“And you?” she asked him as she let her leg graze against his again. “What is it that you do up here on this mountain?”

His eyes were so dark and deep, she felt as if she could stare into them forever and never get bored.

“I work the land,” he said with a wry smile. “I have a cabin up on the mountain and I have a few things going on up there.”

“Oh yeah?” she asked him.

He nodded his head and rested his arm down on the bar. It brushed up against hers and the little tiny hairs on the back of her neck seemed to tingle and stand on end.

She smiled back at him.

What the fuck are you doing, Monica? She cursed herself as she realized that she was turning her flirting up a notch.

“Okay, you two,” Jack said. “Maybe it’s time you called it a night?”

He was laughing, and it was clear that he didn’t truly mean it, but it only seemed to spur Evan and Monica on more.

“No way!” she said as she slapped her hands down on the top of the bar and cheered. “More drinks! More drinks! More drinks!”

The group of mountain men that were watching the sport on the screens behind them all cheered with her and started to clap and clang their glasses together.

“Hell yeah!” one of them shouted! “More drinks! Give the woman what she wants!”

Jack threw his head back and laughed, and then he looked at Evan and shrugged.

“Well, Evan, it isn’t often we get you down here for the night, so if this all gets out of hand then I’m blaming you.”

“I’ll gladly take that responsibility,” Evan laughed as he rapped his knuckles on the counter top in anticipation of his next beer. “Call me a bad influence all you want, I’ll wear the badge with pride.”

“Really letting your hair down,” Monica smiled. “Is there any particular occasion?”

Evan breathed out deeply and reached down to the edge of the seat part of her stool and pulled her closer to him with one big heave.

She felt her breath catch in her throat and her heart raced a little. He was so strong and powerful, and he was so handsome… she almost couldn’t believe he wanted to spend all this time with her and get to know her.

She felt her face flame red, and she bit her bottom lip, trying not to smile too wide as she stared into his eyes.

She wanted to kiss him, but she also wanted to kill him.

He was driving her mad in every way imaginable, but it was so much fun she didn’t care.

“Well, it’s not every night a stunning stranger like you appears here on Grey Mountain…” Evan whispered. “And I’m not going to let the time pass me by…”

She wanted to reach up and take hold of him.

She wanted to run her hands through his hair and plant a kiss right on his lips, to feel the rugged wire of his beard against her soft skin as he pulled her close to him and she would be cocooned in his muscular arms.

“Well,” she whispered demurely. “That sounds like as good a reason as any…”

He smiled back at her, and on the bar behind them, Jack placed down two more drinks that Monica could already tell would be her undoing.

Evan reached down and picked one up in each hand, and then he held one out to Monica without breaking her gaze.

“To new friends,” he said this time.

“To new friends…” she grinned as they chinked their glasses together and they downed them both in one.

She was so fucking screwed.

In every way imaginable…

But she had to admit, it felt great.