by Tess Oliver
I'd managed to get through the back patio and out the gate to the path leading to the storage shed only to run into her coming out of the shed with Dad's business partner, Zane, in tow. He was carrying two foldable chairs under each arm while Mindy led the way, her arms completely free to point out the way back to the house.
She stopped with an angry fist on hip stance when she saw me. "Raini, there you are."
My gaze flitted past her scowl to the man behind her. I was sure I caught him gazing back for a second but then he pretended to be interested in the scenery. He had that cool dark copper coloring that was always so captivating, especially to an artist's eye. He had a light smattering of freckles on his face, but they were mostly camouflaged by the golden brown hue of his skin. The sunlight reflected off of his brown eyes that were flecked with hazel green. He would be fun to paint, I thought briefly, while girding myself for my sister's forthcoming lecture. In fact, with the way he looked in his tight t-shirt and swim trunks, it seemed he would be fun to paint in the nude. Preferably both of us, artist and model.
"Raini," Mindy's harsh tone snapped me out of my daydream, "did you hear me? You're a day late. I expected more help from you." She glared at the beach towel under my arm. "Where are you going?"
"I thought I'd take a swim."
"Good, then while you're at the pool area you can make sure that the guests have everything they need out there."
"I'm going to the swimming hole. Didn't you hire like fifty billion people to help out this weekend?"
"That's not the point. The guests expect to see us mingling."
"No, Mindy, that's only in your head. They've got great food and tons of booze. They could care less whether I'm sitting in on their dull conversations or not."
Zane, it seemed, decided it best to keep moving with his load of chairs and let the sisterly love happen in private. I ignored Mindy's wrath for a second and took the opportunity to get to know the sex toy seller a little better.
"Hey, burnt umber."
It took him a second to realize I was talking to him. He turned back with his unwieldy load of metal chairs.
"I'm going to take a bike ride to the swimming hole. Why don't you join me after you're through moving furniture."
A small gurgling sound came from behind, and I swung back to my sister. "Oh, wait, sorry, I didn't realize that something was going on here." I looked back and forth at each of them. "That explains why you have one of the guests carrying chairs around."
Mindy's face darkened. She couldn't seem to get the words out, which was unusual for her. I'd struck a nerve. She had struck one too. I never would have pictured the guy with long copper hair and that obvious bad boy eye twinkle as being her type. Guess I underestimated her taste.
"There's nothing happening, Raini. Zane is just helping me, which is more than I'm getting from my sister."
Zane took that as his cue to move on.
I looked back at Mindy. "Sorry, Min, I didn't know."
"There's nothing to know. Oh my God," she groaned, "why the heck did Mom think it necessary to have a fourth kid?" She hurried along to catch up to Zane.
I turned back down the path and headed into the shed to dig out a bicycle.
Chapter Four
Zane
Aidan was having just a little too much fun watching me help Mindy with the chairs. She had found me almost instantly in the party crowd, one of the hazards of having an unusual hair color. Aidan lifted his drink up as I walked by the massive hot tub where he was sitting with not two but three women. I continued through the pool area, following the boss as she led me through the gate and out on the patio. If carrying chairs was Mindy's idea of flirting, then it was easy to see why she was still single and why her dad was working so hard to match her up with someone. The thing that was especially annoying was that I'd had to ignore her sister's far more appealing invite down to the swimming hole.
As I set up the chairs in the location Mindy had pointed out, she got sidetracked by something that was happening in the kitchen. I finished my task and decided to slip out of her reach before she had me doing something extra sexy and flirty like carrying out the garbage.
I headed back out to the pool area. Aidan spotted me. "Zane, join us. I'm outnumbered here."
"Not right now."
I glanced out toward the pastures and acres of green that surrounded the ranch. Raini was just pushing a bicycle out of the shed. I looked back the way I'd just come. There was no sight of Mindy. I was pissed that I would have to worry about angering her now, which, in turn, would anger her dad. I hadn't wanted any part of this, but somehow I was stuck in it.
My gaze shot across the grass again. To hell with it. I headed out the back gate of the pool area and hurried along the path leading to the shed.
Raini was just throwing her long leg over the bicycle when I got within shouting distance.
"Raini!" I called.
She looked up. She had braided her long dark hair back, showing off the feathery tattoo running behind her ear and along her neck. It stopped at the hollow near the base of her throat.
I ran to catch up to her. She looked past me, I supposed to see if Mindy was behind.
"I don't need any more grief from my sister, so if you have something going on with her—"
"I don't. I mean your dad was sort of hoping for us to get together."
When she tilted her head, it only added to how cute she looked. "You're not helping your case. I don't need any grief from him either."
I shrugged. "All right. I got the impression you were a little more rebellious and daring than that, but you're right, I don't want your dad and sister to be angry with you." I turned around casually, but I was totally disappointed. Just like Aidan had joked, my weekend was fucked.
"There's a gray bike inside the shed," she called to me. I turned back. "It's my brother's, so it should fit you." She lifted her foot to the pedal. "Hurry up."
