Chapter 12
Chapter Twelve
Atlas
Getting all of the animals fed, watered, and in some cases, groomed, as quickly as possible, I had an hour before we had to start moving hay bales in preparation for the unicorn party.
I ran through the shower and went on a hunt for Penny.
Yesterday had been pure torture. Despite an entire day of work obligations, I’d kept an eye out for Penny. Five times, I had seen her walking with a man after one of her classes. Never with a woman.
Fire flowed through my veins. If not for respecting the Ranch and the safety it provided for its guests, I would have put a stop to that nonsense. It was what we were sent here to do anyway.
Hell, I would have stolen her away—and still might.
Morning sunlight filtered through trees, acting as a spotlight shining on my babygirl. She sat alone, thank goodness, on a bench outside of her cabin. Fire burned in me for other reasons now.
She peacefully folded pages of a book. When I got closer, I said, “Hey, Penny. Mind if I join you?”
Happiness filled her eyes and the prettiest smile I’ve ever seen crossed her face. For. Me. Yeah!
She said, “Yes, but give me a minute to finish this section.”
I nodded to avoid further interruption. My hunt had been so focused on finding her, I hadn’t sorted out what to say.
The truth wasn’t likely to be my best bet…
“So, did you do any workshops on breeding kink? I’d love to help you practice.
Oh and by the way, I want to care for you the rest of your life. ”
A total non-starter. It was too soon to be that honest. She hadn’t come to Rawhide Ranch for the breeding kink.
I sat on the bench with her phone between us and watched her meticulously fold the pages. I’d lose my mind doing that, but she loved it, and I could watch her do anything that made her happy—except hang out with other guys.
Her phone screen lit up, and I forced my eyes away. Her phone wasn’t my business.
Then again, she’d called me her Daddy. Didn’t that give me certain permissions? The obvious answer was, “not until we discussed her limits,” but I couldn’t stop myself from reading the text thread.
Jolene: New day. New Dom?
Penny: Not yet.
My heart sank as I considered why she was at the Ranch. I’d have to bring exclusivity up with her. I could be her Daddy Dom. I’d done some research, and the role was perfect.
Her hand rushed over her phone and the screen went black. “Okay, I’m done with my pages.”
I lifted my gaze to meet hers. How innocent and vulnerable could a person look?
Reaching for her hand, I stopped myself before making contact. It would have seemed unnecessary after all we had done, but I wasn’t chancing anything. “Can I hold your hand?”
She giggled and said, “Yes.”
I cupped my hand over hers, but her fingers didn’t turn over and wrap around mine the way I’d hoped.
“I wasn’t able to catch up with you yesterday. I wanted to check in and see how you were. Do we need to talk about anything we did…. Are you okay?”
A smile tugged at her lips. “I’m good.”
I pried and squeezed her hand. “You can tell Daddy anything. If I spanked too hard or… not hard enough. Or if you’d prefer not to have an audience next time.”
Her fingers twitched but she stared at the book that she’d kept in her lap.
“You mentioned needing space and getting easily overwhelmed. Are one-on-one interactions easier for you?”
“Usually, yes. I mean, I have three girlfriends, and I’m fine when I’m with them, but in other situations, I need time to warm up. It’s different with some people.” Her words slowed.
Was she worried I’d be offended that I hadn’t asked Everest and Phoenix to leave the other night. “That’s part of checking in. We don’t have to include my brothers—”
Fuck!
I wanted to hang my head in shame. That wasn’t how I’d wanted to tell her, but I stood firm as always. Don’t show weakness.
Her head angled slowly toward me. “Everest and Phoenix are your brothers?”
The world wasn’t crumbling around me yet. “Yes. We didn’t want you to think we had to be together.”
“Okay.”
“Just treat us as three separate men, each with our own personalities, our own lives, and our own kinks.”
Her lips pursed and her eyes held a far-off look.
“Any questions about that?”
“Not right now.”
“Okay, then…” Did that mean we could talk about something else or was I being dense. The silence weighed on me. “How did yesterday go? Did you make friends?” Wrong question. I quickly recovered. “I mean, in your classes… did you learn a lot?”
“I met some people. Just acquaintances, but everyone was friendly.”
Good answer. Next burning question. “Did you try out anything you learned?”
“Not yet.”
Pressing my knuckles into my thigh, I avoided doing a fist pump. The weight of my stare must have been enough to let each of those acquaintances know to stay away from her.
“Did you learn about any kinks you want to try? After all, they say you don’t really learn something until you put it into practice.” Not so slick. Why did I have so much trouble controlling myself when it came to her?
I didn’t expect her to answer, but she said, “Blindfolds… and restraints. Nothing too… St. Andrew’s Cross-ish, but I think I would like my hands being tied.”
“We can—”
“Hi, Penny. How are you today?” Everest’s light-hearted greeting grated on me as hard as the Barney song I’d heard Littles singing. But what did I expect in a place that embraced a lifestyle prone to liking that.
Phoenix was at his side. She smiled and greeted the two of them.
They both noticed my hand was on hers. I made no effort to make room for them on the bench. Normally standing over someone would be a position of power, but not when I was touching her and they weren’t.
Everest continued, “We tried to catch up with you yesterday to make sure we’re all on the same page about how… it went.”
“I liked everything we did.”
I withheld another fist pump.
Everest beat me to a response. “That’s good. We talked amongst ourselves afterward and felt that it went well too.”
Phoenix mumbled agreement.
I debated bringing up getting together again, but she filled the gap. “How long are each of you working at Rawhide Ranch? Are you all staying the same amount of time since you’re brothers?”
Shit. I hadn’t told her not to mention it. I couldn’t have told her not to. That wouldn’t be honest even though it would have been safer. She was one step closer to the core of our lie. The part that threatened to unravel everything.
Everest and Phoenix stared at me in shock. I shrugged. The less said about it now, the better.
But in the awkward silence, she asked, “Do you live around here?”
“No,” We all found our voices at the same time.
I took control. “We’re only here for a short time.”
She narrowed her gaze. “What brought the three of you here?”
Eastern and Phoenix, both shifted uncomfortably, waiting on me since they didn’t know the extent of what I told her.
“With the workshops and events happening this week, they needed extra hands, so we stepped in to help.”
“How did you find out about the jobs?”
“We saw a job posting.” It seemed easy enough since everyone finds jobs on the internet these days.
She appeared to be surprised. “I didn’t think Rawhide Ranch had an internet presence.”
My heart stopped. I’d already fucked up enough. I wouldn’t let this be our downfall. “A friend knew about the opportunity and showed us. How did you find out about the Ranch?” I deflected.
“Same, a friend told me.”
Her hand moved underneath mine, filling me with excitement that she was actually going to hold my hand and my brothers would see her choice.
But she pulled out from under my grasp and checked her phone. “I have more workshops today. I better get ready.”
Everest tried to play it cool. “Right, because there are a lot of activities this week. That’s why we’re here.”
I debated asking if I could kiss her, but that stemmed from my desire for a relationship. She was here to learn. Where did one stop and the other start?
As she gazed into my eyes, I decided to kiss a fingertip, plant it on her lips, and wink. “We’ll finish our conversation later.”