Mountain Man Regret (Mountain Men Book 2)

  Copyright Ava Grace 2018

  All Rights Reserved

  This book is a work of fiction. All characters, places, and events are from the author’s imagination and should not be confused with fact. Any resemblance to person’s living or dead, events or places is purely coincidental.

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  Warning: This book contains material that some readers might find disturbing or objectionable and is intended for mature readers only.

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  Mountain Man Regret

  Ava Grace

  Chapter One

  Faith

  “Hey look, there’s Jackson,” Andrea said, nodding in the direction of the door.

  On instinct, I followed her gaze and barely suppressed a groan.

  “Oh, crap, hide me.” I grabbed a menu and lifted it in front of my face, pretending to scour its contents when in reality, I knew every dish on the menu by heart.

  We’d been coming to The Shack for years.

  Jackson Leigh had had a crush on me for as long as I could remember and honestly, I could have done a lot worse than go out with him. He was sweet, kind, attentive and I’d bet my last dollar that he’d make a faithful, loving husband who would go out of his way to support me.

  There were a dozen women in town that would have jumped at the chance of a date with him, in fact, but he didn’t seem interested in any of them.

  Only me.

  I sighed at the injustice of that because as great as Jackson was, he wasn’t the man for me.

  “Did he see me?” I asked.

  Andrea chuckled. “Uh, negative.”

  “Liar,” Violet added. “Incoming, incoming.”

  When I muttered a curse, Andrea spluttered a laugh.

  “Is he going to be a problem?” Libby asked, looking nervous.

  I wasn’t surprised that she’d be cautious after learning about the things that her ex-boyfriend had done to her. In fact, it was amazing that she could trust any man after what she’d been through.

  “No problem,” Andrea said. “Unless you count the fact that he’s got it bad for faith.”

  I tossed her a glare and Violet let out a peal of laughter. “Yeah, he’s in luurve.”

  Libby frowned. “And that’s a bad thing?”

  “Yes,” I hissed. “Very bad. Very, very bad.”

  For him, it was bad because his feelings would never be reciprocated.

  For me, it was just uncomfortable.

  Painfully uncomfortable.

  “Hi everyone! Hey Faith,” Jackson said as he approached our table.

  Crap.

  I lowered the menu and smiled at him politely. “Hey, Jacks. How are you doing?”

  “Great!” he replied with his usual enthusiasm. “We’ve been real busy over at the ranch. Just got a bunch of new tourists in this morning. They’re staying ‘till the end of next week.”

  “Oh,” I replied, at a loss for anything better to say. In an effort to sound interested I added, “That’s great.”

  Andrea explained to Libby that Jackson and his family owned a guest ranch on the outskirts of town, then he and Libby engaged in the briefest of conversations about it. I thought I’d been let off the hook and started to raise my menu again, but Jackson hadn’t finished.

  “If you’re not too busy next week, maybe we could grab some dinner together,” he suggested.

  At the same time, Coop passed by our table and coughed out a laugh. I flicked my gaze to him and frowned, but he pretended not to notice and just kept on walking. If I hadn’t been so surprised and caught off guard by Jackson’s invitation, I might have asked Coop what the hell his problem was, but I was too distracted by gaping at Jackson.

  Besides, I never spoke to Coop anymore.

  It was better that way—for the both of us.

  “Dinner?” I said, my voice sounding much squeakier than usual. I cleared my throat. “Uh, that’s nice of you to offer, Jackson, but I’m helping my mom redecorate next week so I don’t think I could make it. Maybe some other time.”

  It was an out an out lie, of course, but I didn’t have a lot of experience with men asking me out so I hadn’t perfected a refusal.

  I vowed to work on something that would be firm yet polite just in case the unexpected happened and someone else that I wasn’t interested in asked me out. Violet and Andrea were masters at turning men down. Perhaps I should pay more attention to their conversations the next time a man was trying to pick one of them up so I could learn how they did it.

  Men just seemed to flock to Andrea and Violet like moths to a flame so they were never short of offers. I supposed it was because they had such larger than life personalities. They oozed confidence and men found that attractive, or so I’d heard. I never got asked out, except by Jackson, but that didn’t count.

  When Jackson’s face fell and his big, sad, puppy eyes stared back at me, I very nearly changed my answer. Perhaps I wasn’t being fair to him. I already knew what a great catch he was and sure, I might not have felt any chemistry between us right then, but perhaps it would come with time. Maybe I could grow to love him.

  But what if I couldn’t?

  The last thing I wanted to do was lead him on.

  “Okay, sure,” he said after he’d recovered from the knock to his pride. “I’ll leave you girls to yourselves. Good to see you again, Faith.”

  “Yeah, you too,” I said. “See you Jacks.”

