Chapter 14
Chapter Fourteen
Eris
When she woke the following day, a dull ache in her pussy and a fair bit of soreness across her body, Eris was pleasantly surprised to find Gabriel dozing beside her in bed.
He’d carried her back to the cabin after their playtime in the woods, her pussy staying hypersensitive from the cool breeze all the way back.
He’d completely torn her shorts off, and they were little more than scraps now.
She’d felt minor cuts and bruises as they moved back to the cabin, her body throbbing in the most delicious way.
He’d kept that mask on the whole walk back, per her request. They’d rushed through a shower upon return, everything aching, and collapsed together into bed.
Propping herself up on her elbow, Eris eyed the clock.
It was well past eleven in the morning, and her stomach growled as she realized how late it was.
Her sleep was all over the place since arriving at the Ranch.
It was her second day here, and already, she was missing parts of it.
She wanted to go out to the stables again so she could ride Magic, or really any of the horses again, and maybe take a peek at that structure in the woods that they’d run through.
A maze? Eris was certain that it was some type of maze, but one manufactured for the sake of chasing.
Her eyes locked on the mask beside the clock, the one Gabriel had worn last night.
Every once in a while it made it a bit hard to understand him, but she loved the thrill of those glowing eyes pursuing her through the dark.
Despite the soreness in her pussy, and the twinge of discomfort at her ass, she wouldn’t trade the experience for the world.
After waking Gabriel up with her mouth and earning herself a thorough fucking bent over the bed, they ate a mix of pastries for breakfast and Eris swapped into a new outfit for the day.
Gabriel wore much more casual attire this time, donning dark wash jeans, black combat boots as opposed to her cowboy boots, and a fitted red t-shirt.
She wore another pair of shorts, longer this time, and pulled her hair into two buns on the top of her head.
Gabriel’s heated gaze followed her to the golf cart, and with how wobbly her legs felt after all the sex they’d had, she was thankful to not have to walk back to the stables, or anywhere else.
“Can we go over there first?” she asked, indicating toward the woods. The corner of his mouth ticked up, and she almost wished that they played again this morning.
The thing about running like a hunter and the hunted around the property in broad daylight was they didn’t want to trigger anyone.
She already knew that was a large reason the Ranch went to these extremes to both fulfill her fantasy and keep things going like normal around the property.
Maybe she was overthinking it, but a tiny part of her still worried about lingering judgment from the people around her.
The Ranch had a good reputation for being all-inclusive, but the little voice in the back of her head kept making her second guess that.
“You want to see the barriers?” Gabriel guessed, taking them toward the woods.
Eris remembered previously, when there had been a nice bit of weather last January, riding out here and seeing how much space the wooded areas covered.
Right now, they were on one edge, and there was so much unknown to her between all those trees.
“I checked it out yesterday before we went chasing, but I haven’t explored that far into the trees yet. ”
She practically jumped in her seat, excitement lighting her eyes as they approached. “I want to see the design. I think it’s Virginia Creepers that they used, but I might be wrong. I couldn’t focus very well last night, so it’s just my best guess.”
Gabriel chuckled at that. “You were trying to figure out what the plants were?”
“I love plants,” she explained, shooting him a smile. “I work for a nursery back home, caring for seasonal plants and the all-year-round ones. I’m a shift lead there, but maybe I’ll be a manager or something someday. Plants are a big deal to me.”
He frowned, and she didn’t miss the look even as they pulled up beside the trees. “I’ve seen your flower-patterned clothes, but I thought you were more of a horse girl.”
“Why not both?” she teased, kissing his cheek before hopping off the cart.
It felt very right and very domestic. It was something she had never done before, and the lingering feel of his skin beneath her lips lasted long after she crossed into the perimeter of the wooded area.
Somehow, that felt more intimate than wrapping her lips around his cock this morning.
“Oh,” Eris continued, pausing only a few paces into the woods. She could clearly see where a plant grew vertically from the ground up, not like a tree but as though it was wrapping around something. She hurried around the trees, sort of remembering her path in the dark, and peered up at it.
“It is Virginia Creeper,” she said, delighted as she turned to give Gabriel another smile. He gave her a bemused one in return, and she spun back to pat the barrier. “It’s loose, like it wasn’t completely woven through whatever this is.”
“It’s lattice fencing,” Gabriel replied, as she uncovered it below all the leaves. When she focused, it was clear in certain spots where the vines weren’t wound around the wood of the lattice very well.
“It kind of cushions the blow when you crash into it,” she said, smiling.
Patting her hands along the fencing, she found more spots where the vines grew away from the lattice rather than twisting through, rooting itself tightly to the fencing.
The gaps were bigger in some spots than others.
“Is this growing here, or just placed over the lattice fending?”
