by Ellis Leigh
Tripp liked to read.
That really shouldn’t have surprised me as much as it did. All my stallions seemed intelligent, but for some reason, Tripp’s wild personality and love of sports had left me making assumptions about him. Ones I now felt bad about. The man had more books in his room than the other stallions. Precarious piles forming tables and stacks, hidden columns under chairs and dressers. Tucked into every corner were more and more books, and as soon as we had cleaned up from our sex-a-thon, he pulled one out and began to read it to me.
My guilt at assuming he was just a jock weighed me down, though—making it almost impossible to enjoy the moment. Tripp was smart, not just muscular. Witty, not just athletic. And he was mine.
“You okay, doll?”
Was I? I had no idea. My thoughts kept circling, fluttering around in my head and bringing waves of emotions I wasn’t sure if I was ready to handle. The idea of being with my men, my stallion herd, brought me more joy and peace than I’d ever imagined possible. The idea of losing them? Of hurting one of them with my words or deeds…with my past? Of anything bad ever happening to even one of them?
Horrifying.
When I didn’t answer right away, Tripp rolled me into his arms, setting his book down behind me and nuzzling my neck. “Talk to me.”
“I’m just thinking.”
“About what?”
“You. Us. This. The herd.”
He hummed against me, licking up the column of my neck before whispering, “Don’t worry. I won’t tell the others I’m your favorite.”
I chuckled, snuggling deeper. Loving the fun side of Tripp and how he made me find joy even in my most tumultuous moments. “You’re awfully full of yourself.”
“In this herd? I have to be.”
That comment had a depth to it. I’d never thought of Tripp as anything other than confident, but that statement—the tone in his voice—made me wonder. It also made me think about my seven stallions. “Every one of you is so different.”
“We are. We each have our place and our jobs, the assigned duties and the unassigned ones.”
“Unassigned?”
“Like Garrett—he’s the farrier of the group, did you know that? Handles all the issues with putting shoes on the horses and dealing with their hooves. That’s his assigned job, but his unassigned one is to make sure the entire herd—shifting and non-shifting horses—is healthy and strong, both physically and mentally. He supports us all, you know?”
I did. I’d seen that with him, the way he worried and showed his concern. How he took care of them all. “He’s good at it.”
“He is. And Liam keeps us all working together while running the business. Matthew is the heavy when we need one. He trains the horses as well.”
I hadn’t given the structure of the herd enough thought. Hadn’t realized there were so many nuances to it. Now that I had, I wanted to know everything. “What’s your job?”
“I’m a veterinarian.”
That pulled me up short. “Really?”
“Yep. But when I’m not doing that, I make sure everyone relaxes. I bring the fun.” He rolled me over, settling between my thighs once again. Leaning down to suck my nipple into his mouth as I grabbed his hair and sighed. Loving his attention, his touch. Everything about being with him.
Tripp rocked against me, teasing me slowly. In no rush, it seemed. Taking his time as he lavished my nipples with attention. Eventually, he popped off my breast, rising over me with a smile on his chiseled face. “You need to relax more.”
I arched as he thrust inside me, as he held my gaze and slid into my pussy. Deep. So, so deep and slow and perfect. He watched me as he moved back and forth. As he filled me with his hard cock. That stare, that connection between us, rocked me harder than anything his body did to me could. This wasn’t about sex—none of my men would ever be able to convince me our connections were only physical. Our emotions had become tangled too. Had locked us together forever.
Maybe that was why I couldn’t breathe. Maybe the fear of losing the greatest gift I’d ever been given was the reason my heart refused to settle into a steady rhythm.
Maybe the possibility of a disruption in my herd was why the ache inside me continued to grow.
“What is it, doll?” Tripp stopped with his cock buried inside me and a frown on his face. “What’s on your mind?”
Liam. Matthew. Garrett. Quinn. Cade. Dalton. And yes, my Tripp. My seven stallions. The mates I hadn’t seen coming but whom I’d do anything for. The men I’d lost my heart to. My new world.
