Chapter 3
Les
Leslie "Les"Williams sat at his station reading a book that would embarrass him to hell and back if anyone caught him reading it. The great thing about night shift, though, was that almost everyone was asleep, so the chances of getting caught reading a smutty ageplay book were slim.
He was caught up in an especially intense spanking scene, bent over as he read about a Little girl getting her ass roasted, when a throat cleared and caught his attention.
"Sorry to interrupt," a voice that tickled his memory said, "I was just wondering where I would get a drink this late."
As Les' head raised and he took in the person standing before him, his world tilted. It was her. Raelynn Sutherland, the one that got away.
"Rae-Rae?"
The old nickname slipped from his tongue before he could stop it, and he watched as Raelynn's naturally pale complexion went white as a sheet.
"Les," she breathed so low and slow it almost wasn't a word so much as it was a sigh.
He watched her watching him for a minute, unsure what to say. There was so much he wanted to say, but everything was crowded in his mind, jumbled and mixed up, so he couldn't get any of it out. Where had she been? Was she okay? Was she married? Seeing someone? Why had she left him without a word? Did she still want him as much as he needed her? None of that came out, though. He just stood there silently staring until she turned around again and headed toward her room.
The shock of seeing her again kept him frozen in place as she hurried down the hall. It was several minutes before he finally got himself together and remembered her original question. Sitting back down in his seat, he set aside his e-reader and checked the computer to find out what room she was in.
With the information in hand, Les set out to get Rae-Rae a drink. He wasn't sure what she drank these days, maybe she wasn't a Sprite fan anymore. Maybe she drank a different soda or nothing but water. It had been twenty years since he'd seen her, after all.
Deciding to err on the side of caution, he got the Sprite and a bottle of water. He knew it was late and she really shouldn't have the sugar but he figured she must be on vacation so that could be considered an exception. Not that he was her Daddy anymore and able to make those decisions for her.
That thought stopped Les in his tracks. Her Daddy. He'd loved the woman for twenty years. He'd never loved anyone else. This was his chance to try again. To fix whatever he'd done wrong before. This was the chance he'd always been hoping for. A chance to get her back and, this time, to keep her.
Raelynn
No way.No freaking way had she just run into Les freaking Williams on her worry-free vacation. What the actual fuck?
Raelynn paced her room, her hands rubbing up and down the thighs of her bell-bottom pajama pants. Pajamas. She'd seen Les after twenty years in freaking pajamas and a messy bun after waking from a nightmare. God, what had she done so wrong to deserve such a cruel prank from the universe?
Raelynn rushed to her nightstand and rummaged through the assortment of stones until she found the amethyst. Amethyst was known for its calming essence, and Raelynn had always found it to work for her. Rubbing the surface of the calming stone, she took deep breaths and tried to think of what to do.
Before she'd formed anything resembling a plan, there was a knock at her door. Oh, shit. That could only be one person. She looked in the mirror over the dresser and thought about ignoring the knock. She didn't want him to continue knocking, though, and possibly disturb any other guests. Raelynn remembered exactly how stubborn and persuasive Les Williams was. It was why she'd snuck off. He'd have talked her into staying.
You should have let him.
She shook the thought off and, figuring he'd already seen her looking a mess, she went to answer the door. She found herself struck again by how much more handsome he was these days. Age had treated him well. His brown hair was now blended with the occasional gray strands, and he had a short beard that suited him perfectly. As her eyes met his gray-blue ones, she recognized her own shock, but the other emotions he radiated were nothing of what she'd expected.
Raelynn had always assumed if she ever saw Les again, he'd hate her. She'd left him. Literally run away in the middle of the night. She hadn't left a note or given any sort of warning. For a man like Les, a Daddy Dom, that had to have been torture. She hadn't truly understood that at the time, but she did now.
She couldn't help but wonder if he'd looked for her. If he'd worried about her. Had he forgotten her? Did he ever miss her the way she missed him every single day? She didn't ask any of those questions, though.
Les cleared his throat and held out both hands. In one was her favorite lemon-lime soda, in the other a bottle of spring water.
"You'd been looking for a drink. I didn't know if Sprite was still your drink of choice, so I brought water too."
Raelynn reached out and took both drinks from him as she said, "Thank you. Sprite is great. And I'm sure the water is good for me."
She offered a small smile with her lame joke, and Les winked before sticking his hands in the back pockets of his jeans.
"It's good to see you, Rae-Rae," he said as he rocked back on his heels, "I've missed you."
That shocked her. He'd missed her? It had been twenty years. Sure, she missed him too, but she'd left him. Taking a chance, she decided to let him know, "I've missed you, too."
Before she'd even finished her sentence, a bright smile lit his face and he seemed to bolster himself right before her eyes.
"Would you..." he began.
Raelynn started to think he wasn't going to finish when he cleared his throat and tried again.
"Would you like to have breakfast with me?"
He was asking her out? When she looked a mess and probably sounded like an idiot? Maybe this was all a dream. A second chance with Les Williams had always been her biggest wish. Maybe what Priscilla had told her was true. There really was magic at Rawhide Ranch.
"I think I'd like that."