32. Maniac
MANIAC
Oliver
Her phone vibrated across the table as if it were possessed by a demon. “Do you want to answer that?”
Shaking her head, she clicked the silence button, quieting the device, and went back to digging through her bag. “Not a chance, Oliver. No. It’s just Todd calling.”
“Why?” I asked before I could think better of it.
Her gaze rose to meet mine, a small smile on her face that hadn’t been there before. She paused her intense bag-digging to set a hand on her hip, her smile beginning to grow as if she knew something I didn’t and relished in the fact.
“He’s under the impression I somehow belong to him. Any thoughts?” Her eyes held a knowing spark in them, as if she knew she were needling me right now.
“I think we both know better, baby doll.”
She nodded before she went back to sorting through her things. “Agreed.”
“I could take care of it for you, if you’d like,” I prompted.
“I’d never dream of telling you what to do, Oliver. Every time I do, it gets me into more trouble.” She arched a brow as if to tell me I knew exactly what she meant.
Something about the way she spoke my name, though, had my cock throbbing within my jeans. I cleared my throat and chose to change the subject before we were heavily distracted within this room.
“I should go start packing my things.”
She glanced up at me again, still smiling. “You should. Make sure you toss in those blue sweatpants. I’m heading out with Aspen soon. I just wanted to do an inventory of what I needed and what I left behind in the apartment.”
“Do you need more from over there? I can go with you if you need me to.”
She shook her head. “No, it’s fine. I just need a few dresses and a bathing suit. I’ll get the rest when we get home. Not a big deal.”
Home.
Logically I knew she meant Raven Creek, but illogically I swore she meant here. Home with me. With Hudson. I cleared my throat, nodding. I walked over to her, one hand set on her hip while the other cupped her jaw. Her head tilted back to stare up at me, and there was a soft smile on her face now.
“Be careful and have fun,” I commanded gently.
“Always.”
A soft press of our lips, a chaste and innocent move that I refused to take further because she’d end up right back in bed, my mouth between her thighs once more, where it’d been three times now.
Instead, I stepped back, her cheeks now heated and her lips swollen from the many kisses I’d given her in the last twelve hours or so, forcing my feet to move back and down the hall where they belonged before the rest of me could get any bigger ideas.
I listened as she grabbed her purse and headed down the stairs, the front door closing behind her, and I dialed the one number I always did when things a bit illegal arose.
It rang twice before he picked up.
“Wyatt Carragan, brother of secrets and holder of all things mischievous. How can I direct your call today?”
I shook my head as I found myself back in the guest room, fingers gliding across the sheets she’d just sat on. The sheets we’d spent all night on together.
“I have a favor to ask, assuming it’s something you can manage.”
He scoffed. “Offended by the assumption that there is anything I can’t do.”
Ignoring his cocky attitude, I continued on. “Are you able to not only block someone on someone else’s phone, but redirect those messages to another phone instead?”
Silence met me before a quiet chuckle and the sound of a keyboard filled the speaker.
“Oh, big bro. You’re a new brand of crazy for this girl, aren’t you. I like the way you think, though. You want Toad blocked and navigated to your phone?”
“Yes.”
“Well, lucky you, I do have an in into our girls’ phones. Please hold.”
The line went silent as I waited. Picking up her duffel bag, I set it back on the bed and started digging through it, finding the small package I was looking for.
A blue fold-over container with rows of white and pink pills.
I snapped a photo of the brand and sent it over to him while I waited.
Might as well get it all done at once. Less phone calls for me the better.
Two minutes later, the line clicked back to life.
“Okay, done. I went ahead and silenced them on your phone, but they’ll all be delivered.
She had him listed as the devil though, which is sort of hilarious of her.
She has no idea the maniac she’s living with now.
Also, I have a new batch to give you to replace those.
You can swap them on vacation this weekend. It’ll be a thrilling time for us all.”
