Chapter 10 chapter Ten

At four o'clock in the afternoon, Ellie drove the car into the parking lot of the local airport.Although she had called Steven Woodward, who worked at the bank, to check on Woodward, she was still nervous about what she was about to do. "A good guy," Di Wen said. "I've known him for years." She asked a few questions, not surprised to learn that Ad's child was still a toddler.She believes that a man like Adelaide can marry a young wife who gave birth only two years ago, and Adelaide has enough "vitality" to make her pregnant. After putting down the phone, Ellie decided to find some toys for the little boy, and maybe she should buy some presents for the hostess as well.Based on what Ad is wearing, Ellie decides to try her luck by driving to a boutique known for Native American art and jewelry.

Five minutes into the parking lot, a man walked up to her. "Are you Nijota?" he asked. The man is handsome, about thirty years old, and like Ade, he is dressed in denim.But she could see that the man was wearing denim for style, not function. "Well," she said. "Nijoda is my character, and my pseudonym is Allie Faye. But my real name is Allie Lo." The man smiled. "I see. Ad..." He shrugged and didn't finish his sentence. "My name is McLouis, and I work for Ade. Is your luggage in the rear compartment?" Then he opened the rear compartment door of the station wagon and saw a mountain of suitcases.Ellie had to flatten the backseat to accommodate all the suitcases.

"Some of them are gifts for Ade's wife and son." She said guiltily. Louis turned his head to the side and looked at her. "You bought all these in one afternoon?" "The suitcase and its contents," she said defiantly, raising her chin. "You and Yihua can be best friends." He muttered, moving down the topmost suitcase. She later learned that Ade would not go back to the ranch with them.Louis told her that Ade would go back later because of an emergency.So Louie and another of Alder's employees would send Ellie to the ranch. As she stepped up the steps of the plane, she looked back at Louie. "Do you have to fly back to pick up Ade later?"

Hearing her question, Louis showed her a reserved smile. "No, he has another plane." Turning his head, Louis looked across the runway.A silver-white jet plane was parked under the bright sunlight.Not a commercial airliner, but a private plane with a streamlined appearance. "His?" Ellie asked. "Exactly." Louis replied. "Oh." Ellie said, but then found that she couldn't think of anything else to say, so she walked up the remaining stairs without words.Louie boarded after her and motioned for her to take her seat.She was the only passenger in the cabin.

"We'll be at the ranch in an hour," Louie said. "After lift-off, you can walk around. There are books and magazines at the back. If you need anything, just let us know." He smiled slightly, walked to the driver's seat beside the other man and sat down.The man turned his head, gave Ellie a salute, and the two men were engrossed in the details of the flight. Ellie hadn't finished reading Sanmu Shiren magazine before the plane landed. "Ready to get off the plane?" Louie asked, opening the cabin door. Ellie looked out of the cabin door and saw the beautiful scenery of Northern California, with the rolling land in the foreground and the high mountains capped with white clouds in the distance.Between the mountains, she could see dots of black shadows that should be cows.

"Think they belong to him," Ellie said when she came to the bottom of the stairs. "Every acre in sight," replied Louie, clearly amused by Ellie's tone of awe. "How far is it from here to the main house?" "It takes about forty-five minutes to drive. Yihua doesn't like the plane landing too close to the big house, for fear of disturbing Xiaode." "Let me guess," Ellie said. "That must be King Wuward II, nicknamed Xiaode." Louis turned to look at her. "You're really smart, huh?" "I admit it," Ellie said with a smile. "And I don't think you're just a pilot, do you?"

"First graduate from Harvard Business School," he said, smiling at her. "Flying is my hobby, and Adelaide let me fly this thing, but not let me fly that jet plane." He is flirting with me!Ellie thought, and then suddenly realized that she was also cooperating with him.When was the last time a guy flirted with her like this?How long had she wanted a man's attention to her? Following Louie to a jeep, she thought, Maybe I could write a book about a billionaire and his assistant— All the way to the big house, her mind was full of that story. It was nearly six thirty when they arrived at the big house.It was a long bungalow built of long logs, with the appearance of a traditional western log cabin.But no one would mistake it for a log cabin, as it occupies an area the size of a football field.

