She doesn’t laugh. “Where are you?”
“I told you last week—that I was moving to Alaska. With my ... fiancé?”
I may have lied and told her we met at college, and he was my boyfriend, and we had gotten engaged. I may have left out the hired-bride part.
“Engaged? Alaska? I don’t remember any of this.”
“Oh, well, you told me you were watching Game of Thrones.”
She laughs. “Then I didn’t listen to what you said. I don’t have DVR, so I can’t pause anything.”
“Oh.” What the hell do I say to this? “Okay, well. I’m safe and—”
“Okay, well, message me on Facebook if you want.”
“Will do.”
She hangs up without goodbye. Really? This is my family? This is what I have on Planet Earth?
I stand outside Hope’s nursery. Well, I call it a nursery, but it mostly looks like someone went shopping on Amazon for the most random baby things, without any thought. There’s a half-assembled stroller, a pile of dirty burp rags, and a changing table with a navy blue sheet on it.
I mean, the crib is put together, so that’s good, but the room is empty except for a few baskets of clothes. A giant box of diapers has been ripped open, and a box of baby wipes sits next to it. It’s not cute or cozy at all. It’s depressing as hell, to be honest. The rest of Reed’s house is divine—all rich woods and leather furniture. This room, though, is sad.
Watching Reed change Hope’s diaper, I feel my ovaries just about explode. Holy cow, he is sexy with this kid. He kisses her belly, sings her a nonsense song, and stretches her arms as she giggles. And, okay, I may not want a kid, but a baby cooing for her father is pretty much adorbs.
“You book a plane out of here?” he asks, his back still to me, as he snaps a sleeper on Hope.
“What?” I didn’t even know he knew I was standing here. “Um. No. I was talking to my sister.”
“You have a sister?” Reed picks Hope up, and she beams up at him like he’s God’s gift to women—which, besides the fact he’s an asshole, he kind of is. “Can you turn on the mobile over her crib?”
I walk into the room and do as he asks, smoothing out the blanket in the crib. “Yeah, her name’s Francis. But she isn’t really ... available.”
He sets Hope down, then pats her belly, turns on the baby monitor, and turns off the overhead light.
We step into the hallway and he softly closes her door.
“That was easy,” I say. “Is it always like that?”
“Oh, she’s great sometimes. Maybe you forgot her meltdown when we got here today?”
“I thought that might have been a one-time thing.”
“Nope, that’s a Hope thing.”
We walk down to the kitchen, and he pulls the pizza out of the oven. It smells like cardboard, but I’m starved.
“Beer?” he asks.
“Sure.” I find the pizza cutter in a drawer, and slice the pizza as he grabs the drinks. Sitting on barstools, we help ourselves to hot slices. “So she sleeps all night, then?”
“Eh,” Reed shrugs unconvincingly. “Some nights. But others ... not so well.”
“And you’ve been doing this all alone, everyday?”
“The social worker came by a few times the first month to make sure everything was cool. And Lottie comes over, because she’s bored and nosy.”
I don’t say that I’m impressed, but I am. For a man who has no experience with babies, all alone, with no support, he’s keeping his shit together pretty well.
Maybe that’s why he seems so tense.
“You’re doing good,” I tell him. “She seems pretty perfect for a nine-month-old.”
“I don’t know how good I’m doing. I bought a whole shit-ton of books on taking care of babies. But every time I go to read one I fall asleep.”
I smile softly, finding his ability to take this whole thing in stride sexy as hell. And even if he’s an ass ... he’s a father, and not shirking that responsibility.
“I bet a lot of it’s about instinct.”
“Maybe.” He shrugs. “It’s just not what I wanted, you know. Hope’s amazing ... but like, I sometimes wonder how this is my actual life.”
I can’t help but snort. “No shit, Reed.”
He shakes his head sheepishly. “Fuck, I know. You didn’t want this gig either. Still don’t.”
“I didn’t say that.”
“I’ve seen it in your eyes all night, Amelia. You don’t want to be here. This is more than you bargained for.”
