Page 158 of Mountain Grump

---

And that’s when the fear hit.

It consumed me as I reached for my gun.

It filled my lungs as I rushed out of the cabin.

It pressed down on my heart.

Because for just a moment.

A second.

I thought of a life without Matilda in it.

My mind tried to imagine an existence where I had her and lost her. And I couldn’t.

I couldn’t imagine it.

My future was nothing but a void.

I take the gun out from where I tucked it into my waistband and set it on a bin near the foot of the bed.

“Ethan?”

I lift my gaze slowly.

Tilda’s sock-covered feet. The way her calves curve. Her bent knees. Her thighs squeezed together.

Her soft stomach.

Her arms crossed over her full breasts. Hiding those piercings.

Those fucking piercings.

I lift my eyes to her throat. To the flush of her cheeks. To her parted lips.

I lift my gaze to hers.

“You did a good job calling for me.” I step forward, stopping when my legs bump against the foot of the bed. “And I need you to do it again.”

“Wha—”

I reach down, grip her knees, and drag her toward me.

She falls onto her back, and I don’t stop until her ass is at the very edge of the mattress.

But I don’t let go of her legs.

I spread them.

“Ethan,” she gasps. But she doesn’t struggle.

I keep her legs open as I lower to the ground, kneeling between them.

I lower my face to her bare pussy, stopping with my mouth an inch from her core.

And I breathe her in.

I inhale the scent of my wife.

---