Chapter 16

Dolly tried to sleep,but her worries kept spinning through her thoughts. What would happen in the morning? She had no doubt her book had been found when the staff cleaned. It had most likely been turned in because the members of the Ranch staff were too professional to steal it or just throw it away. Her biggest worry was if someone would read it, and whether or not she would be kicked off the Ranch come morning.

A few hours later, she heard Quincy return to his room. Scared of what he might or might not know, Dolly pretended to be asleep, so she did not have to talk to him. Since she was in her bed in her room, he should get the hint she needed a night off. It was not his fault she was a big fat chicken.

Keeping her eyes closed and her breathing slow and steady, she listened to him move across the room. A moment later, he pulled the covers over her shoulder and tucked them around her. She then felt the warmth of his lips brush her temple before he straightened and walked away. A few seconds later, she heard the soft snick of a door closing.

Rolling over, she peered through the shadows to see that he had closed his side of the connecting doors. Not only had he not woken her up for some middle of the night talk or sexy playing, he had retreated to his room, and closed her out.

This could not be good.

The fluttering in her stomach grew gritty. No longer were mere butterflies filling her belly. The butterflies had morphed into big dust-covered crows whose wings beat at the walls of her stomach, making her feel nauseous.

Sitting up, she crossed her legs and wrapped her arms around her middle, hoping that by hugging herself she could settle the crows and maybe get some sleep. Only the self-soothing measures did not work and she ended up racing for the bathroom where she threw up the late-night snack she had picked up at the café on the way back to her room.

Once she had emptied her stomach, she settled back on the floor and cried. She knew that come morning she would be kicked off the Ranch. She wondered if they would offer her a ride to the airport, or just drop her at the gatehouse.

When her tears finally abated, she pushed to her feet, flushed the toilet and then washed her face and brushed her teeth again. Staggering out of the bathroom, she made it to the bed before collapsing. Pulling a pillow to her chest to hug for comfort, she curled up in the middle of the king-size bed and willed herself to sleep.

Only problem with sleeping was that her dreams were more vivid than anything she faced while awake. She woke from the too-vivid dreams every hour for the rest of the night. When the sky began to lighten outside the sliding glass door, she decided she might as well pack her things so she would not have to do it after Master Derek evicted her from the Ranch.

Once everything was packed and her bags sitting by the hall door, she pulled out another empty notebook she had brought with her. Opening the sliding glass door, she moved to the patio area and settled at the table there. Then she turned her notebook to the first page and began to write. The words that flowed from her were not notes, thoughts or impressions of the Ranch and her time here. This was the beginning of a new story.

A story that was very different than the knock-off BDSM erotic romances she had published to date.

As he had done every day since high school, Quincy woke up five minutes before his alarm was set to go off. Rolling over, he frowned when he saw the door to Dolly's room was closed. Had he closed it? Or had Dolly?

He remembered talking to Derek the night before and relaxing to the point of almost falling asleep while sitting out on the front porch. He barely remembered arriving at his door but could not recall what happened once he came inside. Rolling out of bed, he did some calisthenics to loosen up his body before taking a shower and dressing for the day.

Once he was ready to face the rest of the world, he went to the connecting door and hesitated. Should he open it and check on Dolly now? Or should he go to the café and bring back two cups of coffee before waking her?

Something niggling at the back of his brain urged him to fetch the coffee before checking on Dolly. With a deep breath, he walked away from the connecting door and headed out of his room to the café.

When he returned with two large to-go cups of coffee, his black, hers with a pump of chocolate, two sugars and a dollop of cream, he headed straight to the connecting door.

Opening it, he frowned. Her bed was made. The room was neat as a pin. None of her clothes were laying out or piled on the floor. Stepping further into the room, he spied her bags sitting near the hall door. She was nowhere in sight.

Moving to the bathroom, he flipped on the light and saw that all her toiletries were gone. Except for the towels piled on the floor next to the shower door, it appeared as if she had never been here.

"So where is she?"

Stepping back into the room, he saw the glass door leading to the private patio was open. He marched across the room, stopping when he reached the wide opening.

Dolly was sitting at the small table on the patio, totally consumed by the notebook she was writing in. Her hand flew across the page, writing line after line, and flipping pages to a fresh one before continuing on.

Quincy retrieved the coffee cups from his room and returned. He moved silently as he crossed the patio and set the coffee on the table in front of her. Then he sat down in the chair on the opposite side of the table.

She did not look up, did not acknowledge him or the brew of the gods that he had set in front of her. She was thoroughly caught up in whatever it was she was writing. Should he leave her to it? Or should he interrupt and get the answers to the questions Derek had brought up during their hot chocolate and cookie talk the night before?

He decided to start by dragging her attention out of her book. "Good morning, pet."

The pen continued on for several more words before she dropped a period at the end of a sentence then looked up at him. Her eyes were glassy and her expression vague. She appeared out of it, like she was not fully in this world. It almost seemed as if she was drifting in subspace, only without the sex to drive her to it.

"Oh. Hello. Good morning."

Her words were fuzzy and she sounded as disoriented as she looked.

"Are you all right?"

Dolly blinked and her vision seemed to come into focus. "I'm fine. Sometimes it just takes me a minute or two to make reentry into the real world."

Quincy found himself frowning as he sipped at his coffee. "I'm sure that makes sense to someone, but I'll need a full explanation, and possibly more coffee."

Dolly giggled and then saw the cup sitting in front of her. "Coffee? You brought me coffee? Oh, thank you!"

"It might be cold, but it took a few minutes to bring you back from wherever your brain took you."

He watched as Dolly sipped at the cup, closing her eyes and making sounds that had his cock jumping to attention.

"It's perfect," she sighed before taking another, longer sip. "You could make someone a wonderful major domo if you're interested in changing careers."

Quincy chuckled at the suggestion though he was already leaning heavily toward his next career move. If he could talk her into making the change with him. Which brought to mind the conversation he'd had with Derek the night before.

Taking a deep breath, he said, "We need to talk."