Mountain seduction pigeo.., p.1
Mountain Seduction (Pigeon Forge), page 1
Mountain Seduction
A MFM Mountain Man Menage Romance
Shae Sullivan
Edited by
Dani Black from Black Lotus Editing
Contents
Dear Reader,
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Epilogue
Chapter 1
Also by Shae Sullivan
About the Author
Dear Reader,
Hello there! I'm Shae (Sullivan) and I'm so excited that you're reading my book today! I've been a fan of ménage and reverse harem romance for years. I read everything from rockstar to billionaire to cowboys and everything in between! A year ago, I finally took the plunge and wrote my first book and since have written five or six more. And I’m hoping that you LOVE THEM! Stick around, because I will have lots of awesome, and devilishly sexy reads coming your way. Plus, I'm building my ARC team and looking for some loyal fans to share this journey with me!
PS: Audiobooks are coming soon, and I can’t wait to share my stories with y’all!
You can join in the fun here: Join Shae’s Wicked Readers!
Sign up for my Newsletter to stay up to date on all my upcoming books and for a chance to win Advanced Copies of my books! https://www.subscribepage.com/ShaeSullivan.
XOXO
Shae
Chapter 1
Friday
Harper
The air in the conference room was far too chilly. I ran my fingers over my grandmother’s pearl necklace, trying to pay attention to my father. He was discussing a piece of land that he wanted to acquire in the Tennessee mountains. However, all I could think about were the beads of sweat running down his face as he droned on and on about how much money it would yield the company. How could anyone perspire so much when you practically needed a winter coat to avoid frostbite?
“Take a look at the numbers I sent all of you this morning. If we can acquire these ten acres, our profit margin will increase by nearly five hundred percent.” My eyes bugged out when he said ‘five hundred percent’, but only because I was expected to be greedy. Monument Tennessee Logging didn’t need that much more money; we were doing just fine.
As he carried on with his meeting, which included me in person and the shareholders on a conference call, I occasionally glanced out the windows at downtown Memphis, Tennessee. It was nothing but cars honking at each other and obnoxiously big buildings. I still lived with my parents in a McMansion about fifteen minutes away. After graduating from college, I moved back home, knowing the next step would be to follow my father’s footsteps at the company.
My eyes jolted back to him when the room suddenly became quiet. “Stop daydreaming, Harper.”
“Sorry, daddy.”
I maintained eye contact with him for the rest of the meeting, expressing enthusiasm at the right moments. It was something I had learned to do several years ago. “As I was saying, this piece of property is owned by a guy named Maverick Johnson. Apparently, he lives there with another guy named Boone Anderson, and they live off the land. All I know is Maverick inherited it from his father. We’ve sent several emails to him, but have yet to hear back. We’ve even tried sending them physical mail, but who knows where that’s going. These guys must live off the grid.”
It must be so nice to live off the grid, far away from the smog and noise pollution.
“Ten acres is a tremendous amount of land for two guys to live on,” one of the shareholders said. “With the amount of money we’re offering them, I don’t think there will be any issue acquiring all of that acreage, sir.”
My father cleared his throat while piercing his eyes into mine. “This is where Harper will come into play. Harper, I’m sending you out to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, to meet with these gentlemen and convince them to sell their land. It may not be that easy, though.” He pressed mute on the phone and got right in my face. “They’ll probably respond better to a polite, sophisticated southern lady than a logger.”
It took everything I had not to roll my eyes at what he was suggesting. Instead, I merely nodded and smiled while pretending to write down a few notes. “I’m not sure how convincing I can be, though, daddy. We’re talking about two guys who obviously don’t want to sell their land.”
“Nonsense, dear. Besides, consider this to be a mini vacation. You’re always complaining about city life, anyway. Spend some time writing that music you’re always listening to, or whatever it is that you do up there.”
The meeting ended a short while later after the shareholders verified how much money they stood to earn from this purchase, and I promptly followed my father into his office. His degrees were plastered all over the walls, right alongside pictures of him with politicians. And he was much too short for his large desk, which he practically needed a booster seat to use.
“When do I leave for the mountains, daddy?”
“Tomorrow morning. I didn’t mean to spring this on you, but there are a few other logging companies who are also trying to get their hands on this piece of land, so we can’t waste any time. Don’t worry about having to stay in the mountains, though. I’ve put you up in an expensive hotel that's about half an hour away.”
Ugh. I hate hotels.
“How exactly will this happen, though? If they’re not calling or emailing you back, what makes you think they’ll open the door to a complete stranger?”
“Take a look in the mirror, sweetheart. If I were to send some old man like myself, they’ll practically laugh in their face and slam the door. But from what I’ve heard, you’re about the same age as them, and country guys love sweet ladies such as yourself. Use the charm you inherited from your mama and make daddy proud, alright?”
