Page 34 of Stick Around,
I forced my eyes open, focusing on the waves crashing against the rocks below as the pleasure crested. My body shuddered against him as I came undone, my cries carried away by the wind and lost in the sound of the surf.
He worked me through it, his fingers slowing but not stopping until the aftershocks subsided. Only then did he withdraw his hand, turning me to face him as he lifted his fingers to his mouth.
In the moonlight, his eyes looked almost black, filled with a hunger that wasn’t even close to being satisfied.
Chapter 12
More Than Sleep Happened Here
Kellan
Iscratched Whisk’s nose as I dumped the last of the feed into his trough. The big chocolate gelding nudged my shoulder in appreciation, nearly knocking me sideways.
“Easy, big guy. I know you’ve got the Sunday munchies.”
I’d been up since five, handling the morning chores that Enzo and I usually split. Except today, there was no Enzo.
I glanced at my watch. It was eight o’clock. Definitely not like him.
“Any idea where your favorite human is?” Ranger snorted in reply and turned his back on me. “Rude.”
Enzo had taken Quinn line dancing, but even after a late night, he never skipped out on his chores, even if he was sick. The guy was like a machine. One time, I had to physically block the stables’ doors to make him go back to bed. Something wasn’t adding up here.
I pulled my phone out of my back pocket, and my eyes widened when I saw the red notification dot on one of the social media apps.
Last night, I’d posted a green screen video with Quinn prancing around on her hobby horse, looking adorably serious while I provided extremely professional commentary. I’d captioned it: Who needs actual horses when you can master the majestic art of hobby horsing at La Cuesta Ranch? But we have real horses too, and cabins you can rent for the ultimate horse retreat only a few miles from the beach!
I tapped on the app and nearly dropped my phone when I saw it almost had a quarter of a million views. My thumb scrolled through the comments in disbelief. While there were a lot of mean comments about the hobby horsing, there were just as many people telling them to shut up and asking about the ranch.
And then I started to see comments saying they couldn’t book a cabin because there was no availability.
I fumbled to open our reservation app, fingers suddenly clumsy with adrenaline. The calendar that was usually a depressing sea of white empty space was now a solid block of color with reservations stretching weeks into the future.
“Holy fucking shit.” I spun in a circle, needing to tell someone but finding only unimpressed horses. “Holy. Fucking. Shit!”
I broke into a sprint across the ranch grounds towards Quinn’s cabin, narrowly avoiding a collision with Butters, who had gotten outagain. We really needed to start putting locks on all the gates even though it was annoying.
I bounded up the steps of Quinn’s cabin and pounded on the door. “Quinn! Wake up! You’re not going to believe this!” I banged harder with the flat of my hand.
Silence.
Maybe she was still asleep? I pulled out my phone to text her instead when the door swung open.
My prepared speech evaporated.
Quinn stood in the doorway, her hair tousled in that unmistakable way that screamed “definitely more than sleep happened here.” It was artfully chaotic, sticking out in places that suggested fingers had been run through it repeatedly. Her lips were slightly swollen, with the telltale flush of someone who’d been thoroughly kissed not long ago.
And she was wearing Enzo’s shirt.
It hung to mid-thigh, the sleeves rolled up several times, and there was approximately zero evidence of pants happening underneath it. Just smooth legs that I’d had wrapped around my head only a few days ago.
Words, excitement, and the viral video evaporated into a fog of “oh” and “wait” and “when didthishappen?” My thoughts were going a mile a minute, leaving me standing there with my mouth slightly open, trying to process the scene in front of me while my excitement about the reservations receded into the background.
I’d noticed from the first day she was at the ranch that Enzo was attracted to her, but I never expected him to act on his feelings.
But where did that leave me?
I reminded myself she was leaving in a few days and lived three hours away. While it wouldn’t be impossible to start seeing her, once she got busy with the school year again, it would be hard.
