Kept By The Mountain Man (Montana Mountain Men Book 3)

by Gemma Weir

  For the first time since I laid eyes on her, this inbuilt knowledge that she’s mine feels more like a curse than a blessing. I know I won’t ever let her leave me now I have her, and the edge of insanity that’s coursing beneath my skin scares me a little.

  I’ve told her I’m obsessed with her, but I’m not sure she truly understands what that means. She’s mine and I’m not sure what lengths I’ll go to keep her, whether she wants to be kept or not.

  Rolling her beneath me, I replace my fingers with my dick, sliding into her and fucking her while she sleeps, her body reacting to me even through the thick haze of her exhaustion.

  “Granger,” she moans groggily. Her hand lifts from where it was curled beneath her chin and wraps around my neck, even as her eyes stay tightly closed.

  “I couldn’t help it, honey, your pussy called to me and I had to be inside you,” I whisper against her ear as I slowly push into her, then pull back, keeping my thrusts slow and even as she wakes.

  “You’re gonna wear my vagina out, I didn’t need to make up for the sex I haven’t been having the last five years in one night.”

  Chuckling, I thrust a little deeper, smiling into her neck as she arches into me like a kitten, lifting one leg and hooking it over my hip to spread herself a little wider for me. “I’m not letting you out of this bed today, we’re gonna eat, fuck and sleep. We’re gonna turn off our cells, lock the door and binge on each other, no interruptions, no distractions, just you and me.”

  Her eyes are still closed but her lips tip into a smile that lights me up from the inside out. “Okay,” she laughs, until her laughs turn into moans and cries and the first of many orgasms I plan on giving her today.

  We stay in bed the rest of the day, gorging ourselves on pleasure and the joy of just being together. It’s probably one of the best days I’ve ever had and by the time we fall into an exhaustion induced sleep, there’s not a person alive who could convince me she’s not mine in every way but legally.

  I kissed, licked, touched and fucked every inch of her body, wringing orgasm after orgasm from her, taking every little thing she so willingly gave me. My dick probably needs a month off to recover, but I’m hard the moment I wake up and feel her naked, sticky skin pressed against mine.

  The air in my room is saturated with the heady scent of sex, even though it’s been about five hours since she finally pushed me away, warning me she was too exhausted to feel even another ounce of pleasure. We didn’t bathe yesterday, too wrapped up in each other and if it was anyone but her cradled in my arms, I’d feel disgusting with all the dried sweat and bodily fluids coating my flesh.

  Glancing at the clock, I see it’s barely seven in the morning. I should be at work, she should be leaving, but neither of those things will be happening today. We’re getting married this morning, thanks to the courthouse digitalizing their booking system last year. Back then, no one could understand why in a town this small you’d need to book an appointment at the courthouse online, rather than walking your ass into the building itself and making your appointment with Shirley, the same woman whose held the calendar for the last twenty years. But right now, I’m grateful as fuck for it.

  I know I need to get up, to feed her, bathe her and tell her what we’re doing today, but the thought of moving from beneath her is almost physically painful to me. My bladder protests and I slowly, reluctantly pull away from her and get out of bed, padding naked and a little stiff into the bathroom. After using the toilet, I set the taps to run for the bath, adding some of the bath oil I stole from Cora the other day to make the water smell nice.

  Leaving the tub to fill, I pad back into the bedroom and stare at my beautiful women. Without me there to hold her, she’s rolled to her side, curling into a ball in the middle of the bed. She looks small and vulnerable and a surge of protectiveness unfurls inside of me.

  It’s impossible for me to imagine that only a few short day ago I didn’t even know she existed, now I can’t picture a moment without her. The ring I bought her is in my dresser, and I slide the drawer open and pull out the small innocuous box. The yellow diamond twinkles at me in the early morning sunlight, the simple gold wedding bands I picked for us sitting on either side. In a few hours, she’ll have these on her finger and Alice Lowe will be gone forever. She’ll be Alice Barnett, mine legally as well as in every other way possible and I can’t wait.

