Chapter 8

Sara

The annual first night cocktail party to kick off the start of the derby had gone off without a hitch in the ballroom of our estate. It was the one time every year when I looked at the monstrosity of a room and its cavernous shape and thought that it was worth the money my father had spent to build it. Of course when I was younger I had been enamored with it and liked to act out any dance scene from a movie inside there, specifically The Sound of Music and The King and I. But I was older now and aware enough of how the world worked to think that the whole thing was a little too ostentatious.

But on nights like tonight, my goodness, was it ever worth it. The whole place had been glowing like little fireflies dancing everywhere, and everyone was looking great in their finest for the cocktail hour. I had escaped from the grownups for a moment to find the area that was set up for the kids of our visiting ranches. There was a bouncy castle and some kind of obstacle course, plus hot dogs and hamburgers and all kinds of games that the kids enjoyed. I saw Emma out there, one of the older kids, and could see that she was making fast friends with the girls her age.

Pete had been more elusive, but I had caught glimpses of him throughout the evening as he chatted with other ranch owners and people who were there to participate in the derby. He was dressed in a nice suit jacket and jeans that fit him perfectly but he hadn’t bothered with the tie, or if he had it was already removed, and the top two buttons of his shirt were undone. He looked incredibly handsome, and I always regretted that we could only be friends. He carried himself with confidence that made him even more attractive, and I felt myself feeling just as gooey around him now as I had when I was ten years old. No matter how much I tried, we never made eye contact the entire evening, and I found that bothered me—it was like he was avoiding me altogether.

You did tell him you just wanted to be friends; I thought to myself as I walked out onto the back patio. It was quieter out here since most of the party was still in the ballroom or out on the front lawn where a few tents were set up. Out here by the pool, there was only the faint hint of a large party going on, and even that was beginning to die down with the late hour. Everything was taken care of, and the knowledge that the burden of another derby was off of my shoulders and under way carried with it a kind of freedom that I relished. I had done all that I could do, and now all that was left was to make sure the day to day events went along as scheduled. The rest I could enjoy like a spectator.

I kicked off my heels and left them there on the back porch and started off down the dirt road. I wasn’t sure what compelled me, but the cool dirt on my weary feet felt good, and I was grateful that there was one road left on the property that wasn’t graveled or paved.

In the distance, I could see the old barn, and I decided that would be a nice enough place to walk to in the moonlight. It was a glorious night. With the moon almost full the place was lit up with a heavenly glow. I couldn’t have planned a better party, and I was appreciative of mother nature’s little gift.

I entered the old barn and found that through the cracks in some of the boards there was enough moonlight streaming through to light the place. Besides that, I didn’t want to switch on the light and attract any stragglers from the party over to the place. No, I wanted some time to myself.

Even though I had been looking through my father’s documents in the file room for days now, I still hadn’t found anything to suggest that what he warned me about the Killarnys was true. He had gone ahead and contacted our attorney and was working to get the contract nullified in time for the derby race in a few days, but I had my doubts about whether or not the Killarny horse would be allowed to run in the end. It would all depend on what my father and his attorney were able to accomplish, and I knew that my father had the best guy around.

I hadn’t given up looking though. Still, I had no idea what I was looking for, and that was proving to be a big part of the problem.

There was some rustling behind me, and I turned, surprised, expecting to see a rat or a possum huddled in the corner of the barn. Instead, I was met with a shadowy figure in the doorway.

“Hey, Sara.”

It was Pete Killarny.

“Oh, hi. I thought you were a possum or something.”

He laughed. “Well, that’s one I’ve never been called before.”

I shook my head, “We’ve been working on this place, and I’d hate to think that the new floor we paid for in here wasn’t keeping the possums out.”

Pete moved a little closer and looked around. It was difficult to make out much, but the moonlight provided enough light to see by.

“This place sure looks different from the last time I saw it,” he said as his gaze landed back on me.

“When was the last time you were here?”

“Honestly,” he said as he scratched his chin, “I don’t think I’ve been in this barn since you kissed me here when you were about this tall.” He held out his hand to show how tall I had been at ten and he wasn’t wrong.

“I was taller than you then,” I said with a smirk.

He grinned. “I think you hit your stride a little early. I caught up with you in the end…and surpassed you by a bit.”

Pete had indeed. He stood somewhere around 6 feet tall, while I still hovered around 5 and a half feet.

“I peaked early,” I said and laughed.

