Chapter 16
Chapter Sixteen
Emerson
After multiple rounds of sleep alternating with superlative sex, I stirred again to find Ben’s strong arm around me.
I cracked an eye open to verify it was still dark in that snowy, brighter-than-usual way, telling me the world outside was covered in a white blanket. Filled with warmth and contentment that was practically foreign to me, I relaxed back into him and closed my eyes again.
Sleeping cuddled next to a man was a luxury I’d rarely gotten to enjoy in my life.
During all the years I was with Blake, we went from high school, where we both lived at our respective parents’ homes and woke up alone, to a couple of weeks of married bliss before he went into basic training.
From then, he’d rarely been in my bed for more than a few nights at a time.
The last four years it’d been more normal to wake with a little girl or sometimes a boy in bed with me. It made cuddling with Ben that much more glorious.
I must’ve dozed off again when I realized with a start that he was sneaking out of bed on the other side.
“What are you doing?” I whispered. “Did we miss Gordon’s wakeup call?”
“We must have. He’s not as loud on this side of the house. It’s time to feed the animals. Somebody kept me up too late.”
“Mmm. Not sorry.”
He leaned across the bed and kissed me. “Me neither. Go back to sleep if you want.” He took clothes out of his dresser, then left the room.
I did want to go back to sleep, but he probably did too. He’d woken me up twice last night, and I’d returned the favor once.
I laughed quietly, like a satisfied cat. Had we really done it four times? The delicious tenderness between my legs said yes.
I had zero regrets.
I stretched my legs, appreciating the warm cocoon of blankets for a few seconds, then tossed the covers aside and sat on the edge of the bed. When I crept up the stairs to my room, Ben was still in the bathroom.
In my room, I threw on warm sweatpants, a long-sleeved tee, and a thick sweatshirt, plus wool socks. Twisting my hair up on my head in a scrunchie, I hurried down to the kitchen and found Ben starting a pot of coffee.
“What are you doing?” he asked as I walked into the room.
“Feeding the beasts with you. It’s time for me to learn the ropes.”
“You don’t have to. Have you looked outside?”
I went to the kitchen window and peeked out. “Snow.” It was tough to judge how much, but there were drifts a third of the way up the garage door. I shrugged. “Esmerelda and Betty still have to eat.”
Ben laughed. “They do. You’re welcome to come out with me if you want.”
We put our boots, coats, gloves, and hats on. Ben picked up a shovel from the entryway on our way out. I immediately saw why. Pristine white snow covered everything in every direction, drifting over the steps and giving no hint of the usual route to the barn.
He scooped a path down to the driveway. “I’ll have to get the plow going to do the rest. Animals first though.”
Taking my gloved hand, he waded through snow that was probably seven or eight inches deep, with me following in his footsteps, literally. When we entered the barn, one of the horses nickered and another made a snuffing sound.
“Morning, everybody,” Ben called, making me smile.
This was Ben’s version of walking into the office and greeting everyone for the day.
He made his rounds to all three horses, rubbing their necks, saying good morning, and giving them compliments.
I stuck next to him, telling each horse hello but not going close enough to pet them.
I wasn’t really afraid of the horses, just a little intimidated, but this was me taking a first step toward getting used to them.
“I’ll need to go up to the hayloft and get more hay, but first we’ll refill their water and get them their grains.”
“Will you show me what to do?”
His brows shot up. “Really? You want to feed the horses?”
“I didn’t like having to depend on the kids to do it last night.”
Ben nodded, then showed me how to fill the water buckets, where the corn was stored, how much to give each horse, and how to secure everything in the stalls.
Ben’s horse, Smoky, nuzzled me as I gave him his grains. I caught my breath and then laughed because it tickled.
“He likes you,” Ben said.
“What do I do?”
“He likes to have his neck rubbed, although he’s picky and doesn’t usually ask for attention from anyone but me.”
“Really?” I looked at the horse, who was studying me with those big, astute eyes. Even though his corn was there for the taking, all his attention was on me.
Ben came up to us. “Hey, Smoke. You know a pretty lady when you see one, huh? You trying to steal my woman?”
“Temporary woman,” I said in a stage whisper, grinning and playing along.
“He doesn’t need to know that,” Ben said. He stroked Smoky’s neck. “Try doing this.”
I reached over and rubbed the other side of the horse’s neck, tentatively at first. He nuzzled me again, startling me and making me laugh.
“Who knew he was such a flirt?”
