His Frozen Heart: A Mountain Man Romance Read online

  His Frozen Heart

  Georgia Le Carre

  His Frozen Heart

  Copyright © 2018 by Georgia Le Carre

  The right of Georgia Le Carre to be identified as the Author of the Work has been asserted by her in accordance with the copyright, designs and patent act 1988.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that which it is published.

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  978-1-910575-80-2

  Created with Vellum

  Contents

  Author Note

  Prologue

  1. Katrina

  2. Katrina

  3. Cade

  4. Cade

  5. Katrina

  6. Katrina

  7. Cade

  8. Cade

  9. Katrina

  10. Katrina

  11. Katrina

  12. Cade

  13. Cade

  14. Katrina

  15. Katrina

  16. Katrina

  17. Cade

  18. Cade

  19. Katrina

  20. Katrina

  21. Katrina

  22. Katrina

  23. Cade

  24. Cade

  25. Cade

  26. Cade

  27. Cade

  28. Cade

  29. Katrina

  30. Katrina

  31. Cade

  32. Katrina

  33. Katrina

  34. Cade

  35. Lynn

  36. Katrina

  37. Cade

  38. Katrina

  39. Cade

  40. Cade

  41. Cade

  42. Katrina

  43. Epilogue

  44. Epilogue II

  Blind Reader Wanted

  Appreciations

  Author Note

  Quote

  1. Lara

  2. Lara

  3. Kit

  4. Kit

  5. Lara

  6. Kit

  7. Lara

  8. Kit

  9. Lara

  10. Lara

  11. Kit

  12. Lara

  13. Lara

  14. Lara

  15. Lara

  16. Kit

  17. Kit

  18. Kit

  19. Lara

  20. Kit

  21. Lara

  22. Lara

  23. Lara

  24. Kit

  25. Kit

  26. Kit

  27. Kit

  28. Lara

  29. Lara

  30. Kit

  31. Lara

  32. Lara

  33. Lara

  34. Kit

  35. Lara

  36. Kit

  37. Lara

  38. Lara

  39. Lara

  40. Lara

  41. Lara

  42. Kit

  43. Lara

  44. Lara

  45. Kit

  46. Kit

  47. Lara

  48. Lara

  49. Kit

  50. Lara

  Epilogue 1

  Epilogue 2

  Hypnotized

  Untitled

  Quote

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Marlborough Hall

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Quote

  Chapter 26

  Quote

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Quote

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Quote

  Epilogue

  Nanny & The Beast

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  About The Author

  Author Note

  Dogwood Pass is another fictional American landscape that exists only in my mind. So don’t go looking for it on the map. :)

  His Frozen Heart is a full length 50,000+ word standalone with no cliffhanger and a HEA.

  This file also includes additional content for you to enjoy.

  Don’t forget

  to look out for the sneak peek of my latest WIP

  NANNY & THE BEAST

  Prologue

  Cade

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDM0yAJjlBo

  I didn’t lift my head from the spreadsheet I was examining even though I’d heard my wife come into the room. She shut the door with a firm click.

  “What do you want, Christine?”

  “I want you to fucking look at me.”

  I put my finger on the last figure I had just studied to mark it, and looked up at her. She had been drinking. Her cheeks were flushed. Her bee stung lips were trembling and her fists were clenched at her sides with temper. She looked like what she was. The spoilt, little rich girl whose latest whim hadn’t been indulged.

  We stared at each other. She bore little resemblance to the woman I married five years ago. Then she had been laughing, fresh faced, head over heels in love with me. Even her face was completely different. Since then she had allowed a slew of plastic surgeons to work on it. Pumping it with silicone, removing bits, adding bits. Until she looked like a parody of herself.

  “What do you want, Christine?” I repeated.

  “A man tried to pick me up on the street today.”

  “Did you go?”

  “Fuck you,” she screamed. “Why can’t you be normal? Why can’t you be like other husbands. They care if other men want to fuck their wives. Show some jealousy. Show me you still care.” She took a step forward. “You used to think I was beautiful.”

  “You are beautiful,” I said. Not to me, but no doubt to a lot of other men.

  “I want to be beautiful to you. All I want is a bit of attention, Cade. Once you wanted me. Remember, how good it used to be between us. I was good enough for you to marry me.”

  “I married you because you were pregnant,” I reminded coldly.

  “And aren’t you glad you did. Because of me you have Aria and Arron? Or would you rather I had an abortion?”

  My finger lifted off the number on the page, but my expression did not change. Sometimes I wished my wife would never speak to me, because every time she did, she invaria
bly made me dislike her more. An image of my innocent twins flashed into my mind. “What mother in her right mind would ever say something like that about her own children?”

  “A mother who is desperate for some love from her husband,” she cried.

  “I don’t love you, Christine. I never have and never will. You can go out and pretend to the world that you are the beloved wife of Cade Motenson and the mother of his children, but you don’t get to pretend that I owe you a damn thing except lend you my name. You made a bargain with the devil when you decided to trick me into this sham marriage.”

  “You know I did it because I loved you. I still love you,” she declared passionately.

  “Don’t waste your love on me. I’d kill it, if I were you.”

  “You’re a heartless monster, Cade. Heartless. But I’ll teach you. I’ll teach you to feel pain.” She whirled around and flew out of my study.

  I found the number on my spreadsheet and continued breaking down the stats for the Transcorp deal. It was worth over a billion dollars. A billion I did not need, but I enjoyed the process of acquiring it. I was a confirmed workaholic Type A personality. The only rush I had left in life was from closing a massive deal, of winning.

  Even before the sound of my unhappy wife’s stilettos had died away in the corridor I had already forgotten about her threat. But she had not.

