by J. H. Croix
Ash let out a throaty, sexy as hell laugh. I could feel the vibration of it around my cock when she took me in her warm, slick mouth. She knew how to make me beg for mercy. In no time, she had me on the edge of release, but I didn’t want to let go until I was one with her.
“Ash,” I bit out through gritted teeth.
“Mm-hmm?” She drew away with a swirl of her tongue around the tip of my cock.
“I need to be inside you.”
Our clothes came off in a rush, tossed messily on the floor. Then I was stretching out on the bed and lifting one of her knees to hook in my elbow. I positioned my cock at her entrance and stroked in fully. My forehead fell to hers as we breathed together. I could feel her channel already rippling around me. My heartbeat thundered through my body, and heat sizzled at the base of my spine.
“I love being inside you,” I murmured.
Ash let out a low cry as I pulled back slightly and gave a slow pump of my hips into her. My release was hovering right on the edge, but I needed Ash with me. After another pump, I felt her tremble and clench around me.
The relief of my release was intense, whipsawing through me like hot electricity. I poured into her with every shudder as I distantly heard my name.
I loved it when Ash cried my name.
Closing my eyes, I savored the rich flavor of coffee as I swallowed it. Setting my coffee mug down on the table, I opened my eyes and looked over at Ash where she stood by the counter in the small kitchen area. “Coffee’s amazing. Thank you.”
She smiled over at me. “Bagel with cream cheese coming right up.”
Just then, there was a knock on the cabin door. Ash’s eyes went comically wide, and her hand froze where it was curled on the handle of the toaster oven. “Who is it?” she whispered loudly.
“Don’t stress. We’re both dressed, and my cabin is right next door. We’ll just say I came over for coffee and breakfast.”
Ash’s hand dropped from the toaster, and she nodded before hurrying over to the door. Glancing over, I could see the tension in her shoulders and figured she was probably going to give me hell for lingering here this morning.
Maybe I wasn’t worthy of it, but I liked Ash. Maybe I more than liked her. I wanted to just tell Jackson about us when Ash stopped freaking out about it. I was prepared for him to want to kick my ass, but I could take my lumps.
When she swung the door open, I could see Shay on the small porch. “Hey. I was wondering if you wanted to come do the feeding rounds with me this morning. You told me to stop by,” Shay said.
The entire cabin, with the exception of the bathroom, was visible from the doorway, so I lifted a hand in a wave. “Morning, Shay,” I called. “I stopped by for coffee and a bagel.”
She smiled. “Come on in,” Ash finally said.
Although it was still early, not even six a.m., the humidity carried inside with the door open only briefly. It was summer in the Blue Ridge Mountains, and that meant hot days and only slightly cooler nights.
The door clicked shut as Shay stepped in, giving a cursory glance around the space. “Oh, you already made it kind of cute,” she said, her eyes landing on the curtains Ash had somehow managed to procure this week.
Ash was walking behind Shay, and mouthed, “Behave.” Following that, she added, “Want some coffee, Shay?”
I was planning to behave, if only because I didn’t want Ash to kick my ass just yet.
“I’ll never say no to coffee,” Shay replied when she stopped beside the table.
“Coming right up. Have a seat,” Ash said as she walked to the counter.
Shay sat down beside me. In another moment, Ash handed her a cup of coffee and then brought my bagel over before looking toward Shay again. “Bagel?”
“No thanks. I’ll start with coffee. After we finish with the feeding, I’ll grab breakfast at the lodge.”
“Mind waiting a few minutes while I have one?” Ash returned.
“Absolutely not. I need time to enjoy my coffee anyway.”
Shay glanced at us as I took a bite of my bagel. “So it sounds like y’all had a good trip. How’s your arm?” She gestured toward Ash’s forearm.
Ash looked down at her arm. “Much better.” She was wearing a lightweight blouse over a tank top, so she rolled her sleeve up. “I’m not even wearing a bandage now.”