  Putting the box back into the drawer, I close it, then sit down next to her on the edge of the bed, running my finger over the apple of her cheek. “Morning honey, come take a bath with me,” I say quietly, pressing my lips to her mouth.

  Humming sweetly, she turns into my kiss. Even asleep, she seeks my touch.

  “Let me take care of you, sweet girl,” I croon, sliding my hands beneath her and gently lifting her from the mattress and into my lap. Immediately nuzzling into me, she rubs her cheek against my chest and sighs.

  “Love you,” she whispers, the words barely audible, but I hear them and my heart swells to twice its size. It doesn’t matter that she isn’t awake and saying it back to me, she’s saying it when she’s in this happy, comforted state and for now I’ll take it.

  Something settles in my chest and I know I’m doing the right thing, that not giving her the choice to run is exactly what I’m meant to be doing. I could spend months, years even showing her with time and baby steps that I love her, that I want to care for and protect her, but ultimately the outcome will be the same. She’ll still be mine, she’ll still be in our bed every night, she’ll still have my last name, so what’s the point in delaying? I can have everything I want today, and we can just spend the time we would have wasted, being happy, loving one another and getting started on all those babies I want her to give me.

  “Granger?” she says sleepily.

  “Morning honey.” Standing with her in my arms, I carry her into the bathroom and then step into the tub, lowering us both into the water.

  “Humm,” she purrs as the warm water laps over her skin.

  “Does that feel good?”

  “So good,” she says, not lifting her cheek from where it’s pressed over my heart.

  “I love you so much, thank you for letting me take care of you. I want to do this every day for the rest of forever.”

  She doesn’t say the words back, but that’s okay, I know she feels it now and someday, hopefully soon, I’ll hear the words from her lips as she looks at me, I can wait.

  Like a sleepy little kitten, she lets me bathe her, then shampoo and condition her hair. Once we’re clean, I lift her from the tub and wrap her in a towel, lifting her onto the counter and sitting her there while I put toothpaste onto her toothbrush and hand it to her. She starts to brush her teeth, but her movements are slow and, in the end, I take over, brushing her teeth, then my own before I claim her mouth in a long, slow kiss.

  “You wore me out, I need to go back to sleep,” she yawns.

  “We’ll take a nap later, I need to feed you after all the calories we burned yesterday.” Lifting her from the counter, I take her hand and lead her into the bedroom. I grab underwear for both of us, pulling my boxers over my hard dick, ignoring the surge of need to be inside her, I won’t allow myself to take her again until she’s legally mine.

  Her movements are sluggish as she drops down onto the end of the bed and covers my pussy and tits with the pretty panties and bra I gave her to wear. When I start to strip the sheets from the bed, she helps me and it doesn’t take long for us to replace the sweat and cum stained ones with fresh white ones, clean and ready to be dirtied up again later.

  “Put this on while we get something to eat, then we can get dressed properly once we’ve eaten.”

  “Don’t you need to work today? I should probably find out what’s happening with my RV,” she sighs, as if she’s not ready for real life to encroach on us yet.

  “Fuck your RV, you aren’t going anywhere so it doesn’t matter when it’s fixed, I’ll take care of it.”

  “I
need to work, Granger, this weekend’s been great, but we can’t just spend the rest of our lives fucking like bunnies and pretending the real world doesn’t exist.”

  “Sure we can,” I snap, grabbing one of my t-shirts and dragging it over her head.

  “Granger.” She sounds weary and I hate it.

  “Tomorrow we’ll deal with real life, today we’re staying in our bubble, okay?”

  “Okay,” she nods, laying her head against my chest, letting me absorb all the stress I can feel in her.

