Property Of The Mountain Man

by Gemma Weir

  Dazed and more confused than ever, I step back into the room. The guys are still throwing, laughing as they try to out-do each other. Suddenly I really need a drink, so instead of going back to the group I head into the bar. Linda is serving a customer, so I wait, stepping forward when it’s my turn.

  “Well hello again, you lost your boyfriend?” she chuckles derisively.

  “He’s happily throwing axes,” I tell her. “Can I get a Vodka cranberry and a shot of tequila please.”

  Her eyebrows raise, but she pours the drinks, filling a second shot glass and holding it toward me. I lift my own shot glass and tap it against hers, pausing when she starts to speak.

  “To big dicks and the men who know exactly what to do with them.”

  Blinking, I lift my gaze to hers and see her smirking knowingly at me as she throws back the shot, then slams the glass down onto the bar. Without saying a word, I drink my shot too, managing not to grimace when the tequila hits the back of my throat.

  Dropping a twenty to the bar top, I pick up my vodka cranberry and walk away. Two women who’ve had sex with the guy I’m dating, gleefully informing me that we’ve all played with the same equipment, in one night. Fun fucking times. Crossing through the warehouse I glance at all the women, and wonder how many others here have become a notch on Beau’s bed post. The thought makes me feel a little sick. It’s one thing to know your current sexual partner has a past, it’s an entirely different thing to be surrounded by the other women he’s fucked, especially ones he was fucking just a week before he started fucking me.

  Vomit rises in my throat as all the warnings they give you in health class come back to me. When you have sex with someone, you’re sleeping with every one of your partner’s ex-partners, every time you have sex, and Beau and I have been having sex A LOT. I was a virgin and tonight suggests that he was, or should I say is, a man whore. We haven’t even been careful. He’s been coming inside of me. I could have an STD by now.

  “Oh god,” I say aloud, covering my mouth with my hand.

  “What’s going on, Bonnie, are you okay?” Beau asks, suddenly at my side, his expression full of concern.

  “Are you clean?” I blurt out. Thank god my volume is set to low, because the words tumble from my mouth with zero preamble.

  “Excuse me?” he asks, blinking, shocked.

  “I just had a run in with two separate women who commented on the size of your dick and your expertise in using it. I know you weren’t some kind of forty-year-old virgin before we started dating, but it’s just dawned on me that we’re not exactly being super careful, and you were fucking another woman a few days before you first fucked me,” I blurt, cringing as each word rolls from my tongue.

  “Who?” he demands.

  “What?”

  “Who talked to you?” he snaps.

  “Amber and Linda,” I tell him, my brows furrowed. “But that’s really not the important bit here. The important bit here is you assuring me that you’re clean and disease free, because I’m an idiot who didn’t listen in health class, and now I’m freaking out.”

  “Of course I’m clean. I double wrap every fucking time,” he growls.

  “Well that’s not exactly true is it, because you’ve never used anything with me,” I point out, lifting my glass to my lips and downing the contents.

  Taking my hand, he steers me from the middle of the room to a darkened alcove, turning me so my back is pressed against the wall. “Listen to me, baby girl. The first time I have ever had unprotected sex is with you. I never forget, I never risk it, I never get my dick near a pussy without two fucking condoms on. But I refuse to have anything between us. I should have told you that, but I thought you understood that none of my usual rules apply with you.” He stops talking and runs his knuckles gently over my cheek. “Are you... Are you on the pill?”

  I nod, and I swear he looks almost disappointed.

  “I haven’t seen you take it.”

  “I get the jab.”

  He sighs, his lips clenched tightly. “I can’t change the past. I’ve fucked other women,” he shrugs. “But I’m sorry you got ambushed tonight, we can leave if you want?”

  “I don’t want to ruin everyone’s night, maybe I should just go,” I suggest, not wanting to sound like a whiney nagging girl.

  “No,” he snarls. “You go, I go. No space, no distance. Even if I’ve fucked up or pissed you off.”

