Page 15 of Marked By the Mountain Man
I thread my fingers through his hair and tug again. “Then tell me.”
He shakes his head, eyes closed, forehead pressed to my chest. “I can’t. It’ll ruin everything. You’ll leave and I’ll be left with another ghost.” His voice cracks on the last word, and I feel whatever it is pressing between us.
“We need to move. That bear could still be here,” he groans under his breath, like he’s trying to reason his way out of the guilt he feels for touching me, for whatever he’s hiding.
“I don’t feel him here.” My eyes hold with his, strong and steady, as his hand slides lower over my hip, gripping me tight. “I’d know if he were nearby.”
“You and this sixth sense are going to get us killed.” He growls the words in my ear as I arch into him, breath catching as his mouth trails down my neck.
“No, it’s your feelings that are going to get us killed,” I whisper playfully. “You’re the one who’s got me pinned to the ground, not the bear.”
“I shouldn’t want this,” he says. “Not with you.”
“But you do,” I whisper, “and I do too.”
His eyes flash, and he kisses me again, harder this time, like he’s trying to burn the truth out of his own mouth as his hand slides under my thigh, pulling me closer.
“I was supposed to be on the line that day,” he says suddenly, voice rough against my skin. “Your dad… he took my shift.”
I freeze beneath him, breath caught in my throat.
Knox doesn’t stop touching me, doesn’t stop kissing me, but his words keep coming low and broken, like they’ve been buried too long. “I begged him to take my shift so I could finish the roof on the cabin before the snowstorm blew in. I knew he’d help because he always did.” His mouth finds my shoulder, teeth grazing skin. “I’m a fucking asshole.”
I feel his soul shaking, the years of guilt he’s held in his chest pressing down. His forehead meets mine. “The storm came, the line snapped, and he was gone. So yeah, I stay up here to escape reality. And now that you’re here waking up all these ghosts, I let myself feel something I shouldn’t have, something I don’t deserve.”
“I didn’t come here to haunt you,” I say, lips brushing his temple. “I was drawn here. Maybe it was him. Maybe wherever he is, he knows we needed to find each other.” She pauses. “It’snot your fault that he died. It was an accident. He knew the risks of his job.”
Knox’s breath catches as his lips brush against my collarbone. “But it should’ve been me, and wanting you feels like betraying him.”
I slide my hand up his chest, feeling the thud of his heart beneath my palm. “You’re not betraying anyone. You’re surviving. So few things feel right in the world, butthisdoes. I don’t want to ignore it.”
His hand slides up my ribs, slow and deliberate, and when his mouth finds mine again, it’s no longer hesitant.It’s claiming.
Maybe a sane person would pull away, but I don’t. I don’t because whatever this is, it feels like the only thing keeping us from falling apart.
I gasp as his fingers slip beneath my shirt, brushing the curve of my breast. “Take me.” My lips lean into his and I kiss him hard and fast, tasting the coffee he’d had before chopping wood.
His hands are everywhere, starving, moving like he doesn’t know where to start, pressing me into the earth as though he’s trying to fuse us together.
The bear could be standing in the woods right now satisfying his voyeur kink, starting a fire, and gathering seasoning for the two for one meal he’s about to cash in on, and I wouldn’t let it stop me.
I was drawn here for a reason. Maybe this was it.
Knox groans into my mouth, the sound low and guttural, like he hasn’t been touched in years, like he’s as desperate for me as I am for him.
Jacket off, he pulls my shirt up, rough hands skimming bare skin, and I arch into him, breath catching as the cold air meets heat.
His mouth trails down my neck, teeth grazing, lips soothing, and I gasp when his hand slides between my thighs and against my seam.
“I need you,” he murmurs, voice wild. “Right here. Right now.”
“I’m yours,” I whisper, tugging at his flannel, pulling him closer, the scent of pine fresh on his skin as he unbuckles his jeans and legs them down.
This is insane. I know it’s insane. It’s freezing cold, there could be a bear in the woods stalking us, we are from different worlds, different times, yet no moment has ever felt more right. I’m his to take.
He looks at me with an unhinged expression as he tugs my leggings down, fists my hair, and presses his massive cock into me.
My breath hitches and instinct takes over. No thoughts, just need.
