Don’t Close Your Eyes

by Ali Parker

  I didn’t know whether I should be flattered or bothered that she had decided she wanted to look into my information like that. It felt like she was prying into my business, on the one hand, but on the other hand, it wasn’t like my brothers all leaving was any sort of secret. Nor was the trip my parents had taken.

  “It must get lonely,” Brea mused. “Being out there all by yourself.”

  “I’m not alone,” I said peevishly. “I have Duck.” But even as I said it, I realized how absurd it sounded. I snorted and took another healthy sip of beer. “Yeah, it’s lonely,” I admitted. “I just never expected things to be like this.”

  Brea put her hand over mine, her thumb stroking across my knuckles. And oh, if that didn’t make my whole body wake up and take notice. I took another swig of my beer, and she laughed. “If you keep drinking like that, you’re never going to be able to drive us back to your place tonight,” she pointed out.

  “Us?” I asked, blankly. Was she suggesting what I thought she was suggesting? I shifted in my seat, my pants suddenly feeling uncomfortably tight.

  It was just lust. It was just the fact that the other night was the first time I’d been with anyone in far too long, and that one quick fuck hadn’t been nearly enough to sate me. I definitely wasn’t opposed to the idea of taking her back to my place with me. Taking the whole night showing her just how much I really appreciated her sounded great. And not just because she had done such a fantastic job of training Duck.

  But it turned out that wasn’t what she was thinking at all. She giggled, “My car’s still back at your place,” she said. “How am I going to get it unless you drive me back?”

  I snorted and gestured at the glasses on the table. “Not all of these were mine,” I reminded her. “You’re in no shape to drive home either.”

  Brea frowned. “Probably not,” she admitted. Then, she grinned brightly at me. “My place isn’t too terribly far.”

  I stared at her for a moment, wanting to make sure I got it right this time. “Are you inviting me over?”

  Brea licked her lower lip. “Yeah,” she said breathlessly. “Would you?”

  I growled and stood up, tossing some cash on the table to cover our food and drinks. She giggled again and slipped out of the booth, hurrying after me as I headed straight for the door.

  The walk back to her place wasn’t particularly long, but it felt like it took forever to get there. I was resisting the urge to pull her into my arms and kiss her right there in the middle of the street. We’d be the talk of the town if I did that. Already, enough people might start talking, having seen us together. But I was drunk enough, and horny enough, that right then, I just didn’t care. Let them say whatever they wanted. It was none of their business anyway.

  “This is me,” Brea said, pausing outside a cute little townhouse.

  “Are you sure you want me to come up?” I asked her.

  “Oh, I want you up all right,” Brea said, boldly reaching down and massaging my package through my trousers. “Or did you have a little too much beer for that?”

  I groaned and rocked into her hand, even though I knew this was way too public a place for such a thing. “Inside,” I managed to grit out.

  Brea laughed and turned around, with an extra swaying of her hips as she led the way up the front walk. I caught her as she reached for the doorknob, spinning her around and pushing her back against the solid wood, kissing her fiercely. Her mouth was warm, wet, and juicy. Just like I knew other parts of her body to be.

  No, the beer wasn’t inhibiting me at all. I was hard and ready to go.

  She reached around behind her back to open the door, and we tumbled, laughing, into her front hall.

  18

  Brea

  I was maybe more than a little tipsy. And somewhere in the back of my head, I remembered everything I had been thinking after the last time Luke and I had sex. Maybe I shouldn’t be doing this.

  But I couldn’t seem to stop myself. It was as though we were two magnets, 100% drawn to one another and unable to help it.

  As much as I wished I could say it was just lust, I knew different after today. It was something more than that. I didn’t know what had changed, but he was just different than he’d been before. He had been a lot nicer today. Wanting to take me out to dinner just to thank me for everything I had done in training Duck. That was just the cherry on top of it.

