Chapter Twenty-Five

James

 

My eyes worked to focus against the sun beaming in the through the window as I woke up. Evelyn was curled into my chest, her hair spread out on the pillow like fire. I pulled her into me tighter, warming myself against her flesh as she started to stir. My hand stroked her hair gently sending her back into her peaceful slumber.

I laid there, holding her, watching her, for a few of the best moments in my life.

Careful not to wake her, I slid away from her, out from the bed and to my feet. She stirred again, and then snuggled into the blanket, making one of her sweet sounds of happiness.

Using a recipe from old man Jasper, I’d prepared a breakfast casserole the night before. I pulled it from the fridge and slid it into the oven while letting Evelyn sleep.

Coffee was made, the casserole almost finished heating, and the barn animals watered and fed as I snuck back into the house from my morning chores. Evelyn walked from the bedroom, rubbing her eyes as she made her way into the kitchen where I pulled our breakfast from the oven.

“Good morning, darlin’,” I kissed her gently on the top of her head as she leaned into me.

“What’s all this?” she mumbled in her tiny sleepy voice.

“Breakfast,” I grinned.

“You didn’t have to,” she sighed.

“I know that,” I insisted, guiding her to the table.

She wore a loose pair of sleep pants, blue and white stripes. Her hair flowed around her shoulders and draped over a light blue t-shirt. I could barely take my eyes from her as I made her a plate of food and a cup of coffee.

“You’re too good to me,” she blushed.

I smiled as I took a seat next to her. I didn’t tell her that I wished I could give her more, that she deserved so much more. I didn’t tell her that I wanted her to be my girlfriend. I didn’t even tell her that I was glad her bag was so full and that she’d be staying the entire weekend with me on the ranch. Instead, I stared at her, took in her beauty, and daydreamed about one day telling her everything that was on my mind, in my heart.

“So, what are we doing today?” she asked.

I smirked, my thoughts immediately going to the gutter. She blushed as she took her first bite of the breakfast casserole. A moan of pleasure rolled from her throat and past her lips, a familiar sound that queued my dick to twitch.

“We could just stay in bed all day,” I flirted.

Evelyn giggled as she covered her mouth to chew. I watched her eyes narrow on mine, and then once her hand moved away, her lips curl into a smirk.

“Don’t you have things to do here?” she asked.

“They can wait,” I replied.

I scarfed down a few bites of the casserole, dopamine drowning my brain as I remembered the first time old man Jasper made the meal for me. I wanted to moan like Evelyn had, but I refrained.

“No. I want to know what you do all day,” she insisted.

“Really?” I questioned.

“Really,” she smiled.

“Well, I already fed and watered the animals in the barn,” I explained.

“So, that’s why you snuck out of bed. Why didn’t you wake me?” she asked.

I laughed.

“I couldn’t imagine that you’d want to smell manure first thing in the morning,” I replied.

“Well, maybe I did,” she laughed.

Evelyn Pierce, a high-powered attorney that could be handling some of the largest cases in the country, sat at my kitchen table, eating a casserole that I made, wearing sleep pants that tightened around her round ass, a t-shirt that was thin enough to let her braless tits perk up against it, and announcing that she wanted to work my ranch. I was in shock. I wanted to grab a piece of my arm and pinch just to check that I wasn’t dreaming.

“Okay, well, there’s plenty to do,” I smirked, figuring she was in over her head.

“Good. I want to learn everything,” she insisted.

I pictured her doing some of the less glamorous jobs around the ranch, like shoveling out the stalls, digging trenches for new fencing, or trimming and shoeing a horse. I chuckled under my breath as I finished my food, and then quickly sucked down the rest of my cooled down coffee.

“Finish up and get dressed; the day’s half over,” I teased.

“It’s only eight o’clock,” Evelyn protested.

“As I said, the day’s half over,” I drilled.

I grabbed my boots while Evelyn finished her food and sipped at her coffee. When I was ready to go, and she finally got up from her seat, I took her plate and pushed it into the sink with the rest of the dishes.

“We’ll get that later,” I smiled, slapping her on her plump ass as she headed to the room to get dressed.

“Hurry it up,” I teased.

After a few minutes of Evelyn in my room dressing, I realized she wasn’t going to be as quick as I’d hoped. I wrapped up the rest of the casserole and put it in the fridge, and then started the dishes.

“I thought we were doing them later,” she teased, back in the kitchen dressed in jeans, the same t-shirt, but unfortunately now with a bra underneath. I was impressed that she’d brought her boots, and couldn’t help but grin at how adorable she looked.

“I didn’t know you were going to take all day to get ready,” I teased, watching her face grow pale and her lips part as she started to complain.

