Chapter One
It was barely dawn, but the sun, a soft buttery smear on the horizon, nudged Avery awake. Or maybe it was the empty bed and absence of mountain man warmth that woke her.
“Daddy?” she whispered, rolling so she could feel the bed for traces of his heat. She smiled as he leaned over her, his woodsman scent as intoxicating as his beard was tickly.
“Back to sleep, baby. It’s early.”
His sleep-graveled voice, carrying the stern but sweet command in her ear, did what it always did, made her insides squirm and liquefy. She was so tired though. An unnatural tiredness that made her feel as if she was weighed down with warm, wet sand. Even her eyelids felt heavy. She clutched his flannel-clad arm, feeling the rock-hard muscles beneath. Biting her bottom lip, she thought of how much she loved the body he kept in shape with their off-grid, mountain cabin lifestyle. Hers had grown healthier since she’d lived here, too.
“Are you sure, Daddy? I could make you coffee,” she murmured sleepily, ignoring the swirling heat in her belly as he kissed her neck. Her lids fluttered closed, and he chuckled as she reached over her head for him. “I could pull your toque over your ears, and kiss you warm before you walk out the door.” She hummed before adding, “Or I could help you chop…” He snorted at her words as she knew he would. A smirk turned the corner of her lip up.
“I want to keep all my appendages. Thank you very much, little girl.”
He’d proclaimed her to be an accident waiting to happen with an ax in her hand, and she couldn’t blame him. The last time she was chopping, the ax got stuck and when she yanked it free, it flew out of her hand and landed a foot from where he’d been standing. He’d calmly picked it up, tucked it in his belt, and told her they needed a break. She bit her lip as she remembered the break they’d taken and the way his callused hands felt on her soft skin.
“Sleep. That’s an order, Avery.”
His growling voice sent a searing jolt straight to her middle. A contented sigh was her reply and, even with her middle a molten pool of want, she was asleep before he left the room.
It was over an hour later when she cursed the lack of curtains in the mountain cabin as the sun rose above the treetops and turned the bedroom into a bright yellow sauna. She panted with the heat of it.
She was usually cold, especially during these short mid-December days, so Mike always piled extra logs in the woodstove, but today it was stifling. She was sweaty, so she clawed at her thermal underwear as she threw off the blankets. Had he put on too many logs? Had she slept through winter and woken up in July? The heat nauseated her, and she took a moment to breathe slowly, feeling lightheaded, before finishing the task of tugging off her long johns.
Avery grabbed her favourite summer wear, Mike’s polar bear boxers and a tank. She heard the thud-crack of chopping wood outside as she walked into the living area and noticed her man hadn’t even had his coffee. She started a pot and went to brush her teeth, wondering what she should have for breakfast. Her stomach rolled at the thought of the pulpy oatmeal that was their usual morning meal. Mike liked his plain, too, and it looked just like paper pulp. She liked hers with summer berries and a little milk, or in the fall and winter, strawberry freezer jam, but even that didn’t appeal right now. Her stomach rolled again as she spat toothpaste into the sink.
The coffee smelled stronger than usual, and Avery wondered if she’d put too many grounds in. She poured Mike a cup, sniffed it with a grimace and made herself a cup of tea. The oatmeal he’d made was congealing on the stove and looking at it made Avery gag. She tossed a lid on the pot with a clang and took their cups to the door. She was just looking down at herself, realizing she couldn’t go outside in boxers and a tank, when the door opened and a gust of freezing air, with flakes of snow riding on it, blasted through it. Amongst the flurries and chill was her Mountain Man Daddy, his reddish-blond beard covered in snowflakes. And still, after being together almost three years, her heart thudded excitedly at the sight of him.
“Rocky, stay!” Rocky, the black bear Mike had rescued as a cub years before she’d met him, was pushing his head in through the door, and he wouldn’t budge when Mike tried to shove him out with his leg. “What the hell?” Mike roared as the black bear shoved harder and burst through Mike’s legs into the cabin with a satisfied chuff. He barreled toward Avery and immediately sat on her feet, staring Mike down.
