Claimed by the Mountain Man (Montana Mountain Men Book 4)

I can only describe the next few weeks as perfect. Janet is still sending me useless time wasting tasks, but I find I don’t care, because my day revolves around Penn. He drops me off outside the office every morning, kissing me senseless before he leaves with a promise to see me at lunch. When one o’clock rolls around he’s waiting for me in reception, a heat-filled smile etched across his lips the moment he sees me.

Some days we eat alone, others with one or more of his brothers, some days he drags me to the apartment over the garage and fucks me until my pussy is sore from his dick and my throat from screaming his name.

After work he collects me and drives me to Chloe’s to collect Poppy. Despite what he said, we’ve spent every night at his place and even though I know I shouldn’t, I’ve stopped arguing with him about it. Chloe’s joined us for dinner three times in the last week, and each time I swear she looks happier and happier to see me and Poppy being embraced by Penn’s crazy family.

Huck, Cora and baby Maverick ended up staying in the hospital for an extra night, but now they’re home and the entire Barnett household is in a state of baby fever. With a shock of red hair just like his mama, Maverick is the mirror image of his dad in every other respect and is the most beautiful baby.

Despite my protest about it being a family thing, Penn insisted that Poppy and I be there to greet them when they came home, and instead of feeling like outsiders, it only reinforced how Penn’s family have truly embraced Poppy and I as one of them. It was weird and wonderful all at the same time.

Maverick’s Aunts and Uncles all fell in love the moment they set eyes on him and I wouldn’t be at all surprised to find he’ll be gaining some cousins in the next year. I swear I actually heard Beau growl, right before he lifted Bonnie clean off her feet and carried her back to their apartment.

Being with Penn is easy, so easy that I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop. After the last year and a half I deserve easy, but I can’t help being suspicious and holding myself back. I like Penn a lot, probably more than I should after only a couple of weeks. Before I became jaded by men and life I always believed in love and happily ever after, only now it seems like I might be getting mine, I can’t help but hold something back from fully committing.

“Kitten, can we move the rest of yours and Poppy’s stuff in this weekend? I fucking hate you living out of a suitcase, you’re not going anywhere so you might as well hang your shit up in the closet,” Penn growls, putting the baby monitor onto the docking station on the bedside table and glaring at me from across the bed.

“Poppy and I don’t live here.”

“The fact that our princess is asleep in her crib in her room, kinda disproves that,” he smirks.

Rolling my eyes, I turn my back on him, crossing the room to where the bag full of my clothes is perched on the armchair.

“I know you didn’t just roll your eyes and turn your back on me,” he growls, a moment before his arm bands around my waist, spinning me around as his hand grips my throat, tipping my head back and forcing me to look up at him.

“Penn—”

“No,” he interrupts, spanning his palm over my stomach. “You’re my woman and this is your home. That baby girl down the hall is mine too, I’m her daddy and the daddy to the baby that’s growing in your belly right now. You’re mine and I don’t fucking appreciate you dismissing that like you just did.”

“I’m not pregnant,” I hiss, trying to force some conviction into my words, even though I’m lying to myself. We haven’t been careful, not once since we started having sex and there’s every chance I might be pregnant right now. The reality of my own stupidity hits me like a mac truck. I’ve been avoiding the fact that all the cum Penn’s emptied into me might have taken root and I hate that he’s bringing it up, when I’ve been studiously ignoring it up until now.

“Kitten, I’ve been fucking you raw every day since we met. I’ve pumped so much of my cum into your cunt that it’ll be a fucking miracle if you’re not pregnant with my kid right now.” His voice is smug, his smile victorious.

“You want me to be pregnant?” I gasp.

“Hell yes I do. I want to watch your belly swell as it grows with our baby, I can’t fucking wait.”

“That’s fucked up,” I snarl.

Before I even realize what’s happening, he spins me around, lifts me off the ground and dumps me unceremoniously over the edge of the bed, my toes barely scraping the floor. Pushing up with my arms, I try to move, but he presses his massive hand to the center of my back, holding me in place.

“There’s nothing fucked up about me claiming what’s mine,” he drawls as his fingers work at the button of my jeans, peeling my pants over my ass until they’re halfway down my thighs.

“Penn.”

“Shut up, Lulu. The only words I want to hear you say right now, are you begging for my cock.”