I raced into the shed and found the gray bike. I had to knock the cobwebs off the handlebars, but at least the tires weren't flat from lack of use. I pushed it out of the shed. Raini was standing over her bike, pedaling and giving me a nice fucking show as her ass wiggled with each shift from side to side. I hopped on the bike and took off, working hard to catch up to her. The thick grass didn't make that easy. I pulled up beside her panting and puffing.
She laughed as she looked back behind us. "Just checking to see if you're dragging a wagonload of bricks or something."
I finally caught my breath. "You had a head start."
"Uh huh, thought I'd give you a nice view of my ass. Did you enjoy it?"
"Not going to lie. I did. I enjoyed it." There was nothing coy about Rainsford Bonneville, and I liked that about her, among other things, including the nice ass.
We rolled down a small hill and reached a dirt path that looked as if it was a trail used by trucks and horses on the ranch. "How far is the swimming hole?"
"Why? Are you tired?"
"Nope. Just making conversation."
"It's just up ahead." She took off along the dirt, once again standing over the pedals to go faster and provide me with that same nice view. This time I pictured that same ass as I bent her over the front of my desk. Something told me she was the type of woman who would be up for an office lunch break fuck. I managed to make my own ride that much more strenuous by adding an erection into the mix.
Raini squealed as her bike rolled over the top of a ridge and disappeared below in a cloud of dust. I pumped hard to catch up to her, worried that she had fallen or dropped over a precarious edge. I reached the ridge and stared down as Raini raced down at top speed with her legs out to the sides and the bike handlebars wobbling in her hands. I could hear her laughter all the way down.
I took off over the ridge and torpedoed down after her. I felt like a coward after squeezing the brakes several times to slow down the descent. Raini's long, dark braid, swung back and forth like a pendulum across the green fabric on the back of h
er shirt as she pedaled toward a copse of trees. The musty smell of shade covered water wafted through the spindly branches of the oak trees.
Raini disappeared into the trees and I followed. In the center of a clearing, surrounded mostly by shrubs and trees, sat an oval shaped pond.
I stopped my bike next to hers. "It's a far cry from your dad's crystal blue pool, but I like the fact that this one isn't filled with people."
"That's my favorite part too." She reached down and lifted off her t-shirt, revealing the bright blue bikini underneath. She had a nice top half to go with the amazing ass. She pushed her sandals off and wiggled out of her shorts. I watched the entire display with keen interest.
"Are you just going to stand there and watch me, or are you coming in?" she walked carefully over the rough ground toward the water.
"I was thinking about just watching. But it is getting pretty hot out." I reached back to pull off my shirt. I heard a splash before I had it over my head.
Concentric circles billowed out from where Raini had dunked under. The water was made opaque by the shade from the tree canopy, but I could see her long body moving lithely along below the surface. Then her perfect bottom bubbled up above the water for a second as she dove deeper and disappeared. I waded in, pushed off the muddy bottom and floated to the middle. I looked around for Raini.
She surfaced just a few inches in front of me. Her long lashes clumped together in dark, wet spikes, highlighting the pearly blue color of her eyes. Up close, I could see a light spray of freckles across her nose, which made her look even younger than twenty-two.
"I like this." She ran her finger along the t-rex skeleton tattoo I had on my right pec. It was just the tip of her finger, but I found myself holding my breath until she pulled it away. Her eyes glittered as she caught my profound reaction to her touch. I wasn't sure how the hell it had happened, but somehow, she had taken control of this whole thing. It was supposed to be me causing her to lose her breath with a casual touch or a bold raking gaze, but she was spinning this thing to her side. I wasn't completely sure how to handle it, but something inside of me wanted badly to gain back that control.
Raini's feet popped up as she floated onto her back, making sure that her breasts poked erotically above the surface of the water. "So, I suppose my dad was telling you about his out of control daughter and how I caused him all his gray hair."
I swam along next to her. "He might have mentioned it."
She laughed. "He does like to exaggerate."
"Well, in his defense, you did arrive at the ranch on the back of a motorcycle, behind, as you noted, a stranger, who I have no doubt is telling all his beer drinking buddies about getting the best thank you tip ever from a hitchhiker."
She pushed her feet down. "If you think that's the best tip ever, then you should talk to the truck driver who drove me the first fifty miles of the journey."
I stared at her, trying hard not to show any judgment. Apparently, I wasn't trying hard enough.
She splashed my face. "Gotcha. Now I know two things about you. You're lined up to date my sister, and you are a little gullible. Or maybe you were just hoping that I wasn't teasing, which would mean I'm that loose and you'd hardly have to whisper my direction to get into my panties."
"First of all, I'm not lined up to date Mindy. And secondly, I'm not gullible. As I mentioned earlier, I did watch you kiss a complete stranger on the front steps of the house. And it didn't look like a chaste kiss."
"No?" she blinked her wet lashes for effect. "I thought it was very chaste. But maybe we have different definitions for the word. Although, knowing that you are a sex toy salesman and all . . ."
"You know something? You're kind of irritating. Cute but irritating. Think I'll head back." Holy shit, I was feeling like an idiot. How the hell did that happen? I was the team asshole, yet the sweet faced woman in the water had just stomped over me like I was a frail fucking daisy in a field. I hated that as much as it was fucking making me want nothing more than to bend her over my lap for a well-deserved spanking. And that notion led me right back to a damn erection. Not wanting to reveal the obvious, I slowed my pace in the water to let my cock think twice about the whole situation.
