by Gemma Snow
Madison smiled, but she couldn’t deny that it came out more like a grimace. Even the surprisingly kind offer wasn’t enough to make her want to hop on a horse.
“Of course it is,” she mumbled mostly to herself. Jesus Christ, a week ago she’d woken up with a great job and a fiancé. Now she was standing in God only knew what, about to climb onto the back of a horse.
Christian led two horses, smaller than the one in front of her, out of a different stall and started loading leather saddles and reins onto them. She thought. She’d seen enough cowboy movies to hear the terms without actually knowing what they meant. He looked so at ease, so much calmer with the animals than he had been since she’d arrived. Funny that, big strong man, put off by me. Ha. He finished the task in quick, practiced motions then he and Ryder each led one of the horses towards the barn door. Madison followed them outside, until all three people and two horses stood blinking in the afternoon sun.
“Can’t we just…drive?” Madison asked, hating the trepidation in her voice. She took risks, damn it, when she had the time off work. And she could be fearless—she had seven years of field hockey scars to prove it. But this horse, smallish as it had looked in the barn, seemed to grow larger the more she came to grips with the idea of actually getting on its back.
Both men looked at her, as if reassessing their original idea of just how completely and utterly unqualified for running a ranch she was.
“There aren’t many…roads,” Ryder said after a too-long minute, and she had to give him credit for not laughing directly in her face. Christian’s nerves looked shot. “We have ATVs, if that would better?”
Out of the frying pan and into the fire.
Ryder did laugh out loud and Madison realized her face had scrunched up in distaste.
“Horses it is,” Christian said, his voice tight and sharp. “I’m going to swing up first then Ryder will help you, okay? Her name is Dolly and she’s the sweetest horse in the barn. She won’t hurt you or anything, I promise.”
Ryder grinned and Christian, as he said, climbed onto the back of the horse. Madison cocked her head, watching his fluid movement.
Finally, she sighed. “The…skirt?” she asked, trying to keep her tone neutral and not at all flaming with embarrassment at her inappropriate attire for the day.
Maybe you’re really embarrassed because you wouldn’t mind sharing what’s under your skirt with these two guys…
Ugh, no. She was just embarrassed about being a dumb city slicker, that was all. Nothing else. Whatever move she made from the ground to Dolly’s backside, in the space behind Christian—and it definitely wouldn’t be as fluid as his, would include a nice little peep show for the wildlife.
And for the two hot cowboys looking at me like I’ve got a second head.
“I won’t tell if you won’t,” Ryder said with a shrug and a streak of devilry in his innocent eyes. “Just wrap your legs around Christian then tuck the fabric under. You should be okay.”
There, she didn’t have any more excuses, so she resigned herself to the nature of the beast. Ryder came up to her side, and she was incredibly aware of him, unable to ignore the heat or delicious scent of fresh wood, fresh air and something so masculine radiating off his large body.
Ma. Di. Son.
“All right, hold still, Ms. Hollis,” he said. He wrapped his strong hands around her waist and lifted her up as if she weighed no more than a sack of potatoes. Her awareness of his strength and size increased and she had the craziest urge to press her body back against him, to take a little more of that heat and power. Insane, for sure.
As she was distracted, which he undoubtedly knew, Ryder slid her behind Christian’s back and she gripped automatically, holding on tight. Not that that was any better than the strength behind Ryder’s touch. Christian was muscled and powerful in the abdomen where she held firm, even as the horse stood still. The loose muscle tank top hanging over his body gave her a wide plain of bare skin to avoid, but there wasn’t anywhere else for Madison to put her hands, so she tried not to think too much about the smooth skin below her fingers, stretching taut over hard working-man muscles. His whole body vibrated, as though he had a very thin grasp on his control. She coughed, loudly, adjusting the very little spare fabric of her skirt so it did something to cover the edges of her lace panties—a very little something, but something, nonetheless.
