Page 31 of Unbroken (Poplar Springs #2)
TWENTY-NINE
FIONA
I grabbed the bag with some of the feral apples I kept from the ride and wandered into the house, suddenly feeling ravenously hungry. We’d eaten a light lunch out on the trail, but horseback riding all day followed by three orgasms meant I’d burned a lot of calories and I needed to eat. Now.
The house was quiet, and when I looked outside, I realized I was alone.
Shannon’s car wasn’t parked next to my Nissan and Josh had already left for the day.
I had the house to myself. I opened the fridge hoping to find something easy to eat.
Finally, I grabbed an apple, biting into the sweet, juicy fruit as I headed upstairs to take a shower.
Maybe once I was clean and comfortable, I could think clearly enough to figure out a full meal instead of just a snack.
In the bathroom, I turned the water on, twisted the temperature control to hot, and waited for the water to start steaming up while I stripped down.
It’d been sweet of Eli to use a condom without me even having to bring it up.
Everything had happened so quickly, I hadn’t had the chance to tell him I was on birth control.
I wondered if he would have stopped if he didn’t have one with him.
As much as it would have pained the both of us, I was sure he would have tried to step back if he thought that that was what he needed to do to protect me. Thankfully we were covered both ways.
The bathroom mirror was steamed over when I stepped into the shower, hissing at the scalding water at first until my body got used to it.
Standing under the pelting flow, I closed my eyes, reliving our time in the tack room.
It was rare that I had more than two orgasms in one session, but Eli had managed to drag three almost-screaming ones out of me and if we hadn’t been at risk of getting caught, I probably could have had more.
Leave it to Eli to make sure I’d received my pleasure before he had his.
Even when we were functioning as frenemies in school, he was always looking out for me.
I rubbed my chest to sooth away the sudden angst that hit me at the realization that I hadn’t been nearly so considerate back then.
I’d always been more concerned about the prank’s delivery than the recipient.
“Wow, way to be a jerk, Cafferty,” I said aloud as I washed my hair.
“What did you say?” someone asked and I shrieked, wobbling on my feet and grabbing the shower curtain to cover my body. I peeked out to see Shannon using the toilet.
“What the hell? You know we have more than one bathroom, right?” I shouted at her.
My sister shrugged where she sat. “Toilet seat is broken in mine and I had to pee too badly to go back downstairs.”
I rolled my eyes and made a shooing gesture. “Okay, fine. You’ve peed, now get out so I can finish my shower in peace.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Shannon pulled up her pants and washed her hands.
Before she left, she gave me a mischievous look right before she flushed the toilet.
I gritted my teeth as the water instantly got hotter.
She laughed as she opened the door and cool air wafted in, making me shiver.
“Hurry up before you empty the hot water heater. I brought back takeaway from Charlie’s Pride. You up for some chicken and ribs?”
Oh, that sounded perfect. “Yup. So get out already. I’ll be right down.” I finished my shower in record time and slipped on some leggings and an oversized shirt before sliding my feet into my fuzzy slippers and tromping downstairs.
Shannon had laid out a tempting spread and I started salivating before I sat down.
I reached for a drumstick and bit down, taking half of the meat into my mouth before ripping the bone away like some sort of animal.
I closed my eyes as I chewed, savoring the smoky barbeque sauce.
“So, good,” I said on a moan. Maybe not as good as sex with Eli but damn close.
My sister made a small choking noise and I opened my eyes to see her smirk.
“What? It’s been a long day and I’m hungry. ”
She shook her head, grabbed a couple beers from the fridge along with the coleslaw she’d made yesterday, and joined me at the table. She then grabbed a rib and bit down on the fleshiest part, tearing the meat off with a groan of her own.
The only sounds that could be heard for the next few minutes were the two of us chowing down on some of the best charbroiled barbeque I’d ever had. Once we were both sated enough to where we didn’t look like a pair of ravenous zombies, we sat back with a groan.
“So, how was your day, dear? Do anything I wouldn’t do?” Shannon asked and I choked on my beer. By the look on her face, I didn’t think she knew about what Eli and I had done in the tack room, but I planned to play it safe.
“It was good. This was our first all-day ride and while we had a couple newbies in the group, everyone handled the saddle time really well,” I told her, hoping she didn’t notice how my voice cracked as I spoke.
She nodded her head. “That’s good. I know Josh and Eli have been talking about overnight rides that would take the riders out to the springs on the east side of Poplar Mountain.
” The springs weren’t located on Cafferty property—they were on public land.
Josh had already started looking into whether we would need permission to camp there.
A part of me was already thinking about sharing a tent with Eli on those overnights.
I had to keep reminding myself that he might not be around anymore by the time we added those trips to the calendar.
I knew that Eli hadn’t spoken to Josh yet about his desire to move on and I didn’t want to violate his privacy by mentioning it to Shannon now, but I had to wonder what it would be like to take those trail rides without him.
I felt a sudden stabbing pain that had nothing to do with the amount of food we’d just gorged ourselves on.
A big part of what made the trail rides so enjoyable was having Eli with me.
It was hard to imagine what the program would be like without him at the helm.
I had to admit that the prospect felt a little bleak.
But he was intent on moving on and getting away from everything that’d been weighing him down.
I couldn’t blame him for that. Eli Carter deserved to be happy, even if getting there meant leaving me behind.