“The design out here is new,” Gabriel replied as she knelt down and felt along the base of the fencing.
“Some of it’s grown here between the trees, thanks to the head landscaper, Master Lucas.
I think you at least met him last time. I’ve been told it was a heavy task getting it all set up before our arrival, because a lot of the vines hadn’t grown enough to make this area usable.
Some of the plants were brought over from other areas. ”
Eris frowned, glancing up from the dirt.
“It would grow better if planted a little further apart. See how the roots are, here? More space would allow it to flourish, it would just take more hands-on care to get the vines to grow properly around the fencing. Once the vines are twined through the lattices, they will continue to grow that way, and then it would just need maintenance. But I can see why this would be a lot of work in the beginning.”
Standing, she dusted off her hands and followed along the path.
Further down there were more barriers, and with the sunlight streaming through above she could definitely see how this became a path of sorts.
Looking to her right, she found a barrier that looked like a dead end, passing over the part of the path she was standing on to mislead whoever was in here.
It wouldn’t be much of a surprise in the daytime like right now, but at night, with no lights and the shadows of the woods, it was thrilling.
Darting away, Eris took off along the path.
Her legs weren’t sore from running, but her inner thighs protested all the movement after tightening then spasming around Gabriel too many times.
She still had nearly four days with him, but she sincerely doubted it would be enough time for them to be more than pleasure pals.
That made her stumble, and she slammed into another of the vine-covered fences. It still kind of hurt despite the padding, but she knew it could be worse.
Gabriel jogged lazily behind her. She was in the middle of blowing a bit of hair out of her face when he chuckled.
“It’s definitely a maze. If you want to work out the specifics, Master Lucas is probably your best bet.
We might be able to find him when we go to the stables, or we can check at the main lodge to see where he is at. ”
Eris hesitated at the mention of the main lodge.
Part of her did want to go back to familiar territory and explore again, but a larger, louder part of her didn’t want to break away from the bubble they were in.
They would undoubtedly encounter people throughout the coming days around the Ranch, but out here at the cabin, he could chase and use her freely.
She didn’t necessarily want prying eyes.
That wasn’t part of her fantasy. And if she didn’t have to think about anyone else, it let her worries settle too.
She cared maybe a little too much about people’s opinions, but she just couldn’t help herself.
Shaking her head, she switched directions. “This whole maze is for us?”
“No, I heard Master Derek discussing using it for primal play, but it’s still in the works. Right now it’s just for us, like a test run to start. It would give other people the option to play outdoors, in a more controlled area that feels very large and very dangerous.”
A phantom ache echoed in her pussy, and she resisted the urge to clamp her legs together. He was damn right about that.
“Since all the barriers aren’t finished it’s not open to a lot of people at once,” Gabriel continued.
“In a way, we’re the test couple. Primal is very popular, Eris, despite your hesitation to share that with me.
It’s becoming more and more popular, and Rawhide aims to be a place where everyone can discover themselves and their kinks.
This is just one step towards offering even more to the visitors and residents. ”
Eris studied him, and after a moment, she let him hook his elbow through hers. “You gathered all this from a short talk with Master Derek?”
“I never said it was short,” he replied, guiding her deeper into the maze.
She thought they might leave since some of the thrill was gone during the day, but he seemed in no rush to hurry on their way.
“I come to the Ranch fairly often. I work around here. I more or less work for myself and take on clients, so I get to pick where I work. I can travel at will so long as clients can reach me.”
“That sounds wonderful,” Eris sighed. “I work at the nursery, like I said. I finished college last year with an agriculture degree, but I haven’t really found any place I’m set on yet.
I just want to be able to use my passion for something beautiful.
The nursery is nice, but I wouldn’t say it’s where I plan to stay forever. ”
“You just finished college?” he echoed.
“I started school when I was twenty-one, and my four year degree took five.” She blew out another breath. “So I’m twenty-seven now, for your inquiring mind. You didn’t know that?”
“I read what your request was to return to the Ranch,” he replied carefully. “I know you are in your twenties. I didn’t feel the need to dig past that. You would tell me exactly how old you are whenever you felt it necessary.”
Eris tilted back her head, studying him. “If I remember correctly, you were forty one last time we were here. So you are forty two now?”
“Almost forty three.”
She hummed, squeezing his arm with hers. “Sixteen years older. I better not run so fast. You might blow out a knee.”
“Is that a challenge, vixen?”
Heat flooded through her cheeks, and maybe running through a maze during the daytime wasn’t so bad. Not if he kept looking at her like that, his dark eyes burning into hers. “Yes it is, Master.”
He pivoted, catching her chin between his thumb and forefinger. She leaned into his touch without question, widening her eyes as she stared up into his. “We’ll see how far you can run, Eris, once we go hunting tonight.”