Page 8 of His to Please

“Do you have available stalls? I’d suggest quarantining them off from the others and to themselves while I evaluate each of them.”

“I can do that. I’ll stall him then work on getting the other two out.” I nod, words not coming when he grins. Of course, the icing on the cake is when he shoots me a wink before turning on his booted heel and leaving me to watch as each muscle flexes and pulls as he takes a step.

“You’ve got it bad.” Catherine comes up behind me, knocking me out of my daydream.

“I do not, nope, not at all.” I do. I really, really do, but nobody needs to know.

“Sure, and I was born at night, but not last night. I’m guessing this thing between you and my son has been happening for a while now,” she surmises. I can’t lie to save my life. Remaining silent is the only thing I can do. “You go do your thing. Your secret is safe with me.”

I give her a two-finger wave over my shoulder as I follow Dean only to veer off to my vehicle and grab my medical bag. My stethoscope is already around my neck, phone in my pocket in case I need to take any notes, and then I’m walking through the long walkway of the barn. Stalls are on either side, there are lots of overhead lights, and from what I can see, all of the usuals are out in the pasture minus the healthy horses.

“Do you need me to look over thefirst three, or are they all good to go?” I ask Dean a few steps away from the stall.

“They’re good for now. They’re Coggins was just done. Still, they’ll be on the other side. Once you take care of the worrisome ones, I’ll have you take a look at them, too.” He opens the stall door for me to enter. He’s still got the colt in a rope halter and the lead rope in his hand.

“Sounds good. This won’t take long. He seems to be okay in my presence if you want to bring the other two out. They looked to be sweating, and who knows when they drank or ate the last time before you loaded them into the trailer?” I hold my hand out, allowing the young male horse to sniff me. I don’t want him to see me as a threat. I’d much rather be his friend than his foe.

“Alright. We didn’t give them a whole lot in case you needed to run some tests.” He ties the leads to the hook on the wall, and then it’s me and this baby.

“Hey, baby, it’s just you and me,” I tell him as I listen to his heart, his stomach, run my hands along his ligaments and tendons. Then I check his teeth. I shouldn’t be surprised, not in the least, but this baby is barely two months old. I’m disgusted. Sadly, I know this happens more often than not, and I’m sure this won’t be my last time witnessing it. It doesn’t take me long to finish with the first assessment. Bloodwork still needs to be drawn, and in order to do that, I’ve got to figure out how the Johnsonswould like to proceed. My head lifts up as I hear hooves making their way toward where I am.

“Oh, honey,” I breathe out, watching as the pregnant mare makes her way into the stall across from the colt with Dean. She’s worse than I ever could have expected. Her head is down, her belly is much smaller than it should be, and you can see the muscle mass depreciation. It’s a good thing Dean and JW rescued them when they did. I can’t imagine what they’d be like in the next month or so.

“Yeah, she’s not in the best shape,” Dean says.

“Do you want me to do bloodwork? I only ask because they’re technically not on the schedule today, and I can’t necessarily send it out to the labs without it being documented. Also, little man is going to need to be bottle fed for the next month at the very least.”

“I think we’re going to have to. Can you put the three rescued under my name and not the ranch’s? I’ll be paying for them.” My damn heart. This man is always doing the most when I least expect it. Which is ridiculous on my part. He’s never once given me a reason to doubt he’d do anything less.

“Okay, let me go wash my hands and grab what I need to, then I’ll work on the sweetheart. Do you have names for them yet?” I ask, wondering what Dean plans on doing with them.

“JW wants the stallion, and Mom has googlyeyes over the baby, which means the mare will be mine if I’m lucky.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure of that. She’s real pretty, Dean,” I tease. She needs a lot of work, but it’d sure be pretty to see her become the horse she’s meant to be.

“Woman, you trying to take my horse from me?”

“No. Well, maybe.” I think about it for a moment. “Actually, probably not. My hours at the clinic wouldn’t really be conducive to having a pet right now, much less a horse that deserves the love and devotion she needs.”

“Sunshine, let’s see what you have to say about her and what comes back bloodwork-wise. Everything comes back normal and you want her, she’s yours. I’m with the horses most days. One more won’t be a hardship. Especially knowing you’ll be here every chance you get.” Am I thinking about running toward him and jumping into his arms? Damn right I am. The one thing holding me back is the fact we’ve got horses between us, and I’ll be damned if I add more to her already full plate.

“Dean,” I say his name instead, seeing what I’m sure is the same look on my face reciprocated.

“We’ll figure it out. Go do your thing. I’m going to sit back and enjoy watching you, Tully.” He shoots me a wink, in doing so making my knees weak. Dean knows what he’s doing, too. That man, he’s making me rethink everything,especially keeping this relationship under wraps. His mom already knows, and I’m pretty sure so does JW. I was an idiot for ever believing we could keep this relationship a secret, and each day I want to kiss him whenever I want.

10

DEAN

I watchas Tallulah draws blood on the colt. She works fast, cooing at him softly with each movement. Needless to say, she’s a natural in her environment, especially with horses. I’ve seen this woman with her hand up a cow’s ass. I’ve seen her naked with my cock tunneling in and out of her cunt. It doesn’t matter what she’s doing, my eyes are glued to her.

“Alright, he’s all done. Let’s see what Honey Belle over here has got going on.” She bends down. The fabric of her pants stretches across her plump ass. I’m tempted to walk across the walkway, hands itching to hold each globe in my hands with her legs wrapped around me.

“You naming my horse, sunshine?” Where I was once standing on the outside of the colt’s stall, I’ve since turned around to watch her move toward Honey Belle, an appropriate name for thepregnant mare. The tan color is most commonly known as buckskin; add in her black mane and tail, which could also use a lot of tender loving care. Hell, it doesn’t look like she’s been body clipped in a fuck of a lot of time, let alone brushed.

“We should talk after I’m done with the horses.” It’s never a fucking good thing when someone says we should talk. My jaw clenches. I’ll be damned if Tully thinks we’re going to end what we have. Our relationship is too damn good even if we are keeping it quiet. I won’t let her throw it away. Ain’t no damn way I’ll walk away without a fight.

“Tallulah Alexandria Jennings, do not make me take you to the tack room and show you what I think about you trying to get away fromus.” I walk up behind her, my arms wrapping around her torso, chin settling in the crook of her neck. She’s not putting up a fight like I thought she would, especially being out in the open, where anyone could walk into my hugging her. What an interesting turn of events.

Source: www.allfreenovel.com