“Please,” she begged with a ragged whisper. She trembled against him, needing surcease.
Colt’s control slipped, and he pounded her ass. She loved every second of it, rocking her hips to meet his thrusts, feeling the edges of a climax just out of her reach, and whimpering.
She ached for it, for the completion she could feel approaching. Colt snaked a hand between them, pinched her clit as he slammed into her, and sent her flying. The climax started in her rear and exploded in her pussy. She wailed at the ecstasy flooding her body at the feel of his semen spurting in her ass.
When he shuddered, unloading the last vestiges of his spunk inside her, Colt kissed her with such tenderness while she floated that she knew in her heart, the last remaining tethers holding her back from loving him, snapped. She loved her cowboy with everything she was, and couldn’t tell him.
“Avery, I… I’m humbled, and proud of you. Thank you. I will treasure the gift you gave me. Get some rest.” He kissed her briefly once more, before she felt him withdraw.
He pulled her against his side and held her as she shut her eyes. If this was a forecast of what was to come this weekend, she couldn’t wait for the rest.
On Saturday, they left the cabin for a nice morning hike. The rain had cleared the air overnight, and the day was clear and sunny. Colt figured it would be good for them both to get a little distance from the bedroom, give their bodies a chance to recover from the sheer gluttony of their sexual activities. It was a gorgeous day. Temperatures were balmy.
Avery ambled beside him in jeans and a navy tank, sporting her red backpack, with her hair in a long braid over her shoulder. He noticed that her gray boots had some wear on them. They were the same boots she had gone after in the stream.
“So I was wondering something,” she murmured at his side.
“Shoot.”
“I should have asked this before, but what’s your last name?”
“It’s Anderson. Colt Emanuel Anderson, at your service, Miss…” He shot her a bemused glance.
She snorted. “Point taken. Avery Gertrude Morgan. And yes, I know my middle name is not the best, but I was named for my grandma, Gertie. She raised me after my mom died.”
His heart ached for her. Colt realized that he didn’t know anything about her family. “How old were you when your mom died?”
“Eight. She had ovarian cancer.” She glanced away.
He took her hand in his as they hiked. “I’m sorry. That couldn’t have been easy. What about your dad?”
“I don’t really remember him. He died in a car accident when I was two. But I always had Gertie. She helped me through the worst of it after Mom died.”
Oh, baby! So young to have lost her parents. He stopped her then and glanced down at her. “That must have been hard. Any siblings or anything?”
“No, just me and Grandma Gertie. She made sure I had everything I needed. There are parts of my mom that I remember, while others have faded.” She tugged him along, like she didn’t really want to talk about it. Colt couldn’t say that he blamed her.
“I didn’t mean to make you sad, babe.”
She smiled up at him as they resumed walking along the trail. “You didn’t. It doesn’t hurt to talk about her. What I do remember about my mom, is that she was kind and thoughtful, always there for me. She wasn’t like normal moms, baking cookies or being part of the PTA. She encouraged me to have adventures, to not be afraid of the unknown. She smelled like daisies, and was beautiful, but sad sometimes. Gertie used to say it was because she missed my dad. Theirs had been a true love affair, much like my grandparents’. We Morgans, when we do fall, when it’s true and right, we tend to love that person forever.”
Colt had a sudden image of always having her near, of what it would be like to have her love him in such a way. “We Andersons are similar. My parents have been married for thirty-five years now.”
“Really? Do they live nearby?” she asked him.
“No. They retired and moved down to Tucson, Arizona. They’ve lived there for eight years now, and love it there. Ever been?”
“Yes, I have. It’s a great place. Do you visit them often?”
“Usually they come here to visit me and my sister, Amber. I know they’re making plans already to come back for Thanksgiving, and will likely stay through the New Year,” he explained.
“That sounds nice. Gertie and I try to spend every Christmas with each other, but it doesn’t always work out.”
It sounded lonely, her upbringing and life. He couldn’t help but ache for her, even as he wondered what his parents would think of Avery. His mom would adore her, with all her quirks, and his dad… once he got to know her, Colt bet he would be as charmed by her as he was himself.
Colt could look forward, envision her fitting seamlessly into his life. He shook himself. It was still early in the relationship to be looking that far ahead. Except he couldn’t help it. Yesterday had been a turning point for him. He’d claimed her as a Dom claimed his submissive, taking her sweet virgin ass. And he had to admit that, when he had been buried inside her, the padlocks he kept locked around his emotions had broken off, flooding him with a deluge of feelings.
They made him want to believe in a future with Avery. He was thoroughly enjoying the fact that she had no clue he was loaded. To her, he was just a man. He’d become her man, her Dom, and he suspected that if he asked her to commit to him, to them, to be his claimed submissive, that she would say yes.
They hiked the trail in silence for a bit, enjoying the day and company. Or rather, he was quiet, listening to Avery make comments about all the things they passed. It charmed him, the way she talked about everything, from the tree species to the eagles soaring overhead and the position of the sun.
She flittered along, much like an excited puppy, stopped every few feet to look at the squirrels and chipmunks and, Oh, look at the big horn sheep up along that mountain crest.
He must be crazy, he thought, because he enjoyed it. She made him laugh and look at the world through her lens, which was a lot less jaded than his. When he was with her, he felt lighter, the world was no longer dim, and without a doubt, she was entertaining. There wasn’t a moment he was with her where he found himself being bored. Even when he made her slow down, felt her calm and still beside him, he wasn’t bored. There wasn’t a dull bone in the woman’s body.
And after hearing what she had been through, her attitude and thirst for life awed him even more.
Colt crested a ridge that would lead them down and back around toward the cabin. Avery excitedly chattered nonstop a few feet behind him. But on the downward slope of the trail was a huge brown bear.
Colt froze the moment he spotted the massive beast. And so did the bear, his black eyes assessing him. Avery’s voice floated behind him, but he didn’t dare turn his back on the bear. That thing would rip them both to shreds. They stared at one another, he and the big bear, waiting to see what the other would do, who would budge from their defensive stance first.
“What are you… oh, hello,” Avery said to the bear from his side.
“Quiet. Don’t move,” Colt snapped in a furious whisper.
“But—”
“Hush.” He growled low and squeezed her hand beside him.