1. Dixie

CHAPTER 1

Dixie

B eing the mayor's right hand woman is a lot sometimes. Especially in Wildwood. There's so much that's going on around here and the movie filming that has been taking up parts of this town has been going on for months and is now at a standstill. The actress that's playing the mayor is currently out of town to take care of her grieving sister but she's supposed to be back soon.

Rebel, the mayor, hasn't been feeling well and she's home taking a break, although she calls in every day to go over the schedule and check on any new additions.

I sigh and stare off into space. Needless to say, with the early snow that's forecast for this week, it's quiet. Everyone's hunkered down and I'm so damn tired of sitting here all alone staring off into space. Nobody to talk to and nothing much to do. This sucks.

I let my fingers do the walking for awhile and do the one thing I keep telling myself not to do. Telling myself that I don't need to investigate book boyfriends. They don't exist.

But the only men I've even been close to are the ones I read in books and I need something for myself.

I've been focused on this town and its needs for so long. I've spent all of my twenties taking care of every single problem that came up. When Rebel became mayor and I moved on to being her assistant instead of the previous mayor's it became apparent that we had the same vision for our town. We've implemented all kinds of new programs. The senior center has a fully-funded program to help senior citizens stay active and contribute to the local economy. We've implemented a grandparent program because some of the kids around here were coming home to an empty house with single mothers and fathers that had to work to take care of them. The grandparent program gives them someone to help them, talk to them and keep them on the right path with guidance that comes with maturity and wisdom.

And then there's the new program to get older teenagers involved in helping to maintain property for elderly locals who can't do their own lawns anymore. Or fix a broken fence etc.

Every new program that we've come up with has been a hit and our locals are really becoming involved in helping their neighbors. Exactly what we've been trying to show. That our community is a self-sustaining organism that has the wherewithal to keep everybody on this mountain happy and healthy and taken-care of.

But then Rebel met her fate in one gorgeous, enticing hunk of a man and all bets were off.

I watched the two of them bounce off of each other, attracted and yet somehow managing to repulse each other like turned-around magnets. It was something to see. So when they finally gave in, it was like the best happily ever after ever and I couldn't be more happy for her.

But it just made me lonely and sad. And horny. I'm so fucking horny that it's like it's boiling up inside me. Like a pot that's too full and when it starts to boil it shoots out the top like Mount Vesuvius, taking out unsuspecting victims in the wake of the explosion.

I want to take out as many unsuspecting victims as I can. I want to climb that unknown peak with a glorious man and just give in to the feeling of him inside me, around me, his scent burrowing under my skin leaving me breathless.

But nobody in my hometown is doing the slightest thing for the hammering pulse in my panties. I don't feel even a twinge when the hot, sexy calendar hunks from Wildwood Construction are walking around town, their tight jeans low on their lean hips, the cocky swaggers all of them have leaving me cold.

I don't need that kind of mountain man. I need the kind of mountain man that brings me coffee in the morning after blowing my mind the night before, leaving me so sated that I can barely move let alone think.

That guy isn't here though.

I skim book boyfriend news until one lone online article makes my head pop up with shock, my eyes so wide that I look like a cartoon character.

The article is not an ad. But it might as well have been. As I pull it up, my brain shuts down. The neanderthal tendencies in my brain have been reactivated and I need to get laid. Badly. I know it sounds terrible. I sound like the worst player out there. Which is kind of shocking since I've never done more than kiss a man. And that man broke my fucking heart into a million pieces and stomped all over them, grinding them into dust.

Sometimes pain with pleasure is a good thing. That particular time? It was a brutal, body-numbing pain that felt like it would never heal. He destroyed me and for the longest time I never looked up. Never let myself feel anything for another man.

But then I woke up one morning and the sun was shining over the mountains, the birds were chirping happily and my heart felt like it was almost ready to fly again. The blue sky around me was bright and cheerful and I took a full breath for the first time in a long time and it felt good. Felt almost normal again. Felt like fresh air was filling my lungs and my soul and bringing me something new and wonderful. A new start.

And that's when I found book boyfriends. The dreamy, fantasy-inducing men in romance books who do everything to make their women happy and keep them supplied with as many orgasms as possible. Those guys brought my dormant libido out of hiding and I bought my first toys to play with and do a a little self-care.

With those fantasy men in my mind, I found a hidden store of new desires that have kept me happy and satisfied for awhile now.

But that is waning. I feel like I need something more. It's taking longer for me to find that happy place where my heart races and my body flies out into the stratosphere, shattering with each wave of pleasure washing over me.

But I've never felt the touch of a man. Never felt him move inside me, fill me to the brim with his own release and strum my clit until I close my eyes and scream his name in an earth-shattering cry that pierces the stillness of my quiet, lonely bedroom in my cabin outside of town.

But that article? That gives me hope. And I read that article and follow the link to the website.

A website that promises an encounter with your perfect book boyfriend.

And I fill out the form and then take a deep breath, sending it out there into the universe and the ether that is the tech world, wondering if I'll ever hear anything from this company.

It's probably just wishful thinking on my part but I feel like this could be the start of a wonderful experience for me. A dream that I can hold onto for the rest of my lonely life and pull out to give me the fantasy to sustain me.

That somebody wants me. If only for a brief amount of time.