“Yes, yes,” she pants against my mouth. “Next time. The time after that. You said you didn’t want to keep me…tell me youdo, caveman. I need to hear it,” she hums, fisting my hair to pull my head back, forcing me to meet her gaze.
“Yes. Hell yes, I am keeping you. It was the first and last lie I ever said to you,” I whisper against her lips, my climax racing up my spine as she starts to come, fluttering up my cock. “I want to keep you. Whatever it means, on a mountain, down in Hollow Peak or anywhere in the world. I am keeping you, princess.”
We come together as I seal that promise with a kiss.
Chapter Eight
Rain
Making a change can be painful.
My entire life changed after I lost my mother. But it may not have if I had just sat in my pain, in my grief. I was hurting so much I had to go seek something to ease the pain. Something to ground me again, to give me a purpose. It turns out my purpose might not be being some cash cow hero.
I think my purpose may be the big, slightly broken roughneck cuddling me. Reece’s arms tighten on me, drawing my back against his firm chest. His body is warm and I fit to it as if I were carved from his hard lines. I snuggle back, laughing when he lets out one of his sexy sounds.
“Behave. I am wore out, princess,” he teases, kissing the back of my neck.
Morning light filters through the sheer curtains, throwing golden shadows across the tangled white sheets. It’s quiet, save for the usual sounds of the wild. It’s a beautiful rhythm to wake up to, even better paired with the grounding rhythm of Reece’s breathing.
“Hush. That last go-round was your idea baby,” I hum even as I give a shake of my ass which is what gave him that idea a few hours ago.
His hand swats my backside and I laugh again. Being with him is the most fun I’ve ever had. I know there is trauma, something he still struggles with every day, but there’s so much more. Reece makes me feel safe, he makes me feel adored and cared for, and I want to do the same for him. I might have gone up that mountain thinking I had to rescue him, but I think he is the one saving me.
I’ve spent so long circling the globe, throwing money at problems I had no idea how to fix. I dug in and got my hands dirty a few times, sure. But I never found my actual purpose. What I was put here to do, why I had been given the advantages I had. Turning in Reece’s arms, I stare up at him in the golden morning light.
“You’re beautiful,” I whisper as my touch traces the worst of the scars at his cheek, his jaw. “I see well past these scars, caveman. You have to give others a chance to see past them too.”
“You’re beautiful,” he rasps back, his rough fingers tracing my face gently. “No one has bothered to see past them before.”
“Wrong. You never gave anyone a chance. I just know you wanted to slam the door on my face the day we met.”
Reece lets out a warm chuckle, letting his shoulder bounce. “I might have wanted to. Until you smiled up at me and said the cute shit you say. Then I wanted to kidnap you. Which I just might still do, princess.”
“Hmm, you can kidnap me all you want, caveman. I might even be worth a decent ransom,” I tease.
Reece grins at me as low murmur vibrates in his chest. His arm, heavy and warm, tightens around my waist, pulling me back against him until there is no space left between us. I don’t mind one bit. He buries his face in the crook of my neck, his breath warm against my collarbone.
“Don’t go giving me ideas, I could get behind the idea of chaining you up at the cabin and never letting you out of my sight,” he shoots back.
I let out a soft laugh, tracing a finger down the line of his forearm, feeling the subtle flex of his muscle underneath. “Who says you would need chains to keep me there?”
Reece catches my hand, threading his fingers through mine and pressing a kiss to my knuckles. “Chains may still be used, it could be fun.”
Laughing with him, I turn once again, pressing my back to his front. Behind me, he lets out a contented sigh as his powerful arms wrap me up. I close my eyes to savor the moment, breathing in his earthy scent, the smell of my perfume on the sheets, and the warmth of the morning sun. I never want to forget any of these moments with him.
When he showed up at the Lodge last night, I was stunned. My uncle had insisted he would—we almost made a bet. I refused his wager because I was afraid he would be wrong. I was afraid that the cruel things Reece had said were true. That he did not want to keep me, that our night together had mean nothing to him.
Even as I sped from his cabin, tears streaming down my face, I knew that was not true. I could feel it when he touched me. When he kissed me. He would look at me with his look of…. wonderment. It was the first time a man had ever looked at me and seen me. Not the spoiled brat or the reformed rich girl. Just me.
“I lied about something else,” his voice startles me from my thoughts.
“Oh, did you?”
“Yes, I did. I said I had no intention of telling you. To be totally transparent, you’re the first person I want to tell it all to.”
Turning again, I gaze up at him in the golden light, touching his scars gently once more. His dark eyes storm but when I cradle his face, that storm seems to slowly subside. I lift up to brush my lips over his scars, intent on showing him they do not scare me or turn me off. There is a tragic tale behind these scars and I want him to stop hiding behind it.
“Whenever you want to tell me,” I whisper softly. “I will listen. It changes nothing. Nothing you can tell me would change this for me.”
