by Ali Parker
“Shouldn’t I be the one who decides if it’s too much work?” I groused. “It’s like no one seems to realize that I’m a grown-ass man and capable of taking care of myself. How about we make a deal. If working with you over here gets to be too much, I’ll promise to quit.”
Abi looked uncertain. “I just don’t want to be the one who comes between you and your family,” she said.
“You’re not coming between me and my family,” I said. “The whole Ted thing was brewing even before you showed up, ever since our brother David left for Nashville and Ted got all the responsibilities dumped on him. If it wasn’t for you, he’d be picking apart my work ethic, telling me I went out drinking too much, and that it was time for me to settle down and get serious about the farm.”
I held up my sketchbook. “You can’t stop me from having ideas, anyway. Look, I did a couple of sketches last night, ideas for the corn maze. You don’t have to use them, but like I said, I finished my chores early today, so it’s not like you’re keeping me from anything.”
Abi paused, biting her lower lip as her fingers traced over my sketches. “Are you sure?” she finally asked.
“I’m not wasting another minute on family drama,” I told her. “We have a lot of work to do.”
“Okay,” Abi said, smiling as she let me into the house. She led me down the hallway into the kitchen, and I got a glimpse into the various other rooms. It all seemed so cozy. I smiled, immediately liking the place.
“I really don’t want you to get in trouble,” Abi said, as she made a pot of coffee. “I’m going to make sure I don’t overwork you. As much as I appreciate your help, I don’t need you to do everything.”
“I know,” I said. I could already tell, with how worried she was over all of this, that she’d make sure I was still home on time and that I rested enough to keep up with my duties back on our own farm. “Why are you so scared of what my family thinks, anyway?” I asked curiously.
Abi blushed brilliantly, and now I had to hear her answer. “It’s nothing,” she muttered.
“Hey, don’t be like that,” I chided. “I can tell this is important to you. You know they’re not going to drive you out of town if you overwork me, right?”
“I’m not afraid of what they might do,” Abi sighed. “I just want them to like me. Right now, I don’t think they do. They definitely didn’t want me there at lunch. At least, Ted and your dad didn’t seem to want me there. They acted like I was just some distraction, just another dumb girl who doesn’t understand how much work goes into running a farm. Like I was someone they had to keep you away from.”
“Oh Abi,” I said, going to her and putting my arms around her. “I’m so sorry that they made you feel like that.” I paused, “I’m sure they’ll come around in time, it’s just hard for them to think of me in a relationship with someone. They have to get used to having you around. Anyway, Ted’s just stressed because there’s so much work to do on the farm right now, and he wants to know he can count on me.”
Abi still looked unsure. “If you don’t believe me, ask Lauralee,” I told her. “She and Mama seemed to love having you there. Ted’s always been a hard ass, that’s another thing Lauralee can confirm.”
“Okay,” Abi finally said.
I kissed her gently, hoping to convey just how sorry I was over the whole family thing, and how much I wanted this to work out between us. But what started as a tame, chaste kiss quickly developed into something else as Abi hesitantly opened her mouth to me.
Pushing her back against the counter, I slipped my tongue in behind her soft, pink lips. She mewled quietly as our tongues came into contact, and I couldn’t help groaning in response, feeling my dick twitch with interest.
But we were taking things slow.
With that in mind, I pulled away, taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly, trying to calm myself as I rested my forehead against hers. And not a second too soon, as just then, someone else entered the kitchen, clearing his throat as he did so.
“Hey Abi,” Jeff said, “and Mason.” He nodded towards me, and I quickly pulled away from Abi, nodding in response. “This is Gavin. He’s my friend who’s going to be helping out with this whole harvest festival thing.”
“Cool,” I said.
“Actually, Mason was just showing me some sketches he did,” Abi piped up. “Ideas for the corn maze.” She led us all over to the kitchen table, where my sketchbook was lying forgotten. We all clustered around to look at them.