The skin was still pink, but it had healed over. Every time I thought about that moment, my heart twisted uncomfortably in my chest.
“God, this is good coffee. No wonder you came over for it,” Shay said, flashing a grin in my direction.
I nodded. “Exactly. I have no problem taking advantage of Ash’s superior coffee skills.”
Shay glanced around again, her eyes landing on Ash’s guitar, tucked away in its case. “You planning to play anywhere soon?” she asked, looking toward Ash.
Ash nodded. “Of course. Now that I’m back, I need to make a few calls. I can always play at Lost Deer on open mic nights, and I can get paid for small shows at some places in Asheville.”
Shay nodded. “Good. Let me know when because you know I’ll be there.” She paused to sip her coffee. “I hear from Jackson that y’all pretty much hammered out the building plans, right?”
I sure hoped she was oblivious to Ash’s tension because it was glaringly obvious to me. Ash kept throwing me nervous glances and drumming her fingertips on the table after she sat down.
“Oh yeah, we’re ready to roll. I’m gonna make some calls to line up some of the subcontractors for the dirt work and foundation, but once that’s done, everybody here can handle the rest.”
“It’s gonna be awesome. We really need more space,” Shay commented.
“I can’t thank you enough for stepping in and helping so much with the rescue program,” Ash said.
Shay smiled. “I love it. Plus, don’t go thinking you’re gonna take over now that you’re home. You’re going to be plenty busy with the vet clinic. But this way, you and I can take turns with the feedings and cover for each other. I know you could figure it out without me, but I can tell you all the current quirks.”
Ash grinned. “I saw Gloria last night. I’m guessing somebody gave her some restaurant leftovers.”
Shay rolled her eyes. “That pig is so spoiled, but the lodge wouldn’t be what it is without her and Squeaky,” she said, referencing a mini pig who was often Gloria’s shadow. Though Squeaky didn’t wander quite as much as Gloria did.
They chatted casually about business things while I finished my bagel and Ash ate half of hers. Shay’s phone vibrated, and she tugged it out of her pocket.
“How about you meet me up at the rescue barn? We’ve got a payment issue at the reception desk at the clinic, so I’ll go take care of that first.”
“I’ll be right behind you. I’m just going to clean up,” Ash replied quickly.
“Perfect, see you in a few.”
Shay drained her coffee and stood before hurrying out with a wave. Ash walked to the windows that looked out over the porch toward the path that led to the lodge. Beyond the lodge and over a small rise through the trees were the vet clinic, the rescue program, and the farmhouse where Ash grew up with Jackson.
Turning back, Ash walked to the table with her arms wrapped around her waist. “You can’t stay for breakfast again,” she whispered pointedly.
“No need to whisper, and why not? I don’t think Shay suspected anything.”
For some reason, I was feeling stubborn about Ash’s insistence on secrecy. Maybe it was because I felt like it would infuriate Jackson less if I told him what was going on, rather than him finding out some other way. I hooked a finger in a belt loop and tugged her toward me. As soon as I got my other hand on her hip, I pulled her onto my lap.
“Don’t worry about it,” I murmured right before dropping kisses along her neck.
Ash’s cheeks flushed when she bit her lip. “Mack,” she whispered.
“What if I don’t want us to be a secret anymore?” I asked
before dipping my head and dusting kisses along her collarbone.
Ash went still in my lap. Lifting my head, I found her eyes wide with uncertainty flickering in their depths. I wanted to kick her ex-fiancé’s ass. Ash didn’t trust anyone, not even me. Maybe I wasn’t worth it to her, but this thing with us was good. Really good.
“Mack, what do you want? I’m not all full of love and rainbows. It doesn’t exactly go well for me. You’re the guy who always plays it cool. I know we have hot sex, but if we tell all of our friends about that, well, it’s really going to suck when it all blows up.”
Her words hit me. Hard. Maybe I was falling for her, but that was a part of the problem. I didn’t know how to do a relationship. When it came to those who mattered to me, the one and only time I’d let someone down had been an epic disaster.