  I guess maybe I’d been afraid, when we set off on the hunting trip, that he’d make me feel like I was in the way the whole day. Like I was intruding on their guy time. Like he had only agreed to let me come because Tanner had suggested it.

  It had ended up being really fun, though. And Duck bringing back that second bird Luke had killed was just the perfect end to the trip. It made me excited to continue working with the dog to hone her skills even more.

  Wait, said a little voice in the back of my mind, if you’re going to try to keep working with Duck, don’t you think you should stop this right now?

  We were in my front hall, and Luke’s hands were up under my shirt, his calloused fingertips hot against my bare skin. He had his lips pressed to mine, his tongue sliding alongside mine in my mouth. It was all sloppy and messy, like two teenagers who couldn’t control themselves. I could feel how hard he was already, his thick length pressed against my hip. I could remember how good he had felt inside of me last time, how utterly spent I’d been as I’d come, and I could feel an answering wetness between my legs.

  Need was what I felt. I needed this.

  My protests died as Luke stripped me out of my shirt and jeans. Right there in the front hall. I had gotten his shirt off as well, but I couldn’t seem to manage his belt buckle. Finally, he did it himself, letting his jeans fall to the floor.

  He pressed up against me again, slotting a leg in between mine, grinding into my thigh as I ground down against his. I gasped, my head falling back with a loud thud against the wall as stars exploded behind my eyes. I ground down again, reveling in the pressure against my clit.

  “Upstairs,” I managed to say. “Bedroom.” I didn’t want to do it right here in the middle of the hallway, and my couch wouldn’t be nearly as comfortable for fucking on, since the cushions tended to slide off onto the floor if I even shifted around too much while I was watching TV.

  Besides, there was something about this, doing it again, that felt different from the previous time. The way he was looking at me, I would almost swear that there was something else beneath Luke’s lust for my body. And I felt an answering feeling deep inside of me. As though our bodies were resonating together. As though this was something special.

  Or maybe I was just crazy with the need to get off.

  Luke’s brow furrowed, but he pulled back and followed me up the stairs, one hand trailing along my ass as I walked in front of him. I grinned back at him over my shoulder, and he gave me a sheepish look. But neither of us said anything.

  In the bedroom, things became curiously tender. Luke gently lay me down on the bed, stripping off my panties and my bra, then following suit with his own boxers, so that we were bare naked and pressed against one another. He started to kiss his way down my body, moving slowly and sensually, until I was shivering with need, my teeth nearly chattering. Luke reached over to twine his fingers with mine, giving me something to ground myself with.

  He reached the apex of my thighs, but his kisses didn’t stop there. No, as my legs fell wide open, giving him better access to my most tender of zones, he slid his lips along my folds, kissing and sucking, tasting me. He pushed his tongue inside of me, then dragged it slowly up my velvety skin, licking the nub, repeating it over and over again.

  His fingers joined his tongue, slipping inside of me as easily as if they were made to belong there. Between the three different points of stimulation inside of me, I suddenly couldn’t take it anymore. I climaxed, crying out in pleasure, my walls trembling inside of me.

  Luke smiled at me as he pulled back, with fingers still inside of
me. Slowly, he started working me toward my next orgasm, as I gasped and twisted my fingers in the sheets.

  “Please,” I mewled, finally unable to take it anymore. I reached for his neglected cock, palming it a few times, feeling how slick it already was. I fumbled with the nightstand drawer, and Luke reached over, easily finding one of the condoms I had stashed in there. He tore the wrapper open and slowly tugged the latex down his length.

  When he slid home inside of me, I sighed, feeling that perfect, deep penetration that my body had craved for so long. We began to move our bodies together in a slow rhythm that let me really feel the drag of his member buried inside of me.