But how could I say all that?
“I worry,” I said, keeping my voice low. Soft. My throat thick with all the things I couldn’t put into words.
Tripp seemed to hear what I didn’t say, though. “I know you do, but you don’t have to. We won’t let anything bad happen.” He slid deeper, grinding against my clit. Keeping his blue eyes locked on mine as we joined physically. Emotionally. Soulfully.
“Tripp. What is this? Why do things feel so different?”
He shook his head, groaning as his movements sped up. As the pressure grew. As I clung to his shoulders and held on for dear life.
“You’re ours,” he said, dropping down to wrap me in his arms. Holding me with a strength that should have been painful. “We’ve finally found you, and we won’t let you go. We’ve got you, doll.”
But who had them?
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Lunch was a much quieter affair than usual, primarily because I spent it alone with Tripp. Not a hardship, but I would have liked to have seen my other men. The worry for them—the fear—it ate at me. Growing stronger as the hours passed without them near. Taking over my every waking thought.
“Not liking the chicken salad?” Tripp asked, motioning toward my virtually untouched plate. “I could grab some apples or raisins for it to add some sweetness.”
I gave him a smile, trying hard to put on a brave face. “Raisins don’t belong in other food, and I’m not the biggest fan of apples.”
Tripp sat back, big, green apple in hand, looking all sorts of nonchalant. And male. The way his arms bulged even in such a casual pose? The spread of his legs as he took up space. The man was quite the specimen. “If you’re not hungry enough for an apple, you’re not hungry enough.”
He took a giant bite of his apple, smiling around it. I shrugged.
“My mom used to say that about doughnuts.”
His eyes went wide, and his chewing slowed. Finally, he shook his head with a laugh. “Such a fox.”
“Guilty as charged. And the chicken salad is fine, I was just thinking about the herd.”
The man could recognize serious time like no one else. His smile dropped, his body language changing. Leaning closer to me as if he knew I needed that. “You miss them.”
So much. “Is it wrong? I know it’s our day to get to know one another better—”
“Nothing you could want with us would ever be wrong unless you didn’t want anything with us. That would definitely be an issue because we all want you so damn much, doll.” He snagged me by the waist and pulled me into his lap, cuddling me against his chest. “I miss them too, you know.”
“You do?”
“I do. We’re tight. We work together, live together, and play together. It’s hard not to be around them as much as I’m used to. Maybe after—”
“Tripp, we need you.” Cade came rushing in, looking big and dirty and as close to showing an emotion as I’d ever seen him. “One of the mares looks to be colicking. Liam’s got her on her feet, but—”
“On it.” Tripp didn’t give him a chance to finish his sentence. He smacked a kiss to my lips, pushed me back into my own chair, and was racing out the door before I even got to say goodbye. He obviously took his job as veterinarian of the herd seriously. There was something really attractive about that.
There was also something attractive about the hulking menace of a man staring me down from the doorway.
&nbs
p; The one I had yet to get to know. “Are you hungry, Cade? You can come in and join me. I won’t bite.”
Cade huffed, his eyes so darn bright in the sun shining through the window. More intense than usual as well. “Not even if I tell you to?”
Oh my stars. A shiver of arousal laced with fear raced up my spine. He and Dalton do everything together. I shot him a smile, passing over the conversation for the moment. I could deal with him and his possible need to feel my teeth on his body tomorrow. “No Dalton today?”
“He’s patrolling the perimeter. We still don’t have full camera coverage on the farm and a few of the ones we do have went down, so we need to manually monitor the east field.”
A few cameras down—that’s what Chance had done already. Taken the cameras offline and looped the feed so he wouldn’t be noticed. That was what had thrown Quinn into such a state of guilt and duty. My poor professor had been a mess at the idea that one camera had been compromised. A few would have to be killing him.
“Is Quinn okay?”
