Calmly, Carefully, Completely(64)

“Like you want lick me like a lollipop,” he says. He adjusts the front of his pants, and I can’t help but notice the bulge there. “Stop looking at it,” he hisses.

I look for my dad, but he’s gone outside the barn. “I don’t even know what I’m looking at!” I complain. Pete takes my hand and presses my fingertips against the bulge of his erection. He gasps in a breath as my fingertips explore the ridges of him. “Reagan,” he groans. He turns his hip and puts up a knee to block me. “Would you stop it? I’d like to walk out of here sometime today.”

“Licking it like it’s a lollipop?” I ask, unable to get the idea out of my head. “You can do that?”

He grins and scratches the back of his head. “Well, I can’t. But you could.” His voice is gravely and kind of nasally since he just woke up. “Never mind,” he says. He pulls me to my feet and presses a quick kiss to my lips.

“Uh,” I say, brushing him away. “Morning breath.”

“I don’t care,” he says, leaning to kiss me quickly. I give him my cheek. “Give it to me,” he says. I pucker my lips and touch his quickly, careful not to breathe on him. “That’s better,” he croons. “Should I go talk to your dad?” he asks.

It’s really sweet that he would even think of that. “I doubt that’s a good idea.”

I hear a horse blow, and I remember the whole reason why we slept in the barn in the first place. I step onto a bale of hay and look down at Tequila. She’s on her feet and apparently, I was wrong. False alarm on the foaling.

Pete drops an arm around my shoulders and pulls me close to him. Dad bursts back into the barn with the slam of a door. I jump. Pete doesn’t let me go.

“Pete, don’t you have somewhere to be?” Dad asks. “Like in your own cabin in your own bed?”

Pete nods his head. “Yes, sir,” he says. He turns to me. “I’ll see you later?”

I nod. My belly does a little flippy-floppy thing, and he touches his lips to mine.

“See you later, Mr. Caster,” he calls.

“Not if I see you first,” Dad calls back.

Dad slams around the barn for a few more minutes while I feed Tequila a carrot. I totally missed the birth. I’m so relieved that things went well.

“Have a nice night?” Dad barks. He doesn’t look up from whatever he’s doing.

I smile. My belly drops down toward my toes at the thought of it. “I did, actually.”

“Reagan,” Dad breathes.

“Yes, Dad?” I say sweetly. He’s mad, but I can’t make him un-mad. And I probably deserve it for spending the whole night in the barn with Pete.

“Don’t make me have to kill that boy,” Dad warns.

“Yes, sir,” I say, dipping my head so he won’t see my smile. “You should know that we didn’t do anything wrong, though. He was a perfect gentleman. He just…” I square my shoulders. “He just held me.”

Dad draws in a quick breath. I don’t let anyone touch me, and Dad knows it. So in this situation, I might as well have said, “he just f*cked me all night long.” The level of intimacy is about the same in my dad’s mind. I’m sure of it. “All right,” he mutters. He throws hay to the horses, one flake at a time.

“Dad,” I call out. He stops and looks up at me. “Is it okay that I might be falling in love with him?”

Dad’s eyes open wide, and he blows out a breath. “Reagan,” he says quietly. “You should go and talk to your mother about this.”