With two mugs in her hands and a chill on her sweaty skin, she blinked at the bear. Rocky had never come into the cabin as far as she knew, and he should be in the bear-sized doghouse Mike had made for him, hunkering down for the winter, but he’d been acting strange lately. These days, he wouldn’t leave her side whenever she was outside. This was new though. Puzzled, her brow puckered.
“What’s he doing?” Avery asked, looking up at the huge scowling man in the doorway, who she loved more than anything in the world. She swallowed hard at his expression. His brows, a little bushy and crusted with ice, were scrunched up, and his mouth, although mostly hidden by his facial hair, was firmly curved downward. Her Mountain Man Daddy was not happy. And he wasn’t looking at the bear.
“You weren’t coming outside like that, were you?” He yanked off his toque with a growl, kicked off his boots and shucked out of his coat. Snow landed at his feet and began melting.
“I was hot,” she said meekly. “But, no. I just realized what I was wearing and was going to change when you came through the door.”
He hung his coat on the hook and took the mugs from her, holding both handles in one of his large hands so he could brush the snow from his hair and beard.
“Go ahead then, little girl.” He gave her a half smile and her heart fluttered happily. “Not that I don’t enjoy looking at your legs, but you’re going to catch a cold.”
Her brows rose at his words. “Every time you say that I tell you that you don’t catch a cold from the weather, you catch a cold from a virus.” She watched as he rubbed his big hand over his beard seemingly in consideration of her statement. Rocky seemed to grow bored by their conversation and walked to the woodstove, grunted and threw himself down in front of it.
“And every time you say that, I’m usually taking care of you, making you soup and handing you tissues the next week.”
She rolled her eyes. “That’s just a coincidence. I’m the one who goes to town and people give me germs.”
“Did you just roll your eyes at me, young lady?” His voice was deep, low and threatening.
She shivered but grinned cheekily. “Umm, I sure did.” She turned, spun on the balls of her feet, and ran into the bedroom, knowing he still held the two cups and would have to set them down before chasing her.
Just as he flew into the room, at a speed a man of his size shouldn’t be capable of, Rocky bustled in behind him.
“Stay back, Mountain Man or my bear will attack,” she said with a giggle, pointing at Rocky. “You hear him growling?”
“Black bears don’t growl, little one.” He stalked closer to the bed, and she scrambled off the other side. Rocky was silently but intently watching.
“Hmm, learn something new every day,” she replied and shifted to match his movement, keeping them an equal distance apart.
“I plan on teaching you something else.”
His smirk was hidden, but she knew by the sparkle in his eyes that he was being playful. Oh, she’d end up over his knee, but it would be for fun and it would end in the most delicious way.
As he lunged across the bed at her, Rocky made a deep pulsing throaty noise that made Mike freeze.
“I thought you said they don’t growl?” Avery’s stomach quivered.
“That wasn’t a growl, Avery, but it was a threat.”
Avery looked at the bear, large and intimidating, filling the doorway with his mass. He hadn’t moved his eyes from Mike for even a second. Mike rolled and sat up on the bed.
“Do you think a huge storm is coming and Rocky’s trying to warn us?” she asked.
“No, he’s protecting you. I’m just not sure why.” Mike scratched his beard, eying the bear warily.
“He’s never done this before. He sees us play all the time. Hell, he’s seen you punishing me.”
“Right.” He narrowed his eyes and shot her a quick warning glance. “Don’t go anywhere alone.”
His deep voice reverberated through her. “What?” Her brow furrowed. “But this is why you taught me how to use the gun, and made me pore over books on wildlife, and got me the car. So I didn’t need a chaperone all the time.”
“Avery, I won’t argue over this. Something’s changed and until I know what it is, you’re on lockdown. You don’t leave this cabin without me.”
He looked at her, the playful sternness replaced by the real kind that made her belly sink like a rock and her nether cheeks tingle in dread.
“Understood?”
“Yes.” She nodded and he rose from the bed. If she couldn’t tell how concerned he was by his pallor and tight expression, she could tell by the way he hadn’t made her repeat her ‘yes’ and add ‘daddy’. Mike was worried. Avery chewed her lip. And that made her worry, too.
They both had pasts shrouded by danger. Him as a Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer who’d hunted serial killers before he’d retired to become a mountain man recluse, and her with a con-man ex who had more than his fair share of unscrupulous enemies she was sure would use her as bait to get what they were owed. She’d already had a run-in with two dangerous thugs who’d wanted exactly that. Luckily, they were no longer living, and her ex was safely occupying a jail cell back in the States.
