by Stasia Black
“This is how horses greet each other in the wild. Let her get to know your scent.” Satan’s Mistress shifted uneasily and Calla pulled slowly back. “Then you reward her by stepping away again and leaving her alone for a little while.”
“Like playing hard to get. Are you sure this isn’t dating advice?”
Calla laughed softly, still never taking her eyes off the horse. “Can’t say I know much about that.” Her eyes flicked his direction and Liam wasn’t sure, but he thought her cheeks reddened.
After retreating to the fence again, Calla gestured at him. “You try saying hi to her this time.”
She stayed by the fence while Liam headed toward Satan’s Mistress. He felt his heartbeat thudding in his ears. Ridiculous. It was just a fecking horse.
Worthless.
Useless poxy shite.
“Remember to breathe,” Calla said from behind him. “She’s reading your body language. So make sure you’re giving off calm with every step you take. You might not make it all the way on the first pass. That’s okay. Find her line and take just one step beyond it.”
Liam stopped and watched the horse. She leaned down and took a bite of grass but the way her head was cocked, it felt like she was still watching him.
He took a step forward. When she just kept chewing grass, he took another. Then another. Her head came up and she shifted nervously a few steps.
Liam backed away just like Calla taught him. And to his astonishment, the next time he approached, Satan’s Mistress let him come all the way up to her. Liam had only made it this close a couple times before—both of which had ended with Satan’s Mistress snapping at him with those big teeth of hers.
Liam took a deep breath in and out and held out his hand toward her nose. But unlike in the past, he didn’t keep pushing to try to touch her. He left his hand about a foot away from her. Then, when she didn’t move, he took another step in. Her ears flicked at this.
One step past the line. Okay. Liam took a tiny step closer and then blew at the horse’s nose. Which felt frankly ridiculous.
But instead of snapping, the mare nosed a little closer to him. Like she was curious. A thrill shot through Liam’s body.
He was doing it. He was actually doing it.
“Now back,” Calla said.
Liam wanted to take that last little step so he could touch the mare. Maybe even try seeing if he could get her to take the bit.
Then he considered his failure rate before Calla had shown up. Baby steps. He backed off.
When he got back to Calla, her eyes were shining as she beamed at him. “You’re doing so good. You’re a natural at this.”
His chest flushed with warmth like he’d just had a shot of whiskey on a cold day. “I don’t know about that.”
Calla scrunched her eyebrows together. “Wait. What’s that?” She bumped him on the shoulder before looking up at the sky. “Did I miss the pigs flying? Is Liam O’Neill actually being modest?”
Liam barked out a laugh. No one ever took the piss out of him. And everything was just so natural with her. They’d had sex—not just that, but she’d lost her virginity, maybe not technically to him, but as good as. And yet here she was, not making a big deal about it or pressing anxiously for more.
He’d been joking earlier when he said the tactics she was using on the horse would work for dating but maybe there was something to it after all.
He wrapped her in his arms, lifting her up off the ground and spinning her around. She shrieked and hugged his neck. He set her back on the ground and nudged the bill of her cap back until it fell off her head. Damn she was pretty. Those flushed cheeks. The adorable freckles sprinkled across her nose. The way she looked at him like he was the most exciting thing that had ever happened to her.
He leaned down and kissed her hard. He probably should have taken it slower. But for once he was letting go of all his normal calculated moves and just going with what felt right.
From the way she kissed him enthusiastically back, he’d say it was the right way to go.
At least until she pulled back. She was still grinning at him as she pulled out of his arms, though. “I still want to work with Painter a little more and get him groomed. See you at dinner.”
“You bet your arse,” he said. Then, before she could turn to go he stepped forward and kissed her again.
She was laughing as she pulled away. “I’ll see you.” Then she turned and slipped back out through the fence. She walked away but looked back at him a couple of times, that radiant smile still on her face.
He frowned. What if she was playing him? This innocent, not immediately available, hard to get act could just be that—an act.
It wouldn’t be the first time a woman had tried games to capture his attention. There was nothing he hated more than people trying to fecking manipulate him. For a long while there he hadn’t thought there was any other way to interact.
Wasn’t he the guy who believed no one ever gave anything without expecting something in return? So what was Calla’s angle? If she didn’t want him for his money, what did she want? Maybe his body. She’d certainly seemed to enjoy everything he’d done with her.
He stared in the direction Calla went long after she’d disappeared around the corner of the barn.
Jaysus, he couldn’t remember the last time he’d felt so in over his head. With a horse or a woman.
***
“What do you think happened with Mackenzie?” Calla asked. They were sitting on the porch swing after dinner, her in his lap with her head nestled in the crook of his shoulder.
Usually when he had a woman in this position, he’d be quickly shifting her other leg over him and hiking up her skirt so they could get on with things.
But he and Calla were just… talking. Well, occasionally they’d make out for a while, but then it would calm down again and she’d just curl up into him like a contented kitten.
Liam paused from where he was running his fingers through her hair, finally registering her words. “Um. He’s an arsehole?”
Calla shoved his shoulder lightly. “I’m serious.”