“So tell me about the ranch.” Also too loud, followed by a too-loud squeak when Dolly took off at a leisurely pace down the dirt path and away from her car, the manor house and general signs of civilization.
“As far I as know, Triple Diamond’s been in Mason’s family since they moved out west, after coming here from Scotland,” Ryder said, ambling along beside them on a much larger horse. It made him look like a normal-sized human, and not a cowboy carved out of a tree trunk. “They worked until they could buy up the neighboring lands and now the place covers almost three thousand acres. Those mountains”—he pointed just ahead of them, at three towering summits—“are part of the Black Reef Mountain Range. The National Parks Department cares for it, but your land stretches about halfway down that pass over there.”
Madison followed his gaze, her eyes catching dazzling blues and brilliant greens and far distant trees against the mountains. It was possible she hadn’t seen this much nature in her entire life combined, let alone in a single place all at one time.
“Forgive my ignorance,” she said, hating it, “but how much space actually is an acre? I’d probably do a lot better with city blocks, but I’ve never been exposed to this kind of thing before.”
To their credit, neither man commented or expressed distaste at her admission. Christian turned over his shoulder and nodded back toward the house.
“Average house in the suburbs is built on about a third of an acre. You’re sitting on just under four point six square miles of land.”
They had officially reached the end of the residential section of the land, the horses ambling along the dirt pathway under a clear-as-glass wide blue sky, surrounded on both sides by vast stretches of farmland.
Four point six miles. She owned four point six square miles of land, all designed to cultivate crops and animals. Of course, the reality of that insane truth was dwarfed by the beautiful landscape sprawling out before them, especially when the horses cleared a small section of brush and she got her first good, long look at the Black Reef Mountains.
Madison didn’t have that much experience with natural mountains. San Francisco’s winding, impossible geography had long been built up, torn down and built up again, but the Black Reef Mountains looked smaller than a lot of the mountain ranges she had seen in nature documentaries. It wasn’t a bad thing. In fact, their accessible height and closeness to the ranch made them feel…intimate, if that was even the right way to refer to mountains. It probably wasn’t.
Dolly stopped and Ryder brought his horse right up beside them, all three turning their heads to stare up at the gorgeous, sprawling landscape which seemed to stretch for miles out in every direction.
“It’s…beautiful,” Madison said at last, her breath catching just a little on the word. So much of her life had been spent running back and forth through the same city she had been born in. This vast natural beauty was overwhelming in so many ways all at the same time.
“It is,” Ryder said, his voice not without emotion. “You can see why the Westerly Kings all stuck around.” She could, though, the oddness of hearing her mother’s maiden name in this sort of context added a level of unreality to the situation, and Madison blinked, trying for some purchase in the insanity.
“This is probably a lot for you to take in right now.” Christian turned to face her. “You’re not really a nature person, are you?”
Madison smiled. “What gave it away?” she asked, a light laugh escaping. She could swear she saw a flicker of something in his eyes, something not totally cold and distant.
“Come on, we’ll take you to a private place on the
ranch,” Ryder replied, turning his horse to—the west? Shit, she had no clue which was west any more than she knew what sort of irrigation system was now sprinkling the crops.
“What are you guys growing this year?” Madison asked, looking at the seemingly endless stretches of dirt.
“That’s all Christian’s gig,” Ryder said. “He’s a wizard with that stuff.”
Christian tensed just a little under Madison’s touch, reminding her of all the very intimate places they were pressed against each other, at the thighs, at the back and belly…
“Right now we’re doing legumes.” Christian nodded to the field on their left. “We practice crop rotation here, because it’s murder on the nutrients in the soil if you plant the same crops year after year and it keeps the bugs away. That field is peas and back there is chickpeas. They’re great for in-between years because they give a lot of nutrients back to the soil instead of taking it out.”
Madison smiled. She couldn’t help it. The man, despite his tattoos, ripped-up tank and badass attitude, was passionate about chickpeas.
