Chapter 8
Brody
Well, shit. April and I have a lot more in common than I realized. She wasn’t alone in the whole not taking time to get to know people before going to bed with them thing. The only person in my life I had ever done that with was Mitch, and I wasn’t really given a choice in the matter.
I hadn’t given it much thought, either, and I silently applauded her for the self-awareness she possessed. I don’t know if I would have recognized that trait in myself if she didn’t first confess it in herself. Unlike her, I didn’t really see it as a big deal, more than just a fact, but I wasn’t a chick, either. The idea of settling down was not one I was predisposed to.
Then again, I was thirty-seven-years old. Maybe it was time to start slowing things down.
Slow wasn’t really my jam, I mused as I took April’s hand and led her into the house. Slow wasn’t, but brownies were. If it would make her feel better and end with me having a hot gooey plate of brownies in front of me, baking was something I could do.
We stepped into the kitchen to find Merry standing in front of a counter full of dirty dishes and an open dishwasher.
“Oh, for God’s sake!” April exclaimed, taking over and all but pushing Merry out of the way. “Don’t let Slade catch you doing these for me. He’ll kick both our butts.”
“No, just mine,” Merry quipped with a wink, leaving me wide eyed and speechless. “Besides, it might be a nice break from having him treat me like a piece of fine china he’s afraid of breaking.”
April shook her head, chuckling, but the gleam in her eyes spoke volumes and told me everything I needed to know. She may have wanted to slow down, but she enjoyed everything, even the spanking Mitch had given her. Good to know. Taking a seat at the breakfast nook, I watched their exchange and waited.
“Well, if you need something from Slade, you better figure out some other way to get it that doesn’t include doing my job for me.” April snatched the dish towel from Merry’s hands and snapped it at her.
“Fiiine!” Merry stomped her foot and heaved an exaggerated sigh, before turning to wink at me and sashaying out of the kitchen.
When she was gone, April turned to me with a mischievous glint in her eyes. “Okay, now, hot stuff. Let’s see how you measure up in the kitchen.”
I stood and held my hands out in front of me. “I’m all yours. At your beck and call. Just consider me your sous chef extraordinaire. Put me to work.”
April clicked her tongue. “Not so fast there, hot stuff. You aren’t kitchen ready quite yet.”
She pointed to the sink and, to my amusement, slapped my ass. “Wash up, cowboy. I don’t know where those hands have been today.”
“Yes, ma’am,” I teased with a mock salute. “Bossy.”
“Hey, I can give as good as I get, you know,” she teased.
“I sincerely doubt that,” I snickered, washing my hands and drying before turning back to her. “Washed up and at your service.”
April shook her head. “Almost. First, you need to pick an apron. Third drawer down.”
“An apron?” I scoffed. “Is that really necessary? “
“My kitchen, my rules.”
“Oh, I see. Well, then,” I intoned, grabbing the frilly apron from the drawer and slipping it over my neck with a smile as I closed the space between us. “ I’ll tell you the same thing I told Mitch—as long as we’re outside the bedroom and on your turf, you can go ahead and boss me around as you please, but once we step outside this kitchen, you best be prepared to get as well as you gave.”
Her reaction was visible in the way her pupils dilated and the slight tremble in her throat when she gulped. “O-okay” she stuttered.
I smacked her ass. A little tit for tat. “What was that?”
“I said,” she huffed, raising her voice, “O-kay. As in okay, but right now, we are in the kitchen, and that’s my turf.”
I laughed heartily, unable to contain my mirth. She was a spitfire, and I found myself enjoying her precocious banter over the usual meek submissive I encountered in the city. She could match me wit for wit, I was learning.
“Fair enough, oh kitchen goddess. But wait, don’t you need an apron, also?” My hands worked behind my back tying the straps into a haphazard bow.
“Yes, I do. And you can get it for me, kitchen slave. After all, you are, as you put it, at my service.”
“Kitchen slave?” I choked, even as I went back to the drawer and grabbed a floral apron that matched my own. “Oh, you’re going to pay for that later.”
I held out the apron to her, and she took it, looking me straight in the eye. “Promise?”
Oh, I promised, all right.
Mitch
The closing credits of Nan’s soaps were playing on full blast, and Nan was asleep in her rocker, covered with her favorite pink afghan, when I entered at a few minutes past four.
I didn’t know how she could sleep with all this racket, though. I heard the shrieks coming from the kitchen long before I ever entered the house.
Ditching my muddy boots at the door, I padded through the living and dining room in my stocking feet, not fully sure what I was going to walk in on.
What I did not expect was to be hit square in the face with a handful of wet flour before I even got a chance to announce my arrival.
“What the hell?” Stepping back, I wiped the glop from my eyes and surveyed the scene in front of me, unable to believe my eyes.
April was facing me, with Brody standing behind her. She was wrapped tightly in an embrace that looked to be half intimate and half a means of containment. They wore identical pink floral aprons, and both of them were covered in flour and the same glop that was still dripping from between my eyes.
“Well, isn’t this cozy?” I drawled, walking in and snagging a brownie off a plate on the table.
