Property Of The Mountain Man (Montana Mountain Men Book 1)

“Fuck,” I hiss beneath my breath, as I watch her tail lights disappear into the distance. Rushing to my truck I climb in and turn on the engine. My tires screeching in protest as I pull into the street, accelerating to catch up with her.

I don’t know if she realizes I follow her home whenever she drives home in the dark. My house is on the property right next door to her family’s ranch, and even though she’s been driving that route for years; the roads can still be treacherous once the sun goes down.

Keeping an eye on Bonnie Williams has become a bit of an obsession. It started one day about a year ago. I drove past the coffee shop she works in real early one morning and she was there alone, opening up. Something stopped me from just driving away, and before I even knew what I was doing I was in the shop ordering a coffee and watching her.

That wasn’t so bad, there’s nothing wrong with being neighborly and keeping an eye on the too beautiful girl who was alone and vulnerable.

Then the next day I saw her closing up the shop, not paying any attention to what was happening around her, not checking that she was alone, that no one was watching her.

The next evening, I waited till closing time to drive past the shop, just to check on her, and there she was alone again, so sweet and young and beautiful. I felt compelled to stop in and wait till she closed up to make sure she was okay, protected.

My mama was friends with her mama, and I told myself I was just doing the right thing, taking care of her, making sure she was safe. But that was nearly a year ago, and yet here I am, leaving my house early every morning and following her down the mountain, then waiting while she gets set up, and then coming back every night half an hour before closing to see her safely back to her home.

She’s always been beautiful, but the last few years she’s matured into one of the most stunning women I’ve ever seen. She’s tiny, barely more than five foot, she’s so petite I reckon I could span her waist with just my hands. Her hair is a rich brown, hanging to her shoulders, though she rarely wears it down at the shop. Her features are refined, like a perfect china doll, except her lips that are sinfully full. But she’s half my age, and Caleb Williams’ baby sister. I’m not obsessed with her, I’m just being nice and looking out for her, because that’s what folks do in Rockhead Point, we take care of our neighbors.

Keeping her tail lights far enough ahead of me that she doesn’t realize I’m following; I think about everything she just yelled at me. She thinks Caleb asked me to keep an eye on her. I fucking hate Caleb, always have ever since high school, he always acted so fucking superior because his daddy owned a ranch. His parents are good people, but he always came across like an uptight asshole and I doubt much has changed over the years.

She thinks I’m trying to act like her big brother. A laugh falls from my lips, echoing around the silence of my truck. She couldn’t be any further from the truth.

I’m forty-three years old, but I’ve never had any real interest in settling down and starting a family. I know that there’s plenty of women who’d be interesting in fulfilling the role of my wife, should I go looking, but I’ve just never been interested. When my daddy died, I became the man of the house. It became my responsibility to look after my mama and my brothers, so that’s what I did.

I went away to college at my mama’s insistence, but I worked my ass off and graduated early, then I came back home and did what was expected of me. I started a business in town and looked after my family, just like my daddy would have wanted me to do. I made sure all my brothers got degrees too, and then the seven of us took care of our mama until she passed.

Rockhead Point may not seem much to some, but this is my home. Since I started keeping an eye on little Bonnie Williams over a year ago, I’ve found myself losing interest in the other women in town. I still go to the bar with my brothers, and occasionally I find a willing companion to share a bed with for a night or two. But for women closer to my age there’s a lot of biological clocks a ticking and I have zero interest in becoming a father. I’m good in bed, and those I do indulge in for a while, never go unsatisfied, but most women want to catch me and I don’t have any interest in being caught.

The road curves round to the right and I pass the entrance to my home, slowing down as I follow Bonnie’s clunker of a car winding around the bend and then accelerating onwards towards her family’s property. After another few hundred yards, I watch as her blinker turns on and she slows, driving onto the lane that leads up to the main house. Just like I do every other night, I drive straight past the turning to her drive and then make a U turn a little further along the road before making my way back to the turning that’ll take me to my house.

Our squat, wooden ranch style home, is wide and sits in the middle of the huge plot my parents bought when they first got married. My daddy built this house himself after my mama told him about the house she’d seen in her dreams, filled with boys who looked just like him. She loved this place, and they filled every wall and window and door with the love they had for each other and for us boys.

My parents were perfect for each other in every way, I’ve never known two people be so in love. Sometimes I wonder if that’s why me and my brothers haven’t ever found women and settled down, because if we can’t have a love like our parents shared, why bother settling for less.

