The Rapunzel Rodeo Read online

  Olivia felt a warm wetness on her feet again. She opened her eyes and looked down. Richard had his mouth on her foot!

  “What in tarnation do you think you’re doing?” asked Olivia.

  “Do you want me to stop?” asked Richard.

  “No,” admitted Olivia. “It…it feels good.”

  “Then just let me work my shifter magic,” said Richard.

  He went back to kissing Olivia’s feet. She closed her eyes and leaned back, letting herself focus on taking in all the unique aspects of the experience. She’d never had a man lick her feet before. Richard wasn’t drooling all over them. He was giving her foot deep kisses, the kinds he’d give her mouth, working his way up from the soles of her feet to the tops of them. Then, he started to kiss her ankles, moving up to her calves. All the while, he kept massaging her body, so it was hard to tell where the motions of his hands against her knotted muscles stopped and the gentle caresses from his lips began.

  Richard kept rubbing his firm palms into Olivia’s soft curves as he kissed up her calves, around her knees, and finally, started in on the sweet flesh that served as the sensual gateway to her center of ultimate pleasure…

  ...And just as Olivia was about to tell Richard to rip her panties off and forget about eating dinner, and instead, focus on eating her out, a timer went off with a ding.

  Richard got up immediately and went to the sink to wash his hands. He put on a pair of oven mitts and pulled a dish out of the oven.

  “You might want to get cleaned up for dinner,” shouted Richard from the kitchen.

  Olivia crossed her arms and looked at the shirtless horse shifter who was working hard to put their dinner on the table. How had he gone from pervert, albeit sensual pervert who knew what he was doing and was able to make her body feel things it had never felt before, to house husband in a second? She shook her head and got up to wash her hands in the bathroom.

  By the time Olivia came out, Richard was putting the last dish on the table. He’d prepared quite the spread, and once Olivia smelled the full feast, she didn’t regret Richard cutting things short.

  “You don’t think I’m a cowboy, right?” asked Richard.

  “It is harder to imagine you riding a horse rather than shifting into a horse,” admitted Olivia.

  “Well, tell me anyone but a genuine cowboy could’ve cooked up this spread,” said Richard, putting his shirt back on.

  Olivia took a seat. She noticed Richard had even brought flowers to the cabin for the table. By each place setting was a glass of red wine. Classic. Apparently, he was as romantic as he was kinky…or maybe, he was just corny. The veritable feast on the table was more interesting to Olivia than the flowers.

  “You did good,” admitted Olivia.

  “Did good?” asked Richard. “Come on! Chicken fried steak? Mashed potatoes, complete with bacon and chives? Caramelized carrots? Brown gravy? If this doesn’t impress you, I don’t know if dessert will manage to win your heart either.”

  “Oh, is that your intent? To win my heart?” asked Olivia. “I thought you were after my feet.”

  “I want the whole package,” said Richard. “Olivia, I want all of you, from the top of your head, to, well…the bottoms of your feet.” He served Olivia a plate with a hearty serving of each of the dishes and a choice cut of the chicken fried steak.

  “That’s very sweet of you to say,” said Olivia.

  “Sweet? Trust me, it’s true. A woman as sassy and curvy as you, well, I’d want more than to call her Mistress. I’d want to call her my fated mate.”

  “What’s the deal with this ‘Mistress’ thing?” asked Olivia.

  “That’ll have to wait until another night,” said Richard. “As long as your ménage isn’t filled by then.”

  “My ménage?” asked Olivia with a scoff. “That’s like a threesome or something, right?”

  “A ménage is a group relationship of any variation,” said Richard. “All the parties might date each other, or maybe, most of the parties date a central member. For example, there could be three guys that all date each other, or you could have a ménage with three girls dating one guy, but not dating each other.”

  “Yeah, not my thing,” said Olivia. “I’m not into sharing.”

  “Who said anything about you sharing?”

  “Isn’t that what you were just saying a ménage was about?”

  “Not everyone in a ménage has to share,” Richard assured her. “For example, if you picked two men, they’d share you, but you wouldn’t necessarily share them.”

