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  “Can you tell me what is going on and where Bill is? Have you seen him? I’m afraid something happened. There is no telling who was out there and if he is dangerous or not.”

  “Well like we said before, Bill is in custody.”

  “Is he okay? What did he do?”

  “He found the man that was out here last night and had a gun fight with him. The other man is dead and that’s why Bill is in jail right now. He was waiting at Trent’s house when we got there. Trent was shot once.”

  I couldn’t believe the words that the police officer was saying. Was I really hearing it the right way? Was Bill in a gunfight, for me? I felt horrible all of a sudden and I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to say or do really. How was I supposed to get through the day knowing that this was all my fault? What would have happened if I wouldn’t have called him?

  “But is Bill okay?”

  “Yes he is. Old Trent shot through the door and Bill was out of the way. I don’t know how he didn’t get him, but Bill is fine.”

  There was relief there, but he was in jail and that didn’t seem to be right. I tried to tell the cops that he was just trying to keep me safe, but it fell on deaf ears.

  “Well Ma’am, Bill killed someone on their own property. It isn’t going to be that easy to let him go. I think we got enough to get started, but we may have to come back and get more information from you. Thank you for your time.”

  I was speechless as I watched them leave. I didn’t know what to think and all I could think was that this was all my fault. He was going to hate me after all of this and to be honest; I don’t think I can really blame him. What the hell had happened? I was thankfully that he had tried to help me, even more thankful that he had gotten away without getting hurt, but now what? How was I supposed to help him out of this predicament?

  Chapter 14

  Bill

  I had a lot of time to think in jail. I didn’t get to see the judge for a couple of days and when I did, I wasn’t given a bond right away. It was postponed until more information could come forward and the investigation could be finished, but that took almost two months. By the time I was released, I knew that everything had changed.

  I hadn’t seen Ayla which concerned me, but then I realized that I wasn’t allowed visitors. It was a lonely time, but I made it through and I was finally vindicated for the crime and it was ruled out as self-defense. I was angry that it took so long. I wasn’t mad because it was time out of my life, but I was upset that I was away from Ayla for so long. She had only been in Alaska for a week and so much had happened. I was worried that she had been visited by more bears, or more people that meant her harm. I worried about her because I wasn’t there to make sure that she was okay and that really bothered me.

  When I did get out, I didn’t even go home before I found myself at her doorstep. I just wanted to make sure that everything was okay. I know that she had testified and given the police information that got me out of jail and I was thankful for that. I wouldn’t change what I did for anything and the more I thought about it, the more I was sure that I had done the right thing.

  I knocked on the door and looked around the place. There were tracks all over her front porch, but none of them were human and I wondered what had been going on. There was a silence to the place and the more I stood there waiting for her to answer, the more I realized that something wasn’t right.

  After waiting for a few more minutes, I tried the door and realized that it wasn’t locked and that sent alarm bells off in my head. I had waited so long to see her, but everything that I had thought about happening wasn’t happening and now I knew that she was gone. When I opened the cabin door, the place was empty and it looked like she had never even been there at all. Was it all a dream? Had I imagined her up?

  If I hadn’t been in jail for so long, I might have actually considered it, but at the end of the day, I was sure that something had happened and I wasn’t sure what. I needed to know, but I didn’t know who I could talk to about it.

  So I went into town and asked around about her, but no one had seen her in weeks. I had been gone for a couple of months and that made me worry that someone had taken her.

  While I was in town, I saw Charlie and he was the first to tell me that it was good to see me out of jail.

  “Man, I can’t believe you shot Trent, but knowing him, he deserved what he got. I just can’t believe that it took them so long to get you out of there. Looks like you have lost some weight since you were there.”

  “Yeah the food is not the best. I didn’t think I was ever going to get out of there.”

  He wanted to chat about all of the things that had been going on when I was gone and while I appreciated the company; my mind was only on Ayla. I was worried about her and I wanted to know where she was. She was my main concern and when I finally got him to stop talking for a few minutes; I told Charlie that I had to go.

  “What’s the rush man?”

  “I need to find out what happened to Ayla. I am worried about her.”

  “I wouldn’t worry about her too much. She came into town right after you went to jail and bought up a bunch of ammunition. She was on a mission, you could tell and after what happened with Trent, I don’t think anyone is going to mess with her now. She is a beautiful girl, don’t get me wrong, but I think everyone gets it now. You made your point.”

  “She came and bought ammunition?”

  “Yea, a lot of it. Molly seen her at the store and she had over ten boxes.”

  That perplexed me because I knew that she wasn’t an avid shooter, but it made me feel a little better to know that she was at least getting ready, for what though, I didn’t know. I wish I could see her and since her van and none of her belongings were at her house, I was afraid that she had taken off. But if she was leaving Alaska, why in the world would she have bought up all of that ammunition?

