March Heat

by Chase Jackson

  He watched me for a moment. I didn’t see his face. I didn’t see anything but that ring before my eyes blurred with tears.

  All at once, he dropped to his knee. He crushed my hand between his two palms. “Marry me, Victoria. I don’t want to live without you and the baby. We were made for each other. It’s just a bunch of stupid misunderstandings keeping us apart. I can’t be happy without you, and unless I’m wrong, you can’t be happy without me, either. This baby needs us, and it needs us together. Come on. What do you say? Will you marry me?”

  My eyes drifted to his face. This wasn’t happening. All these weeks of heartbreak, all these missed chances and near misses—it couldn’t end like this. I craved this moment so long, but I never dared dream it could actually happen.

  He tugged me forward. He kissed my knuckles and pressed my hand to his heart. His voice cracked. “Please, Vic. Please marry me. You’re the only woman in the world for me. I wanted to ask you so many times. I’m an ass for waiting so long. Marry me, Vic. No one else in the world should wear this ring.”

  I couldn’t see through my tears. His head prismed into a thousand pieces, and I couldn’t keep my lips still. He fumbled the ring out of the box and slipped it on my finger. I saw him and the ring in my mind’s eye, but I couldn’t speak above a whisper before I burst into tears. “Yes! Yes!”

  He struggled to his feet, and his mouth attacked me in smoldering passion. Salty tears dampened his face, and neither of us could get our lips to function the way they should. Before I knew what was happening, he scooped me off the floor.

  Already that ring worked its magic in my hand. I was married. I was his wife. We were together, and we were having a baby. The next thing I knew, he carried me to my room and laid me on the bed. He curled around me, and all the pain and despair of the last two weeks vanished out of my life.

  He started laughing. The longer he laughed, the louder he laughed until I couldn’t contain it. I had to laugh, too, from sheer happiness. Everything made sense. This whole crazy situation only made sense when we were together—together at last!

  We laughed until we both cried. Then Brady wiped the smirk off his face. “Listen to me. Tomorrow morning, we’ll wake up bright and early. We’ll go visit your parents and explain the whole thing. Once they understand, we’ll get in touch with Charlie. Once he finds out we’re getting married, it will be okay. Okay?”

  I couldn’t stop smiling at him. I had to surround his precious face with both hands. “Okay. Sounds good.”

  He descended on my mouth to kiss me, and all my buried desire for him flared to life. I never had to hide from it again. I could let it go. I could feel the overwhelming love welling out of me to encompass him. I could surrender to the future.

  Starting right now, we would never be apart. We would love each other, and everyone would know we had a right to want each other, to touch each other and crave each other and come home together.

  His tongue lapped at my lips, and the delicious wetness sizzled through my flesh to draw him into myself. Our skins touched in cosmic unity. Our clothes disappeared, and his rock-solid body covered me and protected me from everything else.

  I wrapped my legs around him and pulled him between my thighs. My passion turned to ecstatic love. I couldn’t tell the difference between my body wanting him and my heart yearning for him.

  He broke away from my mouth to prop his muscled arms on either side of my head. His chiseled frame rippled all the way down to the triangle of sinew where his hips bumped mine.

  His movements carried him down to kiss me before he rose on his broad shoulders to hover over me. His eyes enthralled me beyond belief. I could stare into those eyes for the rest of my life and never stop loving him.

  His cock touched me deep inside. He touched me all the way to my heart, so my love overpowered me. It shone out of my eyes to meet his gaze high above my face.

  I cradled his face in my hands. He swayed back and forth with his stroking rhythm. “Victoria?”

  “Yes, darling.”

  “I love you. I love you more than anything.”

  I kissed him hard on the lips. I kissed him all over. “I love you, too. Oh, how I love you!”

  Epilogue: Brady

  Two Weeks Later

  I put my feet up on my desk and relaxed back in my chair. It was the first time that I got to relax all morning. I had been dealing with stupid fuckers like Roger since I walked in.