Cade’s lips quirked, almost pulling into a full smile. “He’s fine. His upgraded systems caught the variance in the camera feed when the perp took them out, so there was little-to-no downtime.”
A ray of sunshine in the darkness my day had suddenly become. “So he’s here.”
Cade definitely knew I meant Chance. “He won’t get close to you.”
“He got close enough to mess with the cameras.”
Cade didn’t say anything, just stood against the doorframe and seethed. I could practically see the fury rolling off him, and I definitely felt the tension in the room as my words sat heavy and hard between us. For the second time, one of my stallions made me feel fear. That was unexpected.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered, looking to the floor. Unsure how to handle the anxiety his anger caused me.
Cade didn’t seem to like my apology. He stalked across the kitchen, yanking my chair out from under the table and making me yelp. Leaning over and pinning me in place as he got right in my face. So very dangerous, this man. And so very pissed off. “Don’t you ever be sorry. Nothing this fucker does is your fault. This isn’t on you, woman.”
Woman. The word, the tone of his voice as he practically punched the air with the term, sent a shiver up my spine. Sent the warmth of arousal down deep in my gut. Sent my heart fluttering. Big and mean and dangerous…and mine. A little fear only added to the delicious tension already brewing between us.
But still, I worried about what was happening to the Hidden E and my herd. “He’s here for me.”
“He won’t get you.”
Just like the rest of the herd, Cade jumped right to the conclusion that my fear was based on self-preservation. And maybe it was, but not the way they all seemed to think. Because, of course, I feared Chance getting his hands on me, but even more than that, I worried about my stallions. About what would happen if Chance got his hands on one of them. Why couldn’t my men understand where my worry came from?
“And if he gets one of my stallions instead?”
Cade jerked back, deep blue eyes wide as they took me in. Realization dawning over his chiseled face. “Is that what you’re so worried about? That he might pick a fight with one of us?”
A fight. I was worried about so much more than a simple fight.
“What if he gets one of you alone? I watched him murder people, Cade. What if he…” I couldn’t even say it. Couldn’t think it. The idea of losing one of my seven, the possibility of it, tore something lose in my chest. I brought my fist to my mouth, trying hard to fight back the tears ready to burst from my body. I couldn’t lose them. Any of them.
I failed miserably, though, as a sob broke free.
Cade grabbed me, pulled me right off my chair and into his strong arms. Held me like a baby as he stared down with those blue eyes I hadn’t even begun to see enough of. “We all know the risks out there, and we all know what’s waiting for us here at home.” He walked with me, moving to set me on the edge of the island. When he had me where he wanted me, he ran a single finger down my face as if afraid to touch me more. As if unable not to. “Every one of us will do whatever it takes to remove the threat to the ranch and come back to you. That will always be our main goal—doing everything in our power to be with you. No human is going to get in the way of that, Waverley. Not ever.”
Matthew walked through the door from the porch, his face drawn and a frown on his lips as he noticed our position. “Everything okay?”
“Everything’s fine.” Cade backed up, keeping his eyes on mine. Cocking his head a little as he regarded me. I had no idea what he saw, but whatever it was, he seemed to come to some conclusion. He nodded once before tearing his eyes from mine and looking at Matthew. “I think our girl needs to spend some time in the barn this afternoon. A day with the horses will do her good.”
The horses. A day spent outside on the farm but also time with my stallions. An afternoon being able to watch all of them work, to see them in the place they seemed so comfortable, would definitely do me good. “When can we go?”
Chapter Thirty
I loved being in the barn. The big, open building was full of life and energy, the activity inside it giving me so much to enjoy. I leaned against the fence that separated the indoor arena from the stalls, watching Matthew working the horses. Running them in circles on a long leash-like thing with a whip in his hand. Cade had called the activity lunging—I called it poetry in motion. Matthew had a gentle way about him, had soft eyes and kind words for the horse on the end of the line as she ran around him. He didn’t touch her with the whip either—simply brought it closer to her hip if she slowed. He made it easy for her to follow his directions and give him what he wanted—a skill that had definitely transferred into other areas of his life.
