Taming a Dark Horse

by Stella Bagwell

  Batwing chaps and fringed chinks would slap against jeans-covered legs. Spurs would jingle and sweat-stained felt would shade every eye. Flying horse hair and dust would fill the air and mingle with the lingering smells of breakfast from the bunkhouse.

  That was the time of day he loved the most, Linc thought. When everything was starting all fresh and new and he would walk from one end of the horse barn to the other, greeting each velvety nose and big trusting eye with a stroke of his hand and a gentle word.

  It was a life that he loved with every fiber of his being. And though Ross pretended to understand his feelings about the matter, his cousin didn’t really know the depth of Linc’s devotion to the ranch or his horses. After all, Ross had Bella. She was the love of his life now. Not the T Bar K.

  By the time lunch rolled around Nevada was still full of the breakfast she’d consumed. But she prepared Linc a bowl of vegetable soup and a hefty beef sandwich and called him into the house.

  While he ate she made herself busy in another part of the house. But when she heard him making his way outside to the porch again, she emerged from her bedroom and intercepted him at the front door.

  “Don’t bother going out and sitting down on the porch again,” she said. “You’ve already done that enough for today.”

  He glared at her. “You might be my nurse, Nevada, but you’re not about to tell me where to sit and how often.”

  Feeling a little testy herself, she punched his chest with her forefinger. “You got the first part right, partner. I’m your nurse and you’re to follow my orders. You’re not a sick man, you just can’t use your hands. Yet.” She drew in a deep breath and stepped back from him. “And if you ever expect to go back to work, you need to get a little exercise.”

  The corner of his lip curled upward as his gaze swept over her with a pointed look. “I’m sure a girl like you knows just the sort of exercise I need.”

  A girl like her. Linc Ketchum didn’t know anything about the intimate part of her life. It was beyond her where or why he’d gotten the idea that she was a floozy or something worse. As far as she was concerned, having male friends wasn’t decaying her morals. But she wasn’t about to start defending or explaining herself to this man. Let him think what he wanted. She would be gone from here soon and he could shoot his moody, cutting remarks at someone else.

  “As a matter of fact, I do.”

  His brows formed a dark line as she looped her arm through his and urged him out the door.

  “What are you doing now?” he asked. “We’re going for a walk.”

  “A walk! Like hell. We’re not two kids getting off the school bus and you don’t have an arm load of books to carry, so you can go for your own walk and leave me alone.”

  She pursed her lips with disapproval. “So you can sit here and get soft and flabby? I promised Dr. Olstead—”

  “Oh, all right, all right,” he conceded. “Let’s go. But I can tell you right now that it’s silly. A man doesn’t walk. Not when he can ride a horse or drive a truck.”

  “Neither of which you can do at the moment,” she pointed out sweetly.

  “You like reminding me of that, don’t you?”

  Her expression sobered as she urged him down the steps. “I don’t need to remind you of your injuries. You already feel sorry enough for yourself without that.”

  Stepping onto the ground, Linc halted and stared at her. “Sorry for myself? In my entire life I’ve never felt sorry for myself.”

  “Is that so?”

  “Yeah. That’s so.”

  “Hmm. A few minutes ago, in the kitchen, I could hear you raising your voice to Ross out here on the porch. Is that the way you normally talk to him?”

  Linc’s lips compressed in a tight line. “No. But—”

  “You’re frustrated because you can’t go to work with him. Right?”

  “That’s right,” he clipped. And he was also frustrated because each time he looked upon her face he wanted to touch it with his lips, to taste her sweetness over and over. But that wasn’t her fault. Neither was it her fault that he had these damned bandages wrapped around his arms and hands. He needed to quit taking his aggravation out on anyone who crossed his path. Especially this woman, who was only here to help him. If his father could see him now, he’d be ashamed of his son’s behavior. Linc was even ashamed of it.

  “Is it helping matters to be so angry?” she asked.

