Okay then. He clearly didn’t want me to go inside the house, and that was fine with me. I didn’t even know if that was where I was staying. There might very well be another house on the property. Either way, I could take a hint.
Jacques was spooked. I didn’t blame him—the ring on my finger was like a lead weight—I just hoped that we could fix this mess without too much bad publicity. Jacques had started getting messages almost the moment we’d walked back into the bedroom from the attached bathroom. He’d ignored every one of them.
My gut sank. I didn’t want to cause trouble for Jacques. I had no idea what the hell I was going to say to Sophia and Pierre. They deserved an explanation—one that was better than that we’d got drunkenly married and had a threesome—but that was all I had. And news of our threesome certainly wasn’t anything I wanted to share with them.
Travis beckoned to me, and I took his outstretched hand. He grinned at me, and I laughed at his happiness. It was a joy to witness someone so carefree.
He wrapped his beefy arm around my shoulders—muscles that I’d traced with my tongue the night before—and pressed a kiss to my temple. “We all moved here after Jacques got signed to the Seals. It’s a little ways out of the city, but we wanted that. Jacques is in the public eye, so we like having privacy.”
It was absolutely private, just like he said. The ranch looked to be a battle-axe block. The only street frontage was a ranch gate and a long driveway that wound around a hill to the sprawling property beyond. The trees around the homestead not only provided shade but meant that the house was barely visible when driving in.
“It is beautiful,” I agreed. “It’s so incredibly lush too. I always imagined anything past the first dunes in California being desert.”
Toward the back of the homestead, palms towered above us. There was a veritable jungle of plants in meandering beds bracketing the lawns. The shaded areas were wide and inviting. I slipped off my thongs, the soft grass underfoot so different to the concrete jungle of Vegas’s Strip. I wiggled my toes, delighting in the cool ground against my feet, and sighed happily. It was so different to my old house on the water, but I loved it here already. Peace seemed to envelop me, seeping into my bones.
Trav gestured to the hard-packed dirt pathway a few meters in front of us where the sun beat down on it. “It’ll be too hot for you in the sun to go barefoot,” he warned.
I nodded and slipped my feet back into my thongs.
He asked, “Have you ever ridden a horse?”
“I’ve never even seen a horse up close,” I confessed. “I’m a city girl through and through.”
“Well, let’s get you acquainted.” He grinned and looked me up and down.
I was in a pair of cotton pants and a light blouse—the first thing I’d grabbed when Jacques announced we had twenty minutes to dress, pack, and be downstairs to meet the rideshare.
“That’ll do,” he decided.
“For what? Riding?” I asked, equal parts terrified, excited, and horrified.
He pumped his brows and laughed. “You’ll see.”
The earthy scent of fresh hay and animals hit me when we walked into the barn.
“The horses are all in the pasture. We’ll get some saddles on a couple of them and go for a ride.”
“Ummm—” I hesitated, unsure of how to ask the question.
“It’s okay,” Trav reassured me. “Hazel is gentle. She’ll look after you.”
That actually wasn’t what I was concerned about, but hearing him say that quietened a worry I didn’t realize I’d had.
Past me would have said no to riding. Absolutely not. But Trav and Jacques had shown me yesterday that I was capable of having fun, that I didn’t need to hold on so tightly to everything now. Getting drunk married might have been a step too far, but it reminded me that I could be young. I could do something enjoyable without having to worry that my actions were going to look bad on the company. I was free from those restrictions. The me I was now wanted to try it.
“I’m not too heavy?”
Trav laughed and bent over, sweeping me off my feet. I squealed, and he laughed harder. One moment I was the right way up, the next I was upside down, bent over his shoulder with my big butt in the air. “You’re not too heavy at all, darlin’.”
I held onto his waist for dear life, my boobs smacking me in the face with every step he took. Trav had one arm wrapped around my calves and the other high up, curled around my thigh just below my pussy. My core muscles tightened, and I bit back a moan. This man—both of them, if I was being honest—just had to breathe to turn me on. But his touch? That was incendiary.
He stopped at a tack room filled with saddles and riding gear, then slowly lowered me to the ground. He hovered over me, and I backed up against the wall, needing the support for my wobbly legs.
“You going to do this with me?” he asked, his voice a deep rasp as he pressed himself against me.
Breathless, I responded, “I’m up for it.”
“You sure are.” Trav hooked his finger under my chin and stared at my lips.
