Chapter 9
MONTY
The guys from the mill dropped a pile of firewood at the end of my driveway at eight in the morning. I had a mug of coffee, then, wearing my oldest jeans, I went out to stack it under the roof.
It took me almost an hour, which was a good thing because otherwise, I’d be downstairs, climbing the walls, waiting for Laurel to wake up.
Would he freak out? I hoped not. Last night, he’d wanted to watch. Jordy and I didn’t push him into anything… But he’d been a little tipsy too, so chances were, he’d regret it.
Should I act as if nothing had happened? Probably. Which was maddening because I’d been sure he’d liked the show. Hell, I’d enjoyed it way too much, watching his face as he’d watched us.
He’d looked so hot, transfixed by our little performance. He’d worried his bottom lip until it had gotten all red and swollen, and his eyes had darkened, eyelids heavy.
If he wanted, I could perform for him every night, and I could easily rope Jordy into it.
He had an exhibitionist streak a mile wide.
We could become Laurel Riley’s personal cam boys.
I had no qualms or reservations about providing that extra service in my free time.
Or during working hours, for that matter.
When I had the firewood neatly stacked along the garage wall, I noticed a flicker of light in an upstairs window—the bathroom in the suite. Laurel was awake.
I hurried to my apartment, washed up, and changed into a nice pair of jeans and a clean shirt.
I was setting up in the breakfast room when a creaking floorboard on the landing announced that my guest was coming.
Don’t act nervous. It’s like any other morning. He didn’t see your dick last night.
Laurel Riley had seen my dick. And it hadn’t been just an accidental wardrobe malfunction. He’d wanted to see my dick.
“Morning!” I said a tad too loudly when he appeared in the breakfast room.
He winced. He was pale, his hair in messy tangles, and he was huddled in a thick fleece.
“Morning,” he muttered.
Hungover? Ouch. But he’d only had like three shots. He must be a lightweight.
I tried to talk in a lower, calmer voice. “How would you like your eggs today?”
He looked me up and down, frowning, like he didn’t understand what I was saying.
“Breakfast?” I clarified.
“Um. Sure.”
“So, the eggs?”
He patted his stomach, grimacing. “I’m a bit queasy. Scrambled but without butter. Dry toast. Black coffee.”
“No problem. Did you sleep well?”
At that, he scoffed. “No.”
“Anything wrong with the room?”
“Nah. The room’s fine. I never sleep well.”
That sounded awful. “I’m sorry.”
Laurel waved a dismissive hand in the air. “My therapist says it’s stress.”
“Well. Good thing you’re here in Beauville. The mountains heal all kinds of ailments, and we’re good at not stressing.” That would make more sense if I weren’t stressed out of my mind because of what we’d done last night.
He eyed me, smirking in that half-assed, tired way of his. Somehow, he still managed to look sexy as hell. “Sure.”
Pulling out his phone from his pocket, he sat down at a table with his back to me. It was a clear leave-me-alone signal, something he seemed to communicate often.
Keep your mouth shut, Montgomery.
Using the small single burner behind the bar, I cracked the eggs into a dry, non-stick pan and slipped the bread into the toaster. About fifteen different questions that I could ask occurred to me, but I bit back every single one.
After a while, it was Laurel who broke the silence.
“The guy from the town hall, the ginger omega, Oliver…”
“Klondike.”
“That’s the one. He said something about the hiking trails in Beauville.”
I stirred the eggs and lowered the heat. They were nearly done. “Oh yeah. Oliver is leading a project to update and maintain the trails around here. There’s a map on the town’s website.”
He scrolled for a while, drinking his coffee while I plated the eggs. The toast popped, so I forked the pieces onto the plate and brought it all over.
I set the plate in front of him. “Are you planning a hike?”
Laurel jerked as if I had woken him up. “Huh? Yeah. Kind of.”
“There might be some rain showers today, but otherwise, the weather is decent. Just don’t forget a waterproof jacket and leave a message about where you’re going and for how long.” I needed to tell him that, didn’t I? Even Jordy would approve.
Finally, Laurel looked up from his phone, the corners of his mouth turned down in annoyance. “Why?”
“If you don’t come back within a reasonable time, we’ll know where to send the search party.”
He glared up at me. “You think the city boy can’t be trusted alone?”
“It’s not personal. This is general advice we give to everyone. It’s best not to go alone at all. From a safety perspective, I mean.”
He said nothing to that, returning to his screen.
“You could take the trail that’s just along the outskirts of town,” I said. “That should be safe enough.”
“Is there anything dangerous around here?” he asked.
“Our number one cause of tourist death is drowning.”
Laurel’s eyebrows flew up. “Come again?”
“People slip while crossing a creek and fall into rapid water. Nasty when it happens.”
He heaved a long, loud sigh. “Anything else I should be aware of?”
“Aside from slippery rocks, ice-cold creeks, crazy weather, and occasional landslides, we’ve got mountain lions, wolves, and bears.”
He turned in his chair and eyed me suspiciously. “Actual bears.”
I chuckled. “Yeah.”
“Who won’t understand what I’m saying and won’t change into a naked guy?”
“Yup. That kind.”
It seemed I got his attention now. “What am I supposed to do when I meet one?”
I refilled his coffee cup. “You know the saying, if it’s black, fight back?”
“If it’s brown, lie down, and if it’s white, you’re fucked,” he deadpanned. “I assume there are no polar bears in Beauville.”
“Ha. No. But the main message holds water. More or less. You can intimidate a black bear, but don’t go close. Lift your arms and yell, jump up and down. It should leave you alone unless you happen to stand too close to someone’s cub.”
