Page 16 of Engaged to the Mountain Man

“There’s no one here with us now.” He makes a big show of looking around then he stands. He reaches for his shirt and tugs it over his head, revealing his beautiful body again.

He gives me a grin as he reaches for his pants, unbuttoning them. “Skinny dipping is a rite of passage. Everyone needs to do it at least once.”

My cheeks grow warm. It doesn’t matter that he’s kissed every centimeter of my body and seen me naked in three different positions. I still can’t believe I’m considering this, but I like the challenge in his gaze.

Before I can talk myself out of it, I push to my feet and shed my clothes too. We walk to the lake’s banks, unashamed of our nakedness.

“On three.” He threads his fingers through mine, his rough hand making me feel safe.

He counts softly under his breath then we’re jumping into the clear blue lake together. The cold water is a shock to my system, and I break the surface with a grimace.

Rafe’s head bobs up a second after mine.

“You didn’t warn me it would be this cold.” My teeth are chattering, and my nipples are hard points in the water.

He laughs, a booming, musical sound. “If I told you, it would have taken you twice as long to get in.”

I flick water at him, and he flicks it back at me. Before I know it, we’re chasing each other around the lake, diving under the water’s cool surface and popping back up.

After a long morning of playing in the lake, I let him catch me. I grin, the arousal in his gaze makes me want him more. “You’ve caught me. Seems only right that you should get to plunder your treasure.”

He grips my ass, bouncing me up and down. His cock rubs against my clit. “You like making me chase you, naughty girl.”

I moan his name. “Please.”

He slips inside of me and fills me with his shaft. He’s so big and thick, and the way he grunts my name has my pussy clenching around him.

“I will always chase you,” he growls. “Always hunt you down and ram into your tight little pussy.”

I come at his filthy promises, feeling his release spurt into me. Slumping into his arms, I let him carry me onto the bank.

The afternoon sun is warm on my back as he sets me in the soft grass and pulls me close. We stay wrapped up in each other for long moments. It’s late when I reach for my clothes and braid my hair.

He watches me as I do. He’s wearing pants again, but they’re not even buttoned. Seems a shame to keep his beautiful cock covered. One day, I want to lick it and explore his taste.

I put a hand on his knee. “Tell me.”

I want to know everything in this man’s head. I want to know all of his deepest thoughts and greatest fears. He’s my favorite book, the one I want to reread again and again until I know every line by heart.

“You’ve told me what you don’t like about your life, about the lack of freedom and the inability to do the things you want. But what do you like about it? Is there anything you love?”

I don’t have to think long or hard to answer his question. “I love that I get to help so many of our kingdom’s citizens. I love that I get to do so much social work. I love getting to paint in the tower, especially on those afternoons when the sun hits just right and everything in the room is bathed in a golden glow. Oh, and ballroom dancing! That’s probably one of my favorite things.”

“Ballroom dancing,” he repeats, a dark expression comes over his face. “With other men.”

I like that possessive glint in his eye, the way he looks like he would kill another man for glancing in my direction.

I didn’t realize how possessive he is or how much that would turn me on. The expression on his face is making my panties damp.

“I could teach you how to ballroom dance.” I’ve never danced with anyone that makes me feel the way Rafe does. Something tells me that dancing with him will be different. Intimate. Special.

“You want to ballroom dance with me.” I can’t tell if the idea pleases him or upsets him. But it’s too late to take the suggestion back now, so I shrug. “If you don’t want to…”

He grabs my hip and squeezes it. “Teach me.”

“We don’t have any music.”

He pulls his phone out and passes it to me with the music app open.

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