“We also don’t spray,” Christian continued. “Mason was real strict on that. It’s risky, but it pays off on the business end, since everyone knows they’re getting really safe food from Triple Diamond. We’d be shit out of luck if any of the fields got infected, but the organic pest deterrents we use here do the trick.”
Madison looked out across the field, happiness rising within her, and not just because having an all-organic farm would be a great selling point. Something about this place, even in the few minutes she had been here, spoke to her on a visceral level. Knowing that their ideology for running things ran in tandem with her own was definitely an added bonus.
“We’re here,” Ryder said. The two horses took a slight slope and they steadied into a clearing, where a wide lake, vast and shimmering, reflected the Black Reef Mountains just beyond. A small picnic table sat near the shore, alongside one chair and a hammock tied between two trees. Other than that, she could have been looking at the scene just as Lewis and Clark had two hundred years before, all vast and expansive and completely breath-taking.
“It’s a nice place to escape from everything.” Christian pulled Dolly up to the water’s edge then dismounted before reaching up to help her. Madison tried not to think about the way his hands felt, spanning her waist or the difference between his touch and Ryder’s, and where else their touches might run different.
“We have a garden on the roof of my apartment building,” Madison said a little lamely. She straightened her skirt and leaned back against a tree to look out over the water. “That’s where I go to relax, whenever I get the chance. I can’t really compare it to this, though, I mean, I knew the ranch had a lake, but…wow…”
Ryder lopped the two sets of horse reins over a tree branch and followed her line of vision.
“There’s actually three lakes and six ponds on the property,” he said, “and a river that tends to flood in the spring when the snow starts to melt in the mountains. The ponds are big, though—you might have seen the one behind Holmwood?”
She shook her head. “What’s the different between a lake and pond? I thought it was size.”
The grin that spread across Christian’s face was sin incarnate and her nipples pebbled at the danger just below that sexy surface.
“Typical female mind, always on the size,” he said, humor and heat in his dark eyes. “There’s so much more to it than that…”
“Well, if you’re insecure, we could certainly sit down and talk about it,” Madison volleyed, before she even realized what she was doing. Play it cool. Don’t clamp your hand over your mouth. Just be cool, okay?
Christian’s eyes flashed. “I’m not insecure,” he said on a low breath. “But I definitely wouldn’t say no to talking about it. Or more than talking it.”
Madison’s breath hitched just a little. He’s sex on a stick and he’s majorly flirting with me. Have I ever been less cool in my damn life?
Heat sizzled and sparkled in the air and she almost lost her damn mind looking into those mysterious eyes that promised her more than she even knew how to ask for. Whatever, she was a free agent for the first time in years and there was nothing wrong at all with a little harmless flirtation, even if something deep in Christian’s eyes told her that he’d take her up on the offer in a second, no questions asked…
“Christian, don’t tease her,” Ryder said, rolling his eyes in her direction. “He gets off on messing with people. Don’t take him too seriously.”
Christian leaned against the tree, all lazy control and power and intent, and raised one eyebrow with the kind of challenge that had sent stronger women into battle before.
“Or you could take me seriously,” he said, letting the words linger in that in-between space of teasing and promising.
The silence stretched just a beat too long, and before Madison could ask what the hell had just happened, a great howl came echoing out of the woods just up the mountain range. Madison’s heart froze, half in fear and half in base excitement. A wolf. A real, wild wolf—and somehow that felt even less dangerous than the two men she stood beside, both of whom seemed perfectly keen to make her howl.
“You’re safe here,” Ryder said, coming to stand beside her. The oddest thing was, she felt safe, there in those mountains, her feet upon the land where so many of her ancestors had walked. This place, a million miles away from the life she knew, didn’t feel so alien as she’d thought it was going to. It felt real, hardy and safe.
None of which has anything to do with the two hot cowboys standing here flirting with you, right, Madison?
