Page 103 of Recurve Ridge

She responded with an endless hunger, wrapping her legs tight around me and bearing down again.

“I said bath time. Mari, stop that.”

“Why?” she asked thickly.

“She’s as bad as fucking Alan,” Robe growled.

She tilted her head to one side. “Maybe,” she acknowledged. Her mouth pressed to mine again, her lips plump and open for me. “Thank you.”

I carried her to the hall, aiming for Robe’s room with its double shower and large bathtub. I didn’t think he’d ever used it before now, and it seemed like the right time to christen the thing together.

“Bedroom’s that way,” Robe muttered, containing his laughter as he jabbed my shoulder in the right direction.

I nodded and made a beeline for the room before I fucked her in front of them all again. “Thanks for that.”

Mari giggled. It might have been the best sound I’d ever heard outside of that scream when I first thrust into her. My cock ached at the memory, thickening until she moaned into my bare skin.

I kicked the door to Robe’s bedroom shut once I found it and fell to my knees, Mari still clinging to my hips. Her body pulsed, trembling muscles easing to accommodate me as I stiffened. She’d broken me from my habit of grief, and now I couldn’t get enough of her.

“I love you,” she told me, smiling.

My heart shattered for a future I couldn’t deny, terrified of repeating my past with her. I groaned, squeezing her in my arms too hard. Anything to keep her safe, though my physical bulk might not be enough. “That’s the sex talking.”

Mari smiled, molding her lips to mine in a long, slow kiss that promised no lies. “No. It’s my heart.”

Tears pricked my eyes as I eased her back onto the carpet and shifted my hips. The words were there. They were right fucking welltherein my mouth, but I couldn’t make them come out.

Mari smiled more gently, lighting up my world. “It’s okay. I know. And it’s enough.”

I swallowed past the rock of my heart that rose to fill my throat, trying to convey to this stunning woman all the things I felt about her but couldn’t say in a mere moment’s glance. She returned my kiss, then pressed her lips over my heart.

Any last remnants of control dissolved. My body crashed into hers, alongside part of my soul.

29

MARI

I traipsed between trunks,running my fingers over the different types of bark and undergrowth that snared me in patches. Robe and Miller followed me at a decent distance to allow me a sense of freedom as I delved into my history with the woods at my own pace. Their muted conversation was often loud enough to be heard, though I couldn’t make out the words, and their company offered comfort and the relative freedom to wander through the woods, retracing part of my journey that brought me onto Robe’s land in the first place.

He suggested I take a hike, in the literal sense. Find my way back and do whatever I needed to feel safe on his land. I knew he’d readied me for my return to the world, but I clung to the illusion of living my best life with my boys at my back in a forever sense.

I’d moved on from broken to healing to lying to myself. I mean, why not? A girl needed life goals, and denial was currently my lane.

Inhaling a long breath of crisp air belonging more to winter than spring as it crested the ridgeline in a swift gust that rattled the forest around me, I knew I’d leave a slice of my heart here when Robe made me leave. Part of me wanted to go back, to pretend that I could have a normal life, but Alan had made it abundantly clear thatnormalhad left the building long ago for Mari Merripen.

I didn’t know how I would return to the world at large, just that it had to happen soon.

The cozy sanctuary my five lethal boys offered reduced my fear. I couldn’t be better protected anywhere else.

My legs strained as I walked faster, nearing the tall cottonwood where I first crashed into Robe. It made a significant addition to the landscape and my destination. Robe asked me to stop there, as the ancient tree marked a point close to the eastern border of his lands.

Earthy scents and warm sunny kisses melded into a spring morning lanced with shards of sunlight from a high, cloudless sky. I stepped between trunks where a tall pine had uprooted, leaving a space in the canopy where sunlight struck the forest floor in an array of soft greens.

The cottonwood stood a few paces ahead. I stepped up to it and trailed my fingers around its thick girth, wondering at the age of the enormous sentinel. It reminded me of the two innate protectors who followed me. Their conversation behind me stopped for the moment, or maybe they spoke too low for me to hear.

Robe still kept most of their work secret—whether out of a sense of security or for me, I wasn’t sure. But they’d let me into their small empire despite Miller remaining unwilling for the most part.

I completed my half lap of the cottonwood trunk and nose-butted a broad chest imbued with the faint scent of cloves. Scrunching up my eyes to prevent tears leaking from them, I took a step back and pinched the tip. “Ow. Why do you all have to be in the way,” I grumbled, not really angry. Robe must have caught up with me when I let the forest’s quiet beauty distract me. “Sneaky bastard.”

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