Rough and Rugged: A Meet Me In Milwaukee Charity Anthology

Chapter One

Connor

Idrop to the ground, squatting after finishing my chores. Cutting wood is a necessity out here and I cut enough for half the damn winter. Just because I’m on fucking edge and I need something to keep my mind busy.

I’m happy on my mountain but there’s one thing that I really need. I need a damn woman. Not just for one night. No. I need a woman to be mine.

I need a wife. I need someone to come home to after I go hunting and bring home some meat for the winter. Someone to hopefully tell me that I’m a god. Because why the fuck not.

But our little town that’s the next town over from Wildwood County has next to no single women unless you’re looking to hook up with Toothless Bessie who has to be one hundred and three if she’s a day. Don’t get me wrong. She’s a nice woman and she cooks like a dream. The diner’s always packed because she’s the one that cooks there. But I’m not just worried about my belly. I want someone to make my heart happy. Someone to cuddle with at night.

Someone to fuck.

I sigh and rub my eyes, pulling my shirt back on and heading for my cabin. It’s a pretty place. Right in the middle of the woods and secluded enough to hide me from most people unless they’re lost. It’s two stories and has four bedrooms and three bathrooms and solar electricity, the best plumbing that one can get out here in the sticks. I even compost to keep my garden going.

But there’s just me here and it’s become too much to sit around these empty rooms at night when I know that I should be starting my family.

Hell, I’m thirty-five. My daddy started his at twenty. I’m far behind him.

I just haven’t found the right woman yet.

I grab my truck keys off the peg by the door and then stomp out to hop in my four-wheel drive.

If nothing else, I can fill my belly with some good food. It feels like my stomach’s gonna gnaw clean through my back and fall on the floor.

But Bessie’s is gonna be packed at this time of the morning and I’m a smelly mess. I should get cleaned up but I’m not gonna bother. I’m not trying to impress Bessie.

It takes me less than ten minutes to get into town and another five to almost drive right out of it. Caribou Springs is a pretty little place with no night life and nothing going on. Most of the time that suits me. Just not when I’m trying to find my one true love. I pull into the little lot at Bessie’s and turn my truck off.

I stomp in the door at Bessie’s and head for my favorite booth, surprised that it’s not taken.

I sit my ass down and study the people in here, not surprised to see that I know all of them.

My mouth drops open and I suck in a sharp breath when the waitress comes out of the kitchen since she looks nothing like Bessie. She’s rounded and pretty. Curvy in all the best places. Her long, lavender hair is pulled back in a perky ponytail that looks perfect for grabbing and pulling her head back so that I can kiss her perfectly pouty red lips. Her breasts fill out the top of the t-shirt that she’s wearing like a dream and her thick thighs and lush ass are just what I like to hold onto.

She sees me and her green eyes widen, her tongue slicking along her lips. My eyes follow the movement like she’s a drink that I want to drown in.

I groan and shift in my seat, already fucking hard as a rock.

She saunters over and my hips can’t help but follow the back and forth of her hips. She stands in front of me and smirks. “You need something, honey?”

And like a damn idiot I tell her what I’m thinking. “How ‘bout you come with me back to my place and I’ll show you what I need?”

She throws her head back, laughing long and loud. “Do you honestly think that that line is gonna work on me? Sorry, Mr. Mountain Man, I wasn’t born yesterday. I’m a little too old to fall for stupid lines like that. Would you like something off the menu?”

And then after I give her my order, she walks away and those hips and ass call my name like she’s wearing my brand.

She glances over her shoulder at the window when she chats with Bessie and I see Bessie’s old eyes twinkle at her.

I duck my head, my cheeks flushed with embarrassment. And right then I promise myself that girl’s gonna be mine.

No matter what I have to do.