Shaking my head, I put everything back the way she had it. “Yeah, yeah. Thanks Wyatt.”
“Anything for you big bro. You know that.”
I ended the call, slipping my phone back into my pocket and then headed back outside. I had some stalls to clean, and the sunshine was looking pretty damn good after all.
“You could probably save that for one of the ranch hands.” Rowan’s voice interrupted my internal rewind of this morning and how perfect it all felt to just exist in her space.
“Cleaning out stalls myself every couple days keeps me humble. You should try it,” I grunted as I laid down some clean hay in Cash’s, one of our oldest horses, stalls, and moved the wheelbarrow down to the next stall to do the same again.
“I let them all out to roam early this morning. Already checked on the cattle. Reminder that we’ve got a couple of the guys coming over later to train on the bulls and your horse guys.
So we need to make sure everything is out and ready for them. ”
Rowan nodded. He’d been coming in a little later during the week because he’d been up late helping Aspen study, but she was finally done for the semester.
She planned on doing a part-time class schedule over the summer, but it was a lot less work for her compared to the full-time class load she’d been taking.
“Is Aspen ready for the trip?” We’d be leaving tomorrow for the joint bachelor and bachelorette parties, and the entire family was beyond excited, it seemed, about the house Ivy and I had settled on.
“Hell yeah. Thankfully she doesn’t start her next semester of classes until we get back and she already has her books and shit she needs.
Told her the only thing she should be concerned about is what bikini she’s bringing.
But apparently she and Ivy are shopping today for new ones, which she won’t let me see until we arrive on the beach.
” My brain heard my brother speaking, but honestly, everything aside from Ivy and bikini was lost on me.
I’d done my best not to think about our upcoming trip. The trip that had begun to infiltrate my dreams in the depth of sleep.
Ivy, smiling, sandy with red cheeks and her hair in soft waves from the saltwater.
“Oliver?” Rowan’s voice cracked my brief fantasy as I looked over at him, pitchfork clutched in hand.
“What?”
“I asked you a question. Are you even—never mind. I’ll ask again. How is Ivy? She sent Aspen a text this morning about the shopping and said she was here all night so they could ride together to whatever store they’re going to.”
I shrugged, unsure how much I should reveal to my brother. It wasn’t as if I didn’t trust him, but at the same time, it wasn’t my place to reveal her secrets. Especially the ones she’d entrusted me with.
“She came by last night and stayed the night in the guest room.” My mind turned over the taste of her on my tongue while I’d spent such a glorious time between her thighs. She’d slept so soundly in my arms, and I wondered if she felt as peaceful as I had last night.
Rowan chuckled. “And where did you sleep?”
I couldn’t hide the glare in my eyes. “Don’t you have work to be doing?”
He shook his head. “Nope. Nothing nearly as important as this conversation.”
The sound of tires on the gravel pathway to the barn sounded, and I arched a brow at him. “Sounds like work to me.”
“Fine, but this isn’t the end of this conversation. I’ll get the juicy gossip one way or another!” He grabbed a pair of work gloves, shoving them in the back pocket of his jeans. “My brother isn’t a monk anymore!” he hollered on his way out of the barn.
“Fucking ass,” I mumbled under my breath.
It wasn’t much longer before the rest of the stalls were cleaned out. The scent of fresh hay took over my senses with the sound of Rowan helping the barrel racers get their things set up to start training.
He used to compete. He wasn’t bad, either, but he stopped finding joy in it. Now, instead of competing, he welcomed some of the young locals to the ranch with their horses to train with him. Kept him busy, and while he wasn’t doing that, he was helping me train the bulls.
Ivy flowed back into my mind, and I thought about what she’d said about riding.
I couldn’t help the smile that took over my face as an idea began to emerge.
One that would hopefully improve her mood a bit more.
But it would have to wait until we returned from our trip.
Or on second thought, maybe it wouldn’t.
Pulling out my phone, I started a California Google search.