Page 157 of Mountain Men Heroes

“For the most part I’ve lived a good life. One filled with family and friends. I’ve loved and I’ve lost. I’ve traveled and seen horrors while on the job I care nothing to relive, but one thing in life has always kept me sane. I knew I had a home to come back to.”

Three tiny keys dangled from his hand as he held it up and tears threatened to blur everything, but she wrangled back some control and managed not to look like a sappy crybaby. “When I was on the phone and Reaper showed up, it was not to Drake but it was with my sister. I was thanking her for getting these for me.” He pressed the set of newly minted keys into her hands and closed her fingers around the cool metal. “Ivy Kennedy, wherever fate takes you in this world you will always have a home. With me, with the family, and maybe one day with our own little family. The bakery, the bar, and our homes upstairs are never locked to you.”

Home.

Ivy huddled deeper into the blanket and let the word settle in her mind. It held so much power yet meant nothing without the man beside her.

She had so many things she wanted to say so many things to share. “Thank you. I don’t know what to say.” It was safer that way and let her emotions do the talking.

“There’s nothing to say, angel, but I do have one more thing.”

“Oh?” She sat up, a little eager. What other surprise could he possibly have?

“While a set of keys are nice and convenient for, you know, unlocking doors, there’s one more thing you hold the key to.”

Her brows pinched. “Really? What are you up to, Damon Savage?”

“This.”

Firelight glinted off the edges of a golden key. An intricate weaving pattern molded into a large heart graced the top with tiny diamonds and sapphires of the bottom half.

She turned around as he clipped the golden necklace around her neck. “And now you hold the key to my heart.”

She threw her hands around his neck and smothered him in kisses. Not because of the jewelry but the impossibly sweet words that filled the splintered cracks of her heart and helped seal away the ugly past that controlled her for far too long.

“I love you, Damon Savage.” She softly shook her head, peering down the length of her nose at him. “Who knew such a burly grizzly bear of a man could be such a teddy bear.”

“Don’t you ever breathe a word of that to my brothers. They’ll never let me live it down.”

“Lips are sealed forever.” She stood and let the fleece blanket drop around her feet. “Since I didn’t get you anything for Christmas I think I should see to it that you get another kind of present.”

“Angel, I have you. It’s all I could ask for.”

“Shh, baby, and take me one more time by the fireplace.”

“You never have to ask.”

Who knew from something so ugly could come something so incredibly beautiful. Being snowbound with her Christmas mountain man wasn’t so bad after all.

He sat back and the heavy veins of his shaft were already flushed with need and his cock long and hard. She eased onto his lap and lowered herself until her sticky wet dripping channel swallowed every inch of his hard cock.

He gripped her hips and moved down to the sofa to better allow her free movement.

She set the rhythm and before long they were both breathing, the key to his heart nestled between her breasts.

She pressed her hands to his shoulders, and as she sank down onto him he met her halfway, the force building the pressure within her core.

Intense and overwhelming, every nerve in her body lit with a renewed energy, everything in her wanted everything in him, and as she toed the edge, he pushed them over with a final thrust, their orgasm hitting at the same time. Her lips parted and she joined him in a cry of release. Long seconds passed while they caught their breath.

Finally, he said, “Earth-shattering and so damn good.”

She raked a hand through his hair and raised his gaze to meet hers. “Merry Christmas, my mountain man.”

Merry Christmas, my angel.”

Fact: nothing was stronger than fate, not even her stubbornness. Except for love. Love healed. And another fact she knew, love existed if you opened your eyes to the gift of a Christmas miracle.

Epilogue

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