“Staying away from the cubs, noted. And if it’s a grizzly?”
“They keep their distance. You rarely meet one around here. You’d have to go higher up and away from the paths the shifters frequent.”
“But if I do meet one, I lie down?”
“Walk away slowly, talking in a calm voice, facing the bear. If it moves toward you, use bear spray. And yeah, if it’s too close, you can lie down, cover your head, and hope for the best. There’s a high chance it’ll leave you alone unless you do something stupid.”
“What do you mean by something stupid?”
“Trying to take a selfie with it.”
Laurel snorted. “No selfies with grizzly bears. Good to know.”
He surveyed the eggs and the second plate with cheese and veggies I’d brought him.
“Enjoy your breakfast,” I said. “Orange juice?”
“No, thanks.” To my surprise, he smiled. “This is good.”
Laurel didn’t seem like an easy person to please. At least he liked the food. I really should leave him alone now.
“The bear spray thing,” he mumbled around a mouthful.
“Yeah?”
“Where do I buy that?”
“I have a few cans in the storage. I’ll show you how to use it when you’ve eaten.”
“ ’Kay. Thanks.”
It was nice to see him eat what I’d made for him.
Equipped as well as he could be, Laurel left for his hike. I itched to go after him in fur, to make sure he was safe, but I had stuff to do. He’d be fine.
The driveway was covered with leaves, and the kitchen needed a sweep. Sedric usually did the housekeeping, but it didn’t make sense for him to run here just to take care of one bedroom. I could manage myself. And after lunch, I had a meeting with the new foreman at the lumber mill.
Jordy woke up late. His routine was way off because of the nights at the pub. He stumbled into the breakfast room at eleven and patted my ass.
“Make me a black one, boss, would you?”
“Who works for whom around here?”
“I did call you boss, didn’t I?”
Shaking my head, I snickered. “Double?”
“Oh yeah.” He adjusted his dick in his sweats. “Do you want me to stack the firewood? The guys were supposed to drop it off this morning.”
“It’s done. I was up early.”
“Huh.” Jordy opened the fridge and pulled out the cheese box. “And where’s our guest?”
“Already gone. He went hiking.”
He straightened, his eyebrows flying up. “What?”
“Yeah. He asked about the trails at breakfast, so I recommended the one right around town. Hopefully, he listened and won’t go off the trail by himself.”
Jordy shook his head, scratching his neck. He cut off a piece of cheddar, popped it into his mouth, and chewed. He swallowed loudly, hummed, and cut another piece.
“Laurel doesn’t seem to have much know-how about life here in the mountains,” he said.
“He doesn’t. But he’s got his phone fully charged and a new can of bear spray.”
“Let’s hope he won’t spray one of the locals.”
Hell. I hadn’t thought of that. “He will know a shifter from a bear, won’t he?” I asked.
Jordy eyed his coffee mug as if judging the color. “Maybe? He saw us shifted once. That time at Barclay’s house. But it was from a distance, through Barclay’s kitchen window.”
Holding a wet sponge in one hand and dish soap in the other, I froze. A terrifying image appeared in my head.
“Shit. I don’t care if he douses Hunter, Frey, or even Chickie in pepper spray. But what if he meets an actual bear and strikes up a conversation?”
Chuckling, Jordy cut off yet another thick slice of cheese. “He’ll be fine. There hasn’t been a grizzly this close to town in years.”
I sure hoped Laurel would stay on the trail. I shouldn’t have let him go alone. But when I imagined his reaction if I tried to stop him or force my company on him… Yeah, not like I had a choice.
Perched on a barstool, Jordy began spreading butter on his toast, the open cheese box dangerously close to him.
I’d have to cut him off in a minute, or he’d eat it all.
I pulled the snifter glasses out of the dishwasher and put them on the counter by Jordy’s left.
He eyed them, no doubt thinking about what we’d done in front of Laurel.
“Do you think he’s freaking out about yesterday?” he asked.
I grabbed a glass, ran the dish towel around it, then hung it on the rack above the bar. “This morning, he was doing his best to act like nothing had happened,” I said.
“Then we shouldn’t remind him of it either, huh?”
“Probably not.”
“Pity. That was fun.”
I met Jordy’s gaze. “It was, wasn’t it?”
He quirked the pierced eyebrow and offered me the smirk I knew had the power to make an omega wet from across the room.
“In case the opportunity arises again,” he said.
I rested my arms on the counter and lowered my head, so I stared right into Jordy’s dark wizard eyes. “Honestly? Anything he wants, I’m in. No limits.”
Yeah, I loved that playful smirk. I wasn’t usually attracted to alphas, but Jordy was my exception. Besides, he smelled nice, woodsy, a little smoky, with some spice thrown in.
“If he wants to watch me fuck you?” he teased, voice all growly.
“I’ll take it like a slut in heat.”
“What if he’s into kink? Maybe he’d like to see you tied up, gagged, and spanked? Breeding play? Plugs and whips?”
I narrowed my eyes and pointed a finger at him. “Don’t get cocky, Orson.”
Jordy laughed merrily. “You said no limits, boss.”
He cut off another big piece of cheese and threw it into his shameless mouth. I wrapped the rest, closed the box, and put it in the fridge.
“Hey, I was eating that!”
“Buy your own.”
“You said that when we have guests, I can eat breakfast leftovers.”
“Not if you threaten to whip the boss,” I threw over my shoulder.
“Maybe you’d love it,” he called after me. “You can’t know unless you try!”
I turned around to flip him the bird.
His rumbly laughter followed me out the door.
Leftovers… He’d eat a pound of cheddar in one sitting if I didn’t hide it from him.
Still, I always bought the kind he liked.