“These are some pretty cool ideas,” Gavin said.
“Thanks,” I said. “They’re just rough sketches, nothing more. I just tried to work around the parts of the field that were destroyed the other night.”
“What happened?” Gavin asked worriedly.
Abi laughed, and I was glad to hear that she had moved beyond being upset about the incident. I reached over and lightly squeezed her hand, and she smiled at me. “Some crazy guy lost control of his tractor and it ended up driving off into our field,” she explained to Gavin. “But it turns out to have been a good thing since it got us thinking about all of this.”
“Right on,” Gavin said. “What else are you guys thinking of with this shindig?”
Abi started to list off the other ideas we’d had, while I sat there and watched her talk. She was animated, clearly excited about this whole thing. I could see that she was already less tense and drawn than she’d been when I’d first met her, and I felt proud at having lifted some of that worry.
I just hoped my idea would pay off.
“What are you youngsters scheming about in here?” Abi’s grandmother asked, coming into the kitchen.
Abi laughed. “We’re just discussing how we’re going to save the farm, Nana,” she said. She bit her lower lip and looked over at me. “Nana, this is Mason. Remember, I was telling you about him.”
“The boy you were out on the porch with the other night,” Nana said, a twinkle in her eye. “It’s very nice to meet you.”
I stood up and went over to kiss her cheek. “Good to meet you, too,” I said, hoping the faint blush on my cheeks wasn’t too obvious. “Sorry if we kept you up the other night.”
“Don’t worry about me, boy,” Nana said, waving away my apologies. “If you’d been keeping me up, I would have hollered at you.” She looked around the group. “Don’t get up to too much trouble in here, but be sure and let Grampa or I know if you need any help with anything.”
“Thanks, Nana. We will,” Abi said, smiling warmly at the woman.
Nana nodded and wandered out, and we got back to our scheming. As we continued to draw up plans, I couldn’t help thinking about how infectious Abi’s excitement was. We were making important plans, right now. Truth be told, I had never been happier to have something other than my own ranch to dream about.
Watching Abi, noting her excitement, I couldn’t help feeling that these plans were about more than the harvest festival. About more than just saving her family’s farm. This was about our future, hers and mine. Our future together.
Chapter 20
Abi
I finished wiping down the last of the tables in Kinsey’s, ready to close up for the night. For a Thursday night, it hadn’t been very busy, and even though I could have used more tips, I was kind of glad for the break.
We’d been working on the farm for a little over a week now, and things were finally starting to come together the way I’d imagined them. To be honest, I hadn’t really realized how much physical work it would all take. There had been so much prepping and shopping to do. We still had two weeks before we would open for the month-long zombie event, but I was already exhausted. Every shift at Kinsey’s only reminded me of how much I wanted to just fall into bed and sleep straight through the winter.
I couldn’t imagine how Mason was doing it, but the more we got done around the farm, the more chipper he seemed to be, even as he started working longer days at the Dawson family farm.
His energy impressed me, and th
ere had been more than once that week where I’d found him working shirtless around our farm, while he threw bales of hay off the back of a truck or hacked away at the corn maze, carefully following the plan that we had drawn up together with Jeff and Gavin.
I was starting to see where this whole harvest festival might be the best thing that had ever happened to the Brock family farm. We were already selling tickets online for the zombie haunt, and I was hoping we could stay open for a couple of weeks after Halloween as well, bringing in more money from the hayrides and the pumpkin patch.
I made a mental note to ask Jeff how reservations for his photo studio in the pumpkin patch were doing. I wasn’t sure that we had put enough focus on that when we were advertising, and it might be time to run another campaign targeted at family photos, engagement photos, and other cute ideas to draw in the people who weren’t keen on the zombie haunt.
The bells over the door rang just as I finished counting the cash. “We’re closed,” I said, even though everyone in town knew that. It wasn’t like Kinsey ever changed his hours of operation.
