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Bad seeds make me sad, but good ones are a treat.
I’m made pretty sturdy, although I like to get dirty.
I really like getting wet, have you not figured me out yet?
OK, I didn’t know what horny woman had been up at three a.m. writing these erotic riddles, but she needed an intervention. Or to get laid. Probably the latter.
Cian snickered and I couldn’t contain my laughter either.
“Um, well, we’ve got some good clues here.” I giggled and reread it. A bed with no sheets, that was dirty, that liked seeds and water? I snapped my fingers. “It’s a flower bed,” I shouted with such forcefulness it was as if I had just won bingo at the old folks’ home.
“Good job, teammate.” He held his hand out and I reached up to smack it with a high five. “Look, it’s telling us to go north.”
We headed in the direction the clue showed. There was a dirt path on the way, but Cian insisted it was a trick to deter us. We opted to cut through the forest. As much as I hated to admit it, he was right. We found our third and fourth clues along the way.
We made small talk as we hiked, and I was relieved that he had given up on our conversation earlier. When he wasn’t being so serious and pulling out the compass to make sure we were on the right track, he was funny. Dared I say charming? But I kept my guard up, because after everything Ryzen had told me about him, it didn’t seem like a good idea to trust him. Although I had to admit being around him was—comfortable.Iwas comfortable. And that fact was making my mind run in circles.
One thing I also noticed as we talked was Cian wasn’t your typical businessman. He reminded me more of a rugged Boy Scout, and I found myself wondering why he even wanted such a huge acquisition as Covington Hotels.
The sky was turning a threatening gray color and there was lightning in the distance. We had been at it for what seemed like ten hours, but I knew was only half of that. I pulled out the last clue we had found and read it out loud again.
I make the body feel good, except for some
If I ring my bell, will you come?
You can have me in the morning, or even better at night
You’re getting so close, watch out, I can bite.
“Who came up with this?” His breath was warm against my neck as he peered over my shoulder.
He was always so close, surrounding me. Making sure I was OK with the pace, giving me water, guarding me when I had to pee. It was nice, but only made me think of Ryzen even more. How would he have been if it were me and him on this trail? He was so eager to win at everything, I could almost believe he would have left me behind hours ago. But not Cian. He rarely left an inch of space between us.
“Juliet and I have a scale that we rate our sex toys on, a, uh…” I paused, heat rushing to the tips of my ears. You know, Juliet was right; sometimes I said things without thinking. I had spent most of the day trying to avoid any type of sexual talk after earlier, but here I was, about to spill a joke we had told no one about.
We approached another fence that had barbed wire on it, and Cian threw our backpack over it. It was only about four feet high, just high enough to keep the cows hovering beyond it from escaping. He stalked toward me, a smirk on his face. “You have my full attention, Nova.”
“Um, well, a scale of how arousing a consumer might find our products.” I cleared my throat, willing myself not to break eye contact as he towered over me. “Lowest rating is ‘honey dew.’” This was a terrible idea. Why had I had to open my mouth? “And, uh, the highest rating is called ‘face down, ass up.’”
He nodded, his grin spreading.
“You’re probably asking yourself why I’m mentioning this, and I was just going to say the person who wrote these riddles is a definite ‘face down, ass up’ person.”Please let the ground open up and swallow me whole.
Cian threw his head back and laughed so hard it left me breathless for a moment. OK, maybe I wasn’t a total weirdo. “Brilliant.” His eyes were practically twinkling. “I hope you put that on your packaging.” His hands were around my waist before I could respond, and in an instant, I was being tossed over the other side of the fence.
That got the cows’ attention, and a few of them came prancing over. Being raised in the city my whole life, I had never seen a cow in the flesh. I stuck my hand out, like how you greeted an unfamiliar dog, and one cow with brown and white spots stuck out its big ol’ tongue and licked me.
I chuckled and turned to Cian, who stood there with arms crossed, smiling. “Look at this majestic beast.”
The cow poked its nose into my stomach, a bell ringing around its neck. Although kind of smelly, it was very sweet and gentle as I rubbed behind its ears. There was a note tied to the bell around its neck. Of course. Cow. Milk. The answer to the last riddle.
A bolt of lightning flashed across the sky, and a few seconds later, a thunderous boom spread across the area we were standing in. A fat drop of rain landed on top of my head, and within five seconds, a blanket of rain was cascading down on us. I reached for the note wrapped around the cow’s neck, and then Cian’s hand was wrapped in mine, tugging me.
It was raining so hard, I could barely make out Cian next to me as we ran for cover. Lightning struck the ground only thirty yards away from us and I shrieked at the closeness of it. Without missing a beat, Cian scooped me up in his arms and ran faster towards a raggedy-looking barn. I could get used to this, being manhandled. I knew I shouldn’t like it. I knew nothing good could come of thinking that way. And hell, I prided myself on being an independent boss-ass business owner. But when a man picked you up and carried you like you weighed nothing, it was sexy.
Stop it, pervert.
Cian tossed me into a pile of hay and chuckled as I rolled onto my back. See, that was what I got for thinking dirty thoughts—a mouth full of hay.