I made sure to catch Brody’s eye before taking a huge bite. “What exactly have the two of you been up to, and how, exactly, will you two manage to get it cleaned up before Nan wakes up and sees it?”
This question, oddly enough, garnered an unconcerned shrug from April while Brody looked slightly nervous.
“We baked,” April answered, stating the obvious. “And Brody helped me make soup for dinner.” I looked over and saw chili simmering in a crockpot, with a large plate of corn muffins next to it.
“We were getting to know each other.” Brody released April from his grasp and began to untie the floral apron he was wearing with a sheepish grin. “Guess we didn’t realize how much time had passed.”
“I see.” I couldn’t help the stabbing feeling I got in my gut when I looked at the cozy picture the two of them made. I was the one who sent Brody up here, fully knowing that he planned to find April and get to the bottom of why she was ignoring us.
I guess I hadn’t fully thought that through or expected it to go quite so well. But, Brody had been in my way. He was my best friend, but he was no cowboy and trying to turn him into one wasn’t exactly the bag of laughs that I thought it would be.
The two of them started cleaning, completely in sync with each other as they worked their way around the flour covered kitchen. I stared at them helplessly. And then I asked myself a question I asked often. What would Brody do in this situation? The answer was easy. He had given it to me a few days earlier, when he inserted himself into mine and April’s private moment. Time to take a page from his book.
Shaking my head, I crossed the kitchen and took a broom from the pantry. They both stopped and looked at me.
“What? I can’t get in on this whole get to know each other bonding thing you’ve got going on? That doesn’t seem fair.”
“Oh, you want in on this, huh?” Brody’s voice was jovial and full of humor. “Well then, cowboy, let me warn you that April has claimed the kitchen as her domain and declared herself as the one in charge until such time as we step outside those French doors. And she’s a real slave driver.”
One look at the bemused expres
sion on Brody’s face told me that he wasn’t joking at all. I laughed hard. I couldn’t contain it. The idea of the cute little pixie bossing around the strong brooding Dom was just too much.
I laughed until April came up, slapped a plastic dustpan against my chest, and wagged her finger in my face. “Less laughing, slave-boy. More working.”
Slave boy? I gaped at Brody. He nodded. “She knows she’s gonna be paying for that later, right?”
“Oh, yeah. Unfortunately, that little fact didn’t discourage her much. It just made her use the nickname more.”
“Gotta get my money’s worth,” April quipped, spinning on her heel as she headed back over to the sink and plunged her hands into the soapy water.
“I’ll show you your money’s worth,” I muttered, sweeping up a large pile of flour into the dustpan.
Brody heard me and chuckled. “Not likely.”
“I’ll show you, too,” I told him. Sweeping up the last pile of flour, I put the broom away, retrieved the steam mop, and shoved it into Brody’s hand. “Finish cleaning up. I want in on this bonding thing, and I know just the activity.”
“A shower?” Brody quipped, raising his eyebrow at my firm tone.
“Later.” I smiled. He would need one when I was done with him.
Thirty minutes later, I led them out to the porch. They were both cleaned up, but neither had gotten a shower yet, and their clothes were still dusted with flour.
“What are we doing out here?” Brody asked, looking wary. “Watching the sunset?”
“You wish,” I scoffed, clapping him on the back. “Today, my friend, is the day we get you on a horse.”
Brody’s demeanor instantly changed from sarcastic and jovial to nervous and glowering. “The fuck, you say?”
“Riding horses is a great bonding experience. Can’t have a relationship based solely on sex and spanking.”
“Who said anything about a relationship?” April questioned, at the same time Brody argued.
“It’s not. It’s also based on brownies.”
I rolled my eyes at both of them. “Come on, let’s go.”
Brody allowed me to take his hand, but he was still shaking his head.
“You have to get on a horse, sometime,” I admonished. “Better now, for fun, with just April and me around, than in front of Slade, Blake and twenty mouthy teenagers.”
I sat back and waited for him to come to the conclusion I knew he would come to. Appealing to his sense of pride was a tactic that always worked. As he was fond of saying, he had a reputation to uphold.
“Fine,” he finally huffed. “But, I’m not happy about it. And you owe me.”
“Oh, I know.” Just like April would eventually pay for nicknaming Brody slave boy, I would have my lips wrapped around his cock before the day was over. Like April, I intended to make it worth it.
April
On one hand, the idea of doing something not sexual or discipline related sounded heavenly, and watching Brody get on a horse for the first time was something I did not want to miss. On the other, the sexual tension between Brody and me had been building for hours. When Mitch stepped into the kitchen and joined us, it only escalated instead of fizzled.
Watching the two of them together should have been off putting. It was almost intimidating how close they were and how in tune to each other. When Mitch took Brody’s hand and started leading him down to the barns, I got a serious lady boner.
All I could think about was what it would feel like to be between the two of them again. Maybe this time, they would even get me off, and I would finally be able to give my vibrator a break. It had been on overdrive since the day I arrived.