  “You haven’t done anything, this is all on me,” I hurry to say.

  “I’d be losing my fucking shit if two guys you fucked wanted to compare notes.” His eyes fall closed and his jaw tenses, like he’s imaging the scenario actually happening.

  “Well, it’s probably good that I have zero conquests then, isn’t it?” I don’t mean the words to sound snarky, but they do.

  Jaw still tight, his eyes fly open and he dips his chin. “We’re finished anyway, let’s just get the guys and go.”

  “No, I’m not gonna be that girl. Let’s just get a shit ton of shots and get drunk, might as well give myself a reason to feel sick,” I tell him, pushing past him and heading back for the bar. “Can I get a bottle of tequila and eight shot glasses, please?” I ask Linda when I reach the bar.

  “Honey, I don’t think—” she starts.

  “Well then it’s probably a good job that I’m not asking you to think then, isn’t it,” I retort. “Now, can I have a bottle of Patron and eight shot glasses.”

  Scowling at me, she glances behind me at where I’m assuming Beau is standing, then grabs a new bottle of tequila from the shelf behind the bar and places it on a tray, adding eight shot glasses and sliding it forward. “He’s paying,” I nod my head back to Beau, lift the tray, and walk away.

  The rest of the night is lost at the bottom of a bottle of tequila.

  18

  Beau

  Relief fills me when I stir awake and feel Bonnie’s naked body next to mine. Last night was an absolute shit show, culminating in my baby girl throwing up in the bathroom, while I held her hair back and she expelled about half a bottle of Patron.

  She had shot glasses filled by the time I got back to the throwing booth last night. She didn’t make a scene, didn’t shout, or scream or cry, she just got ass faced drunk with my brothers. Being the only sober one, except for Granger, meant that I ended up with Bonnie over my shoulder while I tried to strong arm Bay and Penn out of the bar, and Granger herded Cody, Teddy, and Huck.

  I almost wish she’d made a scene, at least then I could have carted her out of there and forced her to understand that she’s so much more than any other woman I’ve ever looked at. Instead she acted like nothing happened.

  Sunlight is pouring through the drapes, so it’s late, but I don’t know what time it is, and I’m not sure where my cell ended up when I had to carry Bonnie to the bathroom so she could get sick last night. I can hear movement in the living room, it doesn’t surprise me that the guys were in no fit state to go to work today, but I’d rather we have the house to ourself so we can talk about everything that happened last night.

  “Hey,” she croaks, stirring beside me.

  “Morning, how’s your head?”

  “Not too bad so far. Tequila doesn’t usually leave me with too much of a hangover,” she says, rolling onto her back and slowly opening her eyes.

  “You want some coffee?” I ask.

  “I need to brush my teeth first, my mouth tastes like ass,” she chuckles. “But yes, coffee and food, I’m starving.”

  Nodding, I press a soft kiss to her forehead and climb out of bed, pulling some sweats on before I head out into the living room. Teddy is sitting at the breakfast bar, his head pressed against the counter as he nurses a steaming cup of coffee. Cody is passed out on the couch still fully dressed, and Bay is sitting in a chair clutching his head.

  “How we all feeling?” I ask, shaking my head at the state of them.

  “Like I’m too fucking old to be sucking down a bottle of tequila on a Tuesday ni
ght,” Bay groans.

  “That’s because you are too old. The others gone to work?” I ask.

  “Granger has, no one else I don’t think.”

  Crossing to the coffee pot I grab two mugs and fill them, adding creamer to Bonnie’s and stirring.

  My bedroom door opens and I glance up, worried for a minute that she might not realize that the others are still here and be out here naked, but she’s in long furry socks and one of my t-shirts that fits her like a dress. “Morning,” she chirps far too cheerfully.

  “Urgh,” Teddy groans.

  “You hungover?” she asks Teddy, giving him a quick hug as she passes.

  “How are you not?” he rasps.

  “I’m twenty-one,” she shrugs, then laughs, dancing over to me and taking the mug of coffee I’ve made for her.

