12. Piper
Piper
I flopped onto my bed after a long day of food prep, housework, and running around the ranch with Maisie.
Clay had gotten home from his day of off-ranch meetings just as I had put Maisie into her pajamas. I passed her off to him for story and bedtime, trying not to linger on how delicious he smelled and opting to get ready to settle in for the night.
There were plenty of things from Emmy now lining the drawers of my dresser and hanging in my modest closet.
We had even taken a quick trip to town one afternoon and picked up a few more pieces, but I would have been lying if I said I hadn’t been tempted to slip into the T-shirt Zeke had lent me on my very first night at the ranch.
I had secretly taken to sleeping in the faded blue cotton tee, which was so long on me, it was almost a dress. I looked at it, dangling from its place on the plastic hanger, the faint smell of juicy, tangy fruit that I still couldn’t quite place lingering on the worn fabric.
A bath, a little while with my book, some chamomile tea, and snuggling down into my bed sounded like absolute heaven. Before I was able to begin my nighttime routine, however, there was a light knock at my door.
Spinning away from my closet, I shut the door to hide my secret T-shirt treasure and smoothed my hair, doing my best to look put together before I called, “Come in!”
To my surprise, Zeke stood filling the doorway, his shaggy blond hair hanging into his green eyes.
“Hey, Piper!” He grinned, his hands reaching up for the top of the doorframe.
Seeing the tasty little peek of skin as his shirt raised reminded me of the buff guy buffet I’d been treated to earlier today.
Zeke may have been covered in dirt, bits of hay, and god knows what else smeared on that perfect body, but I still would have liked to run my tongue all up and down that man.
Without Maisie to keep my thoughts from straying, my mind began to wander, churning up thoughts of what we might do here alone in my room. I had to pinch myself to return to reality because he was apparently talking, and I couldn’t understand the words coming out of his mouth.
“Well, what if I told you we could go see some horses right now?” Zeke grinned like a madman, offering me one of those massive open hands, and in that moment, I knew there was no way I could deny him.
“Sure.” I grinned, heat circulating through my body in a way that made just looking at the man feel sinful.
“Perfect. Let’s go, Pipes.” Zeke was still all grins as he yanked my hand and pulled me along after him. I happily shoved all thoughts of my book and a quiet night in, to the back of my mind.
Through the cool night and the chirping of crickets, Zeke led me down to the far end of the massive barn toward the horse stalls tacked onto the end, with their low metal roof and huge sliding door. We were still a ways from the building when a crack of thunder echoed and lightning lit up the sky.
In less than a second, the clouds opened, and rain poured down from the sky.
“Shit!” I shrieked, hurrying toward the barn, even though it was already too late. I was drenched.
“Gotta love a freak storm!” Zeke chuckled, taking my hand and pulling me along after him as we both sprinted to the barn. When we got to the door, he gripped the handle and shook, flinging the water off him as we stood under the tiny awning.
“So, you ever ridden horseback before?” Zeke asked, golden brows wiggling up and down as he laughed, still dripping water.
I rolled my eyes, shaking like he did. “Literally never,” I admitted, a little embarrassed. “Don’t tell Clay, though. He’d never let me hear the end of it.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it.” Zeke swore his secrecy, laying one hand over his chest to demonstrate his seriousness before rolling the sliding door to the barn open.
The sound of horses whinnying and shifting in their stalls filled the air, along with the smell of hay and, well, horse, which was distinctive and becoming increasingly familiar.
We got out of the sudden rain, still dripping, which left droplet shapes dotting the concrete floor.
I stifled a shiver as the air moved through the room, chilling my wet skin.
Without meaning to, I wrinkled my nose at that persistent smell that seemed stronger now that it was raining, sending Zeke into a chain of low chuckles.
“What?” I fixed him with a glare until Zeke opted to explain himself, his hand raised up in surrender as his wet bangs hung in his face.
“Just funny because I can’t even smell it anymore.” He shrugged. “But I get it.”
“Are you really going to try to pretend like horse shit smells good if you aren’t ‘from the city’?” I snorted a laugh, crossing my arms over my chest in an attempt to warm up.
“Course not! Horse shit is still horse shit—but I’m pretty used to it.
Like being around anything for a while makes it less of a surprise, I guess.
” Zeke snickered, ambling over to the large pen of hay at the end of the stalls, a red and black heavy plaid blanket draped over the top rung of the hay pen.