I feel the draft of cool air as he yanks my panties down, leaving me bare to him, my pussy dampening excitedly. Despite my protests, I’m more than aware of how he owns my body. My core clenches just at the thought of him touching me and I know my arousal will be dripping down my thighs by the time he touches between my legs.

“I own this cunt,” he taunts, lifting his hand from my back, knowing I won’t move now he’s so close to touching me.

“Penn,” I rasp, desperation edging into my voice.

“Quiet.”

Biting my lip I wait, hanging over the bed, my ass and pussy naked and on display for him. I moan loudly when his fingers part my folds and he dips one inside of me. “Your cunt’s dripping for me, it wants my cock, it wants to be filled with my cum. Do you know why, Kitten? It’s because it belongs to me. No one else will ever touch it. No one else will ever push their fingers into your heat, run their tongue along your folds, or fill you with their hard cocks. No one but me ever again, and your cunt knows that, it’s greedy for me, isn’t it?”

Nodding, I turn my face to look at him, needing him to touch me, to stop torturing me. “Please.”

“Please what?” he taunts.

Penn is normally a generous lover, he enjoys giving me pleasure, but he’s also formidable and dominant in a way I’ve only ever fantasized about in the past. He pushes me past the point of extasy into a place where I’m only sensation, and it’s glorious, but it’s always on his terms and today won’t be any different.

“Please touch me,” I beg, knowing he won’t give in to my defiance, only my submission.

“Here,” he coos, running the tips of his fingers over the curve of my ass cheek.

“No.” I shake my head.

Leaning over me he presses a kiss to my butt, glancing up at me with heat filled eyes a moment before he sinks his teeth into my skin and bites down on the globe of my ass.

Shrieking in shock and pain I try to move, but he stops me, spanking me hard right over the spot where he just bit, adding to the pain and making me cry out.

“Still.”

I freeze, my body obeying him before my mind can catch up.

His palm soothes the spot he just struck, his fingers dancing over the bite mark reverently. “I fucking love seeing my mark on you,” he chuckles.

“You’re an asshole.”

“I like your asshole.” Parting my cheeks, he runs his thumb over my tight ring of muscle and I instantly tense. “I can’t wait to watch this stretch around my dick.”

“Not happening,” I growl, pulling my arm from beneath me to try to push him away.

Grabbing my wrist he pins it back to the mattress as he presses his body over my back, his lips finding my neck. “Oh it’s happening, Kitten. I’m going to stretch you out, then my dick is going in your ass and you’re going to love it. I can’t wait to hear you begging me to fuck your ass harder, to fill it with my cum.”

I shudder under the assault of his words. I shouldn’t like it, I shouldn’t react to his dirty promises, but I can’t help it because my body isn’t my own when he behaves like this.

“First my fingers are going to slide into your pussy, one, then two, then three and I’m going to make you ride them, to get yourself off on my hand. Then once you come and soak me with your cream, I’m going to flick your little clit with my tongue until you’re screaming and begging me to let you orgasm. But I won’t. Instead, I’ll use all your cream to coat your ass. I’ll fill you up until your tight hole is stretched. I might even get a plug so I can keep you open for me while I fill your cunt with my cock, plunging into you until your juices are coating us both. Then I’ll come inside of you, painting you from the inside out with my cum. When you’re dripping, your folds all puffy and swollen, I’ll slide my dick that’s still soaked with a mixture of my cum and yours into your tight ass. It’ll hurt, but you’ll take it all just like your cunt did, begging me to own you and I will. I’ll take your ass slow, grinding you on and off my cock, watching your hole stretch around my girth until you’re so blind with want you’ll beg me to just take you, to use you. Only then will I slam into you and fill your ass with my release. After I’m done and you’ve come so many times you can barely breathe, I’ll lay you out over my lap and watch as my seed drips from both your holes.”

Panting, I squirm beneath him, aware of how turned on his dirty words are making me.

“I own you, Lulu, I have since the moment I laid my eyes on you and I will for the rest of both of our lives. I’ll never let you go, never let you leave me, never let you run. We’re end game, Kitten. Marriage, babies, happily ever after. Tomorrow, we go get the rest of yours and Poppy’s stuff. In a week you’re gonna pee on a stick and the moment the line turns blue we’re getting married and I’m adopting Poppy. You can fight it all you want, but it’s happening.”

