by Frankie Love
Now, I rewrap the bandages on his lower leg and forearm, wincing as I do, thinking it must hurt so much and thanking whoever is listening, that he is alive at all.
His dreams are tormented. He is writhing as he sleeps. I build a fire in his room, knowing how important it is he doesn’t catch a cold.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t know,” he cries out, and I press a hand against his cheek, not wanting him to be haunted. Or his dreams to turn to nightmares.
“I would have come sooner,” he whispers in his sleep, and I run a cold rag over his forehead, trying to read between the lines, knowing the knot of agony I saw in his eyes last night is also buried deep in his heart.
How I wish I knew how to unravel it.
How I wish he wasn’t the man I should despise.
How I wish he were mine.
Then he calls my name out in his sleep and my heart skips a beat. My body thrums with desire, even on his sickbed, my core wakes for this untamed man.
This man who calls for me.
My thoughts force me to sit up straight, set the washcloth aside now that I know he is breathing normally, and leave his bedside. I know the longer I sit next to him, the more attached I will grow and I know that it isn’t fair to fall for a man I can’t have.
Shouldn’t have.
I leave the room, rushing down the corridor, trying to gather my thoughts and trying to steady my heart.
I open a door at the end of the hall, and swing myself inside, pressing my back against the wall with eyes shut as I try to steady my breath.
When my pulse begins to slow, I slowly open my eyes, and what I see takes my breath away.
It’s a library, but it is larger than life.
Bookshelves twelve feet high, with rows and rows of leather-bound books, paperbacks, and hardbacks—all the backs, basically. My mouth drops open as I take it in...it is a marvel. Bigger than a bookstore, surely, and cozier than the library I work in on campus, without a doubt.
I step away from the door, running a finger over the spines, smiling at the classics—Austen and Bronte and Hemingway. There are newer works too, many I recognize. Many I’ve never seen in my life.
There is a fireplace—unlit of course—and leather club chairs, pillows, and throw blankets. There are beautiful lamps with stained-glass inlaid for the shade—more red roses. I smile, trying to reconcile this place with the stony man that Ronan is. Buried under his gruff exterior there must be something else; something more. Something that holds an affinity for red roses and the scent of old books.
I light a fire. And while I usually can do so with no problem, my hands are all thumbs with so many thoughts running through my mind. So many conflicting desires.
I’m so clumsy with the kindling and I must go through an entire book of matches. Definitely could use some honing of my girl scout skills. Not to mention, that if it keeps snowing buckets, I really need to learn to ski. Lessons and equipment were never a priority growing up—even if we did always live on a mountain.
Once the fire is lit, and knowing Ronan is sleeping, I realize I’m pretty exhausted myself. So, I look for a book that will help ease my anxious mind. Something with a happily-ever-after is what I need, and since my Kindle is back in my car, I look for a book on these shelves.
Finding a romance novel I’ve never read, I settle into an oversized chair and lay a fleece blanket across my lap. Opening the spine, I see it is a well-read book, and as I flip through it, I see it was highlighted in several places.
It’s called Timber, and there are triplets on the cover. I smile at this, both at the over-the-top design—but also at the feelings of tenderness I immediately have for the man featured in this story.
I don’t know much about babies myself, but as I begin to read, I learn that the book’s hero is a mountain man not unlike Ronan; feral and in need of a woman to help calm his wild ways.
At the first sex scene, I blush, imaging Ronan reading this—it feels so out of character—but I quickly get over that as I let the insta-love romance sweep me away. What the main characters, Harper and Jax, share may have begun as a lustful night fueled by desire, but it quickly grows into something more real than any love I have ever seen.
But maybe not more real than what I have felt.
Last night Ronan said, It’s also meant to be. Like a fairy tale, and maybe, for him, that is what this is. More than sex as I had accused him of in the kitchen this morning.
Maybe for him this is real.
And maybe it’s real for me, too.
I read the chapters, my body awakens as I consume the intimate moments between the pages and the space between my legs pulses with heat.
I close my eyes, willing Ronan to wake.
Needing to be with him. Wanting to find a way to set things right.
Chapter Nine
Ronan
I wake from a fitful sleep with Bella watching from the doorway, a candelabra is lit in the room, and the glow cloaks us in mystery. Damp sheets are twisted around me, but I see my wounds have been well dressed.
She took care of me.
Maybe she doesn’t hate me quite as much as her fury this morning suggested.
As I sit up in bed, my eyes adjust, and Bella comes closer. I can see a hunger in her eyes. She wears nothing but my bathrobe, which she unties, letting it hang loosely around her.
My cock hardens at the sight of her naked body. Her gorgeous tits taunting me, and her supple skin are a memory I will never forget.
“My beast,” she whispers. “I’m here to tame you.”
Her words stir something deep inside me—a desire that is unleashed as she lets the robe fall to the floor. When she steps toward me, her bare pussy is the only thing I have eyes for.
Well, that’s not true. All of her is divine. Beautiful. Mine.
“Bella,” I groan. “I must be dreaming.”
