Page 23 of Forgotten Mountain Man

Afterward they let us say goodnight, Travis and Jude talking quietly at the long table after we all cleaned up while Eve settled in the leather sofa by the fire to message her long distance boyfriend with a promise that she’d laid out a set of both night clothes and an outfit I could have for tomorrow.

Walker hauled me up the stairs as my legs finally decided they had enough, sliding his arms around my waist and lifting me onto his hips in a bear hug. I didn't object, wrapping my arms around his neck and burrowing into him, recalling all too wellthe way his body pressed mine into the mountain as he claimed me beneath its eye, it seemed, this afternoon.

Or maybe I was being all fanciful, but that was what it seemed like he had done. I was half asleep by the time he led us into the spare bedroom at the end of the hall upstairs in the big house, surrounded by his familiar scent and his strength. My new safe place.

Walker kicked the door shut behind us and carried me past the bed, keeping my legs wrapped around his waist and headed straight into the ensuite, already peeling my top over my head. I moaned as his mouth connected with mine in a deep, rough kiss that tasted of his last coffee and the remnants of vanilla slice with a dusting of sugar.

My tongue slid across his lips as he placed me carefully against the bench, unbuttoning my jeans and slid them over my hips. I doubted they were white any more, or that they were recoverable. I didn’t care either way as he pushed them over my legs, along with my panties, and discarded our clothes on the floor. My bra went next. Then one hand held me to him as he reached into the shower and flicked the hot water on and whispered the sexiest words I’d ever heard in my ear.

“I’m gonna hold you up while I wash your hair, Precious.”

I groaned aloud and let him guide me under the water which wasalmostscalding hot as promised. Walker carried out his oath to perfection, his thick, strong fingers massaging my scalp as I moaned softly, leaning into him. My legs turned to jelly within seconds. I clung to him, turning around as he needed, letting him work out the knots in my hair and tilted my head back to allow him to wash out the conditioner.

Then he washed me too, cleaning the mess he’d made on me before, soaping me gently. I pried my eyes open, stealing a little soap to glide my hands over him, too. He tried to knock my hands away, but I shook my head.

“I want to touch you,” I whispered. “Just a bit?” I yawned again.

“Mmm,” he muttered, voicing his opinion in a mountain-worthy rumble that left me giggling.

In the end he let me clean his back and chest and part of his arms, but that was as far as I managed before he quickly finished himself and washed us down, then wrapped me in a fluffy towel, drying my hair.

“You’re perfect,” I murmured, leaning into his embrace.

“You’ll forget about me once you’re back at work, Precious.” He kissed the corner of my mouth.

I turned into the kiss, melding our lips together, and opened my eyes, finding him, though my vision blurred at the edges from pure exhaustion. “If I don't?” I mumbled.

He didn’t pull away. “Then you know where I live.”

My breath came short as he lifted me in his arms, discarded the towel, and placed me in the bed, both of us naked. Walker pulled me into his body, kissing me deeply, his arms wrapped around me, until I fell asleep.

Safe and warm and together.

CHAPTER TEN

WALKER

I hated crowds. It was one of the reasons I left White Cap in the first fucking place. People crawled everywhere. If I had thought Red Hart was busy this morning before Faith and I escaped the big house with all of its twenty-two ranch hands and live in cowboys and assorted families, it had nothing on the chaos of the town I left behind over a decade ago. White Cap had more than doubled in size in the time that I had been gone.

Apparently, Faith’s unannounced absence was a big damn deal. The locals needed to know she was safe. Returned unharmed. People touched her. Hugged her. Bought her coffee. The newspaper turned up and took her picture, for fuck’s safe. The police, I understood. Even the radio station decided to get in on the act.

Some of the shops near her business decided to poke their noses in. Clients brought her flowers. She didn’t die. Okay, so her car made headlines. She wasn’t in it. But you know who never turned up? Family. Friends. Those people seemed to be missing from her life.

Because Faith Somerset, in the pursuit of her career, had foregone all the things that others lived for, while she existed solely for work.

I wandered around her private office space, the door shut between me and her, while her not friends and family visited for the first three fucking hours we were in White Cap because I couldn’t stand the noise. Or the company. I understood what she was doing, but fuck me if it didn’t annoy the shit out of me that she had to hide me away from the world because I couldn’t be there beside her when she was overrun with people who, as far as I could tell, she didn’t want around her in the first place.

Well, not most of them.

Finally, Faith managed to free herself of the crowd and stumbled into her own office holding yet another flower and a stack of takeaway coffees, one atop each other like a tower.

“Here. I don't know what flavor that is, but it's yours.”

I eyed the fancy pink cup she held out to me. “Why do I suspect this has a whole lotta sugar in it, Faith?”

“Probably does,” she admitted. “But it’s yours, now. Drink it or dump it. I do not give a single fuck.”

I leaned in and kissed her. Her eyes opened wide before she sank into me, her lips parting on a sigh. I took that invitation, deepened the kiss and wished I had fucked her the night before. But she’d been shattered, and holding her that night had been the right way to treat her. Still, I had fantasies that I wanted to play out with this woman, and the time we had together on my mountain hadn’t been anywhere near enough.

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