“Whatever your boss pays you, I will double it,” Willa said in wonder as Apollo went in for another kiss. Not only was this man the sexiest cowboy she’d ever seen, he clearly had a way with horses. Willa was ready to do anything it took to keep Porter Davies in her life. No, wait, her horse’s life. Yeah, that was it.
7
Willa’s picture in the file the CIA had on her didn’t do her justice. Porter had overheard the man making threats as he was spying on Willa. Porter snapped a picture of the man with his cell phone and then thrown himself into the middle of it. Literally.
He’d thought about taking out the man, but he didn’t want to put Willa’s father at risk. So he’d opted to jump her, and not in the way he really wanted. But he did enjoy the feel of her beneath him. If only he were turned around and they were naked.
From that little bit of spying, Porter had learned Willa was being forced into an impossible position. She wasn’t a traitor. She was being forced to choose between her father’s life and the key. Yet she still hadn’t answered right away and Porter had prevented her from having to do so. He knew Naylor would want clear evidence and was afraid this wasn’t going to be enough for the agent.
Porter didn’t know whether to be insulted or take it as a compliment that the gorgeous woman he was contemplating jumping in a whole other way thought he was a groom and was trying to hire him.
Now it was time to set it straight. He reached up to pet her horse as Apollo took his large tongue and slobbered all over Porter’s cheek again. “As much as I would love to work for you, maybe I should tell you more about me. Porter Davies, owner of PD Rodeo Farm. I’m riding in the reining event.” He loved the way Willa’s emotions played out over her face. First there was embarrassment and then confusion. “Yeah, I know. Wrong barn. Apparently there was a mess up and they put me here.” Porter shrugged and Apollo used his nose to push off his cowboy hat.
“I am so sorry. I just assumed you were the groom.”
“It’s okay,” he said with a grin. “You’ll learn we cowboys don’t need any help handling a mare.” Her cheeks were stained red with her blush. She’d read his grin correctly. “Want to meet my mare?”
“Your wife is here?” Willa gasped in a whisper looking around for some woman to rush out and accuse her of hitting on her husband.
Porter had to laugh. He felt bad, but it was too funny. “My actual mare, Miss Trix.” Porter gestured to his stall where his sweet Trix was giving Apollo her best mane toss.
“Oh my gosh. I just keep putting my foot in my mouth with you.”
Porter laughed again to show her there were no hard feelings. Plus, she was plain adorable when flustered. He had to guess she wasn’t flustered often. She certainly wasn’t with the man threatening her.
“Don’t worry about it. In case you’re wondering, there are no mares or fillies in my life besides Miss Trix.”
Porter turned his back on her as he walked to Miss Trix’s stall. He felt Willa behind him and Miss Trix looked out around him to see the new person coming to meet her. “She’s my reining horse.”
“I must admit I don’t know much about the event. How did you get involved with reining?” Willa asked as she let Trix sniff her open palm.
“Through work. I did a little rodeoing and worked on my parents’ farm my entire life. We work the herd and then we farm hands would have competitions. I actually didn’t even know this was a thing until recently.”
“A thing? You think this is just a thing?” Willa asked in amazement.
“It is a thing. It can be a big thing or a small thing. To you it may be a job. To someone else it may be a way of life. Either way, it’s a thing. To me it’s a fun thing. I live nearby and Miss Trix loves it. So we’re here,” Porter explained. “What’s your story? What kind of thing is this for you?”
Willa looked as if she thought about it before answering. “I understand what you’re saying. I’d say it’s a big thing. My mother jumped growing up. Never anything like this. Just small shows. When she died, I used it as a way to stay connected to her. So it’s a big thing to me.”
“So, it’s a heart thing,” Porter said kindly. “Is this your career, too?”
Willa looked shocked that someone would ask her that. He only knew her name and what she did because of the CIA. Otherwise he’d have asked her the same thing, so he went with it. He wasn’t about to blow his cover within the first hour. “No, I work in the family business.”
