Always Conall (Bitterroot #2) Read Online Free PDF

back, likely more from nervousness than the July heat.
    Turning the last little bend in the trail, I saw him. Standing there looking out over the water just like he had been years ago. Warm light reflected off the lake, a golden shimmer from the setting sun that highlighted his strong jaw and glinted his eyes. Again it struck me how much he’d changed over the years, and a slight tremor coursed through me as I remembered being wrapped in his arms in front of the hotel. The strength of his thick muscles and broad shoulders as he held me close. The sensation of his face buried into my hair. The faint touch of his breath as he whispered my name.
    Inhaling a fortifying breath to calm the raging emotions inside me, I walked up to stand on the grassy bank beside him.

    Conall
    “What’s she like?” I asked. I felt her eyes on me, studying me warily.
    “She’s really sweet,” Sage softly replied after a moment. I glanced over at her and watched a special warmth light her eyes and a loving smile touched her lips at the first mention of Mattie. “Very talkative, like, mile-a-minute talkative. Some of the things she says are just hysterical. Um, she loves purple kind of obsessively, and I’m pretty sure she often thinks that she is a My Little Pony. She’s a… a good kid.”
    “I’m still trying to wrap my head around this,” I said quietly… honestly.
    “It’s a lot to take in,” she agreed.
    “Don’t take this wrong, but I just keep hoping, for her sake, and for yours really, that she’s not my kid.” My words brought a pained look to her eyes. Her brow knitted tight and she swallowed hard. It seemed like all I had ever done was hurt her. With a heavy sensation in my chest, I shifted my gaze to look at the clear water lapping up against the bank. “I’m kind of a dick, Sage,” I tried to explain.
    Her voice was thick when she nodded. “I know how denial feels. Something like this … it’s very surreal.”
    Her features shadowed with an obvious ache, and she wrapped her arms around herself, as though she needed a hug … a bit of comfort and support. I wanted to reach out and pull her into my arms. My fingers tingled with the desire to hold her and give her the security that was missing in her life. But I couldn’t. My body was frozen by the guilt over what she had been through… and all because of me.
    “I sometimes can’t believe it myself, even now, ” she continued, “and I’ve lived it for the past five years. Honestly, half the time I feel like I’m just playing house. Like I’m a kid myself, and she’s my dolly. Things were sure easier back then. Even if you guys were always picking on me.”
    “You were kind of easy to pick on,” I smiled sadly at the memories that began to filter through my mind. “God, you’d get so mad so easily. It was kind of like setting off fireworks.”
    “I don’t know why I even liked you guys,” she grimaced wryly.
    “ Well, there weren’t a lot of kids in our neighborhood,” I suggested. “You were really sort of stuck with us by default.”
    “I was a glutton for punishment, I guess.” A wistful sigh pursed her lips. “But, dick or not, up until a few months ago, you were the only guy I’d ever slept with. So, unless it was some kind of immaculate conception or something, she’s definitely yours.”
    “You slept with someone a few months ago?” That knowledge soured my stomach. The thought of her with someone else.
    Fuck . That really shouldn’t have bothered me so much.
    “I started to a few months ago,” she confirmed. Then she actually made it worse by going on. “It’s still kind of… We’re technically a, um… a thing.”
    A sudden, unwanted surge of possessiveness shot through me. “Is it serious?” I asked.
    “Can we change the topic here?” she replied tersely. “Not that I’m trying to sound like a total girl or anything, but I need to know what you’re thinking. I need to know…” Her eyes closed tightly as she took