The last time we spoke, she was livid with me for reasons, I still don’t comprehend. But now she pulls the twisted sheets from my body and licks her lips.
She pushes my boxers down and kneels on my bed, her face lowering to my cock without speaking another word.
Oh, god. I really must be dreaming. Her lips wrap around my hardness, but this is no cock tease. Bella, for all her virginal innocence, instinctually knows how to please me.
She was made for me and I for her.
Her hand wraps around my heavy balls. She squeezes them gently as her mouth begins to move up and down my length, her tongue gliding over my shaft, forcing blood to rush to my groin.
Damn, this is more than I deserve. This is everything.
“I don’t want to hurt you,” she whispers.
“I’m a mountain man,” I growl softly. “I can handle anything.”
I close my eyes, enjoying her gift, but then she lifts her ass, and I smell her wet pussy, and I know I need more than her lips on my cock, I need to taste her most tender places.
I tug her closer with my good arm, as she continues to suck, and I ease her legs to straddle me. Her luscious ass is before me, and as she takes mouthfuls of my cock, I can’t resist taking all of her, too. I bring her cunt to my face, with a strong grip, needing my mouth against her sweet, sweet pussy. I run my tongue over her slit, tasting her creamy release as she grinds her mouth agains my massive cock.
She loves it. She moans in pleasure, taking so much of me at once, that I’m shocked her sweet virginal mouth can handle all nine inches of me. But she is a good learner and she aims to please.
She deep throats me like a good girl and I reward her by sucking her clit like it is mine for the taking. It’s swollen and wanting, and I run a finger over her entrance before plunging two fingers inside like she wants. She drips for me, soaking my face and I lick her up, nice and good.
I nuzzle my face against her cunt, taking more and more as I tongue her deeply, the way she deserves. Her pretty pussy seeps for me as I flick my tongue over her, repeatedly and relentlessly, wanting her to explode against me and she does
. Oh, good god, she does. She tastes divine, like a sugar cube, melting against my tongue.
“Oh, please,” she moans, my thick cock nearly ready to erupt in her mouth. “Let me taste you, Ronan.”
But I’m not done. I need to finger fuck her into submission. I move my hand against her, her ass grinding against me as I force her to come hard.
Harder.
Harder still.
Her juices run down my hand, and I pull her cunt back to my mouth wanting to taste all of her, not wanting to waste a single drop of her release.
Her back arches as I lick her up and down and her pretty ass is more than my eyes can handle. I spank her gently, forcing her to flip around. I need to look in my woman’s eyes as I come inside her. As I fill her up nice, completely.
She sinks down on my cock, running a hand through her hair as she begins to rock her hips. Her tits bounce and sway. They are so fucking big and made to enjoy. To devour. I’m already dreaming of coming against them again, titty-fucking her as I worship her for being the woman she is.
But the grinding of her swollen pussy against my needy cock is more than I can bear and I know it is time. We are both more than ready.
“Oh, please,” she moans. “Come in me, my beast.”
I can’t hold back. All I want is to fill her with my seed, hear her scream my name, and look into her eyes so she knows I am hers.
“Ronan!” Her voice pierces the darkness around us, her luscious tits bouncing as she screams my name, and I run my hand to her hip, stilling her as I come hard inside her.
It’s more than a fuck; it’s more than a dream.
When Bella looks down at me, I know she has gotten what she wanted.
She has tamed the wild beast within.
-----
In the middle of the dark night, with her bare body nestled in the crook of my arm, I ask the question that can’t be avoided any longer.
“What did my family do to this town?”
She moves her hips ever so slightly, her breath pulling in as she decides how to answer. She takes her time and the seconds kill me.
“Nothing,” she whispers, her fingers running over the tuft of hair on my chest.
“If they did nothing, then what...”
She sighs, looking up at me as if realizing I am going keep asking until I have answers. She can’t run away now, I have a hold on her. “Ronan, that was the problem. Lachlan Resorts promised so much. A ski resort that would change the economy here, and then you changed your mind.”
I kiss her forehead, wanting to understand. “But why did that ruin the town? Weren’t people here before some big promise?”
She’s silent for a beat too long, and I don’t understand how I’m missing the mark.
“My dad was counting on the business. Bought new equipment to help with the clearing of the land for the ski runs. He was promised a contract that would pay them, but... then... “
“Then he was left with a debt he couldn’t afford.”
“Exactly,” she murmurs. “And now he has nothing.”
I run my hand over her bare shoulder, pulling her close. Hating that my mother’s husband’s company did this her family.
She falls asleep in my arms and as I hold her tightly, I vow to right his wrongs.
Chapter Ten
Bella
I fell asleep in his arms after swearing him off forever—but I couldn’t stay away.
I didn’t want to stay away.
I wanted him.
And now I awaken again, in an empty bed.
My eyebrows crease, how did he manage to get out of bed on his own? But the room is warm, despite the fact, the fire is out and the lamp at the bedside table glows. Electricity must have returned while we slept.
