AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I crept down the stairs and paused in the foyer, looking into the darkened living room. Moira’s hair was spilling over the cushions and just visible in the faint light of the foyer as I pulled on my boots. She was sleeping soundly, as was Day, as I slipped out of the house and locked the door firmly behind me.
I could still feel Moira’s lips brushing against mine as I entered the stables. It was close to two in the morning, and every horse was sleeping, except one.
I eyed the demon stallion, King, as I walked to the center of the stables. I wasn’t even sure why I’d come here, but I was here now, and there was only one thing I could do right now to get Moira off my mind.
“One misstep,” I said to the horse as I approached his pen, which was separated from the others because he nipped and harassed the other horses, “and you’re going straight to the glue factory.”
I wasn’t being serious, of course, and King didn’t seem to give a shit about my threat. I stepped into his pen and grabbed the saddle off the half wall dividing the pens, watching him closely.
His ears flattened on his head as I stepped forward with the saddle.
“Your choice,” I said calmly. “We go out for a ride, or you stay here and pace your pen all night.”
King snorted, shaking his head up and down.
“I’ll take that as a yes,” I grumbled, then started the delicate dance of readying the most ill-behaved horse I’d ever come across in my entire life for a night ride.
* * *
I pushed King for all he had, the two of us racing over the wide-open pasture under a cloak of starlight. Taking a barely broken stallion out into the pasture alone was a dumb idea but doing it at night was even more reckless.
I needed reckless right now. I needed that rush of adrenaline as I barreled into the unknown with a fucking out of control rocket between my knees to get my mind of the woman sleeping in my living room.
King was behaving himself, and for the first time since I’d brought him to the property, I got a real glimpse of his speed and strength. He was built for this kind of riding—full blast, his hooves barely touching the ground as I pushed him and pushed him and pushed him.
I let him lead for a while, focused on nothing but my acreage flying past us in flashes of deep purple and shadowed green. Then I took over, giving him commands that he followed with surprising accuracy.
He wouldn’t be a totally terrible horse if he kept this up.
“Whoa,” I shouted, and King slowed to a gallop, then a full stop. We’d reached the far edge of my property, a place not even visible from the attic window of my house.
I could see all of Hot Springs from here, the town’s lights faint specks in the distance. Farmland and grazing pastures stretched out around the town, nothing but inky black patches broken by flickering amber dots signaling someone’s front porch, or an idling truck.
This wasbigcountry.
And I’d do anything to keep my piece of it.
I got off King’s back, letting him drop his neck to run his snout through the grass. Crickets chirped and bounced around my boots as I walked toward the rundown fence that edged along this part of the acreage, which we hadn’t yet used for grazing.
This area of the property had always been my favorite. It was calm here, untouched, and pristine. The fence gave way to more wide-open farmland dappled with trees.
I leaned on the fence, looking out over the star-speckled sky… And thought of Moira again, of course.
Hard-working, dedicated, passionate… These were things I’d always looked for in a woman but hadn’t come across until recently. I’d never thought of settling down and getting married, and I definitely hadn’t ever considered having a family… at least, I hadn’t back when I’d been working eighty-hour weeks and barely taking time to sleep when I was living in California and building my tech empire.
I wouldn’t have had time for those things. But now?
I pictured Moira and Day on the porch swing, Day’s head in her lap while she raked her fingers through his wet hair. I pictured spraying him with the hose and him screeching in delight as I chased him around the backyard.
I pictured Moira and Day at the dining room table, chatting about everything we’d done over the last two days.
And then I imagined the life I could have if they stayed.
A full house. Laughter. Toys scattered throughout the living room and kids barreling through the hallways upstairs.
Kids, as in multiple.
I closed my eyes, running my hand over my face to try to rub the image away, but it lingered.
