The orgasm took him hard, pulsing through him as he came, and he came, and he came. He could hear himself swearing, fist still moving, milking every moment of his much-needed release because he hadn’t come this hard—or this long—in years.
Afterward, he lay flat on his back, feet on the floor, still wearing his boots, panting and gasping for breath as blissful relief buzzed through his veins. Jesus Christ. If this was even a fraction of how good it felt to have sex, he might have just fully realized what he’d been missing.
* * *
Megan woke,groggy and disoriented. She squinted at the clock. Why was she in bed at noon? Slowly, the previous night came back to her. Bug’s colic. Sitting in the barn with Jake. That phone call as she was climbing into bed when his voice sounded like pure sex and she was so sure she’d interrupted him jerking off that she’d had to pull out her vibrator after she got off the phone before she could fall asleep herself.
With a groan, she crawled out of bed, her body annoyingly sluggish after her disjointed sleep. She showered and dressed and spent the next hour walking not only her foster dogs, but Elle’s too, to make up for Elle watching her dogs last night. As she looked at the calendar on her phone, she realized with a jolt that her first portrait session was booked for today.
She’d been anxiously anticipating it for days, and then Bug’s colic had completely wiped it from her mind. A shiver ran through her, erasing the last remnants of sleep from her brain. Earlier that week, she’d scouted some potential locations, but she’d need to review them before the session. Focused now, she headed downstairs for a late lunch while tabbing through her notes. Then, she went upstairs to get her camera, giving herself a silent pep talk, before heading to the foyer.
Here goes nothing…
“Hi, I’m Megan Perl.” She extended her hand to the young couple waiting for her there. “You must be the Chens.”
And from there, it went…surprisingly well. She led them around the castle grounds, having them pose in various locations and snapping some impromptu photos of them walking and interacting with each other too. It helped that they were very much in love, giving Megan plenty of unscripted romantic moments.
When she made it back to her room afterward, she sat on the bed, tabbing through photos on the viewfinder. There were plenty of tossers—blurry photos or pictures where someone’s eyes were closed—but there were also some nice shots in there, certainly enough to work with once she started editing them.
Bubbling with a restless combination of relief, excitement, and exhaustion, she left her room and walked down to the barn to check on Bug. She found the rescue horses in their usual spot in the riding arena, dozing in the sunshine. Both horses lifted their heads and stared at her as she approached.
“Hey, ladies. Long time, no see,” Megan said as she walked up to the fence.
Bug walked over to greet her, allowing Megan to rub her face, careful not to come close to the bite wound on her cheek. Beneath the purple spray, the wound looked much better than it had when they’d arrived almost two weeks ago. She was healing, just as Megan had.
“Lucky for you, I don’t think the boy horses will care if you have a scar on your face,” Megan told her softly.
Bug flicked her ears, dropping her head to nibble at a few stray pieces of hay in the dirt.
“Hopefully potential owners won’t care either.” Although Megan had her doubts about that. She’d seen scarred or otherwise “imperfect” animals be looked over at the shelter in favor of the prettier ones. Human nature was what it was, after all. Megan’s fingers slid over the jagged line on her face.
Sometimes…sometimes she could almost forget it was there. But it only took one awkward glance from a guest at the castle or the kid behind the register at the grocery store to remind her. And every time she looked at herself in the mirror, it was all she could see. It changed her whole face.
The scars extended down her left arm, although she knew it was her own vanity that kept her from being as conscious of the scarring there. No one flinched when they saw her arm, not the way they did when they saw her face.
Before the accident, Megan had been the outgoing social butterfly in her group of friends. Men gravitated to her with very little effort on her part, and she basked in their attention. Now, sometimes she wasn’t even sure who she was anymore.
“Just can’t seem to keep you away,” Jake said from behind her.
She turned, allowing her hair to fall over the left side of her face out of habit, even though Jake had seen her scars plenty of times by now. “I just wanted to check on her before I head up for dinner.”
“She’s doing fine.” He reached out and tucked her hair behind her ear. “Dinner, huh? Who am I getting blown off for?”
“Elle and Ruby,” she admitted. “Girls’ night.”
“Well, I can’t complain about that. Want to help me bring them in?” he asked, gesturing toward the horses.
“Oh, yeah. Sure.”
He lifted Bug’s halter and lead line off the hook on the fence where they’d been hanging and handed them to her. “She seems to have taken to you.”
“I like her too,” Megan said as she fitted the halter onto Bug’s head, surprised at how quickly she’d become comfortable handling the horses, Bug in particular.
Jake took Dusty Star, and together they led the two horses into the barn. The aisle was clear today, but Megan still felt a delicious heat travel over her skin as her gaze fell on the spot where she and Jake had fooled around on the horse blanket last night.
She led Bug into her stall and took off her halter, giving her one last rub before she left her. “I’ll see you tomorrow, then,” she said to Jake, waving over her shoulder as she left the barn. By the time she made it to the castle, Ruby was already ushering her toward the stairs for their girls’ dinner up in the tower. She carried one of the platters Beatrice had prepared for them, and Megan grabbed the other one. Elle came behind them, carrying a wine tote and glasses.
“I brought three bottles tonight,” Elle said.
