Chapter 5

My words appease Christine, though, and she turns back to me with a smile. Finally letting go of my arm, she looks back over the horse pasture as Ella comes up to stand on the other side of me, keeping a distance of several feet, I notice. I also take note of the fact that Henry sits on the other side of Ella’s legs, staying as far away from Christine as he can get. I can’t say I blame him.

When Pierre gets a whiff of Ella, he comes walking over to her, giving a gentle whinny and shake of his head. She smiles and steps onto the bottom slat of the wooden fence so she can reach over and hand him the carrot she’s brought. I try not to let my eyes linger on the way her ass is sticking out as she bends over. Memories from this morning’s masturbation session flit through my mind, but the sound of Christine’s annoying voice quickly puts an end to the hard-on I was working on.

“Should she really just be feeding him without your permission?”

“She has my permission,” I say, forcing my words to sound pleasant.

She makes an annoyed sound and adds, “He’s a good-looking horse. Maybe I’ll buy him.”

I see Ella’s hand freeze on Pierre’s neck as her whole body stiffens at Christine’s words.

“I’m afraid he’s not for sale.”

Christine gives me a cold look. She hooks one of her ridiculous nails around a strand of blond hair and carefully tucks it behind her shoulder.

“I see. Are any of these horses for sale?”

I meet her heavily made-up eyes. “Not at the moment, no.”

She purses her lips together, making her look as if she’s just sucked on a lemon and puts her designer sunglasses back on.

“Call me when something’s available, Beau,” she says before lifting her chin in the air and marching back to her enormous SUV.

“Will do!” I holler at her with a grin on my face.

I turn back to Ella, noticing that she doesn’t look up to meet my eyes.

“I’m sorry about what I said,” I finally say, breaking the silence.

She turns her blue eyes on me, making it hard for me to focus.

“About me just being the neighbor’s kid, you mean?”

“I did that on purpose. Trust me, staying off Christine’s radar is a good thing, and I didn’t want you anywhere near it.”

“She did seem pretty unpleasant,” Ella admits, stroking Pierre’s muzzle.

“Did you used to date her or something?”

I let out a harsh laugh. “God, no.”

I notice the relieved look that flashes across Ella’s face even though she tries to hide it.

“Come on, time to clean out the horse troughs.”

She falls in step beside me. “I’m sorry I forgot to give you back your boots yesterday before I left.”

“They’re yours now,” I say with a grin. “You earned ‘em.” She smiles and tucks the daisy behind her ear.

We spend the morning cleaning and refilling horse troughs, and I continue to be impressed by how hard of a worker she is. She never complains, laughs when she gets dirt on herself, and genuinely seems to love the animals who have all become as attached to her as I’m beginning to be. By the time lunch rolls around, I’ve worked up an appetite for way more than food.

“I’m gonna grab us a couple of sandwiches from the little diner down the street. Do you like shrimp po’ boys?”

“Yes. I’d love one, thanks.” She flashes me a grin and gets back to measuring out the hay like I taught her to.

“I’ll be right back.”

I give her a wave, throw my t-shirt back on, and hop in my truck. I’ve gotten food from Louie’s Diner for as long I can remember. I don’t often take the time to cook for myself, and they’re food is so damn good it’s hard to pass up.

I say my hellos to Louie and his wife and ignore their surprised looks when I order two lunch specials instead of the usual one. They don’t ask who the other one’s for, but I can tell they really want to. I know news of this will be spread throughout the area by suppertime. Perks of living in a small country town.

When it’s ready, I thank them and leave, sipping on one of the large, sweet teas. Back at the house, I search for Ella in the barn, but there’s just Henry sitting there staring at me. I toss my t-shirt off because it’s just too fucking hot today and keep looking. Walking back out, I see a note pinned to the door of the tack room.

Beau,

I finished up with the hay and decided to take a quick walk. Wasn’t sure if Henry could come, so I told him to stay.

