Page 17 of Taking Charge (Lone Star Burn 4)
He didn’t realize he’d grunted until Wyatt said, “If you let yourself get worked up this early, you’ll be a wreck by the time you’re actually dating. Let her come to you.”
David could have denied his level of interest in Lucy, but he didn’t see the point. Wyatt cared about Lucy and had known her a long time. His opinion wasn’t one to be carelessly dismissed. David leaned a hip on the porch railing as he continued to look at Lucy’s house. “I gave her space the first time, and she went off and got engaged.”
Wyatt laughed. “You’re not afraid to tell it like it is, are you? I like that about you. I know Lucy well enough to say she’s not looking to get engaged anytime soon. And she likes you, but that won’t be enough. Women and men aren’t as different as they like to claim they are. They both find it hard to appreciate anything that comes too easily to them. Give the girl some time to pine for you.”
David glanced at Wyatt out of the corner of his eye. “What is it about me that makes everyone think I can’t do this on my own?”
Wyatt took a moment to seriously consider the reason before he said, “You’re a good man, David. Those are few and far between. Lucy’s always been a sweet girl. We were all holding our breath when she got engaged to that snake, York. No one wants to see you mess this up, son.”
“I won’t. Not this time.” David rubbed a hand over his chin and sighed. “I consider myself a patient man, but I don’t want to be out here when I could be in there.”
Wyatt cackled another laugh. “I remember those days. Don’t you worry, David, I’ve got plenty of boxes for you to unload from the last truck run. Come on, we’ll feed you dinner for your trouble.”
Pushing himself off the railing, David nodded toward the house in the back that Wyatt’s family was moving into. “Does your wife make her own biscuits?”
“They’re so good I would have married her for them alone.”
David’s stomach rumbled, reminding him that he hadn’t eaten since breakfast. “Then you’d better treat her well, or my sights might turn in that direction.”
“Try it and you’d live only as long as it took me to find the right corner of the field to bury you in.”
David’s eyebrows shot up. The man was in his sixties and so was his wife. He had to know he was joking. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
He laughed again and gave David a pat on the back. “You do that. Something tells me you’ll be the same way with Lucy when she’s yours. My daughter-in-law has my son getting manicures and waxing off hair from where God intended for it grow. She might as well geld him. It’s good to have a man’s man around. Hopefully some of you will rub off on him.”
David let the waxing comment pass. He didn’t want to know. “What you’re saying is that you want your son smelling like he spent the day cleaning out paddocks?”
Wyatt’s nose wrinkled. “Now that you mention it, I’ll ask my wife to hold supper until after you shower. Let’s get my truck unloaded first.”
David agreed. What Wyatt had said about giving Lucy some time made sense, and he could use a distraction. He had a feeling that if Wyatt’s family was anything like him, it would be highly entertaining.
Chapter Seven
A week later, feeling calmer than she had in a long time, Lucy walked between her piles of inventory and tried to pick the next one she’d try. Her initial embarrassment with them gone, she was taking a much more practical approach.
There was nothing wrong with a woman enjoying herself as much as a man did, and if these items helped women do that, she was actually doing them a service by making them available. Sure there were some toys in the room Lucy was convinced she’d never use, but she was okay with that.
She started asking herself what a woman would need to know about each selection and what they would like about it. Once she did that, a classification system easily followed. She was glad the company was new enough that she’d be able to have an impact on how they represented themselves, because she was beginning to get excited.
The more she thought about it, the more she recognized the flaws in the company’s website. The descriptions read like they were selling computers, and the directions were written in geek jargon the average person would struggle with.
Lucy now understood why Technically Anonymous Pleasure had looked for a female to partner with. They needed to find a way to convince women like her that their products were not only worth the money but also not cold and mechanical.
Hiding in her house, Lucy sorted the items from the least intimidating to the most. I was rushing myself when I didn’t have to. She’d valued Michelle’s level of knowledge with toys and guided her to what she thought she’d be comfortable with. I will value my own journey the same way. I don’t have to try everything in this room, but if I decide to, that’s okay, too.
