Page 17

Mina

“Spoiler alert: long-distance relationships suck,” Mina announced. It had been a month since she’d left Rawhide Ranch. A whole freaking month. Four times the amount of time that she and Patrick had actually spent together.

She missed him so much.

“Aw, I’m sorry, honey,” Vicky said sympathetically. “I thought the regular calls were helping.”

“Yes and no.” Mina sighed, rubbing her hands over her face. “I mean, it’s wonderful getting to see him every night. But it also sucks because I can’t touch him. I think my vagina is getting over educated.”

Her friends snorted. All of them had been horrified and fascinated when she’d explained about the sex toy form that she had to fill out when she purchased a toy in Alabama.

They’d also been highly amused when she told them that she chose to consider hers educational, out of all the options on the form.

Upon her return from the Ranch, she’d shared the fact she’d circumvented Alabama’s puritanical laws by bringing in a few toys along with her new outfits all the way from Montana.

Layne hadn’t been the least bit surprised and Penelope had clapped then had asked to see the outfits Sadie and Master Derek had provided,

Amanda was far more interested in seeing the sex toys and when Mina held her newest acquisition up for inspection, Amanda whistled and said, “Good for you,” as she gave a nod of admiration.

Unfortunately, even with her vagina’s new teacher, one that was closer to Patrick’s actual size, Mina had discovered the side effect of its use was making her miss him even more.

Life had hit a bad place when you were crying over a massive dildo because it made you miss your boyfriend. She was so not admitting to her friends that she’d cried over a dildo though.

“It doesn’t help that my boobs hurt all the time now. I’m making tons of milk and I’ve gone up like a whole cup size, but it just makes me miss him even more.” She sniffed a little.

“But you like donating the milk, right?” Penelope asked. “You said that makes you feel good.”

“It does.” It did. But it didn’t make up for missing Patrick. Going from being with him all day every day to absolutely nothing had given her the worst withdrawal, and it didn’t seem to be going away.

“I still don’t understand why you can’t just move out there,” Amanda said. She shrugged when Layne made a derogatory noise.

“She can’t uproot her whole life and move across country for a guy,” Layne replied, shaking her head. “Especially one she’s barely known for a month. What if it doesn’t work out?”

“What if it does?” Penelope countered. “Besides, with her job, it’s not like she has to be in a specific location. She’s one of the few people who can just up and move if she decides to.”

Which was something Mina’s own sister had said to her multiple times. But Mina had never had wanderlust like Esther. She’d always been the down-to-earth one, the stay-at-home one, the one who didn’t need to make waves or big sweeping changes to be happy.

Except…

Maybe now she did.

“We don’t even know if Patrick would want her to do that,” Vicky said, coming in as the voice of reason. “Mina, has he said anything to you like that?”

“No… I mean, we talk about me visiting. I know he’d like to come here, but it’s harder for him to arrange his schedule.” Whereas Mina could work from anywhere. Even for a visit, she could keep working while he was at work. “I’ll stay at his place when I do.”

“So why haven’t you gone out yet?” Amanda asked ruthlessly, somehow managing to give the camera such a hard stare that Mina felt like the Domme was looking directly at her.

“Because it feels like too soon? I practically just got back. I don’t want him to think I’m some scary stalker chick who’s going to invade his home because I can’t live without him.” She could live without him. She’d proven it over the past few weeks. It just made her sad.

Sad enough to cry over dildos.

“Okay, so I should go visit him soon. Sooner than planned,” Mina said firmly. “I’ll bring it up with him when we talk tonight. If he wants to see me.”

“Good,” Amanda said. “It’s okay if he does feel like it’s too soon, but there’s nothing wrong with letting him know what you want. Normally, you aren’t the one who needs this pep talk.”

Mina made a face.

“There’s nothing wrong with it unless he freaks out and dumps me because I’m a Stage Five Clinger.”

“Do you think he would actually do that?” challenged Layne.

Well, no.

Mina huffed rather than answering.

It still felt scary. Probably because she’d never felt this strongly about a guy before. She’d definitely never had the urge to up and move herself from her hometown.

But her friends were right.

She could work from anywhere. She could always fly home to visit her family when she wanted to. Esther had done it for a long time. Everyone had always been happy to see her, no one had been upset with her for leaving.

The only thing stopping Mina was herself.

And what Patrick wanted.

Except she didn’t know what he wanted because she hadn’t brought it up.

Which wasn’t like her. It just went to show how afraid she was that he might not want the same things she did.

Although, if he didn’t, that was okay too.

It might hurt a bit, but she’d live, and she’d understand why. They could just take things slower.

He had said he wished he could see her sooner.

A hard knock on the door made her jump and she twisted around in her seat before glancing back at her computer screen when the knock came again.

“Hold on, someone’s at the door,” she said, hopping up from her chair.

“What if it’s a serial killer?” asked Layne, only half-joking.

“Then make sure to record the call so you can avenge me,” Mina quipped back, making all of them laugh even though she was only half-joking too.

