Page 37 of Mountain Struggle

“Stronger is good. So we can go at it all night long.”

“Like bunnies?” she giggled.

Damien dropped her unceremoniously on the bed. She watched as he sheathed himself in the condom she provided—amazed at how roughly he held himself.

“Now it’s my turn,” he said. He moved down the bed so his face was by her core, and blew softly on her blond patch of hair.

The tip of Damien’s tongue went out to lick her nub with delicious intensity—Tess cried out in pleasure at the sensual assault. She didn’t even have a chance to warn him before she came all over his mouth.

“Fuck, you’re sexy. I want to feel those muscles clench around my cock,” he said.

She was still coming when he started easing himself inside her. He felt impossibly large, and she forced herself to relax, enjoying the feeling of being stretched to the limit of pleasure.

“Are you alright?” he whispered, giving her time to adjust.

She nodded. Every time he moved, it felt better, until she thought she might come again. He slowed down, causing her orgasm to run away from her, and she hissed her displeasure, grabbing on urgently to his arms.

“I need more.”

“Patience, little one.” He cradled her upper body in his arms and twisted them so she was suddenly on top, straddling him. Her body celebrated the change.

“Take what you need,” Damien said. His hands held on to her hips, encouraging her as she began riding him, but he let her set the pace.

A part of her wanted to slow down, to keep this pleasure going, but she was too greedy, and it felt too good to stop. She closed her eyes as a second orgasm hit her, this one even stronger than when he’d made her come with his mouth. Her core clenched against his cock, driving him over the edge as well and eliciting a ragged groan from him.

After the orgasm, exhaustion overtook her. She leaned to, unable to support her own weight on her tingling limbs, and let him gently ease her to the side. He was still inside her, and the position suddenly felt intensely intimate.

“That was … even more than last time, if that’s even possible.”

Tess was too tired to do more than nod her agreement. She was asleep before her head properly hit the pillow.

Chapter 12

Tess

The next morning, after dropping Jamie off at camp, Tess walked over to her favorite café. Still feeling deliciously sore between her legs, she sat down at her usual table towards the back of the room—she didn’t want to occupy the tables up front, with their view of Mont Blanc, as those were favored by the constant stream of visitors.

The café wasn’t the fanciest in Chamonix—she knew better than to walk into one of those, but the coffee was hot and creamy, just the way she liked it, and Shay, the owner was happy to let her stay as long as she wanted and write.

Tess opened her notebook—lined, of course—and kicked off the timer on her cell phone. She’d had to buy a new cell phone, since her old one had never been found, and she was still getting used to it.

She wrote without pause for exactly five minutes—it was a trick her professor had recommended, to keep the blank page syndrome at bay. This way, she started the day with three or four pages of scribbled notes already. Sometimes they were helpful—the kind of thoughts that made her plot move forward or helped her flesh out a challenging character—but even when her mind took her in loops, just the exercise of putting pen to paper helped her relax.

After five minutes the timer beeped gently. Tess reached over to stop it, just as a shadow stepped in front of her table. She looked up to see the policewoman, the one who worked in Damien’s team.

“Tess? It’s Tess, right?”

Tess scrabbled desperately around her mind, looking for the woman’s name.

I know her name. What’s her name?

Sensing her distress, the woman smiled. “I’m Kat Barreau,” she said. “I’m part of Damien’s team.”

“Kat … yes, I remember,” Tess said. She knew Kat was one of the people who’d stayed up all night to look for her and Jamie. “You’re the pilot.”

Kat nodded proudly.

“And I hear you’re a writer. Damien speaks highly of you.”