CHAPTER EIGHT
WALKER
I stared down the face of the mountain that looked both the same since I last used this track and had changed in all the ways that was usual for this time of year. The rain had eroded a lot of the gathered pine needle mulch, washed away a few saplings trying to garner a foothold with scant roots at this altitude.
The landslip that we had experienced when Faith first arrived at my place wasn’t the only one that we spotted, the path giving way to unstable ground under the last week of rain and deluge of water cascading down the mountainside in impromptu waterfalls and random trickles. The sight would have been stunning but deadly had we left earlier, and I was glad we waited to head down to Red Hart.
Not that we had a choice. The path would have been impassable until now. Even so, we gave the fallen rocks a large berth. But none of that was what bothered me.
What hurt was Faith’s silence that followed me from my house all the way to the halfway point I aimed for nearly six hours after we left—an hour later than I intended thanks to the argument about the boots. I figured she’d get tired fast and that we’d cover more ground in the morning than the afternoon. No matter how many times I helped her, praised her, or fed her, Faith kept herself to herself.
Which was nothing like the woman I thought I knew. Who I was fast falling for in the weeks she’d lived in my home. A short time where we’d been on top of each other—sometimes literally—and I’d learned a hell of a lot about her.
Rule number one: Faith had zero filter. What she thought came straight out of her mouth.
Which meant her silence was fucking unnerving.
Even I could see she was bursting to say something. But whatever Faith Somerset wanted to tell me, she kept tightly under wraps for the first time since I’d met her.
If she’d been this quiet on that first day, things might have gone very differently in my house.
Now that I knew what she tasted like when she kissed me, what she felt like when I held her or how she cried after we fucked when she thought I’d fallen asleep, I understood how rare a gift her silence was.
And what a curse.
Because those were the times that I held onto her and refused to let her go, her lithe tight body pressed to mine, silent tears collecting on my chest in tiny pools.
If she wanted to talk to me and tell me her secrets, whisper them to me as the rain fell, she would have. But she kept those too, her fears turning inward and cried herself to sleep then, too. Just as she walked in silence now.
The problem was that her secrets weren’t just eating at her.
They ate at me, too.
Finally, as I helped her haul her perfect little ass—that I knew the shape of intimately, because the feel of her was still molded into my palms from our playtime during the night before—over a shattered section of granite from a long prior rock slide, my patience died a short and sharp death.
“Spit it out, Precious,” I muttered, wrapping my hand around her hip and gave her a quick slap.
Faith let out the sweetest as fuck growl that boiled my blood. Instead of giving her the desired boost forward over the split boulder where I was supposed to be helping her, I tugged her back against me.
Her back pressed to my chest, and her ass ground against my groin, leaving me aching and hard, a state I'd been trying my damn best to avoid since we started walking hours ago.
She hadn’t whined or bitched at me once. Not when she slipped and grazed her hands when I hadn’t been watching her close enough, or when her socks got soaked crossing a stream that hadn’t been there last time I used the track. Her feet had to be covered in blisters from the boots that were far too big for her feet, but still she kept her silence, and more than that, my girl kept up with me.
I hadn’t been as impressed with another human since I saw my father take on the local bureaucrats as a twenty something. Or the month after when I walked out—or he kicked me out, depending on who you spoke to back then—and headed up the mountain after I negotiated with Red Hart for the land. Trav and Jude put in a summer’s worth of work with me for the hell of it, and to get the hell out of Trav’s dad’s hair for two months solid.
That was a short, tight list, and Faith just topped it.
“Spit what out?” she snarked at me, pushing her weight back into me before she launched forward.
“Easy, Presh.” I was ready for her, wrapping my arm around her waist and holding on tight.
Faith thrashed for a long moment, but her energy was well down, and she stopped fighting me, though her nails dug into my exposed forearm where I’d rolled my sleeves back.
“I thought you were taking me back, not holding me hostage, Mister Roan.”
I winced at the title. “Did you use that name with my father?”
She stalled against me, her chest heaving. “No, actually. I called him by his first name.”
My eyebrows shot into my hairline. “You called him Chaz?”
Faith shrugged. “He asked me to. So why not?” she challenged me. “Was that an attorney-client privilege I shouldn’t have been using, or did you give up your rights when you walked away years before?”
Damn, she was pissed at me. I still didn’t let her go. She smelled too good. Felt good, too, pressed right up against me. I inhaled deeply, running my nose along the length of her throat and buried my face in her neck.
Her body stiffened, but the strangled moan that slipped from her lips was unmissable. I loosened my hold around her stomach and she didn’t pull away.
“You don’t get to ask questions like that, Miss Somerset,” I murmured, licking the shell of her ear while she made more of those sweet little noises for me.
The woman who could be so hard and tough curved her body against mine. Faith went all soft and sweet, so different from the snarky woman she’d been a moment before. I’d learned her body, who she was over the last days, and taken my time understanding what she needed. What scared her. What made her cling to me and beg for more even if she was too fuck-drunk to remember telling me.
“Walker—” she whispered, her voice a bare thread, but I didn’t let her finish.
“I walked away from my father because I could never be who he was. Who everyone expected me to be. Because I couldn’t be him, Precious. I was always the silent version, the ultimate disappointment in his eyes.” I shrugged as she spun in my arms, the fine lines around her eyes tightening. “Surprised I don’t have a better reason for hiding from the world?” For running away?
Her mouth opened and shut twice, and stayed that way.
Faith, speechless? That’s new.
