Page 49 of Mountain Challenge

“You are so much,” he agreed, kissing her face.

“Thatwas so much,” she said.

“You ready for more?” His hips flexed lightly. He was still smiling, but she could feel the tension in his muscles. So she did the only thing she could. She purposefully flexed her internal muscles, causing him to groan.

“You’re going to kill me.” His head went down to her breast. “If I die, I want to die with my mouth around this perfect nipple.” He changed sides—suckling gently, so careful with the metal bar going through her nipple. “Or this one.”

Pleasure awoke inside her again. She felt full in the best of ways. Full, ready, her clit already engorged from her recent orgasm. It wouldn’t take much to push her right over the edge again. Except Ry wasn’t in any rush. He pumped his hips gently, finding a rhythm that managed to press deliciously inside her on the in stroke, then graze her clit on the out stroke.

“I’m going to come again,” she managed. Words had come back, at least. That was something.

Ry’s smile was tight this time. “I want to watch you as you come, baby.”

“I’m going to need … more,” she said. Okay, so she might have some words, but clearly not many. Not enough to explain what she needed. Thankfully, Ry seemed to know.

He raised her legs up to his shoulders—a position that pulled him deeper inside her with every stroke, deeper than he’d ever been before. He kept up that maddeningly slow, sexy rhythm, but every time his cock hit deep inside her, his finger reached down between them, rubbing her clit.

She could see from the tight line of his mouth that he was holding on by a thread. And Isla wanted to hold off for a bit longer, because the combination of those two types of touch was the best of all worlds, and the orgasm was rushing towards her like a bulldozer ball. When it hit, it ripped through her, an explosion of light and color.

Yes. Yes. Yes.

Ry pumped into her hard—once, twice—then groaned as his own orgasm hit, his strong arms holding on to her for dear life. Eventually, he released her legs. Eyes closed, she felt him rustle with something—the condom, she imagined—then pull up the duvet around her. As his big body curled around her, a thought struck her.

“Your shoulder,” she panted. “Did I hurt you?” She should have thought of it earlier.

“It’s good. If anything, you helped loosen my muscles.”

“I did, huh? Think I’d make a good physical therapist?” she whispered.

“Not sure we’d ever get to the therapy part,” he laughed. He kissed the back of her neck, her head. Tears welled up in her eyes at how good his touch felt. Before, she could have justified it to herself as sexual need. But lying here now, warm and sated, it was impossible to kid herself that this closeness wasn’t more. But that thought, which just a few weeks earlier would have scared her to death, caused her no malaise.

24

Ry

“How about this?” Dr. Barrett pulled on Ry’s arm, putting pressure on the shoulder joint. “How’s the pain?”

“Three out of ten,” Ry answered, honestly. He wasn’t an idiot. He wasn’t about to lie to his doctor—no matter how badly he needed the man’s signature on that piece of paper.

The doctor smiled, looking pleased. “Good. If you’d told me that didn’t hurt, I would have known you were lying.”

Three more weeks had gone by. Three weeks that could be measured in physical therapy and gentle stretches, but also in dinners and walks and time spent with Isla. As much as he’d hated being off work, he’d loved every moment spent together.

He looked down at his watch. He wondered if she was already on her way back from Lyon. Her best friend, Laura, was coming over for a long weekend, and Isla had gone down to the airport to pick her up. Ry would be meeting with the two women for dinner later today. Isla had assured him Laura wanted to meet him, andhell, he wanted to meet her as well. He wanted to meet anyone who meant anything to Isla.

He sighed. He was so far gone, even his friends weren’t ribbing him for it. They seemed to understand, intuitively, that everything he’d ever thought or said about relationships was … notwrong, so much as justnot applicable. The truth of it was, he didn’t just love spending time with Isla. He lovedher.

He hadn’t told her yet. Not because he was in any way unsure, but because she still seemed skittish at times, and he didn’t want to scare her. She’d told him about Roland, her ex-husband, but he was sure there was a lot more to the story than the Cliff Notes version he’d heard.

The doctor pulled on his arm—backwards, this time. “What do you think, Doctor?” Ry tried not to let his anxiety show, but the truth was, he needed to go back to his team. End of March was one of the busiest, most dangerous time of the year in these mountains—when the snow was still deep enough to make skiers overconfident, and quickly changing weather conditions could catch people unawares. That, together with rising temperatures that increased the risk of avalanches, falling ice and falling rock, kept the PGHM busy all through spring.

“It’s looking good. You’ve lost some muscle mass, which is understandable, but I’m happy to see the joint is stable.”

Ry couldn’t help himself. “Does that mean I can go back to work?”

The doctor raised his eyes. “I want to say yes, Ry. I know you’ve been waiting to go back. But I don’t want you forcing the shoulder just yet.“

“I’ll take it easy, doctor. I promise.” Ry knew his team would be happy to take up the slack until he was back to one hundred percent.

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