by K. M. Hill
His body collapsed over her. He was barely aware of trying to be careful in not crushing her but he wanted to fold her into him. What he did not want to do was pull out of her.
But he did and kissed her shoulders as he did. She was still laid down against the counter.
He pulled his pants up but didn’t button them.
He pulled her skirt down and pulled her up and to him so her back was to him.
“Baby, are you ok?” he asked worried that she was so quiet.
She dropped her head back onto his shoulder.
How do you answer that… after that? She thought with wonder. “I think so…”
“Did I hurt you?” he asked with greater concern.
“NO…you destroyed me though,” she said with a small laugh.
“Good. If you can walk easily, I haven’t done my job well enough. If your legs aren’t shaky, we need more until they are,” he said with a promise.
“Oh, they are shaky. No worries there…” she said with a chuckle.
“Why don’t you go upstairs and run a bath for us and I’ll let the dogs in.”
“Whatever you say, Zach” she replied.
“Whoa, what was that? Fully under my command. I need to remember this. If I want you to just follow my orders, all I need to do is…”
She smiled and he went to the back door to let the dogs in. They all made their way upstairs. After a bath and another round of him loving her, they crawled into bed. She fell asleep with her head on his chest and with a smile on his face.
Chapter 16
Zach rolled over, glad it was Monday. Mondays were almost every horse person’s day off and time to sleep and catch up on life. He had plans for catching up on life with Sabrina. He felt the bed empty beside him and rolled over and looked at the clock. It was only 5 am. Where was she?
He found her in the kitchen finishing up some emails. She was already showered and dressed and about to head to the office.
“Babe, what are you doing up?” he asked.
“Heading to the office,” she replied.
“It’s only 5 am? You’re leaving now?”
“Yes, actually, I’m about 15 minutes late. I like to typically leave a bit early,” she said continuing to get ready.
He groaned inwardly. You’ve got to be kidding me, he thought. This woman was nuts.
“Zach, what time do you head to the barn on horse show mornings or mornings that you have to get started early?” she asked turning the tables on him.
He was silent. She got him there.
But it was Monday! He thought.
“I like to get in three to four hours worth of work each day ahead of the rest of my team getting in. That allows me the room to meet with my team and key people in the organization, rather than need to hide in my office to get work done.”
He understood. There was so much to what she did, that he knew she worked tremendously hard and very long days.
“Want me to make you coffee?” he asked.
“No, it’s made and in the pot. I was just coming up to tell you I was leaving,” she said as she walked over to him.
“You want me to head out now too?” he asked confused.
“Of course not! Go back to bed. It’s Monday. I know this is your sanctuary day. I’ve let the dogs out and fed them so they will be happy to go back up with you,” she replied.
“Are you traveling this week?” he inquired.
“No, I’m here all this week,” she replied.
“Good. When are you planning on riding?
“Every night except tonight since no one will be there,” she said with a smile.
He loved her smile. It gave him such a feeling of contentment to have this goddess smiling at him.
“I don’t want to crowd you, but I’m sure you are going to be swamped getting back into the office after traveling the last few weeks. Do you want me to come back tonight and maybe grab Chinese for dinner?” he asked.
She regarded him for a minute. She hadn’t thought about tonight. Were they starting “all in” with every spare moment? Was she setting a bad precedent by them being together tonight? What about tomorrow night after her rides? And the night after that? She should probably put a little discipline and distance in this relationship.
“No, I’ll probably just grab a salad late at the office. I don’t know what time I will be done and I don’t want you to be inconvenienced,” she said trying to sound casual.
Her face didn’t match her words, thought Zach. What’s up with this, he thought?
“You sure?” he asked again.
“Yes, I’ll see you tomorrow after work at the barn.”
“Ok,” he said reluctantly.
He walked over to her and pulled her into him.
“I’m going to miss you. I had a great time last night. I hope your day is very productive and you feel better by the end of it.” He gave her a searing kiss.
He finished by kissing her on the forehead and patting her ass.
“Bye babe.”
And he headed upstairs.
How the hell do I go to work now that the walking sex machine had just fogged up my mind, she thought to herself? One foot in front of the other, she could do this. She grabbed her briefcase and went to work.
Chapter 17
She had kept up with emails and meetings while she was away as best she could, but just as she suspected, there was an avalanche of work waiting for her in her office. She had grabbed another cup of coffee on her drive and settled into her desk to attack the pile. It was another three hours before she heard the rest of the office stream in.