  “Urgh, fuck off with your youngness,” Bay hisses, then clutches his head again.

  “Jesus, call yourself men,” she laughs, opening the refrigerator and pulling out a carton of eggs and some bacon. “Eggs and bacon will set you straight.”

  I don’t get a moment alone with her for the rest of the day, she cooks for all of us, the smell of frying bacon tempting Huck and Penn from their bedrooms, both of them green and hungover. Then she cleans up and baits Bay into a deathmatch on Call of Duty, which descends into an all-day video game fest. Bonnie fits in with us all so well, but I don’t want to share her, I want to talk to her, make sure she knows that she’s not just another woman I’m fucking, that she’s mine, that she’s everything. I want to take her back to bed and show her with my body that she’s different, only she doesn’t give me the chance. In fact, she finds every excuse possible not to have the conversation that we really need to have, and before I know what’s happening it’s seven-thirty and Hal is knocking on the door.

  “Hey Daddy,” she calls as soon as her dad walks into the house.

  “Hi honey. Jesus it smells like a brewery in here,” Hal laughs.

  “Yeah we hit the tequila pretty hard last night,” she giggles. “These guys are all showing their age, you should have seen the state of them all this morning.”

  “Hey, you weren’t so pretty when you were throwing up last night,” Bay says, pointing at her with the spatula in his hand.

  Shrugging, she jumps up from the couch and dances over to her dad, pressing a kiss to his cheek. “I’ll be back in five, I need to jump in the shower real quick.”

  Contemplating following her, my eyes flit to Hal’s and I realize I can’t, no matter how much I want to. So instead I offer him a drink, grab a bottle of water for myself, and then sit down and make small talk with my girl’s dad.

  Dinner is fun, Hal ends up telling us a story about the first time he ever drunk tequila, and the hours pass quick with us all reminiscing about drunken nights and crazy vacations until Hal says he needs to go home.

  “I should probably stay at home tonight, I don’t have any work clothes here and I haven’t done any laundry in a week,” Bonnie says, jumping up from the table.

  “What?” I cry.

  “You’ve had me here for two days straight, Beau, I need to go home and do some laundry. I need to whip up a batch of something for the ranch hands and go check on my horse,” she tells me, her tone perfectly calm and rational.

  I don’t feel perfectly calm and rational. In fact, something inside of me is screaming that if I let her leave she’ll never come back again. I know it’s insane to think that, but I can’t help but feel like we’re in the middle of an argument, even though she doesn’t seem angry in the least.

  Pulling her to me, I lean down and whisper against her ear. “Baby girl, stay with me, I’ll do a load of laundry for you, then we can get up early and make something for the ranch hands if you want to. I don’t want to sleep without you,” I try to coax.

  “I’ll stay with you tomorrow night,” she placates me dismissively, pressing a kiss to my cheek as she darts into our room, coming back a minute later carrying a backpack, her feet already in her boots.

  Hal’s eyes look from Bonnie to me and back again, his brow furrowing.

  “Hal you coming for dinner tomorrow night? It’s my famous pot roast?” Cody asks.

  Hal looks at Bonnie again, then shakes his head, “Thanks for the offer, but maybe another time.”

  My heart starts to race, can he see it too? Can he see this thing between us that she won’t let me fix? Is that why he doesn’t want to come to dinner, because he doesn’t think Bonnie will come, that she won’t want to be here with me?

  “Well thanks for dinner, I’ll be seeing you,” Hal says, turning and making his way for the front door.

  As if my brothers can sense it too, they all look at me, and I just shake my head and follow Hal out.

  “Night Beau,” he says, holding his hand out to shake mine.

  I take his hand, hating that he seems like he’s saying a permanent goodbye. But instead of just a handshake, I feel the key in his palm. Looking up I see the knowing look in his eyes and I instantly relax. Unless I’m really fucking wrong, Hal just gave me a key to their house. He gave me the means to come to her, and with it he just gave me his complete seal of approval. No father would give their daughter’s boyfriend a key to the house knowing I was going to crawl into her bed tonight if he didn’t see exactly what I felt for her.