Be back soon,

Ella ;)

My heart skips a beat at her note. Tiny little Ella in her sundress walking around these woods all by herself, heedless of all the dangers. A vision of her lying helpless with a snakebite has me tossing the food on a bench and hollering for Henry to follow me.

“All right, Henry, time for you to do some serious bloodhound shit.”

He trots off with his nose to the ground, and I hope like hell he’s following Ella’s scent and not some rabbit because he’s hungry. We walk further into the dense woods, and my apprehension rises with each step we take.

“Ella!” I holler, brushing back more of the dense foliage.

I keep screaming her name until I finally hear a faint response.

“Where are you?”

“I’m cooling off in the swimming hole!”

The swimming hole? What the fuck is she talking about?

I run through the woods toward her voice and stop short when I see her floating in the water. I’m barely able to register the discarded sundress at my feet and the tiny black bikini she’s wearing, because I’m so shocked at what she’s done.

“Jesus, Ella, what the hell are you doin’?”

She stands up and looks at me. The water hits her at about mid-thigh, giving me a fucking amazing view, but I’m so frazzled I can’t even concentrate on all that amazing flesh.

“I was really hot, and then I found this water so I thought I could just jump in. I used to do it all the time in Michigan.” She looks around at the murky water and swamp-like conditions. “This is kinda gross though, and it doesn’t smell all that great.”

Realization seems to hit her, because when she looks up at me her face is filled with terror.

“I did something really stupid, didn’t I, Beau?”

The quiver in her voice makes me want to run out there and grab her, but I don’t want to terrify her any more than she already is, and I definitely don’t want to startle anything close by that’s dangerous.

“Yes, darlin’, you sure did.”

I scrub a hand over my face and look around us. It doesn’t take me long to spot a cottonmouth not too far away, slithering along the edge of the water by the bank.

Her terrified voice draws my eyes back to hers.

“Are there snakes in here?”

Her head is swiveling around faster than I can keep up with, and I know she’s close to losing it.

“Of course not,” I say, stepping into the water. “Just stay there, though. I’m going to come get you.”

My boots quickly fill with water and my jeans are soaked through by the time I reach her.

“Hop on,” I say, turning around.

She quickly grabs on, wrapping her legs and arms around me. I can feel bare skin and a perfect pair of tits pressing into my back as I walk us out of the water. I spot two other snakes close by, and I yell for Henry to go home. I don’t like him being near so many of them. He happily trots off, and I make a mental note to give him a steak for supper.

When we’re on dry ground again, I reach down and grab her sundress and boots and keep walking. I hand her the stuff so she can hold them and grab onto her thighs. Her body is shaking against mine, and my dick is quickly growing to a painful size.

“Do you need me to walk,” she says, and her face is so close to mine, I feel her breath tickle my ear.

“No, I do not.”

She gives a very sad sigh in my ear and quietly says, “I lost my daisy.”

I give her thigh a reassuring squeeze. “I can pick you another one.”

That seems to appease her, and after a few minutes, she asks, “There were snakes, weren’t there?”

Now that she’s safe and we’re far enough from the water, I’m able to let myself laugh about it.

“Shit, yes,” I say in between laughs. “Some big sons of bitches, too!”

I feel her body shaking against mine, except this time it’s from laughter instead of fear.

“Please don’t ever do that again,” I say when I’m able to speak. “This is not Michigan. When you find water in the woods, dangerous things are livin’ in it.”

When she doesn’t say anything, I say, “Promise?”

She wraps her free arm tighter around my chest. “I promise,” she whispers by my ear. “Thanks for getting me out.”

I feel her press her body closer against mine, and I want to groan at how good it feels. I’m painfully aware that there’s only the tiniest scrap of material separating her body and mine, and the feel of her wet thighs is driving me wild. When she lets out a very soft moan, I realize I’ve been running my thumbs along the skin of her thigh.

“Are you dating anyone, Beau Thibodeaux?”

Her question and the sing-song way she says my name makes me laugh.

“No, Ella, I am not.”

“What a coincidence. Neither am I.”