by Rachel Lacey
“Well, I’m glad, because it feels good to be held.” She rested her head against his shoulder, her voice gone quiet.
“It’s been so long since I’ve felt this kind of physical attraction. It just feels so…I don’t know what the right word is. I’ve felt so isolated. Sometimes I thought I’d never feel a woman’s touch again, even just to sit here like this with you in my lap.”
“Dammit, Jake. That’s really sweet…or sad…or both. I don’t know.”
He grunted with laughter. “I don’t want to be sweet or sad.”
“You’re not,” she said. “Maybe your situation is, but you’re strong and sexy and just so good. I’m really glad you’re getting this chance to go after all the things that you’ve had to wait so long for and really sorry Alana couldn’t be here with you for it.”
“It’s hard to even imagine what my life would have been like if she hadn’t fallen. I mean, she was only eighteen. I don’t know what she would have been like as an adult. I can’t even imagine myself with her now, because I’m so much older than the only Alana I ever knew, if that makes any sense.”
“I think it does, yeah.” She reached down and squeezed his hand. “And I’m really glad you’re willing to talk about her with me like this.”
“It would be more awkward if we didn’t talk about it, don’t you think?”
“I do.” She nodded. “Definitely.”
“This might sound strange, but talking to you here tonight, and all the other stuff we did, feels like the most functional thing I’ve done in years.”
She grinned. “I’m glad. Maybe it’s been a good, functional thing for me too.”
“And here I thought kissing you was a bad decision.”
“Sometimes bad decisions turn out to be good ones.”
7
Megan rolled over in bed, groaning as her face encountered something rough and scratchy, and why was she so cold? Her eyes popped open, and a red wool horse blanket came into focus before her bleary eyes. Right. Night in the barn.
Making out in the barn…
A grin tugged at her lips as she pushed herself up to a sitting position. Dawn had brightened the sky outside, and Jake stood at Bug’s stall door, watching her with a matching grin on his handsome face.
“How long was I asleep?” she asked, her voice as rough and scratchy as the blanket she’d been laying on.
“An hour or so. You needed it.”
“Not gonna lie, I’m heading straight for my bed as soon as we know Bug’s okay.”
“I’m probably going to do the same thing.” Fatigue sharpened the angles of his face and the tiny crinkles around his eyes. “The good news is that Bug just took a huge dump.”
Megan giggled as she climbed to her feet. “Feeling better now?” she asked the horse as she peered into her stall. Bug lifted her head, indeed looking much perkier than she had earlier in the night. “A big load off your mind, huh?”
Jake chuckled. “Doc Kaminski will be here in a few minutes. Hopefully he’ll give her the all clear.”
In the meantime, they took turns visiting the farmhouse to freshen up. By the time she made it back to the barn, the vet’s truck was in the driveway. She found him and Jake in the stall with Bug, examining her.
“Morning, Megan,” Doc Kaminski said.
“Good morning.”
“Heard you guys had a long night.”
“We did, but at least she seems to be getting better. She is getting better, right?” she asked, worry sneaking back into her tone.
The vet nodded, an easy smile on his weathered face. “She looks good this morning. I think she’s out of danger, although you’ll still want to keep a close eye on her for a couple of days, and I’ve recommended to Jake that you limit her hay for the rest of the week.” He gave Bug a pat on the rump as he left her stall. “I’ll call later to check on her.”
“Thanks again, Doc.”
Megan was quiet as the vet left, standing beside Bug’s stall. “Well, that’s a relief.”
He nodded. “I’d say we can safely go crash now. I’ll check on her later this morning.”
“I’ll come down and check on her again too.” She pushed Bug’s stall door open and walked to the horse, resting a hand gently on her neck. “Really glad you’re feeling better, kiddo.”
“That makes two of us,” Jake said from behind her.
She walked out of the stall, shut and latched the door, and turned to face him. “So, we should probably talk, preferably soon, before I wind up in your lap again.”