I shifted uncomfortably in my seat a little bit, trying to comprehend exactly what he was saying to me. All I could think about was how he flirted with just about every woman who came into this company, constantly telling them to smile more and using them as props when he was trying to finalize a deal. And it was starting to hit me that’s how my father viewed females: as props, something to elevate his status whether it be at work or in his personal life.
My long, red nails tapped along the top of my notepad. “In other words, you want me to flirt with these guys? Is that what you’re telling your daughter to do?”
His body stiffened up as he leaned across the desk. “Don’t pull that feminist bullshit on me, Harper. You know how I feel about that stuff. Besides, I’d say you have it pretty good here.”
There was no point in arguing with my father. That was something my mother had taught me many years ago.
I smiled before heading back to my office, which was right next to his and overlooked downtown Memphis while suppressing every urge to vomit. The door slammed shut, and I immediately locked it, not wanting anyone to bother me for the rest of the day. I would have given anything to be able to quit and pursue my dream of becoming a singer. Maybe live and work in a small town, where everybody knows your name and don’t need a lot of money to live.
Fuck my life.
Whitney met me at Memphis Village for dinner after work. She and I had been best friends since kindergarten, and her father co-owned Monument Tennessee Logging with mine. The two of us were groomed to one day run the company together, and our friendship was the only thing that got me through the workday. Her office was on the other side of the building, though, because our fathers thought we’d do nothing but gossip all day.
She slid into the booth a few minutes after I arrived. “I hope you weren’t waiting long for me, but the rush hour in downtown Memphis is fucking awful. I got stuck behind this slow-ass bitch who refused to go over twenty miles per hour.”
“Nope, I just got here myself. And that’s just one of the many things that I hate about living in the city. People are always in a rush to go somewhere, and nobody ever seems happy. Doesn’t it get old, Whitney, this living in a big city thing?”
The waitress brought us over some water and menus, and I watched as Whitney took several painkillers while wincing. “Of course, it does, but what else am I going to do with my life? If you want money, working in a big city is the way to go. Speaking of which, how was your meeting this afternoon? Word on the street is we’re trying to snatch up some land in the Tennessee mountains.”
I audibly sighed while staring at the menu, even though I always ordered the BBQ chicken dinner on Friday nights. “Well, I’m heading out there tomorrow, actually. The owners haven’t even replied to our emails or snail mail. I bet they live entirely off the grid.”
“If they have email and physical mail, then it sounds as though they’re only partially off the grid. These guys are on it enough to get by, but that’s it. This should be a good trip for you, though. You’ll be out in the mountains with fresh air and, well, whatever else they have in the mountains.”
I couldn’t help but smile as I thought about visiting the gorgeous Tennessee mountains. You could drive along the roads for miles without encountering anyone, and the people you did meet were friendly as hell. They just wanted to live their lives in peace and quiet, and I completely respected that decision. “It’ll be interesting. I’m just afraid that once I get there, I won’t want to come back.”
Whitney cocked her head at me and smiled. “I bet that’s what you want to happen, though. Face it, Harper. You’re not happy in Memphis. Working in a big city isn’t for you. The only reason you even went to college was because of your parents.”
“I just know if I quit the company, my family will completely disown me. They’ve always made me feel guilty for being the adopted kid, too.”
My parents adopted me when their youngest had turned thirteen, and it was clear none of them wanted to go into the logging business. Ever since I could talk, my father taught me all about the industry and what it took to be successful at logging. He wasn’t a country guy by any means, though.
He was only in it for the money.
“I don’t think that would happen, Harper. Do you really believe that’s why they adopted you? Because they needed someone to take over the business?”
I shrugged my shoulders and put the menu on the table, eager to place my order. “Honestly, yes, yes, I do. The first time my father heard me singing along to a blues song, he nearly lost his damn mind. He said there was no money to be made in the arts unless you got lucky. Hell, Whitney. You’re the only one who knows about the songs I publish online.”
I started writing, recording, and uploading songs under the name Strawberry Bates back in high school. I also maintained an anonymous blog where I complained about my parents and life in the big city. Even though I made some money from the songs I put out, it wasn’t enough to get by.
“Well, Strawberry Bates, if you go MIA on this trip, I’ll know what happened.”
My parents were arguing with each other in the kitchen, as usual. I did my best to be quiet as I made my way inside the house, not wanting them to know I could hear everything they were saying. My mother was accusing him of having yet another affair with a woman at the office, but even I knew it wasn’t true because the woman wasn’t his type. My father went for stereotypical bimbos, and even though the woman she was referencing was attractive, she was far too intelligent for his precious ego.
