Beauden

by Lana Dash

  “Are you okay?” he asks, his neck and shoulders tense. He's holding back from plunging inside me all at once. “You’re so tight.”

  I reach down to grab his ass. I take in a deep breath and let it out as I pull on him to thrust inside. I gasp, the pleasure and pain almost too much to handle. Beauden doesn’t move. He waits for my cue before he continues.

  “I’m okay,” I tell him.

  Before he begins to thrust his hips, he leans down and kisses me. The heat between my legs is replaced with a growing pleasure. The feeling of Beauden pushing in and out of me is almost too much for me to process. My eyes roll up, and I'm not sure if the words I'm saying are anything other than grunts of desire.

  “You ready, Babe?” he asks, pulling out almost to the tip.

  I nod my head feverishly. He plunges back into me so deep, I scream my release. He follows closely behind with his own.

  Beauden slumps down against me. Our ragged breathing unsteady. We cling to one another. Eventually, he pulls out and rolls over to the side, pulling me with him. I tuck myself into the crook of his shoulder, exhausted and sated. I’m asleep before Beauden pulls the blanket over us.

  6

  AMERIN

  The sound of tires crunching on gravel jolts me awake. I lift my head and see a truck pulling up.

  "Beauden." I shake him. "Wake up. Someone's here."

  His eyes flutter open in sleepy confusion. When he sees me, he pulls me closer to him and closes his eyes. “Good morning.”

  “Someone is here,” I tell him again.

  The sound of a truck door closing seems to penetrate his foggy brain. His eyes open, and he sits up abruptly.

  I flop off him with a painful thunk. “Ouch.”

  “Stop!” He holds up his hand. “Do not step any closer and turn around.”

  I can hear Brodie chuckle, and I relax a bit. So, he did get the text. He just took his sweet time to come get us.

  We dress as quickly as we can, but there’s nothing to be done to hide what happened here tonight. I sit in the cab of the truck while Brodie works under the hood to get it going again. I lay down across the bench, still tired from all the orgasms from the night before. Beauden woke me a few hours after our first go for another round that has me feeling a bit sore this morning.

  The driver’s side door opens. I feel Beauden’s lips press against my temple.

  “Wake up, Babe. I need to try and start the engine.”

  I sit up. He turns the key, still in the ignition from the day before, and the engine purrs to life. Brodie leads the way down the mountain at a much more manageable pace than his brother did yesterday.

  I can tell when the cell signal gets stronger on the mountain when my phone alerts start going off like crazy. I sift through the messages. There are a few emails from the office that can wait, but I see one marked urgent from my boss. I open it and read that he’s on his way to Knight’s Ridge now and should be here by nine this morning. He wasn’t supposed to come for another two days.

  I look at the digital clock on the dashboard. It reads a quarter to eight.

  “We’ve got to get back to the lodge. My boss is coming to town, and I need to get there before him. I can't have him showing up, and I look like I went hiking and had sex all night.”

  “But you did.” Beauden smiles proudly.

  “Not the point.”

  Beauden signals to Brodie to go faster, and I find myself holding on once again for dear life.

  BEAUDEN

  We get back in what I feel is plenty of time for her to get ready, but Amerin’s out of the truck before I even pull to a complete stop. I tense when I see Arlo’s car pull up behind me. The jackass gets out with a big smile I’d like to knock off his face. Ever since he's been trying to find anyone willing to sell their piece of the mountain, I've lost all neighborly feeling towards him. The rest of the family doesn’t seem to think this resort will affect our business, but I know better.

  I get out and walk inside, not bothering to greet him. Not that it stops him; he follows me in any way. I take the steps up two at a time and knock once on Amerin’s door before walking in. She shrieks, grabbing her towel and covering herself up. Her hair is wet and dripping down her shoulders.

  “What are you going to say when your boss shows up?” I bark out.

  She stares at me, confused by my tone. “What do you mean?”

  “I mean, you are the last bit of hope that my family and this community has to stop this resort. What are you going to do about it?”

  “What can I do? Tell my boss, ‘Hey, you know all those millions of dollars you've already put into this project? Yeah, the guy I'm sleeping with doesn't want that. Can we just pack up and go home?’”

  “That’s all I am to you? The guy you’re sleeping with.”

  “I didn’t mean it like that.”

  "I think it's clear what you mean even though you don't have the guts to say it. As soon as this deal goes through, you will be on the next plane out of here."

  “I don’t know what you want me to say?” Her phone starts ringing, and we both look down to see the name "Jackson" flashing across the screen.