I wrap his robe around my body and enter the corridor. “Ronan?”
He calls my name from the end of the hall.
“I’m in here, Bella.”
I pad down the hall and find him in the exquisite library. My novel from last night is open on the couch, but he’s on a club chair with his injured leg propped on a cushion, and a laptop balanced on his lap.
“Working through the pain?” I smirk. “You don’t need to prove how manly you are. I got a pretty good idea of it last night.”
He gives me a grin and my belly blooms with delight. His smile could move mountains.
“I wanted to thank you,” he says. “For all you did for me yesterday.”
My eyes widen, and I walk toward him, wanting to get a look at his wounds. “I should be thanking you. You saved my life, Ronan, and risked your own.” I sit down on the floor, at his feet, and look up at him.
Our eyes lock on one another and traces of our conversation in the middle of the night return to me.
I told him things I may not have in the light of day but at last, he knows. It’s too late to pull back and I don’t want to. I want to move forward with him and being honest is the only way I know how. I may have the instinct to run when things are hard but I have a feeling Ronan is worth sticking it out for.
“Guess we were both lucky, then,” he says. “But I think it was more than luck.”
I twist my lips, remembering more of what he had said. “I know. We said the other day it was fate.”
“Were we wrong?” he asks directly. “Because I think it was more than fate, Bella.”
I draw in a breath, thinking about my father. What would he think of this? Of Ronan and me?
“I know what you’re thinking,” he says.
I scoff. “No, you don’t. You hardly know me, Ronan.”
“I know enough.”
I shake my head. “I may have been a virgin needing a man to save me the other night, but I’m also a strong woman in my own right. I’m nearly done with school, have a career all planned out and I don’t need a man who just met me telling me what was fate. It isn’t that simple.”
He runs a hand over his beard, the beard that tickled me into submission last night. “What if it is?” His eyes are lit, and I know there is more to his smile than he lets on. “Look, if it’s your father you’re worried about, I have that more than covered.”
“What do you mean?”
“I paid his debts this morning.”
When I frown, confused at his words, he points to his laptop and smiles. I focus on Ronan’s words, not the luxury of heat and lighting. “What do you mean you paid his debts?
“Exactly as it sounds. I called a few guys who helped me locate your father’s debts and I paid them off. Your student loans too.”
I lean back. My student loan debt is nearly eighty thousand dollars and I know my dad’s debt is near that as well.
“What are you talking about Ronan?” I shake my head. I don’t want him to try and fix things with a check. That isn’t how the real world works. Not that a rich man like Ronan would understand anything about the real world. To him, life is a fantasy. Just look at this house and anyone could see that. “Money doesn’t fix everything. It’s the spirit of the town that is broken.”
He twists his lips. “But aren’t you glad I did?” He closes his laptop and sets it on the table beside him. “Now you don’t need to resist the idea of you and me. Of us.”
I narrow my eyes. “You never even asked. You just did it.”
“Correct.” He raises his hands in confusion. “I paid off a massive debt that was debilitating, fixing what Lachlan Resorts fucked up. Because I don’t want there to be any obstacles between us being together. And I guess I was expecting more than a furrowed brow as a thank you.”
“You think money solves everything?”
He smirks. “It solves a helluva lot.”
I stand, annoyed beyond belief. “This is clearly not fate. And it certainly is not more than that. Because love listens. And you, Ronan, aren’t listening to me. You aren’t listening to anything.”
“Then tell me what you what to say, because, Bella, I’m right here.”
I stand in the doorway, ready to run. Again.
Clearly, this man and I are nothing more than lust, because the moment we start having actual conversations we’re ready to claw one another’s eyes out.
“It’s more than just my father who got hurt, Ronan. A lot of people in this town were affected too.”
“I’m not the man they hate. I just inherited that man’s house. I don’t even share his last name, for Christ’s sake. You’re the one who isn’t listening to me.”
I stop. My eyes widen.
“You aren’t a Lachlan?”
Ronan looks offended beyond repair. “No. I’m not. My mother was married to one. And I ran some of the business overseas—in the French mountains. But I have no fucking clue what was happening here. You’d know that if you listened for a minute instead of running away, scared all the time.”
“Oh.” My stomach twists in knots. I did assume the worst. I didn’t listen for a moment and then ran away. Not once, but twice.
What am I so scared of?
“Oh, is right.” He looks at me with such wounded eyes I wonder if there is more to his story. What am I missing?
Because right now it looks like I am missing an awful lot.
“Doesn’t matter though, right? This isn’t fate, is it, Bella? It’s just sex, remember?”
I bite my bottom lip, not wanting to hurt him, but knowing I already have. I don’t know the words to say that will make this better. So, I stand there staring at him dumbly, knowing I’m hurting him even more because of it.
“Look,” he says, standing, though it pains him—clearly. He winces as he holds onto the back of a chair. “The storm has passed, and though your car is buried, my truck can get you home.” Then with a gaze that could freeze a river, he adds, “I know you have a party to attend.”
“The party... It doesn’t matter... I want...”