by Cat Johnson
Drinking thirstily, I finally had my fill and said, “I could definitely use a shower, I know that much.”
His smile told me he was picturing that and I rolled my eyes.
“Don’t roll your eyes at me, Harper Lowinsky. You in the shower is a very enticing image. You can’t blame a man for thinking about it.”
“I don’t. I just don’t feel very enticing right now.”
“Because, as I said, you need a break. So come on. Drink up, finish your water, then you’re coming with me.”
“Like this? I can’t go anywhere—”
“Sure you can. Where we’re going, you’ll be fine.”
“I really don’t think so—”
“Trust me.” Stone ignored my protests and took the empty glass from me.
He set it in the sink, then grabbed my hand, pulling me out the back door, taking the time to flip the lever in the knob so it would lock behind us.
“You’re really making me go out looking like this? And I don’t even have a purse, or money, or ID.”
“Stop thinking like a city girl. You don’t need any of that where we’re going.”
“How do you know I’m not locked out now?” I asked, brow raised.
“Because I checked and the spare key was back on the damn nail under the stairs. Freaking Joe probably returned it after he stole it. But I found a new place to stash it. It’s hanging on a nail in the carriage house by the light switch.”
“Fine.” I tried to sound annoyed but I loved when Stone took charge.
Yes, I know the future is female and all that, but sometimes I wanted to be the one who didn’t have to worry about everything. Handle everything. I wanted to let someone else take care of things for a change.
Stone opened the passenger side of the truck. “Come on. Up you go.”
Done fighting, I was willing to go along for the ride. I let him hand me up into the high truck. He was definitely in the driver’s seat, literally and figuratively as he climbed up and slammed the door.
“Ready?” he asked.
“As I’ll ever be.” I got a glimpse of myself in the side mirror and cringed. I really hoped he knew what he was doing.
Stone pulled the truck off the main road and up a dirt path stopping by the bushes and trees along the river. He reached for the door handle.
“What are we doing?” I asked.
“You’ll see.” He grinned, then got out and walked around to open my door.
“I guess I will,” I mumbled as he helped me down then moved to the bed of the truck.
“Leave your cell in the console.”
My eyes widened. “Why?”
“Water and fancy phones don’t mix.”
“Water?” What were we doing?
“You worried about getting a little damp, city girl?” he asked as he reached into the back of his pick-up.
I was already damp with sweat and pretty grimy so I shook my head. “Not really.”
“Good.” He emerged with a rubber tire and handed it to me before going back in for a second one for himself.
I glanced at it, then at him. “What is this for?”
“You are going to experience a true Mudville tradition. Only locals know the joy of floating down the Muddy River in a tire on a hot day. Won’t be warm enough to do this for much longer with September here so come on.”
I was nervous and excited at the same time as he led the way to the river’s edge. “What if I fall out? Is there a fast current? Can we drown?”
He shot me an indulgent look. “Can you stand in eighteen inches of water?”
“Yes. Of course.”
“Then you won’t drown. Come on. Stop dragging your feet.”
The water was cold on my legs and my ass, but an hour later as I lay with my head back and the sun beating on my face while Stone and I floated, tethered by the rope tied between our two tires, I had to admit he was right. This was exactly what I needed.
“This is perfection.”
He let out a laugh. “I knew you were my kind of girl.”
“Oh, did you?” That statement was worth the effort to raise my head and glare at him. “Even that first day at the farm stand?”
“Well, maybe not that day.” He grinned. “I did think you were hot though. And what a shame it was that you were such a snooty city girl.”
I splashed him and he ducked, trying to paddle away except that we were tied together and he couldn’t go anywhere without me.
Finally he changed tactics and grabbed the rope, reeling me in closer to him until he could grab my arm and spin us so our heads were close. “I’m very glad you came to town, Harper Lowry Lowinsky.”
Stone leaned in for a kiss, which almost dumped him in the water. He managed quick lip-to-lip contact before he settled back into his tire.
“I’m glad you’re glad. I’m not sure the puritans in town agree with you.” I was still a little twitchy from the library board meeting I’d been crazy enough to go to.
“Oh, that reminds me. I checked the game cam aimed at your book box.”
That news almost tipped me out of my tire. I struggled to sit up. “And? What did you see? Who’s stealing all my books?”
“Well, I wouldn’t assume they were stealing them. There were a lot of people checking it out and everyone I saw only took a couple of books each.”
“So it’s not one person who took them all so they wouldn’t ruin the morality of Mudville?” I asked.
“No, Harper. It’s not. You might have to accept that it’s actually people interested in reading them and that nobody in town hates you.”
“Hmm.” I needed to wrap my head around that.
After the meeting at the library, it was a hard thing to do. I thought for sure it was the board members who were the ones sabotaging my library by taking all the inventory.
“There is something strange though,” Stone continued.
“What?” I whipped my head around to look at him.
“There were some interesting characters who took books.”
“Interesting like how?” I asked.