  “You better get that. You’ve said all I need to hear.”

  7

  BEAUDEN

  Amerin drove off three hours ago, without a word to anyone. Arlo followed after her looking confused. I saw the whole thing unfold from the roof, where I've been working ever since. I'm doing what I can not to think about her, but I'm failing miserably.

  I pound hard on nail after nail, trying to work out my frustration. But if I’m not careful, I’ll pound a hole through the roof.

  “Hello!” Amerin’s voice calls up to me.

  I ignore her and continue to work,

  “I know you can hear me, you stubborn jackass!”

  I stop and glare down at her. She's in the tight skirt I saw her in that first day, but this time instead of heels, she's in her bunny slippers. I fight the urge to smile.

  “What do you want? I think we said all we needed to before.”

  "No way." She shakes her head. "I've had time to think about it, and I have something else I need to say.”

  “No one’s stopping you.”

  She plants her hands on her hips. “You are the most infuriating man I’ve ever met. You’ve pushed my buttons at every turn since my arrival. And despite all that, I still fell in love with you."

  I gape down at her, not sure I’ve heard her correctly. I smother the happiness coursing through me. “That doesn’t change the fact that you’ll be going back to your job once your deal goes through.”

  “I don’t have a job.”

  “What?”

  "Yeah, it turns out my boss wasn't too happy when I brought it to his attention that endangered animals are living on the land where we were going to build the resort." She smiles up at me. "Oh, did I mention there isn't going to be a resort anymore? Like ever.”

  My brain is spinning with all the information she's just thrown at me. I walk over and climb down the ladder to her.

  “My brother called after he got the picture I sent him of the wolf and me. He recognized it immediately, and he called a friend of his at UNC to confirm. The wolf we saw is a Red Wolf. It’s endangered and therefore protected. The resort can’t build on the site now.”

  “Are you serious?” I cup her face in my hands. “That’s amazing. Thank you.”

  “I wouldn’t have been able to do it without you.”

  “And you love me?”

  She grins. “I was wondering when we were going to get back to that.”

  “I should probably tell you that you are the most insufferable woman I’ve ever met. You push back at me in a way no one has before and keep me on my toes." I rest my forehead against hers. "And I love you."

  "I hope this means you don't mind me sticking around for a bit longer. I don't have a reason to rush back to Chicago.”

  “You aren’t going anywhere.”

  She
giggles and throws her arms around me. I kiss her deeply. I know it’s only been a few hours, but it feels like a lifetime since I’ve had her in my arms. I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life holding her.

  Epilogue

  AMERIN

  “The baby is pushing on my bladder.” I wince, holding onto a tree near Coop’s Overlook. It’s hot. I’m pregnant. And I’m quickly losing my patience.

  “Can’t you keep your legs closed?” Beauden asks without looking up from the camera in his hands.

  I glare at my husband. “Oh, you can bet I’ll be keeping my legs closed after that comment.”

  He looks up at me, and the pout on his face tells me he understood my double meaning.

  Beauden has been trying to set up the camera for our baby pictures for the better part of an hour. He swears he wants to get the lighting of the sunset behind us just perfect.

  “Babe, we need the perfect shot,” he repeats for the umpteenth time.

  “We just need a picture of us, preferably one before this baby comes.” I look around at all the untouched forest that was so close to being lost if it weren’t for one imperfect picture. “Does the camera have a timer?”

  “Sure does.”

  “Can you set it up to snap a few in a row?”

  His face lights up. “It can—"

  “Yes or no, babe?”

  “Yes.”

  "Good," I wince again. "Set it up, and we will take what we can get."

  Beauden concedes and puts the camera back on this tripod. He steps behind me and slips his arms around my middle. The first flash goes off. I wince again. The second flash goes off. The pain doesn’t let up. The third flash goes off. I feel warm liquid flow down my legs. For a moment, I think I've peed myself, but I quickly realize my water just broke. It flashes again.

  “We need to go.” I grab onto Beauden’s hand and squeeze. “The baby is coming.”

  He turns toward me, a beautiful mix of surprise and pleasure on his face. Despite my discomfort, I can’t help but grin back up at this man I love.

  Flash!

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  About the Author

  LANA DASH is the author of short, sexy, and funny romances. When she isn’t dreaming up her latest sexy couple’s adventure, you can find her watching true crime documentaries, drinking Bloody Marys, and eating movie theater popcorn. Not necessarily at the same time. She loves to hear from readers so find her on Facebook.