As if sensing where my thoughts had gone—to our night together and how he had made it easy for me to follow his directions as well—he looked my way. A sinful smirk danced across his lips before he went back to watching the mare. Keeping his attention where it belonged.
Liam came rushing down the hall, sidestepping when he saw me. “Well, this is a surprise. How’re you doing today, sugar?”
“I’m good.” I leaned into his hug, giggling when he pressed a bunch of quick kisses to my neck. “How are you? Your day going well?”
“It’d be better if I could get under this sexy little sundress you’re wearing.” He gripped my hips, pulling me close as he tugged up my skirt a little. Letting me feel how hard he was. For me. Always for me. “Once all this getting to know each other stuff is done, I want to take you back to the meadow. Let your sweet body soak up some sun.”
“I’d like that.” Like was an understatement. The last time Liam had taken me to the meadow, we’d had amazing sex in the tall grass. That had been my first time with him, the first time I’d given myself to any of my stallions. That memory felt just a little sweeter than any other because of the initial connection we’d formed.
Liam must have felt the same way. He stared down at me with a smile on his face, looking so ridiculously handsome. Watching me with something close to love in his eyes. “It’s a date, then. But for now, I have to get to my office and make a few calls. You need anything?”
Only more time with my men. “I’m good.”
“You’re more than just good. Stay with the others, you hear?” One last kiss and Liam headed for the back of the barn.
Quinn appeared next, tablet in hand and a deep frown on his face. “Hey, sweet girl.” He patted my ass and gave me a distracted kiss. “I saw you walking over with Matthew and Cade. Make sure you stay inside, okay?”
My stomach dropped. Stay inside—meaning outside was likely dangerous. “Yeah. Okay.”
He stopped, his eyes finally meeting mine. His attention solely on me. “It’s fine, you know. We’ve got everything covered, and there’s no way this guy will come head on at us in broad daylight. This is downtime. It’s just easier on me if I know exactly where
to look for you.”
Oh, that…wasn’t as bad as I’d thought. I would do anything to make this situation easier on all of them. “I’ll stay inside until Tripp’s ready to take me back home. Promise.”
“Good.” He leaned in close, pressing his lips to mine and licking his way into my mouth before pulling back with a sigh. “You look pretty in that dress. Like some sort of naughty girl-next-door fantasy.”
“We can play that one out next time. Maybe in front of the cameras so we can watch it afterward.”
His grin set my heart on fire. “You’re on.”
Quinn headed after Liam, eyes back on his tablet, his frown a little less severe. Maybe this was my way of helping them—being present. Showing up and giving them things to look forward to. Giving them the promise of me.
I had no idea where Cade and Dalton had disappeared to, but Tripp and Garrett were working together on the far side of the barn, both bent over to look at the hoof of one of the mares. Such a sight—two glorious backsides in the air, two strong sets of thighs bunching under the tight jeans they each wore. I could have watched them all day—had already spent way too much time with my eyes glued to them and Garrett as they’d worked that afternoon. But alas, a girl couldn’t fill her day with ass-staring—touching was much more fulfilling.
Heart happy, I strolled through the barn, slowly working my way toward the farrier and the veterinarian. On the way, I passed the room where the guys stored the saddles and other supplies. Something about the smell of leather, about the shininess of the metal pieces on the saddles and bridles and the organization the men employed, drew me inside.
The room sat slightly shadowed and cooler than the rest of the barn. Seeming almost like a secret hideaway. A place to be alone and gather my thoughts. Saddles rested on wooden stands that looked like little soldiers taking up floor space, and bridles hung from hooks high over my head. A veritable leather museum and a silent space filled with reverence for the tools the men used to control the thousand-plus-pound animals in their care. Such a perfect place. And so solitary.