He grinned. “How about dinner? My place? Say, seven tonight?”
“I’d like that.” And wow, she couldn’t remember the last time a man had cooked for her, let alone offered to cook for her without any prompting on her part.
“See you tonight, if I don’t bump into you in the barn before then.” He leaned in to press a quick, gentle kiss against her lips before they walked out of the barn together, parting at the end of the driveway. He took the fork toward the farmhouse, and she climbed the lane toward the main castle.
“You look like you had a rough night,” Ruby said, walking out of the parlor as Megan pushed through the castle’s front doors.
“Spending the night in the barn will do that to a girl.” She allowed her empty stomach to guide her straight to the kitchen.
Ruby followed, laptop tucked beneath her arm. “How’s Bug?”
“Out of danger for now, although apparently we’ll have to watch her more closely to keep it from happening again.”
“She’s okay, though?” Elle asked as she walked into the kitchen.
Megan quickly recounted her night and Bug’s prognosis for her friends, as Beatrice plied them with freshly baked bagels.
“So, what did you and Jake do to pass all that time together?” Ruby asked, eyebrows climbing behind her glasses.
“Um.” Megan could feel the flush spreading over her skin. “A little of that, yeah.”
“What?” Ruby said, her voice rising to a squeal. “I was just joking, Meg. Holy shit, what did you guys do?”
“Kissed, messed around some. He hasn’t…” She rubbed at the fatigue-induced headache building behind her eyes. “You know about his wife, and well, she was in a coma for nine years…”
“He hasn’t been with anyone since his wife died?” Elle asked.
Megan shook her head. “So that’s…a lot to think about.”
“It is,” Ruby agreed. “In fact, I say we need a girls’ night to discuss before you take this any farther.”
“Any excuse for girls’ night sounds good to me,” Elle said.
“Yeah,” Megan agreed. Now that she was back at the castle, dinner with Jake tonight felt like too much, too soon. Ruby was right. She did need to talk this through with her friends before she made any decisions. “Let’s do it.”
Jake walked into the farmhouse and headed straight for the bedroom. He sat on the bed, unzipped his jacket, and tossed it aside. It felt good to sit on something soft. He needed sleep, but before he could sleep, he needed a shower. Was Megan doing the same thing right now, undressing for a shower before she climbed into bed? The image formed in his head before he could stop it, followed by a vivid memory of the way it had felt to hold her in his arms and kiss her, the intense pleasure of her hips grinding against his.
His cock hardened inside the confines of his jeans. He needed release. Desperately. All thoughts of a shower or sleep now forgotten, he lay back on the bed and unzipped his jeans, fisting himself, imagining that he was back in the barn with Megan. Instead of the mattress beneath him, it was Twister’s red winter blanket, and she was riding him hard and fast. This was his fantasy after all, so the reasons they hadn’t actually had sex in the barn didn’t matter.
He imagined sinking deep inside her, hips thrusting against hers as he barreled toward the finish line. And since it was only a fantasy, he didn’t care that he wasn’t going to last long, because his orgasm was already building, and all he could thin
k about was getting there as quickly as possible.
His cell phone started to ring. He stilled his hand, glancing over at it. Megan’s name gleamed on the screen, and she really had amazingly accurate timing for interrupting him. This time, he could easily let her go to voicemail, though, and carry on. But suddenly, the need to hear her voice was greater than his physical need. He released his cock, swallowing a groan.
“Hello?” His voice sounded like he’d swallowed sandpaper.
“Hi,” she said. “It’s Megan.”
As if he could possibly mistake her voice or the fire that shot through his groin at the sound. “I know.”
She laughed softly. “I figured, but…you weren’t already asleep, were you?”
“Nope, not asleep.” Very painfully awake.
“You sound kind of…” She drifted off, as if she’d just realized exactly what he was doing. Maybe she had. The thought only made him harder. “Did I interrupt…?”
“Not interrupting anything,” he said, hearing the raw need in his voice and not much caring. His cock throbbed impatiently.
