Loving the Lumberjack

By Elle Davis

An innocent co-ed can't help but spy on the beefy arborist with the sad eyes...

He is lost in his darkness; she is just treading water and looking for shore. Vic took over his father's company after his parents died. He has been wallowing in his own grief.

Deb is alone in the city, not sure what she wants or how to get there.

Vic spies her through the tree branches and knows he has to get to know this pixie. Sparks fly when Deb runs into him for her very first Taco Tuesday. Will Vic and Deb overcome the physical distance between them? Will she bring light into his dark, lonely life? Read on to find out!

This novella has insta-love, insta-heat, and insta-flames, all with a guaranteed HEA, of course!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Elle Davis
• Release date: Oct 9, 2022
• ISBN: 9798223945116

Book preview

CHAPTER ONE

Vic

I KNOW I am one moody bastard, and even I can tell I am in a foul mood today. I rolled into work ready to take on the world. For one thing, I fucking hate driving into the city during rush hour. I live in the woods on purpose, but a few times a month I get called for something complicated in the city.

I guess if I’m really honest, I’m in a shitty mood because today would be my dad’s birthday. I moved in with him a few years ago, after my mom passed on, and he quickly became a fucking mess. He just never got over losing her and he died in his sleep a year after she did. So here I am, 25 fucking years old, living in my parents’ house, running for my dead dad’s business. And now I have to help some rich ass developer chop up a Victorian into multiple units for hipsters, which includes ripping trees out of the back yard so he can pave it. Fucking pave it. For parking.

I don't even say hello when the guys greet me. I just start hauling my shit out of the truck.

Yo, man, you see what you’re taking down this morning? Mike nods toward the ancient maple in the side yard. Scott said the maple is 150 years old at least. Perfect health.

I snort as I climb into my harness. Scott should never have accepted this fucking job. It’s not like we are hurting for money. My entire life, I’ve loved working with trees, preserving trees, hell I even studied fucking forestry in college. For what? So I could remove this gorgeous tree so some asshole can build a parking lot.

Mike shakes his head. You know you’re doing the oak, too, right?

Fuck. I’ll be here for ten hours at least.

Once I’ve got all my gear hooked up, I shimmy up the maple. I get my ropes in place and am about to swing around and get to work when I glance up and see something that stops my heart.

There’s a woman in the third floor window of the house next door. She’s leaning over a desk in just her bra and panties, talking on the phone while typing furiously into her computer. I almost drop my rope when I see her. She’s got me all sorts of twisted up inside, and I can’t even explain it. It’s not like I’ve never seen a naked woman before.

But this woman. She’s got blond hair so light it’s almost white, cut shorter than mine, but the way it comes down in a point in front of each ear makes her look like some sort of fairy. She’s got the whitest skin I’ve ever seen and curves for miles. I just hang there on the tree, staring at her tits for an eternity before I snap out of it. Shit. She must be used to privacy from this tree. She doesn’t even have a shade on the window.

I glance back another time and she’s turned from the desk, walking toward her closet. This time I get lost in her ass, which is so round and perky I feel my cock spring to life at the thought of smacking it. Fuck! I say, as she tosses her phone on her bed and slips into a shirt and pants.

Vic! Mike shouts up from the grass below. You gonna get started or am I just holding this rope for the rest of my life?

I flip Mike the bird, snap down the face guard on my hardhat, and pull up the chainsaw dangling from my belt. With one final, apologetic pat to the tree, I start making the first cut.

CHAPTER TWO

Deb

TODAY HAS BEEN pretty hectic to say the least. My boss called to wake me up, freaking out about his grant report. I hadn’t even had coffee and I was leaning over my computer, verifying that yes, I did fill out each section and yes, I did attach the budget.

Just as I’m climbing into my clothes, I hear the sound of a chainsaw close by my head and nearly jump out of my skin.

Right outside the window, there’s a man in a neon yellow shirt, dangling from the tree, wielding a chainsaw. I scream, even though I’m not sure why, and watch, transfixed, as he moves around the top of the tree. My apartment is on the third floor of an old Victorian house, and my windows are fully blocked by trees year round. I never even bothered to hang curtains.

I blush immediately, thinking that this man must have seen me half naked, but then he looks like he’s concentrating