Stray by Natasha Stories Read Free Book Online Page B

again
     
    The glimpse I’d had of Jon’s chest and intriguing tattoo began the fantasy. It seemed to be a swirl of some kind, with fat spikes edging the outside, all in black. In my mind, I followed the swirl with my tongue, and felt him swell against me below. I lifted the showerhead from its hook and aimed the water where it would substitute for his fingers until, overwhelmed by the sensation on my engorged clit, I convulsed, then folded up into a fetal position on the floor. The water grew tepid, beating down on my naked body as I lay there, shaking with the intensity of what had just happened.
     
    I wandered into the living room after my shower, wrapped in a fluffy terry robe against the chill I caught in the tepid shower, and searched until I found another old sitcom to take my mind off everything. On the first commercial, I got up and took a pint of Ben and Jerry’s out of the freezer, foregoing a bowl and eating it straight out of the carton as I watched the sitcom without seeing it. Unfortunately, it just acted as white noise as I circled back to my earlier musings.
     
    What was I doing here? What would I do if I wanted to get out of here? Why was I watching TV at midnight when I needed to be up by seven in the morning to get ready to go to work? And where the hell was a twenty-nine year-old veterinarian supposed to look for male companionship in a tiny mountain town like this? I finished the ice cream without coming up with a single answer.
     

CHAPTER SIX
     
    As I left the vet clinic, I couldn ’t help but wonder what I’d done to piss Erin Timms off. She’d almost had a panic attack when I asked if she’d like to grab a bite, as if I might actually bite her. Come to think of it, a little nip or two would be just fine… But, I had to stop thinking that way. As much as Dr. Timms intrigued me, I couldn’t afford to pursue that right now. I was in enough trouble already.
     
    I hadn’t seen Ashleigh since Friday, so I knew she was seriously pissed off at me. It was like one of those movies where the hero and his girlfriend kept missing each other by minutes. I’d known on Saturday that she came back to the suite, probably while I was out talking to some of the old-timers in town. I left a note in case she did come back, but I guess it didn’t mollify her. It said, ‘I have a couple of errands, then going to check on the dog and be back mid-afternoon. Dinner tonight?’
     
    I guess I shouldn’t have mentioned the dog, since she crossed that part out with what looked like her lip liner. It was red and angry, anyway. I dutifully sent her a text every couple of hours and even tried calling, but she had her phone turned off. If she thought I was going to search all over for her on the slopes, she was nuts. Dinner came and went, and once again I went to bed alone, waking up still alone the next morning.
     
    Well, screw her , I thought. I had other people to see, and she knew I wouldn’t be with her every minute when we made these plans. I’d told her I had to put out some fires among the stockholders, and she knew it was important. As usual, Ashleigh pouted that I never spent time with her, as if I didn’t have a job, but agreed to come anyway. Now, though I was beginning to have an uneasy feeling that I’d have some serious fence-mending to do when she finally showed up, I was free to go about my business without worrying about what she wanted to do every minute.
     
    After a very satisfactory Sunday for business and still no answer from Ashleigh, I went down to Boulder to spend that night, returning this morning to discover she’d come back to the suite, since the bed hadn’t been made up yet. She was gone again, though. Now I was really in trouble. It was okay for her to disappear and refuse to answer her phone or return a text, but I’d better be where she expected me to be, or the shit would hit the fan.
     
    I drove back to the resort, wondering if I had enough support yet to put my strategy