When I glanced up, though, it was Mason standing at the door, and I knew he wasn’t here for a beer. I felt a silly smile spread across my face. “Hey.”
“Hey,” Mason echoed, coming over to the bar and hopping up on one of the stools. He looked around. “This place is pretty empty tonight,” he joked.
I snorted. “Just give me a couple minutes and I’ll be free,” I told him.
Things with Mason had been interesting over the past week. After the terrible lunch with his family, we’d agreed that probably neither of us had time for a relationship. But that was another thing I had miscalculated when it came to the harvest festival—the more I worked with Mason, the more I found myself drawn to him. And when he’d asked me if I wanted to hang out after work, I’d found myself agreeing before I’d even processed what he was asking.
Even though I was exhausted, or maybe because I was, I no longer worried where things with Mason might lead. Instead, I’d come to peace with the idea of having whatever we could have together. Even if it was only short-lived, I cared about Mason, and I could tell he cared about me. Why else would he be so focused on helping me?
“How was work today?” I asked, listening with half an ear as I finished the last of my duties behind the counter for the night.
“Long,” Mason said. “I hope you don’t mind, but tonight’s date is all about relaxing.”
I laughed. “That sounds perfect,” I told him. “I hauled a lot of the trimmings from the cornfield over to the compost pile this morning before work, so I’m a little sore.” I rolled my shoulders to emphasize my point.
“Maybe I’ll give you a massage,” Mason said.
I grinned, trying to act nonchalant even though I was quivering inside. I was definitely not opposed to the idea of his hands on me.
When I’d finished with everything, we headed out to Mason’s truck and got in. As we drove, I told him about my shift at the bar, not that much had happened. But Mason nodded along to all of it, letting me ramble. I smiled, feeling infinitely comfortable with him.
He parked in the middle of a field, and I looked quizzically over at him. “Is this what you do on dates, here in Oklahoma?” I asked, only half joking.
Mason grinned mysteriously and hopped out of the truck, coming around to open my door for me. “This is where the old drive-in movie theater used to be,” he explained, as he led me around to the bed of the truck. “I’m afraid that tonight though, our only show is the stars.”
I blinked in surprise at the comfortable nest that he’d built in the back of the truck. We both climbed in, and he wrapped his arms around me. For a long time, we just stared up at the stars.
Still stunned, I couldn’t help thinking how perfect this was. The stars were beautiful, and it was pleasantly warm, despite the fact that we were well into autumn by now. I felt safe and secure with Mason beside me, his strong arms wrapped around me.
I rolled around in his arms so that I could kiss him, lying half on top of him. His tongue plunged inside my mouth, sparking molten heat inside my core. Initially, he cupped my cheeks with his palms, but slowly, as we continued to kiss, he slid his hands down my body until they rested on my ass, pulling me in closer to him.
Through both of our jeans, I could feel how hard he was, and that managed to turn me on more. Mason was interested in me. It was a heady feeling.
I spread my legs, straddling him, and Mason groaned, his hands holding my hips in place as he turned his lips away from mine. “Abi,” he said.
“What?” I asked innocently, even though from the look on his face, I could tell exactly what I was doing.
“In the interest of taking things slow, we should stop now,” Mason said, his voice ragged.
“What if I don’t want to take things slow?” I asked, my voice whisper-soft.
Mason looked up at me in disbelief. I was pretty surprised by my words, myself. But this thing with Mason felt right. And at this moment, I couldn’t help thinking that if I was going to lose my virginity to anyone, I’d like it to be someone like him. Someone who cared about me, someone who would be gentle with me. Someone who was willing to wait, if that was what I wanted.
There were other things as well. He was incredibly sexy, and with the lust coursing through my body, I was sure I had already gone past the point of no return. I didn’t know how to stop now, feeling like this. It seemed that the only thing to do was to keep going, to let him inside me, his hardness tempering the heat of my core.
