Page 50 of Refurbished

We had a light dinner, and my nerves were worse. I wasn’t particularly great with people, but Angus had grown up attending these things. I had worked in corporate America but had never had to schmooze a room full of people. I was ready to climb into bed, maybe take Angus hard, to get through some of my worry and frustration. He was a perfect lover like that, letting me use him to share my feelings, and there were times he did the same. There was never a moment that I didn’t want him completely—his cock and heart.

I could feel the panic as it rolled through me. “Shit.” I rubbed my face, and my leg started to bounce. “I’m going to fuck this up. Shit.” Barnaby was up on my lap, rubbing and whining. His job was to help me relax, which often included changing my attention to him.

“Sweetheart,” Angus said as soon as he entered the room. Slowly, he walked toward me. He wrapped a hand around my residual limb, his thumb rubbing the skin. “What’s wrong?”

“I. It’s.” I stood up and leaned on what I knew best. I ran. Without saying anything else, I walked out the door. All I heard behind me was Angus’s voice. “Damn it.” I knew I should have turned to my boyfriend and shared my fears, but I couldn’t. Over the last few months, I have watched him fall in love with this place. I haven’t really talked to him about it, but I knew deep down this was it for us. The Sanctuary was our forever, and I didn’t want to blow that up. I would be at the fancy event tomorrow, and everyone would look at me. When I lost part of my arm, my life changed completely. The one decent thing that came out of the situation was a payout and the acres of land I bought. It would be a perfect place to help those who were damaged—animals and humans.

People—important people—gave up on me, and this was my way of not giving up on those who needed a champion. I spent almost every dollar on the land, but I didn’t mind because I made this place and there was plenty of room for those who needed my help. And now it was our place; the fear of ruining it started to suffocate me.

These rich people were going to know I wasn’t a whole person. I had gone to veterinary school and gotten my doctorate. But I was nothing. I wasn’t like Zachary, with an innate way with animals. He had bonded with Walter in less than an hour, which was beautiful, but I wasn’t like that. Maybe Zachary should give my speech. He was a handsome guy, and nobody would know the difference. Wait. I knew the perfect person. Angus could do it. He loved it here, and he was so fucking sexy that all the men and women would want him.

I stood in front of Orlando for a long time, looking out across the land that mattered so much to me. “Okay, buddy, Angus will be out here in a few more minutes. I wish you could talk; I’d make you get up there and talk.” I knew he would give me time to work through my feelings. He had learned to be there but give a little space, and I had been out here about ten minutes now. “Okay, here is the deal, Orlando. We are going to convince him to be the face of the Sanctuary.” I was pretty sure Orlando looked skeptical. “He loves me. He loves you. I know he will do it because I am going to blow this whole thing up.”

“You are right, I love this place almost as much as I love you.” His deep voice washed over me, soothing the jagged edges. I turned around to see my beautiful man walking toward me. Every time I saw him, I was surprised by how sexy he was. With a casual confidence, he walked toward me, wearing a jacket over his T-shirt, with his hands in his pockets. He wore jeans but was barefoot, and as soon as I saw him, I calmed.

He reached up and petted our friend. “What do you think about all this, buddy?”

“I’m going to screw this up. I can’t do this.”

He cupped my cheek. “If you really can’t do this, I will. It’s not a question because, as far as I am concerned, this place is my future with you. However, Second Chances Sanctuary and Rehabilitation is here because of you and your vision. You found an area that needed this type of support and bought the land, establishing a place that the animals that live here need.”

I gave him a tight-lipped smile. Then looked at Orlando, who was my best buddy and happened to be one of those animals. There was a snuffling at the fence. Turning around, Annabelle was there looking at me, like she knew I needed her support at this moment. She was the reason I started this. Each of them made me stronger, made me better, and I knew there would be many more opportunities to help.

“I will be right there with you. I’ll even stand on stage and hold your hand if you need, but for five minutes let them see why you do this.”

When I pulled him tight against me, I kissed the side of his head. “I’m scared.”

“I know. We’ll take Barnaby, Mom will be there, and so will I. You are an amazing man and have done something really special here. I won’t let them bite you, I promise. I’m the only one who gets that pleasure.”

“That sounds nice.”

“Let’s go back inside, and I’ll bite you in all the right places.”

We held hands and walked leisurely back to the fifth wheel. As we walked by the alpaca enclosure, we saw Walter lying down and Zachary leaning against him. “Come on, the net was wide open. Walter, can you believe this shit?” Came from across the pasture.

Angus and I looked at each other and smiled. “He fits in here fine.”

I motioned with my body. “I hope he doesn’t mind seeing his boss walk around in his underwear in the dark.”

“Honestly, I think this place makes him really happy. I am guessing he has a story. I’m glad he is here, where he can heal, because this is the happiest I’ve seen him in the eight months I have known him.”

I kissed Angus hard, then pulled him inside with me. “Now mark me as your own. I want to feel the bruises while I’m standing there schmoozing rich people.”

“When you put it that way.” He pushed me back to our bedroom, his mouth already on my shoulder, sucking hard.

Chapter twenty-five

EION

In our fancy hotel room, I looked at myself in the mirror. I admired the marks on my shoulders and chest before touching the ones on my ribs, which were particularly tender. I couldn’t help but smile because the ones on my inner thighs brought my cock to life when I ran my palm over them. Those marks were going to keep me grounded and remind me that I was claimed as I talked to a room full of strangers.

“I might have gotten carried away,” Angus said as he came up behind me, his chin on my shoulder.

“It’s hot. And I think it’s enough of a distraction that I will not panic on stage.”

“I’ll be right there with you, Baby.” Everything would be okay, but these marks meant something. I was his. Angus gave me everything I had wanted years ago. What I thought I had with Trey never felt like this.

His cock slid between my ass cheeks, and I pushed back against him. “Don’t start something you can’t finish.”