Page 23 of Mountain Impact

He did it again, and again, holding his own orgasm off through sheer force of will until she finally climaxed.

“Drake!”

Her walls contracted against his cock once, twice, and then he went over the cliff as well, coming harder than he ever had in his life.

“God, Isolde, that was …”

He wasn’t sure what he was going to say, but she stopped his words with a gentle kiss. “It was.”

Drake wanted to stay inside her forever, but forced himself off her and made his way to the bathroom to take care of the condom. When he came back, she’d crawled under the duvet, leaving one side open for him. He got into bed beside her, undone by the sweet gesture, gathering her close. She was asleep moments later, and it didn’t take him long to follow her.

#

Isolde

“Drake?” Isolde kept her voice purposefully low. “Wake up, Drake, you’re having a nightmare.”

She’d woken up to find him curled up onto his side, his expression agonized. He was drenched in sweat, his body shaking as his huge arms clenched around his right leg. Her heart broke as she heard him cry out.

She didn’t tell him it wasn’t real, or any other such platitude. It was real to him, and that was the only thing that mattered. She also didn’t touch him, even though every instinct she possessed ached to hold him and make the pain go away.

“Drake,” Isolde tried again. “Please wake up.”

She reached over and turned on her small bedside lamp, bathing the room in the softest light. She knew the moment he came back to consciousness because his back muscles tensed even further.

“Fuck,” he breathed out shakily. He still grabbed on to his ruined calf. A second later, he turned towards her. His nostrils flared as he tried to breathe through the pain, but his voice was steady. “Just a cramp. I’m sorry, Isolde―didn’t mean to wake you.”

She placed her hand on top of his, then, when he didn’t move away, slipped her smaller hand under his larger one, massaging his leg. With her other hand, she pushed his larger body onto his back. He brought his forearm over his eyes.

Ever so slowly, she felt him relax into her touch.

“Thank you,” he finally said. “I’m okay now.”

She kept her touch purposefully light, maintaining the connection. “Does this happen often?” she asked.

He shrugged, not looking at her. “Once in a while.”

She nodded, looking at his leg―the ruined flesh a reminder of the pain he’d gone through.

“You’re staring at my leg again. Does the scar bother you that much?”

Isolde sent him a smoldering glance. She knew exactly what he was doing. “You’re not going to get rid of me that easily, Drake. You know I don’t care about the scar. I just … I hate seeing how much pain you went through.”

“The leg was the least of it. I would have given up the leg in a second if it meant saving that little girl’s life.”

His words weren’t a surprise to her.

“I know that,” she said quietly.

It’d been her first time attending a scene. She’d been called out because there were kids involved, and had arrived on the scene moments before the final collapse of the cabin. The image of Drake and the girl trapped under the wreck was branded in fire in her mind, as she knew it must be in the minds of all first responders.

Even with no leverage, his leg pinned down and shattered, Drake had still struggled to lift the metal off the little girl. Isolde’s heart broke a little when she thought of what he’d gone through.

“Her parents came to see me at the hospital, you know?” His voice was laced in pain. Isolde pressed herself against his chest.

“You can’t take anything they said at face value, they were hurting―”

Drake shook his head. A muscle clenched behind his jaw. “You don’t understand. They were kind to me―the man who’d let their daughter die. They just wanted to know if … if she’d died quickly.”