  It made no sense to me and I had a bit of time to think about it as I made my way home to the cabin. It was a long drive and I spent that time, trying to figure out what was going on. My mind was a mess and I wasn’t paying much attention to the road. I didn’t see the van in front of my cabin until I parked and started to get out.

  I knew whose van that was of course and I started to notice more things, like the fact that there was smoke coming out of the chimney and the neat stack of wood that was on the porch. I didn’t remember how I left everything when I went to see Ayla that morning, but it wasn’t stacked the way I would usually do it and I was pretty sure that I had left it pretty low. I was starting to get my hopes up that I had found her.

  When I got to the front, I saw that there was target practice put up as well and there were a lot of holes in the paper. Maybe that is what all of the ammunition was for. All in all, my hopes were up high that this is where Ayla had gone. I wanted to believe that she was here waiting for me, but I tried to temper my response because I really wasn’t sure. I wanted to be right.

  The door was locked when I went to it and that confused me a little bit. It took me a minute to remember that I had an extra key under the mat that was still there. When I opened the door, I could tell that Ayla had been here because she had changed a lot while I was gone. Her things were here and everything was so neat. I knew that I hadn’t left the house like this. There was also some soup slow cooking on the wood stove and it smelled great.

  The place wasn’t that big though and after I checked in the bathroom and saw some of her girly soaps and things in there, it was clear that she was not here. I was bummed out that I didn’t see her right away, but at the same time, I was happy that I knew where she was now. She hadn’t been gone that long or the wood stove wouldn’t be burning and the food wouldn’t be cooking. I let out a big sigh of relief and I loved the idea that she was around here somewhere and she had moved in. I had asked her to before and she hadn’t seemed all that keen to do so. Something had changed.

  So I decided that it was time to take a real bath before I saw her and trim
up my beard. I remember the comment she had made about liking my face and I wanted her to be happy when she saw me again. The idea that I was going to see her soon made me hard and I knew what I wanted to do when I saw her and it had nothing to do with food. I was starving for her and I needed her now more than ever.

  Chapter 15

  Ayla

  It was getting late when I got back to the cabin and it had been a long day. I was out hunting, something that I was still trying to get the hang of and when I got back, I knew I had a lot more to do, but it was a successful trip as far as I was concerned. I was trying for a deer or something big enough to fill up the freezer the rest of the way, but instead I got a couple of rabbits. Knowing that I had to butcher them, I left them outside while I went in to check the stew.

  I was at the door when I saw the silhouette of another truck by the van. It was Bill’s truck and I felt a skip in my heart. I had heard that he should be out soon and then I saw it and knew that he was home. My nerves went up almost immediately and I wished then that I wasn’t such a mess. I hadn’t seen him in over two months and a lot had changed.

  I’d moved into his place and even though he had asked me to, I was still worried about how he was going to react when he got home and I was there. I hadn’t talked to him since that morning he laid down with me to get some sleep and I worried that he was going to be mad at me. I hadn’t done anything wrong mind you, but I knew that it had been my fault that he had been arrested. I wanted to think and hope that he was going to be happy to see me, but the fact of the matter was that I really just didn’t know.

  Going to the door, I paused in front of it and tried to get my breathing under control. I shouldn’t be so nervous, but I was. I hadn’t seen him in so long and I ached for him every night. How could I not be a little nervous to see him?

  When I opened the door, he was nowhere to be seen and my heart fluttered a little bit. It occurred to me then that someone could have taken his truck back here and that didn’t mean that Bill was back. But then I saw his boots in front of the door on the mat and I knew that he was back. It was a huge relief and I called out to him. I was dying to see him and I knew that I was ready to be back in his arms. The man had saved me more times than I could count and I wanted to pay him back in so many ways. I missed him and I missed us.

  The bathroom door opened and he came out with this look of love on his face that was hard to match. He was shaved and his hair was short just like I liked him. He had a towel wrapped around his waist and though he was a little skinnier than before, it was hard to keep my eyes off of him. He was just so damn sexy and a sight for sore eyes. I had missed him so much.

  When he wrapped his arms around me, I knew that everything was going to be okay. All of the worry started to melt away.

  “I was starting to wonder if you were ever going to come back.”

  He grinned at me before we kissed and told me that he had come back as soon as he could. “It felt like forever since you have been in my arms Ayla. I have missed you something terrible.”

  I buried my face into his chest and smelled him deep. It was the little things that I had missed and his smell was one of those things. I had gotten so used to it when we were together and then he had just vanished. It had taken me another week to decide to move to his cabin where I felt safer and where I was going to wait for him to come back. I hadn’t thought that it would take this long though and for a while I’d slept with one of his flannel shirts next to me. It was hard when I realized that the smell was gone. I still slept with it, but now that he was here with me, it was impossible not to soak it in as much as I could.

  “I’m so glad you are here Bill. I have missed you too.”

  Our kisses were going another direction and it wasn’t long before we fell into bed together. I had forgotten all about the rabbits on the porch that needed attention, or the very state that I was in. Bill didn’t seem to notice and all I could see was him.

