Ride 'Em (A Giddyup Novel) (17 page)

L
ogan reassured Mindy that the former parking lot of the old drive-in wasn’t nearly as creepy as she was making it out to be. When they arrived, though, shortly after dark on a Sunday night, he was glad he’d downloaded a backup movie in case
Camp Killsaw 3
seemed too grim for the venue.

He’d been looking forward to a little shrieking and clutching, but Mindy was right—watching a horror flick on the tablet in that empty abandoned lot would have been an open invitation to the mythical guy with the hook for a hand who preyed on young, illegally parked couples in love.

So they spread a sleeping bag and blanket in the bed of Logan’s truck, and watched
The Princess Bride
for what must have been at least the tenth time for each of them, and he and Mindy repeated all the same favorite lines and laughed in all the same places and it was pretty much perfect. Except the bagged popcorn they’d gotten at the general store was a little stale.

After the perfect ending, they stared up at the stars, fingers and legs entwined, awash in the smell of old popcorn and bug spray, alive with possibility.

“So I did two things today,” Mindy finally said.

“Oh, yeah?” He was expecting to hear something mundane like
laundry and inventory
, because she liked to keep him abreast of that stuff. Or sometimes it was
making the perfect sandwich, all for me, none for you
. Which was fair. Since she was usually telling him via Skype, from her place in Dallas. She had quit her job, but was still technically looking for something else in her own field—though she commuted to Bolero on weekends, and he’d put her on the payroll officially the minute she allowed him to.

“I talked to Mom.”

“Oh, shit.” He half rolled over, leaning on one elbow to study her face. “How did that go?”

She shrugged. “About as well as you might expect. I don’t know. Maybe a little better? I kept worrying that Bud would somehow find out about Giddyup—what it really is, I mean—and that would become a factor, but as far as she knows I’m just making a really questionable career move to leave my secure job with family for some wacky startup dude ranch. That’s not quite as bad as ‘wacky start-up
kinky
dude ranch.’ So she’s worried, but more puzzled and hurt than anything else.”

“Hurt?”

“That I’d walk away from Bud’s generosity.”

Ah. So she hadn’t had the
whole
talk with her mom. “Are you ever going to tell her about him?”

Mindy shifted her head, looking up at him and lifting a hand to his cheek. “Yes. And soon. But it can’t happen too close to the holidays or it’ll ruin Christmas. Better to plan on that ruined Christmas starting in summer, than at the last minute, right?”

“Right.” He traced his finger over her cheekbone, where the moonlight highlighted the curve. “Do I get to meet her first? Before she knows my full role in the ruination?”

“Yeah, I think you do. Well, and you’ve already met Bud.”

“Maybe a separate meeting ...”

“Probably better, yes.” She patted his cheek, and he started to lean in to kiss her, but she stopped him with a finger to his lips. “Don’t you want to know what the second thing is?”

He’d forgotten there was a second thing. He nodded somberly as if he’d been interested all along.

Mindy ran her fingers up into his hair. “You know that little blue house over on Maple that was for rent?”

“Behind the Bewliss’s?”

“Yeah. It’s not for rent anymore.”

It took a second for her meaning to sink in, then Logan grinned. “You’re moving back home full-time? Seriously?”

“The lease was almost up on my apartment in Dallas anyway. It was time. So ... I can actually start doing more at the ranch during the week, instead of trying to cram it all into the weekends when I’m here.”

“And . . . you’ll be here.”

“I hope you can still afford me full-time.”

“You know it.” He couldn’t
not
afford her. She was the idea girl. Not to mention the heart of Hilltop Ranch, as far as the visitors were concerned.

Hell, as far as Logan was concerned.

He reached up to take her hand, pressing it down beside her head and holding it there—pinning her, enjoying the hell out of watching her face shift as she went from talking-about-the-day mode to submissive mode. Ready to give him whatever he wanted—ready to take whatever she needed.

But all they needed right then was a kiss. Perfect and pure.

* * *

Robert made the
best
coffee. And he also, it turned out, knew a great deal about inventory management software.