  My phone rang again, and I let out a long sigh. Fuck, Roger, give it a rest.

  “What the hell do you want now?” I spat.

  “Hey man, it’s Charlie, no need to be a dick.”

  Shit. I glanced down at my calendar and saw that yesterday Charlie and Mandy got back from their honeymoon. Victoria and I had already spoken to her parents earlier that week. Her mom was ecstatic that her only daughter would be getting married and her dad had given us his blessing. They both knew about the baby, and honestly, I think her mom was more excited about that than the prospect of another wedding.

  Now I just had Charlie to convince.

  “Look, Charlie,” I started, but he quickly cut me off.

  “I already know about you and Vic.”

  “Ok, I just wanted to explain.”

  “There is nothing for you to explain. I never realized that you and Vic were actually something serious. I thought you were just being your douchebag self and fucking her because you could.”

  I let out a slight laugh. Yeah, that does sound like me. But Victoria was different. She was the only woman that ever made me feel something.

  “Things with Victoria are different,” I started, but Charlie cut me off again.

  “You don’t need to explain. I was just calling to say I am sorry for being an ass. I just – I just saw you with my sister, and I lost it. Ever since we were kids, I have been protective of her. And I knew how you were. I just didn’t want her to get hurt.”

  “I would never hurt her, Charlie. I love her.”

  “I know you do. Look, Mandy talked some sense into me. She had an idea that something was going on with you guys since we started planning the wedding. She cooled me down and reminded me that I shouldn’t really control what my sister did.”

  Thank fucking God for Mandy.

  “Charlie, I’m serious when I say this, I’m not fucking around with your sister. I love her more than anything, and I cannot wait to start a family with her.”

  “I know, man.”

  I hung up the phone and let out a huge sigh of relief. Well, that was a lot better than I thought it would be. I looked down at my calendar and noticed that I had no other meetings set for the day, so I got up and left.

  Driving home, all I could think about was having Victoria in my arms. I had left her early this morning, tangled up in my sheets and I planned on making her scream my name when I got home.

  I parked in the garage, and my cock was already twitching in my pants. I walked into the bedroom and let out a slight laugh when I saw that Victoria was exactly how I left her when I got up this morning.

  I stripped down and slid into bed next to her and wrapped my arms around her body. She stirred slightly. My hands found her stomach, and I slowly rubbed them over it.

  “I love you,” I whispered in her ear.

  “I love you too,” she whispered back. And we both fell back asleep in each other's arms.

  Baby For The Mountain Man

  A Mountain Man Secret Baby Romance

  By Nicole Elliot

  Hi Kittens!

  This mountain man is broody and done with love.

  Until Ava shows up on his doorstep.

  I hope you love it!

  xxx

  Nicole

  One

  Ava

  “Miss? Miss, can you hear me?”

  The voice sounded so far away. It was hard to hear past the torrential downpouring of rain and the running rivers in the middle of the mountains. All I wanted was to get away. To step out of my car in the midd
le of somewhere untainted with my unhappiness and take a breath. It was stifling, being around my family. And I was done with all of it.

  “Come here. I’ve got you.”

  Strong arms wrapped around me and lifted me up, while rain battered down on my shaking body. I was so damn cold. Where was my car? How did I get here? Where in the world was I?

  “Holy fuck, you’re freezing.”

  The voice was low. Rumbling. Like tires over a gravel driveway or the thunder off in the distance. I could see a mass of dark hair, soaked to an angular face that I couldn’t quite make out. I wanted to answer the man. To tell him I was fine and that I just needed to get back to my car.

  But the only thing I could do was tremble with the cold.

  I didn’t know how long we walked and I had no idea where I was. I tried to lift my hand and cling to the body that carried me, but instead I laid there. Limp in his arms. My entire body hurt. My skin was cold. My head was heavy, and my heart was alone, and my future seemed bleak. Running away from home wasn’t supposed to end this way. I was supposed to make it to California. I was supposed to start my new life. I was supposed to travel long enough to get away from my family’s traditional grasp, so I could dictate whatever it was I wanted from my life.

