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Four

C ade

Watching Marley try to act normal while loading gear into my truck is like watching a baby deer try to tango. She keeps sneaking glances at me when she thinks I'm not looking, her cheeks still flushed from the orgasm she graced me with twenty minutes ago.

Her flavor raced through me like liquid fire.

I want that taste with me every fucking day from now on.

She’s got me by the balls already and she has no idea what that even means.

The sound she made when I slapped her pussy is playing on repeat in my head.

And the way she melted against that wall tells me everything I need to know about what this brilliant little girl really needs.

Someone to take control. Someone to make the decisions. Someone to keep her safe while she figures out who she is without the pressure of being the smartest person in every room.

What she doesn't know yet is that I have no intention of letting her go back to her old life when this week is over.

"This truck is huge," she says, running her hand along the side of my F-250 like she's trying to solve a mathematical equation. "What's the fuel efficiency on something this size? It has to be terrible for the environment."

I load the last of the camping gear into the bed and slam the tailgate shut. "It gets me where I need to go."

"But surely there are more sustainable options for—"

"Get in, Marley."

She blinks at the command in my voice, then scrambles to climb into the passenger seat.

Even with the running boards, she has to haul herself up, and I can't help but notice how good her round little butt cheeks look in those hiking pants and how much better they’ll look someday with my dick inside her ass.

Mine.

The word pounds through my head like a drum beat as I watch her struggle with the seatbelt. She's mine now, whether she understands it or not.

I climb into the driver's seat, reaching over to buckle her in, tugging on the shoulder strap to make sure it’s locked in place then start the engine.

The truck rumbles to life with a sound that probably violates half a dozen noise ordinances, but Ive’ never been one to be quiet about much of anything.

"Where exactly are we going?" Marley asks, tapping the toes on her boots on the floor mat like an excited little girl. “I have a topographical map, but I don’t know our destination so—"

"My mountain.” I cut her off, reaching across to settle one hand at the back of her neck, rubbing little circles right over her pulse point.

" Your mountain?" She twists in her seat to look at me. "You don't actually own a mountain, do you?"

"Bought and paid for. Hundred and twenty-three acres of wilderness that hasn't seen civilization since my great- grandfather's time. My brother Jack owns about the same bordering mine. My other brothers have some too."

Her eyes go wide. " Do you have any idea what that kind of land is worth? What are the property taxes on something like that? Do you get an agricultural exemption?”

"You ask a lot of questions."

"I'm a journalist. It's what I do." She settles back in her seat, but she’s already pulling out her phone, making notes. I can see her academic brain spinning.

It should annoy me. On some level, it does annoy me. Academics are all the same, living in their own world that has nothing to do with the real one. The real one is dangerous and unpredictable, you can’t sort it into neat categories, label it and make a plan how to deal with it.

Survival in the real world is about instinct and experience, and that’s something I never would have learned in a classroom. I can’t even imagine setting foot in a school building again, and I can’t understand anyone that volunteers for more of that when they don’t have to.

But Marley…

I don’t know, something about Marley makes it seem normal.

It’s just that place isn’t out here in the wilderness.

“Hope you’ve got a low-tech option for when the battery on that thing wears out,” I give her neck a light squeeze watching as her tits bounce when I hit a pothole on the dirt road up the mountain. “No place to plug in up here.”

"I’ve got a note book,” she says distractedly as she taps away. “This is all research for my thesis. I need to understand the socioeconomic factors that drive people to choose isolation over community integration."

Socioeconomic factors. Community integration. Christ.

"And what do you expect?"

"I..." She looks up, confused by the question. "I expect to gather enough data to write a thesis that meets academic standards for publication."

"Wrong." I pull into the two-track road that leads to my basecamp cabin, the truck bouncing over ruts that would bottom out her little Honda. "You're expecting to hide behind those notes and turn this into homework."

Her jaw lifts in that stubborn way I'm already getting used to. "That's my job. That’s why I’m here."

"No, little girl. Your job for the next three days is to do exactly what Daddy tells you. Nothing else matters."

I’ve only started using that word since she’s been around, but the way her breath catches tells me it hits exactly right.

"I can do both," she says, but her voice is shaky now.

"We'll see."

She twists those cute lips together, putting her phone down. “Okay then, tell me why you want to live up here like you do. Is this how you grew up?”

I keep my eyes ahead, continuing the circles on her skin, feeling her pulse kick up.

“Didn’t grow up up here so to speak. My grandfather settled here, buying up half the mountain by the time he was forty. Never went to school. Couldn’t read or write but he was smarter than any man I’ve ever met. Took care of my grandmother, was a good dad to my mom. A hero to me.”

“Wow. He sounds like a book that should be written.”

I nod. “Probably. My mom always told me I took after him. When she married my father, he moved her into town, he thought the mountain was for hillbillies.”

“Where is he now? And your mom?”

I still for a second, easing the truck around a tree half blocking the road. “Mom’s been gone about five years. Dad…I don’t know. Don’t care. Me and my brothers ran him off. Life was better without him. He hit my mom. That was the end of that.”

Marley is quiet for a minute and I look over to see her staring out the window, her lips pulled tight.

“Don’t feel sorry for me. I love my life. I love this mountain. It’s exactly where I belong.” She gives me a nod but something is off. “What’s wrong baby?”

She squints, here eyes almost closed before she opens them and blurts out, “My parents wouldn’t like you.”

I snort on a deep laugh. “I’m not here to worry about your parents little girl. I’m here for you.”

I turn the truck down the last short stretch of road, Marley holding on to the door as the truck lurches side to side on the wash outs.

“You’re okay.” I brush my knuckles down her cheek, then park the truck on the patch of flat dirt that is as close to a parking spot as it gets up here.