“So do I. Well, kind of. My farm is part of my parents’ farm. They raise cattle and I raise rodeo horses. When I’m not working my farm, I work my parents’ farm with my dad.”
“What about your mom?”
Porter didn’t want to get into the fact his mother was a famous writer whose books were turned into blockbuster movies. Willa wouldn’t be impressed. She probably met famous people all the time and probably got tired of people name-dropping. He’d let his friends and family do that for him. “She helps some. So,” Porter said, running his hand through his hair. “This is embarrassing, but I’ve never done an event like this before. Would you mind showing me around a little?”
Willa smiled and he could see her whole body relax. “Sure. It will be fun to see it through the eyes of a newbie.”
Porter pretended not to notice the bodyguard following discreetly behind them as Willa showed him the jumping ring, the warm-up area, the reining and dressage ring, the riders’ only dining area, and the all the other behind-the-scenes facilities.
“Willa!” a woman shouted with excitement.
Porter turned and saw the huge smile on Willa’s face as she watched the woman with blonde hair run toward her. He recognized her from the CIA packet. This was Willa’s best friend. They hugged and then Willa remembered Porter was there when the woman kept glancing over at him. “Do you have a new groom?” she whispered to Willa.
Willa blushed again and finally turned to face Porter. “Porter Davies, meet my best friend, Tilly Bradford.”
Porter held out his hand and shook Tilly’s. “Nice to meet you, ma’am.”
Tilly’s eyes widened a little as she looked to Willa for an explanation on why she was with a cowboy. “Porter is a rider in the reining event. He accidentally got placed next to me in the jumper barn. It’s also his first big event so I’m showing him around.”
“So, do you have a girlfriend? Or a boyfriend? Or anyone?” Tilly asked with a wink to Willa who looked ready to die on the spot.
“Tilly,” Willa groaned as if begging her friend to stop the interrogation.
“Sorry, someone has to look out for your social life. You know,” Tilly said, looking at Porter with a smile. “Willa doesn’t have a boyfriend. She’s all work and no play. I bet you’d be great at playing. So, about your love life?”
Porter grinned. Tilly reminded him of his sisters and he liked her instantly. “My previous job wasn’t really conducive to relationships, so I’m single. Don’t get many single men at these things?”
Tilly rolled her eyes and huffed out a breath. “Hardly ever. Or if they are, they’re jerks. So a hot single guy who isn’t an arrogant jerk? You’re going to be swarmed. Oh Willa, we have to save the poor man from Marguerite and Valentina. They’ll chew him up and spit him out before he even knows what happened.”
“Thank you for your concern, ladies. I’m pretty sure I can handle anything thrown my way.”
“What about slithering your way?” Tilly asked and Willa smacked her.
“Tilly, that’s not nice,” Willa admonished.
Tilly shrugged, then turned back to Porter. “So, do you have a brother?”
Porter laughed out loud then. “Are you sure you’re not a Davies? You’d so fit into my family,” he joked as they turned and headed back toward the barn. “I have two older twin sisters and a twin brother.”
Tilly fanned herself. “Does he ride, too?”
“He does. He retired from the rodeo and became a US marshal,” Porter told them. Tilly about swooned an
d Porter laughed out loud.
“Is he single? Please tell me he’s single,” Tilly begged.
“As far as I know he is,” Porter told her, knowing Parker was going to either kill him or hug him for this.
“Is he coming to watch you ride?” Tilly asked.
Porter shrugged as they entered the barn. “Probably. My family is pretty close so he’ll most likely stop by with my sisters, parents, brothers-in-law, and a whole slew of cousins. Too many to really count.”
“Sweet mother, a huge family filled with men like you? Willa, did I die and go to heaven?” Tilly asked her friend before her whole attitude changed. Suddenly, sassy outgoing Tilly shrank into herself as her smile fell. Willa’s back straightened and her jaw clenched. Just like Tilly, her smile fell from her face.