“But I never expected I’d be showing you how to do it. Who would’ve dreamed . . .”

Mindy highlighted the field he indicated and pored over the pull-down list of categories. “This is the top-level one, and that’s . . . consumables, right?”

“Yeah. Not top-level, though, that was what took us to this form. Kitchen. All food goes through the kitchen category, even the stuff for the trail ride cookouts and snacks.
Except
the snacks for sale in the gift shop when we get that set up, that’ll be on its own point-of-sale system.”

She finished the entry and moved to the next item, which was basically the same except for the amount. “After this you’re gonna show me how to generate the shopping list, right? Is it the same for vanilla events?”

“Yeah, the numbers just vary more because we don’t always get the cap. No wait list or begging for spots when it’s not Giddyup time.”

The ranch had settled into a routine: one Giddyup weekend a month, and the rest of the weekends and some weekdays taken up with what a lot of the staff called “vanilla time.”

They’d had to let Lamar in on it. To everybody’s surprise, the old guy hadn’t batted an eye. He’d said something cryptic about it seeming like old times again, and that was that. He’d taken to hanging around the horse barn during Giddyup weekends, talking to the pony players and giving people advice about tack. Next month he was slated to give a daytime talk about proper leather conditioning.

Mindy couldn’t get over that this was her job now—this and a hundred other administrative duties at Hilltop. She didn’t really have a title—she and Logan couldn’t seem to agree on one—but she was definitely making herself useful. For the first time in years, she felt happy with her work. Happy with her surroundings. All it had taken was a lot of trust and a group of kindhearted kinky people with a shared vision for outdoor fun and games.

“You know,” she pointed out to Robert, “we really all have you to thank for this. You were the horseshoe nail.”

“The what now?” He looked up from his stack of invoices, fluttering his ridiculously long black eyelashes. He looked about twelve; Mindy always had to remind herself he was almost her age.

“For want of a nail, the shoe was lost; for want of a shoe, the—”

“Horse was lost. Yeah, I know the expression, I just didn’t know where I came into it.”

“Well.” She gestured around the kitchen, where she usually sat with her laptop and paperwork on guest-weekend evenings while Robert finished cleaning up from dinner. He no longer did a full dinner on Giddyup Fridays, so tonight he’d had light duty. “It started right here. If you hadn’t called Logan “
sir
” that first night, I wouldn’t have twigged that he was kinky. I wouldn’t have gotten involved with him. We wouldn’t have played around on the trails or in the old barn, which got us thinking about how great this place could be for kink. And so on. You were really the magical element. Kind of the—ah, nope. Never mind.” She stopped herself, clamping her lips together, but Robert’s curiosity was too fired up to let it go.

“
Give
.”

“It’s awful.”

“Mindy.
Give.”

“
Okay, you were basically the . . .
gayus ex machina
.”

After a second of silence, he clapped his hands over his mouth and started bouncing, paddling his feet in place like a toddler whose Christmas dream had just come true. From behind his fingers a mumbled stream issued forth: “Oh my God oh my God oh my God!”

“That’s not offensive? Wait, where are you—?”

He ran past her, still squealing. “I need the desktop computer, I have to go start designing the T-shirt
right now
!”

“But you’ll miss the fire lighting!”

“I don’t caaaarrreeee,” came his reply, dwindling as he turned the corner into Logan’s office.

Still laughing, Mindy checked the time then started stacking papers, slipping things back into their folders and tidying everything up for the night.
She
didn’t want to miss the fire. It was fast becoming her favorite tradition, and it was nearly time. Guests had started assembling in the yard; the breeze brought her the rising noise of happy voices, the occasional
crack
of a whip or jangle of a harness.

Slipping out the back door, she made her way to the fire pit, where it was easy to pick Logan out of the crowd. He was wearing his black hat, and the dark red shirt she’d gotten him. Black jeans, black boots. Pure Kinky Cowboy. The perfect look for Wildcat, the head of house at Giddyup.

