by Linda Conrad
The breath puffed from her mouth as her body went limp. He dragged her out of the saddle and into his arms. It took some finagling to wrench her feet away from the tangle of stirrups, and her hat went flying, but in a few minutes she was clinging to him and seemed unharmed.
Wrapped in his arms, her heart beat wildly against his chest, while both of them tried to regulate their breathing. Feeling her tremble, he gazed down into her upturned face. What he saw took him completely by surprise. A thundering awareness pulsed through his veins as he saw her eyes fill with what had to be the same anticipation he felt.
His body went on alert. The whole world came down to just the two of them.
Chapter 9
Travis’s heart stuttered as she laid a gentle hand against his chest. Those same electric tingles he’d been fighting for days shot straight to his gut, leaving him shaken. Overjoyed at finally having her in his arms, he wanted to shout. Still, he managed to remain silent and strong and keep the connection their eyes had made. To her credit, Summer never looked away either.
Her palm felt warm next to his skin, even through his shirt. As the breeze blew a strand of her ash-blond hair out of place, his fingers itched to touch her. He couldn’t help himself, so he tucked the wayward strand behind her ear. Her breath hitched when his hand lingered against her cheek. Blinking wildly, her gaze dropped to his mouth. She looked like a woman who was thinking about being kissed.
Lowering his head to accommodate her, but not wanting to scare her by moving too fast, he slowly narrowed the gap between them. At the same time, he loosened his grip around her waist, intending to reach up and lift her chin into position for a thorough kiss.
Then suddenly, she just disappeared. One second they were chest to chest, stomach to stomach, and the next he was grasping at nothing but air.
“Ahhh,” she cried as she slid down his body and landed in a heap in the dirt. “What’s going on? My knees gave out.”
Dang. Her first time on horseback in years. Of course her legs would be wobbly when she first dismounted. He should’ve thought of that. He should’ve thought—period.
Scooping her up, he carried her under the trees to the little shelter he and his brother Sam had built as teens. It was a place in the shade perfect for a picnic. After gently setting her down, he felt bereft without her in his arms and kicked himself for being an unthinking ass. He swore to maintain a respectable distance from now on.
However, despite clearing the fog of lust from his brain, his body still wasn’t behaving with anything close to respect. No, it was something else entirely that had made him hard and hot. Shoot, he needed to dig up a lot of his famous control. And fast.
* * *
He’d been about to kiss her.
Summer’s heart still thundered in her chest as he walked away to get her a bottle of water. She’d wanted that kiss. More than she should have. Her face felt on fire as she thought of the ultimate embarrassment of collapsing at his feet.
“Here you go.” Travis handed her a cold bottle, which she accepted gratefully. “That shaky feeling will stop in a moment. Happens to everyone their first time on horseback. You may have to hang on to something in order to walk. Just till the world stops rocking and rolling.”
“How about if I just sit right here for a few more minutes?”
He tilted his head and smiled. “Yes, ma’am. I’ll start hauling the picnic basket and drinks over.”
Turning toward the horses, he hesitated, then turned back. “I think I owe you an apology.”
“For what? You didn’t do anything.” She knew he was talking about their almost kiss but hoped he would let it pass, so her embarrassment could blow away with the breeze.
“But I almost did.” Nope. He wasn’t going to give it a rest. “I didn’t mean to embarrass you. That was a huge loss of control on my part.”
Her face grew even warmer. She had to say something to cool herself down. “Control is really important to you, isn’t it?”
He looked a little confused for a second, but that soon disappeared and Travis the boss was back. “Yep, I guess it is. I have a lot of responsibilities to family and the ranch, and someone needs to look like he knows what he’s doing.”
Summer thought his need for control ran a lot deeper than that, but she wouldn’t challenge him on it. He was her boss, after all.
Instead, she decided to play a little verbal volleyball and change the subject. “I can’t help wondering what you’re like when you just let go,” she said with what she hoped was a come-hither look.
