Chapter Nine
Reece
Today was one of the hardest days of my life.
It’s been two weeks since Rain Mallory showed up on my doorstep to challenge me, to test me.
To try to bring me back to life again. I thought I had been living life the way I wanted.
But the truth was, I was just hiding. Afraid of facing the other hardest day of my life because I didn’t think I deserved closure or peace.
Walter Miller would disagree, it would seem.
My guilt over the loss of two men under my watch has haunted me for five years.
I expect in a way, it will always haunt me.
It was the most traumatic thing to ever happen to me and I will always have the scars to remind me should I ever try to forget.
But sitting down for an entire afternoon to talk with Walter about his son Matt, to lament how important he had been to both of us, it was the first step towards a little healing.
If Rain was sent her to test me, she is doing a fine job.
Because she has me doing things I would never have done before her.
I went to town to find her. I almost stayed there to be with her until she asked to be brought home, to my cabin on the mountain.
Then she convinced me to reach out to Walter to invite him here—and she insisted on covering all the expenses for a weekend trip for the grieving man.
“It was good for him too, baby,” she hums now, pressing her soft body against my back, her arms circling my waist.
I sigh as we stand on my porch, watching the gentle man who cried to me as he said he had long ago forgiven me, head back down the mountain.
We spent the entire day together, Rain staying out of the way other than to bring us some lunch, check to be sure our sweet tea stayed full, and offer me a few moments of calm anytime she was near.
Walter told me stories about his son I never got a chance to hear firsthand.
I told him a few he had never heard too.
I apologized over and over but after the fifth or so time, he told me to knock it off.
He lamented the months of investigations proving faulty mechanics in the switchboard had caused the errors that led to the explosion that rocked the rig.
“Sure, I could be angry at you, angry at the big oil company who never knew my son. I could shake my fist at the switchboard company but none of that changes the truth. Matt is gone, but he was doing what he loved to do, the first thing he had found for himself. He was a lot like you. An outlier, never finding his place. Until that rig, until you and the other men on that rig who became his friends. His family. He would not want you to take this trauma on for the rest of your life, son.”
Those words had undone the chains of guilt that had locked me down for the past five years.
It was a moment I am not sure I deserve.
I am taking it though. Not because I want to forget the accident or because I will ever forget Matt.
I am taking it because it is the first glimpse of hope that I can be a good man for Rain.
“You did that. You know that, don’t you,” I whisper as I turn to face her, drawing her close against my chest. It is twilight out and she is the most beautiful vision in the golden light.
“If you had not been so…determined, I would never have called him. He needed this as much as I did, I think. How can I ever thank you, Rain?”
Rain smirks up at me and my dick jerks in my jeans. Oh, I have a hundred ways I would love to thank her. With my mouth, with my hand, with my cock. Seeing that shimmer in her blue eyes that she might be on the same page seals it for me.
I am going to fall in love with this woman.
Hell, I might already be there.
Slowly, she backs up, letting her arms drop from my waist. I frown until she stands in the doorway. The same place I stood the day we met, in just a towel, saying outrageous things as I tried to scare her off. It didn’t work and I am so fucking glad.
I watch her pull a tie at her hip, undoing the pretty bow of her dress.
The wrap front of it drifts open, baring her to me.
In just tiny white lace panties, she is almost entirely bare to me.
The setting sun shines on her golden skin as she steps back once more, letting the dress drop to the floor at her feet.
Swallowing hard, I follow her lead. Taking slow, measured steps, I head back inside.
My shirt goes first, tossed aside without a care.
I think it might wind up on a tree limb.
I don’t care. Stepping inside, undoing my zipper seems loud in the quiet.
My heart it thundering so loud as she turns, glancing back at me over her shoulder as she gives a little shimmy of her ass.
“I think you can figure a few ways to thank me, caveman.”
I laugh as she gives another shake then takes off running.
Being with her is the most fun I have had in so long.
Maybe ever. Rain makes everything lighter, easier.
Not just this, it is more than how we’re playful when we make love.
Its how easier I breathe now, how I’ve slept without nightmares for days, its in how I wake up each morning with something to look forward to.
“I have a whole list of ways to thank you, princess,” I hum as I stalk down the hall, refusing to give chase.
Oh, I want to. I have before. My woman loves to be chased and I plan on giving her what she loves for the rest of forever if she lets me.
