Page 20 of Restored by the Mountain Man (Eden Ridge: Hunter Brothers #3)

EZRA

THREE MONTHS LATER

I wrap my body around her warm curves, her bare, smooth skin my favorite thing to map with my hands. Her fully furnished basement room in her old childhood home holds the chill from December temperatures, but the space heater, along with our naked bodies, provide all the warmth needed.

Zoe’s body slowly wakes, arching into my touch, moaning softly as we fall into the familiar dance every morning. I don’t care what time we wake up–late or not–I do not compromise on thoroughly loving the best woman I’ve ever known. The love of my life.

“Ezra,” her raspy morning voice whispers.

“Morning, Sweet Cheeks,” I say, nipping at her neck, molding her full breast in my hand. “Any dreams you remember?”

Purring like a cat, she turns onto her back, pulling me over her and I go willingly.

“Hard to tell what was a dream and what was just a memory of you covering my mouth, taking me from behind against the wall.”

Well, shit. I was already hard. That just caused my balls to spring tight, heating for release. I settle between her thighs, reaching down and playing with her clit, excited to find her already wet.

“My good girl’s already wet and ready for my cock,” I rasp against her lips before deeply kissing my goddess good morning.

She raises her leg over my hip, curling it against my waist. I move to kiss down her body, but she stops me. I lift my head, waiting.

She shakes her head. “I want you inside me, handsome. Now.”

“I wanted to have my breakfast first. “I nip at her ear, groaning as my cock slides between her moist lips.

“Whatever I dreamt got me ready. Please,” she arches, trying to hook my shaft to her entrance.

“Baby,” I grunt, not able to deny her. I slide right in—one, smooth thrust.

We both moan. Zoe’s arms tighten around my body. Pulling my hair, she bites my earlobe. “Take me, mountain man.”

“Fuck.” My hips are at her command. I dig my knees into the mattress and snap my hips, pushing through her heated, tight, silky walls that own me.

I slide my hand under her, taking that ass I love in hand, using my hold as leverage.

“Oh God,” she cries.

I lean into her body and take her throat in my hand. Her eyes widen, dizzy with pleasure. I hold her just right, placing my lips against hers.

“Can’t be loud, Sweet Cheeks. Be a good girl for me.”

Zoe licks my mouth, whimpering.

Her breasts bounce, rubbing against my chest. We moved the bed away from the wall so no one could hear it bang against it. I take her mouth, my tongue devouring every corner of her mouth, tasting her.

Fuck, she feels good.

“Ezra,” she gasps, and I feel it. Her inner walls clamp down, milking my cock.

“Come for me, baby. I want to fill you so good,” I growl.

“Yes,” she chants quietly, biting her lip to keep from screaming.

I take the hand at her throat and move it to the back of her head, placing her face at my neck.

I dig my own against her shoulder and let my body take over.

The moment her body locks up, I go blind.

I thrust wildly, feeling my balls explode.

Pure, delicious heat shoots up my cock. My ass almost cramps flexing and releasing.

I shout her name into her skin as Zoe bites me–hard. Her nails dig into my back, and I can’t think about anything but this feeling only her body can give me.

Come leaks out between us as I shoot once more, grunting. We both slowly loosen our tight holds but remain attached everywhere. Panting, I kiss her skin up her face until her face turns and she kisses me back.

“I love you,” I whisper into the kiss over and over. “Fuck, baby. I love you so much.”

Catching her breath, Zoe keeps kissing me, replying, “I love you. You’re mine, Ezra.”

Once the sudden high mellows, I exhale, turning us so she’s lying on my chest.

“Mija! Ezra! Vamos. Desayuno,” her mother, Alba, calls from the top of the stairs, behind Zoe’s closed door.

“Okay, Ma!” Zoe calls back.

Groaning, I turn into her, digging my face into her chest. “I don’t know if we were quiet enough.”

Laughing, Zoe finger-combs my hair. The view is tempting here. I nibble on her nipple, still erect and divine looking. I lick lightly around it.

A soft puff of air meets my head as her soft ministrations turn to her gripping my hair.

“If we don’t get cleaned up quickly and get our asses to breakfast, she will come down and pull us both up by the ears. Naked. She won’t care,” Zoe chuckles, but spending the last two weeks here with the Diazs for the holidays, I’ve come to know both Alba and her dad, Daniel, really well.

She’s one hundred percent right. Alba would.

Placing one last kiss for the morning on her left breast, I push up and kiss her.

“Let’s shower.”

Twenty minutes later, we’re clean and at the table eating her mother’s Puerto Rican mashed green plantain dish called Mofongo. Her breakfast version has bacon, garlic, jalapeno peppers, and is topped with a fried egg. I’m having my second helping happily.

Zoe leans back, sipping her coffee as we chat with her mom, when Daniel busts out of the garage with a large bin.

“Lord, here we go,” Alba mumbles, putting leftovers away.

“Ezra, help me a minute?” Daniel asks.

“Dejalo. He’s still eating,” Alba reprimands.

“I’m finished,” I lie, wiping my mouth and getting up.

“Dad,” Zoe rolls her eyes.

“Baby,” I chuckle. “Let me help your dad.” I kiss her respectfully in front of her parents and help Daniel take out three large bins to the front of their house.

The cold, damp December morning bites. Crazy how Eden Ridge is only three hours south and is blanketed in snow right now.

Zoe mentioned last month how her dad is obsessed with beating all the other houses on the block every year.

She grew up on a famous Christmas lights street everyone knows as Lady Amherst Lane.