As she went to change, the bear lumbered behind her. The cabin was small, just a living area with a kitchenette, a small bathroom and a bedroom at the back. It was rustic, with only a woodstove for heat and solar panels for electricity. There was a generator for emergencies but they rarely used it. The bear was only a black bear, but he was as big as they got, and even though the cabin was open and airy, his big furry butt knocked furniture as he moved to follow her.
“What’s wrong with you, Rocky?” She scratched his ears and he pressed gently against her. “Don’t suck up. You got me in trouble—grounded, actually,” she said pouting, but gave him a final pat and grabbed some jogging pants. Once she had pulled them on, she sat to put on a pair of Mike’s wool socks. She didn’t bother with a sweatshirt though. She was still too warm.
“How many logs did you put in the stove today?” she asked, blowing out a breath as she walked out of the bedroom with Rocky following. “It’s hot in here.”
“Same as usual and it’s not hot. Why aren’t you wearing a sweater?”
“I’m sweating in here.”
Mike’s face was still marred with concern. “Are you sick?”
“No, I feel fine other than boiling.”
Mike looked at the bear and swung his gaze back to her. “If you were sick that might explain your guardian there.”
Avery crossed her arms and rolled her eyes, ignoring the tenderness of her breasts. “One guardian is enough for me, thanks. I’ll have to issue a pink slip to one of you.”
Mike’s brow rose. “A pink slip, huh? I like the colour pink. Why don’t you try it, little girl?”
His growly words, tickled her insides right through to her clit. The bear shifted, blocking Mike and he groaned.
“That bear has to go.”
“My bottom has been alabaster white for a long time, perhaps it needs a little colour. Maybe I can lose him on a walk.” She nodded toward Rocky. Mike’s mouth hitched up at one side, making his mustache crooked and her heart skip a beat. She walked to him, stood on her tiptoes and linked her hands behind his neck, pulling him down for a kiss. Rocky chuffed behind them and Mike growled against her lips before he was too sucked into the kiss to complain.
“It has been a while since you’ve had that backside of yours warmed, hasn’t it?” he whispered against her mouth. He tugged a handful of her blonde ringlets to expose her throat and kissed her there. She squealed as his unkempt beard tickled her neck. “Have you eaten? Cause I’m hungry.”
Her stomach growled loudly and Mike looked up. “I wasn’t talking about food, but, Avery, didn’t you eat? I left you oatmeal on the stove.” He looked concerned again. “Are you sure you’re feeling well?” He felt her head. You do feel a bit warm. “Where’s the new thermometer you bought?”
“I just woke up, Daddy. But I don’t feel like oatmeal.” She released him and walked to the table where her tea sat. When she glanced up at his silence, she saw his eyes were narrowed.
“Where is the thermometer, Avery?”
“Um, I’ll get it after I eat.”
“You always eat oatmeal. Why not today?”
“Today the thought turns my stomach. I want scrambled eggs. Mmm or pancakes!” After a minute of scrutinizing her, he smiled at her eager grin and she took a swallow of tea.
“Hungry, are you?” He chuckled. “Okay, I’ll make you both, but you’re finding that thermometer after, and if your temp is even slightly raised, I’m taking you to Annie’s.”
Avery started to argue, mostly because she hadn’t bought the thermometer she was supposed to buy weeks ago, so she knew Annie’s was inevitable, but decided against it when his right brow arced high. She wanted to see Annie anyway and preferably not with a sore backside. She preferred her mountain man spankings to be the sexy kind. She twisted her hands in her lap. She wondered if a spanking was inevitable when he found out they didn’t own a thermometer.
The thought of riding to Annie’s on a freshly blistered bottom didn’t appeal, so she crossed her fingers he wouldn’t find out. Annie lived three miles down the mountain, through thick forest and was their only neighbour. It was lucky that she was a retired nurse who used to run a medical clinic out of her farmhouse with her doctor husband until he passed away. Now they traded things to help each other survive in the wilderness. Annie had a daughter who brought her things she needed and the farm was fully on grid, but Annie had no use for going to town. Annie and Mike were cut from the same cloth.