I laughed, pulled her into me, my hands still wet with dishwater. My lips pressed against hers as my wet hands used the denim on her ass cheeks to dry my hands.

“Are you using me as a towel?” she gasped playfully, pulling back from my grip.

“I’m multi-tasking,” I laughed.

“Oh, I see,” she scoffed, rolling her sweet green eyes as she smirked.

I stood in the barn with Evelyn, pointing to different tools and explaining their purpose. She was fascinated by the large scale that lined the east wall of the barn and gasped when I told her the average weight of a heifer.

I explained the weight, and how I used it to determine the age of a heifer, and if she was ready to breed.

“I keep them away from the bulls until they are about fifteen months, even though they could breed as early as seven months,” I explained.

“So, why don’t you breed them earlier? Wouldn’t you have more cattle to sell?” Evelyn asked.

“Doing things the easy or fast way isn’t always the best,” I smiled, thinking about how fast I’d like to move with her, but knew better.

I loved how interested she was in everything, even the boring small details, like record keeping, feeding, why I move the cattle from field to field so often and how the price of beef is determined.

 “So, feeding the cattle is a huge expense?” she questioned when I told her what it took to feed one animal throughout the year.

“Yes, but I plan to start growing alfalfa, that way I can save money, and also ensure my stock gets the highest quality feed,” I boasted.

“Isn’t that already growing in the front field?” she asked.

“That’s wheat. I talked Jasper into planting it before I left for the SEALs. It’s a great money maker, and the waste makes great bedding for the animals,” I explained.

When she asked about the artificial breeding tools that were in a large black case by the scales, she blushed. I loved watching her squirm while I demonstrated the tools in the air, pretending a bull or cow was nearby.

“Hey, I have a couple bulls that earn a pretty penny selling their semen,” I laughed as Evelyn’s nose wrinkled.

“You sell it? Why?” she gasped.

“Bloodline. I have one of the best bloodlines in the country,” I boasted.

“I bet you do,” Evelyn smirked.

“Black Angus bloodlines,” I chuckled.

Evelyn was losing interest in what I had to say, her eyes diverting to Gulliver as he began kicking up the ground of his stall. It was obvious he was excited to see her and wanted nothing more than for her to come say hello as he started to nicker.

“Can we go for a ride?” she asked eagerly.

“Of course,” I agreed.

I let her get Gulliver ready on her own, still amazed that she was so comfortable around him after what Axel had told me. She brushed his coat, combed his mane, and saddled him up like an expert, stroking his snout as she whispered sweetly in his ear.

“So, Axel told me you were afraid to ride,” I blurted.

She looked surprised as she turned to me, her face paler than usual. I immediately felt foolish, wishing I could take my comment back. Axel hadn’t told me what happened, so bringing it up so abruptly was simply rude, not to mention, dangerous.

Evelyn’s eyes softened, her lips curled into a smile, and the painful fear in my chest started to subside.

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t’ve asked,” I apologized.

“No. It’s okay. It was a long time ago. I just got bucked off during a lesson. The horse crushed my arm pretty good, but I healed,” she said calmly.

“And you hadn’t been back on a horse until Gulliver?” I fought back laughter as Gulliver chewed on a piece of rope hanging over the gate of his stall.

“No. That was more daddy than me. I would’ve, but he refused to allow it, afraid I’d get hurt again,” she sighed.

We’d talked a little about her parents, and how strict her life was growing up. I felt bad for her, but still knew she had it better than I did. I wondered what I would’ve been like, what I would’ve become if I had parents that cared, that pushed me to reach my full potential. Lost in thought as I finished Queen’s saddle, I realized that Jasper did that for me, and even though from different worlds, Evelyn and I were standing in the same place.

“You need help up?” I asked, ready to leave Queen’s stall and come to Gulliver’s. The palm of my hand was already warming up from the thought of cupping her sweet ass as she hoisted herself onto the tall thoroughbred.

Evelyn stepped onto the rung of the stall, pushed herself up as her right leg swung over the large horse. She smirked in my direction as she straightened on his back.

“I’m good,” she winked.

There was nothing sexier than a confident woman, a strong woman, and Evelyn was both of those things.

I let her take the lead so I could watch her ass bounce up and down from the saddle as we ran the horses hard. We didn’t stop until we reached the large barn in the front field that sat closest to the road. It was where the wheat was processed and stored. Evelyn asked about it, and then the other next to it where hay was stored after being baled and dried.

