Bachelor 1: The Grumpy Mountain Man by Marina Wilder

She needed a place to hide.
He built a life no one was supposed to enter.
One Valentine auction brings them together.

Nova
I didn’t plan to fall apart in Lovesbury.
I only wanted a quiet place off the radar.
So I raised my hand at a Valentine auction and won the most dangerous man I have ever seen.
Maverick Rodgers is quiet, rough, and impossible to read.
But when his eyes meet mine, it feels like he already knows I’m running from something.
I only wanted somewhere my past couldn’t reach me.
I didn’t expect his cabin to feel like shelter.
Or his arms to feel like the safest place I’ve ever been.

Maverick
My years in the military taught me how fast the world can break.
So I built a life of silence and distance in the mountains.
Then she shows up, soft and scared, wearing secrets in her eyes.
Too young. Too sweet. All wrong for me.
But the second she steps into my cabin, it’s done.
She’s under my roof. Under my protection.
Whatever she’s running from won’t touch her here.
Not while I’m breathing.

She wanted to hide.
He wanted to be alone.
Neither expected to find forever.
A grumpy mountain man romance with age gap, forced proximity, and a curvy virgin heroine.
He falls first. Fiercely protective. Deeply possessive. All heart.
Standalone. No cliffhanger. All swoon.