Page 49 of Knot Her Mountain Men

“Are we interrupting?” Kit asked.

Morgan shook her head, reaching a grabby hand toward them.

They were all freshly washed, Kit’s hair hanging damp around his face. “We’ve got a decent amount of food prepped and ready, and did a check on the whole property to make sure nothing is going to fall apart over the next few days. We’ve also got water warming on every woodstove so you can have a bath, little fox.”

“A bath sounds amazing.”

I scooped her up, reveling in her cuddling close.

“My tub is ready for her,” said Kit.

I followed them upstairs with Morgan in my arms. All of the chill had dissipated, the woodstoves flickering away in every room. It was a bit of a waste of wood, considering we wouldn’t be occupying most of the rooms, but it took forever to get rid of the cold once it settled in fully, so it needed to be done every so often when we had the fuel available.

“I’ll wash my hair first,” Morgan said. “No sense steeping in my own filth.”

I swallowed hard as she got onto her knees.

“Can I borrow something to scoop water?”

“I’ll pour for you,” I signed, sitting on the edge of the tub next to her.

“We’ll bring up the water from downstairs,” Ryder told us. “Pumpkin is having zoomies outside and I don’t want to leave her unsupervised for too long.”

“Will she be okay during my heat?”

“She should be fine,” said Maverick. “She won’t be getting anything fancy to eat outside of her favorite kibble and water, but she’s not going to suffer on that diet for a few days.”

“We’ll take shifts too,” Kit added. “Whoever is the most lucid at any given time can take care of her.”

They disappeared to fetch the rest of the water and I had Morgan turn to sit between my knees so I could carefully work a comb through her curls.

“It’s probably a rat’s nest,” she lamented. “I haven’t really been taking care of it very well.”

I stroked a soothing hand down the back of her neck and continued my work. She wasn’t far off with her description, but it was nothing a little patience couldn’t manage.

Once all the water had been delivered and I had tamed every snarl in Morgan’s hair, she tipped her head over the edge of the bath, humming quietly while I soaked the strands and diligently applied the shampoo Kit had set out.

“Bear, you have the hands of an angel.”

That wasn’t a descriptor I would ever have used, considering how calloused my hands had always been, but I wasn’t going to negate her compliment. I gave her a good scalp massage while I worked in the shampoo, loath to stop because she kept mewling and shifting her hips the longer it went on.

Why was it so deeply satisfying to take care of her?

She helped me with the rinse, scrubbing at her hair and lifting it so the water I poured could saturate it. We went through the same methodical process with the conditioner, and when that was rinsed away as well I combed through the strands again, applying some fancy product I had never bothered with before.

Morgan bound her hair into a little ball on top of her head and scoured her whole body clean with a cloth and soap before letting me rinse her off again. “Do I get to help you with your bath too?”

I raised an eyebrow in question.

“Indulge me. Maybe I want an excuse to touch you.”

I wasn’t about to argue with that. I let her wash my hair where I sat, and tipped my head for her to rinse me. The real magic came with the scrub-down. Her fingers touchedeverywhere. Lathering up soap, she drew patterns over my skin, swirling them into the bubbles. I surrendered to being her canvas, closing my eyes and savoring every moment.

My eyes snapped open when her hand curled around my cock. It was already rock hard from breathing in her scent and she seemed endlessly amused by that.

“Are you just always ready for me now?”

I nodded slowly, caught by the fire in her gaze.

---