Much of her team popped their head into her office to greet her. She had a great team and strong relationships across the board. She’d hired very talented people, supported them thoroughly and them gave them the room to be successful. She knew she was fantastic at what she did and her work was now about helping other people getting to that same level of competence. Much of the work was coaching her team to perform at an incredibly high level… which they did.
She left her office to go to the deli across the street to grab some soup for lunch and realized that she hadn’t heard from Zach. She was surprised. She expected him to call or text her. Should she text him? She hated the beginnings of a relationship when patterns were not established and you questioned all of your actions.
She laughed to herself thinking about what Zach would do right now. If he were here, he would pull her into his arms and kiss her lights out and then tell her how serious she was. It was true. She had a very serious side that was focused on work. He brought out her lighter side even though he was no less committed to being wildly successful.
She was being dumb. While standing in line to get her soup, she sent him a smiley face text message. It was about thirty minutes before she got a heart back. She had expected him to reply right away and spent those thirty minutes distracted. She replied to his text.
“What are you up to?” she texted.
“Running errands,” he replied. “How is your day going?”
“Busy, but good. Happy to be in my office and not traveling.”
“I bet. Hope the rest of the day is good as well. Talk to you later,” and he ended their conversation.
She sat there for a moment. She didn’t think they were going to end the conversation so quickly. She felt unfinished.
She put her phone in her pocket and headed back to the office. The rest of the day wasn’t as good as the first part. She had arrived fulfilled and ready to get to work. She lost that feeling at lunch. She missed him, she realized. Even though it had only been a few hours, she missed him.
She texted him again later in the afternoon.
“Your idea about Chinese sounds great. I’ll be home around 8:00 if you want to meet me there,” she sent to him.
Again, it was almost a half hour before he replied.
“Sorry Sabrina. I can’t do it any longer. I have plans, so will need to take a rain check.” She receive
d back as a message.
A RAIN CHECK? WHAT THE FUCK? A RAIN CHECK?
Simmer down, she told herself. He had a life before you and still has one.
“Anything fun?” she texted back.
“My college roommates and I are going out. I already had plans with them. Was going to blow them off earlier to have dinner with you but when that was off the table, I confirmed I would be here,” he replied.
Sabrina bit her lip. Shit. She didn’t want to text her next idea because it would make her seem desperate. But she did…
“Blow them off,” she texted back.
“No, I can’t,” he replied.
“Since you were going to do that earlier, what’s the difference?” she typed back.
“I hadn’t confirmed earlier so it wouldn’t have been as rude.”
So he was implying she was rude. She was embarrassed at his rejection and now annoyed as his declaration of her rudeness.
“Have fun,” she texted.
“I will. You too,” he replied.
Me too? Doing what? Working? Going home to an empty house… She caught herself. She previously found all of that fine and the work fulfilling. She’ll just take care of herself and do her thing, as she was very accustomed to doing.
Zach put his phone down and thought about Sabrina. She was playing games and he didn’t like it. He sensed her distancing herself this morning when he suggested dinner. That was fine, he didn’t want her to feel pressured.
But he was not going to change his plans on a dime just because she wasn’t getting what she wanted. The fact that she called him out for not texting her back right away clued him in to her feeling like he wasn’t being responsive. He wasn’t one of her staff. More importantly, he wasn’t Troy. He didn’t have to jump to her needs. He liked making her happy, but there was a difference in performing for her and being an equal in making her happy. She would need to learn the difference, he decided.
Chapter 18
One day into this relationship and she was already sideways. Where was he? It was 1:15 in the morning and she couldn’t sleep. She hadn’t heard from him again. She texted him at 11:45 and to say good night and that she would see him at the barn but no reply. She was pissed.
If this was how he was going to be on communicating, they were going to have some issues. When she sent a text, she expected a reply. She was pissed off brushing her teeth and went to bed. By 12:45, lying awake, she realized she wasn’t pissed any more. She was hurt.
He came on so strong that she thought he would be waiting for her texts. Did he not mean all the things he said last night in the airport and when they were intimate? She was beginning to rethink and doubt how things were between them.
That’s fine, she thought. She really didn’t need him. He had asked for her to be “all in” but apparently he wasn’t. Well, then she wasn’t either. Maybe they should slow things way down. They had moved fast.
