Stone Heart: A Single Mom & Mountain Man Romance
Rye Hart
PROLOGUE
Is this real?
Is this actually happening?
My hips connected with his kitchen counter as the kissing intensified. His hands were all over me as I threaded my arms around his neck.
I felt alive.
On fire.
Ignited with electricity and surging with pleasure. I couldn't help myself. Even though a part of me was wracked with a guilt that made me nauseous, I couldn't stop. His tongue traveled along the roof of my mouth, making my knees grow weak.
My legs gave out from underneath me as his arms tightened around my body.
I could feel his rock-hard cock pressed against me. He wanted me as badly as I wanted him. There was something about that notion that made me smile into his kiss as his hands traveled my curves. He cupped my ass and gripped my thighs, bouncing between letting me lead and taking what he wanted. He pinned me against his counter as my hands traveled down to his chest.
I could feel the swell of his strength underneath my fingertips.
His hands gripped my ass again, and I jumped against his body. I wrapped my legs around his waist, my hands threading through his hair. My lips traveled down his neck as he carried me through his house and then closed a door behind us with his foot.
We were in his bedroom, and his hands were sliding up my shirt.
Piece by piece, we ripped our clothes off. He yanked my shirt over my head, and I fell to my knees and took his pants with me. He pulled me off the floor and tossed me onto his bed, his eyes filled with a predatory instinct.
I watched him remove his boxers, taking in the thick cock he had bouncing between his legs.
He crashed into me, our naked bodies taking in one another. I ran my hands up and down his back, caressing the chiseled muscles there. His arms were bulging with veins, and his legs were trimmed with sinewy strength. He was sin incarnate, and I couldn't get enough of him.
His lips traveled down my neck, nipping and sucking at my delicate skin. His hands were firm but gentle, holding me to his bed but not pinning me so I couldn't move. His lips wrapped around my nipples, lapping and sucking and making my thighs grow wet with want.
I spread my body open for him as he continued to travel down the length of my form.
My eyes locked with him as he dipped between my legs. That cheeky little grin spread across his face. My legs were shaking, waiting in anticipation for what was going to come next. His lips kissed my thighs and lapped up the juices already gathering on my skin.
Then, he parted my pussy folds and began to devour me.
His tongue was heavy and thick. He pressed on my clit as his beard tickled the sides of my pussy. He tossed my legs over his shoulders as my hands threaded through his tendrils, pulling him as close as I could get him. My hips rolled, and my toes curled. Moans of ecstasy and desire fell from my lips. I groaned at him. Growled at him. Allowed the animal inside of me to unleash. I could feel my pussy dripping onto his lips as he lapped me up, swallowing me down and humming at my taste.
I could feel it, that white-hot sensation in my abdomen. My heels propped up on his strong shoulders, and he raised up, bending me in half and rendering me motionless. His hands pinned my hips, and his thumbs caressed the backs of my thighs. I felt my world spinning and colliding, shattering into pieces as electricity shot through my brain. My mouth opened and my eyes screwed shut. My toes curled into his skin as his tongue pressed deep into my pussy.
I couldn’t take it anymore. I needed to feel it.
“Yes, baby. Yes. I’m coming. I’m coming. I’m com—”
CHAPTER 1
CINDY
“Mommy, is Grandma gonna be okay?”
“Why would you ask that, Lily?”
“She seemed sad when we left.”
“She’s always sad when you leave, honeybee. She misses you when you’re gone,” I said.
“So, nothing bad happened?” Lily asked.
“No, sweetie. Nothing bad happened.”
“Why doesn’t Grandma come to visit us then?” she asked.
“Because Grandma can’t move as easily as we can.”
“Are you calling her old?”
“No. Grandma’s not old. She’s got a lot more life in her, but that doesn’t mean she can move like we can.”
“Is that why Grandma always only wants to rock and read me a story?” she asked.
“Maybe Grandma likes reading to you. What’s wrong with that?”
“Sometimes, I wanna run around outside with her.”
“Then ask her to do that next time. Grandma might have to sit on the porch, but she’ll watch you while you do it.”
“Will you run around with me outside?” she asked.
“We can play tag when we get home. How does that sound?”
“Yeah! Tag with Mommy!”
I looked into the rearview mirror and took in my daughter’s eyes. Lillian looked just like me. Auburn hair, apple cheeks, and fair skin that held a tan instead of burning in the sun. But she didn’t have my eyes. They weren’t a sea green like mine. She had her father’s eyes, that crisp sky blue I’d fallen in love with all those years ago.
Even though he’d been gone a year, it still hurt to look into my daughter’s eyes.
“Mommy?”
“Yes, honeybee?”
“Why do you call me honeybee?” Lily asked.
“Do you want me to call you something else?” I asked.
“Grandma calls me princess.”
“Well, that’s Grandma’s nickname for you. That’s why I don’t call you princess.”
“Daddy called me princess.”
I gripped my steering wheel hard as tears brewed behind my eyes.
“That he did,” I said.
“Does Grandma call me princess because Daddy isn’t here to do it anymore?” Lily asked.
“I think so, yes.”
“Do you not call me princess because it hurts to say it because Daddy’s gone?”
My daughter always had a way of reminding me that she had her father’s intuitive spirit. She was remarkable for her age.
“A little bit,” I said. “But I’m fine.”
“I miss Daddy.”
“I miss him, too, honeybee.”
“You wanna know what I miss the most?” Lily asked.
“What’s that?”
“I miss his coffee.”
“What?” I asked.
“The way his coffee smelled. You drink gross coffee. It’s all black and nasty. But Daddy’s coffee always smelled like flowers.”
“Flowers,” I said.
“Mhm. Like the flowers we have in our backyard.”
“I don’t think Daddy’s coffee smelled like flowers. I think his hair smelled like flowers.”
“No, Mommy. It was his coffee. I know. I tasted it.”
“You drank Daddy’s coffee?” I asked.
“It was only one time! It was still gross, but it tasted like it smelled.”
“You’re a little booger, you know that?”
She giggled and stuck her tongue out at me playfully. I laughed and shook my head as we turned onto our street. I kept my eyes on the road as my daughter started singing to herself. She was starting kindergarten in a week, and I couldn’t believe the time had flown by so quickly. She was growing so big, and her language skills exceeded most her peers. At one point I was afraid she would fall behind.
When her father died, she stopped talking altogether for several months, and I was worried she would regress in all the progress we’d made with her. Instead, when she did start talking again, she was using words I hadn’t even known she knew. It was like conversing with a teenager sometimes.
“Mommy, look!”
I shook my head as I pulled into the driveway, my eyes scanning the scene in front of me.
“Nikki!” Lily said.
I saw my best friend waving from the porch as she jumped off the side. She came running up to Lillian’s door and ripped it open, unstrapping the girl from her car seat. The two of them hugged and kissed on one another as I got out of the car. Seeing them like this always warmed my heart.
I shut the car door and listened to it heave and groan like it was protesting the fact that it was still in use.
“You really need a new car,” Nicole said.
“Maybe but I can’t afford that right now. I need to work on getting this house paid off first,” I said.