“Old lady Trout, Mary Brimley, Alice Mudd. Even old man Buck.”
“I have no idea who any of those people are but I feel like I just stepped into an old black and white TV show based on the names alone.”
He grinned. “Let’s just say they’re mostly old as dirt and are the last ones who I would think would be interested in reading a romance novel.”
I narrowed my eyes. “They’re probably reading it so they can tell people how horrible and immoral it is.”
“That’s it. You’re going in the water.” Stone feinted toward me and I screamed and splashed away. “Stop saying stuff like that or I’ll do it,” he warned.
“Fine. I’ll stop.” I pouted. I wouldn’t say it, but I could keep thinking it.
“Besides, the one I read was pretty good.” His statement had me paddling so I could look at him.
“What?” Mouth open, I stared at Stone. “You read one?”
“Yes.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“He was a soldier in Afghanistan. She was a marketing chick in New York. They ended up in Kabul and there was some prison break. Oh, and a USO tour.”
My eyes widened as he described the plot of one of my military romances. “Holy shit. You did read one.”
“I told you I did. And it wasn’t bad . . . for a girl book.” He shrugged as he teased me.
I grinned wide even as my cheeks flushed warm at the compliment from such an unexpected source. “Thanks.”
“Ready to go?” he asked.
“No.” I was too relaxed.
“Well, I hate to tell you but if we don’t get out here we’re going to have a long walk.”
That had me sitting up and realizing something. “We’ve been floating away from the truck for like an hour. How do we get back to it?”
Even a supposed city girl like me knew rivers didn’t run in a circle.
H
e grinned. “We get a ride from one of my family. Turn around.”
I twisted my neck to look behind me. “What am I looking at?”
“Morgan Farm,” he said.
I paddled until I was facing the right direction. There were a couple of cows drinking out of the river. And up on the hill in the distance I could see the edge of a cornfield.
“All this land is yours?” I asked, shocked.
“Not everything we floated by, but about a mile along the river is ours, yeah.”
“So I’m sleeping with the local land baron?” I asked.
He let out a snort. “Sure, if you’d like to think of it like that. Will that get me a repeat of last night?”
“Mm, hm.” I nodded. “Unless we wanna try something new . . .”
Now it was his turn to look shocked.
Rose’s journals were going to have to wait a little while. I suddenly had other plans. Looking at Stone, shirtless, his bronzed chest glistening, my new plans definitely would not wait.
From the Journal of Rose Van de Berg
MUDVILLE INQUISITOR
1970
Voters permitted the sale of alcoholic beverages in stores but rejected a proposal to allow bars. The vote ended a fifty-eight-year dry spell in Mudville.
TWENTY-FOUR
Stone
I grabbed and held Harper’s hand as it strayed closer to my cock. “Not that I don’t love your enthusiasm, because I really do, but we can’t do this here.”
“Why not?” she asked, somehow looking guileless and naughty at the same time.
I was starting to wonder that myself as Harper laid next to me on the riverbank, kissing down my chest, getting lower and closer to the fly of my shorts with every gentle kiss she pressed to my stomach.
It would be so nice to strip her bare and take her right here along the river.
It wouldn’t be the first time I’d been naked in this river. Every one of us had skinny-dipped here as teens.
But this was broad daylight. In the middle of the afternoon. And if I were naked with Harper there would be more than just skinny-dipping going on.
No doubt about it, there’d be sex. Full-blown, mind-blowing, forget-where-you-are kind of sex.
There might be only cows to see us at the moment, but that could change and the last thing I needed was my brothers, or worse, someone else from town, seeing us in the middle of that.
But damn, my resolve was waffling as she extricated her hand from my grasp and traced the length of my erection straining the fabric of my shorts.
I pressed my head back against the tire I was leaning against. “Harper, you’re killing me here.”
“Good.” She grinned wickedly and unfastened the top button on my shorts. “Just don’t die until I’m finished with you.”
“Jesus, woman.” I drew in a breath and, just as her hand reached into my underwear, grabbed her wrist. “No.”
She glared at me from beneath lowered brows. “Party pooper.”
I laughed at the words she used, as well as the expression on her face. “Maybe I am, but you’ll thank me later. The last thing we need is someone walking up on us here.”
“Fine.” She pouted, rolling off me to sit on the bank.
Something about Harper made me want to put a smile on her face.
“Come on.” I got up and reached down for her hand.
“Where are we going?”
“You’ll see.”
“You said that before.” She narrowed her eyes at me.
“And you had a great time, so trust me and come on.”
I helped her up the hill, after a brief stop so she could say hello to the nearest cow. Once she was happy the bovine had been properly greeted, I continued up the hill and to the cornfield.
“You certainly have a lot of corn.”
“That we do. Acres and acres of it.” I pulled her forward, right between the rows.
A few more yards and we were completely invisible to anyone amid the stalks.
Smiling, I hauled her against me and captured her mouth with mine. Here, away from prying eyes, I was perfectly happy to get back to what she’d been doing before.
