Mountain Men II: Primal Hunger

PRIMAL HUNGER

By

Mandy Monroe

(C) Copyright by Mandy
Monroe, May 2014

Cover art by Alex DeShanks,
May 2014

Smashwords
Edition

New Concepts
Publishing

Lake Park, GA
31636nj

www.newconceptspublishing.com

This is a work of fiction. All
characters, events, and places are of the author’s imagination and
not to be confused with fact. Any resemblance to living persons or
events is merely coincidence.

Chapter One

Maura’s car bounced down the
wooded, shady road. Saying she was roughing it was an
understatement. There hadn’t even been a gas station for miles. She
was looking forward to this retreat, though. Maura felt the extra
pounds jiggling whenever she hit uneven road and her resolve to
find this out of the way retreat strengthened. It was that jiggling
mess that made her cringe. It was confirmation in her mind of every
cruel taunt and jest she'd received as a child. She mentally
shuddered and purposefully dismissed those thoughts. She wouldn’t
dwell on the fat of the past but would focus on a fit and trim
future. Her little blue sedan crept up a moderately steep section
of the road that led to a rural mountain fitness
retreat.

Maura had been hitting the gym for
a few months now but decided it was time to take more drastic
weight loss measures. Everyone at her gym was buzzing about the
exclusive fitness retreat in the mountains that pampered and
pummeled you all at the same time. She'd decided that an escape
from her life for a couple weeks, paired with the potential to lose
a few pounds, sounded like a win-win situation. She'd saved for a
few months, taking extra hours at the office, and scraped up enough
to afford the trip.

The road forked and led to a
national park on one side, the retreat on the other.

Maura had read in her research on
the place that the fitness retreat center had an arrangement with
the national park officials for permits to use small bordering
parts of the land, they in turn offered internships for students of
forestry, wildlife biology, and others. The partnership made sense
to her. The retreat employed people educated in being in the wild,
and the students earned field credits for school,
win-win.

She hadn’t really been an outdoorsy
person most of her life, hiking, biking, and whatnot, but she did
enjoy being out of doors. Her thoughts drifted to all the things
she would be doing over the next few days and she found herself
looking forward to the canoeing the most. She had difficulty
envisioning herself having fun in a bathing suit, but she knew she
would also be wearing a lifejacket and that would cover most of
her. The group might even be able to see some really neat things on
the trip. The grin on Maura’s face dissolved somewhat when the
thought chain led her to other water activities that ranked a lot
higher on her stress meter. Swimming.

Ugh,
Maura’s nose scrunched,
this better
not be the kind of retreat where people only go to show off how
good their stick thin bodies look in next to nothing!

Her attention redirected to
following the last few instructions on the map as the road became
more and more winding. She kept an eye out for the wooden slat
signs with their neat and precise lettering carved expertly into
the surface. They were neither ornate in the design nor too casual
in appearance as to be mistaken for shabby. Hopefully the rest of
the company was similar in design and presentation.

Who are you kidding,
Maura scoffed to herself?
You would sleep on rocks and eat grass clippings to get this
weight off.

All thoughts disappeared when she
rounded the corner and saw the entrance to the retreat.
Whoa.

Her car was dwarfed on each side
with stacks of rough hewn river rock and slate framing each side of
the road. A large intricately carved cedar slab stretched from one
rock wall to the other with ‘Barrett Retreats’ in the center and
the carving of a bear in relief on the left and right. The right
side had a bear on all fours standing in front of pine trees and
the left was a detailed portrait of a bear. The features of the
bear were so intricate she slowed the car to a crawl to view it
longer. It was beautifully done. Making mental notes to trek back
up here at some point to photograph the sign, Maura continued,
eagerly anticipating her first view of the main house.

It did not disappoint. After a
heavily wooded half mile the tree line spread and opened to reveal
a large, rustic hunting design cabin. The base was the same rough
river and slate rock that framed the entrance. On top of it were
large cedar tree trunks notched together at the corners. The
chimney on each end of the house was again the same rough rock mix.
The rustic cut of the materials should have seemed primitive but
the wide wraparound porch and the large sometimes floor to ceiling
windows that lined both floors of the building gave it a
sophisticated air.

Maura parked the car and went in
search of directions to check in. As she reached for the door it
swung open towards her and she collided with a well muscled and
very large man walking out.

His arm shot out and he grabbed her
waist to keep her from stumbling backwards down the
stairs.

She righted herself and looked up
to see who, or what, she had run into. Her gaze just kept traveling
up… and up… and up.

Leave it to me to run into a human
wall.

