Safe to say, that wasn’t something I was going to deal with. I didn’t want to deal with the kids at all. I wanted to be with the horses, and just thankful they weren’t going to tour around the stables, otherwise all the word I’d done with the horses could’ve gone down the drain. They were easily spooked still, especially people who they didn’t see every day, like Diane, and even the dog, Daisy.
 
 It was a grueling hour of working with the teacher to keep the kids from trying to grab the hens or even go inside their coop were most of them went to hide once they got the clucking call from the others that they were seemingly under attack by tiny hands and inquisitive minds wanting to know exactly where the eggs came from.
 
 We could laugh about it later, and we did, outside the stables under the stars. Jace brought over a thermos and before handing it over, he sighed.
 
 “We should talk,” he said. “I brought mulled wine.”
 
 13. JACE
 
 The mulled wine was supposed to help break the ice, not like we needed to, but to broach the topic of whatever was going on between us, some wine lubrication might’ve been required, and I owed him after he got through his first school trip to the ranch.
 
 “I’ve always had a rule that said I would never date someone I worked for,” he said, a point he’d made before, and the reason I didn’t want to push that first kiss, or the ones that came after it when I caught him trying to—what I could only assume was impress me with the goats.
 
 “You’re not working for me, you’re working with me,” I countered. I’d given it a lot of thought, and I wasn’t going to let this end because he thought I was the boss. I didn’t want to be the boss. I wanted to be the baby being taken care of, and he knew that already. He’d practically awakened the little sleeper agent in me with those two magical words.Good boy.
 
 After half the thermos was empty, we were finally getting somewhere with what we wanted. And that was each other’s tongues down each other’s throats. I’d never been proficient in tonsil tennis, but I was making up for the lack of it now.
 
 “Let’s go inside,” he said, wiping my mouth with a thumb. “Looks like you’re wearing lipstick.”
 
 “So do you,” I giggled and hiccoughed. “Oops.”
 
 “Adorable. But it’s getting cold, and we’ll get sick if we stay out here all night. It’ll only get colder.”
 
 I pulled at his shirt, my cold hand against his chest. He didn’t even flinch. He pushed himself closer, giving my hand more space against his chest. “Oh my god,” the words came out in a whimper, my body a full shiver as I pulled his hair between my fingers and still, he didn’t move to signal any type of pain.
 
 “I hope you’re not starting something neither of us will finish,” he said.
 
 “What do you think I’m starting?”
 
 Our lips locked in an embrace, and I was suddenly straddling him. The heat our bodies created combated against the cold of the outdoors, and if anyone was to pass by, they’d have probably seen the steam created from our bodies vaporized into the air.
 
 “This is my reward for those stickers,” I said, clenching my knees around his thighs and pulling his legs together. “Do you think I’ve done a good job—Daddy?” The word rolled right off my tongue with apprehension.
 
 “I knew you were into that,” he whispered, stroking a hand up my back as he kissed up my neck, and pulled at my hair, pulling my head back whilst he kissed at my chin and then around my Adam’s apple. I moaned, the strange dampened vocal feeling of his tongue at my neck, like he was sucking the sounds right out of me.
 
 I didn’t want to go inside and have all those eyes on us, or disturb them from their sleep, this was the most intimate I’d been physically in a while. In theory, I’d been intimate and both hands knew what I wanted.
 
 After becoming too warm even outside now, I pulled away from him. Sliding off and sitting with my back to the stable wooden wall. He reached out with a thumb to my cheek, stroking me. “Just kissing,” he said. “Got you all hot and bothered.”
 
 “I got carried away.”
 
 Lorenzo’s fingers traveled down the length of my neck, shoulder, and arm until he met my hand, sliding his fingers between mine. “No, you didn’t,” he said. “I liked it when you called me Daddy, and I liked it when you were moaning.”
 
 I nodded. “Ok, and I like it when you call me a—”
 
 “Good boy.”
 
 Another whimper left my throat. “Yeah,” I let out. “And I know you mean it as well, which makes me even more—”
 
 Lorenzo placed his hands over my crotch. “All excited,” he said. “If we weren’t outside, I might’ve even suggesting getting out of those tight jeans just to give you a little more mobility and freedom.”
 
 Staring at him, my eyes huge like I was trying to absorb every word he said to me. “We could go into the stables. Or we could go the guesthouse, where you haven’t slept in weeks.”
 
 Licking his lips, he looked away. His eyes darting around as if he was trying to think of an excuse not to take me to the guesthouse, where I was hoping this would be taken to the next level, and I was so desperately touch starved that I’d end up masturbating over his lingering hands for a while because he certainly wasn’t going to fuck me while looking after three rescues still in need of constant attention.
 
 “Or,” he said, continuing to stroke my face, and now looking at me. “We could take our time.”
 
 Just as I’d thought and predicted. There was no dick for me here tonight. “We can take our time,” I agreed, but I was desperate now. “And I want more stickers.”