  I didn’t want to live off their money and sit like a pretty little peach. I wanted to live.

  I wanted to thrive in my life. Not survive. I didn’t want to wear the dresses and put on the makeup and live in the heels. I didn’t care about business transactions and marrying young and filling a house with children. All I wanted was to live my life on my terms, to wake up in the morning and have an actual smile on my face.

  But instead, I was stifled. I was expected to smile for the cameras and act a certain way. My father dictated every moment of my life in order to be the daughter he always envisioned he would have. It was sickening, and I hated it. He dictated my fashion sense, my schedule, and my future. I was to woo a well-to-do man, marry young, bear him children, and keep his house. I was to bring honor to the family name by allowing the money my father had garnered over the years to take care of me.

  Like living off my father’s bank accounts was somehow honorable.

  And every time I fought back, I was called selfish. Ungrateful. Unforgivable. Every time I voiced a different opinion or picked out a different outfit, I was called unruly. Every time I denied a blind date or intentionally screwed one up or refused to go to whatever formal function my father had roped me into, I was the wild one. I couldn’t be myself unless it was the image my father had painted for me from the time he found out I was a girl.

  And I hated every second of it.

  “We gotta get you warmed up.”

  That voice peeled me from my thoughts. Pulled me from my memories and reminded me of the present. My body shook uncontrollably as my back descended onto something. It was warm and soft, like a couch, or possibly a massive chair. I curled up into a ball as my teeth began to chatter, and I grunted with the pain in my stomach. It felt like my muscles were on fire even though they were encased in ice. It was as if someone was stabbing me with eight-inch icicles in every pressure point of my body

  Tears filled to my eyes as a swelling heat began to beat down against my face.

  “What the hell were you doing out in this kind of storm?”

  It was a good question, and one I felt needed to be answered. The rain whomped the structure I was in. The fine hairs along my skin stood on end as lightning crackled across the sky. The windows rattled as the thunder cracked right above our heads.

  The storm was getting worse, and I had no idea how the hell I was going to get out of it.

  I saw a shadowy figure bent over an orange flame. The heat grew, warming the icy droplets of water on my skin. My body slowly uncurled, like a flower being released to the morning sun. My bones ached, and the tears wouldn’t stop falling, but somehow, I was alive.

  Even though I had skidded off the road, I was somehow alive.

  I could still remember the argument with my parents that morning. How angry they were that I wasn’t going on a date tonight. I told them I was done with their antics. That I had no reason to marry and that I wasn’t going to until I fell in love with someone. They chastised me and called me names. Told me that I needed to be grateful for the life they had provided me like my brothers were. I told them that my brothers were happy because they got to dictate their lives. They got to do what they wanted and work in whatever fields they wanted and make money for themselves.

  My father told me that was what men got to do. Women, on the other hand, needed to be grateful that someone was willing to provide for them.

  I’d had enough of that talk. My father’s words were like a slap to my face. He told me that I wasn’t able to rule my own life and run by my own rules simply because I was a woman. Because somehow, in my father’s mind, I was feeble. Unable to take care of myself. Incapable of surviving in the harsh world he went into everyday, so my mother wouldn’t have to. And maybe that was fine for some women. Maybe my mother was just fine with keeping a house, staying beautiful, and always keeping her makeup perfect.

  But that wasn’t me.

  I wanted more.

  So, I packed up my stuff and left. I waited until my father went to work, packed up everything I could into the suitcases I owed, and tossed them in my car. My mother was too busy picking out my dress for my date tonight that she didn’t even hear me leave. I sat in my car for ten whole minutes, wondering if anyone would come out and look for me.

  But they were all so preoccupied with the pathetic lives they had fallen into that no one noticed my absence.

