Total pages in book: 66
Estimated words: 63469 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 317(@200wpm)___ 254(@250wpm)___ 212(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 63469 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 317(@200wpm)___ 254(@250wpm)___ 212(@300wpm)
She nodded quickly.
“Do you have a dog at home?”
“Yes,” she told me.
“Feeding a horse is not the same, so flat.”
Second nod, so I was sure we were clear.
Annalise enjoyed feeding the apple to Juju, and when she was done, she petted Juju some more before I gave her the reins again and we led her into the stable. I showed her how to take off the saddle and the rest of the gear, and she watched me intently. I had her get the hay and water, and then, together, we brushed her. Kate and Eric hung outside the stall, watching Annalise do as I told her and explaining how much the little girl loved horses and how much she talked about them.
“Yesterday,” Eric began, chuckling, “Annalise learned that horses poop and pee while they walk. I really thought that would be it, you know?”
I smiled at him. “Sir, people who love horses are not put off by their bodily functions, and I think your kid’s got it bad.”
“I would agree,” Kate said, smiling as her daughter very carefully brushed Juju’s tail. When she was done, she was going to braid it, but I stopped her.
“She has to keep the flies off her tomorrow when we’re riding. We don’t want the horseflies to bite her.”
“No,” Annalise agreed, looking at me seriously like that was the worst thing she could think of.
“You clearly take excellent care of your girl,” Kate commented. “But I think I could pick out the horses that came with yours tonight from the ones our host has.”
I was going to correct her and say that Juju was not kept on the Red, but it didn’t actually matter. “Well, your host runs a dude ranch, and the Red Diamond, where we came in from, is a working cattle ranch, so, you know, the horses are our lives and are treated that way.”
“The Red Diamond? I think we stopped and took Annalise to a petting zoo there. Can that be right?”
“Yes, ma’am. Rand Holloway also has a horse sanctuary, and he just saved some wild mustangs from Oklahoma.”
“Oh, how wonderful. He must be a very good man.”
“He is,” I told her, and of course looked up to see the man in question standing a few feet away, holding the reins of his murderous stallion.
His grin and a waggle of eyebrows told me he’d heard every complimentary word.
As Rand introduced himself to Kate and Eric, I tapped Annalise on the shoulder and signed, “Don’t go near that horse. He’s mean. He’s tried to bite Juju lots of times.”
The little girl gasped, and Rand was instantly scowling at me. “What lies did you tell her?”
“No lie,” I shot back, smirking at him. “Take Lucifer and walk on by, will ya?”
“His name’s not—he’s a very mild-tempered stallion.”
“He’s the devil,” I signed to Annalise, whose eyes got big and round, and her parents chuckled as Rand said something under his breath and walked away.
Annalise and I walked hand in hand, with her parents flanking us, to the line for the buffet so we could eat.
After dinner, the choices were sleep in the bunkhouse or outside. Since it was November and it would be in the low thirties this evening, plus rain, sleeping outside wasn’t an option. So bunkhouse it was.
Clearly, a bunkhouse on a dude ranch was not the same as the ones on all the ranches I’d lived on. These were very fancy. Each bunk had a night light, and the bunk beds were all thick twins with rails all the way around. They were also all steel, not ancient wood that could collapse at any second.
As I went looking for a bed, I nearly tripped as I spotted a man walking over to Eliza Kerr, the event coordinator, and Mr. McNamara. To say he was beautiful did not do him justice. He was shorter than me, slender and loose-hipped, with a fluid stride that was a pleasure to watch. His smile lit his big cornflower-blue eyes, and when I took a quick glance around the room, I realized I wasn’t the only one who’d noticed him. It made sense. It was like seeing an angel out of the blue, and I wondered if I could get up the nerve to go say hello.
I was ready to find someone, and not simply for a one-night stand. In the past two years, I really tried to go to bed with someone to see what being with a man was all about. But every bar I went to in Lubbock, and the couple I visited the last time I was in Dallas for a convention, were not what I expected. The men there moved faster than I was used to. Fucking in a bathroom was not what I wanted for my first time. And the bar scene really made no sense because none of those men lived where I did. How was I supposed to have the conversation about the topping I saw myself doing and how careful I would need to be with the guy who was bottoming if they were bent over a sink or shoved into a stall? I wanted to talk things out with someone because even though I knew I would top—of course I would because that would need to happen so I could still be me—I had questions. So many questions. Starting with how they felt about bottoming and being under me, having my weight on them, pressing them down into the bed and feeling me move inside them. I needed that. I wanted to hear about the readiness in another. I needed to be someone else’s desire.