  She made good on her promise. In a way I could never, ever have imagined.

  Katrina

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTCDVfMz15M

  (You gotta get up and try, try, try)

  “Hey, girl!” a man’s voice called.

  Instantly on guard, I turned and saw a man stand from his stool at the diner counter and start walking towards me. Before starting my climb up Dogwood Pass I’d stopped for a bottle of soda and a packet of cookies at the roadside convenience store in the valley.

  He slapped his thigh, as if unable to contain his excitement. “Man, I didn’t think I’d ever see you again.”

  I could smell he’d just smoked a blunt.

  “Chuck, Chuck Pearson,” he supplied with a broad grin.

  I frowned and looked at him blankly. I still couldn’t place the face, the name, or connect the enthusiasm with a remote friendship or commonality … which could only mean one thing. “Oh, um …”

  “You’re a long way from home. How are you? What are you doing around these parts? Not living down here now, are you?” He was firing questions at me faster than I could answer.

  I took a backward step. “No, I’m just passing through.”

  “That’s a damn shame.”

  I smiled politely, and he scratched his jaw. “Man, what’s it been? Almost two years since we last saw each other?”

  He remembered me from two years ago? Wow! Life in Dogwood Pass Valley must be truly uneventful. I took another step back. “Yeah, well, I’m sorry, but I don’t quite remember you.”

  “I guess you wouldn’t,” he said nodding. Then he leaned in closer to me and dropped his eyes to my breasts. “It was just that one night in Denver after all.” He winked at me like he knew dirty secrets about me. I zipped up my parka to get his lecherous eyes out of there.

  “Must have been someone else, Chuck. I haven’t been to Denver in years.”

  “Naw, naw it was you. I’d recognize you anywhere, darlin’.”

  “Listen, I got to hit the road.”

  “Aw, come on. Wait around, have some cherry pie with me. They got good coffee here.”

  I grabbed my brown paper sack from the counter. “I really got to go. Got to get over the pass before the snow gets too heavy.”

  “Well, you want me to put chains on your tires for you?” he shouted after me.

  “Thanks, but I got it. I’m all good.”

  “Oh, I know that, Katrina. I know that.” He laughed in a way that disgusted me. He was thinking about me the way he saw me in Denver.

  Katrina

  My blood was boiling as I put the tire chains on. Damn men. My whole life they’d been nothing but trouble. The only way I’d crawled out of the rubble of my life was to play their game. Either way, I came out feeling broken, but hey, that’s life when a girl carried the burden of a sick sister on her shoulders.

  I got into my shitty car and glanced back towards the store. Chuck came out and stared at me as he swaggered towards his truck. His smile was gone.

  My stomach twisted. “You better not follow me,” I muttered under my breath. The bastard sat in his car leering at me. Determined not to let him rattle me, I rubbed my frozen hands together and turned my key, but of course, my ancient engine took its sweet ass time firing up. I knew he was enjoying my discomfort, but finally, my car revved and Chuck fired up his in response.

  “Asshole,” I cursed, my breath exhaling in a mist. Pulling out, I drove an indirect route to the highway just to see if Chuck was planning on a ride along. He was. I slammed on the gas as a light turned red leaving Chuck caught at least two cars behind me.

  “Ha, ha. You stupid pig! Go your own way.”

  Snow fell softly as I entered the highway going over the narrow mountain pass. Dogwood was one of the most beautiful scenic drives in America, but also one of the most dangerous. Before I set off I did some research and learned it was famous for hairpin turns, overhangs and passages without a guardrail. Mistakes could cost you on Dogwood Pass.

  “Snowfall is going to get heavy tonight, folks! Set your alarm clocks a little early and get those shovels ready. We’re gonna get dumped on,” the DJ said.

  Turns out I was on a pop channel. Some teenybopper band started to croon about undying love. I scanned for classic rock stations so I didn’t have to listen to their irritating jingle, but it was no use. Everything on the dial turned to static, and the radio was the height of technology in my ancient car. I switched it off.

  Clunk, clunk, clunk

  Damn, those chains didn’t sound good. At the lookout point at the top of the pass, I pulled over. Bundling into my hat and gloves, I hopped out of the car to check the chains.

  “Shit.”

  I didn’t know much about cars, but the set on the passenger side was definitely on its last threads. If I was lucky it would get me over the pass, but I’d have to replace them as soon as I got to the valley. Not that I had money for tire chains, but no doubt, I’d figure something out. Always did.

  There were a few tourists taking pictures of the vista. I chuckled at one couple that got out, took a photo as fast as they could, then ran back to their car. Like me they were freezing their asses off.

  “That’s it, take in the beauty,” I said sarcastically, but even as the words left my lips, I realized the only things I’d actually really looked at up here were my tires. And what a pity that was. It was totally stunning. So perfectly beautiful it was hard to comprehend it was real. I took in my own moment of wonder at the majesty of the mountains.

  Then, I pulled the stinging cold air deep into my lungs and wished for this spot to mark the midpoint between my old life and the new one I was dreaming of beginning. I had one job left to do, and that was it. It was only a simple thing and if I saw it to the finish line, I could pay for my sister’s operation.

  Once my sister was on her feet, I could start over. Change my whole life because to be honest I’d come to hate my existence that little bit more with every passing day. Now, I had one shot at the life I wanted.

  What if you fail?

  At least I wouldn’t hate myself forever for not trying and staying stuck in the drudgery and banality my life had become.

  The wind heaved a swirl of white into the air, and I looked up.

  The skies were packed grey with snow that would be descending all night. I should get going. Back in the car I took a quick glance at the map to remind myself of the whereabouts of the access road I needed. There would be no looking at the map back on the pass, all eyes on the road.