“I’m leaving, Boone, because I’m not ready to commit to being your wife.”
“Well, that’s not gonna be a problem today.”
“What do you mean?” she asks, looking up at me, confused.
“Pastor Vince called before I came to the barn. He got stuck in Anchorage with some family emergency. Won’t make it out for another week. No one is getting married today.” My eyes narrow, trying to read her, but what I really want to do is just fucking take her. I want to lay her on a pile of sweet yellow hay and fill her with my seed and tell her she’s mine. Not just when we fuck, but in everything we do.
“So what does that mean?” she asks.
“It means you aren’t being asked to make any vows yet.” I wrap my arms around her waist, pulling her to me. “You may not want to get married today—and that’s your loss, girl—but it also means I have a week to convince you to stay.”
I take her hand and lead her outside the barn, lacing my fingers through hers. I want her to see my place, understand why this is my home and my land and the place I want to stay forever, raise our kids and make a life.
“See the garden here? We have interns come in the summer, they help with the planting and harvesting.”
“Like college kids?” she asks, walking with me over the grassy field where vegetables are already growing abundantly: rows of green beans and carrots, lettuces and chards.
“Yeah, free lodging. They just gotta put in hours outside each week. You met the kayak guides last night,” I tell her, pointing toward the lake where some of the girls are organizing gear on the shore. “They stay as guides in exchange for room and board, and a small stipend. The truth is, it’s easy to get people out here. It’s a once in a lifetime experience for a lot of people.”
“That’s awesome. I would have loved to work at a place like this in the summer, while I was in school.”
“Yeah?” I cock an eye at her, still trying to figure her out. “So it would have been a good enough adventure a year ago, but not now?”
“I don’t know,” she says. She and I lean against a fenced cow pasture. “I like to travel, and there are a lot of places I still want to see.”
“Me too. I haven’t been to many places. I’m a fucking workaholic.” I look over at her, resting my hand on the small of her back. “Having a smart woman as my wife, who could really help run this place, would give us the freedom to take time off, to enjoy ourselves.”
“Oh yeah?” I know she likes what she hears by the slight upturned corners of her mouth. “I think you’re trying to butter me up, Boone. Show me the garden, the cute animals, make me forget the reasons this might not be a great idea.”
“I’m not buttering anyone up.” I suppress a smile.
“No?” Her eyebrows raise, and I see the flicker of hope in her eyes, bright with possibility.
I wrap my arm around her shoulders, drawing her closer to me as we turn, looking out at the lake. The summer breeze rustles through the trees, and Delta smells as clean as the Alaskan air—fresh and open to our potential.
“I do want to travel,” I tell her honestly. “See the world. Fish in the South Pacific and soak in the hot springs in Iceland. I want to do shit, but I don’t want to wander aimlessly. I know where I belong. And I don’t see being grounded as a fault. I see it as a privilege.”
“A privilege?” She shakes her head, not understanding. “It’s seems constricting.”
“Nah, that’s where you’re wrong, Delta. Your name, it means where a river diverges, right?”
“Yeah?”
“Well, a river can have lots of paths until it ends; so can life. Being here in Alaska doesn’t mean this is your whole world, your only path. Your life can be as big as you make it.”
“You make it sounds so easy.”
“Maybe it is.” I pull her to face me, looking intently at this woman who I want so badly to be mine. “Stay, Delta. I don’t want you to go anywhere without me.”
“You want me to stay that badly?” she asks.
“I know what I want most of all,” I whisper in her ear.
“What’s that?” she asks, her lips nearing mine, parting ever so softly—and damn, I want her tongue in my mouth, her pussy on my cock.
“I want to have my way with you, right here, right now.”
“You planning on convincing me to be your wife by fucking me silly?”
“No,” I tell her slowly, but with certainty. “I plan on convincing you to stay by fucking you forever.”
Then I kiss her, hard, pulling her waist to me so she can feel my rock hard cock, before slapping her perfect ass. I tell her to climb the ladder to the loft and she inches up the rungs with me behind her, ready to take her as mine.
Chapter Fourteen
Delta
Moments after we’ve crawled up into the loft, I’ve let down my guard. As soon as he touches me, the idea of wanting to work at a resort in the South of France or, say, Tahiti, sounds dull in comparison to the lure of Boone’s body fitted against mine.
His hands run up my waist, lifting off my shirt in one fluid motion, and as I exhale I realize that whatever spell he casts on me when we’re naked, when our bare flesh is pressed against one another, is pure magic. People always talk about chemistry and connections—but damn, Boone and I are something else. Something more.
If the only thing we needed to decide on in order for us to work was what position to fuck in, I think we’d be fine. But the truth is, we have a heck of a lot more to work out if this thing between us is going to go any further than hot sex.
I’m not ready to think about it. In fact, I can’t think about it at all because Boone’s mouth is on mine and his hands grab my ass firmly as he pulls me closer to him, then closer still. Close enough to hear his beating heart and feel his pulsing cock now that our bodies are ready to be one.
“Oh, honey,” he growls in my ear as I tug the belt from his jeans, as I lower his boxers, letting his thick cock spring out.
“What do you want from me?” I purr seductively, standing before him in a bra and panties. Asking him to take control makes me feel desired, wanted—makes me feel sexy as hell. I wait for him to tell me what to do, realizing that he was totally right: I do love being ordered around the bedroom, but that’s so different than being ordered around in real life. Here, in this lace underwear and nothing else, just knowing that my body is going to take him and make him feel like a king, is enough to make this power dynamic get my pussy sopping wet.
“I want you naked. I want to see every inch of your skin bare so I know exactly what I’m taking.”
He unhooks my bra, letting my breasts fall out, and his mouth is on them in an instant, rolling his tongue around my hard nipples. He licks my skin, his hands filling with my breasts, his fingers grazing past my belly button toward my pussy. I contract in anticipation, and I swear I could get myself off just by squeezing my pussy hard and tight, and then slowly letting go—that’s how hot I am for Boone. He slides off my panties, which are soaked through as my pleasure and excitement seep out of me.
His hand flutters against my opening, and I moan slightly at his delicate touch. My eyes lower, watching his forearms flex as he presses two fingers into me. I eke out a soft whimper, knowing that it isn’t going to take much effort on his part for me to release, especially with his unbound cock right before me, so big and hard, practically begging to be sucked until his salty come fills my mouth. All I want is to taste him, to swallow him, to be filled with everything he can offer.
He pulls his fingers from my wet pussy, smacking my ass. His eyes are heavy and laden with desire; my back arches in the mounting pleasure. I reach for his cock, but he tells me “No.”
I bite my lip, shake my head in question.
“I want you to get on your hands and knees,” he tells me. “And then I’m going to mark you as mine.”
I don’t hesitate, I get on the floor, my knees against the worn wood of the barn loft, my hands bracing me as he kneels behind me, pre
ssing his cock into my dripping gap.
I don’t want him to go slow, to ease into me. I want him hard, and fast; I want to filled and I want to be consumed.
In this moment, I want to be his.
He knows what I want without me uttering a word, because his cock fills me, his hands are tight on my waist as he pounds into my core. And, God, I can’t help but scream out in ecstasy.
“Oh, fuck, Boone. Yes, oh, oh, yes,” I cry. My voice starts high-pitched and needy, with a hint of desperation as I call out his name again, and again. And of course I’m desperate; Boone’s cock fills my pussy so entirely that it’s impossible to imagine anything else ever fitting so perfectly within me.
“Oh girl, I’m gonna make you come so hard.” And he does; he thrusts deeper and my body is on fire, my skin tingling with pleasure and the fast pulse of climax. My toes curl and I moan, my back arching and my head thrown back. Boone holds my tits with both hands as I come, again and again against his body.
He pulls out of me sharply, and grabs at my waist so I turn on my back, falling into a pile of sweet hay. The stalks poke against my ass, but I don’t care. I can’t think of pain when so much pleasure is coursing through me.
Boone’s face is filled with heat, and he holds his cock in his hand, pumping his shaft as it begins to spurt all over my chest. My legs are fast and wrap around him as ropes of his creamy come fall across my chest, and my hands roll across my breasts, my fingertips taking what he releases. I put my fingers to my mouth, tasting him as he watches. His cock is still hard and all I want is him in my pussy. It’s only been a minute since he left my entrance, but I swear I’m missing something when he isn’t filling me.
“I want you in me,” I beg. “Please fuck me again. I need you.”
Boone looks at me with such confidence it makes me blush—with such confidence it makes me touch myself. “That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you since you arrived.”
Chapter Fifteen
Boone
I wake with Delta already showering in her bathroom. It’s promising, her being an early riser. It is an invaluable skill here at the lodge, when guests show up at all hours, depending on planes coming from Anchorage. But damn, I feel tense as fuck, as I shower and put on a pair of jeans. Today is the first opening day since my parents died. I don’t want to mess it up. Guests will be arriving this morning, and our first fishing trip is tomorrow. With Mason being an asshole, and Delta not technically being my wife, things aren’t as organized as I hoped.
I step into the bedroom with only my jeans on, and Delta’s bathroom door is open. She watches me in her mirror.
“You look ridiculously hot without a shirt on,” she tells me.
“Yeah?” I ask. “Well, I’m all yours, honey.”
She smiles, raising her eyebrows suggestively.
“I’m glad we can talk without arguing,” I say, pulling on a pair of socks.
“Me, too.” Delta pokes her head out of her bathroom. “Do I look okay?” She’s wearing a dress that reaches her knees, but it has a low back and thin straps; she’s clearly not wearing a bra.
I could easily have her undressed within seconds. All it would take is a simple flick of the wrist, and the dress would fall to the floor.
Which sound like a fucking brilliant idea, except that we’ve gotta get to the lobby. And the truth is, after yesterday in the loft, we fucked all night back in our room. It’s like we’re addicted to one another’s bodies. And it seems like we get along best if we don’t talk—so instead of discussing the problems with our arrangement, we just came, over and over again.
So I don’t undress her; no way will I be able to stop if I start.
Instead, I tell her the truth, running my hand over my beard. “You look too hot to be working the front desk.”
She looks at me blankly, grabbing a small bottle of oil from her sink counter. Behind her I see a few dozen bottles, all lined up.
“What do you mean? Too hot?”
“Well, you look gorgeous, but all the men are going to want to sleep with you, and you’ll threaten the women.”
“Oh,” she says, nodding, a smile on her face as she dabs the oil on her neck. “I see. Well, do you have a burlap sack I can borrow?”
“I’m not saying you should wear a brown sack over your head. I’m saying you look like you could be headed to a nightclub.”
She laughs at this. “I would never wear this to a nightclub. A farmers’ market, sure. But dancing? No way.”
“You aren’t taking this seriously,” I tell her lacing my boots.
“God, Boone, you’re the one who ordered me here to be your wife. And now I’m all wrong for the part?” She turns to the mirror, not looking at me.
“You’re the one who asked what I thought,” I toss my hands in the air, annoyed with her. Fuck, I should be downstairs right now, not starting another disagreement with Delta. “You know what?” I add, unable to help myself. “The truth is, my mom wore an apron and drank tea with sugar. You’re a vodka girl who doesn’t wear a bra.”
“You need to chill out,” she says, laughing. “Boone, you’re so stressed. Come here,” she says, waving me over, not at all giving into my tension.
“What? I don’t have time to fuck you.”
She rolls her eyes. “I don’t want to fuck you right now; just let me help with the stress.”
I do as she says—because, honestly, she’s like a goddamn magnet and all I want is to be close to her.
She reaches for a bottle, and drops oil in her hand, then adds some almond oil to her palm.