She had on black boots, too, and a wrap dress with a single tie. Nothing else but her cord and tag—which he’d carefully relettered last week in Sharpie, then laminated. At some point, he claimed, he’d have it duplicated in etched silver. She expected she’d see a few other versions before then. Each one a little more permanent than the last. He thought he was sneaking up on her, but he wasn’t all that sneaky. Nor did she need him to be.

When the fire went up, the dress would come off. Always a fun start to the weekend. Around October, Logan assured her, he would set up outdoor space heaters so they wouldn’t have to give up that part of the Giddyup tradition.

“When Ariel gets naked, the party gets going,” he’d told her firmly when she raised the concern. “That’s the deal.”

“I think it’s really when the fire starts, but okay.”

He spotted her and held his hand out, and she made herself walk, not run, to his side.

“Accounts all taken care of?” he asked, then kissed her forehead.

“Mmmm. Yep. Just about, at least. Robert was showing me some stuff.”

“Awesome. You getting settled in?”

She sighed. “I have the last load of stuff in my car. I hope it’ll be okay in the parking lot. I didn’t have time to take it all into my house before everybody started showing up. Then I was on show-newbies-to-the-cabins duty.”

“It’ll be fine. You sure you don’t just want to bring it all into
my
house?”

“Logan . . .” Moving to Bolero and taking the job at the ranch had been a big enough step. One day—maybe even one day soon—she would take the next step and move into the big house with Logan. Her boss, her Dom. Her boyfriend, crazy as it seemed. But for right now, she had more than enough change to deal with, and she wanted to hang on to a space of her own just a little longer while she adapted to life back in her hometown.

“Maybe just one box,” he teased, plucking her name tag up and giving it a suggestive rub. Or maybe it was his expression that made it suggestive. “As a placeholder.”

“We’ll see.” She already had a small box set aside for that, in fact. But she didn’t have to tell Logan that yet. Extra toiletries, a few changes of clothes. It made sense; she was at the main house all the time anyway. “Did you get
your
paperwork taken care of today?”

Big Gerry interrupted them, holding out the tin of fireplace matches. “Hey, boss. It’s time.”

Logan gave her an apologetic squeeze and took the matches, then went into his spiel for the crowd. Welcoming them for the weekend, giving the thirty-second history of Giddyup, and then striking the match and starting the fire. The usual cheer went up. Mindy fingered the tie on her dress, waiting for his attention. He caught her eye but shook his head. After everybody broke into their separate conversations again, he took the end of the bow between his fingers.

“I
did
get my accounts taken care of today,” he told her, grinning smugly. “New loan is a done deal. And it’s a fuck of a lot smaller than the old one. For which I have you to thank. Have I thanked you for that today?”

She shook her head, glad the firelight was hiding the blush she could feel. “I’m sure you’ll find a way, though.”

He nodded and tugged the bow loose, then nudged the dress off her shoulders. Always a gentleman, he caught it before it landed on the ground.

“I have a few ideas in mind,” he confessed. “Say, eight o’clock in the old barn?”

“Why, sir. In front of all these people?”

They shared a laugh. Logan reached out boldly, fondling her breast, tracing his fingers over the spot where he liked to leave his mark. “That way they all know how much I appreciate you.”

“Eight o’clock it is, then.” Mindy shivered in the night breeze, breathing in heat from the fire and the even warmer regard from Logan’s eyes. “I’m all yours.”

Want more Giddyup?
Keep an eye out for
ROPE ’EM
Available January 2017
From Lyrical Press

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Delphine Dryden has written contemporary and erotic romance for Carina Press and Harlequin, and mainstream steampunk romance for Berkley Publishing. She has also self-published. Her writing has earned an Award of Excellence and Reviewers’ Choice Award from Romantic Times Book Reviews, an EPIC Award, an IPPY Gold Medal, and a Colorado Romance Writers’ Award of Excellence. She was the also the inaugural winner of the Science in My Fiction contest. When not writing, she can be found editing for various freelance clients and for Riptide Publishing. Visit her at delphinedryden.com.