Page 24 of Running to the Mountain Man

Her body is slack against me, her head nestled at the base of my neck.

“What the hell was that?” Goldie asks.

“I do believe that was your first orgasm. Happy birthday to me.”

Chapter Eleven

Goldie

I feel so strange.

Euphoric.

Like I’ve run ten miles, but I could run ten more. I want to rest, but I also feel energized.

Mostly, I want to stay here, on his lap, with his fingers softly combing through my hair.

What he said just registered in my still-tingling brain.

“It’s your birthday?”

He laughs. “Was. Yesterday.”

“Happy birthday,” I sigh. “I wish I knew how to bake.”

Barrett laughs, and the vibration against my side is pleasing and makes me want to burrow under his skin and wear him like a suit. Serial killer, party of one.

“Why?”

“So I could bake you a birthday cake, silly. Olivia makes good birthday cakes. You’d like her. She’s good at almost everything. It’s very annoying.”

Barrett chuckles and engages as I ramble on about Olivia and Louisa. I tell him all about Olivia and her skills. Louisa and her bookishness. How we grew up together and how I was always a bit of a misfit.

“They always took up for me,” I say. “You’ll like them when you get to meet them.”

I stiffen when I realize what I’ve said. “I didn’t mean…” I trail off because I don’t know what I’m trying to explain.

“What didn’t you mean?”

“I didn’t mean to imply that you had any obligation to anything. Or that we have a future together. I was just having a moment.”

After a quiet moment during which Barrett strokes my hair, he says, “I like listening to you talk about your friends. I like hearing you talk about whatever you want.”

“You don’t have to be my boyfriend or anything,” I say. “I know this is just a fling.”

“You can think whatever you want. I’m not worried about you claiming me as your boyfriend. In fact, you can introduce me as your boyfriend when we meet your friends one day.”

I have no reason to hope that I’ll see Olivia and Louisa again.

But the way Barrett talks to me feels like everything is carved in stone.

“I like you,” I say.

He pauses playing with my hair, then moves on to weaving his fingers through mine. Our two hands are locked together.

The moment is perfect.

“How do you feel now?”

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