Page 267 of Mountain Men Heroes

I clasped him harder as he slid in and out of me. "I do. I love sucking your cock. Oh, God, Mac ..."

At my words, he started thrusting harder, plunging in and out of me until the only sounds that came from me were incoherent moans. In minutes he brought me to a shuddering peak of pleasure that had me screaming out his name.

"That's it, baby. I've got you." His words whispered in my ear as I rode out my pleasure and as a second shockwave drove through me, he picked up his pace and joined me. He jerked his hips over and over until he spilled every last bit of his hot seed deep within my channel.

I collapsed against him, weak and boneless.

He braced his lower body against the counter and tucked his face into my neck, his breath coming in harsh pants.

After a few minutes, he stood and looked down at me, grinning. "That was a nice welcome home."

His low chuckle vibrated through me sending tiny aftershocks shivering over my skin. I pressed a kiss to the top of his shoulder and then I thought about what I'd seen right before he came inside.

"I’m not sure what overtook me but, you those shorts, the smell of all your... maleness?" I shrugged when he pinned me with a cocked eyebrow. “Yeah, that even makes me puzzled.”

I bit at my lip. “Earlier, when you spoke of Sawyer, there was something you didn’t say. A dark look in your eyes. Care to share?” I know I had no right to ask, but I couldn’t help but want to help him as much as he wanted to help me. Besides, a driving need to comfort him took hold and I couldn’t shake the feeling he needed me.

He froze for a long moment and then pulled back. The laughter left his face and the careful way he looked at me made something inside me go on high alert.

"There are things I can’t talk about. Things from my past," he finally admitted.

A careful blankness stole over his face. He pressed a kiss to my temple, this time it was more absent-minded than affectionate. "But nothing you need to worry about."

His tone said end of discussion. I wanted to argue, but a little niggling fear started to grow in the back of my mind. There was a reason he didn't want to share. I couldn't help but think it had something to do with the way he felt about me. About us. I mean why open up to someone who won’t be around for long, right?

And for the first time in almost a week, I felt a tiny crack on the surface of my happy little bubble.

Ten

Gabriella

The next few days went a lot like the days before it. Except now I was aware of the little fissure in my world. Still happy and I still had that tiny seed of hope planted. But I had to admit a cloud of fear kept the sunshine from hitting it too hard.

I brooded over it when Mac dropped me at the Kratos offices. I had plans to help Trinity sort through the ten tons of paperwork she was drowning under and Mac and the guys were meeting with a local business owner to discuss his security needs.

“If I knew just how much red tape and paperwork was involved in getting a business like this going, I might have said no when Mac offered me this job,” Trinity said when we were elbow-deep in files.

“Mac offered you the job?” I asked.

“Yup. At the time, I thought he was trying to be nice.” She turned and grimaced at me. “Now I’m wondering if I did something awful to him in a past life.”

I laughed. “I bet he had some selfish motives behind the offer. Can you picture Mac here sorting through files?”

She snorted. “No way. None of the guys. I guess I should be thankful I got here when they were just starting. I can only imagine what this place would look like if I walked in a few weeks after they opened and had to do this stuff themselves.”

She shuddered and we both groaned at the mere idea.

I had to admit, I loved this. It felt so normal. Never in my life had I fallen into such an easy friendship with anyone. Even Amber and I had put each other through the wringer when we were kids before we’d fully forged our friendship.

Now I knew Amber and I would walk through fire for each other. We had walked through fire for each other. I wouldn’t give her up for the world, and I knew she felt the same about me.

But there was something nice about the easy flow of friendship that sprang up between Trinity and I. I hadn’t gotten the whole story yet, but from a few things I’d heard here and there over the last few weeks, I got the sense her childhood hadn’t been much better than my own. I figured she’d tell me what she wanted me to know when she was ready to share and vice versa.

In the meantime, I enjoyed a friendship with a woman that didn’t involve coal walking or jumping through flaming hoops. Instead, it was formed over complaints about paperwork and girl talk about the guys in our lives.

Trinity turned and handed me a stack of papers. “I think this goes with the file you were working on. The Barren contract.”

As I took the pile from her, my gaze landed on a ring on her right hand. I had noticed it before, but now it stood out. And it made a weird sense of yearning grow inside me.

---