Louis continued to drive for a few minutes, turned around a kapok forest, and saw a perfect small house.Its small size and towering giant trees on the roof present an appearance that only time can give. "The original farmhouse?" Ellie asked. Louie smiled at her observations. "Exactly," he said. "Yihua called it the summer house." Ellie smiled to herself, thinking of Lacey's summer house and wondering how well the other two women were doing trying to rewrite the past.If Meiqi continues to associate with Ajie, her life—— "Sorry, I lost my mind." Ellie realized what Louis said to her, but she didn't hear it.

"I guess being a writer is kind of a stroke of luck," he said, opening the car door. After getting out of the car, she looked around as Louie started pulling her suitcase out of the car. Ellie stepped onto the front porch of the summer house by herself.Really great!Its front porch must have been twenty feet deep, and it was furnished with large, solid furniture, all heavily cushioned with red and white checked cloth.She opened the screen door and went inside. The house had obviously been thought out by an interior decorator, and this man had taste, for it was furnished in a simple and elegant style.Simple and elegant plaid curtains, large and comfortable chairs.

"Like it?" Louis asked behind her. "I like it. Is it decorated by Yihua?" This time Louie's smile lit up his face. "Actually, it was my wife who made it. She wanted to be an interior designer, so Yihua handed over this place to her." "Nice," Ellie said, looking away again.Damn, hate!She thought she had a wife. "The way I see it, her future is limitless." "She's trying to go that way, but there aren't a lot of houses in the area that need renovation." He was standing among a pile of suitcases, seemingly waiting for some order.Then it occurred to her that he was waiting for her to signal that he could leave.