  “Sounds confusing,” said Olivia.

  “Don’t worry about it,” said Richard. “If you don’t want a ménage, I’m sure you won’t end up with one.”

  Olivia dug into her food. Richard had done a good job, an outstanding job. He hadn’t skimped on the mashed potatoes, adding lots of butter, fresh chives, and maple bacon. The chicken fried steak was as crispy on the outside as the inside was tender. She never thought she’d find a vegetable to write home about, but the caramelized carrots were sweet and tender, reminding her of candied yams on Thanksgiving. Even the gravy was, well, good as gravy.

  “I believe you promised me dessert,” said Olivia, swirling her wine in her wine glass in what she hoped was a seductive manner.

  “Oh, that I did,” said Richard.

  He got up from the table, and Olivia thought he’d take a knee, reach up her skirt, and finish the job he’d started…but instead, he went to the oven and pulled a tray out. He plated two little chocolate cakes, added dollops of chocolate fudge ice cream, and brought them to the table with spoons.

  “You made dessert,” said Olivia, surprised.

  “Dig in, but be careful, it’s nearly as hot as you are,” said Richard.

  Olivia dipped her spoon into the chocolate cake and out came a flow of molten chocolate. She took a bit of the cake, melted chocolate, and chocolate ice cream in her spoon and let it all melt in her mouth, the hot cake and the cold ice cream fighting for dominance.

  “It’s good,” admitted Olivia.

  “Good?” asked Richard. “Is there anything I could do to make this…great?”

  “I have a few ideas,” Olivia said, reaching over to touch Richard’s lap with the flat of the palm of her hand.

  Richard’s shift stirred inside him, telling him to claim the busty lass in front of him. She was wet, willing, and wanting, as her behavior and the scent of her natural desire made more than obvious…but Richard stayed his shift.

  “I can’t,” said Richard.

  “You…can’t?” asked Olivia. “Or you won’t?”

  “Both. Believe it or not, as much of a corndog and a horndog as I am, I know better than to take a woman all the way on the first date. You’re a special woman, Olivia, and our first time, well, it’s going to be special, too. This was just a first date. Trust me, by the end of my courting you, I’ll have claimed you, and when I do, you’ll want it even more than you do right now. That’s a fact.”

  “And then what?” asked Cayenne, swirling her drink. She was sitting outside on her veranda with Olivia, drinking an icy cocktail as they watched the polar bear shifters play soccer with a giant ball out on the Mesquite Manor’s backyard.

  “What do you mean, then what?” asked Olivia. “That was it. That was the date. We finished up our food and he dropped me off at home. No kiss, given where his mouth had been.”

  “You didn’t take things further?” asked Cayenne.

  “I can’t, not on a first date,” said Olivia.

  “But oral doesn’t count?” asked Cayenne.

  “No,” said Olivia. “If it doesn’t count for blowjobs, it doesn’t count for being eaten out. Them’s the rules.”

  “Eating homemade molten chocolate lava cake is pretty much fifth base anyways,” admitted Cayenne.

  “I was hoping this date would suck. It would make my decision easier. But, Richard’s just as appealing an option as Matthew.”

  “Hey, don’t start thin
kin’ ‘bout that now,” said Cayenne. “You still have a date with one more contestant.”

  “What, it’s a gameshow now?” asked Olivia.

  “If my grandma has her way, you know you’ll be watching Fated Mate Speed Date on live television within the year,” joked Cayenne. “You do need to give Jason a shot.”

  “Out of all the candidates, I think he’s the least likely to win my heart,” said Olivia. “We barely talked at Fated Mate Speed Date.”

  “Did you have a good time with him?” asked Cayenne. After waiting for a beat, she asked, “Olivia? Are you there?”

  “Yes, okay? I did have a good time with him,” admitted Olivia. “I just don’t get why.”

  “Sometimes, what we need is a strong, silent type,” said Cayenne. “And by sometimes…I mean whenever Basil and I get in a cuisine-related argument.”

  “I just want what you two have,” said Olivia, leaning back in her chaise.

  “That’s not what you want,” said Cayenne. “I love that. But, that’s my story. It’s not yours. You want to write your own story, Olivia. And you will.”

