Page 89 of Dirty Player
Neither did I. Something told me this wouldn’t be the last time I had this much fun, though. Not with Shannon next to me.
“Ready to hit the trails?”
“Trails?”
“Yup. You didn’t think we’d stay in the ring all day, did you?”
She frowned a bit and then shook her head. “Well, yeah. Sort of, but let’s do it.”
Chapter TWENTY-ONE
SHANNON
I was on a horse on my way through a wooded trail with Oliver on my left side, and we were going to have a picnic lunch.
It was not what I was expecting us to do the minute we arrived. I figured it’d involve seduction and fucking and lube and butt plugs.
I hadn’t determined if I was disappointed by this or thankful. Apprehension had chilled my skin when he’d first sent the text telling me to remember the plug. I could practically see the glimmer in his eye as he’d sent it, knowing what that one sentence would do to me. Yet I hadn’t hesitated in packing it either. What he wanted involved a certain amount of trust, and while we hadn’t been together long, Oliver was showing me that he was the guy who could be trusted with everything I had to give him.
I was falling for him, against my original plans of moving to Raleigh to make something of myself and figure out who I was without a man. Oliver didn’t detract from those plans, though. With his obvious interest in my day and in my business and in his appreciation for my work, plus his sexy, alpha side I saw all the time when we were together, he was proving to be a man who could stand at my side, supporting and encouraging me in equal measure to what I gave him.
Yeah. I was falling—falling fast and hard, and I didn’t even care about having a safety net.
Next to me, Oliver led us to the left a bit farther and then pulled the horses to stop at the tree line.
I gasped as I saw where he’d brought us.
“Wow.” I sighed. “This is beautiful.”
In front of us was a small lake that jutted up against the tree line except for the small, beachy area where he had led us.
We were surrounded by trees, the sun high in the cloudless sky. Cerulean blue and emerald green filled my vision as my gaze wandered around the water until I was looking at Oliver. In the bright sun, the baseball cap he generally wore was turned backward. His eyes were as bright as the trees.
“This place is beautiful.”
“I come here a lot,” he said, dismounting from his horse. “Helps me think after a shitty game.”
I licked my parched lips, taken aback at the admission.
He was always so strong and confident, arrogant and bossy. I imagined after a shitty game, he went and punched something or ran six miles or did something manly like wood chopping or hay baling to release the adrenaline.
Visions of Oliver in his glasses, hands pushing back his hair while he sat in the stillness of this location, never would have occurred to me.
“That surprises you,” he stated as he walked around Winne and reached up to help me off Ralph.
I grinned, thinking of wood chopping and hay baling again. I must not have hidden my surprise very well.
“Yeah, a little.” I threw a leg over the side of the horse and placed my hands on Oliver’s shoulders. His hands went to my waist and he slowly helped me off the large and gentle beast. “Thank you for the ride,” I whispered, running my hand down Ralph’s’s shoulder. “That was great.”
“I take you on the ride and you thank my horse.” Amusement lit Oliver’s voice and I turned back to him, rolling to my toes so I could reach his lips with mine.
“It was beautiful,” I whispered. “Thank you, again.”
His gloved hand gently brushed along my cheek. “Anytime.”
I wanted to be on that horse again. Lots.
He reached around Winne and unsecured the cooler he’d brought with him. He nodded toward a thick, low branch hanging from a tree a short distance away. “Can you hold this while I secure the horses?”
