Reclusive Mountain Man

A grumpy mountain man romance where silence shatters, walls crumble, and love refuses to be ignored.
I came to Iron Peak for one thing: silence.

Three roommates. Paper-thin walls. Constant noise. Between law school pressure and a life that never slowed down, I was unraveling—and I needed a place where the world would finally leave me alone.

House-sitting in a remote mountain town felt like the answer.
No distractions.
No interruptions.
Just textbooks, solitude, and miles of untamed wilderness.

I didn’t count on him.

Kai Slater was everything I wasn’t looking for.
Grumpy. Reclusive. All sharp edges and silence. His cabin backed up to mine, and from the moment he caught me doing yoga on the deck, he looked at me like I was a complication he didn’t ask for—and didn’t want.

Except his eyes followed every stretch.
His jaw tightened every time I moved.
And he kept showing up to fix things I never asked him to fix.

He wanted me.
He just didn’t want to want me.

Kai carried secrets carved deep into his silence. A past that convinced him he didn’t deserve softness… or happiness… or love. He thought pushing me away would protect us both.

He was wrong.
I didn’t come to Iron Peak searching for a brooding mountain man with a heart of gold buried under all that gruff solitude. But now that I’ve found him?
I’m not leaving without a fight.