Ten Mountain Men's Baby (Love by Numbers 9)

21HollySpending days in the mountains visiting poor communities of isolated people and then spending nights with my new band of lovers, the last week had been such a rollercoaster of emotions it was no wonder I was on edge, like a time bomb ready to go off at the slightest provocation.

The provocation I got was not, however, slight. We’d been betrayed by someone we welcomed with open arms into our group, someone we went out of our way to help, someone who only cared about gaining a bit of attention no matter who she had to hurt in the process.

I knew Wendy was suspect from the first time I had met her. I should have followed my gut. Instead, I was too willing to give her the benefit of the doubt. I was too trusting, too naïve, perhaps. I would have sulked and beaten myself up over my poor decision, but the guys wouldn’t let me brood in my bad temper.

“Everything’s going to be all right,” they told me. And with their kind eyes, with the lullaby cadence of their voices and disarming smiles, I believed them. They were sending me too many positive vibes for me to indulge in my negative thoughts.

“I can’t go back on the trail now,” I said to Ryker.

He beamed, grabbed me by the hips, lifted me up, and spun me around. “That’s great news!”

I pushed away, my arms tight at my chest. “I’m still going back,” I said. “I need to finish what I started, but I’ll wait a few days till we get this Wendy situation sorted out.”

He set me down. I started to walk away, but he put his arm around my waist and pulled me to him.

“It’s difficult to stay upset,” I said.

“Good.” He planted a kiss on my forehead. “That’s the point.”

With our bodies pressed tightly together, we rocked and swayed and glided across the improvised dance floor of the cottage.

“It will get sorted out, and quickly, too,” he said. “You’ll see. Then you’ll go back on the trail. You’ll finish the thru-hike in record time. And then you’ll hurry back to us.”

“And we’ll all live happily ever after?” I said.

“The happily-est.”

He kissed me. But I was still trying to hold on to a bit of my anger; I still felt the need to show how upset I was, so I pushed him away and turned from him—right into the arms of Will.

My heart leaped. In a blink, I had gone from looking into my lover’s eyes to looking into his eyes six years from now. And they shone with the same abiding kindness and passion.

Of course, I knew each of the Chandlers was his own person. I had come to know them well, well enough to be familiar with Miles’s disregard for the serious—everything was a game or a joke to him; well enough to know the sensitivity of Lawson—how perceptive he was, almost to a frightening, uncanny degree, like a mind reader; well enough to tell Gannon from Brock—not only in the subtleties of their features but in their physical and emotional needs that they were not too proud to express.

I knew each of the Chandlers well and individually, but sometimes—like during parties at the cottage—I let my imagination have fun. I allowed myself to see the Chandler brothers as different iterations of the same man: iterations of my lover in different contexts and from different times all played out simultaneously in the present.

When I turned away from Ryker’s kiss only to land in Will’s ardent embrace, I gave up on my anger toward Wendy; I gave up on my loose claim to reality and let myself be swept away by my fantasy.

“Happily ever after,” I said to him.

He held me tight in his arms. His bulging erection pressed against my waist.

I stood on tiptoes so that my crotch could feel the contact of his throbbing cock. “You’re too tall,” I said.

He slid his hands from my waist down to my ass. He grabbed me and lifted me.

“Oh!”

“Now we’re the same height,” he said, and he gave me a peck on the lips.

I took his chiseled jaw in my hands, my lips on his, my tongue tasting them, then slipping inside his mouth to find his tongue.

He lost his balance and started to fall. Fortunately, Owen was there and caught us. I looked from Will to his identical twin, Owen, and a tingling fire rippled through my body. My lover is everywhere and at the same time!

“You saved us from a nasty fall,” I said to Owen. “My hero!” I reached for his beautiful face, touched him lightly on the cheek, then grabbed him by the hair, and pulled him to me for a wet and sloppy kiss.

No sooner had I tasted him than I pulled back. My other hand found the back of Will’s head, and I turned and kissed him. I felt a hand on my breast, another hand on my ass, another hand on my other breast, and another hand grabbing and stroking my thigh. While I was being groped and fondled, I went from one mouth to the other of my lookalike lovers, pecking and licking their lips.