Page 27 of The Mountain Man's Mail Order Surprise
"Good," I tell her, meaning every word. "Because I'm already gone."
She smiles, soft and sweet, and curls closer to me. "What happens now?"
"Now you rest while I hold you. Then we figure out dinner. By Friday, we’ll be married. And after that, I get to spend every day showing you exactly how precious you are to me." I press a kiss to the top of her head. "You're mine now, Gia. Mine to protect, mine to cherish, mine to love. And I take very good care of what's mine."
As she drifts off to sleep in my arms, I allow myself to imagine the future. Teaching her to trust my dominance the way she's already starting to trust my care. Showing her the difference between control that harms and control that heals.Building a life where she never has to question whether she's wanted, whether she's safe, whether she's loved.
It's a future I never dared hope for, and now it's within reach. All because a brave, beautiful woman showed up on my doorstep with a baby bump and the courage to surrender to something real.
Best surprise of my fucking life.
.
CHAPTER SIX
GIA
Rosco's phone blaring out insistently on the nightstand shocks me from sleep. Gray dawn light filters through the windows, and for a moment I'm disoriented. Strange room, warm male body pressed against my back, the lingering ache between my thighs that reminds me exactly what we did yesterday afternoon. And again last night. And once more when I woke up around three am with his hands already moving over my body.
Heat floods my cheeks as memories surface. The way he worshipped my pregnant body like I was something precious. How he made me feel beautiful and desired when I've spent months feeling like a burden. The things he whispered against my skin that made me come apart in his arms.
The phone rings out again, and Rosco groans, his arm tightening around my waist. "Ignore it," he mumbles into my hair. "What if it's important?"
"Nothing's more important than this." He presses a kiss to my shoulder, and I shiver at the contact. Even half asleep, his touch sets me on fire.
But the phone keeps buzzing, insistent and shrill. With a muttered curse, Rosco reaches for it, squinting at the screen. "It's Noah." He swipes to answer, his voice gravelly with sleep. "This better be good."
I can't hear Noah's response, but whatever he says makes Rosco's body go rigid behind me. "When?" Rosco sits up abruptly, running his free hand through his hair. "How bad?"
My stomach clenches with sudden dread. I turn to watch his face, seeing tension carved in every line. "I'll be right there." He ends the call and immediately starts reaching for his clothes. "There was an accident at the construction site. One of my guys got hurt."
"How hurt?" I sit up, clutching the sheet to my chest. "Bad enough for an ambulance." He's already pulling on jeans, his movements sharp and efficient. "I have to go, Gia. I'm sorry."
"Don't apologize. Go." But even as I say it, my chest tightens with familiar anxiety. "What about tonight? The dinner with Silas and Jordyn?"
He pauses in buttoning his shirt to lean down and kiss me hard. "I'll call Jordyn and cancel. This is more important. I'll call you as soon as I know something."
"Be careful." I say.
"Always am." But he's already moving toward the door, his phone pressed to his ear as he calls someone else.
I listen to his truck roar to life and disappear down the mountain, leaving me alone in his house with nothing but my thoughts and the lingering scent of his cologne on the pillows.
This is what it will be like, I realize. Emergency calls, dangerous work, constant worry about whether he'll come home safe. The thought makes my chest tight with an emotion I don't want to examine too closely.
I can't fall for him. Not really. This is supposed to be temporary, practical, a business arrangement that benefits usboth. But lying here in his bed, surrounded by his scent and the memory of his hands on my body, temporary feels impossible.
The baby kicks, a sharp reminder of why I'm here. Not for romance or happily ever after, but for safety and security. For the chance to raise my child without looking over my shoulder every day.
I need to remember that.
I shower and dress, trying to push away the doubts creeping in around the edges of my newfound happiness. By the time I make coffee and toast, Rosco's been gone for two hours with no word.
My phone sits silent on the counter, mocking me. No calls, no texts, nothing. Just like with Zack in the beginning, when he'd disappear for hours without explanation and then act like I was crazy for worrying.
Stop it, I tell myself. Rosco is nothing like Zack. He's dealing with an emergency, not ignoring me for fun.
But the rational part of my brain is losing ground to the anxious voice that's kept me alive for the past six months. The voice that says men disappear when things get real. That says I'm fooling myself if I think this will last.
