All For One (Complete)

Part Twenty-One: The End

We toured the vast property and even ate lunch in the saddle. Even in all the months that I’d been free from my family, I’d never felt so free. The only thing that would’ve made it perfect was having nine other companions.

The heat grew stifling and Harry turned us all back to their neighbours so that we could rub down and return their mounts.

I went to swing a leg over like the others but the agonizing pull in my thighs had me groaning and leaning down over the saddle.

“I was wondering when she’d start to feel it,” I heard Caleb murmur, although I couldn’t see any of them.

“Come on, sweetheart,” Adam crooned and I felt him clasp my waist to lift me easily into his arms.

“Ow,” I complained and he chuckled.

“We did try to warn you. Melissa’s going to have to rub some liniment into your legs before you tighten up so much that you can’t walk.”

I tightened up and away from his embrace as he walked further away from the barn, “Can’t I do it myself.”

He shook his head, “You want do it firm enough and it’ll end up making no difference.”

I slumped and relaxed as I waited for us to make it back to their house.

It was awkward, lying face down on the bed in a shirt and my underwear as Melissa briskly rubbed some sort of thick cream into my legs.

“We really should’ve found something else for you to do today instead of this. Your legs are still going to be achy for a couple of hours and you made need to take some of this home with you.”

I whispered an “Ok,” but I shuddered at the thought of having to ask any of the boys to do to me what Melissa was.

No way!

She laughed, “Yeah, I probably wouldn’t want to either.”

I sighed, “What else are we doing today?”

She lifted her hands from my relaxed legs and I felt her move away from the bed, “I’ll let you get redressed and then we can figure out what to do for the afternoon. Harry got a message from Mr Suit late last night that you’ll probably be better off having dinner here before its home time.”

She shut the door behind her and I cautiously swung my legs over the side of the bed. I was surprised that they didn’t hurt anywhere near as badly as what they had even an hour before.

I pulled a skirt on not wanting to get the still drying cream all over the inside of my jeans. I was both sad to leave after only just meeting the Anderson team and happy to be going home to the sort of normalcy that I’d gotten used to with my boys.  

I thundered down the stairs and felt a sense of Deja vu as I found them lounging around the kitchen table clutching coffee mugs and talking quietly amongst themselves.

They looked up and I wanted to retreat back into my temporary bedroom at their expressions. They seemed nervous, “What? What is it? Are the boys…”

Harry held up a hand, “They’re all fine but I just got off the phone. Mr Blackbourne said that for them to drive all the way out here means that you might not get home until much later since their assignments are running behind schedule.”

“Oh,” I put a finger to my lip.

“I offered to take you home since I’ve got to drive in that way,” Adam piped up.

“I thought you were doing that tomorrow,” Melissa pointed out.

He shrugged, “Today, tomorrow. It doesn’t matter when but we will have to be gone well before dinner.”