I get out, walk around and open her door, putting my arms up for her.

She offers this little smile as she half tosses herself forward, a excited squeal rising to the trees as I catch her mid-jump, spinning her around then setting her on the ground.

I unload the truck, putting the lighter pack on her shoulders. She looks out of place but relaxed as I point up the trail.

“Our hotel for tonight.” My cabin sits in a clearing I carved out myself—one room, wood stove, no electricity, no bullshit. Built with my own hands on land that belongs to me.

“This is where you live?" she asks.

"This is where we're staying tonight. Sort of base camp. Not my home. Tomorrow we head deeper into the mountains."

"Deeper?" Her voice cracks slightly. "This isn't deep enough?"

I look at her, letting a slow smile spread across my face. "Oh, little girl. You have no idea how deep I can go."

The way her pupils dilate tells me she catches my meaning loud and clear.

She hurries to catch up, nearly tripping over a tree root. "Wait... We’re not going to be sleeping without central heating though, right? It's October in Michigan."

"Which is why you'll be sleeping in my bag. With me."

That stops her cold. "With you?"

"Body heat's the most efficient way to stay warm. Basic survival 101." I guide her to the front door, dropping down some of the supplies before turning and bracing my hands on the two wooden pillars that hold up the little overhang where she’s standing.

"But..." She's doing that overthinking thing again. "The lines between are really blurry. I am completely out of my element with this. I am not sure we are making wise choices. Like, with what happened back in the shop--"

She tugs her lips side to side and even with her fussing, her nipples are distracting as fuck pushing out on the khaki button up shirt she’s wearing.

"What happened was you paying your deposit. That’s what it was, don’t dissect everything, baby.

Just be." I unlock the cabin door. "This is about keeping you alive but it’s bigger than that. Truth, I’m a little confused about it too.

Like I said, I swore off women ten years ago.

Too much drama, I like being alone. Sex is sex, fine but what I could give myself with my fist worked. "

“Really? You are honestly telling me that a guy that looks like you, doesn’t have a revolving door on his bedroom? I find that hard to believe. You are forearm porn and mountain man romance cover candy.”

“Look.” I tower over her, drawing a hard breath then exhaling, my breath making a few strands of her loose hair dance on her forehead.

“We’re both on this adventure. I’m learning too.

Learning about how it feels to want someone else to be happy.

And safe. The fucking idea of you getting hurt or someone hurting you?

” I shake my head, my molars grinding together.

“It’s like you’ve awakened something dormant inside me and I’m a man of instincts, not agendas and flow charts.

I’m following my gut baby and it’s leading me to you at every turn. ”

Her dark lashes flutter, she’s processing and I’ll let her, because honestly, this is a lot for me to fucking process as well. Besides, my dick aches like I motherfucker and I need to move around.

“Come on. Let’s get things inside.”

I unlock the door and move the supplies inside as she follows, setting her pack down on the rough wooden floor just inside the door.

Inside, I start getting our gear and supplies organized as she moves to the window looking out the back of the small structure, staring out at endless trees. "I don't think I've ever been anywhere this quiet before."

"Good. Maybe you'll learn to listen to something besides professors for once."

She turns to watch me stack split wood into the cast iron pot belly stove. "You really don't like academics, do you?" She tips her head to the side, waiting as wad up some newspaper, the crinkling sound filling the small space before I stuff it under the stacked wood.

"It’s not that. I think there are lots of ways to learn.

Some people don’t learn inside four walls from books and lectures and the world seems to put more value on that kind of knowledge and I disagree.

" I snap a match on the side of the box, the newspaper catching with a crackle, then a whoosh as I open the flue and the hot air finds it’s exit.

She’s leaning on the windowsill, arms crossed when I stand and make short work of closing the space between us.

“You're nineteen with a master's degree, but you can't start a fire or find your way out of these woods if something happened to me. "

Marley lowers her eyes as I spread my feet shoulder width apart, hands moving to her shoulders, making ownership of her and this space. "That's not necessarily true. I could possibly use the location of the sun to figure out" She gives up smart enough to know I’m right.

"When's the last time you did something that wasn't for a grade?

" I slide my hands to her neck, her softness under my rough palms, feeling how small she is when my fingers easily overlap, my thumbs pushing up into that soft space under her chin.

"When's the last time you took a risk that wasn’t about being turned into data? "

Her breathing goes shallow. "Last night."

"That's right. And how did that feel?"

"Terrifying."

"And?"

"Amazing."

"Our time out here on the mountain is going to be more of the same." I lower my face to hers, close enough our breaths mingle. "But you have to choose. Hide behind your notebook, or trust Daddy to show you what you're really capable of."

"I don't understand. I have achieved a lot in my short nineteen years."

I lower my voice, gentler now. "Yes, but out here, in the quiet, maybe you can finally hear your own voice instead of all the other ones in your head telling you who you should be."

The statement hits hard, and I see something crack in her expression. Something lonely she's been hiding behind all that academic achievement.

"What do you want, Marley Voss?" I ask quietly. "Not what your professors want. Not what your parents want. What do you actually want?"

She opens her mouth. Closes it. Nothing comes out.

"You’ve got a couple days to figure it out.

" I turn back toward the supplies, needing a distraction before I spread her open and fuck some sense into her.

"But tonight, you're mine. And tomorrow, we'll see if you're brave enough to keep choosing you. And hopefully me. I’m your lifeline up here baby. It’s you, me and what we can do together. "

The pressure is there now. The pressure of being cut off from everything she's used to define herself. Alone with a man who's already proven he can make her forget every rule she's ever lived by.

She’s standing on the edge of something wild, and all I can do is give her the space to jump.

Because once she does—there’s no going back.