Page 13 of Mountain Men Heroes

He ground his back teeth and let his head fall back, breaking their kiss. As each of her fingers encased his length, the tighter the cords in his neck drew. Damn, she was killing him. All he could think about was dipping his cock between her legs and coating his shaft with her juices. If she stroked him from tip to base one more time it was over.

Need boiled over. His control slipped. With every second she touched him the harder it became to keep a level head.

Fuck her. Claim her. Don’t let her leave.

If she did it would rip him apart for good this time.

“Don’t.” He reached between them, eyes squeezed shut. “Not unless you’re willing to take me, Esmeralda. And this time, you’ll not need a condom.” Damn. She robbed every last coherent thought from him. “You want that? You want me to fuck you and take everything away from you, because I’m ready?” Arms stretched out, he offered himself to her.

In mere seconds he witnessed Esmeralda blink back the heat and longing until uncertainty clouded her eyes.

“I didn’t think so.”

Her fingers were still wrapped around his pulsating cock.

Frustration tore from him, and he pulled away with a deep growl reverberating off the walls. Maybe it would loosen the damn ice wall that held them locked in here and they could get off this fucking mountain. Being this close to her killed him every minute he couldn’t have her.

Ire knotted deep in the pit of his stomach. He shoved his discomfort down with a tight grip and straightened to his full height. Peering down at his little snow bunny all dressed in white, he spoke slowly.

“I see nothing has changed, sweetheart.” Looking at her, he reached out and thumbed the red blush that stained her cheeks. She wore her heartbreak on her sleeve, and it tore a growl from him. Why did she let the past rule her happiness now?

“And why would it? Last I checked you’re still a Savage and I’m still a Morgan.” The need in her voice broke through, but her words served as an impenetrable wall.

“That’s your father speaking. Not you. Or it didn’t use to be. Maybe he changed your thinking. But the last time my name was on your lips you were begging me to fuck you hard, faster and deeper.”

“Your father drew lines because he couldn’t stand my father giving him competition. He wanted it all for himself.”

He sighed with disgust. To Drake, it didn’t matter where you came from. Love was just that—love. Nothing else mattered. Then again, he grew up in a family that believed everyone should be loved and lines had no place or business when it came to the heart.

But Esmeralda. His poor Esme grew up with a man whose heart turned blacker than coal.

“Tell me, has he? Did he manage to make you hate the Savage name as much as he does?” He stroked the tip of her chin and brought her gaze level with his. “Forget it. You know what I really want to know? I want to know why you left without saying goodbye? After what we shared, I deserved that much.” He walked them back until he had her pinned to the stone wall of the den and slid between her thighs.

“We were young.”

“And?” Lowering his head, Drake inhaled as he ran his nose from her breasts to her mouth for emphasis. “You know now as you did back then, that we belong together.” Hands pinned above her head he looked into her eyes. “Can’t exactly lie about that, can you? Answer me, do you feel the need to have my cock in you and my mouth licking and kissing every inch of your body? Because I do. The need is so fucking strong I feel almost wild with it.”

Her gaze darkened. “You know why I left. After Mom died...” She turned her face away and let her words trail off on a huff without answering him. “I’m not going to argue with you, Drake.”

He leaned in a little and took the lobe of her ear in his mouth and sucked before working his way down her throat and over to her other ear. “What you feel. The need building inside you. It’s like a thousand wires of electricity tapping into every blood cell in your body and pumping your libido with amazing amounts of adrenaline, isn’t it?”

Her lashes brushed against the tops of her cheeks, “Yes.”

He pulled off her gloves and intertwined their fingers. He slowly drew her hands close to rest on his chest. “And no one is arguing, sweetheart.”

She turned back to face him. “You’re right, you know. Father pulled us out of here after the rangers found Mom’s body so fast I didn’t have a choice. I wasn’t even eighteen yet. What would you have me do?” In the dim lighting filtering in through a few cracks above, he saw the slight smile she tried to hide the pain behind. “Would you have wanted me to fight my father after he lost his wife? You know he blames your whole family for that day. How could I have told him I wanted to choose you over my own family?”

“Your mother’s death is not on my family or my father,” he said quietly. “My father wrestles with that every day. She was the one determined to make the climb by herself. She didn’t want to listen to reason and got killed for it.” He hated to be blunt sometimes there was no other way.

He watched tears well behind those perfectly beautiful lashes of hers and his heart broke a fraction more. God, he was a fucking asshole.

“You know my father didn’t see it that way. Your father was the one sent to bring her off the mountain and in his eyes, your father failed. My father went to his grave believing yours could have saved her if he hadn’t given up.”

He narrowed his eyes and grunted. “Like I could have stopped you today? You are no different from her, you know. Determined and stubborn as the midnight sun.”

She rested a hand on his chest. “I didn’t say I believed him or think he was right.”

Drake stood there, silently staring down at her, and inhaled softly. Maybe it was time to take off the kid gloves? “Esme, I never expected you to fight your father. What kind of asshole would that make me? But I did expect you to fight for me the way I did for you.”

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