"No, don't go," she called. "I'm sorry for being irritating. It's kind of my thing. Just ask my siblings."
I waded out of the water. "I need to get back to the party anyhow."
I heard the water move behind me as she followed me out. I picked up my shirt and realized that it was my only towel. I patted my chest dry with it, working my hardest to pretend that there wasn't a hot, bikini clad and completely aggravating woman standing behind me.
"Do you want to borrow a towel?" she asked. Her tone had softened and it seemed the sweeter, gentler Raini had arrived.
I turned to look at her just in time to see her untie the string on her bathing suit.
The strings dropped and her nipples pointed my direction as she reached behind her back to untie the rest of the top. "The towel is on my bike," she said airily as she pushed the bottom of her bikini off, revealing a Brazilian wax job that was going to invade my dreams tonight.
She was good. I was supposed to be one of the notorious playboy owners of the Plaything company, but instead of playing the part of the playboy, I was being played. I ignored the raging pulse that was making its way from my chest to my cock and pulled on my shirt as if she wasn't standing stark naked in front of me.
She wrung out her suit and turned around to the pile of clothes she'd left on the ground. There was a delicate spray of stars running down her back and along her hip. A neatly drawn rose tattoo finished the piece of art on the smooth white cheek of her ass. She leaned down to pick up the clothes, giving me a first class view of everything.
"Fuck," the word rumbled up from my throat.
"Did you say something?" She pulled on her shorts and turned around, still topless and pretending that her nipples pointing at me was no big deal. Of course, it probably wasn't to her. But it was a plenty big deal to me. Suddenly, I was feeling like a horny teenager who just got his first glimpse of a naked woman.
I almost had to mentally leave my body not to feel the physical reaction I was having to her. I wasn't going to let her win this round.
"I didn't say a word." I walked casually back to the bike or at least I tried to look casual. My jaw was clenched like a steel trap, and my cock was throbbing like she had wrapped her lips around it.
No fucking wonder Carter had gray hair.
Chapter Five
Raini
I rode to catch up to Zane. I had no idea why I'd decided to tease him so badly. At first I'd considered that I was subconsciously doing it just to piss off Mindy, but now that he was riding ahead of me with his shoulders and jaw tense with anger, I was feeling bad.
"So what part do you play in the company?" I decided to make small talk and hopefully repair some of the damage I'd done.
"You mean other than sell sex toys?"
"No, I know that's not what you do. I'm sorry about being so flippant. My dad tells me I inherited my lack of tact from my mom. She was always a tell it like it is kind of person." My voice trailed off as I thought about riding the same bike path with my mom the summer before she died. We had been the best of friends. I was always much closer to her than to Mindy.
Zane stopped hyper concentrating on the road in front of him and finally looked my direction. I loved his face. It was the kind of face that just drew you in. "I guess you were pretty young when you lost her."
"She died just three days after my seventeenth birthday. It was like someone took my lifeline, the thing I always held onto when I was happy or sad or distraught, and just cut it in half. I was completely lost without her. Dad did the best he could, but it wasn't the same."
"That must have been hard. I lost my dad when I was just four."
"Wow, that's terrible."
"Not as bad as losing a parent at seventeen. I was just too young to understand what had happened. He w
as there one minute, helping me learn to ride a bike, and the next, he was gone. The concept of death was still so foreign to me, I couldn't quite figure out that it was forever. For a long time, I kept expecting him to just walk in one night and drop his metal lunch pail on the counter like he had every other night before that."
We turned to ride across the grassy knoll leading back to the ranch.
"Marketing. That's what I do for the company. I'm in charge of marketing. Your dad says you're studying art."
I laughed. "Let me guess, he said it with an eye roll."
Zane glanced over at me. "You know your dad pretty well."
"I do." We reached the storage shed and walked the bikes inside. I wasn't sure if I'd done permanent damage to our very short friendship with my earlier teasing but I hoped not. I wasn't sure why I felt that way.
"Well, thanks for inviting me along for the swim." Even though the earlier snarky conversation had turned to a more thoughtful dialogue on the ride home, Zane's voice was still a little distant. I'd managed to turn him off completely. And while my earlier invite might partly have been to piss off Mindy and partly an attempt to make this weekend less boring, now I was feeling disappointed that I'd blown it with him so quickly.
We walked back to the party that was still going full swing on the patio and in the pool area. The midday sun was pouring down on the ranch, and the guests probably wouldn't head inside for hours. As much as I always hated to give too much credit or compliments to my sister, she'd done a spectacular job setting up the weekend. Dad would remember it for a long time.
A nice looking couple was standing at the outer edges of the patio area with their plates of food. The man, a guy who fit the tall, dark and handsome cliché perfectly, lifted his sunglasses to reveal a nice pair of hazel eyes. "There you are. Where did you run off to?"
"We were on a bike ride," Zane explained. "Trey, Georgie, this is Carter's daughter Raini."