All it took was one click of my heel on the marble staircase for my parents to stop yelling. I bent down and carefully took my shoes off, but it was too late.
My father stormed out of the kitchen and into the foyer. “Where did you go after work, Harper?”
“I met Whitney for dinner. Sorry, I thought I told you.”
My mother’s soft footsteps got louder as she made her way towards us. “I had lunch with your Aunt Meryl today, Harper. There’s an opening in the luxury apartment building she owns. Not that we don’t want you living here, sweetie. We just thought that it’d be good for you to get out on your own.”
“Thanks, mom. I’ll think about it.”
As I made my way upstairs, my father cleared his throat. “Set your alarm for four o’clock tomorrow morning, Harper. A car will pick you up at five and bring you to the airport.”
All I could do was nod as I made my way upstairs and into my bedroom, where I immediately ripped off my vintage Chanel suit and slid into comfortable pajamas from Wal*Mart. Of course, a woman my age should be on her own, but I couldn’t bring myself to sign a lease when I despised every aspect of my job.
After pulling up my statistics on my music website, I checked how much money I had made during the day. It was laughable. There was no way in Hell I could afford to live in a big city on that amount of money.
I walked over to one of my windows and stared out over my parents’ expansive property. All of the beautiful trees had been cut down to make way for their immaculate lawn. The flowers and shrubs looked beautiful, but what about the birds who lived in the trees that were cut? The property looked so much better before they were torn down, too. Before, it had character, but now it was all flat.
I closed my curtains, selected a blues album on my phone, set my alarm clock, and drifted off to sleep.
Chapter 2
Friday
Maverick
My turkey and Swiss sandwich tasted extra good that day, mainly because I was eating it outside while leaning against a tall, southern red oak tree. It was at the top of the Tennessee mountains in Pigeon Forge, part of the ten acres my father had passed onto me. I knew these mountains like the back of my hand, too. There was no need for a GPS monitor to lead me back to my log cabin, despite it being a nearly fifteen-minute hike. I had been best friends with these woods for almost three decades, and they always guided me back home.
The view was spectacular that day. After the fog had lifted, I decided to eat lunch a bit early and enjoy nature before the storm arrived. Just as I didn’t need a GPS monitor, I also didn’t need some useless weather application on my phone to tell me when it would rain. Mother Nature had a way of communicating with me that didn’t require technology.
I counted my blessings as I took a long, cold sip of water. City folks just didn’t know what they were missing out on, having to set their alarm clocks before the roosters even crowed, just to try and beat the traffic. I couldn’t help but chuckle as I thought about them slamming the snooze button before tumbling out of bed, then squeezing into some suit and tie. All just to make as much money as possible.
I’ve never even used, let alone owned an alarm clock. Instead, I naturally woke up at the crack of dawn every day and went to bed as soon as I’m tired. My work attire consisted of nothing more than jeans and a t-shirt, although that day, I had taken my shirt off long before noon. It was a hot one, and as a trickle of sweat ran down my six-pack abs-which I maintained by doing hard, manual labor-I squeezed the rest of my water onto my chest.
I started the hike back to my log cabin in the Tennessee mountains, stopping to refill my water bottle with the pump my father had installed when I was little. My home wasn’t anything fancy: just a two-story house that my father built with his own two hands. After my parents passed away, I moved into their bedroom and have never regretted living elsewhere. The cabin was ideally situated at the end of a long, dirt driveway and surrounded by lush, green forest. Before Boone moved in with me, my only real companions were my dog Gunnar and the occasional lady.
By the time I got back to the cabin, Boone was already taking an ax to the tree we planned on cutting down that afternoon. We only cut them down when we needed wood or were really short on cash, the former of which was the issue that day. Our supply was getting pretty low, and we needed it to heat our home. Even though it was summertime in Tennessee, the evenings and early mornings could be quite chilly. I’d even joked with Boone that we should share a bed and keep each other warm.
My phone vibrated in my pocket right as I was reaching for my ax. It was Brandy, a woman I met down at The Blue Marble a few days ago. The two of us hit it off over a couple of beers, but it wasn’t a big enough spark for me to really pursue her. I thought I’d made that clear, but after I left, she had gotten my number from someone working at the tavern.
Boone let out a chuckle as I quickly replied to her. “Is that woman still texting you, man?”
“Yep. I told Brandy I wasn’t interested in anything serious, but she keeps asking me out.”
Boone took a big swing to the tree, and it almost fell down. “Well, maybe the two of you could have a friends with benefits situation. I hear those can be…fulfilling.”
I took a swing from the other side of the tree. “Those never work out, man. Especially with women like Brandy. That’s how they sucker you into a relationship.”