I open my mouth to argue, to tell him off for this bullshit, alpha male crap he keeps pulling with me, but then the head of his dick is pressing against my pussy and before I can utter a word, he’s filling me, and every thought but harder and more and please flies from my head.

My body is deliciously sore the next morning when the sound of Poppy’s cooing filters through the baby monitor. She started sleeping in the beautiful princess room Penn and his brothers made for her three nights ago, because no matter how much I argue that we don’t live here, we’re making this place our home despite my reservations.

“I’ll get her,” Penn says, sliding his hand from where he’d been cupping my mound and climbing out of bed, pulling on some shorts before he pads out the door. I hear him as he enters her room, his voice lowering and quietening as he speaks to her.

“Good morning, Princess, did you have a good sleep?”

Theres cooing and laughing, then his voice fills the silence. “I told your mama I’m your daddy last night and I am, because you’re my little girl in every way that matters.” He pauses for a second then speaks again. “Poppy Barnett sounds almost as good as Lulu Barnett. My Barnett girls, I’m gonna love you and protect you both, I don’t want either of you to know even a day of sadness, only happiness from here on out, you hear me, Princess? I know you can’t speak yet, but if you could put in a good word with your mama, I’d appreciate it.”

My heart thuds loudly in my chest as I listen to him talking to her. Men have made me promises in the past but Penn is the first one who truly means everything he says. I’m his, but so is my daughter and as he appears in the doorway, Poppy nestled against his chest, I realize that there’s no point in fighting this anymore, because I really am his and he’s mine too.

Watching him with soft eyes I kneel up on the bed, shuffling to the edge as he watches me warily. “You okay?”

“More than okay,” I answer, wrapping my arms around his neck and kissing him.

Every meal in the Barnett household is a family affair and breakfast today is no exception. Penn insists that I don’t need to get dressed, so I throw on a pair of shorts and a baggy t-shirt and follow him barefoot out into the main house. No matter how many times I see it, the hustle and bustle of the huge family always shocks me. When I lived with my parents, I was cared for by housekeepers or nannies, so weekend breakfasts were just like any other day with me eating alone.

In the Barnett home, weekends are packed with loud, raucous togetherness. Teddy scoops Poppy from my arms the moment he spots us, throwing her into the air and making her giggle loudly as he catches her, then brings her close to blow a raspberry on her cheek. “Good morning, little Miss Poppy, Uncle Teddy made you some eggs and some pancake fingers for you to try.” His face lifts to me and he smiles. “I found a website about baby led weaning and there was a recipe for pancakes that said they were suitable for babies her age. Is that okay?”

Touched by his thoughtfulness I nod and he grins, turning and carrying Poppy to her high chair, talking away at her as he goes. When he moves to sit in front of her, he’s unceremoniously shoved out of the way as Granger takes his seat and immediately coos at my daughter, chatting nonsense to her as he holds up a piece of pancake for her to try.

Penn kisses me quickly before steering me toward the seat next to Poppy. “Sit, Kitten, I’ll get you some breakfast.”

Doing as I’m told, I sink down next to Poppy and just take in the scene all around me. Bonnie is sitting in Beau’s lap, their heads close together as they alternate between talking and kissing. Bay is beside them, his attention on his cell, a coffee in front of him as he absentmindedly forks food into his mouth. Alice is beside Granger on the other side of the table. I don’t know her that well, but from the few times I’ve spoken to her, she seems shy and quiet but sweet. Right now she’s watching her husband feed my daughter, a look of longing flashing in her eyes as she places a hand unconsciously on her stomach. If I had to guess I’d say she’s either already pregnant or hoping she is.

Cora is a few seats down from me, Maverick held to her chest as she breastfeeds him, a smitten Huck standing behind her, watching them both with such intense love that I can feel it from here. I wonder if Penn would look at me like that if I was the one nursing a baby? Something tells me he would, that he’d stifle the air with his proprietary gaze. Cody is the only Barnett missing, and I wonder where he is. Perhaps he has a girlfriend somewhere, maybe he’s the only one who doesn’t buy into the whole instalove fantasy the other brothers all seem to believe in?

“Here you go, baby,” Penn says, pushing a plate of food in front of me as he takes the seat at my side.

“Thanks. I really should go home today; I need to do laundry and spend some time with Chloe.”

“This is your and Poppy’s home, but we need to go to Chloe’s anyway to get the rest of your stuff. You can visit with her while we load Beau’s truck.”