Sparkling lights line the community sidewalks with sporadic lit up arches, and every house in this block on both sides commits to setting up displays that many come from all over the state to walk through every night from mid-December till the thirtieth.

I suggested we spend Christmas with her parents this year, to which she knocked me over from excitement, peppering kisses all over. That quickly turned into hours of pleasure.

“We’re the ‘Home Alone’ inspired house. I put up nostalgic pieces from the movie, but I add a new surprise element every year,” Daniel explains, untangling a string of lights.

“What’s this year's?” I ask, helping organize lights into one pile and lawn pieces in another.

The giddy joy on Daniel’s face. “I’m recreating the icy slip and the paint cans to the face.”

I marvel at the elaborate tools and techniques he explains he’s going to use to make the scenes look real. And, I’ve been recruited since I’m, and I quote, a handy mountain man. I hold the ladder as Daniel hammers the light strings in place.

“Eighty percent of the lights are already up, but the showstoppers are still in the box. Truman’s out of his damn mind if he thinks he’ll out-light me this year again.”

I humor his competitive grumblings, grinning at Zoe, who stands in front of the windows, smiling and shaking her head.

I love you , I mouth.

Her brown eyes spark and soften. She looks over her shoulder and then at her dad, who’s facing away. Then, my wild woman grabs her breasts and squeezes them, blowing me a kiss.

Her mom must call her from the kitchen because Zoe jumps, startled. We both laugh as she runs to see her mom.

“What’s up?” her dad asks.

“I just love the crap out of your daughter, sir,” I say, smiling and watching her ass as she practically skips away.

“I know that, son. I wouldn’t have given my permission otherwise.”

Nervous and excited, I push the thought aside and enjoy the day. Alba eventually reprimands her husband to come inside for lunch a few hours later.

He grumbles something in his Jamaican accent. “Yes, mi amor”

I laugh, loving the dynamic between those two. The rest of the day, I help him work on the elaborate cardboard displays in the yard. Zoe occasionally joins us, distracting me.

That night, we sit around the table. Laid out is a feast of cultural variety. Alba forced Daniel to let me join her in the kitchen so I could learn some of her best meals. I love that I’ll be able to recreate these for Zoe back home.

We laugh, we drink, we eat too much, and then it’s time. After six, the crowd is largely gathered, walking through the roped-off sidewalks as night has set and all the lights illuminate the entire street.

We stand outside the front of Zoe’s childhood home, and though blinding, it’s pretty damn spectacular. I hold Zoe in my arms, Daniel's arm is around his wife’s waist, and the crowds gather, pointing out the classic details from their own childhood Christmas movie.

My heart races. Even in this cold, I’m sweating.

“Handsome?” Zoe pulls back and asks without asking. Her cheek was lying on my chest. Of course, she feels it pounding.

My eyes glance over to her parents, who smile widely. Her mom already has tears welling up. Taking a deep breath, I turn into Zoe, taking her hands.

“Zoe Esmerelda Diaz, there are no words to express what you entering my life means. I was resigned to walking this earth as a ghost for the rest of my days. I let myself think I wasn’t worthy to ever love again.

Less, be loved. Then you came and demanded those demons get out,” I grin, and she chuckles.

Her eyes well up. She must suspect.

I take out the velvet box, get on one knee to gasps from Zoe and strangers, and open it to reveal the three-carat marquise diamond with floating side accents set on a white gold ring.

Zoe’s eyes grow big as she covers her mouth.

The crowd is closer now, and from my peripheral, I see people holding up cameras, recording. My sole focus is her.

“Sweet Cheeks, my goddess, baby…,” I swallow.

“I love you so deeply. I almost thought I’d never see this day come because I let my broken pieces pierce your heart.

But I swore from that day forth that I’d spend every breath I get on this earth proving that I’ll live up to everything you’ve hoped for and deserve. Grow old with me? Marry me.”

Laughing through tears, Zoe pulls me up. “Your jeans are wet now.”

“I don’t care. I’m asking my girl to be my wife.”

“I freaking love you, Ezra Hunter. You’re mine. No one else’s. I will absolutely let you put a ring on it.”

“Ave Maria, Zoe,” Alba scoffs, laughing through her own tears.

I take her into my arms as she jumps into mine, kissing me. The roar of cheers echoes from every direction. All I know is this woman in my arms. Setting her down, I slide the ring onto her finger.

“Holy shit, Handsome,” she whispers, admiring it. “This is huge.”

Chuckling, I pull her close. “I want any man who sees it to not think for a second that he’s worthy of speaking to you. Let them know you’re mine. Forever.”

“Freaking caveman,” she slaps my chest playfully. Stretching up on her tiptoes, before she kisses me, she says, “And you know I love it.”

This time, the kiss is slow and sensual. A promise of I do, forever.

Four months ago, I never could have imagined living again, feeling warmth in my bloodstream, or even better, experiencing the light of love from this woman who instantly felt like my soul recognized.

I was blessed to experience love twice in this lifetime. The love of my youth and then, the love of the rest of my life. I won’t take this gift of finding Zoe Diaz for granted. Together, we choose to love and to live.

I can’t wait to call her, my wife.

Christmas with the Hunters apparently starts with competition and ends in food fights, and Zoe doesn't play when it comes to decorations.

Don't forget to grab the Bonus Epilogue for more goodness with Ezra and Zoe.

Now that you've gotten to know Nash, our misunderstood possessive alpha a little better, curious to read what wild journey awaits him? Spoiler: The sheriff's daughter refusing to leave his reclusive cabin was not on his bingo card.