Liam had been serious too. Mack was a bogger arsehole and that’s all there was too it.
“Have you seen him the past couple days?” Calla lifted her head from his chest to look at him.
Liam shrugged. “Just the back of his head after he’s grabbed his food and heading up to his room.”
Calla sighed. “Exactly. I think something’s going on with him.” She dropped her head back to Liam’s chest but she pulled away moments later to look at him. “Do you not want me to talk about him? Is that…” she glanced down. “Is it not okay to bring him up?” Her eyes were anxious.
Liam squeezed his arms around her. “You can talk to me about anything. I don’t want you holding back.” He was just starting to trust that she wasn’t a fake. He certainly didn’t want her to think she should put on a show of any kind.
She swallowed and smiled tentatively. “I’ve just never done anything like…” she waved a hand. “You know.” She lifted and dropped her eyebrows significantly. “And he was part of it with us.”
Liam felt a flare of pain in his chest. Was he not enough for her?
It faded quickly at seeing the distress on Calla’s face, though. “Do you still want him?” His tone was more even than he’d expected it to be.
Calla glanced down again before taking a deep breath and meeting his eyes again. “I don’t really know him. But I didn’t know you either. And then… that night.” She pursed her lips and shook her head. “It felt, I don’t know…” she looked around like she was trying to find the right word. “Important. Like all three of us were connecting in this really special way.” She turned her head to look out at the dark night. “That’s probably stupid and naïve. I don’t know what I’m talking about.”
“Don’t say that.” Liam’s arms tightened around her. “Don’t doubt your instincts.” It might not be his favorite thing to hear that she was s
till thinking about Mack, but here she was, telling him up front. Being real with him. No matter what she was feeling, it was right there on her face.
“What did you think about that night?” she asked. “Did you like it when he… When you two were…”
“Sure,” Liam said, then he felt Calla stiffen at his clipped tone.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I shouldn’t have ask—”
“It wasn’t the first time.” Liam took her hands so she didn’t feel like he was cutting off her line of questions. He wasn’t used to being open with people, but if she could do it, so could he. Well, he could try, anyway. “I’ve done things like that before. With both a man and a woman.”
“Oh.” Her eyes widened as she looked up at him. “Like, both at the same time or, you know,” her cheeks went pink.
Jaysus she was cute. So innocent. He smiled, enjoying her reactions. “Both. Together and individually. Does that shock you?”
“I don’t know,” she blinked. “So are you, what do they call it? Bisexual?”
Liam shrugged. “I don’t put a label on it. I usually say I’m a trysexual.”
Her brow furrowed.
“As in, I’ll try anything once.”
She chortled out a short laugh at that but then sobered again. “Do you like one better than the other?”
Liam traced his fingers along the back of her neck underneath her hair, liking the way she shivered at his touch.
“I’ve slept with more women than men. But I didn’t really expand me horizons until college.”
She propped her hands underneath her chin as she looked up at him. “So how do you know?”
“Know what?”
“How do you know if you’re attracted to someone? Like, what makes the difference between a guy or girl you’re just friends with and someone you want to, you know, sleep with?”
Liam laughed. “There’s no science to it. I’m either attracted to someone or not.”
She tilted her head. “So how long have you been attracted to Mack?”
Liam choked. “I’m not,” he hurried to say as soon as he could speak again. “Not to him.”
“Oh.” She frowned. “But I thought you just said—” She squinted her eyes at him. “And with how the two of you were—”
“I was just going with the situation as it presented itself.” He shook his head so violently Calla had to pull back. “But Jaysus, I’m not attracted to that wanker.”
“Oh.” She sounded disappointed.
Shite. Why? Did she want a repeat of what happened in the hotel room?
Liam had been doing his best to block it from his memory. When he replayed that night, he only focused on the time after he got Calla into the shower.
“I just…” she trailed off again before continuing, her eyebrows scrunched, “I think he’s really lonely. And I know what that’s like. Feeling like you’re all alone in the world.” She shook her head, her eyes going distant again.
Liam didn’t know what to say to that. Whenever he thought about Mack, it was usually just to cuss him out. In his head or out loud if the occasion warranted.
But then he focused on the rest of what she’d said. About feeling lonely. “Yeah,” he swallowed. “I know the feeling too.”
Calla’s eyebrows went up as she looked back at him. “You? But you’re always so,” she waved a hand. “You’re so good with people. Everybody loves you.”
His chest went tight. That was how she saw him? “I don’t know if I want you taking off those rose-colored glasses, beautiful.”
She scoffed at that. “Hardly. I just call it like I see it.” Then she paused, her brows lowering. “Tell me about it. How does a guy like you feel lonely?”
Liam shrugged. He wasn’t going to play the poor little rich boy card. If there was anything he’d learned the last year and a half, it was how fucking entitled he used to be. He wasn’t about to start whining about how hard he’d had it.
Calla lifted her hand to his face. “Tell me. I want to know everything about you.”
“Me da and I weren’t that close. He worked constantly. And Ma was checked out most the time. Drinking and pills. They got divorced when I was nine. The nanny raised me. She’s still the one who calls me on me birthday and Christmas.”