Of course not! She could look and enjoy, but that was all she planned to do. Anything more, anything that involved even tempting another response from either of them, was dangerous, forbidden territory and she should most definitely know better than to traverse it.
“There are wolves here?” she asked, hating the little squeak that followed the question because she couldn’t pinpoint whether her fear came from said wolves, or from the thoughts rioting around in her head about these two very sexy, very close men. Distractions.
“We have all sorts of wildlife in these mountains,” Christian replied, moving back toward where they’d tied the horses. “Wolves, raptors, bears, bobcats, coyotes, moose…”
Madison suppressed a shiver, but not very well, because Ryder rolled his eyes at Christian.
“We also have sheep, goats, deer, rabbits and a whole lot of stuff that won’t kill you.” He eyed her as Christian climbed up onto Dolly’s back, then wrapped two strong hands around her waist and hoisted her up behind Christian, where she settled, surprisingly comfortable, against Christian’s back. “Have you ever shot a gun, Ms. Hollis?” Ryder asked, and she didn’t sense any condemnation, just a little concern at the edges of his voice. She shook her head and he shook his in turn. “If you’re going to be staying out here, you’re going to do well to protect yourself. We’ll teach you the basics.”
As they turned back toward Holmwood Manor and the main road, Madison knew just how dangerous, and tempting, a lesson from either of these men might be.
Chapter Four
Madison woke with the sun streaming across her face. Wait, that wasn’t right. The sun was nice and warm upon her skin, but it didn’t tickle, and it didn’t lick her cheek with a sandpapery tongue, before slipping full on into her ear. She was groggy. The time difference between Wolf Creek and San Francisco was only an hour, but at just past five in the morning, it felt like a hell of a lot more than that.
She rubbed her eyes and tried to get her bearings. What the hell had woken her up? As far as Madison knew, she’d been imagining the weird texture against her skin. She felt under the pillow to see if maybe there was a book or something, when…
“Ouch!”
She pulled her hand free. A tiny droplet of blood pooled at the tip of her middle finger. Oh, she was wide-awake now, and she was pissed. She grabbed a tissue and wrapp
ed it around her finger before yanking the pillow up to see what had stabbed her.
It was…a dust bunny? Maybe she wasn’t as awake as she had thought, since dust bunnies definitely didn’t bite people, and she’d never met a dust bunny that could make her bleed. Gently, she poked at it. The dust bunny unfurled into the smallest, fluffiest gray kitten Madison had ever seen.
“What are you doing in my bed?” she asked the cat, looking down at the little mop of fur, still exhausted enough that she almost expected an answer. “And why the hell did you wake me up at five o’fuck in the morning? Not all of us get to sleep in the sun all day, you know?”
The kitten smiled at her, a full-on, smug cat grin that made Madison scrunch her nose in frustration.
“That’s it,” she said, reaching for the kitten’s scruff. “I don’t know if Ryder and Christian thought they were being funny, letting you in here, but you’ve overstayed your welcome. I’m jetlagged and I have a long day ahead of me and it’s time for you to go.” She was just closing her hand around the kitten’s neck when it took a flying leap, sending her careening backward into the pile of quilts at the foot of the bed.
Madison dove for it, but her foot got caught in the sheet and she lunged forward only halfway, missing the cat with her far hand and smacking her palm into the wooden headboard of the bed. So she spun out of the blankets, foot still tangled in the bottom of the sheet, and lunged for the little gray fluffball, visible mostly by his—her?—white tail and bright blue eyes. But the thing was damn quick and when Madison reached for it this time, she smacked her head against the lamp on the bedside table. It went careening to the ground, bringing a glass of water, three books and a candle in a jar of marbles smashing to the ground.
As for her, Madison had her feet and legs on the bed, even more tangled in the sheets than before, and both hands on the rug, a bit trickier now, since the marbles from the candleholder had rolled all over the floor and one misplaced hand would send her careering. From her half-crouched vantage point, the cat sat just out of reach, practically laughing. Furry little bastard.