“I think maybe I just need a good night’s sleep, a chance to get my head on straight.”
“Right,” Reed says, wiping his hands with a napkin. “I’ll take your bags to the guest room.”
“The guest room?” My eyebrows raise in surprise. I guess I assumed he’d try to sleep with me again. Not that it would be against my will—I’ve been imagining his hands all over me the entire evening.
“I figure you can stay there until you decide what you want.”
“Right. Of course. That makes sense.” I smile tightly, wondering if he knows how bad I want him, and if this is all a part of his master plan of seducing me to be Hope’s mom. Make me so flipping horny that I’ll agree to anything if it means I can have him again.
How desperate am I, that my first thought revolves around the fact that his plan might actually work?
It doesn’t matter. He carries my bags into the guest room and leaves without another word.
But I swear he gives me a solid once over as he leaves. And I swear even harder that he adjusted his cock as he walked away.
Maybe he’s as horny for me as I am for him.
Chapter Nine
Reed
I wake to Hope screeching through the baby monitor.
Damn it. I tossed and turned for hours, imaging Amelia a few doors down with her perfect tits and perfect ass, wishing she was grinding against me. After I finally went and showered—jacking off in the peace and quiet of the running water like a fucking teenage horn-dog—I fell asleep.
Looking at the clock, I see it’s just after three a.m. Too late—and too early—for anything good.
I walk sleepily down the hall in a pair of sweats and pick up a wailing Hope from her crib. She’s learned to stand, and has started this thing where she just hangs on to the edge and can’t remember how to sit back down.
With her in my arms, still wailing, I get her a bottle, which she refuses. Then I try a pacifier, which she spits out. The swing pisses her off, the lullabies are a no-go, and the biscuit I offer her gets chucked across the room.
Precious.
My eyes burn from exhaustion, and when I realize I’ve been pacing for an hour with a crying baby, I consider getting her in the truck and driving around until she falls asleep.
“Reed?” Amelia whispers my name, and I turn to see the woman who’s here to be my bride. She’s in a see-through tank top and tiny little shorts that leave nothing to the imagination, and her face … she’s gorgeous even in the dead of the night. Her tousled hair and sleepy eyes look sexy as fuck. “Can I hold her?”
I noticed earlier that Amelia didn’t once offer or reach for Hope all night. And I understand, I really do. It’s kind of an awkward spot: me watching her, and maybe she thinks I’ll be judging anything or everything she does right or wrong. But I’m not that guy.
The truth is, maybe I’d be a more judgmental parent if I wasn’t so damn tired of doing this on my own.
Her hands reach for Hope, and she looks at me for affirmation that it’s okay. I nod, my eyes closing as I stand there, leaning against the wall of the hallway. She pats Hope’s back, whispering soft words that soothe me more than my daughter.
“Oh, sweet one,” she coos in a singsong voice. “I’ve got you. You’re okay. It’s gonna be okay. Close your eyes, you’re allowed to go to sleep, baby girl. Shhh, you’re allowed to rest.”
Hope’s crying stops, fades to a whimper. Soon it’s heavy breathing, and I open my
eyes, noticing the tight hold Hope has on Amelia’s hair. Her little fist is wrapped tight around a strand, but her eyes are closed, her head resting on Amelia’s shoulder. I swallow the lump that’s formed in my throat.
I’m not some fucking romantic, but the sound of Hope no longer crying is fucking glorious. It also makes me want to thank Amelia in a million different ways.
She walks to the nursery and lays a now-sleeping Hope back in her crib.
We tiptoe out, and once the door is closed, I pull Amelia into a hug.
“That was amazing,” I tell her, then kissing her forehead. “Seriously. That was the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen.”
She laughs softly, “Reed, you’ve been alone far too long if a woman putting a baby to sleep is the thing that gets you hard.”
“Oh, honey,” I tell her, pulling her closer. “Plenty gets me hard.”
“Show me,” she whispers. “Show me how hard you can get.”