“No?” Now she sounded amused. “So, you don’t mind chatting with me while I get ready for bed?”
“Can’t,” he growled. “Busy.”
“That’s what I thought.” He could hear the smile in her voice. “Listen, I was just calling because it turns out I have plans tonight. Can we do dinner tomorrow night instead?”
“Sure. No problem.”
“Okay. I’ll let you go, then,” she paused. “Oh, and Jake?”
“Yeah?”
“Think of me,” she whispered.
As if he could possibly not. He slung the phone onto the table beside the bed, his fist again moving at a frenzied pace. Megan’s voice in his ear, the heat of her body grinding against his…
The orgasm took him hard, pulsing through him as he came, and he came, and he came. He could hear himself swearing, fist still moving, milking every moment of his much-needed release because he hadn’t come this hard—or this long—in years.
Afterward, he lay flat on his back, feet on the floor, still wearing his boots, panting and gasping for breath as blissful relief buzzed through his veins. Jesus Christ. If this was even a fraction of how good it felt to have sex, he might have just fully realized what he’d been missing.
Megan woke, groggy and disoriented. She squinted at the clock. Why was she in bed at noon? Slowly, the previous night came back to her. Bug’s colic. Sitting in the barn with Jake. That phone call as she was climbing into bed when his voice sounded like pure sex and she was so sure she’d interrupted him jerking off that she’d had to pull out her vibrator after she got off the phone before she could fall asleep herself.
With a groan, she crawled out of bed, her body annoyingly sluggish after her disjointed sleep. She showered and dressed and spent the next hour walking not only her foster dogs, but Elle’s too, to make up for Elle watching her dogs last night. As she looked at the calendar on her phone, she realized with a jolt that her first portrait session was booked for today.
She’d been anxiously anticipating it for days, and then Bug’s colic had completely wiped it from her mind. A shiver ran through her, erasing the last remnants of sleep from her brain. Earlier that week, she’d scouted some potential locations, but she’d need to review them before the session. Focused now, she headed downstairs for a late lunch while tabbing through her notes. Then, she went upstairs to get her camera, giving herself a silent pep talk, before heading to the foyer.
Here goes nothing…
“Hi, I’m Megan Perl.” She extended her hand to the young couple waiting for her there. “You must be the Chens.”
And from there, it went…surprisingly well. She led them around the castle grounds, having them pose in various locations and snapping some impromptu photos of them walking and interacting with each other too. It helped that they were very much in love, giving Megan plenty of unscripted romantic moments.
When she made it back to her room afterward, she sat on the bed, tabbing through photos on the viewfinder. There were plenty of tossers—blurry photos or pictures where someone’s eyes were closed—but there were also some nice shots in there, certainly enough to work with once she started editing them.
Bubbling with a restless combination of relief, excitement, and exhaustion, she left her room and walked down to the barn to check on Bug. She found the rescue horses in their usual spot in the riding arena, dozing in the sunshine. Both horses lifted their heads and stared at her as she approached.
“Hey, ladies. Long time, no see,” Megan said as she walked up to the fence.
Bug walked over to greet her, allowing Megan to rub her face, careful not to come close to the bite wound on her cheek. Beneath the purple spray, the wound looked much better than it had when they’d arrived almost two weeks ago. She was healing, just as Megan had.
“Lucky for you, I don’t think the boy horses will care if you have a scar on your face,” Megan told her softly.
Bug flicked her ears, dropping her head to nibble at a few stray pieces of hay in the dirt.
“Hopefully potential owners won’t care either.” Although Megan had her doubts about that. She’d seen scarred or otherwise “imperfect” animals be looked over at the shelter in favor of the prettier ones. Human nature was what it was, after all. Megan’s fingers slid over the jagged line on her face.
Sometimes…sometimes she could almost forget it was there. But it only took one awkward glance from a guest at the castle or the kid behind the register at the grocery store to remind her. And every time she looked at herself in the mirror, it was all she could see. It changed her whole face.