“Penn—” I start.

Without saying a word, he narrows his eyes and silently warns me not to argue with him. I narrow my eyes right back, but apparently I lack the menace and warning he has, because instead of minding me, he smirks, reaches out and grips my thigh tightly with his fingers. Leaning down, he presses his lips against my ear and whispers. “Behave, Kitten, or I’ll bend you over this table and spank your ass right here in front of our family. I promise you they won’t blink an eye at me taking you in hand.”

I gasp, shocked, but all he does is chuckle lightly and slide his fingers a little further up my leg.

“Don’t make me remind you who’s in control, baby, because we already both know it’s me. We talked about this last night and you’re making it official and moving in with me. Today. It’s happening, but if you need me to convince you again, I’m happy to drag you back off to our place to help you agree.”

Heat starts at my toes and surges upwards through every nerve, cell and vein. His words are literally burning me up from the inside out and I can’t help but love it. His voice, his tone, the single touch of his hand on my thigh, all of it flips that truly female switch inside of me that begs me to submit to my man. My man. Not just any guy who’s trying to control me because we’re having sex, but my man. Penn, who has owned me since the first moment we laid eyes on one another.

“Maybe I should be the one reminding you,” I whisper back.

“What do I need to be reminded of?” he drawls silkily.

“That you’re just as much mine as I’m yours.”

His chuckle is low and gravelly. “I’ve never forgotten that, Kitten, you own my ass and I fucking love it.” Nipping playfully at my earlobe, he presses his lips against my cheek and pulls back, lifting his hand from my thigh and draping it along the back of my chair. “Eat up, those boxes aren’t gonna pack themselves.”

Hours later, all of mine and Poppy’s stuff has been loaded into the back of Beau’s truck and taken back to the Barnett house, and both Penn and Chloe are looking at me with smug grins. I both hate and love how much they seem to think it’s wonderful that I’m moving out. Penn because it means he’s getting his way, and Chloe because she truly thinks that Penn is both mine and Poppy’s happy ever after.

Sighing happily, I flop back into the couch cushions and glance around at the living room. It doesn’t look that different, because all of the stuff I bought with me from Chicago is still here. Chloe will still be caring for Poppy while I’m at work, so it made sense to leave the playpen and all of the toys here. Also Penn insisted on buying so much stuff for her, that we’d just be doubling up if we took any of this back to his place. Despite our obvious presence in the room, there’s a sense of emptiness. Mine and Poppy’s clothes are no longer in the closet, all of my keepsakes and mementoes have been packed in boxes and all of a sudden, the finalness of moving out hits me.

I came to Rockhead Point to find a home with people who love and care for me and my daughter, and Chloe opened her life up to us with wide, loving arms. She gave me the unconditional love you expect from your parents, when my biological family condemned me for the choices I made. I wish she was my real mother, and once again I’m envious that Roxanne and James have such an amazing woman as their role model.

“You happy?” she asks as she plops down onto the couch next to me and hands me a glass of wine.

I glance to where Penn is sitting playing with Poppy and exhale dreamily. “It’s stupid, isn’t it?”

“Being happy is never stupid.”

“I’m rushing into this. If it were anyone but him, there’s no way I’d let him around my daughter or be moving into his home, but…” I trail off, trying to find the words to explain the way being consumed by him feels.

“I didn’t know Penn’s daddy that well, he died when the boys were all still in school, but he had this magnetism to him. He was a looker, even though he was a lot older than me, but it was more than that, he had a forcefulness to him. Penn has that too, like it’s just impossible to deny him anything that he wants. Its more than just charm, although he has plenty of that too,” she smiles. “Hannigan Barnett was a good man, and so are his sons. But I’m going to be honest with you, if it was any other man who’d turned your head and you were talking about moving you and Poppy in with him, I’d be doing everything I could to stop it. But with Penn, he looks at you the exact same way his daddy looked at his mama, like you’re the single ray of sunlight at the dead of midnight. That man loves you and he loves Poppy, so go, be happy, because you both deserve it.”

Until right now I didn’t realize how much I needed her approval, her blessing. Chloe might not be my biological mother, but she’s my mom in every way that truly counts. Knowing she thinks I’m doing the right thing reaffirms what I know deep inside. That I’m in love with Penn. It’s too fast and too much and it’s scary as hell, but I do. I love him and I’m pretty sure he loves me too.