  It didn’t matter. I was going to set off and do my own thing. I didn’t know what I was going to do with my life, but I knew I wanted to do something. I had enough business acumen from listening to my father ramble on to be of use to someone. Maybe I could open my own business. An independent business for independent women wanting to create a new life for themselves. I dreamed about it as I wove my way out of town. How I would decorate my store. What services I could offer women transitioning into a harsh world from a family who kept them from it. I dreamed of a life where I could walk onto stages and give lectures to thousands of people. How I could use my life story to inspire others and create easy-to-follow programs to help people reclaim their lives again.

  But the daydreaming caused me to take some wrong turns, and I found myself trapped in an endless maze of nameless roads.

  “Here. This should help.”

  I looked up from the fire as my vision began to clear. I wasn’t even aware that I was still crying. The hope I had this morning when I ran away from home had quickly turned to fear. If my parents found out I had run away and somehow managed to track me down, I would be done for. I’d be under lock-and-key for the rest of my life. I would never hear the end of it and I would be married off to the first man who decided he could tolerate me. I would never get another chance to convince my family that I could make it in the real world. That I could make my own empire and create my own life and live it by my terms.

  Because doing that just this morning got me a broken-down car and a near-imminent death.

  A large pair of hands tucked the soft blanket around my body. The fire continued to roar in the fireplace while my vision slowly began to clear. I looked around the part of the room I could see and was dazzled by its beauty. I was lying on cherry mahogany hardwood floors and was surrounded by the softest furniture I’d ever laid eyes on. The cushions underneath me were as soft as clouds as I looked up at high-vaulted ceiling that would make my mother envious.

  It was a beautiful home. Very reminiscent of a cabin.

  “Where am I?” I asked.

  But instead of the voice answering me, it stayed silent.

  “Hello?”

  I rolled over onto my back and caught the gaze of the man taking care of me. His amber-colored eyes took me by surprise with how guarded they were. His dark grown hair was shaggy around his f
orehead and his strong jawline caught my attention. Even with the lack of a smile upon his face, I could tell he had dimples. Deep-set dimples on both of his cheeks that probably lit up his eyes whenever he chanced to smile.

  He was beautiful. Breath-taking even.

  “Where am I?” I asked again.

  “My home,” the man said.

  “Where is your home?” I asked.

  “Not too far from where you crashed.”

  I watched him get up from beside me and venture over to a chair. For the first time since I had become aware that he existed, I got a full look at his stature. He was massive. Broad in his shoulders and strong in his legs. His chest was stacked with muscles and his neck pulsed with veins. Even though he sat down in a chair with his long legs spread, it felt like he loomed over me.

  Except his presence wasn’t uncomfortable.

  It was more… protective.

  “Is my car okay?” I asked.

  But this time, he didn’t answer.

  “I just… had a lot of my stuff in there. Is it all going to be okay through the storm?”

  And still… silence.

  I was thrown off by it. He had been so willing to talk earlier when he didn’t think I was listening. Had he been talking to himself? I could’ve sworn he had been talking to me. Actually trying to hold a conversation with me. His voice had been steady and powerful. Commanding, but calm. I wanted to know more about him. I wanted to keep asking him questions. But I knew what it felt like to be forced to do something I didn’t want to do.

  And if he didn’t want to talk, I wasn’t going to make him.

  I rolled back toward the fire and curled up with the blankets he had afforded me. I allowed the heat of the fire to warm my bones, relieving the ache deep within my marrow stores. I sighed as I closed my eyes, trying to discard the discomfort my clinging clothes brought me. The cushions underneath my body cradled me like a child and it reminded me of innocent days. Days where I ran around with my brothers in apple orchards, throwing rotten apples at each other. Days where we would climb the trees and eat our fill before going home and begging our mother to make us freshly-made apple juice. I smiled at the memories. Times when life was simpler, and I wasn’t aware of the fact that I was any different. I was cherished, like one of my brothers. I was loved, like one of my brothers.