"I'll do all that," she said. "You go home!" He smiled and thanked. "Dinner is at eight. If you're hungry, there's food in the fridge. You can walk around the house as you please, without any restrictions." "Will you be there for dinner?" she asked when he reached the door. "No, dinner is for family and guests only. But I'll be at the big house tomorrow morning." After he left, Ellie walked around the house, feeling a little lonely.Accepting invitations from strangers, boarding private jets, and flying to unknown places; she had never done anything so daring. "New experiences," she told herself aloud.This is what she wants, and this is what she wants. She spent a few more minutes exploring the rest of the summer house.The summer house has just one bedroom, an attached bathroom, a small kitchen and enough food in the fridge to feed a family of four for two weeks.She went back to the living room, then went out again to the front porch, which was where she really liked.She walked around the front porch that extended around the cabin, looking out at the mountains and breathing in the fresh air. She saw a barn behind the cabin, so she went inside and changed into new jeans, a blue denim shirt, and new hiking boots.After wearing an antique belt around her waist, she put on two ancient silver bracelets on her hands. It's amazing what new clothes can do to a person, she thought, stepping out of the cabin to the barn.Of course, it would be even better if there is a new body to match. When she came to the barn, her sense of loneliness disappeared and she just felt that she was on an adventure.What kind of people will she meet?What will happen? She could hear horses neighing in the barn, but no human voice.There was no sign of anyone outside the barn either.Then again, it was almost seven o'clock, and she didn't think the cowboy would wait until eight o'clock for dinner. There was a man in the barn, bent over his horse's hooves in his hands, and the sun was shining through a high window on him, and Ellie knew that this picture of people and horses was the most moving sight she had ever seen. He is not tall, no more than 178 centimeters.He was wearing blue jeans and platform work boots.He didn't wear a shirt, and judging from his golden-brown skin, he should often be topless.A leather apron like the old blacksmith's wore around his chest. He was facing her sideways, so she could watch slowly up from his feet: a strong calf on a thick-soled boot, followed by a solid thigh in jeans, strong muscles that seemed to be sewn together All will burst for it.The round buttocks curled up in an arc, and a wide-brimmed black belt was tied around the thin waist. His back muscles stretched out flat, his muscular arms gripping the horse's hoof between his thighs. The horse was big and strong, and Ellie knew it was a Dutch load horse from her previous research for her book.This horse has long silver hair down to the knees.Da Ma's strong muscles matched perfectly with the strength exuded by the man. She looked up at his profile: two horseshoe nails between his chiseled lips.The long bridge of the nose exhaled a little breath, and the eyes looking down at the horse's hoof showed thick black eyelashes like butterfly wings.Under the short dark hair is a broad forehead with a few wrinkles. She stood there engrossed, except for looking at the scene, she couldn't hear or see anything, and all her senses were focused on the man.She was a few feet away from him, but she thought she could smell his skin, warmed by the sun, smelling of dry grass, sweat from work. Slowly, ah, very slowly, the man turned his head to look at her.He blinked, and in the silence, she could feel the air being fanned by those long eyelashes. When he saw her, his eyes met hers, Ellie held her breath.His eyes were as black as his hair, intense as lightning. As he watched her, the world stopped turning and her body lost all function.She couldn't breathe, couldn't think, as if those eyes had frozen her on the spot. But she could feel herself moving toward him, as if the man's eyes had been on her soul, sucking her in with some magic, some invisible, mysterious supermagic. She didn't know how it happened, but she was moving towards him, like in slow motion from a movie.All her ears could hear was the sound of her own surging blood.He stood up, and the horse's hoof slipped from between his legs.Ellie blinked; she could feel the horse's hooves moving between his thighs: first over his thick, thick thigh, then over his hard calf, down to the platform boots. Slowly, with eyes still locked on her, he removed the horseshoe nail between his lips.Now she was close enough to see the slit between his lips, the round, full lower lip, a lip that made her want to taste it with her own. His lips parted, and his tongue touched the center of his lower lip. The pink and moist tip of his tongue made Ellie's knees go limp. The man reached out to help her, and she knew that once his skin touched hers, she would be completely lost. But in the next second, the back door of the barn swung open, and the room was suddenly filled with light and sound, and a group of people and animals walked into the originally quiet and secret place. The spell was lifted, Ellie shook her head, shaking off the last trace of confusion.She was standing in front of a strange man who, judging by the angle of his head, was about to kiss her. She turned quickly to the left and saw three men standing with several horses behind them, looking at them both curiously. "Horse," she said. "He's showing me how to shoe a horse." The titters on the men's faces were the same. She didn't say a word, and of course she never looked at the man again, and ran out of the barn, not gracefully, but as fast as an Italian hound.After running back to the summer house in one breath, she immediately closed and locked the door, and pulled down all the curtains. When she finally felt safe, she sat down and grabbed