Wild and Unruly

Chapter 4

Louis woke up the next morning with a rotten feeling in his stomach and something warm and wet between his toes. He groaned, disoriented, and threw an arm over his face to block out the harsh sunlight. He was still in Wyoming, chasing warmth under one of Mrs. Burden's faded crazy quilts. Still in Wyoming and still on Harry Styles's ranch, which was... not good. Not good at all. Harry had disappeared for the rest of the night and Louis had slunk back into the guest room, pissed off at greedy oil companies and Anne Twist for putting him in this position and that opportunistic little shit Nick Grimshaw for helping himself to his cases. Louis had been assigned Hopkins-Harrington his first day on the job; it was always the first thing he picked up when he got to work and usually the last thing he put down at the end of the day. He had been waiting almost a whole year for it to go to trial. And now Nick Grimshaw was probably going to screw it up. Fuck work.

Just fuck.

Also... "Ungghh," Louis groaned, his whirling brain stopping for a second to try to process the rough, tickling wetness that was now making its way up his ankle. It was warm and a bit sandpaper-y. Almost like a...

"Jesus Christ, Bonnie!" Louis startled as he opened his eyes to the sight of a full-grown donkey standing in his bedroom, licking at his bare feet. "Harry!" he called. "Niall! Mrs. Burden!" He tried to simultaneously wipe the spit off on the sheets and draw his feet under the covers as he sat up in bed, gathering the quilt around his bare torso. "There is a farm animal assaulting me!"

He heard some banging. A few seconds later Niall appeared in the doorway and immediately burst into a fit of hysterical laughter at the sight of Bonnie nosing under the covers, trying to get at Louis's feet.

"Bonnie, those are my toes," Louis grumped. "They are for my personal use only."

Niall cackled, avoiding piles of Louis's dirty laundry on his way to the end of the bed and gently coaxing Bonnie's head away from the object of her desire. "The look on your face! Fuckin' classic." He ran a hand up Bonnie's neck to scratch behind her ears. She let out a loud, happy bray, the pleased expression on her donkey face indicating that ear scratches were what she'd been after all along.

"Ew," Louis moaned, wiggling his toes as he drew back the quilt and gazed at the shiny layer of half-dried saliva on his feet. "I thought you said she wasn't allowed in the house." He made another noise of disgust in the back of his throat. His voice was thin, and unnecessarily snappish.

Niall shrugged. He seemed to notice Louis's dark mood and eased gracefully out of his teasing laughter into a more conversational tone. "Harry must've let her in for breakfast and forgot to put her back out," he said. He turned his face to the donkey's and nuzzled her a little with his nose. "Not your fault, pretty girl. Who's a pretty girl?" Bonnie squealed with pleasure and trotted contentedly out of the room, Niall applying an affectionate swat to her behind as she went. "Speaking of Harry..."

Louis sighed and put a finger to his eye, wiping at the sleep. "What about him?"

"Oh, just..." Niall gazed down at Louis. "He went out early by himself, all crabby and distracted. D'you know anything?"

"No," Louis huffed, too defensive and overselling the lie.

"Mmm," Niall said, casually. He cocked his eyebrow and nodded to the door. "Well. I'm sure you've got work to do. I'll be around the barns if anything comes up."

Louis almost rolled his eyes as Niall sauntered out. He and Maggie, always with the knowing looks, always so sure they had everything figured out. Louis huffed. He gathered his knees together, making a little mitten out of the soft patchwork quilt and wiping abstractedly in between his toes. "Well, they have no idea what's going on," he muttered. Not that he had any better handle on the situation, really. One little misunderstanding had sent him into a tailspin.