“It’s my business. Completely separate from JennCo,” I tell her in defense, and her frown doesn’t lessen. “But he’s coming in next weekend and I’ve decided to go ahead and tell him then.”

“Why now?” she asks curiously as we walk our horses side by side. Luckily Vlad doesn’t try to bite other horses, just people. “You’ve had this in the works for over a year now and been open several months, right?”

I nod, clear my throat, and then say the words that have only been told to one other person so far, and that was Bridger. “I think I want to back away from JennCo a bit. It’s consuming too much of my life, and I want to run the club full time with Bridger.”

“You’re kidding,” she says with surprise. “That’s your family’s company. Can you just walk away?”

“Tenn did,” I point out, not without a small trace of bitterness in those words. He got out first and left me holding it all. Well, not all. He helps out a bit on the ranch operations, but for the most part, he’s free and clear.

Callie doesn’t say anything and we plod along in silence, no sound but the creaking of the saddles and the hoof steps on hard ground. I consider making more of an argument on my behalf. All the reasons why I want out. All the reasons I want more of the club, but then she says, “JennCo isn’t your passion, is it?”

“No, it’s not,” I admit softly, and it feels good to say that to someone. “I’ve only had two things in my life I was really passionate about. That’s the Double J—that is the ranch itself—and The Wicked Horse.”

“Then you should get out,” she says in affirmation. “Many people aren’t lucky enough to be passionate about their work. If you have the opportunity to be happy like that, you have to take it.”

Relief floods my body, knowing that next to Bridger, I have one other person who is going to be supportive of me if I do this. I think in this moment, my heart might be starting a journey toward being lost to Callie Hayes.

Chapter 14

Callie

This is absolute torture.

I thought after an entire weekend with Woolf where we did nothing but have sex, sex, and more sex, I wouldn’t be thinking about it so much today. But here I am back at work on Monday, and I’m at my desk, and he’s in his office, and I can’t stop thinking about him sitting in there.

I am no clearer today than I was last week or eleven years ago as to where I stand with Woolf. But this is what I do know, even if it confuses me.

Woolf is attracted to me.

Woolf likes having sex with me.

And… that’s pretty much it.

He’s said that Bridger encouraged him to give “us” a shot, but in the next breath alludes that it’s just about sex. So I’m thinking it’s no-strings sex¸ but we have agreed that we won’t have sex with others. That seems somewhat clear to me.

I guess.

What makes it more confusing is that although there was lots of sex, it wasn’t just a non-stop orgasm for both of us. We had a great time camping. It’s been years since I’ve been, as camping to Will was having to suffer the second floor of a Holiday Inn. We pitched a small tent, fished Willow Bend, and ate cutthroat trout cooked in a cast iron pan over an open fire. Woolf, of course, had to kill my trout because I couldn’t. He gave me a quick kiss, laughed, and called me a princess, but I didn’t care. He more than made up for it by surprising me with a secret stash of ingredients to make s’mores that he had packed. We talked while we licked gooey marshmallow and chocolate from our fingers, catching up on each other’s lives over the past several years.

Woolf and I had fallen out of touch. Not only did we have the incredibly awkward experience of him refusing to take my virginity but being more than happy to finger me to an orgasm, but after Richard died, Woolf just didn’t come around that much. I’d see him maybe at a major holiday, or we’d run into each other in town if I was home visiting, but it was always just a brief hug and we moved on.

While I was dying to learn more about The Wicked Horse, Woolf didn’t seem to want to talk about it. Instead, he kept up a steady stream of questions to me, trying to stuff eleven years of history into a weekend. By the time the fire was dying down low, Woolf knew a frightening amount of stuff about me, including things I’m not even sure how they came up in conversation such as when I got my period for the first time. I thought I was dying because my mom “forgot” to have that discussion with me. He howled with laughter over that one.

In fact… we laughed a lot this past weekend.

Like when he was fucking me that night, trying to contort our bodies into some type of pretzel, and he got a Charlie Horse in his right ass cheek and had to stop. Or rather, I had to massage the muscle to loosen it up and then he played it safe by just fucking me good old missionary style. I couldn’t stop giggling after.

And sleeping with him all night, snuggled and buried deep in a double sleeping bag. He kept his arms around me all night and even though I had a crick in my neck when I woke up, it was all very much worth it.

Plus, he more than made up for it the next morning by taking the time to leisurely explore my body before he fucked me. I swear, for over an hour, the man stroked and plucked at my body with his hands, tongue, and lips. He made me come twice before he flipped me over on my stomach, raised my hips up, and took me from behind in a primal storm of lust and frenzied need. When he came, he pulled out and shot all over my back, all while cursing, “Fuck, that’s good. So fucking good.”

Just thinking about it… I think he was marking me in some way and that causes a shiver to run up my spine. Leaning back in my office chair, which squeaks horribly, I try to get a peek inside his office. I can only see about half of his desk from this angle and it looks like he has his legs kicked up on it, his booted feet crossed one over the other.

So you see, the Old Callie Hayes had her dutiful sex with Will maybe two or three times a week. I actually thought that was quite an active sex life, but now that I’ve been with Woolf, it seems his standard is two to three times a day, and that makes me realize I have really been naive about it all.

The old Callie Hayes waited for Will to make the move. Maybe because I was shy and unsure of myself, or maybe because the book I was reading was more interesting than the five minutes it would take Will to get off, but I just never initiated sex.

I haven’t done that with Woolf either, only because he’s so insatiable, he’s always one step ahead of me. His hands are always on me before I even think to reach out to touch him. His mouth is on mine first, and I’m the one responding to him. I’ve never been a very forward person in normal circumstances, and I was always content to let my one and only other partner, Will, direct me on what to do. Woolf is very much the same… he dominates and takes control. Sweeps me up and then I’m utterly powerless. I just ride the wave, so very lucky he is always focused first and foremost on my pleasure.

Yes, the Old Callie Hayes would sit here demurely at my desk and diligently work the day away, waiting and wondering if this evening Woolf will want me. Maybe we’d go out to dinner, and then back to my house where we’d make love—strike that—fuck, all night long.

Yup… just going to sit here and wait.

I lean back in my chair again, and his boots are still crossed on the desk. It’s utterly quiet in there, but that’s not unusual. He will often work solidly on his computer for hours, reviewing corporate reports, answering emails, directing others through digital means.

Hmmmm… wonder what the New Callie Hayes would do though? She’s the girl I want to become. She’s the one that could imagine herself stripping naked right here, walking into Woolf’s office, laying across his desk with come-hither eyes, and asking him to fuck me.