I bent down and placed a questioning kiss on Mason’s lips. “Please,” I breathed. “Can we…?”
Mason stared up at me for a long moment, and I thought at first that he was going to protest. I was prepared to respond with everything that he’d said when I’d tried to kick him off the harvest festival project. Like wasn’t I old enough to decide what I wanted to do?
But then, he simply said, “Are you sure?”
I nodded. I didn’t know how to explain it to him, but I felt more sure about this than I had ever felt about anything before. I wanted this.
Fortunately, he didn’t seem to require any explanation. He trusted me, just like I trusted him. That made something warm bubble in my core.
He rolled us over so that he was on top of me, and I automatically wrapped my legs around his waist as he leaned down, deepening our earlier kiss as he tilted his head to the side. He pushed my shirt up and off over my head, his fingers like branding irons against my skin. I felt a sudden impatience come over me as he played with my breasts through my bra, and I fumbled at the button of his jeans, trying to signal exactly what I needed.
Mason laughed and caught my wrists, bringing my fingers up to the buttons on his shirt. “Take it easy,” he said, a twinkle in his eyes.
I didn’t know how to explain what I was feeling. I had fooled around with other guys before, but I had never felt like this. Like if I didn’t get him inside of me now I would burst into a million pieces and scatter on the autumn breeze. I felt desperate. And needy.
And sexy.
Mason unclasped my bra and tossed that to the side, staring down at me with unmistakable hunger in his gaze. He lowered his mouth to the soft skin at the base of my neck and kissed from there down to my breasts. He licked and sucked at each nipple until they were hard points against my skin, poking up into the nighttime air.
I had the sudden thought that anyone could happen upon us, since we weren’t exactly in a secluded spot. But that only added to the thrill of it.
Finally managing to get all the buttons on his shirt undone, I pushed the material away from his bronze skin. I ran my hands down his firm chest, the subject of many of my daydreams over the past week. It felt just as good as I’d expected—warm and smooth, powerful.
Mason moved his mouth further down my body, kissing and sucking his way down to my navel, and I cried out, clinging to his biceps, as he nipped at the tender skin there. He flashed a grin up at
me and then quickly undid my jeans, sliding them and my panties out of the way before kissing the velvet skin between my legs.
Between his tongue and his fingers, I came undone in a matter of moments, entirely overcome by pleasure. He knew just where to touch, just where to lick and suck, driving me half mad with desire. My orgasm spilled through me, blinding me for a moment. It wasn’t the first orgasm that I’d ever had, but it was undoubtedly one of the best. There was just something so intimate about having Mason be the one touching me like that.
When I managed to blink my eyes open again, Mason was smirking down at me in a self-satisfied way.
I stared up at him, my brain working sluggishly. I frowned, realizing he still had his jeans on. Slowly, I reached over to undo them.
Mason raised an eyebrow at me. “Are you sure?” he asked quietly.
“Please,” I responded again.
He hovered there for a moment, his brow creasing. Then, he bent down and gave me another gentle, chaste kiss before slipping out of his jeans and boxers. He tugged my own jeans the rest of the way down so that he could settle comfortably between my legs, both of us naked as the day we were born. His hands traced down my sides, making me shiver slightly. I wanted to urge him onwards, but I also appreciated his naked appreciation of my body.
He fished a condom out of his pocket, tearing open the foil, his eyes continuing to rove hungrily over my body.
“Came prepared, did you?” I asked, grinning crookedly at him.
Mason gave me a sheepish look. “After everything with Ella, I just want to be extra careful,” he said. I laughed. “Are you sure about this?” Mason asked one last time.
I nodded at him. “Please.”
Mason reached out to squeeze my hand reassuringly. Then, he lined up his hard, no doubt aching, member between my legs and slid inside of me. It was just the tip at first, but it was still a pressure that I had to become accustomed to before he could push further into me. It hurt a little, sure, but not unbearably. Not so much that I wanted him to stop.