I held her gaze quietly. “Okay. I won’t push. If I come over tonight, you gonna let me in?”
Ash’s soft sigh filtered through the cracks in my heart. Tucking her forehead into the center of my chest, she took several breaths. “I’m not particularly good at saying no to you. We have good orgasms,” she teased.
“I deliver, sugar. I told you that,” I managed to tease in return even though my heart was almost aching at the distance she was trying to create by teasing and keeping it light.
I left her behind to go to work, feeling unsettled inside.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Ash
Glancing behind me, I turned around just in time to find Squeaky nudging the back of my calf. A neighbor’s little girl found the small pig on the side of the road only a few months before I’d left to travel. Leaning over, I fished a treat out of my pocket. “Here ya go, Squeaky,” I said.
She gobbled it up, making a cute snuffling sound when she looked up at me afterward. “Everyone loves Gloria because she’s a little more social than Squeaky, but I adore Squeaky,” Shay said from across the aisle in the barn.
Straightening, I smiled. “I don’t have a favorite, but Squeaky is precious. So you’re training Mischief?” I asked.
Shay was leaning against a stall, her elbow resting on top of the half door as she stroked the pony’s neck. Mischief had landed with our rescue program because we were one of the few that took in horses. He had almost died as a young colt. Known as a Banker pony, he’d been born as a wild pony on the Outer Banks. For the most part, the herds were left to their own, but occasionally, interventions occurred.
In Mischief’s case, his mother was weak and ailing after giving birth. As a result, they were both near death. Because Mischief was young, he was removed, and his mother went on to survive and thrive. He’d landed in our program, and Jackson decided to keep him. He lived up to his name and then some.
Shay smiled over at me. “Oh yeah, I love this little guy. He’s fun.”
“Have you tried riding him yet?”
“A few times. I’m taking it slow, and I’m so busy that slow is my only option,” she said with a little laugh. “Shall we get started?”
At my nod, she gave Mischief a last stroke and pushed away from his stall to stride down the aisle between the barns. “Is this weird? I mean, this is your place too as much as it is Jackson’s. Here I am now, showing you my system.”
I rested a hand on my hip. “Shay, I’ve been gone for a year and a half. And honestly, organization has never been my strong suit. I love how you come up with a system for everything. Dani thinks you’re a godsend. Between your help and Valentina managing all of our accounting, I feel like things are in much better shape than they ever were. Show me your system. Please. I’m great at following instructions.”
Shay approached and threw her arms around me. She gave me a tight hug, and I returned it. She was my oldest friend, and we’d known each other for as long as I could remember.
Stepping back, I smiled. Shay knuckled a tear away from her eye. “Are you okay?” I asked, suddenly concerned.
Shay sniffled and smiled. “Yes. I just missed you. It’s thanks to you that I’m even here, so it means a lot that you’re finally back. I worried you might’ve thought I wasn’t there enough for you for a while.”
I knew she was referring to the situation with her abusive ex and how it’d driven a wedge between her and everyone. Lifting my hands, I squeezed her shoulders and looked straight into her eyes. “I was always there and just waiting for you. Don’t ever think you were going to lose me as a friend.”
Shay took a shaky breath and nodded. I gave her shoulders another squeeze and let my hands drop. “It’s really good to be home.”
Shay and I got the horses fed and settled for the evening before we crossed the pasture to the barn where all the other rescue animals stayed. The horse barn portion of the rescue was in the lower part of a barn built into a hillside. The upper floor was our vet clinic and had a parking lot entrance on the opposite side, giving us the ability to keep that traffic separate from the rescue and the lodge. The vet clinic and rescue program were located close to my family’s old farmhouse while the lodge was over a small rise through the trees.
When we stepped into the rescue barn, Shay glanced over. “We got some puppies yesterday. Have you been out since then?”
“Oh, really?” I breathed. “I was tied up with appointments all afternoon and then helped Jackson with an emergency surgery.”
