Chapter 1
Xavier
"Stupid damn hikers," I grumbled to myself as I stomped into my cabin and tore the knit cap from my head. It was after sunset, and it was cold as hell up in the mountains where I made my home—too cold and too close to night for newbies to try out the most difficult trail in these parts. I shucked off my boots, my coat, gloves, and scarf, which were just the first layer of clothing for a nighttime rescue.
It took me and Chase, the other mountain rescuer, an hour to locate them and damn near three more hours to get them down from the rocky summit they had no idea how to climb down from, and they were too scared to even if they did. We finally got them to the mountain ambulance service close to an hour ago, and all that was left was paperwork.
It was the worst part of the job—other than the people, of course.
Chase was snuggled up in a cabin on the other side of the mountain with his wife of six months, and I was here, at home. Alone. It was how I wanted it, how I’d set my life up for the past few years. And I was more than satisfied with my life.
Mostly.
I shrugged off those thoughts the way I always did when they became a little too intrusive and stripped out of the rest of my clothes, stepping into a steaming hot shower to rinse away the chill, the dirt, and the grime. A long, hot shower was just the thing after a mountain rescue like that, and it was only possible because I'd sprung for the best water heater on the market, sparing no expense to have it installed up here in the middle of nowhere. I stepped out of the shower with a sigh when I saw it was already after ten at night.
It was too late to visit Triple Horn, the private sex club I visited once a month—sometimes more—to get my needs satisfied. Too late, and I was too damned tired to get what I desperately needed, which was a hot and dirty hookup with some hot but ultimately anonymous woman before I settled in for another four weeks of solitude and peace. Yeah, it was definitely too late, so I dressed in flannel pants and a black T-shirt and settled in front of the fire with leftover chili from yesterday. It wasn't the night I had planned, but I was warm and my belly was slowly filling up.
"At least itwassilent," I grumbled when my phone rang and vibrated on the coffee table. There was only one person stupid enough to call me this late. "What do you want, Nate?"
My brother's deep laughter rumbled through the speaker. "Hey, it's nice to hear your voice too, baby brother."
I rolled my eyes, but my lips twitched with a smile because Nate was the only asshole who could still make me smile. "Yeah, of course it is. Why are you calling?"
"I have a problem, and I need your advice."
I shook my head even though Nate couldn't see me. "You run the company now." Yeah, it was technically stillmycompany. I started it, and I was still listed as the owner, but Nate was the CEO of Outer Edges, the outdoor sporting and clothing companyI started fresh out of college, which now seemed like a lifetime ago.
Nate sighed, and I felt a lecture coming on. "Yeah, I run the company now, but it's still your company, Xavier. You still own most of the company, even if you don't want that to be true." He snorted, and I could almost see him shaking his head at me. "You can pretend to be the grubby mountain man all you want, but you're still the billionaire businessman who started this company."
"Fine," I growled and leaned back, my chili forgotten as I listened to some supply problem. "Don't sacrifice the quality, period. Our customers won't mind paying extra if we have to pass it on to them, but I don't want that to be the go-to move." That mentality was one of the reasons I burned out on the business side of things.
"Okay, good. Now we're talking." Nate laughed. "That wasn't so hard, was it?"
"It was terrible," I groaned and picked up my spoon again. "And now my chili is cold, Nate. Thanks."
"Do you ever eat anything but soup?"
"Chili is not soup," I shot back.
"A close relative," Nate said, his exasperation clear. "There's something else."
I froze with another spoonful of chili halfway to my mouth. "There always is with you, Nate."
He laughed again as if the whole damn world was just one big joke. "It's Mom. She's planning another one of her dinner parties and she expects both of us to be there."
"Yeah, well, I expect a lot of things and most of the time I'm disappointed." I shook off thoughts that threatened to surface, thoughts that drove me from my company, from the business world. Hell, from the world in general. Once I'd been stupid. Stupid in love. Stupid enough to believe a woman's lies and italmost cost me everything.Never again."Her party isn't my problem."
"Don't say I didn't warn you," Nate sighed. "If she shows up on your doorstep, remember this moment."
I laughed. "She wouldn't do that, but I get your point. Though it would be entertaining to see her ankle-deep in mud in her designer shoes."
Nate laughed. "She'd do it if she thought it might get you to become the society man she hoped for."
He was right, of course. Mother and I had never seen eye to eye on damn near anything, but when my company became a success and my bank account outgrew my father's? Well, she pushed hard to turn me intowho I was meant to be, complete with pushing the right kind of women in my path. I tried it out for a decade, that life, and it hadn't made me happy. It made things worse, so I turned my back on it and left Nate in charge. "What's this dinner party for?"
"Seriously?" Nate barked out another laugh. "I know you have access to the internet up there, which means your calendar even though you ignore it. Your birthday and mine are coming up in a few weeks."
"Shit," I growled. "It's October." When I'm in my cabin, or out on the mountain, months and dates don't mean shit. The sun rose and I took care of things. The sun set and I ate dinner, prepared for the next sunrise. "What do you want?"