  “Come on, lets go eat.” The living room is empty and quiet for the first time since I bought Alice home. Everyone else is back at work now the long weekend is over and I enjoy the solitude. I love living in this crazy mess of a house, but for the first time I’m looking forward to our wings being made so we can all have some private space away from each other. Now that I have Alice, I don’t want her to have to worry about getting dressed every time she wants to get a snack or a drink, which is why our wings will all be like contained apartments, connected to the main house.

  There’re two covered plates on the kitchen side and I pull one toward me and lift the foil, smiling at the pile of pancakes and fluffy eggs. “I’ll heat these up, do you want to pour us some coffee?”

  We go to work and five minutes later, we’re on the sofa, the tv playing some mindless game show as we eat. This is what I crave with her, more than just the sex, but the intimacy that comes with sharing a life with her. I can’t wait to do all the boring things with her, as well as the great stuff. I just want our lives so bound together there’s no Granger or Alice as single entities, only Granger and Alice, together, connected, bound.

  Once we’ve finished eating, she loads our plates into the dishwasher and sets it to run as I grab a hairbrush and position her between my legs, brushing out the knots from her damp hair. I still haven’t turned my cell back on, so I glance at the clock on the mantel, seeing it’s nine thirty and time to get ready.

  “I have an appointment in town in half an hour, so we need to get ready.”

  “I can stay here, or go check on my RV,” she suggests sweetly, although from the downturn of her lips, the idea of being separated holds as much appeal to her as it does to me.

  “No, you’re with me. We’re still in our bubble, remember,” I smile.

  Opening our closet, I pull out jeans and a white button-down shirt for me and a pretty emerald green dress that I think Cora called a tea dress for her.

  “We’re getting dressed up?” Alice asks hesitantly.

  “It’s an important appointment,” I deflect, winking at her. I know I should tell her we’re getting married, that I should give her the choice to argue and try to say no, but I don’t want to. My brothers all know what we’re doing today, but they’re all just as crazy as me and I asked Beau and Huck not to tell the girls. I’ll give Alice the wedding of her dreams as soon as we can plan it, if that’s what she wants, but today is just about cementing what I already now. That she’s mine.

  Alice pulls the dress over her head, smoothing it down her body as I grab sheer stockings, that Cora picked out when we were shopping, and hand them to her. Her hair is dry now, a shiny waterfall of blonde falling down her back. She looked beautiful after Cora covered her face in makeup, but she’s stunning now, natural and smiling at me, she doesn’t need anything to make her more beautiful.

  Unable to help myself, I go to her and pull her into my arms, pressing my lips to her and basking in this woman and how grateful I am to have found her. “I love you so fucking much, you’ve made me happier in the short time I’ve known you than I have been my entire life so far, and I can’t wait to spend forever with you.”

  A tear pools in the corner of her eye, but I wipe it away before it can fall.

  “I…” she faulters, but I don’t press her.

  “I know.”

  “You do?” she asks tentatively.

  “I feel it.” Grabbing her hand, I press it over my heart. “Right here. I can wait for the words.”

  Pushing up onto her toes, she kisses me and I swear the beating in my chest doubles in speed, I’m the luckiest mother fucker in the world.

  “Grab your shoes, we need to get going or we’re going to be late.”

  I hand her the black boots she wore on our date and she takes them, disappearing into the living room. Quickly, I move to the dresser and grab the ring box and her ID that I found when I unpacked her stuff. Shoving them into my pocket, I unplug my cell, turn it back on and immediately silence it, there’s nothing more important than exactly what I’m doing right now.

  Alice is more animated than ever on the drive into town, she’s like a different person to the one I met that day by her RV. No longer the girl who wouldn’t look me in the eye and made it her mission to answer each question with as short a response as physically possible. When we get to the courthouse, a beautiful red brick building with a clock tower and impressively large wooden doors, I find a space right outside and park my car.

  “So, who are we meeting?” Alice asks

  “Come on, let’s get in there,” I say, avoiding the question.