Calla tilted her head, her eyes going soft.
“Don’t do that.” He couldn’t help his voice going stiff. “Don’t look at me like that.”
“Like what?” Her eyebrows went up again.
“Like you pity me.”
Her eyebrows met her hairline. “I’m not pitying you. Believe me,” she huffed, “I know how shitty that feels. I was just thinking about you when you were a kid. I wish I could have been your friend back then.”
Liam laughed. “You would have hated me. I was a complete shite. I’m shocked Mrs. Owens put up with me as long as she did. None of the nannies before her lasted six months.”
“Oh no, don’t tell me you were the kind of kid who would snap girl’s bra straps?” Calla groaned.
Uh. So now probably wouldn’t be the time to admit that from the ages of fourteen to seventeen his opening line when he met a pretty girl was to tell them to blow him. Or the fact that, more often than not, they’d actually done it.
“What?” she asked, obviously seeing something on his face.
He shook his head, not wanting to meet her eyes but doing it anyway. “I wasn’t a nice person. For most of me life, actually, I was a complete—” bastard. He stopped just short of saying it and instead finished, “—arsehole.”
Her brow scrunched up. “So what changed?”
Liam shifted her in his lap. He’d had a hard on for most of the half hour they’d been snuggled up together, but it was quickly deflating at this conversation. “I don’t know. I guess I grew up.”
That was a copout and he knew it. But he couldn’t tell her the truth. Not if he didn’t want things to change.
Calla was the first woman who wasn’t with him just because of his money or what he could give her. Well, apart from orgasms. He hoped to give her plenty of those in the near future. But if she knew who he was, it would ruin everything before it even had the chance to really start.
Calla’s brow was still narrowed. Like she could sense there was more to the story. She didn’t press it, though. “Well, I guess I’m glad I met you now and not then.”
“Me too, baby,” he whispered, then leaned down and kissed her. “Me too.”
Those were the last words they said for a long while. Jaysus, she tasted sweet. His cock quickly re-inflated but he didn’t push for anything more than kissing. For once in his life, he wanted to do the right thing by a girl.
Which wasn’t to say when Calla finally pulled away, her pupils blown, and asked, “You wanna go upstairs?” he didn’t jump to his feet and all but drag her in the house and up to his room.
She giggled the whole way. At least until he closed the door behind them in his room and he pressed her up against it.
“Liam,” she whimpered between kisses. Fuck but he liked the sound of his name on her lips. Right then and there, he made it his mission to have her gasping it all night long.
Chapter 18
MACK
It was the third day since Mack had gotten home with Torpedo and it wasn’t going any better today than it had yesterday or the day before. He wasn’t making any progress with the mustang. If anything, he felt the horse was getting jumpier around him.
He finally gave up for the day and went in the house to take a leak. After he went to the bathroom, he stopped in his room to check his phone messages before he went back out for evening chores.
Bone’s parole hearing was today. It had him on edge, he couldn’t lie. Xavier always said horses could sense your mood. If the way Torpedo had bolted away from him all day was any indication, Xavier was spot on.
Mack grabbed his cell and saw he had one voicemail. His throat got tight even as he shook his head at himself. Stupid to be so fucking anxious
about it. Of course Bone wouldn’t make parole.
Still Mack felt his heartbeat in his ears when he listened to his old friend Sammy’s voice come over the line.
“Hey bro. Hope everything’s good out there in the prairie. Still can’t imagine you ridin’ a fuckin’ horse.”
Mack smiled. He and Sammy had gotten to know each other during a nickel Sammy had spent on the inside. He’d joined up with the Devil’s Spawn for protection just like Mack. Mack had tutored him and helped him get his GED and he was doing good now that he was out. Had a good job in customer service, a wife, a new baby. Living the fucking dream. He always said if there was anything Mack ever needed, to consider it done. Mack never thought he’d cash it in. Till he realized how helpful having someone with their finger on the pulse would be in keeping tabs on Bone.
“Yeah, so, bad news about Bone. I know you ain’t gonna want to hear this, but he’s gettin’ out. He made parole. Good behavior or some shit.”
Mack’s hands clenched into fists.
Parole?
What the fuck?
“I guess it takes two or three weeks for all the paperwork or whatever to go through. But yeah. By the end of the month, he’ll be out. Sorry, man. I’ll keep an eye on him for you and give you regular updates.”
“Fuck!” Mack barely stopped himself from throwing his phone across the fucking room.
He raked a hand through his hair and stood up, pacing across his room. The Devils must have paid someone off to get Bone out early. Motherfuckers. Bone had been in for a double homicide he’d committed when he was nineteen. Sentenced to twenty years. And they were gonna let the bastard out after sixteen?
Mack kicked the frame of his bed and it screeched as it moved across the floor. It wasn’t enough. He felt like ripping apart the whole damn room.
He leaned over with his hands on his knees. Calm down. He needed to calm the fuck down. So he thought he’d have a few more years to prepare. So what? Nothing had changed, not really. He’d gone over his plan a million times in his head. He’d just have to act sooner rather than later.