The scars extended down her left arm, although she knew it was her own vanity that kept her from being as conscious of the scarring there. No one flinched when they saw her arm, not the way they did when they saw her face.
Before the accident, Megan had been the outgoing social butterfly in her group of friends. Men gravitated to her with very little effort on her part, and she basked in their attention. Now, sometimes she wasn’t even sure who she was anymore.
“Just can’t seem to keep you away,” Jake said from behind her.
She turned, allowing her hair to fall over the left side of her face out of habit, even though Jake had seen her scars plenty of times by now. “I just wanted to check on her before I head up for dinner.”
“She’s doing fine.” He reached out and tucked her hair behind her ear. “Dinner, huh? Who am I getting blown off for?”
“Elle and Ruby,” she admitted. “Girls’ night.”
“Well, I can’t complain about that. Want to help me bring them in?” he asked, gesturing toward the horses.
“Oh, yeah. Sure.”
He lifted Bug’s halter and lead line off the hook on the fence where they’d been hanging and handed them to her. “She seems to have taken to you.”
“I like her too,” Megan said as she fitted the halter onto Bug’s head, surprised at how quickly she’d become comfortable handling the horses, Bug in particular.
Jake took Dusty Star, and together they led the two horses into the barn. The aisle was clear today, but Megan still felt a delicious heat travel over her skin as her gaze fell on the spot where she and Jake had fooled around on the horse blanket last night.
She led Bug into her stall and took off her halter, giving her one last rub before she left her. “I’ll see you tomorrow, then,” she said to Jake, waving over her shoulder as she left the barn. By the time she made it to the castle, Ruby was already ushering her toward the stairs for their girls’ dinner up in the tower. She carried one of the platters Beatrice had prepared for them, and Megan grabbed the other one. Elle came behind them, carrying a wine tote and glasses.
“I brought three bottles tonight,” Elle said.
Ruby lifted her eyebrows in question as she set the platter on her dresser and started spreading out blankets for them to sit on. Her cats, Simon and Oliver, hopped up,
sniffing at the covered tray.
“I thought we might need extra wine to accompany all the gossip,” Elle said. “And also, Theo left for London this morning, so I figured I might as well have a few glasses while I panic about how I have to get married in front of the whole Langdon family at their fancy estate in England.”
Megan turned to her friend in surprise. “Isn’t that what you wanted?”
“It is, but it isn’t,” Elle said with a shrug, her shoulders stiff. “I mean, you know I’m totally in love with the idea of a fairytale wedding, but I just…I never quite feel like I fit in when I visit their estate. Everyone’s so proper and cultured. They’re all born and raised in the aristocracy, and I’m…not. Some of them look down their noses at me.”
“I’m sorry, Elle,” Ruby said, resting a hand on her arm. “That’s lousy.”
“It is,” Megan agreed.
“And then there’s Theo’s uncle George, who thinks he’s making a huge mistake by living here in America and never misses a chance to rub his nose in it.” By now, Elle had opened the first bottle of wine and was pouring glasses for each of them.
“Well, you can rub all their noses in it when you become his wife,” Megan said, wrapping an arm around her friend. “And you’ll have us, and your dad, and lots of other friends and family there that day to support you.”
“Yeah,” Elle said with a smile, her shoulders relaxing. “That’s true. It’ll all feel so much better with you guys there beside me.”
“We’ve got your back, always.” Ruby joined in, and they held on to each other for a group hug.
“Thanks for the pep talk, ladies.” Elle swiped at her eyes. “I needed that.”
“Any time,” Megan told her. “That’s what we’re here for.”
“And also for gossip,” Ruby added as she raised her wineglass for a toast.
Megan and Elle leaned in to tap their glasses against hers.
“And what are we gossiping about tonight, exactly?” Megan asked.
“You and Jake,” Ruby told her. “We want all the details on what happened last night in the barn. Did you guys literally go for a roll in the hay or what?”