  Chapter Five

  Olivia heard a knock at her door at precisely the time she was scheduled to be picked up by Jason. At her door was a handsome man with his hair put up in a bun underneath his cowboy hat. He was holding a box of chocolates with a giant red bow on the top, a bow as red as his blushing cheeks.

  “For me? Why, I never,” said Olivia in her best impression of Cayenne.

  “Didn’t know if they were your thing,” said Jason. Olivia put them away and walked back to the front door to leave with Jason in his pickup truck.

  Jason didn’t make much conversation. They drove through the quieter part of town, and when they pulled into a library Olivia recognized, she was confused.

  “Uh…you know this isn’t a restaurant, right?” asked Olivia.

  “I know,” said Jason. “Come on.”

  Olivia got out and followed Jason past the front doors of the Fallowedirt Library, which was open late during the summers, as school was out and kids need something to do with their time at night to keep them off the streets. The library smelled of book dust, even when freshly cleaned, and she could hear chitter chatter and clicking sounds.

  Jason opened the door to one of the meeting rooms. Olivia was even more confused than she had been when she realized he’d stopped at the library intentionally.

  Inside the room was a squadron of little old ladies, all hard at work knitting.

  “Jason, my love,” said an older woman, patting one of the two empty seats next to her. “Over here!”

  Jason walked over to the woman.

  “Grandma West, this is the girl I was telling you about, Olivia,” said Jason.

  Olivia nearly forgot her manners while she processed the fact Jason had taken her to meet his grandma on their first real date…and that he’d been talking about her with his grandma!

  “Nice to meet you,” said Olivia, taking the old woman’s hand and gently shaking it. The woman gave a strong, firm handshake in response.

  “Don’t worry, dear, I won’t break,” said Grandma West. “It’s my bloodline Jason gets his strength from, after all.”

  “Oh, Grandma,” Jason said.

  “Here you go, Jason, same one you were working on last week,” said Grandma West, pulling a knitted piece and needles out of her knitting bag. The knitting was barely two inches long.

  “Thanks, Granny,” said Jason. “Do you have the stuff I asked you to bring?’

  “Yes, here,” said Grandma West, passing Jason a ball of golden yarn that resembled the yarn Jason had sent Olivia as a gift, plus a pair of knitting needles attached with nylon, meant for knitting hats. There was also a pattern wrapped around the needles, which Olivia took to be her assigned project for the night. It was a pattern for a baby’s hat and it wasn’t too difficult. “Dearie, you do know how to knit, don’t you?”

  “Yes,” said Olivia. “In fact, I’m a seamstress.”

  “Oh, a seamstress!” said Grandma West, clapping her hands together. “Perfect. You can darn all the jeans that Jason keeps ripping through, playing ‘round on that farm with his little friends.”

  “Grandma,” Jason admonished quietly as he blushed. “You’re making me look bad.”

  “Don’t mind him,” said Grandma West. “He’s just perpetually embarrassed. Anywho, you’ll have to talk to my friend when she gets back from the loo. She’s got a granddaughter who is also a seamstress. Maybe you two would be good friends.”

  “Is it true Jason knits?” asked Olivia. “He didn’t just ask you to knit that for him to make him look impressive?”

  “If I’d done that, wouldn’t I have had Grandma West knit more than this?” asked Jason, not looking up from the knitting he was doing very carefully. He still managed to drop a stitch. Olivia had to stop herself from laughing. This big, bad horse shifter couldn’t handle a set of knitting needles?

  “Jason doesn’t accept help from others,” said Grandma West. “It’s his biggest flaw…after being unable to talk to girls he has a crush on.”

  “I’ve got a feeling there’s a story,” Olivia said.

  “Back when I lived in West Texas with that branch of my herd, River Stone, Jason came to stay with me for a summer,” said Grandma West. “There was this girl he took a fancying to, but he couldn’t work up the courage to talk to her that whole summer! Meanwhile, he made fast friends with the rest of the children at the River Stone lodge.”

