“We should go find Cass,” Kellie panted.
“We should,” I confirmed, not making a move to let her go, and Kellie didn’t seem to be in any sort of a hurry.
“How long do you think we have until they miss us?” Kellie asked as she rubbed her tits against my chest.
“Not long enough,” I moaned, disappointed. For everything I had planned for Kellie, we’d need hours and a bed big enough I could have her every which way I could imagine. Big enough that I could do all the things I’d been dreaming about in those weak moments as I pictured a different life for us.
Unwrapping her legs from around me, Kellie slid down my body until her feet touched the floor before straightening her top. “We should go.”
“Yeah. You go ahead. I just… ah… need a minute,” I admitted, trying to think of anything but the way Kellie’s innocent white lace bra peeked out the top of her shirt.
“Want me to wait?” Kellie offered, and even though her words suggested she was trying to be nice, the evil glint in her eyes was torturing me and not at all helping my situation.
“You’re a cruel woman, Kellie Knight,” I reminded her with a shake of my head.
“Just keeping you on your toes, Samuels,” she teased. She popped up on her toes, kissed me quickly, and scooted out the door before I could toss her over my shoulder and drag her upstairs like a goddamn caveman.
ChapterFifteen
Kellie
“Be careful of Colonel. He’s a cranky one,” I heard Shelley warn Cassie as she ushered Cassie into the chicken coop.
“Why’s he cranky?” Cassie asked, always intrigued.
I hung back and let them be. Watching Shelley with Cassie was what needed to happen, I knew that, but all week I’d been shitting myself. I was expecting Shelley to look at me with disappointment and hatred. I’d kept her granddaughter from her for years. I’d deserved it, but knowing so wouldn’t stop it from hurting.
I felt Jake before I saw him. It was like as he approached, the air became charged with an electrical current, making me hyperaware of everything. He was that magnetic.
“You’re not going in?” he asked, draping his arm around my shoulders like it was the most natural thing in the world.
“Ah, I’m good right here. But feel free to go ahead,” I encouraged, planting my feet.
“Still afraid of chickens, Kel?” Jake teased, and I scrunched up my nose at him.
Why couldn’t he have forgotten about that? Out of all the things, he had to remember my paralyzing fear of the feathered devils.
Colonel might have been a temperamental ass, pecking at Shelley as she entered, but Cassie walked straight up to him, no fear at all, squatted down, and patted his head, the damn animal preening under her attention.
It took almost half an hour to convince Cassie to put the rooster down, the same angry rooster who would peck anyone’s eyes out if they so much as looked at him and now sat completely content in Cassie’s lap.
We were walking back to the house, Cassie holding one of my hands and one of Jake’s, running and swinging between us when two of the sexiest cowboys I’d ever seen came jogging toward us looking way too serious for a Saturday.
“Jake! Jake!”
“Nash. Sawyer. Meet Kellie and Cassie,” Jake introduced us politely.
“Ladies,” the one Jake called Nash greeted, tipping his hat.
“Jake. Sorry to interrupt your morning, but it’s Gladiator.”
“What’s he done this time?” Jake asked with a huff of annoyance.
“He’s decided to visit the ladies in the next paddock.”
“Stupid…” Jake cut himself off, and I was left to guess what he was going to say. But when he turned toward me. “Sorry. I have to go help…”
“No. Don’t apologize. Go. Do what you need to,” I encouraged, feeling like we were in the way. “Cassie and I can just go home, and we can catch up with you later.”
