Page 66 of Ten Mountain Men

I explain it to them. Then I go on, telling them I’d never intended to get into reality TV. It just sort of happened. I bounced from one short-term gig to another. Then I got hired on the home reno show,1 Girl, 10 Hammers, and became fast friends with Winnie and the guys. The environment was so fun and all the brothers were shirtless all the damn time, but there was still something wholesome about it. It had meaning. We gave amazing homes to deserving people. Being on the set with them felt like being home, felt like a family, so even though I knew being a reality TV producer was not the endgame for me, it never occurred to me to move on. Until the show was canceled, and I had no choice.

I recall a conversation I had with Winnie, not long after we wrapped the final episode.

“I have no idea what I’m doing with my life,” I’d wailed at her over the phone. “I feel adrift! Totally adrift! Do you think I’ve peaked already? I think I may’ve peaked already.”

I’ve been offered other gigs since, on other reality shows, but forget perfect. None of the other offers even feltright. I had ambitions. I just wasn’t quite sure what those ambitions were then, other thanmore.

I explain all of that to Buck and Clay, even the convo with Winnie. But I stop just before I get to the part where I decided what I’m meant to do with my life. That happened while I was in the shower—where the best ideas tend to visit. The idea for my Bigfoot documentary hit me and I knew it was what I had to do. My calling. The perfect next thing.

Of course, I can’t tell Buck and Clay that part, not when I’m still worried they might react like Grumpy Luke and send me away for good.

I’m not ready to leave them yet. Not even close.

“Anyway.” I shrug.

“Let me guess. You decided there’s no better place to sort things out than the great outdoors, and the fresh mountain air might clear your head, and the rest is history?”

“Something like that,” I tell Buck. “Something like that.”

I really do wish I could tell them the full truth. Part of me wants to.

But lying here between the two of them…I feel so relaxed, so at peace, somyself…so right. I don’t want to ruin it.

“If you don’t like sweet thang, how about sweetheart?” Clay asks.

I feel a smile tugging at the corners of my lips. “I like sweetheart just fine.”

Buck’s fingers trail down my side. “You feel like fooling around a little bit more or you wanna try to get some rest?”

I take a deep breath.

“Will you try to make me come?” I whisper.

“Try?” Clay asks with a laugh. “Sweetheart, I can assure you, if you want to come, we will make you come.”

“It would be our pleasure,” Buck adds.

It doesn’t take long for them to make me see stars. Buck’s finger slides into me in one thick, slippery thrust, while Clay’s mouth does wicked things to my right nipple. We all groan at once.

“Fuck, you feel good,” Buck says as he strokes me, his thumb painting swirls of ecstasy over my clit.

“Come for us, sweetheart,” Clay murmurs before going back to sucking my nipple, swirling his hot tongue around it while Buck pumps his finger in and out of me, my hips rising off the mattress, urging him even deeper. My thighs start to jerk as he increases the pressure on my clit, giving it the lightest tweak of a pinch.

My release comes swiftly, but the ride is long as Buck eases me through it. Clay moves from my tits to clamp his mouth over mine in a kiss, muffling the sounds of my earth-shattering orgasm.

Afterward, thoroughly satisfied and thoroughly spent, I cuddle up, sandwiched between the brothers. They fall asleep before I do. I can’t believe what they just did to me, and what I just did to them. And I can’t believe how mind-blowingly satisfied and at peace I feel.

I know I don’t belong here on this mountain, with these mountain men.

But…even if it’s just for a few secret moments in between nightfall and sunrise, I feel kind of like I belong here more than I’ve ever belonged anywhere else.

Chapter 19

Clay

That gorgeous creature—who I will never not think of as Sweet Thang, even if I’ll respect her wishes and not call her that out loud—is naked in our bed. When I get up, she’s still sleeping peacefully, looking like an angel with that sweet face framed by her halo of blonde curls. Buck’s already gone.

Goldie has kicked off the covers, all the covers, and I give my eyes two seconds to devour every heavenly inch of her exposed skin before I pull the sheet up to her chin, giving her some modesty. Though I am of the opinion that it’s a damn shame for those tits not to be out twenty-four seven.

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