Dirty Player(11)

***



“This is your house?”

She covered her mouth with her fingers to stifle her giggle.

I glared at her. “Yes.”

I loved my house. Liked that it was out in the middle of nowhere so on the rare occasion I brought a woman home with me and then took her back to wherever the next day—if I didn’t just call for a cab—there was no way in hell she could find her way back. Plus, it was the only place I could find a few years ago when I wanted to get out of the city and back to where I was most at home.

“You have a barn.” Her eyes widened further as she took in the horse paddock and the white barn to the left of the house. “Horses?” She spoke slowly, as if I was hard of hearing or didn’t understand English.

“Why do you sound like you’re about ready to go into shock?”

I knew why. No one expected this of me. The few teammates who had seen my house still gave me shit for it. No one ever saw it during the daytime.

Usually, I took them to the hotel room I kept during the season.

My home was my secret. My place. All me.

Why I chose to bring her there during the day when she could actually see it was something I hadn’t considered until I saw her expression.

“It’s so small.” Her eyes were back on the house. It was. A small, yellow ranch that I kept meaning to paint in the off-season but continued putting off. I could have hired someone, but I wanted to do it myself. “And yellow.”

She lost the control on her laughter then and let it loose.

My knuckles tightened on the steering wheel as I pulled the car into the garage before I relaxed.

I had essentially bared who I truly was to her, by accident, and she was laughing in my face.

For some reason, I didn’t want to pull out and take her back home. “Keep laughing at me and you’ll be sucking my dick for dinner.”

That stopped the laughter. Her head whipped around to face me and her lips parted. Pink bloomed on her cheeks and it was my turn to laugh.

“Holy shit, it makes you so fucking sexy that you like the thought of that.”

I couldn’t help myself. She kept getting better and better. Every disgusting word I spoke seemed to light something inside of her.

“Shut up,” she murmured before blushing harder and putting her hand on the door handle to escape. Not like she could go anywhere. I had thirty acres of empty land all around me. She could run and hide in a few of the buildings sprinkled throughout the property, but I’d enjoy searching for her.

“I like it.” I reached for her arm before she could get out of the car. “It makes me hard all over again thinking about the way you liked my dick in your mouth. No fucking joke, Shannon, hottest thing I’ve ever seen.”

She relaxed under my touch, and I released her, climbing out of my car and meeting her at the passenger side as she got out.

“So. Tour of the place or do you want to go straight toward my bedroom?”

“Tour.”

I knew she’d say that. I didn’t know the last time I’d offered. But for her, I knew just where to begin.

“You ever been on a farm?” I asked, sliding my hand to hers until they were entwined together. I didn’t have to think about it.

Touching her was natural; so was her being here.

She shook her head, her gaze on the barn I was walking her toward. As we stepped on the gravel I stopped her and cursed.

“Shit. You don’t have decent shoes on.”

“What?” Her brow furrowed and she looked down at her feet.

I pointed toward the ground. “Stay here.”

Turning, I rushed into the mudroom of my house, not looking back to see if she stayed.

When I reached the room, I kicked off my sandals and pulled on my work boots. Then I searched through the closet and dug out the ones my mom wore when she visited. She hadn’t been here in over a year and the leather was dusty and hardened, but I figured they’d work. My mom wasn’t that much taller than Shannon. If they were too big, they’d still be better in the dirty horse barn than the sandals she was wearing.

I walked out of the house and back through the garage to see the spot I’d told her to park it empty.

Instead, I found her at the white fence. One arm draped over the top railing, her other hand blocking the sun while she looked out at the fields.

I paused in my tracks, taking in the view of her delicious, barely covered ass before I walked toward her.

She was beautiful. Curvy but thin, so soft in my arms. My dick was already half-hard again by the time I reached her.

“It’s so beautiful and quiet here.” Her voice was soft, almost as if she was talking to herself.

“You’re from Iowa—land of farms and corn and soybean fields.”