  After Jackson had wandered off to the bar, Libby asked, “Why did you say no? Don’t you want to go out to dinner with him? He seems nice.”

  “He is nice,” I told her. “Too nice.”

  She scowled. “Hey, don’t knock nice. There are enough assholes in the world who don’t treat you right. There have been plenty of times when I would have killed for nice.”

  “I like nice,” I said. “I just wish he was more…”

  “More what?” Libby asked.

  “Rough around the edges?” Andrea prompted.

  “Wild and spontaneous?” Violet questioned.

  My answer was all of those things, but before I could voice it, Mason strode up to Libby, grabbed her then bent her over and kissed her like his life depended on it.

  I wanted to look away.

  The moment was intimate and private and didn’t deserve to have prying eyes ruining it.

  It was everything that a kiss should be and more.

  But I couldn’t look away.

  The kiss was raw and possessive and the hottest darn thing I’d ever seen. Despite all that, it caused an ache in my chest and a hollow feeling in the pit of my stomach. It reminded me of how lonely I was. It highlighted the fact that I’d never been kissed like that myself. Well, I had once, but I tried not to think about that night because it just reminded of what a colossal mistake I’d made by sleeping with Cooper Brown.

  I chan
ced a look across the room and my stomach lurched. Coop was watching the kiss too. I knew he had a thing for Libby and who could blame him? As well as being beautiful, Libby was strong and sassy and a really good person to boot. It was bad enough having to see his attraction to her up close, but having to watch him flirt with her was painful as hell. Although, I suppose I should be used to it by now because Coop flirted with pretty much any woman he encountered.

  He just couldn’t seem to help himself.

  When a lump started to form in my throat, I quickly tore my gaze away from Coop at the same time as the kiss ended.

  “I missed you,” Mason said after they’d pulled apart.

  “Wow,” Andrea said.

  “Holy cow,” Violet added.

  “More like that,” I said on a sigh.

  I wanted a man who was more like that.

  As Libby took Mason to the bar to get a drink, I barely paid attention to what Andrea and Violet were talking about. My mind was full of conflicting thoughts about my life. Coop was never going to want me the way that I wanted him. But Jackson did want me and he didn’t care who knew it.

  When a couple of pretty young tourists came into the bar and I saw Coop’s eyes flare with interest, my stomach lurched. How much longer did I have to watch him man-whore his way through all the beautiful women that came into his bar? Each time it felt like a knife through my chest.

  I couldn’t take it any longer.

  Coop said something to one of the women who passed by his table and bile rose up into my throat. I couldn’t do this. I got to my feet, unsure if I should run for the bathroom or head for the door. Instead, I strode across the room to Jackson’s table.

  “Hey Jackson,” I said when he looked up.

  His smile lit up his face and I cocked my head to the side to study it. It was a nice smile. Genuine. It was pleasant to look at and I realized at that moment that I wouldn’t mind seeing more of it.

  “I thought about what you asked me and I changed my mind. I’d love to go to dinner with you.”

  Jackson’s mouth hung open and he stared at me dumbly for a beat before he seemed to come to his senses.

  “You would? I mean, no, you would. That’s great! Really great. You won’t regret it. I promise you.”

  I nodded. “I’ll give you my number before we leave. Call me in the week.”

  “I will and thanks, Faith. I’m looking forward to our date.”

  I was actually quite upbeat about my decision and I smiled all the way back to my table, feeling happier than I had in a long time. My smile didn’t even falter when I glanced in Coop’s direction and noticed his thunderous expression.

  Chapter Two

  Coop

  When I looked at the date on my cell phone that morning, I almost didn’t bother leaving the house. It had been three years to the day since Caroline Baker, pain in my ass and love of my life had been killed. A lump rose in my throat when an image of her ran through my mind. It was the same damn image every time—the one I would never forget. Caroline’s limp, lifeless body was covered in blood as Mason cradled her in his arms, rocking back and forth like he was trying to soothe her when in fact, there would be no soothing her ever again.

  Perhaps he’d just been just trying to comfort himself.

  Back then, I never realized that the relationship I had with Caroline was toxic until long after she’d been killed. I’d spent so many years longing for her and worshipping her that I couldn’t see that she was bad for me. Every time she left me and went back to Mason, she chipped another piece off my fractured heart until all that remained was a jagged shard that was too small and fragile to be of any use to me or anyone else.

  Since then I’d become what some people might describe as a bit of a slut. I whored my way through all the pretty tourists who came into my bar as if my dick might drop off without getting any action two or three times a week.

  Sometimes it was more.

  Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t regret the way I’d been living my life, but I did regret the careless way I’d treated the women along the way—one woman in particular—Faith Anderson.

  Every time she came into The Shack to eat dinner with her friends my gut clenched and I had to stop myself from marching across the room, grabbing her roughly and dragging her back to my house, caveman style.