This time the flush went up Travis’s neck. His eyes took on that deep evergreen color they always got whenever he was secretly looking at her with the desire she knew he must be feeling. That look of his always did it for her. And it did it this time, too. She felt those zinging impulses down deep again. Stirring her insides and making her wish for something he obviously didn’t want to happen. If he’d wanted her, why hadn’t he kissed her yet?
“I don’t just let go. That has never worked out for me.”
“Never?”
He laughed and shook his head. “Why should I? I like my life fine the way it is.”
Summer didn’t think much of his personal life. After all, his wife had left him, and his daughter didn’t act like such an exuberantly happy child. But she wasn’t about to mention anything. She’d already pushed too much. It was a pleasant morning, and she had no intention of ruining it for him by pissing him off.
“The shakes are better now,” she said as she slid off the table and tested her balance. “And I’m getting hungry. Let me help you spread out the lunch.”
* * *
“Are you sure you want to ride back?” Travis looked dubious while he secured the last of the coolers. “I could call for one of the hands to pick us up in a Jeep.”
They’d just finished packing the picnic baskets and coolers, and Summer had mentioned she wanted a lift up to the saddle. It was late and time to leave.
But not by Jeep. “Didn’t anyone ever tell you that you need to get right back up or you never will?”
“I thought that was for bicycles. And you didn’t fall off. You’re only a little shaky.”
She rolled her eyes. “The old saying is meant for horses, too. And I’ll be fine. I liked riding. It was the wobbly part afterward that didn’t impress me. But I assume that gets better the more times you ride.” The man wanted to control this situation, as he did all the others on the ranch, but it was her decision.
“Yeah, maybe. If you’re sure.”
“Help me up.” Lifting her left foot and guiding it into the stirrup, she found she couldn’t quite reach the saddle horn from this position.
Muttering under his breath, Travis’s big hands spanned her waist and hoisted her in the air, while she swung her right leg over. “Hope you know what you’re doing.”
She scowled and looked down at him. “Am I in any danger by riding back with you?”
“No. But you’re going to be real sore tomorrow.”
Already feeling the tightness in muscles she never used, Summer scoffed. “I suspect a hot bath and some muscle cream will be all I need. Are you coming?”
Travis practically pole-vaulted around the picnic basket and into the saddle before picking up the reins. “Let’s go.”
She lifted her chin and tried to keep her seat the way he’d shown her before they’d started off. Now that she felt more in control of her horse, she was really beginning to enjoy the day.
After she completed her search for her quarry and left the Bar-C, when would she ever have an opportunity to ride on horseback again? The thought was depressing, but she refused to let it bring her down on such a lovely day.
She wanted to find her man, true, but she’d now also decided that she wanted a little more time on the Bar-C. Time enough to learn how things on the ranch worked. And perhaps enough time to get through to Jenna. With a quick glance at Travis—and the way the sunshine brought out the green in his eyes eve
n with the Stetson shading half his forehead—she realized she wanted to spend more time learning about him, too.
For one thing, she’d decided she needed to find out what kind of kisser he was. And how he would be in bed. She’d be willing to bet he was a master at pleasing a woman. The fact that his wife had left him made no difference. Summer felt positive it hadn’t been due to a lack of finesse in bed on his part. Every time he’d touched her so far, he’d set off sparks.
But his treatment of her had also been rather hot and cold. Such as earlier today, when he’d come close to kissing her before she’d fallen at his feet and he’d backed off. After that, his whole demeanor changed and he’d been the boss again. Maybe she shouldn’t be setting her hopes too high.
Dragging her gaze away, she looked out over the fields of grass, toward the herd grazing in the distance. What a picture this place made. He was lucky to belong here. She’d give a lot to belong someplace as special as this.
That’s when it hit her. She didn’t belong anywhere. With a sinking feeling, she knew with certainty that, no matter what, she would never go back to where she’d come from. Too many bad memories and people she would rather forget.