the notebook and pen that never left her body. Like a writer, she wrote down all her feelings and experiences just now.Maybe someday she might be able to use this scene in her book? Until Ellie went to the big house for dinner, all she could think about was the man.Who is he?What made her react that way?She once did some research on metaphysics for writing a book, and the two psychics she interviewed blamed most of the supernatural phenomena on past lives.Did she know this man in her previous life?Including a story? Ellie has no intention of dressing up, but since she's just bought a bunch of new clothes, what to wear tonight shouldn't be a problem.After she changed into a navy knit suit and small gold earrings with turquoise in her ears, she strolled to the big house a few minutes before eight. Although she was only thinking about that man, she was still overwhelmed by Yi Hua.She is tall, beautiful, and from Texas.Other descriptions are redundant. "You're here." Yihua said, running down a staircase that looked to be twenty feet high.Black silk trousers hugged those long legs.The upper body is covered with some kind of handmade fabric, which rises and falls with her movement.The long reddish-brown hair was draped in big waves behind her back, and the bright green eyes smiled at Ellie under the thick black eyelashes.Wu Yihua is as eye-catching as a light bulb with 200-watt candle power. "I wish I were Meigi." Ellie muttered, raising her head and smiling at the hostess.Mei Tho can stand side by side with this stunner, while Ellie feels like slipping through the back door. But Yi Hua couldn't let anyone slip away.She took Ellie's elbow and led her towards what should be the dining room. "I couldn't believe it when Ade told me he met Fay Allie. You have no idea how much I love your book. All my friends have read it. Hope you don't mind me inviting a few friends over meet you." Those words made Ellie's heart sink.How many "friends" are there for a Texan? Under Yihua's guidance, the door opened like magic, and Ellie saw a dining table that could accommodate at least fifty people.Once across the threshold, she was immediately surrounded by women with books waiting for her to sign, telling how much they loved her work.She didn't eat much because, one after another, everyone in the room was asking her the same question: Where did she get her inspiration from?This is a question she will inevitably face wherever she goes, and she tries to answer it as honestly as possible. But she also had reservations.She wouldn't tell of the day when she walked into a barn and saw a rancher in a leather apron with a horseshoe nail in his mouth, and was so fascinated that she almost tore his clothes off.And even if she never sees that man again, she is sure that this scene today will appear in her book one day. While Ai Li answered, she looked at Yi Hua and A De at the same time.Ellie likes to observe people's body language the most, and then understand their inner world.She came to a conclusion: Yihua is obsessed with Huade. For some reason, seeing the two of them getting along, Yihua touched Ade's hand from time to time, but Ade's head always turned to his wife's direction, which made Aili feel a little lonely.It's not fair that a man with such a successful career can still find a woman who loves him so deeply.If a woman succeeds in her career... Ellie doesn't want to remember her marital status.She didn't want to reflect on what to do again to make up for Martin's loss because of her success, and what should she do so that he wouldn't be jealous? The feast seemed to go on for hours, and Ellie had to refrain from checking her watch every ten minutes. Finally, the dinner was over and all the guests were invited outside for drinks and a monthly swim in the heated swimming pool. Yihua walked over from behind Aili. "You can leave whenever you want," she whispered to Ellie. "Your task is over." Then Yihua walked towards the door that should lead to the swimming pool, leaving Ellie to get a temporary silence. Ellie walked out of what she knew was the door to the summer house, a guest room that now seemed peaceful and heavenly. Once separated from the crowd, Ellie let out a sigh of relief, but she also had a feeling that something was about to happen.With a mood full of ups and downs, if she had hope.For a moment, she stood on the porch looking at the night sky.She could hear the music coming from the big house, and she was glad she was out of the guests. She walked around the summer house, staring into the dark field.Where is he?She wondered, why didn't he come to her? Thirty minutes later, the temperature in Gaoshan dropped, and she rubbed her arms and went back to the house.She tried to keep a diary, but couldn't concentrate.What is she waiting for. "Or someone," she said, getting angry with herself.She was nearly forty years old, she thought, she shouldn't be pacing back and forth like a tiger in a cage.What should she... do?To learn how to knit a sweater? At eleven o'clock, she took a bath and wanted to calm herself down, not to lose her composure like a teenage girl.She was a married woman, long past the age to get excited about anything. She got into bed, tried to read the book she had brought, but couldn't get her mind together.So she closed the book and closed her eyes. To her disbelief, although she was already drowsy, a voice outside made her get up immediately.That was loud.one two three four.There were four thumps on the wooden floor of the front porch. Ellie's eyes widened.A horse was advancing slowly along the corridor that surrounded the summer house.She could hear the sound of each horseshoe hitting the ground. Ellie threw back the duvet without thinking, jumped out of bed, and ran.She didn't even think about what she looked like, or that she was only wearing a thin cotton nightgown. There was no light outside the wooden house, and it was pitch black. The only light came from the lights of