  The crazy thing was, I was pretty damn sure that she’d let me.

  That night was no different.

  Libby was working her last shift at The Shack before she left to start her own business, and Andrea, Violet, and Faith were enjoying their girls’ night out at a table near the bar. I’d gone over and greeted them right after they’d come in and Faith had glanced up at me tentatively from beneath a curtain of curly red hair.

  I swear to God my dick tried to fight its way out of my pants.

  How did she always have that effect on me?

  She was beautiful, sure, with delicate features and a flawless porcelain complexion complemented by a mass of curly, red hair, but my reaction to her wasn’t only about the way she looked.

  I’d screwed a lot of beautiful women over the last three years and she was no exception.

  But it was more than just her beauty that captivated me.

  It was something to do with the way she looked at me like I’d cured cancer or found a way to end world famine. That look reached right into my chest and clutched at what was left of my heart, making it beat again—making me feel again.

  Her eyes bore into my soul and made me want things I had no business wanting.

  I remembered the night we’d spent together as if it had happened yesterday. It had been right after Caroline was killed and I’d been so screwed up in the head, I hadn’t cared about anyone or anything. I spent my days drowning my sorrows in countless bottles of Jack and my nights, sticking my dick in as many warm, wet places as I could find. The faces attached to those warm bodies had all started blurring into one.

  It had been coming to the end of the tourist season so attractive available women were in short supply. I only ever fucked tourists because I didn’t want any of the women in town getting ideas about us becoming a couple or any such shit.

  However, that night, I was horny and there weren’t any tourists around who caught my eye, so I turned my attention to Faith. She’d been eating dinner in the bar with her cousin and they were talking animatedly, catching up on shit that had happened since they’d last seen each other.

  I’d always thought that Faith was attractive, well, stunning if I’m being brutally honest and that night, liquored up and as horny as ever, I convinced myself that it would be the best fucking idea in the world to get her into my bed. I sent over drinks, comped her meal, and flirted to within an inch of my life. I was pretty damn sure that I’d never worked so hard for a fuck, but by the end of the evening, I had her right where I wanted her—naked in my bed.

  That would have been all well and good, but the trouble was, right before I got my dick in her, Faith told me that she was a virgin and that shy, whispered admission had scared me half to death.

  Talk about performance anxiety.

  I’d never had trouble pleasing a woman, but I’d been afraid to touch her after that. I hadn’t fucked a virgin before and I’d been so scared of hurting her that I almost hadn’t gone through with it.

  I’d been moments away from telling her to get dressed and go home when she’d slid her hands around the back of my neck and dragged me down for a kiss that I felt all the way down to my toes.

  I blamed everything on that damn kiss.

  It shattered me and I could honestly say that I hadn’t been the same since it had happened.

  My head had told me to stop, but my dick had other ideas.

  I tried to be careful, to go easy on her and take things slowly but the encouraging sounds she made drove me wild with desire and when I finally slid into her, I thought I’d found heaven. It didn’t take long before I was slamming into her with a reckless abandon and not only did sh
e take it all, but she begged me for more.

  Hands down, it had been the hottest damn night of my life.

  The next morning, I’d woken up with my arms wrapped around her like she was some goddamn security blanket. And I never let women sleep in my bed. Ever. I’d been hard and I’d wanted to take her again, but I didn’t. I figured she had to have been sore so I untangled myself from her limbs then went into my bathroom and took a long, cold shower.

  As the water rained down on me, I thought about what I was going to say to Faith when she woke up. I didn’t want to lie and say I’d call her, because I wouldn’t. My head was still fucked up after all the shit that went down with Caroline and there was no way I was going to rush back into another relationship. And that wasn’t even taking into account the fact that my father had recently died leaving me with the God awful decision of whether or not to taking over as president of the MC club he’d founded.

  So, while standing there shivering in the frigid water, I decided to be firm with Faith—to lay my cards on the table and tell it like it was.

  Only I didn’t have to.

  When I got back to my bedroom, Faith Anderson had already left and from that day on, neither of us had ever spoken about that night again.

  But we both knew it had happened and every time she came into my bar with her girls and gave me that same shy look from behind the curtain of vibrant red hair, my dick got hard enough to pound nails. Each time we caught one other’s gaze, I wondered if she was remembering the night we’d spent together too.

  I’d thought about her a lot over the last few years and despite wishing that I could just forget about her, I couldn’t help but wonder how many other men she’d slept with since me. I’d never seen her show any interest in men when she was at The Shack, but that didn’t mean there hadn’t been any others. I didn’t like the thought of her being with other men, but at least I had something from her that they would never have. I’d been her first. For some idiotic, Neanderthal reason, that thought put a smile on my face every damn time it crossed my mind.