“Trust me, you don’t have to worry about that.” The heat of his gaze burned through any possibility of doubt. “I wanted to be sure it was your choice.”
“As opposed to the goat’s.” She took a step closer. “You were saving me from being chewed into a corner. Non-consensual gnawing.”
Jefferson reached for her, wrapping an arm around her lower back. “For the record, I have no objection to you taking off your clothes.”
“That’s too bad,” she said, before kissing him again.
“Why?”
“You have me tied up pretty tight.” She curled a finger around the part of the strap that wasn’t a thick white drawstring, lifting it away from her body.
His eyes tracked the up-and-down slide of her hand. “Good thing I always carry a utility knife.”
In those shorts?Libby thought not. She’d spent enough time on his lap to know better.
He turned her so they were back-to-front, one arm anchoring her to him while the other brushed her hair aside to expose the nape of her neck. “I like a challenge.”
If she had a cosmic remote, Libby would have hit pause right there, with Jefferson surrounding her, solid and warm, his lips against her shoulder.
“Cold?” he asked when she shivered.
She shook her head. “You?”
“Nope.” He splayed his hand over her stomach, the heat of his hand melting her from the inside. “Where were we?”
A goat answered before Libby could, bleating something that sounded like,I finished the flowers, dickwads. What’s for dessert?
“Go away,” Libby grumbled, though it was hard to feel too much annoyance when she was slathered over Jefferson like the filling on an open-faced sandwich.
“I assume you’re not talking to me,” he said, lightly biting the lobe of her ear.
“No.”Please never leave.Libby buried that thought deep before it could cut her.
In the distance, the goats made more noise.Remember us? We’re still here!It was like having an annoying chaperone. At least they weren’t right up in their business. In fact—
Libby abruptly pulled herself out of Jefferson’s arms. “Did that goat sound really far away to you?”
He frowned. “Now that you mention it, yes.”
She waded to the edge of the hot tub, standing on the bench for a better view. The brown goat was quietly nibbling grass. Beyond that, Libby spied the chewed-off end of a rope.
It was the number one thing Keoki had warned her about.Those goats are escape artists. We have to make sure they don’trun away because they’re hella expensive. The cheese sells for forty dollars an ounce.
This was standard goat behavior, not a karmic slap on the wrist. And yet Libby couldn’t shake the feeling she was being punished. Maybe it was a law of the universe: tell too many lies, and you were doomed to get cockblocked by your fake pets.
“I have to find her,” she told Jefferson. “Before something happens.”
The way her luck was running, the goat was probably dancing in the middle of the highway by now.
Chapter 24
lovelillibetWhen people say the age of adventure is over, it tells me they’ve forgotten how to take risks. You can turn your whole existence on its head anytime. For example, the other day I traded my swishy layers for curtain bangs and now it feels like I’m vacationing in my own life.
Love, Lillibet
Image: Gauzy white drapes swirl behind a wrought-iron railing.
#renewyou #hairtodaygonetomorrow #chargeintochange
