Daddy Can You Teach Me Some Naughty Night Things? novel · Chapter 3 of 24

Chapter 3: The Tack Room

She kisses him against the saddle rack and he kisses back until he stops it with a line that stings; Darrell's truck pulls up with a supper invitation.

At five the next morning the barn lights were already on.

I wore boots and my tightest work jeans and a shirt I'd buttoned wrong on purpose.

I wasn't going to wear anything loose just because he said so, and I wasn't going to make it easy for him to stay calm.

Ward was in the tack room at the end of the aisle, oiling a bridle at the long workbench.

He looked up when I came in, and his hands stopped moving.

"Shut the door," he said.

I shut it.

"Lock's stuck," he said. "Lean on it."

I leaned my back against the door and it clicked.

The room smelled of saddle soap and leather and him.

Saddles hung on racks along the wall.

"Today you learn the gear," he said. "Bridles, breeding halters, the shank. Come here."

I crossed the room and stood at the bench.

He held out a strap and showed me where it buckled.

His voice stayed level the whole time, and I understood what he was doing.

He was putting rules between us, one strap at a time.

I let him finish.

Then I put the strap down and looked at him.

"Ward."

"Pay attention."

"I am."

I stepped in until my chest touched his arm.

He didn't move away.

"You said this room was for teaching," I said. "Teach me this."

I went up on my toes and kissed him.

For one second he didn't kiss me back.

Then the bridle hit the floor and his hands closed on my arms.

He turned us, hard, and my back hit the saddle rack.

Leather creaked.

His mouth came down on mine, rough, and he tasted like coffee.

I got my hands in his hair and pulled and he made a low sound in his throat.

He pushed a thigh between mine, and I rode it before I knew I was doing it.

"Ward," I said against his mouth.

"Quiet."

He kissed my jaw, my neck, the spot under my ear that I hadn't known was a spot.

His hand slid under my shirt, flat against my ribs, and I shook.

I was grinding on his leg and I couldn't stop.

His other hand dragged down my back and pulled my hips tight against him.

He was hard, and he let me feel all of it.

"You see what you do," he said into my neck.

"Show me more."

"Louisa."

"Show me."

His hand came up and cupped my breast through my shirt, and the thumb found my nipple and pressed.

I cried out.

He clamped his other hand over my mouth.

"Quiet," he said again, rough and close.

His breath was ragged.

Over my head, through the wall, one of the hands was whistling by the water trough.

Ward heard it too.

He went stiff all over, and then he took his hands off me, one at a time.

I slid down a few inches against the rack.

He stepped back, and I watched him pull himself together piece by piece.

He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.

"No," he said.

"You kissed me back."

"I know I did."

"You put your hands on me."

"I know what I did."

His eyes went over me, my hair half out of its braid and my shirt pushed up and my mouth swollen.

For a moment I thought he'd cross the room again.

Then he laughed, short and flat.

"You'd be loud, Louisa," he said. "Eighteen years old, never had a man, and loud as a siren. I'd have to put a hand over your mouth every time."

It stung, and I felt myself flush all the way down my neck.

"That wasn't nice," I said.

"No."

"You liked it."

"I liked it fine." He picked the bridle up off the floor and hung it on the nail. "That's how I know to stop."

He took the rag off the bench and started wiping his hands.

I fixed my shirt.

I fixed my braid.

I did not cry, and I told myself I'd remember every word he said so I could hand them back to him one day.

I was reaching for the door when I heard tires in the yard.

I looked out the little window.

Darrell Waggoner's truck was pulling up by the water trough, with Darrell at the wheel and an arm out the window, waving.

Ward looked out too.

He put his hat on and took a slow breath, and his face went back to the foreman's face I knew.

"Go meet him," he said. "Smile."

"Ward."

"Smile, Lulu. He's a neighbor."

He called me Lulu.

It was almost worse.

I opened the door and went out into the morning with my mouth still hot, and Darrell swung down from the cab and called, "Morning, honey! I've got a supper invitation for you two."

← Chapter 2 · All chapters · Chapter 4 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend