Mountain Man's Valentine

by Lauren Milson

  Val leans back, taking the loofah from me, and motions with her eyes for me to come join her in the tub.

  I didn’t want love for a long time. I didn’t think I deserved it. But the draw of Val is so strong that I can’t stop myself from accepting her love. She shines.

  I strip off my clothes slowly and start to get into the tub, facing her.

  “You sure this water isn’t too hot, doll?” I ask as I lower myself into the water.

  “You like the cold, huh?”

  “I guess I don’t like being too comfortable.”

  She gets closer to me and links her fingers through mine sweetly. And I lean forward, taking her face in my hands, and I kiss her.

  I kiss her, and I keep kissing her.

  13

  Valoria

  Cole told me everything. He told me about how the app wasn’t completed while he was in grad school, that he wanted to finish it, but he went to work for an investment firm instead. How Cassie teased him, calling him a sellout for going into finance instead of science.

  And how he quit finance after a year, and started working on the app again. And how he got some of the investors he’d worked with for a few years interested in the idea.

  And how he raised funding. And how he was the new rising star of tech. He got his company off the ground.

  And then there was the accident.

  Cassie was driving home from his house after a party to celebrate his first round of funding. He was going to be a star. He was going to share everything with her. He was going to buy her a house next door to his.

  And how she skidded on some black ice, and lost control of her car. And how it was snowing.

  How he told her to sleep over that night. He told her he’d take the couch and she could take his bed.

  And how she insisted that she go home, that it wasn’t far, that she would be fine.

  She wasn’t fine. And she lost blood.

  He told me how she lost a lot of blood.

  And how, if he had just pushed himself harder and tried harder and grinded just a little bit harder, if the launch of his app had been just six month earlier, maybe he could have saved her.

  Maybe he could have personally dispatched the supplies and blood she needed with the EMTs who showed up on that winding, rocky, steep road that she skidded on.

  Maybe, maybe...maybe.

  And then I told him about my mom, and he understood.

  I told him why I was alone today, and push people away too.

  It was like he already understood.

  I told him how maybe things could have been different.

  Maybe, maybe, maybe.

  “Our parents told us to look out for each other always,” he says, pushing my hair away from my face with his wet fingertips. “And I didn’t do that.”

  “Cole,” I say, aching inside, “you have to forgive yourself. What you’ve been able to build, what you’ve been able to create is one in a million. You’ve done so much. Horrible, awful tragedies happen, and sometimes you just can’t stop them from happening. You can’t go back in time, you can’t predict the future.”

  “I know,” he says, closing his eyes, rubbing his forehead with tented fingers. “I know. But the feelings of guilt, I just let them overcome me for so long. I didn’t want to get too close to anyone again.”

  And he looks up at me. The warmth around us swirls, and he leans forward and kisses me, taking my face in his hands. And I feel the warmth behind my eyes begin again, and the tears begin to fall.

  “Val,” he says, “don’t cry. Don’t you ever cry.”

  “I’m just really sorry for what you’ve been through.”

  “But Val, don’t you see?”

  He pulls me close to him, sliding me between his legs, and wraps me up in his strong arms.

  “Val, you’ve saved me. You’ve made me feel again. I don’t want to hide away anymore. Not since you.”

  “Cole,” I whimper, shutting my eyes tight. “Cole, I don’t know what to say.”

  “Just say you’ll be mine forever, Val. Be mine.”

  And he embraces me again, and kisses me, and finally, again, I can breathe.

  Epilogue

  Valoria - One Year Later

  “Girl, you better not hide from me. I’m going to smack your sweet little ass and give you a good talking to if you hide from me.”

  “I’m not hiding,” I hear her say through the green, lush trees. Everything is wet and dewey and alive under the setting sun.

  “Well I can’t find you,” I say, looking over my shoulder.

  “What are you going to do if you catch me?” Her sweet voice echoes between the trees, bouncing around among them, like it’s part of the landscape.

  She is. She’s part of the landscape of my heart, of my mind.

  “If I can’t catch you, you’re going to get a stern punishment. And if I can...then you’re going to get a stern punishment.”

  I turn around again when I hear her laughing, and I can see her bright smile in my mind.

  “Promise?”

  Val pops out from behind a tree, pointing her paintball rifle right at my chest.

  I laugh, putting up my hands slowly.

  “You’re the boss,” I say, “and you’ve got me painted into a corner. So I’ll do whatever you tell me to do.”

  “I think shooting you would be too much of an empty formality,” she says, pointing her rifle away from me and starting to walk toward me. “I don’t need to shoot you.”

  “What do you want to do instead?” I say, linking arms with her. “Hot bath? How about some of my famous pasta?”

  “I was thinking of something else,” she coos, her fucking sexy voice teasing me. “I was thinking something to commemorate our first day together. It was a year ago.”

  “You say that like it’s even within the realm of possibility for me to have forgotten. And anyway, I thought this outing you organized was to commemorate our first day together.”

  “Oh, I see,” she teases me, giggling. “Well that’s fine, if you want to just go to bed when we get home.”

  “Fuck no,” I say, spinning her around and kissing her. “Fuck. No.”

  She jumps up on me, wrapping her legs around my waist, putting her arms around my neck, and I get hard as a fucking diamond when I feel her little body grinding against mine.

  I push her against a tree, our mouths crushing together, our tongues slipping against each other’s in a kiss that is fucking hot and wanting and needing as our first. And it’s warm out tonight, the air is like silk dancing against our skin, and I put her down on the ground so I can slip her little black panties to the side.

  She gasps as I push my fingers against her skin, finding her clit.

  “You are already soaked,” I growled. “I still make you fucking wet.”

  “Here, though?” she mewls sweetly, biting her bottom lip.

  “This is my mountain, and you are my queen. Now get down on your knees baby.”

  And she drops down against the tree, her luscious blonde hair flowing wildly between my fingers as she yanks my zipper down and pulls out my cock.

  It’s a fucking glorious sight to behold as she opens up her lips and sucks me into her mouth, my precum coating her tongue, her throat.

  She pumps at me furiously before getting up, and I scoop her ass up into my hands, pinning her against the tree again.

  “I am going to fuck you senseless, and I am going to paint the inside of your pussy with my seed. You ready, baby?”

  I push into her tight cunt and she gasps, throwing her head forward into my shoulder as I push her legs open.

  “I want you to cum deep inside me, Cole. Deep. But...”

  “But what, love? What is it?”

  “I...I am already pregnant.”

  “What?”

  My heart fucking soars.

  We had her go off birth control last month because we wanted to start trying. But we didn’t think it would happen right away. Not duri
ng the first month.

  I had no fucking idea it would happen right away.

  And this is my dream come true.

  “Val, I love you,” I growl into her ear, my sweet lovely girl holding onto me tight. “And even if there’s already a baby growing inside you, that’s not going to stop me from pumping my cum deep inside you. I want to mark you every single chance I get.”

  “Please do it Cole, please,” she begs. “Please. Make everyone know I’m yours. I’m so...happy.”

  I reach down between us and I catch her clit against my fingers, and as I feel her cumming, my cock explodes deep inside her, depositing my seed deep inside.

  And I’ll never stop. I’ll never stop loving her.

  She’ll never stop loving me.

  She’ll never stop being my Val. My Valoria. My Valentine.

  And right now, we’re only just starting.

  THE END

  But wait! Val and Cole found their HEA, but there’s more plenty more for you to read. Turn the page - two steamy bonus novellas are coming up next!

  Private Client

  A Billionaire Romance

  She walked into my bank, and walked out with my heart.

  That? That’s what I get to see first thing in the morning? She's an angel, and I’m the luckiest guy alive.

  But this isn't right. An angel like this shouldn't be waiting on line at a bank. She needs more personal service. And I'll take care of every last one of her needs.

  I got sick of the finance game fast. Too many jerk clients, too much drama in my life. So when I got my first bonus and invested it wisely enough to make a fortune, I decided to trade it all in.

  But I know there's something missing. So when this angel in the sensible heels walks into my bank and into my life?

  There's no way I'm letting this one go.

  1

  Julie

  Squee!

  My first real job.

  My first real paycheck.

  Well, not yet, anyway. First I have to get home with my folder full of paperwork, fill it out, and get out of this suit and heels.

  No. That’s not right. Get out of the heels first, and then the suit. Then I get to sit down with my stack of paperwork and get everything organized.

  My first real job. One that will let me use everything I’ve learned in college. Well, not everything. Some of it. My ability to analyze problems and come up with creative solutions. My finesse with a spreadsheet.

  My expertise with making a bullet-point list in Word.

  Maybe I didn’t learn that in college, but it’s a good skill to have, especially for what I’ll be doing.

  Assistant extraordinaire. Okay, so maybe that wouldn’t be my official job title, but still, my new boss did say that I would be an extraordinary addition to his team.

  When I was in college, I dreamed about finally graduating and getting a job. Corporate speak was always so sexy to me. Staying up late at night pushing numbers around on a spreadsheet seemed like my idea of a good time. Ordering midnight burgers and fries from the diner down the block and having a midnight snack after working past five with my colleagues seemed like it would give me more of a rush than going out to happy hour would.

  I’m a team player. I like being in the mix. I want to contribute to group. Be part of something bigger than myself.

  So maybe I wouldn’t be do any great stuff - not yet. For now, I would be the extraordinary assistant to Mr. Badgley, the Chief Operations Officer for a mid-size commercial real estate firm downtown.

  Making money. Calling shots.

  Okay, so maybe the only shots I’ll be calling will be figuring out how to magically make all of Mr. Badgley's appointments fit in the eight working hours on his calendar.

  I can do that. And then, onward and upward to a more central role in the firm. Maybe on the operations team. Maybe somewhere else in the company. Maybe I would even be the Chief Operations Officer myself, one day.

  But first, I need to get all of these orientation forms filled out.

  2

  Dan

  That? That’s what I get to see first thing this morning?

