“There’s so much I have to learn. It’s overwhelming.”

“Like what?”

“Well, for one…I don’t think we have enough hay. This says if they don’t have enough of it, it can lead to malocclusion.”

“Malo-what?”

“It’s a misalignment of their teeth. Without hay, their digestive tract also shuts down. They could die.” She buried her head in her hands. “Holy crap. What did I get myself into?” She seemed to be panicking. “They eat lettuce and kale? I don’t have any of that in the house. I assumed the pellets she gave us were their food. These guys are supposed to be eating good stuff.” She went back to the screen for a moment. “Crap. It says you need a lid for the cage if you have other pets. What if Teddy tries something? What if he accidentally murders them?”

As if on cue, the dog entered the room and began barking at the cage. The guinea pigs trembled. This wasn’t good.

“No, Teddy!” Heather shouted, steering the dog away from the cage. “I can’t believe I never thought this through.”

“You didn’t know how Fathead was going to react.”

She shook her head. “This was a mistake. I won’t be able to sleep tonight.”

Heather led the dog downstairs before returning to the room and sitting down on the bed.

She continued scrolling for information. “Their toenails have to be trimmed from time to time. It says here you could break a blood vessel doing it.” She kept reading, seeming unable to look away.

I must have been out of my mind, but I said, “Tell you what, I’ll take them over to the boathouse for tonight. That will solve the dog issue until we can get a top for the cage. I think I have a little romaine lettuce, too, that I use for my sandwiches.”

“I feel awful making you do that. We just set everything up here and—”

“It’s really no problem. I’ll move everything over. Tomorrow we can get more hay and buy some greens and stuff. They’ll be fine.”

Heather looked like I’d lifted a huge load off of her chest. “Seriously…I don’t know what I would do without you this summer. You’ve done more for me in the six weeks you’ve been here than my father has in my entire life. I feel like you keep saving my ass. I owe you so much.”

Saving her ass wasn’t exactly where my mind had been lately.

She stood up, walked over, and wrapped her arms around my neck. It caught me off guard, and my body stiffened. But rather than continue to tense up, I closed my eyes and let myself experience the comfort that holding her brought me. Nothing had felt this damn good in a long time. With my nose buried in her hair, I took a deep breath in. She smelled so good it was almost too much to bear. I knew she had to have felt my heart beating. Christ. Now I could feel my cock stiffening. This wasn’t good.

I pulled back. “I’d better get everything packed up.”***After I returned to the boathouse and got the guinea pigs settled in their cage on my floor, I decided to wash up after the long day of working outside.

I jerked off in the shower and came in a matter of seconds, proving how much I really needed to get laid. If that was going to happen, it sure as fuck couldn’t be with Heather, so I’d better figure out a plan B. Holding her tonight had felt way better than it should have. I almost wished she’d never touched me. I hated that my mind wouldn’t focus on anything besides her beautiful face and body while I beat myself off.

The guinea pigs—who had yet to be named—stared at me as I walked out of the bathroom. If I didn’t know better, I would have thought they were judging me.

“What are you looking at?” I chuckled.

Their little mouths moved in sync as they chomped on some hay. It seemed I now had an audience.

“Don’t be so judgey.”

After I got dressed, I realized I still had a basket of laundry to put away from, like, a week ago. Heather had surprised me by folding it, and I’d forgotten to thank her for doing that.

As I put things away in my drawers, I stopped short when my fingers landed on black lace.

Well, this definitely isn’t mine.

The shock of realizing I was holding Heather’s panties caused my fingers to spring open. Like a hot potato, the underwear fell to the ground.

I bent down to pick it up, holding it in my hands while my dick swelled against my jeans. My fists closed over the material as I willed myself to throw them back into the basket.

Don’t do it.

Against my better judgment, I gave in to the need to smell them. Bringing them to my nose, I breathed in the hint of her scent that remained.