Page 1 of Axe Marks the Spot

1

Lindsey

YOU KNOW THAT LIMBO between exhausted and horny? That state of being where you want to face-plant into bed, but you could really go for a good orgasm…or two?

No? Just me?

“Mom!” Kas yells, scaring the shit out of me to the point where I jump, hand flying over my chest as my heart beats rapidly.

“Goodness, Kasandra. I’m right here.”

My eight-year-old rolls her eyes at me from across the picnic table. It’s her new favorite way to express her annoyance, one I’ve tried and failed to nip in the bud.

“I’ve been calling you for five minutes,” she chides.

“You have not been,” I assure her.

“She yelled it five times.”

I flick my gaze to my brother, Nathan, who’s sitting next to Kas. His scruffy face is lit with a smile, but there’s concern in his earthy brown eyes as he takes a bite of his funnel cake.

I hold back a sigh and give my attention to Kas, who’s shifting on her butt excitedly as if she’s ready to take off and run somewhere. Which is odd to me because she hates running.

“I’m sorry.” I exhale and put a smile on. “What do you need, honey?”

“Uncle Nate said there’s a kids’ obstacle course. I was asking if I could go.”

“I thought you wanted to watch the speed pole climbing.” I check the time on my phone. “It starts in thirty minutes.”

“You want to watch that, Mom.”

Nathan chuckles, and I bite the inside of my cheek. My kid is becoming sassier every day, a trait I fear she inherited from both me and my smart-ass brother.

“I’ll take her. You can go watch loggers climb poles.” He waggles his dark eyebrows at me, and I glare at him.

“Yeah, Mom,” Kas adds, Nathan’s innuendo thankfully going over her head.

I take a sip of my sweating lemonade, the cold condensation on the cup feeling good against the heated skin of my hand. It’s July, and while it’s fairly cool in our little mountain town of Starlight Haven during the summers, it’s still hot enough that I’m sweating even while wearing a tank and shorts.

I look from my bouncing kid, who’s had too much sugar today, to my younger brother, who’s observing me with interest. I’m still getting used to the fact that he looks like a logger now. The once clean-shaven, ex-corporate businessman used to wear button-up shirts, slacks, and loafers. Now, he’s in a T-shirt that sports the logo of the logging company that Morgan and Fox, his partners and soon-to-be husband and wife, own and a pair of jeans with red suspenders. His tapered brown hair is still neatly styled, but the beard and laid-back look throw me every time. It’s been a year and a half since he met them, and yet it feels like he’s transformed overnight.

“Okay, but you have to promise to stay in your Uncle Nate’s line of sight.”

“I’m eight,” she groans.

Nathan holds in his chuckle, but a bit of a snort breaks through. God, this kid. I should be grateful she inherited my and my brother’s cheek over the stick-up-his-ass personality of my ex-husband, Jeremy, but sometimes it’s a lot. Especially when I’m tired, overworked, and in desperate need of…well, release.

It’s been years now since I’ve had sex that wasn’t with a silicone dick. Two years, to be exact. I feel as if my pussy is gnawing at the bars of my self-imposed chastity.

God, Nathan is right. I do want to watch loggers climb poles. And it would be nice if I was climbing one of their poles, too.

“Sis?”

I flush, and I snap my eyes to his. I should not be thinking about that right now. What the hell is wrong with me?

You’re exhausted and horny, remember?

I push back the thought and shoot Kas the classic mom-eyebrow, head tilted just enough in question. “And you won’t try to ditch your uncle?”