The founders of the company had taken items people might be familiar with and added a level of technology that needed to be demystified. Most of the toys were for women, but a few were for men. Each night, she would take a toy into her bedroom and document her progress.
On the first night, she chose a simple-looking vibrator with a chip that synced with an app she’d downloaded to her phone. The app contained short video clips of men, some clothed and some not, talking into the camera. It was designed to allow a woman to simulate having phone sex with a man. Lucy downloaded two videos that walked her through a sexy session of self-exploration. The geeks might not know how to market their toys, but they had obviously thrown money at every detail of production. The men were attractive and sexy, without being creepy. Lucy had watched two videos—one to learn the process, and one to see if it was as good as the first. She came twice, but decided it was easier to orgasm while imagining David than watching a video.
On the second night, she tried the vibrating panties that synced with erotic reading material. During the sex scenes in the story, the vibrating panties would automatically turn on. It was nice, but perhaps because she was reading, her mind kept wandering to David. As the story heated up, Lucy would find herself closing her eyes and imagining David’s hands on her, David’s tongue replacing the vibrator. Lucy wrote her findings next to the item number.
By Friday, she’d gone through all the tame options. She wrote to the company and shared her thoughts regarding website descriptions and presentation of the items. By giving a few examples of how she thought they could market the products differently, she felt her confidence grow when they responded positively. Perhaps my degree has not been for nothing after all.
They needed to take a much more personal approach. Lucy added each product she’d tried to her website and wrote a blog to accompany it. She shared her thoughts about each one, but also started writing short erotic stories about a woman who used the toy. Her stories mirrored her reality. The character she used in each story was a single woman who wanted to be with a man but presently wasn’t.
The more she wrote, the more her confidence soared. Since her website and her blog were completely anonymous, she didn’t worry about offending anyone. She came up with a pen name and became bolder about sharing what she discovered about herself as she tried each toy. The feedback was instant and positive. Women started thanking her for her candor. Merely by chance, another blogger came across her site and mentioned it to her many followers. Her in-box quickly flooded with e-mails from women who were not only buying the products but also connecting with her stories.
Lucy was feeling good about herself and her growing business bank account. After only one week, she had made a few hundred dollars. The orders shipped directly from the company; all she had to do was find and engage clients.
There was only one area she wasn’t feeling good about—she’d avoided David for an entire week. No matter how she spun it, she didn’t like what it said about her. He’d stepped in to help save her ranch, and she’d delivered his money to him via Wyatt. She’d gone to say hello to Wyatt’s family only when she heard David had run to town on an errand. David’s horses
had arrived a few days ago, and she hadn’t gone out to help.
I’m a coward, sitting in here, hoping if I keep my head down long enough, I won’t have to deal with my feelings. Doing anything I can to keep my mind off a man who probably wouldn’t even be here if he knew what I’m selling. It’s one thing to use a toy or two, but another thing entirely to make selling them a profession.
I used to face life head-on.
I’ve been avoiding Sarah because I don’t know how to answer the questions she’ll have about David.
I can’t tell her how I spent this week or what I’ve been doing to distract myself.
Or how ineffective it was.
She found herself watching him from the window while he worked. She’d tried to tell herself being around sex toys had made her ripe for any man, but there were several men working the horses with David, and she felt nothing when she looked at them. Two orgasms a night should be enough to make a woman forget about any man, but that had only made Lucy yearn for David.
Lucy kicked one of the boxes in her office. This is where toys, even the best of them, fell short. They didn’t have eyes that were full of laughter one minute, then burned with passion the next. The scent of them didn’t make her want to tear off her clothes and taste every inch of them. Nothing in her office would ever pick her up, carry her toward her bedroom, only to stop and take her passionately on the stairs because it had to have her and couldn’t wait. They couldn’t wake her with a kiss or make her breakfast.