  “It’s a good thing I didn’t end up with her,” said Jason. “She’s a fuckin’ monster now.”

  “Now, Jason, watch your fuckin’ mouth, there’s a lady present,” said Grandma West.

  “All these foul words,” said a familiar voice. “How unpleasant…as unpleasant as it is pleasant to see my granddaughter here!”

  Olivia turned to verify that her ears weren’t playing tricks on her.

  There was Grandma Larson, in the flesh!

  “Grandma?” asked Olivia. “I had no idea you were going to be here tonight!” She got up to give her grandma a big hug.

  “Well, dear, I didn’t want to make you feel obligated to come out and do something with your granny,” said Grandma Larson. “I see you’ve met the Wests.”

  “You know them?” asked Olivia.

  “Been knitting alongside these two for months now,” Grandma Larson answered. “Wouldn’t waste your time with the boy, though. He’s got a girl he fancies in town, some seamstress.”

  Olivia smiled as she heard Jason groan with annoyance in the background.

  “Eileen, Olivia is the seamstress!” said Grandma Larson. “This is the girl Jason was talking about!”

  “I hadn’t said her name because I didn’t want this to become a point of gossip,” Jason said with a groan, leaning his head back.

  A chorus of old ladies piped up upon hearing that the girl their little Jason had talked about was at their meeting. They all introduced themselves to her and shared some embarrassing stories about Jason before letting her get back to her group. At that point, Jason got up to get them some refreshments from the snack and beverage table.

  “Now, Janet, I had no clue that your granddaughter was the one that my Jason was interested in,” said Grandma West.

  “Here I was, thinking you and I knew it all,” said Grandma Larson. “Never would’ve thought that your grandkid and mine would end up together. If you had told me that back in high school, well, I would’ve told you you’d lost your marbles!”

  “Back in high school?” asked Olivia.

  “Oh, yes, Janet and I go way back,” said Grandma West. “I was in Fallowedirt for high school. Moved here for my father’s work, left, and came back last year to retire with my old high school buddies.”

  “And she does mean old,” said Grandma Larson. “The best part about this is we get to send Jason to do our bidding. Whenever we need snacks, we just say our bones hurt.”

  Olivia looked. Jason was at
the snack table, the beverages and snacks near him on the table, but he was talking animatedly to one of the women in the group. He was smiling, gesturing, and talking rapidly.

  “What did I tell you?” asked Grandma West. “He gets nervous around girls he likes…especially beautiful ones.”

  Jason came back with the snacks and went back to knitting.

  “Jason, your grandma told me why she came to this little town,” said Olivia. “What about you?”

  “Work,” Jason confirmed.

  “Okay, but why here, Jason?” teased Grandma West.

  “Because I wanted to be close to my grandma,” said Jason. “I worry about her, okay?”

  “I’m fine,” said Grandma West. “Strong shifter blood runs through these veins and through the blood of your grandfathers. We don’t need all the help you want to shower on us, baby. We’re fine.”

  “Grandfathers?” asked Olivia. “Both sides live here?”

  “Just my side,” said Grandma West. “Both my husbands are shifters, same herd as me.”

  “Both your husbands…as in, you have two husbands?” asked Olivia.

  “Yup,” said Grandma West. “Pretty common for our type.”

  “Huh,” said Olivia. “And the men…?”

  “It’s not about us,” said Jason. “It’s about her. The fated mate. It’s about her happiness. If she’s happy, we’re happy.”

  “We?” asked Olivia. “I take it you’ve thought about this before.”

  “I bet he just has fond memories of having two grandfathers,” said Grandma Larson. “Extra partners in crime.”

  “If a ménage is fated to be in my future, that’s what it is,” said Jason. “Fated. We’re River Stone herd, not worry stone herd.”

  “What is River Stone, exactly?” asked Olivia. “I know what herds are, but what makes River Stone, well, River Stone?”

  “Jason, take your shirt off,” ordered Grandma West. “I can’t. It wouldn’t be proper.”

  Without skipping a beat, Jason stripped his shirt off. Nobody in the room blinked an eye but Olivia. Jason turned his chair around so his back was to Olivia and she could see his marks.