Parking my truck behind Bay’s mustang, I kill the engine, leaving the key in the ignition, and climb out, heading toward the brightly lit up house. It’s nearly nine o clock, so all of my brothers are probably home, and as I push through the door the noise assaults me.

Bay and Teddy are sprawled on the couch, Xbox controllers in their hands as they duke it out playing Call of Duty, or whatever popular game they’re playing at the moment.

Cody is sat at the big dining table, blueprints spread out in front of him as he makes notes in a notepad. Granger waves a greeting at me from where he’s stood in the kitchen, a knife in his hands as he chops something for whatever he’s cooking tonight, while Huck sits on the counter stealing bits of food and eating them.

“Hey,” I call to them all, as I untie my boots and place them in their spot by the door, shucking out of my jacket and hanging it above my boots.

A chorus of hellos call back to me and I make my way through the room to the kitchen, looking down into the pan Granger’s dropping onions into. “Where’s Penn?” I ask.

“Gone out to get laid, he’s been complaining that his balls were full all fucking day,” Bay calls from behind me.

“Please tell me he’s not fucking crazy Roxanne again?” I ask.

“Yep, that girl is a fucking nightmare, you know he found her stabbing holes in a condom the other month,” Huck says with a grimace.

Pulling my cell from my pocket I shoot him a quick text.

Me – That girl is crazy! If you can’t keep it in your pants at least make sure you double bag it, I don’t want my first niece or nephew’s mama to be her.

He replies a moment later with a ‘no glove no love’ gif, and I roll my eyes and shove my cell back into my pocket. I’m the oldest at forty-three, Bay’s next at thirty-nine, Cody’s thirty-seven, Granger two years younger than him, Huck at thirty-four, Penn thirty-two, and Teddy the baby at thirty. But no matter how old we all are, we’re all still stupid fucks, and a text to remind him not to do anything idiotic with a girl we all hate isn’t over stepping.

“Did little Bonnie Williams get home okay?” Granger asks with a knowing smirk.

“Yeah,” I say gruffly.

“What’s up? She figure out you’re stalking her?” he laughs.

“Keeping an eye on her when she’s all alone in that store at the ass crack of dawn and at night isn’t stalking her,” I growl. “Would you just drive past and leave her all alone in that place? Anyone could walk right in off the street and attack her.”

“Why don’t you just have a word with Phil?” Teddy says. “This is Rockhead Point, but I suppose she is pretty vulnerable there. If he won’t do anything, then let Caleb know, it’s his sister, not yours.”

“I’m not trying to be her fucking brother,” I hiss angrily.

“What the hell’s gotten under your skin?” Granger asks, turning his attention away from whatever he’s cooking and toward me.

“Nothing,” I say, my teeth clenching as I think about the way she was flirting with that fucking guy.

“Bro, you look like you’re ready to murder someone, what the fuck’s going on?” Huck asks, jumping down from the kitchen counter and turning to face me.

“Nothing,” I growl.

“Yeah, sure looks like nothing. What’s happened?” Huck asks.

“Nothing, there was just this guy—” I start.

A chorus of jeers and yells burst from my brothers as Teddy jumps up from the couch and points at me. “Yes,” he shouts triumphantly. “I had September,” he cries.

“What?” I ask, confused.

“We’ve had this pool running for nine months now and I called it, I said it’d be September when it happened,” he declares jubilantly, a wide smile on his face.

“When what happens?” I ask, annoyed with whatever the fuck is going on.

“When you realized you were in to little Bonnie Williams,” Granger says in a sing-song voice.

“Shut the fuck up all of you. I’m not into her, she’s barely twenty-one,” I argue.

“Sure, right,” Bay laughs. “So why don’t you tell us what happened to get you all growly?” he taunts.

“I’m not growly,” I growl.

They all laugh and I sigh, rolling my eyes at them.

“What happened?” Huck asks.

“Nothing. I went into the shop tonight, just like I do when she’s closing up on her own, and she was talking to this guy. Big city type, expensive suit, you know the kind,” I tell them.

“She making out with him? Is he her boyfriend?” Bay questions.

“No,” I spit, as anger bursts to life inside of me.

Bay laughs giving me a knowing look. “That bother you, bro, that she might be getting it on with the city slicker?”

