Chapter One
Bella
It’s summer in Rugged Mountain, my favorite time of the year.
Today, though, I’m not here to enjoy the sparkling turquoise lake, the woody, pine breeze, or the mountain views.
I’m here on a mission. A mission that involves staring at the big, muscular, inked-up man on the other side of the tree line.
Tight jeans… check.
Forty-six thousand abs… double-check.
Tattoos covering every square inch of his body… triple-check.
I don’t remember Clint ever looking this… hot! I mean, sure he’s always been a good-looking man, but he’s twenty years older than me so I never really paid attention to his massive shoulders or the way his biceps flex as he rips a board through a saw.
Then again, I’ve never seen him build anything before.
I swallow down the extra saliva and shut my mouth before flies start taking residency in my molars. I’m not here to ogle the man. I’ve got a job to do.
He’s my sister’s ex-fiancé. The one man she despises more than anyone in the world.
I can’t have a secret crush on him. I’m pretty sure that’s illegal and punishable to the fullest extent of the law, or at the very least, it makes me the scum of the Earth, and I’ve tried very hard to avoid that title for the last twenty-four years.
However, no matter what I do, his flexing shoulders win out over the lapping waves of the turquoise lake yet again. Veins tracing his forearms, his abs flexing, and the sunlight as it catches the sweat on his back, outlining every ridge and contour as he leans into the cut… it’s a showstopper.
My clit throbs, giving the scene its well-deserved applause.
I’m sick! I’m sick and I need help!
I need to start saying yes to the age-appropriate guys at the bar who are always hitting on me.
I need to give in and let one of them pop my cherry.
Maybe then, my brain will go back to having normal, well-adjusted thoughts, instead of the sick, deranged fantasies I’m currently having about my sister’s ex bending me over and filling any hold he wants.
The wind blows a warm breeze across the lake, taking my hair with it as I try to refocus on the shoreline.
A German Shepherd running into the waves, a kid playing with a shovel and a bucket…
a giant man carrying a freshly cut board back into the lake house and up the stairs.
I watch as he disappears for a moment, then reappears again in the big picture windows that cover the front of the lake house.
Yup, I’m staring again!
My phone vibrates in my beach bag beside me, distracting me from the giant man moving between windows in the upper half of the house.
Damn it. It’s my sister, June.
I glance away from her ex and clear my throat before answering. “Hello?”
“Hey,” she sighs, “are you out at the lake spying for me?”
“I have my eyes on the perp.” My heart hammers as my thoughts suddenly fill with every naughty scenario I’ve been imagining.
His big hands on my throat. His deep voice in my ear. His warm breath on my skin.
I need to stop before my sister hears me salivating through the phone.
“What does it look like he’s doing?” Her tone is rough and irritated. “I swear if he plans on turning these places into rental property, he owes me more money.”
My sister is ten years older than me. Usually, that means she knows more, but I’m pretty sure that’s not how property sales work.
“Why does it matter if he’s renting them? You agreed to let him buy you out. I mean—”
She huffs as though I’m an idiot for needing the explanation. “We bought them together to turn them into rentals. If he does it on his own, he’s an ass. Plus, I bet he’s using all my design ideas. You have to get in there.”
“Get in there?” I lean forward in the beach chair I’ve been inconspicuously lying out on. “I agreed to watch him from the beach for a few days, not sneak into the man’s house. Why are you obsessed with this? You sold him the houses, and you got your payment. It’s over.”
“I know you don’t get it because you’ve never had a real boyfriend, but when you break up with someone after a long engagement, it’s pretty rude for that other person to use your ideas to make their business a success.
Plus, you know I needed the money for the down payment on the cabin.
I didn’t have a choice. I had to sell the lake houses to him. ”
I drag in a deep breath, ignoring how condescendingly she’s speaking. I’d bet seeing your ex about to make a killing on some rentals you bought together really sucks.
“You’re right,” I sigh. “I’m sorry this is so complicated. I’ll see what pictures I can get, but I don’t think you’re actually going to get more money off him.”
“No, but if he’s planning to rent the places and use my designs, I’ll post all the dirt I have on him. No one will want to rent from him after they see what I’ve got to say. Trust me.”
This whole situation is escalating, and I don’t want to be a part of it anymore, but I know my sister. She won’t let this go, and she’ll for sure bully the hell out of me until I get the pictures she’s asking for.
“Anyway,” June continues, “text me when you leave, and we’ll talk about what you’ve found.
I’ve gotta run to this meeting.” The line disconnects before I can reply, and I’m brought back to when I was thirteen.
She invited me to see her at college so she could make me sneak into the boy’s dorm and steal her ex’s lucky underwear before a big football game.
I wish I hadn’t done it, but I always thought June was the coolest person on Earth, and I would do anything to get her approval.
She’s smart, works hard, always has an answer for everything, and she’s gorgeous. Long blonde hair, big blue eyes, perfect skin, the prettiest smile, and a body that says she loves working out. I’ve always admired her, and on more than one occasion, I’ve wished I was her.
I mean, why did she get blessed with all of Mom’s pretty, smart, perfect genes while I got Dad’s ‘character-building’ features?
I sit back in my chair and force myself to stare out at the lake instead of studying the giant who was also blessed with perfect DNA.
I bet he and my sister would’ve made genetically perfect children, though I’m not sure what their personalities would’ve been like, considering every member of my family is on the verge of permanent gremlin status.