Another thinner one was nearby, and he snagged that, too, throwing it over his shoulder.
“Plus…” He snapped out the large blanket, letting it float down onto the large pile of hay before he made his way back to me. “Right now, I’m mostly smellin’ you .”
He dipped his head, bending low so that his nose was nearly in my hair, and goose bumps skittered to life across my body from his proximity, my pulse skyrocketing. Then his hands circled me with the smaller blanket, gifting me warmth that the storm had tried to steal away.
“And you smell real good.”
It took every ounce of my willpower not to climb that man like a goddamn tree right then and there. Horse shit be damned. I knew I was a goner, my resolve fading with each passing second. In fact, why was I fighting this?
“You do too,” I murmured dumbly, more than a little embarrassed that I still couldn’t quite place his scent—tangy, fruity, bright.
Out of the corner of my eye, a dark shape skittered across the floor out of the bottom of one stall and into another. I squealed, practically launching myself into Zeke’s arms.
“Whoa, what’s wrong?”
I shakily pointed at the stall where I’d seen the tiny thing disappear. He followed my finger, his brow furrowing now.
“D’you see something?”
“M-mouse!” I jabbed my finger forward again, clutching the blanket for dear life. “Over there!”
Zeke, god love him, did his best to fight back the smile that wanted to break free.
He released me, giving me a reassuring pat on the shoulder, and then walked over to the stall.
He opened the door, and I squeezed into myself, terrified that he was going to come back with the thing dangling by its tail in his fingers.
I waited. And waited some more.
Then Zeke emerged from the horse stall a few feet away, his hands cupped around something very small and admittedly much fuzzier than I imagined a rat or mouse to be.
I was shaking my head no when he reached me, afraid that he was going to pull some mean trick, but then Zeke opened his hand to reveal a tiny kitten.
“Oh!” I crooned, utterly taken by the little fuzzball. “He probably ran in from the storm.”
“So the city girl isn’t afraid of a little kitten, just a mouse. Which is at least three times smaller than this guy,” Zeke teased, nudging me with his elbow.
I frowned, dropping my head as he carried the kitten back to the stall and tucked it into a warm home of hay. I eyed him as he sauntered up to me. He got so close, and my heart leaped into my throat at that tasty scent of his.
“To be fair, city mice are filthy, so I have a reason to be wary.”
“Uh-huh,” he mumbled, nodding as his stare drifted down over my body.
My clothes were clinging to me, emphasizing my curves, and I had to admit that I didn’t mind the way he was looking at me. Zeke’s clothes were plastered to him, too, and my core clenched at the sight of all those muscles.
“Now, I know you’ve never gone horseback riding.” Zeke shot me a dangerous glance, taking my hands in his and gently guiding me to the blanket he set out. “But have you ever gone for a roll in the hay?” he asked, a low rumble in his voice.
“No, I have not,” I answered coyly, allowing him to guide me down into the soft, springy makeshift bed he had assembled precisely for this purpose.
The tension between us flared. This was not horseback riding. And if I was picking up what Zeke was putting down, he very much intended for it to be cowboy riding. Jeez, how did I get myself into this?
Still, I could hardly deny the way my fingers itched to touch him. Zeke was so damn beautiful, all muscles and charming smiles. It’d been nearly impossible to keep myself from him all this time, and now he was right here, flirting up a storm and putting on all the moves.
I knew somewhere in the back of my head that I should resist this, but the rest of me didn’t want to.
“Well, might I be so lucky as to be your very first?” Zeke posed the question with such sparkling sincerity that I actually gasped slightly.
My cheeks flared with heat, and our stares connected in a way they never had before. Not that I hadn’t been ogling the guy nearly nonstop. He had been nothing but sweet and alluring, and he was asking me so politely to be with him.
Who did that? No one. That was who, and in that moment, I lost all my sense of resolve.
I pounced on him, knocking him back into the hay, my arms wrapping around his neck as our lips met as my answer. The blanket he’d given me fell away, but I didn’t care in the slightest. I was boiling from the inside out now, and I expected to see my wet shirt steaming in no time.
Easily, he guided me on top of him, my knees braced on either side of his hips as I straddled him.
Zeke wove his fingers into my wet hair as our faces began to part, my hands balled tightly in fists at his collar. Before he could break the kiss, I caught his bottom lip, sucking on it gently.