“Nah,” Pete said as he shook his head and turned to face me. “I think I’m looking at pretty peak Sara right now.”

I cleared my throat. “You know how to flatter a woman.”

“It’s the truth. You’re as beautiful as you have ever been and I know you said that we could only be friends…but I don’t want to be friends with you, Sara. Not now, not ever.”

I frowned. “You don’t have to take that kind of attitude.”

He reached out and took my hand gently, pulling me toward him.

“The things I want to do to you aren’t things I do with friends.”

I felt a shiver race down my spine and back up again. In a flash, I was in his arms, and I wasn’t even sure how I got there, only that I didn’t want to leave. His mouth urgently sought mine, and he explored me delicately, his tongue waltzing around mine as he wrapped his arms tightly around me and pulled me in tighter.

Pete was grinding his thigh between my legs again, and I knew it wasn’t going to be long before I started to come. Just the scent of him was enough to arouse me. With all the other sensations combined, I felt like I was a balloon about to pop. His hands feathered over my nipples and I felt them grow hard like tiny pebbles. I wanted his lips around them again, sucking and caressing the sensitive tips.

“God, I want you so much,” he said with a gasp.

I pulled back and took him by the hand, leading him to the far end of the barn and to the staircase that led to the second floor. It was a hay loft up there, but we were converting the whole place, and it was the perfect spot for some privacy. We went up the staircase, and the open loft doors let in the light of the almost full moon. No one would find us here. There was still some hay left on the floor, and I said a silent prayer that there weren’t any mice nesting in it as I pulled him down to the floor with me.

He took his time, and it drove me crazy. With his hands, he explored every inch of me over my cocktail dress when all I wanted was for him to rip it off me and caress my naked body. Soon enough, he unzipped the dress and pulled it off, careful not to harm the fabric as he pushed it aside. I was braless underneath, and he didn’t waste any time removing my panties.

“You smell incredible,” he said as he dove between my legs and ran his tongue up the length of my slit. I reached down to guide him, and within moments I was crying out as his tongue swirled around my clit. He sucked me hard, and I bucked against his face, an orgasm taking over and wracking my body. He didn’t stop as he slid in two thick digits, filling me. He licked and sucked and pumped his fingers in and out until I couldn’t take it any longer. I was spinning out of control until at last; I called out his name, and my body began to recover from the shuddering.

He stood up and undressed, watching me all the while. The light of the moon showed on my pale skin and I could feel his eyes on me. I returned the favor, watching him strip through hooded, sated eyes. As good as he looked in his clothes, he looked even better out of them, and as he removed his boxers, I watched as his erection sprang to life. As much as I wanted to reach up and taste him, what I wanted more at that moment was to feel him inside me.

Pete wanted the same. He was back on top of me, and I felt his rigid length against my thigh, pressing up toward my core. I wrapped my legs around him to urge him forward.

“Please, Pete. Don’t make me wait. I want you now.”

With that, he positioned himself and slowly entered me, each inch another level of ecstasy. Finally, when he was sheathed inside me, I let out a sigh, and he began to rock on top of me, slowly and in a rhythm that made me moan. He thrusted and with each thrust he touched a part of me that made me feel like I was going to come unglued. His cock fit perfectly inside me like it was made just for me and I could feel myself contracting around him.

I could see the level of restraint on his face. He was holding back, but I didn’t want him to. I didn’t know how long Pete had been alone, but I knew it was longer than I had been. He was giving me so much pleasure; I just wanted to do the same for him.

“Don’t hold back,” I begged him.

And he didn’t. The pace of his thrusts increased, and he was soon slamming hard into me. The way his pubic bone was rubbing against my mound was bringing me close to the edge again, and I pulled myself tighter against him each time he entered me so that I could feel the sensation even more. His hips picked up their speed, and I could feel how close he was as he led me once again to the peak of my pleasure. I cried out, and almost immediately he let out a groan as he sank into me one last time, his cock twitching inside me.

He rolled to his side and pulled me toward him while he remained inside me and we lay like that for a few moments.

“I wasn’t expecting that,” I finally said trying to catch my breath.

“Are you having regrets?” He asked breathing heavy.

I shook my head and kissed him gently. “No, I just…didn’t expect to walk to the barn and end up getting fucked in the hay loft.”

He chuckled softly. “I wasn’t expecting it either, but I was hoping. Sorry, it wasn’t longer. It’s…it’s been a while.”

I smiled. “I know what you mean.”