I leaned in and stole a kiss before I could think the better of it. Her hand cupped my cheek, then she shoved me back hard, gasping.
“Hell, no. Not after you pull me out of your house like you did this morning. Fuck you,” she muttered, yanking out of my arms and pivoting to continue climbing the rock pile on her own.
I smirked at her ass wiggling in my face. “Is that what you’re upset about, Precious? You thought you wouldn't get an invitation back?”
Her derisive laughter might have iced my veins if I hadn’t recognized the hurt beneath that tone. “As if I want to risk coming back up your mountain and getting swept away. Again.”
I reached out and placed a hand on her lower back where she slipped, steadying her. “I’ll replace your car with something that can,” I promised her. It wasn’t like my bank account wasn’t overflowing. I took in money from what I earned trading hand crafted goods for Kyle and a few others, and hard labor for Red Hart and a few neighbors. Where the fuck would I spend any of it? “Or something that can’t. Whatever you need. That’s on me for not coming down when I knew you were looking for me years ago.”
She batted my hand away. “Fuck you, Roan.”
“Already did that, Presh.”
She flipped me the bird and landed on the other side of the rock pile with an oof. Then there was nothing but silence.
I frowned. “You okay, Faith?” I waited a beat. “Faith?” I hauled myself over the boulder and landed on the other side on both feet, missing her outspread hand that rested beside her by scant inches. “Shit. Sorry, girl.”
But her attention wasn’t on me or where my boots landed. Her gaze was fixed on what lay to the west beyond where the track turned as she slowly pushed herself up to standing without turning to acknowledge me at all.
Here, the trees opened out, the mountain turning away to present the first look out over Red Hart and the land beyond that scooped down into the wide valley where the ranch house sat.
The river where Eve and Rhys found sapphires ran well below us, far enough I couldn’t hear its rushing, swollen waters after rain. That would be an ass to cross, but we’d manage. Then the forest and the grassy plains on Beaumont land that the twins now owned between them, prime grazing land that bordered on Black Hill land. On the other side of the rise to my west lay trader Kyle’s new family.
I’d come up here to hide away from the world and somehow managed to learn all the politics and family entanglements of the locals thanks to then-two young cowboys who took it upon themselves to help a lonely, heartbroken man because they decided he shouldn’t be left alone after all.
Faith gazed out over the ranch, the work of generations of Trav and Eve’s family. Her long red hair streamed down her back where it had come loose from her top notch hours ago. She swept one hand through the wayward strands and reached back for me absently.
“It’s so beautiful,” she whispered.
It’s beautiful.
She’d said that the first night she stayed at my place, watching the rain crash in sheets against the cliff face, pattering against her bare feet. I’d thought the same thing then, watching the fire and pretending not to watch her, only my thoughts hadn’t been directed to the rain.
“So are you.” I swallowed hard, my voice as thin and thready as hers had been before. Maybe Jude and Trav hadn’t been so wrong all those years ago after all. It just took me all this long to figure it out. “Yeah, it is,” I finally whispered loud enough for her to hear as I slid my fingers around hers and clasped them firmly.
She let out a little gasp, but didn’t look away from the view. Not when I stepped up behind her or dropped the backpack on the ground. Not when I slid my other hand around her waist and tucked her back against me.
Or when I drew our entwined fingers to her chin, tipped her head back to find her eyes already closed, and sealed my mouth over hers.
Fuck, I’m falling for a girl I can’t keep.
The belated thought strayed across my mind as I gathered her into my arms and dipped a knee to lay her out on the jackets I’d brought with us. I fumbled to spread the material out beneath her before her head hit the stone, her head decorating the speckled granite like a fiery halo.
Faith’s sighs lit a deep need inside me. I kissed her long, but not rough, needing this last memory with her. She was right; I’d tried to keep it clean this morning and say goodbye without doing it right when we left.
I’d been a coward then.
Now, I had a chance to make that up to her. My mouth melded to hers as she lifted her hips, letting me peel her white jeans to her knees and positioned myself between her soft thighs. It was a tight fit, but I shoved my own pants aside and pushed a finger inside her to find her sopping for me already.
I opened my mouth to speak, but she raised her head, kissing the needless words away. Her moan reverberated against my lips as I teased her with a few shallow thrusts, then replaced my finger with my cock, pushing inside her long and deep. Her mouth broke from mine on the sort of keening cry that echoed from the mountain's high walls. I breathed hard, lost in her eyes that reflected the sunlight and dappled shade all at once as her hands flexed around my neck, her nails digging into my skin.
My cock swelled painfully as I rubbed my knuckles against the hard stone beneath her, using the pain as I distraction so I’d last inside her luscious fucking heat. Her whimpers drove me on, but I kept my pace steady, needing to memorize the feel of her, every flutter as she rolled her hips with me.
Faith’s first climax drifted sweetly over us, coating me in her cream as I bit my tongue against the glorious sensation of being drenched raw inside her as she came. I found her eyes, registering the tears already there.
“Am I hurting you?” I murmured, brushing the drops away with my thumb.
She shook her head. “I don’t want this to stop. Not ever.”
My heart sang as I gripped her hip and pushed deeper then withdrew slowly, setting the sort of rhythm that wouldn’t let me come until I was ready.
But Faith…she unfurled around me, her edge of bliss already leaving her clenching on my cock as I drowned her cries with my kisses. For once, we weren’t rough.
The silent mountain alone bore witness to the slow brand of love that I etched soul deep in the girl I’d fallen for in the hope that one day, she might remember the way I made her feel, and love me back.