“Are we really going to have sex in a corn field?” she asked.
“I certainly hope so.” I leaned down to nip at her throat.
“I’m so writing this into a book. But I think I’ll make it in the maze instead.”
“There’s people going through the maze,” I said as I ran my palms down to cup her ass.
“Hmm. That could be a problem. Maybe it could be at night when the maze was closed.”
“We don’t close the maze. Can’t exactly put a lock on it. It’s made of corn,” I explained even as I continued to hold her tight against my hard-on.
Her eyes got a faraway look and I realized I was losing her to some book plot running through her head.
Time to up my game. I slid one hand into the elastic waist of her cotton shorts, all the way down until I found her wet heat.
She drew in a sharp breath and I knew I had her attention.
“You have a condom?” she asked.
“Yes, ma’am.” I’d never not have one—or more—again if I knew I’d be anywhere near Harper.
“Good.” She tangled her fingers in my hair and smashed her mouth against mine before pulling back and glaring at me. “Wait a minute. How many girls have you brought here to your corn lair for sex?”
“Corn lair?” I laughed. “And the answer is none.”
“None.” She narrowed her eyes. “I don’t believe you.”
“You’re going to have to because it’s the truth.” I leaned in for another kiss when she planted both hands on my chest and held me back.
“You really never snuck in here with a girl to have sex?”
She really was like a dog with a bone. So I decided to throw her one and hope it made her happy.
“My first kiss was in a corn field. It was in eighth grade with Beth Janssen. No we did not have sex. We only kissed. Well, and I felt her up over her shirt. That’s it. That was my first and my last corn field sex lair encounter . . . until you, that is.”
My plan seemed to work until that mind of hers started turning again.
“Beth still live in town?” she asked.
“Yes. She’s married with two kids. Happy?” I asked.
She pursed her lips and finally said, “Yes.”
“Good.” I moved in and kissed her before she came up with any other questions.
I definitely wasn’t planning on running through my whole Mudville sexual history with Harper, after which she’d want to play where are they now for every damn one of the girls I’d ever even sucked face with.
Lucky for me I had a few weapons in my arsenal guaranteed to make my little thinker stop thinking quite so hard. And the best part was, I’d enjoy distracting her as much as she’d enjoy being distracted.
I took her down to the ground and stripped off enough clothes to give me access to what parts I needed.
She was coming in under five minutes from my hand alone.
Shortly after that I broke out the condom I’d stashed in the cargo pocket of my shorts and plunged inside her. Then we were both coming. Together. Loud enough we scared a bunch of crows into flight.
It was a good day in the cornfield. The best I’d had there . . . ever.
Maybe we would have to give the maze a go later on tonight. Afterhours we could probably get away with it.
It was definitely worth a try . . .
From the Journal of Rose Van de Berg
MUDVILLE INQUISITOR
1971
Burglars broke into the Mudville Post Office on Feb. 20, stealing over $5,000 in stamps and $500 in cash by cutting their way into the safe.
TWENTY-FIVE
Harper
I tried not to be embarrassed as I stumbled out of the cornfield, no doubt looking freshly fucked, and directly into Stone’s brothers.
“Well, well, well. Look who we have
here.” Cash folded his arms and looked us both up and down.
“What were you guys up to in there?” Boone asked.
“Just taking Harper on a little tour,” Stone lied.
Brushing the remains of the cornfield off my clothes, I said, “Um, yeah. I asked him to. I never saw corn stalks up close before and I’m writing a story about a farmer so I needed to, you know, research.
“Research. Uh huh.” Cash nodded, grinning.
The amused expression on both of the brothers’ faces told me we weren’t fooling anyone.
“Well, if you two are done with your research, Dad just loaded a dozen more things on us to get done for this Fall Fest thing next weekend.”
“Ooo, what’s going on next weekend?” I asked.
“There’s gonna be a big festival on our farm. Food, music, vendors,” Boone explained.
“Really?” I asked, and then remembered I had seen some signs around town. I just hadn’t realized it was being held at Stone’s farm.
Stone shot me a glare. “Stop looking so excited. It’s been a fuck ton of work for us.”
“But think of all the free publicity you’re getting. All the people who will come from all over will be new customers for you. And every person who posts about it will spread the word about Morgan Farm even further. User generated content is social media gold. It’s a great opportunity.”
Cash frowned. “You should hook her up with Dad. She sounds just like him with all this marketing stuff.”
“Yup. She sure does.” Stone leveled a gaze on me as if I were the enemy for siding with his father on the importance of the event.
I could see the younger generation of Morgans weren’t convinced, but I knew well the power of social media. They’d see. And then I’d have to resist saying I told you so.
“You two are going to have to handle it without me. I promised Harper I’d help her today.”
I spun to glare at Stone. “Oh, no. You’re not using me as an excuse to get out of work.”
Cash and Boone grinned.
“I’m not,” Stone defended. “I promised you help. I’m not gonna just bail on you.”