Craved by the Lumberjack (Sexy Lumbersnacks)

Chapter 1

1

KINGSTON

T he Bite Me Girl was on the way.

Okay, so she wasn’t a girl—she was a woman. But “Bite Me Girl” had a better a ring to it. Especially since she showed up in short shorts and a tank top, despite the fact that there was still a slight chill in the air.

I watched her pull into the driveway, peeking out the window like a kid eagerly awaiting his hot babysitter’s arrival. Bite Me was written in large letters on the driver’s side of the car. I assumed it was on the passenger side too, but I’d only ever seen it from this angle.

The car wasn’t just labeled with those two words—it was wrapped in food. Doughnuts with a bite taken out of them, a slice of pizza, a cheeseburger, and fries. The doughnut and pizza slice had a bite missing in the design.

All very attention-grabbing. And the hot pink website address beneath all the food brought in plenty of business, I was sure.

The car door opened and she stepped out, opening her back door and grabbing the hot pink bag that was emblazoned with the large words Bite Me . Those words were also on a logo across her very abundant chest.

The woman had curves for days, and I had a hard time taking my eyes off them. When there was a chill in the air like today, she wore white fur-lined boots—something I never would have thought was hot with pink shorts and a white tank. But that woman would make anything look good.

I took a deep breath and headed to the door. Today would be the day I talked to her. I was a grown-ass man and had certainly bagged my fair share of babes back in the day. What had happened to me?

I winced at that thought. Sexist much? I was better than that. She deserved better. If I ever wanted a chance with her, I’d have to do my best to avoid being a dick.

Creak, creak.

The sound signaled someone climbing the wooden steps leading up to the porch of this log cabin. My heart raced as I reached for the doorknob. It was ridiculous. No woman had ever brought me to my knees like this one.

But when I looked at her, I saw my future, and that future included kids—at least two—and chilly nights in front of my fireplace. Plus lots and lots of food. Delicious dinners shared together, not eaten alone in my two-bedroom cabin.

Her friendly face was smiling back at me when I jerked the door open. I gulped, took a breath, and wondered where the guy with balls had gone. The guy who used to impress his military buddies with how quickly he could get a woman into bed. This woman had taken me back twenty years—to that awkward high schooler who couldn’t work up the nerve to ask Kayla Jenkins to the homecoming dance.

“I have an order for Kingston Frye,” she said.

She didn’t look at her phone this time to verify the name. I liked to believe that was because she had my name committed to memory—not that she’d memorized it before getting out of the car.

“That’s me,” I said, reaching out to take the Seduction Summit Sweets box she removed from her insulated bag. “Thank you.”

Great. Way to blow it. I was supposed to be making casual chit-chat. I’d even worked on something clever to say about her car. I hadn’t come up with anything brilliant, though.

But the previous eleven times she’d been here, I basically grabbed the bag and all but shut the door in her face. Today, I didn’t do that, though, and she didn’t move. She hadn’t said her usual “Have a great day” and turned to walk back to her car either. Instead, she was standing there, staring at me, her head tilted slightly.

“You order a lot of bear claws,” she said.

Fuck. Busted. I did. What could I say? No other restaurant in Seduction Summit had signed on for her services yet, so all my orders had to be for breakfast. I’d brought bear claws to the worksite more times than I could count. They were starting to get suspicious.

“Yep,” was all I could manage to get out.

“You know you’re my neighbor,” she said.

Now I was really staring at her. At first, I was relieved she hadn’t questioned me further about my obvious sweet tooth. But she was my neighbor?

I looked to my left, even though the doorjamb blocked my view. There was a cabin on both sides. The one on the left was a vacation rental, while the one on the right belonged to a group of couples who shared it for weekend getaways.

“My friend’s boss owns it,” she said, nodding toward the vacation rental cabin. “He’s letting me stay there. I’m house-sitting, I guess you could say. Not being paid for it, but it’s a free place to stay. I just have to move out on a moment’s notice if anyone rents it.”

Interesting. I didn’t see any problem with it remaining empty, aside from the risk of it getting stale or something malfunctioning without anyone knowing. I would have checked on it for the guy if he’d asked. It wasn’t like there was crime here, but Seduction Summit had enough of a population that squatters might be an issue.

But if it meant this woman was nearby, I sure as hell wouldn’t complain. Bring on the house-sitting.

“So, basically, I made you go down and get pastries and come all the way back home,” I said.

She shrugged and pulled out her phone, holding it up as if to demonstrate something. A map of the area was displayed on the screen. It looked like the GPS I used when I left Seduction Summit to do supply runs for my boss.

“No orders right now. Things don’t really pick up until lunchtime.”

I should invite her in. It was chilly out here, and she was wearing next to nothing. But she might feel weird about going into a stranger’s house.

The only way to get her warm was to end this conversation, and I didn’t want to do that. I’d stand here and talk to her for hours if she’d let me.

Maybe she saw something on my face because she stepped back. I hadn’t even said anything, but my demeanor must have told her I was looking for a way out of this conversation.

“Well, I’d better get back down the mountain,” she said. “A hairstylist in Adairsville always orders coffee around this time. Has me bring her one cup. She tips well. If you…”

She took a couple of steps back and glanced at her car, then back at me again. She was chewing her lip like she wanted to ask me a question—or offer something. Did she think I’d turn her down?

“Anything,” I said.

Anything? What did that even mean? Was I assuming that she was about to ask me to do a favor? Fuck, I needed to get my act together.

“I was just going to say, if you want, I can bring you dinner tonight,” she said. “No charge. I’ll be going to get it anyway. I want to try out that new Mexican restaurant in town. But I could get something else.”

This was starting to sound a little like a date. “Sounds good,” I rushed to say before she changed her mind.

“Why don’t we do it at my place?” she asked. “Do you mind TV trays?”

What the fuck? TV trays? Like, the kind that married couples used when they’d been together a long time? That let them watch TV instead of speaking to each other?

I hid my confusion and shrugged. “Not at all. What time?”

“Six.”

Just before she turned to walk away, she gave me a wink. Was she flirting with me? She’d just invited me over for dinner on TV trays, but I had no idea if it was a date or not. I didn’t even know what a date involving TV trays would look like.

I knew one thing, though. This would definitely be interesting.