He was quiet for a moment. “How long?”

“A year,” I answered quietly. “We had been engaged and were about to get married. But then well, I caught him in bed with my best friend.”

I felt Pete tense up. “I’m sorry about that.” He was quiet again and then, “It’s probably been a year or so for me. It gets to a guy.”

I nodded. “It gets to a woman, too. Can I tell you something?”

“Sure,” Pete said.

“I don’t want to be your friend either. I don’t know what’s going on in your life and I know that you’ve got a daughter that means the world to you. I understand what that relationship is like. But…I want you to know that I’m interested if you are. And you having a child doesn’t scare me.”

Pete nodded and swallowed. “Good to know. I think Emma already likes what she knows about you. She was telling me I needed to ask you out on a date.”

I laughed. “Oh really? So, I’ve got someone on my side?”

“You do. And if she was still living, you would have had my mom. She adored you, you know.”

I did know, but I didn’t know why. Emily Killarny had always been an angel to me whenever I was around her and her boys. I thought it might have been because I didn’t have a mother around a lot of the time and she might have felt sorry for me.

“That’s really nice of you to say. Your mother was a wonderful woman, Pete.”

“She really was.”

We were quiet for a while, just holding each other as the spring breeze blew through the loft doors.

“It’s getting a little chilly, and I might need to get back so that my dad doesn’t look for me. There’s no telling what sort of last minute thing he needs me to take care of before tomorrow.” I kissed him once more before I got up to put myself back together. “And I want you to know; I’m still trying to figure things out. I’m going to do it. You guys are going to race if it’s the last thing I do.”

I picked up my shoes from where I had left them on the porch. The heavy oak doors closed behind me as I entered the home I had lived in since my father had it built after the divorce. In spite of the trauma of the divorce, it had been an ideal childhood. But now I was facing a lot of questions about what had really been going on behind the scenes.

I stepped inside quietly, checking myself in the mirror of the nearest bathroom to make sure there was no hay in my hair. I was on a mission, and if I was stopped, I didn’t want any questions about where I had been, what I had been doing, or who I was doing it with. The last thing my father would want to hear was that I had been for a literal roll in the hay with a Killarny.

There was something for me to find. I knew there had to be, but I had no idea what I would be looking for or where I should start. My father was secretive by nature, but I hadn’t thought of him as someone who would deliberately tell a lie. We had always been so close, and it was difficult for me to think of him keeping something from me, especially something that seemed to be bothering him as much as this was.

There was only one reason he would do it — to protect me from some kind of truth he didn’t want me to find out. He had to know that I would eventually. The truth always came out, especially in situations when you didn’t want it to.

I opened the door to my father’s office with the key he kept hidden above the door frame. It was dark other than the lamp that he always kept on behind his desk. There was one single place I could think of that I hadn’t looked for any evidence of whatever was going on with the Killarnys, and this was the first opportunity I had been given to look there.

His desk. There was one drawer that he kept locked most of the time. I had always assumed that it was where he kept some valuables, but then again, he had never explicitly told me what it was for. I had caught him rummaging through it over the years, and he had been quick to close it, but I never asked what it contained. There are some questions you just don’t want to ask your parents and things you don’t probe about. I figured that if something was my business, he would tell me.

But now things were a little different. If he was keeping something from me or something underhanded was going on, I needed to know. I needed to know why he was so damn gung-ho about not letting the Killarny family race a horse in our derby.

I felt around the desk, trying to find somewhere I thought he might keep a key. If it was always on him, then I would be up shit creek, but suddenly I had a thought. There was a brass duck paperweight that he kept on the desk at all times. I picked it up and turned it over.

“Sara, all those mysteries you’ve read over the years have paid off,” I whispered to myself.

There on the underneath side of the duck was a small sliding panel. I slid it and inside there was a key. And sure enough, it fit right into the large drawer at the bottom of the desk, and the thing came open with a creak when I turned the key and pulled.

There was one file inside that was bigger than all the others, and I pulled it out first. The first sheet inside was a letter. I skimmed it enough to see that it was a letter from a woman to my father. The photo fell out and landed on the floor. I reached down to pick it up, and I thought the woman looked familiar, but it was an older photo, in black and white, of a woman who must have been in her early 20s, clad in a bathing suit, sitting poolside with a huge smile on her face.

When I turned it over and saw the name on the back, I knew exactly what this whole thing had been about.

The photo was signed, “Love, Emily.”