  I either got hit by a bus during my commute to work and I’ve died and gone to heaven and this is an angel, or I’m the luckiest guy on earth right now.

  I don’t think angels wait on line at the bank, so it must be my lucky day.

  Last night? Not so lucky. After Brandon ditched me to go home with a girl named Candy with a too-short shirt and too many two dollar beers, I decided to go home myself.

  I’ve become so bored with the bar scene. I can’t take another girl with a pool cue licking her lips and making eyes at me. It’s hot, don’t get me wrong, but I’ve been there and done that.

  I’ve done all of that.

  So I’ve been looking for something else. Something to take my mind and my dick off all the one night stands and helping these girls get a cab at five in the morning.

  What is it about these girls needing to get into work early on the mornings that I wake up with them? I’m nothing if not a gentleman. I’d make them breakfast if they wanted. Take them out for a hot cup of coffee and a bagel.

  No need to run, ladies.

  But her? This angel waiting in line at my bank with the general public?

  No. We can’t have this.

  This is an outrage.

  I walk right past her, and I know she notices me. I walk past the ATMs and straighten out the deposit slips on the table against the wall, and check to make sure that there are enough paper cups for our customers to get water. Have to keep my customers happy, and I’ve found that nothing is better for an irate customer than a cup of water.

  Before budget cuts, the best thing for an irate customer was a lollipop, but we’ve had to cut that line item since last quarter.

  I think that the best thing for an irate customer would really be a bag of cold, hard cash, but I haven’t been able to get the higher-ups to approve that yet. I put it in my budget wish-list every quarter, but still no one’s approved it.

  I punch in my passcode (my mom’s birthday) to get to my office behind the windows of tellers, and look back at the angel in the sensible heels.

  Christ. It’s not right.

  I get into my office and fire up the computer. I went to school for finance, but I could not stand working with some of the dickhead investors we had to deal with. Managing a fund for some rich assholes might have its appeal - the money is the appeal - but I realized early on that life is too short and I’m too young to be languishing behind a desk pushing numbers around on a spreadsheet for the next 40 years of my life, God willing.

  So after I got my first bonus and was able to put away a little bit of money for mom, I quit.

  Hiked the West Coast of the United States, took a cruise to Alaska, and came back to New York to figure out what I wanted to do.

  I guess I’m lucky that strategic investing of my year-end bonus yielded me a fortune by anyone's standards.

  I wanted to be around money. I love money, don’t get me wrong. I love the smell of it, the feeling you get when you’re around it. It’s power. It’s what lets us experience things. Great things.

  And I like working with people. One of the best jobs I ever had was on the floor at an electronics store in college. I like explaining things to people. Helping them. Making a connection.

  So the manager of a local branch of a bank? This was the perfect gig for me.

  “Hey, Charlie?”

  I tap the intercom button on my desktop phone and buzz my assistant. She and I are friends - her boyfriend and I have our weekly poker night on Thursdays, and she’s like one of the guys.

  “What’s up, boss?”

  She pokes her head into my office. Doesn’t even buzz me back on the intercom.

  “This is a good one,” I say, stretching my legs out under my desk and stretching my arms behind my head. “There’s a girl on line out there. She looks like she needs my help.”

  “Oh, your
help?” Charlie laughs and slips into my office, grabbing a mug from the table by the door and filling up. “Alright, boss. What you want me to do about it?”

  “I want you to hold my calls. Clear my appointments.”

  “You don’t have any appointments this morning. I already checked. You’re free and clear until lunch time.”

  “Good. I need to go pull that girl off the line. Did you see the thick folder she has?” I stand up and start toward the door, leading Charlie down the narrow corridor back to the teller stations.

  “Yeah, I saw. Probably opening an account.”

  “Yes, probably.”

  I observe my angel through the glass. She looks confused. I’ll set her mind at ease and help her with anything she needs. All her banking needs. Investments. Hot cocoa on a rainy Saturday morning. Anything.

  “Could you please do me a favor and go grab her off the line for me?”

  My angel catches my eye and looks away quickly, but I don’t take my eyes off her. I need her to give me a little bit more. I need to look into those baby blues. There she goes. Her eyes flash back to mine and she slips a lock of hair behind her ear. She’s pulling her earbuds out and looking down at her shoes.

  It’s too early in the morning for her to be out. It’s shit weather outside, and she should be home drinking coffee and gazing out the window of my penthouse.

  “Of course, boss,” Charlie says.

  The line is getting longer now, and as Charlie goes through the passcode protected door to grab my girl, I smile at her through the glass. My staff won’t need me this morning. They’ve got this. They’re good at their jobs. I need to take this private meeting. They won’t need me.

  I lose my angel for a moment as she and Charlie disappear beyond the glass separating me and my staff from the customers, and then the door opens and she appears before me.

  Up close? God, she’s even more beautiful. Her skirt is the perfect length to show off her gorgeous legs - not too short. No, she’s humble. She doesn’t need men leering at her. She’s particular about who she shows her full beauty to.