“She wasn’t making out with him. They were just flirting,” I say through clenched teeth, my hands forming tight fists at my sides.

“So she was flirting a little, if you’re not into her, what do you care? She can do what she wants, fuck who she wants, she’s all grown up now,” Cody taunts, from his seat at the table.

“She’s not fucking him,” I growl.

“She could be. She could be on her way back down the mountain to meet him in his hotel room,” Teddy suggests, his tone light.

“No, she couldn’t,” I say angrily.

“She can do whatever the fuck she wants, she can kiss, fuck, suck whoever she wants. She’s legal, single, and beautiful, what’s to stop her?” Bay says.

“No, she fucking can’t because she’s mine,” I roar.

“Pay up mother fuckers,” Teddy yells. “Hundred bucks from you,” he points at Bay. “Hundred bucks from you,” he points at Cody “And you and you,” he says pointing to Granger and Huck.

With my eyes wide I just stare at my brothers, startled by my own revelation that doesn’t seem to be as shocking to them as it is to me. As they continue to chatter around me, passing around money for a bet I was apparently oblivious to, I start to freak the fuck out.

Turning, I head for my bedroom, ignoring their calls as I leave. The moment I’m inside my room, I close the door behind me and slump down onto my bed. What the fuck is happening? I’m a forty-three-year-old man having a fucking crisis because apparently, I’m into little Bonnie Williams. Fuck, I need to stop referring to her as little. It’s bad enough that I’m twice her age, I can’t keep thinking of her as little Bonnie Williams when my dick is twitching at the thought of her being mine.

Mine.

Bonnie is mine.

How the fuck did I not know I felt this way? The others all knew it, so how have I been so blind? Allowing myself to think about her, a surge of want crashes into me, so fucking strong and primeval, I’ve never experienced anything like it before.

I want Bonnie. No, I more than want her. Seeing her today flirting with that guy flipped a switch in my head and unleashed all of the feelings towards her that I must have been ignoring for the last year. Taking a moment, I examine my actions toward her and finally consider them. Since the very first time I saw her alone in the dark, outside that shop, I’ve had an almost irrational need to protect her. I thought I was just being a good citizen, that I’d do the same for any woman who was in a vulnerable position. But now I realize that I wanted to protect her, I wanted to make sure she was safe and taken care of.

For a year I’ve stalked her every morning, I’ve sat in that fucking coffee shop while she quietly worked, then gone back again to check if she was there every night, just to protect the woman that apparently I’ve decided is my property.

Bonnie is mine.

A sense of overwhelming rightness settles inside my chest, that’s immediately followed by a growing sense of anger. Today, my woman was flirting with another guy. He touched her and asked her for her number, he asked her out.

Grabbing whatever’s immediately next to me, I throw it across the room, listening to whatever it was smash against the wall, then fall to the floor. “Fuck,” I yell, lifting my hands to my hair and pulling at the strands.

“You okay, bro?” Teddy asks, pushing through my door and taking a step into my room.

“I fucked up,” I admit.

“What did you do?” he asks, moving to the bed and sitting down next to me. Teddy might be my youngest brother, but the thirteen-year age gap hasn’t made any difference to how close our relationship is.

“She’s barely Twenty-one,” I say, sighing wearily.

“So?”

“So, I’m too fucking old for her. If we had a sister, would we let her date a guy twice her age?”

“Probably not,” he laughs. “But she’d probably do it anyway if she liked the guy.”

“I don’t think I’ve said more than six words to her in the last year,” I confess.

“What?” he barks.

“I follow her down the mountain every day, wait while she opens the shop and sets everything up, I have a cup of coffee, and then I leave once the sun starts to come up. Then I drive past on an evening, and if she’s there I stop, I get a coffee and a bear claw, and I wait till she’s done cleaning up, watch her lock up and get in her car, then I follow her back up the mountain,” I tell him.

“You don’t talk?”

“I ask her for a coffee, I tell her I’ll stay while she locks up, that’s it,” I confess with a groan.

“Dude,” he laughs.

“She’s mine,” I growl, feeling that sense of possession right down to my soul. “I didn’t know it till I saw her with that guy today, but she’s mine. I’ve been unconsciously laying claim for a fucking year and I had no idea.”

“Is she even interested in you?” he asks with a chuckle.

“She stares at me,” I tell him, shrugging.

“Thank fuck no woman can resist a Barnett brother,” he says with a wink.