  I could barely remember to breathe as I built toward another explosive climax. I could feel my walls drawing tight around him, could feel the way his hips started to stutter. He was nearing his peak as well, his eyes glued on mine. Not that I could manage to keep my own eyes open for long. I was too caught up in the feeling of him sheathed inside of me, of his hard and muscular torso bearing me down against the sheets. His breath was hot against the hollow of my throat as he built into a quicker rhythm, his hips slapping against mine.

  Sobbing out his name, I came again, pleasure spilling through my whole body until I was weak against the bed. He continued to use me, each thrust sending bolts of white-hot desire through my already overstimulated body. Until at last, he collapsed as well, spending himself inside of me, his dick still twitching in my sensitive core.

  We continued to lay there for a long moment, and I don’t think either of us had the brainpower to do anything. Already, I could feel exhaustion creeping in. It would be so nice to curl up here, my head on his chest, the blankets covering us. To sleep until morning.

  But that wasn’t the kind of relationship we had. The realization flooded me like a cold blast of water. This wasn’t about snuggling together beneath the sheets. However tender that had just been, it was only sex. Just fucking, really. Just using one another’s bodies for our own pleasure.

  However much it might have felt otherwise.

  Luke rolled to the side and pulled off the condom, and I hurriedly peeled myself away from him and out of bed, before I could do something stupid. But his hand snaked out and caught my wrist. “Where are you going?” he asked. “This is your bed.”

  “I know,” I said. “But it’s okay. I’ll take the couch.”

  “That’s ridiculous,” Luke said.

  “No, I’ll fit better on the couch. Trust me,” I insisted. “It’s okay. It’s pretty comfortable, actually.”

  Luke tugged on my wrist, and I stumbled forward, falling in an awkward sprawl against him on the bed. He curled his body around mine, seemingly oblivious to my flailing appendages. “Relax,” he muttered into my hair.

  I froze, trying to figure out what was going on. He’d been so adamant before about what this was and what it was not. We couldn’t even have sex in a bed last time. But now—

  I didn’t know what to do. Part of me felt like I was taking advantage of his drunken state. But I was just as drunk as he was, if not more.

  And truth be told, I liked being here, curled up in his arms. It felt safe. Warm. Comfortable. And I was already so tired. Did I really want to go downstairs and make up the couch? I couldn’t even remember where I had the extra blankets stashed; they could be in the heavy chest beneath the front window, or they could be in the hallway linen closet with all of my towels. I didn’t really want to go rooting around for them right now.

  So finally, I did just what he told me to do. I relaxed and drifted off into a deep, dreamless sleep.

  19

  Luke

  On Sunday morning, I woke up with Brea still curled in my arms, her head on my chest and her hair spilling out of its braid and across my arm. Jesus, what a night.

  To be fair, I’d kind of known where things were headed when I’d asked her to come out to dinner with me. I hadn’t wanted to tell her that it was a date. But I hoped she realized that it was more than just two people getting food together. I didn’t know why, but I was starting to actually care about her.

  Part of it was her ineffable kindness. The more I thought about it, the more I knew that I hadn’t treated her fairly when she’d first come to the ranch to work with Duck. I hadn’t treated her fairly ever since, either. I knew that I had been cold to her at times, and I’d made her feel like she couldn’t make progress quickly enough.

  I felt bad about that. I really did. I wondered if the hands and everyone else on the farm felt the same way. Maybe it was time I started to evaluate the way I was running things. Maybe I should talk to Tanner about it. I had a feeling I could trust him. He wouldn’t see this as a weakness, he would see it as merely something to improve on if there was a problem.

  But Brea still came to work every day, sometimes even with baked goods or with biscuits for Duck. She never complained, and she worked her ass off. I admired that.

  Speaking of Duck… good thing I’d left the nugget head extra food at the house. She’d probably torn the damn thing up real good, but I would deal with that shit later. I wanted to get back to thinking about my girl. I loved everything about her.

  I also loved the way she talked about her father. I could tell just how much she cared for the man. And family was a big one in my book, especially now. I liked knowing that family was important to her.

