“Oh….” The sound came out of her like a purr, and she rolled her hips against mine. She lifted her head and sucked my lower lip into her mouth.
We were animals. Taking and giving. Grabbing and biting, hanging on as if our lives depended on the other.
Catching her thighs with both arms, I pushed her knees back to her shoulders. Her nails raked my arms as I pounded into her.
“See what you do to me? See how much I want you, need you?”
She whimpered, her hands moving to my face, threading into my beard to hold on.
“Gray…”
“You’re breaking me, Z.” And she was. Tearing down all my walls. Freeing me.
She screamed my name, and I broke, shattered, came so hard, so intensely that my vision went white, my mind numb. From some distant place, I felt her coming too, those sweet pulses that were like fingers squeezing my cock.
I love you.
My mind said what my heart already knew. I loved this woman, this goddess who’d fallen into my life. As her eyes opened and she smiled up at me, I only fell harder.
Those three little words clawed into my mind, wanting to escape, wanting me to tell her, then…
“Fuck!”
Another set of claws set their hooks in me. This time real claws, real hooks coming from the direction of my scrotum. I lunged away from Zoe, screaming at the pain. I looked down at my attacker only to find the kitten hanging from my balls.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
Zoe was reaching for him at the same time I was. “Don’t pull,” I yelled as the crazy feline latched on harder. With a hiss, the demon launched himself away from me and I collapsed onto the floor, my balls in my hands as I curled into a fetal position.
When I cracked open an eye, Zoe was beside me, shoulders shaking, her hands over her mouth to keep the laughter from escaping. “I… I’ll…” Her hands were back over her mouth, her entire body shaking even harder.
“It’s not funny,” I growled, examining my hands for any blood, relieved to not find any. If there had been, the kitten was toast.
“I’ll…” she tried again. Failed. Took a deep breath and stood up, pointing both index fingers toward the bedroom. “Get med-i-cine.”
Then she was off, running into the bathroom while I writhed like a man who’d been shot. Hell, I had been shot but it hadn’t hurt nothing close to this.
When she returned, her lips were pressed tightly together, the first aid kit in her hands. She’d pulled on her robe but wore nothing beneath it. “Do...” She started laughing again. “Do you want me to look?”
I lifted a brow. “No, I think I’ve turned into a contortionist in the last thirty seconds. I’ll do it myself.”
That beautiful giggle was probably the only thing that saved the damn kitten’s life as it pounced on her robe then scurried off when I swatted in its direction. Zoe knelt between my legs, trying to get a better look.
“You’ll need to pull your…” that giggle again, “legs back.”
Groaning, I grabbed my knees and pulled them back toward my chest, hoping to god I didn’t fart in the process. I was a big guy, strong but not particularly agile, but I did the best I could. Her shoulders were shaking, her lips white from pressing them together. “A little more.” In a show of sympathy, Maggie wandered over and started licking my face.
“At least the kitten didn’t try to pole dance,” she howled as she dabbed Neosporin on my balls.
I shot her a disgusted look, then I couldn’t help it. I was howling too.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Zoe
“I think I’ve come up with the perfect name for him,” I told Gray as he came in from outside. He’d been up on the roof, pushing the snow off, worrying me half to death.
Gray kicked off his boots and scowled at the kitten in my hands. “Little Shit?”
I held the kitten closer to my face but couldn’t keep the smirk off my lips. “No, better. Gonad the Barbarian.”
In spite of himself, Gray laughed, shaking his head. I’d inspected his testicles very thoroughly this morning, and knew firsthand that they had survived the attack with only a few puncture wounds and scratches. After some kisses to make them better, I’d declared him healed, but Gray hadn’t agreed until I’d kissed them many more times, then did a “pole dance with my vagina.”
I was still smiling about that. I was actually smiling about a lot of things.
It was my fourth day in the cabin, and I didn’t think such happiness was possible. As Maggie plopped onto her rug, the kitten started to squirm, and I put him down and watched him go pounce on her tail.
I looked around me, still unable to believe all this was real. A good dog, a mischievous kitten, the sexiest man on the planet… and me.
I’d come to Montana to get lost. I’d been found instead.
The picture of domestic bliss was complete with the bubbling stew on the stove. It actually looked really good and smelled even better. It was funny. Today was the first day I’d missed the internet. It was weird how often I’d relied on it for simple things, like recipes. Luckily, I’d found a cookbook in one of the cabinets. I missed the accompanying videos when things got complicated, but I’d managed to throw it all together and was pretty proud of myself. I might survive as an adult, after all.
Washing my hands, I moved over to the stove to check the stew.
“Smells good.”
I squealed when Gray placed his cold hands on my cheeks, then lowered them until his arms were around me. I leaned back into his chest, perfectly content.
The lights blinked on, then back off just as quickly. I stared at the lightbulb hanging down over the island, wondering if it would come on again. It didn’t. And a part of me was very glad.
“It might be another day or so before the power is on for good,” he told me, his lips in my hair. “Temperature should be in the low fifties tomorrow, which will help everything melt.”
I glanced outside, watched the water dripping off the trees. My winter wonderland was slowly dissolving before my eyes. I lifted my fingers to my pendant, thinking about Leslie and how my best friend was probably going crazy with worry over me.
“What’s wrong?”
His question warmed me. Even though he couldn’t see my face, Gray already knew me so well. “I was just thinking of my best friend. She’s probably sick with worry about me. I wish there was some way I could contact her, let her know I’m okay.”
“What about your mother?”
I stiffened, but he didn’t reverse the question, just let it hang in the air. “I honestly don’t know if she’s worried about me, but I’m worried about her.” I shrugged. “I guess twenty-two years of conditioning isn’t so simple to put away.”
I felt him nod. “And your father?”
My heart twisted a little. “I don’t know who my father is. Mom narrowed it down to eight different men, but…” I shrugged again, “she really doesn’t know, and I don’t think she wants to know.”