  Bonnie might be blind to what’s in front of her, but her dad can read me clearly. Exhaling slowly I nod, flashing him a grateful smile. “See you soon, Hal.”

  Bonnie steps past me, searching for her car and finding it missing still. “Where’s my car?”

  “It’s still in the shop, Penn bought you the GMC Terrain for you to use till yours is fixed,” I tell her, grabbing the keys from the bowl by the door and handing them to her.

  “Oh. Err okay, are you sure it’s okay for me to drive this? It’s a lot newer than my Toyota,” she laughs.

  “It’s fine,” I assure her, reaching her and pulling her into me. What I don’t tell her is that the GMC isn’t a loaner, it’s the car I bought for her when Penn told me how much work the Toyota needs to be safe to drive up and down the mountain with my woman in it. But right now, when she’s leaving me probably isn’t the time to tell her this, so instead I kiss her.

  Taking her lips with mine I devour her, telling her with this kiss all the things she hasn’t given me the chance to say to her today. I kiss her until her body melts against mine, her nipples pebbled and pressing into my chest, her hands clinging to me. “Don’t go,” I whisper.

  “You coped all the other nights before we got together, you’ll cope again tonight,” she sighs, pulling away from me and moving to the car, climbing in, and leaving.

  I watch as she drives away, not looking at the key in my hand until her tail lights are disappearing from sight. Hal Williams gave me a key to his home, because he knows there’s no way I can stay away from her tonight. I don’t know if he sees it in my eyes, or maybe he can just sense it from the way I am whenever Bonnie is near, but he gave me a key and his blessing all without saying a word.

  Sighing, I slide the key into my pocket and walk back into the house, closing the door behind me.

  “What’s going on? Why isn’t she staying?” Huck asks, a little accusatory.

  “We’re in an argument.”

  “Even more reason that you shouldn’t have let her go,” Teddy says, his voice more serious than I’m used to hearing from my baby brother.

  “What would you have had me do? You want me to lock her in our room and refuse to let her out?” I snap.

  “What are you arguing about?” Granger asks, always the most perceptive one of us.

  “She had run ins with Amber and Linda last night,” I confess, sighing as I slump down into the couch.

  “Amber who?” Penn asks.

  My brothers all crowd around me, just like I knew they would. Maybe to other people it’s a little weird how close we are, but it’s just always been this way for us. Some people hate their sibling
s, but my brothers are my best friends, they’re my confidants, my cheering squad, and the ones to call me on my shit when I need it. They’re my family, and family is everything.

  “Hammond. We hooked up a few weeks ago.”

  Bay sucks in air through his teeth. “Bro, your last hook up confronted Bonnie. What happened?”

  “I’m not sure exactly, all Bonnie told me is that Amber and Linda both let her know that they’d fucked me. She’s pissed, but she won’t talk to me. I tried last night, but she grabbed a bottle of tequila and well, we all know how the rest of the night went,” I sigh.

  “You need to fix this,” Cody says, like it’s the most obvious thing in the world.

  “No shit, but she hasn’t given me chance and now she’s gone.”

  “You just gonna let her go? Mom and Dad never went to bed angry, that was one of the rules they lived by, I remember Dad telling me that when I was just a kid,” Teddy says.

  “Hal gave me this,” I smile, pulling the key from my pocket and showing them.

  “Holy fuck, is that a key to their house?” Huck laughs.

  “I certainly fucking hope so, ‘cause if not I’m gonna be making a whole heap of noise in a little while when I go over there,” I scoff.

  A little over an hour later, I place my bag onto the passenger seat of my truck and drive the short distance between my house and Bonnie’s. Parking my truck behind the GMC, I grab my bag and the house key Hal gave me, and make my way over to the dark house. It’s a little after midnight and the ranch is dark and quiet except for the sound of horses in the corral and stables.