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I put the glass of water and some ibuprofen on the nightstand. I stayed by him as he cleaned up the mess he’d made of himself. When he slid the washcloth over his cock, a groan escaped me. Our eyes met, and I knew he could see the heat in mine.
He reached for my hand. “Stay with me.”
I shook my head and freed myself from his grip. “Goodnight, Riley.”
I thought he would protest again, but he didn’t. “Goodnight, Blake. Thank you for taking such good care of me.”
Those words were almost as seductive as his jerk-off session. I should stay away from him. The risk was huge for both of us, but at this point, it felt inevitable that I was going to teach Riley discipline while showing him just how much pleasure I could wring from his body.
I let Riley sleep in the next morning, intending to get my first chores done, send the other hands out with their morning assignments, then talk to him about what had happened—not that I had a clue what I was going to say.
My phone buzzed in my pocket as I was feeding the last of the horses. It was Lawson. Hearing from him at this time of day could not be a good thing.
“Hello.”
“I need to see you in my office as soon as possible.”
Oh shit. Had he or someone else seen me with Riley the night before? Did someone know Riley had spent the night at my house? I should never have brought him there. “I’m finishing feeding the horses, sir. I’ll be there in a few minutes.”
Lawson ended the call without another word. I considered waking Riley to warn him, but I didn’t know for sure that Lawson knew anything. If he did, I’d weather the first wave of the storm myself and see if there was anything I could do to mitigate the damage.
I cleaned up a little but decided to forgo taking another shower. I wanted this over and done with. Lawson’s office door was open when I got there. He looked up from the papers on his desk and waved me in.
“Have a seat.” He gestured to one of the chairs placed in front of his desk. That was interesting. If he was about to fire me, surely he’d make me stand. If this wasn’t about me and Riley, what was it?
“I appreciate the attempts you’ve made with my son, but I’m going to have to find him a job somewhere else.”
No way. “Sir, he really is making progress, and he’s more than willing to work.”
He waved his hand dismissively. “So you’ve said, but I’ve asked Leanne to move in. I’m thinking about proposing to her.”
I’d only seen Leanne a few times and hadn’t realized their relationship was serious, partly because I was well aware she wasn’t the only woman Lawson was sleeping with, not that it was any of my business. “I guess I don’t see how that affects where Riley works, sir.”
“If she moves in with me here, she doesn’t want Riley around. It’s awkward for her, since they’re about the same age.”
So rather than introduce them and help her get more comfortable with Riley and the age difference between her and Lawson, he was just going to dismiss his son. And if that was awkward, how would it be if he found out Riley had a thing for older men? Seventeen years separated Riley and me.
“I’ll find a place for him in my Houston office or maybe in New York,” Lawson continued.
Lawson ran a sizeable development company. The ranch was merely a side business for him. He’d forced Riley to major in business in college. The fact that he’d failed out three times didn’t bode well for him taking a business job. He might want to move back to Atlanta or try another city, but I couldn’t imagine him enjoying a job that confined him to a desk. Every time I asked him to help with record keeping, he fidgeted like a five-year-old on a long car ride. The last thing I wanted to do was talk down about Riley the way his father did, but it would be worth it if Riley got to stay here. “I’m not sure he’d be very good at office work, sir. He doesn’t like to sit still, and he seems to enjoy being outside.”
Lawson grimaced. “You got a better idea?”
Was he actually asking for my opinion, or was that a rhetorical question? I decided to act like he wanted my advice. “Assuming Leanne wouldn’t be ready to move in right away or that she wouldn’t mind sharing the space for a short time, what if you gave Riley a set amount of time—say two months—to prove that he could learn how to run this ranch? If he succeeds and proves he can have a good work ethic, maybe you could let him choose his own major or apply for a job in a field he’s interested in.”