It was scary imagining not having a place to call home. Blinking back her new fears of forever facing life alone, she tried to banish thoughts of a bleak future. She needed to bury them, along with any hurtful thoughts of her old home and the many bad things that had taken place there. She didn’t care to think about any of that. Not on such a wonderful day as this.
Today was all about learning ranch life and enjoying the company of a man who intrigued her. And for having the opportunity to breathe in a little unpolluted air. And scent the blowing grasses on the wind. Earthy, sensual smells kicked up by the horses’ hooves.
Unfortunately, when she lifted her head and took a deep breath, she found the early-afternoon breeze had suddenly stilled. “Can we go a little faster?” she asked when his horse came alongside her.
She needed to stir the air around her. To let the breezes clear the cobwebs and memories.
“All right. But take it easy on your first time out.”
Yeah, yeah. He thought she wasn’t capable of handling the horse. But she and the mare had come a long way so far today. And she wanted air.
As he was giving her instruction on how to keep the horse under control at an even faster pace, she nudged her sweet mare in the flanks and whispered, “Giddyup.”
A little surprised at being asked to move faster, the mare raised her head and jolted ahead. Smiling inside at the idea of the mare becoming her new best friend, Summer reveled in the freedom of being on horseback. Riding a horse was so much more exhilarating than driving a car.
“Keep her under control,” Travis warned when he caught up. “Tighten up on the reins.”
Summer didn’t want to listen to him. Didn’t want to be cautious. She’d learned the hard way that all the caution in the world didn’t mean a thing when bad times came. She’d been overly cautious with her baby. Had read the how-to books and listened to every piece of advice from the doctors. She’d done every mothering thing right. And still her little girl had died.
Taking a deep breath, Summer fought to banish the past and tried to stay solidly in the here and now. The breeze tugged at the brim of her hat, but she didn’t care. The faster she went, the better. She felt alive for the first time in a long time.
Riding was intense. Freeing. It was something she could do well. She loved the exhilaration it provided.
* * *
Travis began to worry about Summer losing her focus. Riding took concentration. She’d stopped listening to him and seemed lost in her own thoughts. Never a good idea on the back of a horse.
Earlier this afternoon she’d made a crack about his need to control everything. He’d been forced to admit it was probably true. But control might mean the difference between life and death on a ranch—especially around the stock. A cowboy needed to keep his head, or things could go very wrong very fast.
He hung back and watched with concern as her mare went from a leisurely walk to a brisk walk and right into a trot. Not good. A rapid-fire trot had been known to loosen all the teeth in a cowboy’s mouth. In a true trot, a horse will lift her front and back feet on opposite sides at the same time, making an unsuspecting cowboy’s family jewels bounce hard against the saddle and hurt like a son-of-a-gun. The wranglers he knew all did their damnedest to keep their mounts away from any kind of trot. And though there weren’t any family jewels on Summer’s anatomy, trotting with her horse would still make her hurt in her most tender of spots.
Her horse pulled farther ahead, and he was treated to the sight of Summer’s thick, blond hair under her hat, trailing halfway down her back and bouncing against her shoulders. For a second he lost focus too and wished he was close enough to run his fingers through all that heavenly silk.
But the sounds of clattering hooves rang in his ears and stirred him to remember the danger. “Hang on to the saddle horn and stand up in the stirrups,” he yelled after her.
“What?”
“Pull your mare up!” He needed to talk to her. Explain the dangers.
She didn’t tug on the reins but swiveled in the saddle to hear him better. The next few moments went by as if in terrifying slow motion. He watched with horror as the cinches on her saddle straps slipped, sending saddle and blankets, the whole works, sliding down the horse’s flank in the opposite direction to her body.
He’d deliberately put her on a docile mare. A horse that didn’t spook easily. But no horse could be expected to stay steady as every piece of equipment on its back began to jostle, sliding askew.
“Summer!”