She opened the door a crack and her eyes widened as her head tipped back and back and back to see the man on the other side.

Patrick frowned down at her.

“Did you even look to see who it was before you opened the door?” he demanded to know as Mina’s jaw dropped open.

“What are you doing here?” Her voice was about ten times higher than normal and ended on a squeak.

“Who is it?” Amanda called from behind her, making the computer speakers crackle. “Open the door, we can’t see.”

Still frowning, Patrick put his hand on the door and pushed it all the way open when Mina didn’t move.

She was still too flabbergasted. Looking over her head, he must have seen her computer, and her friends definitely saw him because there was a small chorus of gasps before they all started speaking at once.

“Crap on a cracker, is that him?” Vicky squealed.

“It is! It is! It has to be!” Penelope was just as excited as Vicky, and Mina imagined they were both bouncing in their seats.

“Holy shit that’s a big boy.” That was Amanda.

“Okay, well, now I understand why you called him a cunt destroyer.”

Thank you, Layne, definitely that was what Mina wanted him to know. Still staring at his face, because she couldn’t believe she was seeing it in person and not on a video screen, Mina saw his mouth twitch.

“What are you doing here?” she asked again, since he hadn’t answered the first time she’d asked.

“I’m here for you.” He cleared his throat, turning his attention back to her as if they didn’t have an on-screen audience behind her. “You can work from anywhere. I miss you. You miss me. I want you to come back to Montana with me. But in the meantime, I figured I could take a day to come see you.”

“Awww.” The Greek chorus behind her wasn’t even trying to pretend like they weren’t being nosy as fuck and listening to every word he said.

“See? He wants you! Move to Montana!” Vicky called out. “You can do it! I believe in you!”

Mina groaned and leaned forward to bury her face against Patrick’s stomach as she wrapped her arms around him and his came around her.

“I’m going to murder her,” she said, her voice muffled by his body. She felt, as much as heard, him laugh. “I can’t believe you’re here.”

“Believe it,” he said, right as he lifted her into the air, and she squeaked as he easily tossed her over his shoulder like a sack of flour.

Her friends all cheered as he palmed her ass, simultaneously kicking her front door shut behind him. Traitors.

“Excuse us, ladies, Mina and I need to have a talk about our future and about checking to see who is at the door before opening it.”

“She could also use a milking,” Penelope yelled as Patrick walked through Mina’s living room, headed for the staircase that was visible at the back, obviously assuming that her bedroom was upstairs. He wasn’t wrong.

“Noted,” he said, giving Mina’s bottom a squeeze.

“I hate you guys,” Mina yelled as they walked by her computer setup.

“No, you don’t,” Layne replied, and all of her friends fell to giggling.

Jerks.

But she was too happy to be angry.

Patrick was really here and was carrying her upstairs.

Patrick

Thankfully, Mina had been happy to see him. He hadn’t been sure she would be, but he’d also wanted to surprise her.

He was here tonight and tomorrow and he’d have to leave early as hell the morning after that, but it was worth it just to be with her again. The video chats had been nice, in some ways, but they’d just made things worse in others. Seeing her but not being with her had been hellish.

And she’d seemed to miss him just as much.

He’d started thinking—why couldn’t she come out for some long visits?

His work prevented him from returning the favor, but he could pay for her trips to see him.

He’d even had the thought… why couldn’t she just move in with him?

His house, which had been perfectly fine before he’d met her, had suddenly started feeling too big for one person.

He couldn’t help but think about how she’d fit in there.

There was a room that he could turn into an office for her. Another room where the milking bench and pump could go. It was the perfect setup.

If she was willing.

So he’d come in person to present the idea to her.

But first things first.

When they reached the top of the stairs, he paused, because there were several doors he could go through. The whole caveman thing wouldn’t work as well if he had to try every single one of them to find the bedroom.

Thankfully, Mina was as on board as he was.

“That one,” she said, pointing, her hand coming out far enough from behind him that he could see where she was indicating.

First impression of her room – combination of feminine and practical.

Everything was in creams and sage green, but her bed had a canopy of thin mesh draped around it and there were ruffles on the pillows that adorned the matching comforter on the neatly-made bed.

Matching ruffled curtains bracketed the two windows as well.

The furniture was cherry wood, adding warmth to the room.

Her walls were painted cream and covered in an array of posters about computers and tech that he found intimidating just glancing at them.

A small desk at one of the windows had a laptop sitting on it, in case she wanted to get away from the massive multi-screen display she had set up in her main room.

Everything about it screamed “Mina” to him.

But he wasn’t going to take a whole lot of time to look around. He was far more interested in doing a close-up examination of the woman over his shoulder than he was of her room. Her room could wait, his dick could not.

Patrick tossed her onto the middle of her bed, crawling on after her to cage her with his arms. Not that she was trying to get away.

“So you need to be milked?” he asked, raising his eyebrow.

“Yes, please,” she replied, reaching up to wreath her fingers around the back of his head and pull him down for a kiss.