“He just likes me because I gave him corn.”
Once all three horses had corn and water, Ben went to a staircase at the end of the aisle and started up.
“Can I come?” I asked.
He paused. “Sure. It’s just a lot of hay.”
“I’ve never seen a hayloft.”
Ben laughed and shook his head. “Got me a city girl, huh?”
“Small-town girl who’s never been around barn animals.” I caught up to him and followed him up the stairs. They opened to an expansive loft filled with rectangular bales from one end to the other. “That’s…a lot of hay.”
“It should last us all winter. The llamas each go through about a bale a day.”
“Each?”
“They don’t have grains like the horses, so it’s all hay in the winter.”
“And cookies.”
“And cookies.”
There wasn’t a lot of room for us to walk up here, just stacks and stacks of hay, with some of the stacks on this end shorter, making a kind of stair-step pattern. As I took it all in, he grasped my hand and pulled me flush against him. He’d taken his thick work gloves off.
“Wanna roll around in the hay?” he asked.
I eyed the hay, grinning at his reference to my teasing accusation last night.
“Missing your many ladies?”
He went serious and tugged me in for a hot, lingering kiss, which served to stop my smart-ass remarks. Instead he pulled a moan from me as heat shot through me from just a kiss. Let it be known that Ben Holloway could work magic with his mouth even with all my clothes on.
He gripped my butt and pulled me against his erection. “I didn’t start anything in bed because I meant to let you go back to sleep, but here you are.”
“Here I am. Feeding the horses. If anyone asks.”
“No one’s going to ask,” he said in a sexy rumble, “because the kids are with Berty. Trapped by a snowstorm.”
“Mmm. The whole town is stranded by a snowstorm.” I’d likely need to close the salon for the day.
I kissed him, my arms going around his neck as I wished for fewer layers between our bodies.
Ben slipped both his hands under the waistband of my sweatpants and palmed my butt, his fingers dipping lower between my legs. As if he’d hit a switch, a persistent ache ramped up deep in my hollow core, throbbing to be filled by him.
With our mouths still locked in a frantic kiss, I unzipped his coat and ran my hands under his thermal shirt, over his ridged chest, as he teased the apex of my thighs. I’d never ached so bad for someone. If I didn’t fill myself with him in the next sixty seconds, I was going to lose my mind.
“Ben,” I gasped.
“I know.”
I went after his jeans next, unbuttoning them, trying to be careful as I worked the zipper down over his erection.
He’d undone my coat and shoved it off, then unfastened my bra so he could get his hands on my breasts. He lifted my sweatshirt and leaned down to take my nipple in his mouth, making me moan and gasp and throb deep inside.
I guided him backward to a bale of hay stacked about three feet off the ground, and he sat on it, in perfect alignment with my intentions. I toed my boots off, shoved my sweats and underwear down my legs, and stepped out of them.
“God, Ems,” he said, shoving his jeans down a few inches, enough to free his big, beautiful penis. As I straddled him, my core rubbing against his hardness, he said, “I didn’t bring a condom.”
“I’m on birth control and clean.”
“I’m clean too.”
He barely got the words out before I lowered myself onto him, biting my lip at the heaven of having him inside me again.
The sensation of his heat filling me and the cold air on my butt drove my need even higher as I ground into him, pumped my hips, and rode him like the crazed woman he’d turned me into in about two heartbeats.
I lost myself, driven by sensation and need, everything else falling out of my consciousness.
My eyes locked with Ben’s intense ones, the connection between us like nothing I’d ever experienced. As exposed as I felt, I couldn’t look away as he bucked and thrust into me, over and over again, meeting every motion of my hips, our rhythm, our need in unison like a masterpiece of a song.
“Come for me, Ems.”
As if the words in that growly, demanding voice were the final push I needed, I shattered, every muscle in my body contracting and reacting to this man, heat exploding through me and my brain blacking out.
“Look at me, Emerson,” he said in the roughest, need-filled voice.
I forced my eyes back to his and felt a swoon in my chest. He was so familiar, so much a part of me, so dear. At this moment, he was everything to me, the very reason I took in air and gasped for breath.
Ben gripped my butt tighter into him, bucked up hard, and held on tight as he emptied himself into me.
I wrapped my arms around him, clung to him, and closed my eyes. Memorized what it felt like to have this strong, virile man come apart because of me. Even as my own body still trembled and contracted, it was a rush to know I could wield that kind of power over him.