Page 18 of Whispers on the Mountain

Despite her claims, Zephyr's eyes go wide at the feel of being filled so completely by the real thing. The kiss-swollen lips that no longer bear a trace of the lipstick she had applied earlier, pop open in a perfect O that has me slipping my thumb between them.

They seal around my digit, her tongue slipping around the tip as she sucks gently, her hooded gaze back at me causing me to lose all hope I had of staying in control.

Pulling back, I gasp at the feel of her sheath suctioning in my retreat, pulling to bring me back.

It's a call I answer quickly, thrusting forward with force and immediately retreating again in response to the sharp gasps and mounting cries Zephyr makes as I fill her to completion over and over again.

Through the rising fog inside my brain, I feel the sharp bite of fingernails in my back and the scrape of the high heels behind my thighs. Zephyrs cries are getting louder and I can feel the muscles in the sweet walls wrapped around my dick beginning to pulse.

I know I won't last through her climax. Not this time and possibly not any time after this.

Reaching between us, I press my thumb to her clit and circle, eager to feel her clench down on me, knowing she's about to rip my cock from my body when it happens.

My name rings off the walls around us as Zephyr comes as hard as I'd hoped. Just as expected, the feel of her milking me for my cum is something I can't deny.

I let loose inside her, spilling my seed in pulsing jets that have me blacking out momentarily.

"Never doubt that I belong to only you, Zephyr," I whisper into her hair when I've regained enough strength to speak. "I love you, fiore mio. Forever forward."

9

ZEPHYR

"...if you knew then, why did you fight it so hard?"

Cuddled together under the blankets, I'm enjoying feeling August's hot skin against mine while we talk quietly-- and seriously-- into the early hours of the morning.

He says he knew his heart was no longer his the moment he saw me on the hillside picking wildflowers.

Literally how he said it too, "I knew my heart was no longer my own." Swoon.

"It hurts my feelings that you don't remember that day well, fiore. I did nothing at all to fight it." He chuckles softly and kisses the top of my head.

I'm wrapped around him, with my head on his chest, his arms banded around me possessively while one hand strokes the small of my back.

"Uh, you threw me in my car and barricaded yourself in your mountain fortress as soon as you found out I was a virgin. That's what I remember."

"And young, Zephyr. There is a lifetime between us. The years you see in your future are already in my past. I know how easy it is to look back with regrets and I don't want to be one of yours."

"You keep talking about regrets and past mistakes, August. What happened in your past that makes you so sure I'm going to regret whatever I do in my twenties?"

Uncurling from his chest, I wiggle so I'm eye to eye with him with my head beside him on the pillows.

"Were you really in the mafia? What did you do? Are you hiding out, is that why you live up at the plant?"

August fixes his eyes on me in the dim light. The corners of his eyes crinkle with the smile on his lips.

"No, fiore. No mafia. I've never even seen the Godfather. My mother is a school teacher, my dad's a plumber. I grew up in a small town in upstate New York."

I swear I'm not disappointed. I mean, the whole dangerous past fantasy is hot as hell but this man is going to be the father of my children-- it's probably better if he doesn't have a violent, criminal past.

The twinkle leaves his eyes and his face goes sad. August picks up my hand that's been drawing lazy designs over his inked chest and laces his fingers through mine.

"I was young, impatient, and filled with greed. When I graduated with my four-year degree, I was offered a job as a private contractor for a company that operated in Iraq. They offered me more money than I could make in the states with only my bachelor's degree and the extent of my vetting of them didn't extend beyond assuring that their offer was legitimate.

"I took the job. I made a lot of money. I was able to pay off student loans that many of my classmates still struggle with today.

"It was only a few months before I started to suspect that the company was involved with the wrong sort of people-- but I stayed anyway."

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