  A sheepish expression crept over his face before he finally shook his head. “Sorry, Nevada. It seems like all I’ve been doing since you got here is growling and then trying to apologize. I don’t really feel sorry for myself. I understand I’ll be well in a few days. And I’m damned thankful for that. But—”

  Rather than finish his sentence, he curled his bandaged fingers around her arm and urged her forward. As Nevada walked along beside him, she waited for him to continue. When he didn’t add anything else to his remarks, she said, “You’re thankful. But. But what?”

  Heaving out a breath, he lifted his face to the sky. Gray clouds were beginning to drift across the western sky and Linc carefully surveyed them. Normally the afternoon lightning storms didn’t begin until July. The sky should remain calm until the two of them returned to the house.

  His gaze returned to her face. “You really want to know?”

  Nodding, she said, “That’s why I asked.”

  Shrugging, he halted their forward movement. “All right, Nevada, I’m going to be honest with you. I hate like hell being unable to work and care for myself. But that’s not what’s really bothering me. You are.”

  Nevada shouldn’t have been surprised by his comment. Not after the episode that had occurred between them in the kitchen this morning. Still, she had not expected him to be so open and direct with her and it shook her more than she cared to admit.

  “I’m sorry,” she said in a strained whisper. And she meant it. In spite of Linc’s gruff rudeness, she liked him. She respected all the things he’d done with his life and the standards he’d set for himself. “I honestly don’t want to cause you any more problems than you already have.”

  For a moment he closed his eyes and Nevada used the time to study the firm line of his lips, to remember and relish those seconds he had kissed her so passionately. She’d never felt anything like it before and though she was smart enough not to repeat the act, she was aching to tilt her face up to his, to invite his lips back down to hers.

  “Nevada, I know that I’ve been behaving like an ass to you. And I wouldn’t blame you if you walked off and told Victoria she had a monster for a cousin.”

  He glanced away from her and for the first time since she’d met Linc Ketchum she believed she was seeing the real man and not the growling bear who’d been doing his best to scare her away. There was regret on his face and something else that looked like raw need.

  Carefully, she touched his arm at a spot above the bandaged area. “There’s no need for you to be so hard on yourself, Linc. I understand. I really do,” she said softly.

  He groaned. “You’re so young. How could you?”

  She swallowed hard as his dark-green eyes met hers. “Because when you kissed me I was afraid.”

  A mixture of disbelief and regret washed over his face as he reached out and touched her cheek. “Nevada, I never meant to scare you. I can’t even remember the last time I kissed a woman. I guess I’ve forgotten how to treat one.”

  Shaking her head, she turned her back to him and drew in a deep breath. “You didn’t scare me, Linc. Not in the way you’re thinking. I was scared because I liked it—a lot.”

  For long moments the silence was only broken by the breeze whispering through the pines and the chatter of a nearby magpie to its mate. Nevada could only wonder what the man was thinking. Probably that she was truly a promiscuous woman. Well, it didn’t matter, she told herself. All that mattered was that he get well and that she leave this ranch with her senses and her heart intact.

  “I liked it, too
.”

  The gentle tone of his voice shocked her even more than his words and she dared to look over her shoulder at him.

  “But it isn’t going to happen again,” she stated with certainty.

  “No. I don’t have any interest in having a relationship with a woman. And I’m sure you have plans of your own,” he said.

  Not serious plans, she thought. Not with any certain man. But she didn’t explain any of that to him. He didn’t care about her plans. He was just trying to get through the next couple of weeks with a nurse in his house.

  “Sure,” she murmured, then trying not to feel so deflated, she gave him a wry smile. “Ready to walk now? I realize you don’t want to, but it will be good for you. And I’d like to see more of the place. Are there any trails around here that we might follow?”

  With a faint look of relief on his face, he nodded. “There used to be one that led away from the back of the house. It’s rough, but the view is pretty.”

  “Good,” she said cheerfully. “Let’s go.”

  Linc glanced down at her feet. The strapped sandals she’d been wearing earlier had been replaced with a pair of black cowboy boots and he looked at her with faint surprise.

  “You’re wearing cowboy boots.”

  She chuckled. “Sure. I may not be a cowgirl, but I enjoy Western fashion. And this pair is good to walk in. They have treads on the bottom of the soles.”