“What are we going to do with Rocky?” Avery asked, spinning her half-empty mug in circles. The sleepy bear was lying beside her chair with his muzzle resting on her feet now. She leaned down to scratch his head again. One eye opened and he sighed, nudging her hand in what she decided was a loving gesture—not a bossy one, telling her to keep scratching.
“Well, there’s no way I’m going to be able to wrestle him out of here. He’s bent on taking care of you and I can’t complain about that. I just wish he wasn’t protecting you from me.”
“I guess I can forget all your rules now, Mountain Man.” She tipped her head back and laughed maniacally. “No more consequences with my knight in shining fur around.”
“That so?” He cracked three eggs in a pan. “I’ll just have to keep a tally, young lady. He’s going to have to hunt sooner or later.”
“Bears go all winter without eating,” she said, smirking.
“Ah, correction. Bears that hibernate go all winter without eating. Rocky is expending energy in his protective detail which means he’ll need sustenance, and when he does, your backside will be all mine.” He stirred the eggs in the pan.
Avery huffed. “No fun!”
“This is going to be a few minutes. Go look for that thermometer.”
She pouted at his command, so he grabbed the pad of paper and pen from the drawer. “Shall I start the tally?”
“Oh fine!” She stood, scraping the chair back in protest and went to the bathroom to pretend to look for the damn thermometer.
After a few minutes she called out, “I can’t find it! Is breakfast ready?”
“Nope, keep looking.”
“Gawd!”
“What was that?”
“Nothing.”
She opened the cabinet and rustled around, making as much noise as she could. She noticed they were low on shampoo, and soap and she needed tampons – the empty box reminding her of her sore breasts – a sign it was coming. Perhaps she could get a thermometer when she went to town and he’d never know she’d forgotten. Avery smiled, but her belly quivered. Tricking Mountain Man Daddy was never a good idea. Then again, neither was lying and she’d done that already.
When he called her for breakfast, she practically dove into the food. She was starving. Three pancakes and three eggs later, she was finally satisfied.
“That was so good.” She drew in a breath and leaned back in the chair, looking at him across the table and patting her swollen belly. “I was famished.”
He eyed her.
She bit her lip.
He crossed his arms.
She swallowed.
“What?”
“Did you find it?”
She shook her head.
“Got something to tell me?”
“Yes.” She counted off on her fingers. “I need to go to the store for tampons, shampoo and soap.”
His right brow flicked up. “Anything else?”
She started to shake her head, but he cleared his throat. The wooden spoon he’d used to plate her eggs was still in his hand.
“Lying, Avery. Remember how I feel about lying.”
She reached for her mug, now filled with water.
He grabbed her hand and covered it with his own before she could lift the mug. “Avery.”
“Yes, Daddy?” She looked through her lashes at him as innocently as she could.
“Do I have to get a confession out of you?”
Her eyes dropped to the floor where the bear had been before breakfast. He was gone. She looked around the room. “Where’s Rocky?”
Mike smiled sardonically. “Seems he was hungry too.” Mike stood, leaning his big hands on the table so he was close to her. “I figure we have about an hour.”
“Um, I need to buy a thermometer. I forgot to get one. I’m sorry.”
“What are you sorry for, little one?”
“Um, for forgetting it?”
“Nope. I don’t care that you forgot it.”
“For ummm.”
“How about for lying?”
“I didn’t lie. I said I’d get it after. After is later when I go to the store.” She gave him a hopeful toothy grin.
He pulled her up, around the table and yanked her against him. He cupped her face and tilted her to look at him.
“I don’t want to punish you, Avery. I want to make love to you, while Rocky’s gone and I have the chance.”
“I’m sorry for misleading you. I forgot it and I’ll get one this time. I promise.”
“Good girl.”
He swatted her backside sharply with the spoon – enough to make her call out, but then he dove down to devour her mouth, and the sting turned to delicious heat instantly. She moaned against his mouth, and he buried his hand in her hair and fisted it to tilt her so he had access to her neck. His hot breath, wet tongue, and tickly beard made her knees buckle. He caught her with an arm around her bottom and bent to toss her over his shoulder. If she were still standing she’d swoon. Her Mountain Man was taking her to bed.