She heard a movement in the hallway and the dogs let out a low growl. She became instantly alert. Had she remembered to lock the door? She wasn’t sure. Suddenly her door opened and she was terrified. A large figure stood in the door but strangely the dogs stopped growling and went over to the figure.
“Brine?” a voice came through the door.
“Zach?” she asked tentatively.
“Yes, sweetheart, it is me,” he replied coming through the door.
“What are you doing here? You scared me to death,” as she reached over to switch on the light.
“Well, I was about to text you when I hit the front door but decided to try the door. Just as I had feared, it was unlocked. You really need to do a better job of locking up,” he said chastising her.
“So you dropped by to tell me to lock my door,” she asked with her arms crossed.
“No, I came by because I couldn’t wait another minute to see you.”
Her heart leapt at that! Control yourself girl, she chided herself. He made her wait all day. Don’t go leaping back into his arms.
“Oh, now that you are done with the boys, you’re coming for a booty call?” she said with a serious face.
Just as he thought, Zach surmised. We’ve got a power play going on here.
“Um, no. If I wanted a booty call, there were about a dozen women I turned down tonight who would have gladly taken care of my needs,” he said simply.
He faced her standing now with his arms crossed at the foot of her bed.
That little statement made her see red. Really? A dozen?
“Maybe you should have taken one of them up on it and not come in and woken me up,” she said pissed off.
“First of all, you were up. Second of all, didn’t know those were the rules. Now I understand. Clearly this was a bad idea. I’ll talk to you later.” He turned and walked out of the room.
And she let him go.
Chapter 19
She didn’t call or text him the next day. She knew she was being a bitch to him, but she couldn’t help herself. When she didn’t hear from him, it pissed her off. When he arrived in her room and scared her, it pissed her off. When he mentioned he had a dozen women ready to “take care of his needs”, it really pissed her off. And when he left, it pissed her off even more!
Until it made her really sad. How did this spiral downward so fast? Maybe he wasn’t used to being in a relationship with someone who was strong? Maybe this wasn’t going to work after all.
She was a bit lethal throughout the day. She was usually more measured in her responses, but snapped the heads off of three people in meetings. She could see them exchange glances around the table. She didn’t care.
When the end of the day was approaching, she had to make a decision. Would she go to the barn or not? She was still really pissed at what had transpired and was blown away that he had left and didn’t even call to apologize. She decided that she didn’t need the aggravation of dealing with him today, even though she really wanted to ride. It had been over a week, what with her trip to NY and then Hawaii. Screw him. She went to the gym.
She was into a heavy round of kickboxing when her phone beeped. She was expecting an answer on a key decision at work so she had kept it on her. She glanced at it and saw it was Zach. She stopped for a moment to check it.
“Are you coming to ride?” the text from Zach read.
So, after last night and all day today, that’s it? She thought.
“No,” she texted back.
A huge text reply came back from Zach. “Well, in the future if you make plans to ride and then don’t intend on fulfilling them, you need to let me know. We are happy to meet a client’s needs, but within reason. My grooms work hard and are happy to stay late because of your work schedule, but it is plainly rude to not show up when they are waiting for you. Not to mention, it’s not fair to your horses who are apparently tacked and waiting on the cross ties for you. I will text the grooms to let them know you are not planning on showing up today.”
Fuck. She hadn’t realized that they would get the horses ready and they would be there waiting. She should have, but she didn’t. And he was right. It was rude.
But at the same time, she was livid. How dare he dress her down? How dare he refer to her as a client! Who the fuck is he?
And on top of it all, he doesn’t text or call all day and that’s what he has to say. And he’s not even at the barn so her not going was all for nothing.
By this time she had already gone back to her kickboxing and her instructor was a little concerned because she looked and acted like she was going to hurt someone. She went twenty minutes longer than she planned. She was completely wrung out by the end.
In the shower, she replayed everything again in her mind and questioned how they had gotten to this point so quickly. In her more honest moments in the shower, she questioned her role.
She didn’t hear from him the rest of the night. She wasn’t pissed any longer. It was more like she had a clench in her gut. This didn’t feel good. Not only did she miss him, but als
o the time since they last saw each other was just wrong. With Troy, it had been so easy. He came to her all the time. He communicated with her when he hadn’t heard from her. If she was busy, he backed off. He would change plans to accommodate her schedule.
Does Zach not know that her life was busy? Did he not understand that he needed to step up and contribute more to the relationship?
That caught her. She laughed. Was she trying to make Zach into Troy? Was this part of it? Was she being unreasonable?