Porter was on instant alert as two men and two women strutted forward. He recognized them from the CIA case file. The taller man, who was still a good four inches shorter than Porter, was Callum Harding. The weaselly-looking man with the slicked-back hair and body that had never lifted weights was Cyril Van Doren. His family made their money through generations of Dutch financial leaders. The woman with the light brown slicked-back ponytail was Marguerite Borghese. Her parents were winery owners in France but raised their daughter in the US half of the year while they ran wineries in the States as well. Last was the olive-skinned and black-haired Valentina Bianchi from Italy. Her family made engines for the top luxury cars in the world and had for three generations.
Marguerite lifted her nose as if she smelled a stench. “Hanging out with the help? You two can’t find any friends in our circle because you’re so pathetic you have to resort to paid company.” The group tittered as if they were the funniest people in the world.
Porter just smiled and rocked back on his cowboy boots. Women like Marguerite were a dime a dozen. He’d seen them on the sets of his mother’s movies that starred their longtime family friend and America’s Sweetheart, Taylor Everett. He’d seen it when he was in Nashville with Taylor and Trey’s son, Holt, who was a country music singer. He also saw it when he’d gone to support his cousin Sydney, who had been a model.
“Look, the help thinks it’s funny,” Cyril said as he pointed at Porter with a smirk and a chuckle.
“I do,” Porter said in his deep voice. “It’s hilarious y’all don’t realize I’m laughing at you. You’re the ones who are so insecure about yourselves you have to put others down to make yourselves feel better. Talk about pathetic. Oh, and uh, man-to-man,” Porter said, leaning closer to Cyril, “I wouldn’t wear tight pants that showed what a small package you have, or at least put a sock in there or something. Ladies,” Porter said to Tilly and Willa with a smile as he held an arm out to each. “Shall we?”
“We shall,” Willa said with a big grin as she slipped her arm through his.
8
Porter Davies was her hero. He had fallen in her lap and saved her from someone trying to blackmail her. He hadn’t treated her differently when he learned her name. He was nice to Tilly. And he’d put her ex and his minions in their place. In her mind, there was no one sexier than Porter Davies.
She and Tilly stood at the rail and watched as he practiced reining with Miss Trix. She needed to leave soon to look at both the farms her father had found and also several buildings for the mobile encryption headquarters. However, she’d noticed that Porter had watched her and Tilly practice. When the two of them saw him taking Miss Trix to his competition arena, they had rushed to watch. And ogle.
“I heard that sigh,” Tilly teased as they leaned against the rail, watching Porter effortlessly put Miss Trix through her paces.
“I mean, look at him. The men in our event aren’t anything like him. He’s, like, real.”
Tilly giggled. “There’s no sock in those jeans. Have you looked him up yet?”
Willa shook her head as she heard Reggie muffle a laugh behind her. “Not yet.”
“I need to look up his brother.” Tilly sighed dramatically before they both broke out into giggles. “Want to grab lunch?”
“I wish. I have a meeting with a potential sponsor. Wish me luck.” Willa took one last look at Porter before hugging her best friend and taking off with her three bodyguards in tow.
The drive to the newly constructed office buildings near the airport took about twenty minutes. She got to see the city of Lexington as they drove through it to meet the real estate agent.
“You guys can drop me off. I’ll text you when it’s okay to pick me up. I don’t want to draw suspicion. Coming in with three bodyguards would be a little suspicious.”
Reggie nodded but when she went to unbuckle, so did Barry. “I’ll be your sole guard. You can tell her I’m your assistant.”
He didn’t give her time to say no as he stepped out of the car and opened the door for her. Luckily, they’d beat the agent there and didn’t have to explain the SUV full of big hulking men.
“This is nice,” Barry said as he looked around.
It was nice. There were several buildings spread out with green space between and around them. There even looked to be a dog park off to one side. Some of the buildings were large four-story structures while others were smaller two-story ones. Willa thought about their current needs and decided that two floors would be plenty for now.
She turned as she heard a car approaching. A peppy woman with a big smile got out of the car. “Hello! I’m Kimberly Dial with Dial Realty, where we’re always dialed into the deals! You must be Miss Aldridge.”