the big house that were obscured by the trees. At first she did not see him.She panicked and thought, maybe those hoofbeats were just her imagination.She ran barefoot along the corridor to the back of the summer house. There he was, the moonlight behind him, and all she could see was a dark shadow.He was dressed in black on a black horse.But Ellie knew it was him, she felt it. The saddle rustled, she saw a flash of something white, a nail perhaps, and she knew he was reaching down to support her. She didn't hesitate at all, and there was no thought of not going with him at all in her mind.It didn't occur to her to speak to him, or to ask his name, or his biography, or where he went to school, or anything.The only thing she could feel right now was... just that feeling. She took his hand - warm, large, calloused hand - the kind she liked in a useful man's hand.With a leap, he jumped onto the saddle and sat behind him.The hem of her narrow nightgown was rolled up and barely covered her bottom, and her legs were exposed to the air with nothing covering them. As if she knew what to do, her arms slipped around his waist and clasped tightly around his chest, and for a moment she pressed her head against his back, breathing in the clean scent of his body.He didn't stink of sweat, just a very masculine smell—the kind that let her know he was a man and she was a woman. His body moved with the black horse and she felt her chest against his back.How long had it been since she had felt this way?She has only had one man in her life—her husband.Since when did her marriage become a sexless life?Since when has her marriage been about control and superiority over sharing? He rode in silence, stealing his horse across the pasture.Ellie hadn't seen the whole of the ranch yet, but in the moonlight she could see a few long, low buildings, and she imagined people sleeping inside.The feeling that everyone is asleep and only he and she are awake alone makes her feel heartbroken. After a few minutes, she loosened her hand on his chest and raised her head from his back.Then she held her breath as he reached back and stroked her clean legs before slowly moving up as far as his hands could reach - her buttocks.Ellie felt a rush of pleasure that almost knocked her off her horse. She seemed to hear him laughing, and then he said softly: "Grab it firmly." This was the first sentence she heard him say.It was a murmur, but she liked the low tone. The next minute he turned his horse sharply, and they were on a trail.The road had fewer trees and no buildings around it, so she could poke her head out and look down the path ahead of them.But after just a glance, he had already pulled the rein and pushed his legs back, and the black horse galloped at a speed that made Ellie dizzy. She desperately grabbed the man in front of her, buried her head in his warm vest, and clung to him wholeheartedly. He galloped on for a few minutes; then another turn and they slowed down.This time they began to climb, and she could hear the hooves of the horses on the stones, and twice she heard the stones loosen and fall. Even though they seemed to be crawling straight up, even though Ellie held him close to suffocation, she wasn't frightened for a second.She wasn't worried if he didn't know how to control the big black horse, or where he was taking her. After a while, the road began to level up, and Ellie relaxed her grip on his hand.He steered the black horse carefully, so she wasn't surprised when she looked up to see the path they were walking on was as narrow as the horse's body width. She clings to him, but still without fear.As if as long as she could touch him, she was safe. After walking for a while, he pulled his horse to a stop but still sat still.Ellie didn't want to look up, her cheek was nestled against his tank top, she liked it there, felt like she could keep it that way forever. It's just that she could feel that he was waiting for something, so she slowly raised her head and looked to her right side. The scenery under the mountain was so beautiful that she was amazed, and the whole picture of the pasture was completely presented in front of them.The huge ranch house is located in the center, and the lights of the big house look even brighter when viewed from this distance.She could even see the lights reflecting off the pool.And in this cool and quiet late night, she could hear music and laughter from below. Although she could hear people laughing and talking, she felt far away from them.She doesn't belong to them.Wearing only a thin cotton nightgown, she was clinging to a strange man, a person from another time and space. She glanced up at him quietly.He was looking directly at her, and that look made her heart tremble.She knew that if he kissed her, she would surrender completely to him. But he didn't kiss her.Instead, he just smiled at her, as if to say - "Thank you for coming with me". After a long silence, he turned his horse and began to descend the mountain.Ellie leaned back on his back and watched the ranch building gradually enlarge in sight. The way down the mountain is more time-consuming than going up the mountain.He stopped galloping, as if he didn't want the night or the ride to be over.But it's over after all.When he reined in, Ellie looked up to see they were back where he had helped her mount—the back of the summer house. Part of her wanted to invite him in, and part of her wanted to sleep with him for the rest of the night.But another part of her wanted to stop there: and without explaining. She smiled to herself, raised her feet and rolled over the horse's back, and supported his arm to get down to the ground.When she walked up the steps, she knew that the moonlight behind her might reflect her thin cotton nightgown as transparent, and her heart beat faster. Once in the corridor, she turned to face him, but he had already turned and rode away. She smiled secretly, turned and went into the house.