Page 10 of Secrets on the Mountain

"I was a week in and still crawling up the damn walls when I told Rick I was breaking my contract."

I'm looking into the firepit, but I'm seeing my manager's face when I told him I was buying myself out of the contract I'd signed. I didn't care how far I could go in the game, I cared that he'd been unapologetic about giving the order to go ahead and give me painkillers that I'd been clear I didn't want.

The way he'd shrugged and told me it was no big deal, and that "next time" they'd plan for the rehab program in advance. As many times as I got injured, that's how many times they were willing to get me hooked on something and put me through hell to get off it again.

It wasn't about me; it was about how much money I was worth to them.

Football was never my passion. It hadn't been my plan. I was good at it and it gave me an escape from the chaos back here at home after we lost my dad and my grandfather at the same time.

My mom and my grandmother were at each other's throats over it, Zephyr was just a baby with no clue that her whole family was coming apart at the seams. Raine was a kid-- hell, I was just a kid! Fourteen years old, full of confusion and anger tailor made for knocking guys down to keep them from getting to a dumb ball.

Hayle was a senior in high school. He was already a wild kid. Our family's money meant we'd be set from birth and my older brother was never headed in any direction but self-destruction. Suddenly he was seventeen years old and the man of the family.

Football gave me something to focus on and it let me avoid the family drama.

Hayle was holding his shit together when I took the scholarship. He was working at the camp and helping Mom with Raine and Zeph. I thought the responsibility had finally given him some meaning in his life. Thought he'd grown up.

If I'd known how that was going to turn out, I'd have never left the Ridge.

"Cane?" Junie's hand waving in front of my face breaks the vacant stare I have aimed at the fire. "Hey, there you are."

When I come back to the present, she's right there; standing in front of me looking just a beautiful as she ever did.

She let her hair down at some point and now I can see it flowing in long, chocolate waves that fall over her shoulders, the ends skimming the barest outline of nipples poking through her bra.

For a second, I forget that's probably due to the chilly night air. Hell, I forget everything. Everything that's happened in the last five years, everything that we've learned today, everything but the woman standing in front of me looking too fucking much like mine.

5

JUNE

When the far-away glaze leaves his eyes, the man looking up at me is the one I thought I'd never see again.

The one I thought I'd never want to see again.

My lips buzz with the memory of the kiss we shared too briefly earlier.

When Cane's hands grip my hips and tug me onto his lap, my traitorous body eagerly complies.

The chairs are wide enough for Cane's bulk and still leave room for my knees to settle on either side of his hips as he positions me to straddle him, but the hard wood and deep angle of the chair's design isn't the most comfortable place I've ever made out.

Cane's lips move against mine, our tongues sliding in time with one another in a slow, sensual dance. When his hands move under the hem of my blouse, I lean into the warm, callused feel of them as they slide up my skin. And when he pushes the cups of my bra aside and his thumbs graze over my hard nipples, I don't remember that the chair isn't comfortable. Or that the night air is cold. Or that we need to be cautious of getting caught by a curious child.

I only remember the way Cane's hands have always felt so right on my body. Just like they still do now.

"Junie." Cane's hands push the hem of my shirt up high, and he mumbles against the exposed flesh of my breasts. "I need you, baby girl. So bad."

He takes a nipple between his teeth, his hands pulling my hips down so that there's no mistaking the hard length straining against his zipper.

Feeling his desire pressed to my core is almost enough to make me come right then.

The only answer I have for him is a needy whimper as I rock into that hard ridge.

Cane responds with a groan that blows hot against my breast. Suddenly, I feel myself being hoisted out of the chair along with his strong body.

It's only under protest that he loosens his grip and allows my body to slide down his till my feet are secure on the ground while Cane flips a switch to kill the fire. Before the flames have died, he has my mouth captive again, as we slowly make our way back indoors.

The master suite is at the other end of the house from the guest bedrooms. Smart planning for a couple who hopes to raise a family while maintaining some privacy, but in our current, awkward predicament, it presents a slight challenge-- it gives us a moment to come to our senses.

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