Page 27 of Snowed-in With The Mountain Man
Hope flickers in her expression. "Ridge..."
"Let me finish." I frame her face with my hands. "I've loved you since we were seventeen, Stella. I've spent eight years waiting for you to come home. Now that you're here, now that we've found this connection, I don't want to lose it. I don't want to lose you. Either of you."
Tears shimmer in her eyes. "Are you asking what I think you're asking?"
"I'm asking you to build a life with me. Here. In this cabin that's always been too big for just one person." I brush my thumb across her cheekbone. "I'm asking you to let me love you and Chellie the way you both deserve to be loved. Completely. Permanently."
"That sounds an awful lot like a proposal." Her voice wavers, but her eyes hold steady on mine.
"It's a promise. The proposal comes later, when we've had more than a week together." I smile, heart thundering against my ribs. "But the intention is the same. I want forever, Stella. With you. With Chellie. If you'll have me."
She rises on her toes, arms winding around my neck. "Yes," she whispers against my lips. "Yes to staying. Yes to building a life. Yes to everything."
The kiss that follows seals the promise, deep and sure and full of certainty. Her body molds against mine as if created to fit there, hands tangling in my hair as the kiss builds into something hungry and needful.
"Chellie," I manage between kisses.
"Sleeping." Her hands slide beneath my shirt, nails scraping lightly down my back. "Sound sleeper. Especially after excitement."
That's all the encouragement I need. I lift her easily, her legs wrapping around my waist as I carry her to my bedroom. Our bedroom now, I realize with a surge of possessive pleasure.
We fall onto the bed in a tangle of limbs and half-removed clothing, mouths never parting for long. There's an urgency to our movements now, a celebration of obstacles overcome and promises made.
"Need you," she gasps as I trail kisses down her throat. "Now, Ridge."
I help her out of her remaining clothes, my own following quickly. When we're both naked, I pause to look at her, to really see her in the afternoon light streaming through the windows.
"Beautiful," I murmur, tracing the curve of her waist, the soft swell of her breast. "Mine."
"Yours," she agrees, pulling me down for another kiss. "Always."
We come together with none of the hesitation of our first time, bodies already familiar with each other's rhythms and responses. I know exactly how to touch her, where to kiss her, how to move within her to draw those breathy moans I've grown addicted to.
She matches me perfectly, taking control when she wants it, surrendering when she doesn't, our bodies having a conversation deeper than words could express. When she comes apart beneath me, I follow immediately, overcome by the knowledge that this isn't just sex. This is a beginning. A promise. A future unfolding before us.
Afterward, we lie tangled together, her head on my chest, my fingers tracing lazy patterns on her back. The world outside continues its slow thaw, but in here, everything is warm and certain.
"I love you," I say, words I've held back until this moment. "I always have."
She lifts her head, eyes shining with matching emotion. "I love you too. I think I always did, even when I was too young to understand what it meant."
A small sound from the doorway draws our attention. Chellie stands there, Mr. Bunny clutched in one hand, eyes still heavy with sleep.
"Mama?" She spots us, confusion crossing her face at finding her mother in my bed.
Stella sits up, sheet clutched to her chest. "Hey baby. Did you have a good nap?"
Chellie nods, still looking uncertain. "Why you in Widge's bed?"
I hold my breath, waiting for Stella's response. This moment, this explanation, feels pivotal somehow.
"Because," Stella says, voice gentle but matter of fact, "Ridge and I love each other very much. And we're going to be a family. The three of us."
Chellie's eyes widen. "Forever?"
"Forever," I confirm, heart too full for more elaborate explanations.
To my surprise, she breaks into a beaming smile. "Good! I want Widge to be my daddy."