* * *
Leading her into my dark bedroom, I feel her body move against mine in the blackness of the night. It’s only dark a few hours a day this time of year in Alaska, and the dark has found us.
“Let’s not talk about what happens next—with you, with Hope, with me,” I tell Amelia, pulling her into my arms at the foot of the bed. I want to fall into the sheets with her, and I want to disappear, and forget, and pretend for just one night that my life is as simple as it was before Hope showed up.
I’m so tired.
“Okay,” she murmurs, her hands running across my chest. Her fingers brush against my skin, waking something that’s bigger than lust and deeper than desire. Her body pressed against mine doesn’t feel like someone is pressing me into a corner. Amelia next to me gives me space to breathe.
And damn, it’s been three months since I took a deep breath.
“Let me feel you, Reed. Let me feel you in me.”
“Oh, fuck, woman,” I exhale, lifting her chin with a finger, pressing my mouth on hers. All the air, the air I just found, escapes my lungs. It’s gone in that kiss, because she fucking takes my breath away.
Which is a problem. I don’t have space in my life to start having real feelings for another person. Hope takes all that I have, and it’s hard enough to find the strength to be her father. I can’t imagine carrying the burden of another person, too.
Kissing Amelia, I resolve to enjoy her body, but nothing else. I resolve to take her in my arms, but not in my heart.
And damn, I’ll be taking her in my bed too. Her legs wrap around me as I lift her ass up, wanting to get the tiny shorts off. Her arms wind around my neck, and our kissing leaves us panting and desperate for more. For everything.
“Oh, girl, you are so damn sexy,” I moan, laying her on the bed, tugging those little shorts off, finding her pussy bare and ready. I can’t resist slipping my hand between her legs, letting her wet juice cover my fingers. I run my hand up and down the length of her glorious opening.
She writhes beneath me, and her legs fall, spread apart, telling me she’s ready and willing. I lift her thin shirt over her head, running my hands over her naked body. I palm her tits, but they are so round and big, and for a moment I imagine her breasts full of milk, ready to give to a baby, and I have to shake my head to erase the erotic thought.
And since when did tits full of milk make my cock stiff and ready? Maybe it’s just Amelia: her womanly figure, curvy hips genetically predisposed to bear a child. Maybe it’s her natural way with Hope at bedtime, the way she effortlessly took her from my arms and put her to bed. I don’t know, but everything about this woman underneath me gets my cock hard as rock.
Hard and ready.
“I need you now, Reed. Don’t make me wait.”
“You don’t want me to touch you first?”
“Not now. Now I just need your cock. It’s like....”
“Like what?” I ask, my fingers caressing her pussy folds.
“It sounds weird, but ... it’s like some animalistic instinct has kicked in. Like, all I can think about is having your cock in me, filling me with your hot come.”
“Damn woman, you are trouble.”
I drop my sweats, stepping out of them, and lean over her body, easing my cock toward her. She says she wants it now, and fast? I can do that. I can fill her with my cock and release my seed in her lush pussy.
I enter her tightness, and she whimpers, grabbing my shoulders as I fill her.
“I don’t want to hurt you.”
“The pain will pass. And it’s worth it.”
“Pleasure borne from pain?”
“Exactly.”
I thrust into her, and a slight break of light slips through the blackout curtains. Soft light crosses her face, and I see her eyes closed, mouth dropped in an O, as she receives me in her.
“Oh, Reed, this is everything.”
I lace my fingers through hers, raise her hands over her head. Our bodies pulse together as I rock in her, deeper and deeper, my cock taking her until she screams. She cries out as she comes, but clamps a hand over her mouth instinctively.
“Fuck,” she moans. “I don’t want to wake your baby.”
“We’re good, I got you,” I tell her, pressing my mouth against hers, blocking any cry as our tongues circle each other.
She whimpers into my mouth as the orgasm crashes through her, and when she stops, I kiss her softly again, before shooting my come in her just the way she wanted.
We fall asleep, sweat draped on us, arms holding each other, like we’ve slept this way a thousand times.
But I know that isn’t the truth. The truth is, tomorrow is going to be a new day. A day where Amelia might leave me right where I started.