He dumped her on their mattress, and she watched his eyes rove over her hungrily.
“You’re not worried about catching whatever you think I have?” she asked as he pulled his tight black thermal over his head.
“The way you ate? You’re not sick.” And with that, he grabbed her ankles and yanked her closer. He took the cuffs of her jogging pants and tugged sharply. They flew down and off her legs.
Her heart thumped between her thighs. She loved his rough lovemaking.
“Let’s get those panties off, little girl.” He used her legs to roll her onto her tummy and pulled her half off the bed so she was bent over it. He peeled the pink cotton down over her backside slowly. “Hmm definitely a white bottom,” he murmured slipping his hand between her thighs and lowering the material all the way down while brushing his fingers, feather-light, across her delicate skin, causing shivers to course through her.
He took them off completely and flung them so they flew over her head and landed on the top of the window trim.
“I was just thinking this morning we needed curtains.”
He swatted her bare bottom, making her gasp. “Quit distracting me with your decorating nonsense.” He pulled up her tank and leaned down to run his beard along her spine before he did the same with his tongue. His hand reached around her front and down her belly to cup her mound.
“This is mine, and panty curtains or not, I’m the only one who sees it…” He found her nub and circled it lightly, just enough to tease and torture. “Touches it.” He released her to boost her knees onto the mattress so her ass was high and then lowered himself so she could feel his breath on her sex. “Tastes it.” And his mouth covered her.
She felt weak, and when his tongue licked along her slit and circled her clit, it blipped to life and she trembled with need. Every touch was heightened. He squeezed her ass cheeks as his tongue probed, tasted, and flicked, and when she was at the edge, panting and grinding shamelessly against his mouth, she begged.
“Please, may I come?” His answer was a pat to her hip and increased pressure with his tormenting tongue against her swollen, greedy clit. Her head shot back, and just as his fingers slid in her, she exploded around them. A strangled cry filled the room as she pulsed and throbbed, feeling the orgasm go on and on, then she slumped against the mattress.
“Oh, honey, we’re not done yet.”
He chuckled and it vibrated through her. She loved this man. She rolled over onto her back and turned her lips up in a weak smile. It was all she could manage. “You drain me and I love every minute of it.”
He kissed her exposed belly, and slipped her tank up with his hands as they smoothed over her rib cage. His mouth followed until he had both of her breasts in his hands. Her nipples were plump and dark with arousal. His tongue swirled around the buds before he took the left one completely in his hot wet mouth.
Her back arched as a jolt of fire lit inside her core. “Fuck!” she swore at the intensity. She buried her hands into his hair and moaned in pleasure as he suckled and flicked. When he moved to her right and pulled it into his mouth, she got the same strong jolt in her core. It had never felt like this. “Please! Fuck me!”
He pulled roughly off her nipple and he called out. “You have a naughty mouth.”
Her smile curved up on one side. “So do you.”
He rolled her quickly and smacked several hard swats to her bottom cheeks, each one burning but quickly morphing into the kind of liquid heat that made her slick with want. She stuck her bottom up when he stopped to remove his jeans. When she wiggled it at him, he stopped struggling to remove the denim completely and just plunged into her right to the hilt, part punishment over her tempting him and part pleasure.
“How’s that, you naughty little brat?”
“Please don’t stop,” she begged.
He brought his hand to the back of her neck and clasped it, holding her down in place.
“Hands above your head,” he demanded gruffly. “I’m going to fuck you hard, little one.” His pounding shoved her further up onto the mattress, so he climbed behind her on his knees, leaning back onto his haunches. He grabbed her hips and pulled her onto his thighs, sinking his cock even deeper, making her call out. He tugged her back by the hair so she was upright and her head rested against his chest, and then wrapped his arm around her to cup her breast.
His hips pistoning beneath her, she felt her orgasm building with an intensity she’d never felt before she’d met her Mountain Man. He was so deep and she felt utterly filled by him. The hand that still held her hip moved so that it cupped her mound. She bit her lip as his finger slid between her wet folds and found her clit. He slapped it lightly, letting one finger hit her button and a jolt of pleasure spiked, forcing her to call to her maker.
“That’s right, baby, tell him you’re mine while you’re praying.”