From her profile, I saw her lips tilt into a smile. “Yeah, but I lived in downtown Des Moines. It’s not a big city, but it was never as quiet as this.”

It shouldn’t have made me smile that she liked where I lived.

I held out the boots to her. “Put these on.”

She looked at my outstretched hand and frowned. I knew what she was thinking. She’d be a shitty poker player. Every expression she had was plain and unhidden on her face.

“They’re my mom’s. No one’s worn them in a year, but they’ll keep you cleaner than the sandals.”

Her eyes flickered to me before she finally took them from my hand.

Once she’d kicked off her sandals and slid on the boots, she stood up and grinned.

And damn it if that grin didn’t burn straight to my chest. She kept nothing hidden, not her fear or her happiness.

It was that moment I knew that whatever we’d decided was a mistake. A stupid agreement for meaningless sex—even if it was dirty, raw, and fucking amazing sex—was going to ruin every wall I’d built since Serena walked away from me.

I was smarter than this. Knew what I needed to do to keep my head in the game and my eye on the ball. I should have picked her up, thrown her in my car, and taken her to Beaux’s immediately.

I didn’t do anything I should have when she looked at me, giggling before she looked down at both of our boot-covered feet. “We look ridiculous. Swimsuits and boots.”

Still thinking with my cock, I reached out and took her hand in mine and pulled her toward the barn.

“I’ve got three horses,” I said as we walked. “You ever ride?”

“Once. When I was ten.”

I looked down at her and waited for a better explanation.

“I had a friend who wanted to ride horses. She took a bunch of us for her birthday party to a place where we could ride horses on a trail. It was only an hour and I was so young.”

“But you liked it.” I could tell by the way her eyes went hazy as she pulled the memory to the front of her mind.

“Yeah.”

That one word made me happier than it should have.

I opened the door to the barn, dropping her hand from mine to unlock the double doors and push them open. As we stepped inside, the unmistakable smell of horseshit and hay and dirt made her crinkle her nose.

But she said nothing. She walked forward, down the row to the last few stalls where the noises from the horses grew louder.

“That’s Winne,” I said as she stepped up to the first mare. If I was honest, she was my favorite horse. I’d bought her when she was two and she had been mishandled and skittish. It took forever to tame her and get her to trust anyone, but the results had been worth the work.

Now she was kind and gentle, all brown and black. Shannon stepped closer to the door and Winne’s large eyes turned excited as she blinked at the newcomer.

She neigh, pulling her lips back, and Shannon yanked her hand back in surprise.

“It’s okay,” I murmured, speaking quietly to calm Winne. I reached down and took Shannon’s hand in mine and I held both of our palms out toward the horse. “She’ll sense if you’re nervous. Let her sniff you and she’ll let you pet her soon.”

“Okay.” Her voice trembled much like her fingers and I tightened my grip on her hand.

It only took a few seconds for Winne to register my scent and Shannon’s before she dipped her head, took a step closer, and turned her neck.

“There you go,” I whispered to the horse as much as to Shannon. “That’s a good girl.”

I laid my hand on Winne’s neck and held it there while Shannon gently began brushing her hand up and down the horse.

We were silent, the only sound coming from the other horses stepping on their hay, eager for their turn and snacks.

“Keep petting her. I’ll get her treats.”

I needed space. My heart was pumping faster than it should have been. Seeing Shannon in the barn, touching my horses—lovingly—an ache grew deep inside my gut.

Only an hour into a month-long agreement and I was already debating if I should end this as fast as I could. I should have known this would be her reaction. So far, she’d busted through every preconceived notion I had of her. What the fuck did I think was going to happen when I brought her in here?

I grabbed a couple handfuls of apples from the horses’ snack bin and walked back to Winne, holding an apple out to Shannon.

We’d feed them. Then we’d fuck.

And after eating dinner, fuck again.

“She’s so beautiful,” Shannon said when Winne reared back and gobbled the apple out of her hand. Shannon squealed as the horse’s lips grazed her palm.