It resembled Indigo. My beautiful Blue.
The woman I wanted to spend my entire life with here on the mountain.
Chapter
Twenty-One
INDI
* * *
Ford insisted on carrying me into my house–ridiculous man. He’d been possessive as hell from the moment he found me up on the mountain. Like he needed to keep touching me to make sure I was really okay. Like he was afraid to let me out of his sight.
I wasn’t too eager to let him out of mine either.
“I don’t need you to prove you’re the hero, Ford. I’m already convinced.” I laughed when he bumped my feet against the doorframe to get me through it. “Or is this supposed to be a honeymoon carry over the threshold?”
“This is me claiming my woman,” he growled, all alpha male.
I stroked his beard and nipped at his neck as he made his way into the bedroom and gently sat me on the bed.
His dark brows furrowed when he surveyed my throat. He lightly traced a fingertip down the side of it. “Does that hurt?”
“A little,” I admitted. “But I’m okay. I promise.”
His jaw clenched, and his body went taut. “I should get you some ice.”
I grabbed a fistful of his shirt to stop him when he turned.
He quirked a concerned look. Oh, my brave alpha hero couldn’t fix every problem. He’d learned that–and was maybe still working on it–about Buck’s death.
“I just need a shower. And you,” I admitted.
His eyes darkened. “How about a shower with me?”
I nodded. Smiled. “You read my mind.”
Ford scooped me back into his arms to carry me into the bathroom.
“You’re being silly now.”
“You won’t think I’m silly when I have you pinned against that shower wall screaming my name,” he warned, tugging my t-shirt gently over my head.
I couldn’t wipe the ridiculous smile from my face. Or stop my pussy from clenching at what he planned. Me, coming? Totally worked. Especially if it was a Ford-induced orgasm.
Ford Ledger was all in with me. It seemed like one of my wildest teenage dreams, only better.
So much better.
Because while I’d suspected Ford was manly by every definition of the word all those years ago, I’d had no idea just how dominant, how possessive, how incredibly virile and powerful he’d be in bed.
I reached for his shirt, and he helped me with a one-armed toss-off of the thing, managing to make it look like porn.
More. I wanted more of Ford. All of him. I wanted to claim him the way he was fully claiming me.
I unbuttoned his pants, but he stilled me with his hands.
My eyes lifted to his in question, but he started rooting through his pockets. Out came a folding knife. His cell. Another knife. A… I had no idea what it was, but the piece of metal probably did someone harm. I couldn’t help but laugh at how his pockets were like a Mary Poppins bag of weaponry. He even reached around and pulled a gun from behind his back.
Everything went onto my vanity beside my face lotion and cotton balls. I assumed it was symbolic of what our life would be like together.
When he stopped, he held his hands out letting me know I could continue with removing his pants. I returned to my task, and his grin grew wild and feral like he loved my aggression. He toed off his boots, and I did the same while he pulled my sports bra off–careful not to let it touch my bruised neck.
I pushed his pants down off his hips, and he slid his hands inside mine to cup my bare ass, pulling me up against his body and mating his mouth to mine. We were filthy and smelly, and I didn’t care.
“Is this okay?” he asked when we broke apart. “I don’t want to be too rough.”
“I like you rough.” I reached up and cupped his face, loving the silky scratch of his beard. “Seriously, Ford. Be rough.”
He boosted me with his forearm beneath my ass and carried me to the shower where he started up the water. I clung to him, my legs wrapped around his waist, my tongue in his ear, needing every bit of Ford.
I realized that until this moment, I’d been holding back. Waiting to see what he’d offer. How much. Whether he’d reject me again or how it would end. I had to admit my upset over him not telling me he was looking into Buck’s case had been rooted in fear.
I didn’t want to be rejected again, so I’d done the rejecting. Pushed him away before I could hear words from him that could hurt me all over again.
But not now. What had happened on the mountain had made it all become clear. Now I was certain with every fiber of my being that I not only wanted Ford, I was willing to have him. To claim him and keep him the way he’d sworn he would do with me.