  He was inside of me and it was like the first time that we were together. It was animalistic and passionate and I couldn’t help but feel like the world was closing in around me. He was hard to handle when he was like this and it was even harder for me to deal with all of the feelings that flowed through me. Only when we were both content and breathing hard in each other’s arms were we able to think straight again.

  We had some dinner and it was then that Bill noticed a bottle of pills on the counter. I knew that he knew as soon as he looked at me a certain way and it was hard for me to stop the way my smile moved up my cheeks. I had wanted to tell him badly as soon as I saw him, but seeing him had taken all of my attention and it had been impossible to go through it.

  “Does this mean what I think it means?”

  Bill was holding up the bottle of prenatal vitamins and I shook my head. I was taking our dishes to the sink and I felt his arms wrap around me.

  “Are you mad?”

  “Why would I be mad baby? This is the best news that you could have given me. I can’t believe that we are going to have a baby together!”

  His lips nuzzled into the crook of my neck and it was impossible not to make a sound when he nibbled a little harder. I could feel his excitement pressed against the back of me and the more he did it, the more I was distracted for the moment.

  “That didn’t take long, did it?”

  He chuckled as he said it and I could tell that he was really happy. I had been so worried about what he was going to say. It certainly wasn’t something that we had talked about. We hadn’t had a chance to talk about anything like that and I knew that it was a whole different level of commitment. We had gone from a week of lovemaking and confusion to having a baby on the way. I was glad now that he felt the way he felt about me, because I knew that there wasn’t much more that I would want than him.

  “I can’t believe you are okay with this Bill. To be honest, when I found out I freaked out pretty badly. I didn’t know what was going on with you and if you were going to jail forever. It was one of those moments that I don’t want to relive again. It made me sick thinking about all of the what-ifs.”

  “I told you how I felt about you Ayla and I meant it. I don’t know how I got so lucky to be here with you and for us to be together, but I am so glad that you broke down that night. It’s easy to see now that it was meant to be. I am stunned, but I couldn’t be any happier. I have had a lot of time on my hands and a lot of time to think. All of that time I was thinking of you.”

  I melted into him as he held me from behind. His hand was on my stomach and he was holding me so softly. I felt cherished and it was a far cry from the way he had taken me earlier.

  When he started to kiss on my neck and his hands moved up to my breasts, other parts of me were tingling and it was even harder to refuse him. The man was full of mystery, but he was mine and I never wanted it to change. I thought I had come here to find myself, but the reality of it seemed to be that I came here to be with him. I had come to Alaska, all of the circumstances that brought me here were to bring us together and there was nothing else that I could feel about it than that.

  It wasn’t long before we found ourselves back in bed together. We had a lot of time to make up for and like our second time together, he was gentle and sweet, taking me in a slow and loving way that was so much different than the last time. I felt loved and cherished and there was nothing else that I could have asked for.

  A while later, I was lying in his arms and I heard a commotion on the front porch that had me sitting up a little straighter. I cursed and started to get up to get the gun. I had left the rabbit out there for too long and something had come to investigate.

  “Where are you going with that?”

  He looked at me bewildered and I shrugged. “Probably to go shoot whatever is on the porch after the rabbits.”

  “Rabbits? You have been hunting?”

  “Yeah, the freezer is almost full. I thought I would get a head start on winter.”

  “I thought you didn’t hu
nt Ayla”

  “Things change Bill.”

  I went out to the porch and whatever it was scampered off before I could get to it. I wasn’t opposed to the outcome, but I loved the look of wonder on Bill’s face when I came back in.

  “I can see that a lot has changed. It looks like we have a lot to talk about.”

  I didn’t want to talk right then and I told him as much. “Honey, you have been gone so long. Do you really think that we should be talking?”

  He caught the meaning and moved the sheet back as I climbed in next to him. I didn’t want to talk anymore. We had time for that later. Right now I wanted to feel his hands on me and everything else that he could do. It was all I could think about and the more I tried to coax him along to my line of thinking, the less that it was needed.

  “You’re right Ayla. Talking is overrated.”

  THE END

  ***

  I hope you enjoyed MOUNTAIN MAN’S BEAUTY. For more enjoyment, I have included some bonus stories along with sneak peak of my other books. Please check the table of content to choose what to read next.

  ***

  RODEO RANCHER: A BAD BOY ROMANCE

  Blurb

  My darkest desire. I wanted my muscled horse trainer.

  One night with him was all it took.

  I was hooked and I needed more.

  He gave me more pleasure than I ever thought possible.

  Cecelia

  Being with him was always a no go. He was a player and I didn’t want to get hurt.

  But I wanted him. Really bad.

  After one night together, I knew everything that I had wished for was real. This was real.

  He was everything that I needed and so much more.

  I wanted him to be mine, all mine, but it was impossible to keep a man like Dante. He was a womanizer and I was just another pawn for him to play with.