Here, with Hope, alone.
Chapter Ten
Amelia
The next morning, the blasted baby monitor is our alarm. Apparently Hope lets you know the moment she’s awake.
“No,” I groan, sitting up in bed. Reed is already walking down the hall to grab Hope from the crib. I hear him greeting his daughter and, as I cover a yawn, I can’t help but think he’s pretty incredible with his kid.
“Hey there, girl,” he says to her. “Let’s change you and get you a bottle, okay?” He talks her through the diaper change, and then after a few minutes they leave the room, headed downstairs.
I slide my shorts and tee shirt back on, and find them in the kitchen.
“Hey, guys,” I say. Reed is holding Hope, and simultaneously filling a bottle with formula. At the same time, a coffee carafe is under the faucet, filling with cold water. “You need some help?”
“Every morning it’s a fucking debate. Which is more urgent. Coffee for me, or a bottle for her.”
“The struggle is real.” I turn off the faucet, filling the coffeemaker with the water and adding ground beans to the filter. “And hey, you can swear in front of the baby now?”
He shrugs, twisting his lips, knowing he’s been caught. “I was just being a dick. Sorry.”
He screws the cap on the bottle and offers it to Hope. She grabs it from him, guzzling with a slurp.
“Wow, she’s thirsty,” I say, taking down two coffee cups and looking in the fridge for creamer. He has French vanilla. If he was trying to win me over to be his wife, he’s starting the day off pretty damn good. Besides having excellent taste in coffee, he’s also bare-chested in those low-slung sweats, a few feet away. And hello, he is ripped.
“I know, right?” He buckles her into a high chair. Then he slices a banana and tosses a handful of Cheerios on the tray in front of her. “So, the thing with Hope is, she’s happy as long as she gets every single thing she needs.”
I smirk. “Sounds just like her father.”
He takes the steaming coffee from me. “Ha. So you’re hot and funny.”
“Honestly, though, it doesn’t seem that hard.”
Reed’s mouth presses into a frown, and shrugs. “Why don’t you take her today and let me know how it goes?”
“You wanna
turn it into a bet?” I ask, peeling a banana for myself.
“You want me to bet on my kid?”
“Is that bad?”
“Yeah,” Reed laughs. “It’s kind of weird.”
“Well, I’m weird. That’s something you should know.”
“You don’t really come off as super weird, Amelia. More high maintenance.”
“Wow, Reed, all these compliments. It’s like, wow, how could I resist staying here with you forever?”
“With Hope forever, you mean,” he clarifies.
“Is there a difference?”
“A big one. Told you yesterday, I want a bride so Hope will have a mother.”
“Oh.” I nod, setting down my cup of coffee, hating that I let myself get swept up in this family-unit-I-never-had fantasy in, like, fifteen minutes flat. “You want a mother for her, but not a wife for yourself.”
“Exactly.”
I hate it—how hot he is, and how he can manage to make me forget why this whole mail order bride gig is such a bad idea. I hate that he isn’t hiding his agenda or his desire. He’s just straight-up telling me that this is about Hope, and nothing else.
“Look,” he says. “What the fuck do I know about babies? Maybe it’ll be easy for you. Maybe I just suck at it. But dammit, I’m fucking tired, Amelia. I haven’t had a break in months. And maybe I’m a little defensive—because, shit, what does that say about me then, as a dad, if you could waltz in here and do this with your eyes shut?”
I listen to him, watching Hope, who’s squishing banana in her fingers. She’s a mess, gummy cereal all over her face and bare tummy. She babbling nonsense and the two little teeth sticking through her pink gums remind me that teething was probably a pain in the ass, too. I know I said taking care of her seemed easy, but Reed knows better than me. And he’s exhausted.
“How about you go do something for yourself today, Reed? Go play. Let me deal with her. Just write down how often she needs a nap, and then go in the woods and build a fort or whatever you do out there.”
“I don’t build forts.”
BY THE MOUNTAIN MAN: The Complete Collection Page 23