Page 20 of Whispers on the Mountain

The man's eyes widen on his sister with a look of horror at her implication.

"You are not helping my cause, fiore." Skirting Cane's reach, I join Zephyr in the kitchen, paying for the mug of coffee she hands me with a kiss.

"Go put more clothes on," I tell her, doing my best to behave and not reach my hand beneath of the hem of my shirt to see what might not be under it. "I'll be fine."

Zephyr gives me a withering glance, then shoots her brother a warning one.

"He'd better be," she tells him with a wagging finger as she heads back for her bedroom.

I watch Cane watch his sister, knowing all too well what's going through his head right now.

"Fuck her over and you'll be the next body they never find up here, got it?"

"I have sisters too." Is the best assurance I can offer him.

I remember the first time I caught Bella with a man in her house. She was twenty-six and he only made it out alive because she already had a ring on her finger.

My brother-in-law is a good man, but he knows he'll go through the turbines up at the plant if my sister so much as asks.

Cane's response is a grunt.

I reach for another coffee mug, lifting it in an invitation to the man I intend to also call my brother.

"Nah," his eyes dart back toward the hall where Zephyr still hasn't reappeared, "she'll fucking kill me if I stick around."

I set the mug back on the shelf and try to breath my sigh of relief invisibly.

"Take care of her, man. She deserves at least one man she can count on not to leave her."

I've heard her stories about the loss of her father and grandfather at an age too young to remember them, and Cane's words remind me of what she's said about the way her brothers handled their grief.

His own guilt for leaving the ridge for his career rings heavily in his words, as well as the anger he carries at the missing brother for having abandoned the family he'd left in his care.

"If Zephyr and I ever part, it will be her choice, not mine."

Another grunt, this one more resigned.

Zephyr returns, wearing leggings with my shirt buttoned high this time.

"Are you staying for breakfast so you can hover over us all day?" She asks her brother as she pulls a carton of eggs from the refrigerator.

"No. Got shit to do at the camp." He answers as he heads for the front door. "Maybe you guys come get pizza with us after we move you back up here, yeah?"

"Sounds good, Cane." Zephyr and I watch the door close behind him on his way out.

"Are you okay, fiore?"

She melts against my chest with a deep sigh of relief.

"That wasn't how I wanted to spend our morning."

I'm already working the leggings back down her legs.

Fiore proves to be excellent at multi-tasking, coming sweetly on my fingers while she cooks for us and riding my cock at the kitchen table while I feed her from my plate.

A nap, another shower, and a few hours later, I stand in the outdoor garden that stretches to the open meadow on the south side of her property behind the big greenhouse looking over the transplanted flowers from the day I first saw her only a couple of weeks ago.

We've been discussing plans for the future, her visions for our wedding, naming our children, and making me the happiest man alive.

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