Page 15 of Stubborn Mountain Man

I couldn’t lie to him, though. Now that I’d had an orgasm, the pain was back, but I was ready to push past it for the sake of making sure he got his release.

My movements were shallow, but they seemed to be doing it for him. I focused on speed, bouncing on his cock energetically. My breasts brushed his chest with my movements, and I knew that was turning him on as much as what my pussy was doing to him.

Suddenly, his eyes met mine, and somehow I knew he was about to come. He closed his eyes and gripped my hips, speeding me up even more but making sure not to go any deeper than he was already going.

“Oh, fuck, Gillian!” he cried out as he pumped into me.

And then his body trembled a little. Did that always happen? Or was that something I’d done to him? I hoped it was the latter.

As he came down from his orgasm, he wrapped his arms around me, pulling me into an embrace. I looked out at the mountaintop in front of us, across from the large gap in between, and wondered how I could’ve ever gotten so lucky to find this guy for my first time.

How could I make sure I didn’t lose him now that I’d found him?

8

KANE

Light streamed through the window next to my bed. I blinked myself awake, then took in my surroundings.

I was alone in bed.

Had last night been a dream? After we’d made love on the rock, we’d taken the pictures she needed for her friends. Then we’d come back here and had dinner before making love two more times and falling asleep, exhausted.

Gillian seemed just as into me as I was into her. But now she was gone.

Maybe it wasn’t a dream. Maybe it had all happened, and now that she had her picture, she was gone.

I shook my head at my own ridiculousness. She could very well just be in the bathroom, or maybe she was in the kitchen, sipping coffee and wearing that T-shirt of mine that I’d left on the floor last night before we got into bed.

Rubbing the sleep out of my eyes, I stumbled out of the bedroom and into the main part of the cabin, scanning the living room and kitchen for her. I knew even before I found nothing that the cabin was empty. It just felt lonely all of a sudden. Lonely and sad.

Damn it. This was exactly why I avoided getting close to anyone. The second I put myself out there, I had my heart stomped on, just as I’d feared my entire life.

“You’re jumping to conclusions, man,” I said to myself as I headed into the kitchen to start up the coffeemaker. A little caffeine would make all of this make sense.

But three cups later, I still felt confused. It wasn’t just that I didn’t understand what had happened. I didn’t understand my reaction to it.

I was a tough guy. I’d been through some hardcore stuff in my time in the military. So why did it feel like such a punch in the gut?

Because I was in love. I’d let myself fall for this woman, and obviously the feeling wasn’t mutual. It happened. I’d certainly broken more than a few hearts in my time.

But I’d always been upfront and honest. This woman was not upfront and honest. She’d deceived me, and I should be furious about it. But I still longed for her.

Yes, I had it bad. And I had no idea what I was going to do about it.

All I could do for now was get dressed, hop on my motorcycle, and go looking for her. If she was anywhere in this town, I’d find her and get answers. Whether they were the answers I wanted or not.

9

GILLIAN

“I’m in love.”

I made that announcement to my dad as I sat in the passenger seat of his SUV, my swollen ankle on the floorboard in front of me. I’d woken up at seven a.m. and limped my way out of Kane’s cabin, hopping around until I got cell phone reception. I managed to get one bar. It had probably been a good fifty steps from his front door. Fifty awkward, somewhat painful steps.

When my dad showed up, I limped my way to meet him at the winding road leading down from this mountain. It was on the other side of Kane’s cabin from the hiking trail, so it had required a good one hundred or more steps, but I’d made it.

“You’re in love,” Dad said, glancing over at me. “With whom?”

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