We ran the fields, moving cattle to new grazing spots. She seemed genuinely interested in learning the process, and why certain cattle were separated from others. I couldn’t understand why a woman of her caliber would be interested in what I did day to day, let alone be out there with me doing it. But, she was. She helped push the herds with me, tightening up the gap and making the job so much easier than doing it alone.

With the sunlight to her back, her red hair glowed magnificent orange as she sat on Gulliver’s thick back. My chest tightened, my stomach rumbled, loud enough for her to hear, and I started to feel myself getting further lost in the mystery and intrigue of Evelyn Pierce.

“Sounds like its lunchtime,” she giggled.

The rumble wasn’t about food, but I could eat. I started to chuckle as the song from the night before rang in my head, over and over; I’ve got a brand new girlfriend.

“Sounds like it,” I smiled.

Lunch was on the back porch because the sun was too hot on the front. I grilled burgers and fresh vegetables while Evelyn seemed to be lost in thought, staring out into the fields. What I wouldn’t give to know what she was thinking.

We sat and ate, talking about the farm, and then she surprised me with an unrelated question.

“Why don’t you have a woman out here?” she asked.

I paused, looking at the seriousness of her face.

“I do,” I laughed.

“You know what I mean,” she scoffed.

“I guess I just hadn’t found the right one,” I bit into my burger in hopes of avoiding anything else on the topic.

I wanted to say, until now, until you, but I didn’t. I still wasn’t sure why she asked the question.

“What would make a woman, the right one?” she asked.

I nearly choked on my burger as it slid halfway down my throat and stopped from my gulp. I hacked it down, my eyes watering as I stared at her in disbelief. Was she hinting that maybe she wanted to be ‘the one’ or just making conversation?

I took a long swig of my beer, eyeing her to try and get a read on her thoughts, her reasoning. Fuck. I wanted to say it was her, that she was the type of woman that could be the one, but I knew it was too soon.

“Well, she has to be smart, strong, kind, beautiful, and…like the smell of manure in the morning,” I teased.

Evelyn slapped at my shoulder playfully as she blushed. That was the only way I knew to tell her…it was her, that she was the one, jokingly.

“What about you? Why no man in your life?” I asked.

“Work keeps me too busy,” she replied.

Hmm. That seemed to be a pretty lame excuse.

“Maybe you just need to find the right man, one that you’ll want to find time for,” I suggested as seriously as I could.

“Maybe,” she said coolly.

“We’ll probably need to get you a bigger bag for your next sleepover; that one you brought is surely about to bust at the seams,” I burst out laughing.

This time her hand whacked me good, causing my shoulder to sting from her imprint. I couldn’t stop laughing even though it smarted. Evelyn joined in, realizing she’d walked right into that one.

Bang!

We both stopped laughing, our eyes turning towards the sky as a white streak flashed behind the clouds. It was sunny, warm, and the few clouds in the sky were like fluffy white pillows. Another crack, and then a loud boom, and rain started to drop, heavy drops, down onto Evelyn and me.

I grabbed our food, our drinks, and Evelyn held the door open as we rushed inside to where it was dry. I set everything down, immediately grabbing her, pulling her into me, tasting the sweet rain on her lips as I pressed mine against them.

Our hands raced across each other’s bodies, pulling and tugging at damp clothes until we were partially undressed. I carried her into the room, tossed her playfully onto the bed, pouncing onto her and pinning her to the mattress with my weight.

It was fun, playful, and passionate. We laughed during lovemaking, something I thought would only be offense, but it wasn’t. It was sweet, natural, and something I’d never experienced.

Afterward, lying there beside her, the rain still beating down, neither of us tried to reach for our clothing. Instead, I reached for the remote, turned on the TV, and stopped on an old John Wayne movie. Evelyn snuggled under my arm, watched the black and white classic without griping like I’d expected. Every time I looked down at her, I expected her to be asleep, bored from the movie, but she was wide-eyed, interested in the flick, making my heart skip a beat with each peek.

The rest of the weekend was spent mostly in bed, mostly naked. I dressed to feed the animals Sunday morning, but since it was still raining, the rest of my time was in bed with Evelyn.

It was a little slice of heaven, having her there with me. The world around us disappeared, and we spent our time talking, getting to know each other better, and for me, falling closer to the ‘no turning back’ point of love.

Monday morning the rain stopped. The sun came out, drying everything up as Evelyn dressed to leave. I tried to get her back into the bed, back out of her clothes, but she insisted that she had to get back to the real world. As far as I was concerned, this was the real world.

Our kiss goodbye lingered, and roaming hands caused her nipples to push against her t-shirt and my cock to swell against my jeans. I hated watching her leave but found some comfort knowing that she’d be back. There was no denying the attraction between us was mutual. She’d be back soon.