I drag in a deep pine-scented breath and stand from the beach chair, stretching out my legs, refusing to look back at the giant man who’ll most definitely get my clit throbbing again.
If June wants to spy on him, she can do it herself.
It’s summer break, teaching preschool is tough, and for the first time in my life, I’m going to ignore my sister’s demands and do something for myself.
In fact, I should go out on a canoe that’s sitting on the shoreline. I should float into the middle of the lake, take in the scenery, and let the wind take me where it will. What better way to assert my independence than by doing something I’ve never done before?
The dark green canoe sits marooned ten feet from my beach chair, and while I’m sure it belongs to someone, I decide to play dumb and let ignorance be my shield. The whole confused woodland creature act works for my sister, so maybe it’ll work for me just this once.
Lucky for her, she does have pretty privilege, but that can’t be all there is to it. I mean, maybe this is a community canoe. Who knows?
See, playing dumb is already working.
I curl my fingers around the rim of the boat, the metal slick with the sheen of spray paint as I drag it into the cool water until it’s floating.
Here comes the part that makes my stomach flip.
The part where I steady it with one hand and climb into its wobbling center.
I’ve lived in the mountains my entire life, and I’ve spent many, many, many days at the lake, but I’m still terrified of what lives in the depths.
I mean, this lake in particular is approximately thirty thousand years old, and people say it’s nearly four hundred feet deep.
Not only that, but folks like to joke about the lake monster that lives in it.
Apparently, the Deepling is fourteen feet long, has the head of a giant flamingo, and the body of a massive, scaled serpent.
Chest pounding, I dig the oar into the sand and push away from the beach, doing my best imitation of what I’ve seen other people do in canoes before. Their butts are on the middle bench, and they move the paddle back and forth on either side, pushing and pulling the water.
Easy does it.
This is so easy!
Almost as easy as keeping my eyes off the giant stalking back outside to cut more wood.
Was he always this big?
I squeeze my thighs together as my clit sends an aching sign of desperation through my core.
I need to get a grip. I’m out here in the big, icy lake, surrounded by snow-capped mountains and a rustic pine forest. Plenty of folks would pay good money to be sitting where I’m sitting.
I need to focus on the beautiful nature all around me, and not Clint.
I need to focus on my own life, not the side quests my sister sends me on.
Dragging in a deep breath of resin and snowmelt, I kick my legs up onto the bench in front of me, an attempt to unwind.
Nature, however, has other plans.
The canoe tips like it’s rolling its eyes, and I go splashing into the icy lake, another virgin sacrifice to the Deepling.
Water rushes over my head, cold and clear, and the tiny detail I’d overlooked when I climbed into this thing shouts for all to hear.
“I don’t know how to swim! I don’t know how to swim!”
My arms pinwheel and I continue to scream as I imitate the doggy paddle to the best of my ability, all while keeping an eye out for the serpent flamingo who’s most definitely coming for me now. Heck, I’m pretty sure I see it’s dark, shimmering scales slithering closer and closer.
“Hold on,” a man hollers from the shore. My gaze flicks away from the deep toward my sister’s ex who’s currently unbuckling his jeans as he runs.
Why is he unbuckling his jeans?
Maybe I’ve already been bitten by the Deepling and this is some kind of venom dream I’m having deep in his underwater cave.
Clint gets closer and closer, his jeans on the sand somewhere as he splashes into the water, his big hand outstretched for me as I gasp for air.
“Are you okay?” His rough palm lands on my shoulder
“Yeah,” I pant, still thrashing in the water like an idiot. “I’m totally fine.”
He grins wide and pulls me against his chest before standing me up. “You can touch.”
Oh my God… I can touch!
I can touch the freaking ground!
My face burns as my feet brush something slimy, and I pull them back up instinctively and scream as I lean into Clint’s massive frame.
He laughs loudly as he says, “What’s going on?”
“Nothing. It’s just gross, and,” I pause and stare up at him, watching the gears in his brain work as though he’s remembering who I am, “I’ve gotta get out of here.”
“Aren’t you afraid of the Deepling?”
“No,” I lie, swallowing hard as he lifts me from the ground and carries me from the five feet of water I’m standing in. The man is a beast. He’s even grabbed the canoe with his free hand as he carries me. “There’s no such thing as a Deepling. I’m just… I’m cold.”
“Right,” he groans, landing the canoe on the beach as he holds me tight in his arms. “Well, you should know that the Deepling is more afraid of you than you are of it.”
“That’s what everyone says right before they get eaten.” I smile and attempt to squirm down from his arms as we hit the sand, but he doesn’t let go. Instead, he looks toward me, his brow narrowed, ink glistening across his shoulders. “You look an awful lot like this girl I used to know.”
“Is that right?” I glance away, then back again. “Well, you look a lot like a guy my sister used to date.”
“There it is,” he groans, swallowing down a grin. “Hey, little girl. How are you?”
I forgot he used to call me ‘little girl.’ I remember not being too fond of it back in the day. Right now, though, it’s making my chest all warm and gooey, but to be fair, the man could call me a street rat and I’m pretty sure I’d be blushing right now.
He grabs my beach bag as he carries me up toward the lake house. “You’ve… grown up a lot.” There’s a small crack in his deep, graveled voice as he heads along the path, and I know right then that trouble is on the horizon.