Page 5 of Secrets on the Mountain

"This isn't going to happen." I hold up the papers she expected me to sign without question. "When you said you needed papers signed, this is the last thing I was expecting."

"What were you expecting, Cane?"

Sounds like the fight's gone out of both of us.

Junie leans against the wall like she needs it to hold her up and my pacing slows to a stop not far from her, both of us careful to keep the car within sight and our voices low now.

"I thought you'd be handing me a bunch of shit about child support," I admit. "I was looking for the request for a lump sum for back support, what you expect me to pay you going forward. Figured your attorney would be smart enough to go after a portion of the family trust, make sure my boy gets the inheritance he's entitled to.

"I thought I'd find a custody proposal in there, for fucks sake. Not a bunch of places to sign away my rights like he's not even mine."

Junie's staring at me with wide eyes that tell me my reaction is a far cry from what she'd been prepared for.

"We don't need your money, Cane." She sounds insulted.

"Don't tell me you came all the way up here with him in tow thinking I'd sign your papers and let you walk out of my life-- again. Shit, Junie, you know me better than that.

"At least...you used to."

"You're right, Cane; I used to know you better than that. The man I knew would never have let us get to this point in the first place. But that man disappeared a long time ago. So, yeah, I kind of figured you'd be more than happy to sign off and let us get on with our lives."

The feel of the legal envelope in my hand is dry and suddenly a lot heavier than a few sheets of paper ought to be.

A few years back, Rapid Jones adopted Doc's boy. I remember the Joneses threw a big father's day party for him and Jackson up at their River Bend property, with half the town coming out to celebrate the fact that the kid's deadbeat dad was so happy to sign away his parental rights and let another man be a real dad for his kid.

"You married now?"

My eyes slide to Junie's left hand. I shouldn't feel so relieved to see the bare ring finger, but the feeling still barrels through me like a train.

Junie clenches her hand up and rolls the bare fingers into the dip of her waist like the mere suggestion caused her physical pain.

Her movement stretches her loose-fitting top tight across her breasts and presses the fabric so that it shows the curvy figure that's matured since I last saw it.

My cock twitches behind my zipper and I curse the damn thing for noticing her.

She's not mine anymore. The claim I had to that sweet body has been a long time over now. Broken the day I find out she'd been gone long before I came home to an empty house.

"No. I'm not married," she answers quietly after a long pause.

The taste of her still lingers on my tongue. That one, reckless, kiss I stole from her when I foolishly gave in to the fantasy that she'd come back here after all these years for me. For us.

The way she'd softened in my grasp, melded against me, opened up and let me in like nothing had changed between us after all this time-- I don't know if there's another man in her life now, but it's clear she still belongs to me.

"You got a new man? Is he thinking he's going to adopt my boy? Is that why you never told me about him before now?"

Junie must have gotten her second wind. Rage darkens her face and, God help me, but even seeing the fury of hell itself etched on the woman's features isn't enough to keep me from wanting her still.

"Fuck you, Hurricane," she spits as she pushes away from the wall she's been leaning on. "You're the only reason you didn't know you had a son, so don't try to play the victim in this one.

"Now that I know where the fuck you are, you can talk to my lawyer instead of putting me through your gas-lighting bullshit."

Before she can take more than one step toward her car, I have my hands planted against the wall on either side of her.

"You two aren't leaving my sight." It comes out on a snarl. I've seen men near my own size cower in fear from me, but the woman caged between my arms doesn't look the least bit scared of me.

The pulse in her neck is beating visibly, her breaths are quick and shallow, and her pupils are so blown-out that the darkness makes the clear green irises take on a stormy gray hue.

Her lips part, maybe she was planning on telling me to get fucked-- being this close to her, with the fruity smell of her shampoo invading my nostrils and the heat that's rolling off of her body making my dick respond like it's answering a call neither of us made-- if she wants me to get fucked, I'm willing to comply.

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