Maura looked up and got momentarily
stuck in the deepest, richest, chocolate brown eyes she had ever
seen. Before she could gawk any further, she remembered to
apologize. It couldn’t feel good to have someone of her big size
run smack into you. “I’m so sorry,” Maura said, appalled at the
first impression she was leaving. “I hope I didn’t hurt
you!”

His eyebrows shot up at her comment
in what looked like surprise.

Maura’s mood soured. Surely he knew
fat people had manners, too.

“
Hurt …. me? You? No. I'm
fine.”

Maura examined him closer to better
judge if he was making fun of her. He looked genuinely surprised.
She puzzled at that a bit. She couldn’t help her gaze from
exploring his features. His hair just touched his collar and was
slightly shaggy but not raggedly so. It shone in the sunlight and
when the light hit it she saw that she had mistaken the color for
black at first glance but it was a dark rich brown much like his
eyes. His nose showed evidence of having been broken and not
properly set in the past but only added to his rugged handsomeness.
His lips were full and parted slightly in surprise. She had the
irrational impulse to kiss him right then but realized his lips
were moving again. It took her a moment to register that he was
talking and to hear what he was saying.

“
What is your name?”

“
Maura. Maura Brooks.”

“
Hello Maura Brooks. I’m Bain. I
work here. Can I show you around? Get you checked in?”

Maura nodded and tried not to
notice how enticingly muscled her tour guide was as she followed
behind him looking room to room in the main cabin. He was tall, a
good foot taller than her five foot five frame, but with shoulders
so wide she could probably sit comfortably on one side. His waist
was also thick, but not with fat. It was as solidly muscled as the
rest of him. A man that dense with muscle should be clumsy and slow
but Bain moved with fluidity and grace that belied his size. She
blushed when completely inappropriate but wickedly satisfying
visions of him moving that fluidly, naked, popped in her
head.

Returning her attention to what she
was being shown in the house, she marveled at the simplicity and
efficiency of the cabin. The rooms only needed to hold about
fifteen people comfortably for a number of different workouts. Part
of what made this camp so desirable was its exclusivity. Management
only allowed twelve clients at a time, six men and six women. That
allowed the workout rooms to be moderately sized, as well, and with
a few clever scheduling tricks and mobile equipment, the floors
were used for a number of activities. Most of the workout action
was outside. The efficient floor and equipment planning let the
main cabin size stay stately without being too large and
overwhelming the beauty of the mountain views in the
background.

He explained that individual
schedules would be designed after each camper went through a
fitness assessment the following day. The assessment, and physical
every client had to bring from their doctor, would determine what
individual workout programs would be inserted between group
activities like volleyball, kayaking, and hiking. Maura tried not
to think about the fitness exam but focused on remaining encouraged
by the clean bill of health the doctor had issued her days
before.

Maura realized they were exiting
the house and she followed his lead down the path towards the
cabins. She was pleasantly surprised when Bain hefted her two
pieces of luggage out of the trunk when she opened it and carried
them like they were nothing. It had taken all of her might to heave
them into the car. To someone with that much muscle, those two ton
bags probably felt like next to nothing. He could probably even
pick her up without grunting, maybe hold her up against the wall
and press that big, hard body into hers.

Maura shook her head to clear it
and felt desire bloom low in her belly. She couldn't help feeling
like a horny teen lusting after a camp counselor. They approached a
cozy, small cabin made of the same rough hewn wood as the main
house. Each camper was assigned their own cabin and each cabin was
positioned somewhat close together but surrounded by such dense
foliage and vegetation that privacy was also ensured. She was so
lost in the view of the trees and the quaint appearance of the
cabin she didn't notice he had stopped walking and almost plowed
right into him again.

Bain set down the bags, delved into
his pockets, fished out her cabin key, and slid it in the lock. He
held the door for her and followed after retrieving her bags. The
cabin was a small one room deal. There was a large bed frame made
with what looked like small tree trunks fitted together. It gave
the cabin a feel of bringing the outdoors in. The headboard of the
bed was carved into a scene depicting a lazy creek making an
ambling path through a stone filled creek bed.

Maura was immediately drawn to it.
She bent to examine it more closely, inspecting the subtle
differences in the carving that made the textures between the rock
and the water so distinctive. You could almost hear the water
trickling down the stream. She would bet her life it was the same
carver who had carved the road signs.

"So beautiful," she whispered
reverently, her voice so soft if was almost a sigh. "Is this by the
same carver who did the road signs? What’s his name? How can I find
more of his work? I would love to be able to get some for my
home."

When Maura turned to Bain and
caught a glimpse of a thunderstruck expression on his face, it
quickly morphed into something that, if he were looking at any
other woman, Maura would swear looked like desire. She refused to
suffer under the self inflicted hopeless delusion that a man that
looked like him would lust after someone like her.