Willa shook Kimberly’s hand. “I am. Thank you for showing me the property. This is my assistant, Barry.”
Thirty minutes later they were off to look at more locations with Kimberly. Willa and Barry walked around more buildings than she cared to admit, but none of them compared to the first location. They’d also toured two horse farms and were almost to the third.
“And this is the farm I was telling you about earlier.” Kimberly pulled up to an old cattle farm outside of town. However, it was only about twenty minutes from the first office building, so the commute wouldn’t be bad.
The drive out to the farm had been beautiful too. Willa opened the door and took a deep breath of fresh air. In its current state, the farm was a blank slate and images of the horse farm of her dreams began popping up.
“It’s one hundred fifteen acres in Lexington. There’s a large pond over to your left that would be perfect to build a house near. Then all that land back there is pretty flat up to the property boundary,” Kimberly told her. “What do you think?”
Willa took a deep breath and looked around the property. She could see the buildings in her head. “I’m ready to make an offer. I want the first office buildings and this farm. Draw up the papers and my lawyer will handle the rest. Thank you, Kimberly.”
Porter was brushing out Miss Trix when he felt the shadows fall over him. Callum and Cyril were without the two women and had each taken a pose leaning against the stall door with their arms crossed over their chests.
“You can never have her. You know that, don’t you?” Callum asked as if it were unthinkable Willa would ever go for a man like Porter.
Porter just kept brushing Miss Trix.
“Can you imagine? An heiress and a groom?” Cyril snorted at the idea.
“She’s only talking to you to make me jealous. We dated in high school and then I cut her loose and she’s never gotten over it,” Callum told him. “I’ll take her back eventually when I’m ready to use her trust fund. But until then, it’s fun to watch her trying to win me back.”
Porter scoffed as he finally looked at Callum. “You’re delusional. You really should see a doctor about that.”
Callum shoved off the stall door and tried to tower over Porter, but it didn’t work since Porter was inches taller and pounds of muscle heavier. “You’re the delusional one if you think you have a chance with her. Stay away from her.”
“Or?” Porter challenged in a dangerously calm tone. Willa might
be his job, but damned if he didn’t love talking to her too. Then there was the fact that she was stunning and all he wanted to do was peel those tight riding pants off her.
“I’ll talk to your boss and have you fired. I’ll make sure you never get a job in the horse industry ever again,” Callum threatened as Porter just smirked.
“Porter Davies!” a deep, mature voice said from behind them. “I didn’t believe it when I heard talk in the barn you were here.”
“It looks like there’s a party going on,” Porter heard Willa’s voice call out from where she’d just arrived back. He’d lost her that morning and had been worried.
Porter set down his brush and pushed past Callum and Cyril to slap the man’s back who had just arrived. “How the hell are you, Levi? I haven’t seen you since the pro rodeo championship in Texas five years ago.”
“I’m great. Reining is a lot easier on the body than rodeoing.” Levi Eaton had been the rodeo champion that year and then announced his retirement, just like Porter had done recently. The only difference was Levi was a good fifteen years older than Porter and rodeoed up until he was forty.
“I hear that. Hey, meet my stall neighbor,” Porter said, walking toward Willa and leaving Callum and Cyril behind. He felt them following along. They had to be intrigued. Everyone knew Levi. He’d made rodeo mainstream. His name had been everywhere. “Willa Aldridge, meet my friend Levi Eaton. He’s the best rodeo rider in the history of the sport.”
Willa smiled kindly and shook his hand. “Yes, I’ve heard of you. It’s nice to meet you.”
“You too,” Levi said, releasing her hand. “Although, I was the best. This guy toppled my best scores this past year before claiming the championship in bull riding and bronc riding.” Levi slapped Porter on the shoulder before turning to him. “Best year of rodeoing I’ve ever seen. How are you feeling after the throw from Outlawed Wreck?”
Forever Thrown: Forever Bluegrass #16 Page 5