Down, girl. I coached myself. This is exactly what you wanted. And even if it doesn’t feel like what you want at the moment, it’s exactly what you need.
I lingered behind them, taking my time and enjoying the view. I must have been walking too slowly. Brody peeked over his shoulder and caught my eye. The longing on his face conveyed the fact that his own thoughts were of the same vein as mine.
I caught up to them at the corral. Brody hung back at the entrance while Mitch went inside to saddle up the horses. As soon as he was out of sight and earshot, Brody grabbed for my hips, pulling my body close to him. I could feel his erection through the fabric of my jeans, and my body reacted instantly.
“There’s a nice soft pile of hay back behind the barns,” Brody whispered seductively. “Fancy a roll in it?”
Pulling away took everything in me.
“Not today. You heard Mitch. We need to find common ground outside of the bedroom.”
“I can assure you, I’m not going to find common ground with anybody while atop of a horse. Not even with the horse.”
I rolled my eyes at him ever so slightly. “Why not? Mitch and I enjoy riding. That’s two out of three, right there.”
“Not going to happen. Not ever.”
He reached for me again, and I jumped out of his reach.
He truly looked like he didn’t plan on moving as long as being on top of a horse was part of the agenda.
“Okay, fine. We’ll go without you. We’ll spend the day getting to know each other so well that the next time the three of us are together, you’ll feel like the outsider.”
That statement was so ridiculously impossible, it didn’t even warrant a response, really. I knew it, and Brody knew it. He didn’t even try to come up with a retort. He just stared at me blankly.
Glancing toward the barn and then back at his stubborn face, I tossed out a Hail Mary pass, just as Mitch called out, beckoning us to join him in the barn.
“I dare you.”
Brody
Of course, it couldn’t have been as simple as just getting me on a horse. Mitch and April enjoyed every second of putting me through the paces. They insisted on teaching me how to groom and how to put on a saddle and gave me a full-on horse anatomy lesson. With how much info they crammed down my throat in such a short amount of time, I was half afraid there would be a pop quiz later.
And finally, they introduced me to the lamest, slowest, oldest looking horse in the whole stable, laughing the whole time.
“Brody, this is Abigail, Merry’s horse. She’s the horse we usually use for beginners.”
“Fine, whatever,” I huffed, secretly relieved. She was tan in color, short, and stout. I sized her up, knowing all eyes were on me as they waited for me to mount her.
“Did you need some help up, cowboy?” April giggled.
“No. Thank you.” Grabbing the saddle by the horn, I held it tightly and did a pull up, using it as leverage, until I was high up enough to get a leg over. I quickly settled in position, feeling pretty damn pleased with myself until I realized that both Brody and April were doubled over in raucous laughter.
I glared at them until they finally shut up. “You could have just used the hale bale in the corner of the stall,” April gasped out. “That’s what it’s there for, Superman.”
“Superman, huh? I’ll show you Superman,” I grunted. “I don’t see the two of you on horses.”
“Our horses are ready and waiting outside the barn. Mitch got them ready and saddled up while we were in the kitchen, and I led them out to the corral while you were getting your grooming lesson.”
“Oh, sure,” I snorted, leaning forward and giving my horse’s side a little kick the way Mitch had shown me. “Don’t get my horse ready or anything. I see how it is.”
“If I did everything for you, how would you learn?” Mitch grabbed Abigail’s reins and led me out of the barn like one of the students from the group homes who came here for horseback riding lessons.
“I’m not the only one going to be learning something before the day is over,” I grumbled.
Mitch and April caught my eye and shot me exaggerated winks.
“Promises. Promises.”
I sat rested atop Abigail and waited for them to mount.. “What are we doing, and why do we have to get there by horse?
And then, he was off, with April on her horse behind him and me straggling behind at a snail’s pace. I prayed that the worst part was over and they didn’t plan on putting me through too much more of this torture. I could already feel a soreness in my quads that I hadn’t felt since my early gym days. Legs were not meant to bend this way. And certainly not for long periods of time.
We left the corral through the far gate and headed towards the trails. Thankfully, they were having an ounce of pity on me and not taking the trail as fast as Mitch usually did.
The scenery was different than the skyscrapers and city blocks I was used to, but that was truly all the activity had going for it. Not to mention, since it was early March and still winter, the scenery wasn’t all that much to look at, anyway. Mostly dead grass, bare trees, and overcast skies.
As if he could read my mind, Mitch began commenting on the usual fauna and flora, describing what the area looked like in the different seasons.
“Well, aren’t you a regular little tour guide?”
“Something like that.” Mitch was refusing to take my bait, taking any ounce of fun I might have gotten to experience on this excursion and stomping on it.
“Remind me why we are doing this again?”
“Because we enjoy torturing you,” April retorted quickly. “You know, a little tit for all that tat you throw our way.”
I watched her ass bounce in the saddle as she trotted in front of me. “Oh, it’s a good thing we’re doing this right now, I guess, with all the tat you’re going to be getting when I get my hands on you, little one. You won’t want to be sitting on a horse; that’s for sure.”
Spring Fever Daddies Page 9