“Sit on the bed,” she directs, and I do as she says. She climbs behind me, kneeling on the mattress, and begins to massage my shoulders.
“What is this?” I ask. “Some sort of witchcraft?”
“Yes. I’m not only a vegan, but I’m a witch. I went to Hogwarts. And now I’m here, casting spells on you in the form of a shoulder massage.”
“Peppermint?” I ask.
“Close. Spearmint. It helps with men who are assholes.”
“Ha.”
“Honestly, Boone. You need to chill out. I can handle myself. I did go to school for this stuff, and as long as I’m here I can help get your season started.”
My jaw tightens reflexively. I don’t like the words she uses, words that mean she plans to leave.
“Listen, Boone,” she continues, “I may not be your mom, but I’m not here to make trouble for you.”
“I know you can handle your shit,” I tell her, feeling my emotions retreat protectively. “I mean, it’s a fucking front desk, not rocket science.”
“Gee, thanks for the compliments.” She digs her thumbs into my neck, and I let out a groan. Hell, she’s working my body hard. Yesterday, on the boat, she must have been going easy on me.
“You trying to kill me, woman?”
“I’m trying to help you loosen up.”
I close my eyes, inhaling the refreshing scent wafting around us, and it seems to dissipate some of my uneasiness about this morning.
“You’re going to be fine, Boone,” she tells me quietly. “Everyone here loves you. The greeting we got when I showed up as your wife? Everyone was clapping and cheering for you. It’s obvious they think the world of you. You aren’t doing this alone.”
She runs her thumbs down my spine, then up my back, her hands working at the base of my neck, around my jaw. I reach for her, turning my body to face her. I pull her to me, catching her off guard, kissing her softly.
“I don’t want to fuck this up,” I admit.
“Hey,” she whispers, her forehead pressed against mine. “One day at a time. Today, we’ve got this.” She smiles, shrugging as if she knows how damn cute she is. “And worst case scenario...
“Yeah what’s that?”
“Worst case scenario, it’s a disaster, and you and I run away, up to this bedroom, lock the door, and fuck until they all leave.”
“That doesn’t sound worst-case at all,” I tell her.<
br />
“Then, at the end of the day, it’s our reward. For getting through it.”
“For getting through it together.”
She looks down, as if considering my words. But when she raises her eyes with a smile, relief floods me. Maybe the massage helped, but damn, her smile melts all the worry I’ve been carrying. “Yeah, Boone,” she tells me. “Our reward for getting through it together.”
Chapter Sixteen
Delta
I expected it to be hard, but when the first guest arrives at check-in, I realize that I’ve been preparing for this job for years.
“I see here in my notes, John, that you and your wife have stayed here several times. I hope you’ll be pleased to know you’ll be staying in room twelve again.” I hand the older gentleman a key.
He smiles warmly as he takes it. “The news about the Graysons just tore us to pieces,” he says, looking over at his wife, Janet. She nods, her frown sincere.
Reaching for my hand, she says, “Seeing someone besides Molly behind this desk just breaks my heart. Did you know her, dear?”
“No, I just ... um.” I pause, realizing that Boone and I never worked out my backstory. And the last thing I want to do is tell them I’m gonna be Boone’s wife when I plan on leaving soon. Looking at Janet and John, I swallow, looking for words that might make sense. “I met Boone after they passed.”
“Well, it’s wonderful to meet you, Delta,” Janet says.
“You, too,” I tell her with a smile. “There’s an itinerary waiting for you in your room, and lunch service is until two-thirty, so you have time to grab a bite.”
When they leave, I notice Mason watching me, drinking a beer with arms crossed.
“You need something?” I ask.
“Not a thing, honey. Looks like you got this whole thing figured out.”
“Well, it’s not so hard. But if you want to help, I can find something for you to do.” I look around my desk, knowing that a bunch of itineraries need to be updated now that guests have arrived and signed up for a few more activities.
BY THE MOUNTAIN MAN: The Complete Collection Page 17
