Tate (Mountain Men 3)

I smile, my eyes still closed. “Course not. Now what?”

“Now, we get you out of this bloody bed and healthy again, and then we move on to step two.”

“Which is?”

“Negotiations with Interpol.”

That makes me open my eyes back up. “What the bloody hell are you talking about?”

She sighs and squeezes my hand. “You’ll see. But you have to trust me. Can you trust me?”

Didn’t I ask her the very same question once?

She peers into my eyes, sincerity written on every one of her features.

“Ah, love. Of course I trust you. You’ve earned it by now, haven’t you?”

She leans in and kisses my cheek. “I hope so,” she whispers. “And I promise you, promise you, I won’t let you down.”

“I know you won’t. I know it.”

We stay at Keenan’s, and it takes a few days to recover. I’m on the phone with Leith and Mac daily, finding out what else they know, what happens next.

Interpol hasn’t made a move.

“They will,” Fran promises. “Trust me.”

Every day, she’s on her computer or phone, taking notes, asking questions. She asked me to trust her, so I bloody well will.

She’s so preoccupied with the chase, with gathering intel, she barely eats or talks to me. I give her freedom to do it, but after some time she needs to take a break.

On the fourth day of my release from the hospital, she goes to answer the phone, but I grab her wrist.

“Not so fast.”

She gives me a teasing look. “Please unhand me, sir. I have work to do.”

My pulse races, and I tug her over to me. “You’ve got bloody work to do that involves your mouth and my cock.”

She rolls her eyes, but I can tell she’s pleased. “Oh, so romantic.”

“There’s more where that comes from.”

I’m a lucky bloke, though, because she doesn’t need to be asked twice. The next thing I know, she’s straddling me, her full breasts nearly up to my damn nose.

“Well, hello.”

“Hello,” she says with a giggle. “Something I can do for you?”

I roll over with her beneath me, ignoring the flare of pain in my back and side. I sustained a head injury, but nothing was broken.

I bend my mouth to hers and capture her lips with mine. She melts into me, her arms coming around my neck as if to scramble for purchase. I gently part her legs with my knee, bringing one hand between her thighs while I kiss her again.

God, it feels good to hold her like this again. It feels so good to have the blood thrumming in my veins, her soft, supple body beneath mine.

“I fucking love you,” I whisper. “I love you, Fran Cowen.”

“And I love you,” she replies, her voice pitching off into a moan when I tug down her panties and glide my fingers between her legs. “But it’ll take a while for that name to seem like it fits me.”

“Fits you just fine,” I say with a groan. “Jesus, you’re wet, love. I want to taste you.”

“My good sir,” she says in that way of hers that makes my heart twist. “You don’t mean to seduce me so soon after we’ve taken vows?”

“I very much intend on doing just that.”

“If you insist,” she whispers.

Moments later, I’m on the floor in front of her, her legs draped over my shoulders, and I’m breathing heavily between her thighs as she pants and writhes. I tease and suckle, taste and worship, until she’s keening with pleasure and on the cusp of coming.

“Don’t you fucking dare,” I warn her. “Not until I tell you you’re allowed.”

“Or what?” she asks, her eyes flashing.

I shrug. “You have to ask? I’ll punish you, of course.”

She shivers and moans, and it looks like she’s trying so hard to do what I tell her. I take the opportunity to thrust two of my fingers in her, pumping as I work her clit with my tongue.

“Tate! No, it’s too much,” she moans. I slap her thigh, good and hard, to warn her. She’d better not disobey me. That only makes her moan even more.

“Tate, pllllease,” she begs.

“What do you want, baby?”

“I want to come?”

“Just like this on my mouth? Is that a question?”

“No. I mean yeeesss.”

“Good girl. Such a very good girl,” I say teasingly, moving my fingers between her slick folds, back and forth, until her bottom lifts straight off the bed. “Why don’t you come for me?”

She soars into her release within seconds, writhing and moaning as the climax overpowers her.

“Good girl,” I say softly. “That’s my good girl.”

I straddle her, unfastening my trousers and taking out my stiff, aching cock. I give myself a quick pump, my eyes on hers. She bites her lip and gives me a seductive glance.

“I love you,” I tell her, as I glide into her heated, slick entrance, her pussy hugging my cock in utter perfection.