Shay’s face broke into a wide smile. “Come on, they’re so freaking cute.”
“How did we end up with puppies?” I mused as I followed her into the rescue barn.
Gloria was napping in her large stall with Squeaky. She lumbered to her feet and immediately walked out. Their stall was never left closed, so those two pretty much had the run of the farm and lodge.
I greeted her as I followed Shay to the room at the back of the barn. At the moment, we had Gloria and Squeaky who were permanent residents, along with our adopted opossum. We also had chickens outside, and a goat who’d been abandoned after destroying a room in a family’s house.
Shay and I were quiet as we stepped through the door. This room was where we kept any injured rescues or in this case, a litter of adorable puppies. They were in a small pen, sleeping in a pile together.
I leaned over the railing and let out a sigh. “They are so cute.” Reaching a hand out, I lightly stroked my fingers over one of the puppies. “How did we get them?”
“Apparently, somebody found them abandoned in a box in the restroom at the high school track. School’s out for the summer, so it’s just luck that somebody happened to stop and use that bathroom when they were there for a run.”
“So sweet,” she cooed as we both leaned over and shamelessly stared at them. One of the little puppies lifted its head and straightened on the pile of indistinguishable bundles of fur. The puppies were all brown. The puppy, a male, came toddling over on unsteady legs. His motion roused a few others, and Shay and I happily petted the cluster.
“So there’re seven.” Lifting one, I asked, “How old are you?”
“I brought Jackson out last night before we went to bed, and his guess is around seven weeks.”
I inspected a few of them. “I’d say Jackson is about right. I hope whoever dumped them let them stay with mama until right before they did that. I’d prefer they weren’t weaned until eight weeks, but they’ll survive.”
One of them was on the shy side and observed its littermates bumbling around while Shay and I laughed and petted them. I held a hand out toward the shy one in the corner. The puppy finally stood and approached my hand cautiously. “Oh, sweet pea.” She followed my hand until I could scoop her up. The moment I held her close to my chest, she let out a soft little breath and nuzzled her head against my heart.
Shay glanced over. “I think you should keep her.”
For a moment, I hesitated. Two years ago when I opened my phone and saw naked pictures of my ex with another woman, I’d just wanted to escape from the embarrassment of it all. I’d been living a temporary life in every way since then. Adopting a puppy was a
nything but temporary.
I couldn’t really say why, but the idea of committing to something had anxiety spinning in my chest even though the temporary nature of my life had left me in a state of chronic anxiety and feeling unsettled. I was home, and I needed to find my way back to some sort of peace.
The sweet little puppy in my arms lifted her head and licked my chin, and my heart just turned into a blob of goo in my chest. “I’m keeping her.”
Shay squealed. “Yay! One down, six to go.”
“They’re puppies. We’re going to find homes for them fast.” Looking down at the puppy, I asked, “What’s your name?”
Her small tail thumped softly against my belly. “I’m going to have to think about it, and you’re going to stay with your siblings for at least another week.”
“That’s what Jackson said.”
“Yeah. With their mom would’ve been best, but this way, they’ve got that time of security with each other. I suppose we should feed everybody, huh?”
Shay nodded. “Let’s start with them.”
After we finished and were walking out of the barn with Gloria and Squeaky on our heels, I heard Mack’s voice. My head whipped around so fast, it was embarrassing, and I hoped no one happened to be looking at me.
Mack and my brother were standing outside in the small paddock that led into the large pasture between the two barns. Fortunately, Jackson was looking at a notebook while Mack was pointing at something in it.
Shay, because she was ridiculously in love with my brother, wasn’t paying the least bit of attention to me and was already trotting over to Jackson’s side. I felt like an excited pony who wanted to gallop over to Mack.
Just as Jackson was sliding his arm around Shay’s waist and leaning down to kiss her, Mack lifted his head. His eyes locked with mine across the distance separating us, and it felt like flames licked in the air between us.
Chapter Twenty-Three
