Page 115 of Riv's Sanctuary

She really should have known better.

She should have walked away before he’d told her to get out.

She knew her self-worth. She shouldn’t have stayed plastered underneath his slick, wet body as if she was a sex-starved animal.

And she shouldn’t want Riv.

What was bad was that after she’d held her head high and walked away, she could still feel her arousal dampening the mat of hair between her legs.

It was a good thing he didn’t make an effort to speak to her. She didn’t know how she’d respond.

And since he hadn’t said anything, she took that as a win. That meant her hard work was paying off.

He didn’t have a reason to confront her about anything.

So she'd been working tirelessly, not even taking breaks as she tried to complete as many jobs as she could for as long as the sun stood in the pink sky.

The animals were a great distraction from the mess that was her life.

Funny thing was, the “work” she was doing was questionable.

After the bathroom incident, when she’d thrown herself into working, she’d ignored Riv as she’d raked, shoveled, cleaned, and fed the animals.

He’d been hovering in the background, watching her, observing everything she did, but he hadn’t said a word nor had he approached her.

The following day, however, when she’d come out to do the almost-giraffe’s pen, she’d noticed about eighty percent of it had already been shoveled.

When she went to rake hay for the almost-crocs, most of that had already been done, too.

The same thing happened when she went to feed the plump woolly animals. They’d all already been fed except one enclosure.

That’s when it became pretty obvious what Riv was doing.

If he thought she didn’t realize he was making it easy for her, he must think she was dumb.

He was doing half the work but still leaving enough so she felt like she was doing something.

She didn’t know what his kindness meant.

She would ask him but everday, he woke before she did and came in after she'd fallen asleep.

Fine, she thought. That was fine with her.

At the start of the second week working on her own, Lauren rolled her shoulders as she closed the almost-giraffes’ enclosure.

She'd just finished shoveling their poop and had set the bucket down to the side. It wasn't nearly full. She was sure the blue ninja had shoveled most of it before she’d gotten a chance to, leaving only a bit so she felt like she had something to do.

It was getting out of hand and she almost giggled, but she’d play along with his game.

She could bet he was hovering somewhere, watching her because he thought she was unaware.

Looking into the enclosure, she smiled at her handiwork. It looked much better than it did a week ago. She'd even cut some of the tall yellow-orange grass and put it in there. The animals seemed to like plopping their asses on it.

As she looked in, one of them stretched its long neck over the barrier and bumped her with its nose.

It was the animal's way of greeting her and she rubbed its moist snout.

"See you later, little one."