But tonight, I want it to be different. Because tonight I know without a doubt something I would not have believed not that long ago.
I am going to know happiness. Because she is going to be the one to give it to me.
Reaching the bedroom, I see she is seated on the edge of the bed, feigning boredom.
Only her chest is heaving a little, her toes tapping on the hardwood floor.
Because she is needy. Waiting for me to pounce.
To take her fast and hard or slow and deep, whichever we decide we need.
But tonight, I want to take the time I should have our first time on that balcony.
“You’re the most beautiful thing I have ever had in my life,” I rasp as I stand at the end of the bed. Circling my shaft, I work it a few times, root to tip, watch her eyes darken as they drop to watch me.
Rain is unabashed about her desires. Whether it be making cupcakes at two am on a Tuesday because she wants something sweet, taking hours long baths with bubbles, or dropping to her knees to distract me with her mouth when I am trying to work, she gets what she wants.
I am damn lucky she decided she wanted me.
“You’re beautiful,” she hums, her hands dropping to her thighs as they spread a little, showing off her bare sex.
“I love watching you. Not just this…when you’re building something with your hands…
fuck, your hands, baby,” she whimpers as if it’s my hands touching her now, her hands sliding over her soft stomach, up to cup her full tits.
Jesus, I am a lucky fucking asshole. I will never make the mistake of letting her go again.
“Show me where you want my hands, princess,” I command, still slowly pumping my dick, even though just talking to her this way is almost enough to make me go off.
Rain lets out a throaty little sound as she slides a hand back down.
I watch as her fingers dive between her thighs.
The moment her fingertips brush over her pussy, she lets out another sound that goes right to my balls.
Heat tingles up my spine. I close my fingers around the base of my cock, refusing the climax that is boiling inside of me.
“Show me,” I repeat, fascinated by the way her hands move over her skin, by the little sounds she makes, by how brave she is to preen for me.
Falling back on an elbow she opens her thighs wider, giving me a better view. I growl in pleasure as she does as she’s told, spreading her folds open for me to watch her touch herself. It’s hesitant at first, her touch on her swollen clit. Once she touches that little nub, all hesitation is gone.
“Baby,” she moans the word that might as well be a siren call for me. “Please, I need…I can’t do it myself.”
“You don’t have to, baby,” I husk, taking a few steps closer. “I am right here, I am going to make you come on my cock, I promise. After I make you come on my tongue. First, make yourself come while I watch. You can do that, can’t you princess?”
Rain peers up at me from beneath dark lashes.
Gives a little nod before she opens her mouth, flattening her tongue.
Fuck. Holy fuck. I take another step, letting my cock push past her lips.
We moan together as she draws me deeper with a greedy suck.
Her hand never moves from between her thighs, so I feel her rub at her pussy.
“Fuck, you’re such a good princess,” I praise, gathering her thick, dark hair at the back of her neck with my fist. My hips rock forward until she chokes on me. I pull back but she just sucks me deeper, sending a fresh wave of heat searing up my spine.
I push forward before I pull out of her mouth with a pop.
I know her well enough by now. Her orgasm is just out of her reach.
I need to be the one to get her there. I do not even hesitate to get on my knees, my tongue pushing inside her as her fingertips rub at her clit.
Her climax crashes down on her, her pussy fluttering.
“Oh my god!” she shouts as she lets it wash over her.
Staying on my knees, I hook my arms around her thighs, tilting her back on the bed.
I continue to eat her creamy folds, sucking every drop of her down.
That possessive beast inside me pounds his chest as she comes again, her body shaking, her fingers yanking roughly at my hair as she screams my name in echo.
Once she settles, I move over her, lying her back on the bed. I kiss a slow path up her thighs, across her stomach. I trace the words on the tattoo at her ribcage with my tongue. Rising over her, I close my mouth around her nipple, my hand dropping to circle her throat.
“I am a caveman when it comes to you, princess. I won’t make the mistake of ever letting you off this mountain again,” I husk against her skin, my teeth pulling at the stiff bud.
“I have nowhere else to go, baby,” she hums.
Pleasure tears through me because I believe her. I believe that she wants to be here, that she wants to be with me. I never believed I would find someone to live this life with. Moving over her, I cradle her face gently before I thrust once to sink myself deep inside her.
“Me either, princess. There is no where else I want to be.”
Up on this mountain, or down in Hollow Peak, as long as I am with her, there is nowhere else for me.