Feeling totally helpless, he watched as the mare thrashed her head around and slowed to a stop. Pawing the ground, the horse tried to shake the saddle all the way off. Summer, still turned half-backward on the sliding saddle, had a panicked look on her face that had him urging his stallion to her side. He had to do something fast or the next move could be fatal.
Trying her best to hang on, Summer saw Travis’s horse coming up fast. He would save her. Maybe he could pull her off the mare’s back before she fell. She’d seen tricks like that done on TV.
But in the next instant, she knew it was too late for any last-minute heroics. The mare bucked, and Summer’s feet slipped out of the stirrups as her bottom lost the seat altogether. Unbalanced, she felt gravity taking over.
When she hit the ground, the air was knocked right out of her lungs. Gasping for breath, she felt numb and nearing hysteria. She couldn’t move or breathe and felt the ground vibrating with hoofbeats. The mare still danced and pawed right beside her head. Ohmygod, she was going to die.
Covering her head with her arms as though that would save her, she blindly listened to the hoof steps next to her ears. Paralyzed with fear, even as she caught her breath, she didn’t dare try to roll out of the way.
Her numbed and terrified mind apparently didn’t want to stay in the moment but shifted her right back in time to that night. That horrible night when she’d been locked in her basement; blindfolded, tied to the furnace and forced to listen to footsteps coming from the floors above. Sounds of terror in the darkness.
When would they come to kill her? What were they doing to her baby? How could she get free?
Suddenly, the scuffling noises around her stopped and all was quite again. Her conscious mind was dumped back into the present with a thud, but she still couldn’t feel a thing. Was she alive or had she died?
“Summer!” Travis’s voice broke through to her. It was like a gunshot blasting through the fog of her dread.
She didn’t cry out, but a violent shudder racked her body. She was alive. Not a prisoner anymore. But she wasn’t really free either. She’d become a prisoner to her nightmares.
“Are you hurt?” Travis cupped both her shoulders and lifted her to a sitting position in the dirt. “Is anything broken?”
She swallowed hard
. Breathe.
He spent a moment checking for broken bones before pulling her all the way up to stand in his embrace. “Talk to me. Where does it hurt?”
Now that she was out of the immediate danger, all her senses had become acute. She felt every inch of his hard body pressed against hers. Heard his heavy breathing next to her ear. Could even swear she felt his heart beating in a staccato rhythm along with her own.
These heightened senses were making her feel reckless and alive. She wanted to feel more. Everything. Wonder what he would do if she tilted her head up and kissed him?
“I’m…I’m not sure,” she mumbled into his chest. “Everything is numb.”
“It’s the adrenaline. Unfortunately, it’ll wear off.”
With sudden clarity, she realized adrenaline was probably the reason she was feeling so…needy…all of a sudden. This wasn’t the same as earlier today when he’d wanted to kiss her. It was just a case of her rolling in the hormones. And he was providing a strong shoulder to keep her steady, not offering himself for some kind of seductive dance in the sunshine.
What was wrong with her, anyway? Maybe she was crazy.
Travis thought he must be going insane. He should be worried about her having internal injuries. Or checking for painful deep bruises and whiplash. Or wondering about whether she would sue him for everything he had.
But the lush, earthy-smelling woman in his arms was turning him on. He had developed an intense erection she was probably noticing right this minute. Hell. He needed to get a grip. Try reminding himself how vulnerable and frightened she must be. He bit the inside of his cheek and thought about the horses.
And then she shifted in his arms. Ever so slightly, pushing her hips against his groin.
With a deep breath, he fought to distract himself. Wanted to set her away, double-check her injuries and call for help. But he couldn’t force himself to step back.
The thin thread of his resolution finally snapped when she tipped her head back and gazed up at him, her eyes filled with intense desire. Damn. Everything he’d wanted since the first time he’d seen her was right there, waiting for him to make the first move. So much for chivalry. So much for thinking things through.