  Opening her car door, I offer her my hand, squeezing her fingers a little too tightly as I help her out and lead her into the building. Shirley smiles and nods in greeting from behind her small desk as I hustle Alice down the hallway to the small glass window that Eric Hilderman is sitting behind. Releasing Alice’s hand, I turn to the window. “Morning Eric, we have an appointment with Judge Cooper.”

  Eric’s bony finger runs over the huge ledger in front of him, all of the names hand written in ink, despite the impressively large printer sitting a few feet behind him. Eric is old school and even though the courthouse might have embraced the twenty-first century, apparently Eric has not.

  “I see you filled in all the paperwork on the interweb. I’ll just need to see some ID,” he drawls, his voice slow.

  “Here you go,” I say, pulling Alice’s from my pocket, then taking my own from my wallet and sliding it through the gap in the window.

  Eric stares at it for a moment, then grabs the license he’s already got prepared from somewhere beneath his desk and painfully slowly adds some more detail to it with his old-fashioned fountain pen, then stamps it with a rubber stamp covered in ink.

  “Here you go.” He slides the license and our ID back to me, and I exhale a shaky breath of relief. It’s not that I thought our license would be denied, but with it in my hands, all I have to do now is tell the bride that today is her wedding day.

  19

  Alice

  Granger is acting strangely.

  When he turns away from the small window, he’s clutching a rectangle of paper in his hand, but I can’t read what it says and before I have a chance to look, he’s taking my hand and towing me down a corridor and out a door into an enclosed courtyard filled full of winter flowers, that are still in bloom despite the cold weather.

  “Honey…” Granger starts, spinning around to face me. My hand is in his. He always holds me tight, as if he thinks I’m going to make a run for it the first time I have chance, but today he’s holding me a little tighter than usual.

  “Are you okay?”

  Reeling me in, I fall into his chest and he immediately kisses me, his lips parting mine, his tongue dipping inside, reaffirming his claim on me, as he likes to do, especially when we’re out and there are people to see.

  “I love you.”

  His words are like a balm to my soul and I wish I could push my own words out, words to tell him that he’s become everything to me, that I’m not sure I even exist without him. But I just can’t. He sees the truth though; I wonder sometimes if he doesn’t know what I’m thinking before I do.

  “Tell me the truth, do you belong to me?” he asks.

  Looking up at him, I see this isn’t a game, this isn’t his caveman act where he asks me who owns me and I tell him he does and then he fucks me until the only noises I’m capable of making are screams o
f pleasure and his name.

  “Alice, honey, you own me body, mind and soul and I own you too, so do you belong to me?” His voice is low and rough and it sends vibrations of pleasure humming through every cell in my body.

  “Yes,” I whisper. “Yes, I belong to you. I never thought it was possible, never thought anyone could ever want me like this. But if I’m going to give myself over to anyone, I want it to be you,” I confess.

  A shaky breath stutters from his lungs and he visibly relaxes, his eyes falling shut for a moment. When they open again, they’re brimming with emotion, raw and intense and undiluted. Then he grabs my hand, drops to one knee and pulls a small box from his pocket. “I’m not going to ask you to marry me, because that would suggest you have a choice and you don’t. We’re getting married today, because I can’t go another hour without giving you the entire world, starting with my last name. I never thought I’d find my one, my woman, and then there you were and I knew right at that moment that until you were mine in every way conceivable, I wouldn’t be able to rest. I love you more than I realized it was possible for a man to love a woman. You are the stars in the fucking sky, Alice. Say yes, because I won’t take no for an answer.”

  A choked laugh bursts from me as I look down at my crazy caveman on his knees in front of me. This is madness, pure and simple. A man I met four days ago just told me we’re getting married and instead of running, I’m laughing, because it’s so him, so us.

  I should say no, I should fight, claw, run, but why would I? I can’t think of a time when I’ve ever been happier than I am right now. Granger doesn’t see my issues as flaws, he embraces them and me. He wants to solve my problems, be my anchor in a storm and I want to let him, not because I need him to look after me, but because my life is full and happy for the first time in years, and it’s all because of him.