  The more I thought about it, the more I realized she ticked all the boxes of what I would be looking for in a relationship. She was a little awkward, a little clumsy, and even a little crazy. Sure. But she was caring and funny and sometimes surprisingly intelligent. And now, with her here in my arms as I woke up, I didn’t feel so lonely. Everyone else may have moved on and left, but I forgot all about that with her asleep beside me.

  Brea stirred, wrinkling her nose and yawning. She rubbed at her eyes and looked blearily up at me. “Morning,” she said, her voice phlegmy. She coughed a couple of times and then grinned at me. “Morning.” She sounded much better the second time. Yet another thing to write down on that list of imperfections that somehow made her adorable.

  “Good morning,” I said, kissing her lightly on the lips.

  “I’d offer you breakfast, but I don’t have much here,” Brea sighed. “I’m not much for breakfast. Usually, I either grab a granola bar or grab something on the way to work when I stop for my coffee.” She paused. “I don’t think I even have any coffee in the house, either. I’m a terrible host.”

  I laughed. “That’s okay,” I told her. “Why don’t we get dressed and head over to my place? I have coffee, and I can make breakfast. We could eat together and then you could drive your car back like you meant to last night.”

  “Mm, sounds like a plan to me,” Brea said, but she made no move to get out of bed just yet. Instead, she nuzzled closer.

  “Feeling okay?” I asked, wondering if maybe her head was bothering her.

  “Yeah, this is just nice,” Brea said. She pulled away, looking embarrassed. “Sorry, I guess now that we’re not drunk we need to forget all about last night again?”

  “Nah,” I said easily, brushing her hair back behind her ear. “It is nice, really nice, and I was thinking the same thing right before you woke up.”

  Brea smiled. Finally, she rolled away from me and out of bed. I followed after her, trying to sort out where all my clothing had gotten to the previous night. We’d been in such a haste to explore one another’s bodies that most of the clothing was still down in the front hall, right next to the door. I snorted as I saw the mess. “Like teenagers,” I muttered.

  We drove over to my place, and by the time we got there, my stomach was rumbling. I started coffee first and then decided to make just a simple egg scramble that would be ready in no time. As I was cooking, Brea played with Duck.

  “She’s getting really good at fetch,” I said in surprise, watching the two of them.

  Brea laughed musically. “Duh,” she said. “Didn’t you see her yesterday? She ran and got that duck for you in
no time.”

  “That was pretty amazing,” I said. “So I guess that means you’re almost done with training her?”

  Brea frowned. “I guess so,” she agreed. “She’s turning into a pretty fine hunting dog, don’t you think?”

  “Yeah,” I said, but I could hear the hollow note in my voice. If Duck had almost learned everything she needed to know, then it meant Brea would soon have no reason to be over here. I mean, she could come hang out every so often, but it wouldn’t be an all day, every day thing anymore like it had been.

  I hated the idea of seeing her less. There had to be something she could do around here to help out. “There’s still plenty of other stuff to be done around the ranch,” I said slowly. “And I know you grew up on a farm.”

  Brea giggled. “Oh no,” she said, shaking her head. “You are not going to convince me to give up my career as a dog trainer just so I can muck out stables for the rest of my life.”

  “Oh,” I said. I felt stupid as soon as she said it like that. Of course. Once she was done with Duck, she’d go back to helping other owners with their dogs. She had a job. I’d just been lucky enough to need her services for a couple of weeks.

  Brea came over to me, putting her hand in the small of my back, stroking lightly. “Don’t worry,” she said. “There are still a few more tricks for Duck to learn. And the more difficult the trick, the longer it takes to learn.”

  I felt stupidly relieved hearing her say that. It was almost as though she wasn’t ready to leave yet either.

  “So is your family ever coming back here?” Brea asked, as we sat down to eat.

  I nearly dropped my fork, and my first instinct was to snip at her. Of course, they were coming back. Not that it was any of her business.