“Looks like we’re bunking up tonight.” I was being an asshole, rubbing it in when clearly Lena didn’t want to stay. Tough shit. “You really should have checked the weather before coming up here.”

She growled at me and, hand to god, it was the hottest fucking thing I’d heard in too damn long.

“Yeah well I should have done a lot of things, but none of that really helps me right now, does it?” She turned and stomped back inside, brushing her luscious tits against me in her effort to avoid me.

“You’re not really dressed for mountain weather.”

The weather up here changed on a whim, and she had on a little white cargo skirt, a tank top, pink hoodie with matching sneakers. She looked like a sorority girl. She looked hot. Her long honey blond hair fell around her shoulders in soft, touchable waves. Big green eyes looked surreal against her pale, freckled skin. With her small stature and sensual curves, she was all woman.

“Rex, please,” she groaned and that sent a spear of lust right to my cock. “I’m not in the mood for this. My skirt is wet and I’m freezing, so please spare me your witty commentary.”

She seemed truly distraught, but that didn’t have anything to do with me. I don’t know what game her father Marcus and my mother were playing. But my guess was that Lena was caught up in it and she didn’t even realize it.

“Whatever,” I shrugged and went back to my cooler filled with fish. They needed to be gutted, so I laid down some paper and got to work. “You should have called.”

“You know, why didn’t I think of that? Oh wait, I called five times and you, Mr. Hermit, didn’t answer. You probably don’t even know where your phone is.”

I smiled and chopped the head off one of the rainbow trout. She was right. I had no fucking clue where my phone was, but Lena didn’t need to know that. “Well now you’re stuck.”

She didn’t respond, just scanned the room and sighed. “Where do you keep your wood?”

“Excuse me?” I looked up at her, cleaver perched over my shoulder mid-strike.

“Wood. You know the thing that’ll keep us from dying of hypothermia in the middle of the night? Where is it?”

I looked her up and down, enjoying the curves that hugged her body. “You’re gonna bring the wood in?”

Lena rolled green eyes at me and crossed her arms. “Don’t be a dick, just tell me where the wood is while you play with your dead fish.”

I held back a smirk and nodded to the back door. “The small shed out back. Just get what you can and I’ll get the rest.” She was a tiny thing, barely over five feet, there was no way I was letting her carry enough wood to keep us alive until morning.

“Whatever.” I kept my gaze on her as she tossed her purse on the sofa and yanked the back door open, disappearing with a few choice words for me under her breath.

She was a spitfire, that much was certain. I hadn’t seen Lena in at least a year, maybe more. She’d changed since coming back to town. Not only was she a knockout, a grown woman with a body that matched, but she had a confidence she hadn’t back when our folks were married. I’d finished gutting and cleaning the fish by the time she finally came back in, carrying a load of five logs. “I’ll get the rest.”

She glared at me and went back out the door, returning seconds later with more wood. Lena made the trek two more times before she finally stopped. “You can get the next load. If we need it.” She could try and sound tough if she wanted to, but I saw her teeth chattering and her bottom lip was a deep shade of blue.

“Come on. We need to get you out of those clothes.”

“W-W-What?” Small arms wrapped around her as she looked up at me, confusion written all over her face.

“You’re soaked and freezing. Take a hot shower.” I led her up to one of the guest rooms and made sure she had everything she needed.

I left before I started to imagine what she looked like naked, with soapy water running down her body. Shit. I’d never really thought of Lena as a sister, but I’d never gotten hard just looking at her either.

“Thanks,” she muttered to my retreating back, I was already headed back down the stairs to clean up the kitchen before taking a shower of my own. Hiking all morning to a good fishing spot had me smelling ripe and I didn’t want to cook smelling like a swap.

Thirty minutes later I made my way back down to the kitchen to find Lena shaking her sexy little ass while bouncing around my kitchen, with the most delicious smells swirling around. “What’s all this?”

She gasped in surprise and turned to face me, wearing one of my t-shirts and a pair of big wool socks, she looked like she’d spent the whole day in bed. “Most people call this dinner, but I’m sure it’s just an imposition to you.” With that she turned back to the stove, turning the fish over and inspecting something in another pot.

Well I never said I wasn’t an asshole. It’s why I stayed to myself up here on Shadow Mountain. “It’s not an imposition, Lena.”

“Right,” she scoffed and kept her gaze focused on the cast iron skillet containing the fish. I watched as she worked like a perfect assembly line of one, breading the fish and frying it, placing it on a napkin and adding new pieces. She seemed calm except for the stiff set of her spine, rigid enough to cut glass.

“Lena.”

“Can you grab some plates?”

Okay, if that’s how she wanted to play it, I could play that game. I set the table and sat there, watching as she brought the platter of fish, salad and mac & cheese to the table. “This looks good.”

“Thanks,” she mumbled and dropped down in the chair across from me. She began to eat without another word or another glance in my direction, giving me plenty of time to study her. She wasn’t just beautiful, but naturally so. Even before the shower she didn’t have on a stitch of makeup, but freshly scrubbed she looked damn near perfect.

And not at all how I remembered her when we first met. She’d been seventeen and indifferent. Back then I thought she resented my mom’s claim to her dad’s money because he was loaded. But soon I realized she didn’t want to get close until she could be sure we’d all stick around. We hadn’t, but now Lulu and Marcus were circling each other again, and here we were.

“So you want to tell me your plans for the mansion?”

“No.” She stabbed her fish with more force than necessary and kept her gaze on the plate.

“You know, Lena, getting my approval would happen much easier if you just share the details with me.”

“Fine. I want to open a restaurant with a set dinner menu, price fixed. The rest of the time I’ll serve up lunch to the people of Cody. Happy?” She didn’t look happy at all about sharing her plans with me and I didn’t blame her. But Marcus had given me half the mansion for some reason so she needed my approval.

“How is that going to make money?”

“It will. I have a solid business and marketing plan.” The defiant tilt of her chin told me she didn’t want to talk about it anymore. Not that she wanted to talk about it anyway.

“Can I see it?”

“No. I’m not asking you for anything, so you don’t need to see it.”

Maybe. “Even if it means I say no?”

She shrugged. “You will anyway. I’m already working on a backup plan.”

“Where?”

She stood and glared at me. “That is none of your business. I’m going to bed,” she announced, leaving her plate where it sat on the table.

I waited until she was halfway up the stairs to tell her the bad news. “There are no beds other than the one in my room.”

She froze, groaned and stomped back down the steps. I smiled as she moved about the living room doing who knew what. When the room fell silent I stood, cleared the table and cleaned the dishes before seeing what she was up to. I found her sleeping on the sofa, three throw blankets tossed over her body.

Damn stubborn woman.