  “So they do,” he said with a faint smile, then gently urged her in the direction of the trail.

  The track Linc recalled had become so overgrown that it took them a few minutes to find it. But finally they discovered a faint rut covered with pine needles and decaying cottonwood leaves. For several yards the track was mostly on level ground and wound gently through a thick stand of trees and scattered boulders. Then the landscape changed abruptly and they began a slippery descent down the side of the mountain.

  “Are you sure you want to continue?” Linc asked as she followed closely behind his lead. “This is getting rough and is likely to get worse the farther we go. Looks like the rains have created some treacherous gullies.”

  Small stones and loose gravel had already caused Nevada to slip more than once, but she wasn’t about to turn around and go back. The view around them was becoming more and more spectacular.

  “I’m not worried,” she assured him, then asked, “How far does this trail go?”

  “I haven’t been down it in years, but if I remember right the path goes all the way to a meadow. About three-quarters of the way down there’s a spot where I always stopped before I ever reached the meadow. I used to go there as a kid to be by myself.”

  Nevada took her gaze off the trail long enough to allow herself a glimpse of his wide, rugged back and long, strong legs. What had he been like as a young boy, she wondered. Surely his father’s death had affected him deeply. But a death in the family was something that couldn’t be helped. According to Marina, Darla Ketchum had chosen to leave her son behind. That was a different matter altogether.

  “Sounds as though you’ve never been a social person,” she said.

  “Not really. I like people. But I like my own company, too.”

  “I can see that you’re nothing like your cousin Ross. I never had the chance to meet his brother Hugh before he was killed. And I’ve only met Seth a couple of times. Are you like either one of them?”

  Linc shook his head. “Maybe a little like Hugh. He was a quiet homebody.”

  But even in his short life Hugh had had a wife and child, Nevada thought. Except for his cousins, Linc didn’t appear to have any immediate family. And as for him bunking with the ranch hands, that wasn’t exactly Nevada’s idea of having a home.

  He glanced over his shoulder at her. “What about you, Nevada? You don’t have any siblings either?”

  She shook her head. “No. My mother had some sort of medical problem after she gave birth to me. It prevented her from having more children. I would’ve loved to have had a brother or sister. It’s lonely being the only one. But, well, my mother is the sort who didn’t need more children. I’m not sure she even needed me,” she added glumly.

  Linc paused on the steep trail and she stopped as he stood there looking at her. “That’s a bad thing to say.”

  “Not really. I’m only being realistic. You see, as I told you before, my mother had lots of problems with my dad. He wasn’t the nicest man in the world.” She looked away and found that she was a bit embarrassed to be admitting such things to this man. Talking about her parents with anyone, even people that she’d been acquainted with for a long time, was difficult. “He abused her in more ways than one.”

  Sadness tinged Linc’s eyes. “I’m sorry about that, Nevada.”

  Shrugging, she glanced his way. “Me too. But that was a long time ago and I try not to let it bother me now. He went his way and my mother’s gone hers. At least there’s no more fighting and yelling and cheating and threatening. I would never—”

  Her expression turned grim as her words trailed away.

  “Never what?” Linc prodded, surprised to find himself interested in the facts about her life.

  She shrugged again. “Nothing,” she said with a wan smile. “Just that I’d never want to live through it again.”

  Linc nodded marginally and then turned and started walking on down the trail. While he plodded forward, he couldn’t help thinking about his own parents and how much a part of Nevada’s story matched his own.

  He could still hear his mother yelling threats and demands at his father and even now when a woman raised her voice in Linc’s presence, it made him cringe with memories. There was no way he would ever want to put himself or a child of his through such misery.

  “I understand.”

  “Do you?” she asked. “I can’t imagine. You’ve been raised in a nice family.”

  “Even nice families have their problems, Nevada.”

  Nevada was wondering what he meant by that comment when the forest around them opened up and the trail they were traveling narrowed down to a rocky path on the edge of a steep bluff.

  Linc halted his forward motion and turned to her. “This ground is so washed out here that I’m not sure we should go on.”

  Nevada looked around her. To their left was a small copse of fir trees, fallen tree trunks and moss-covered boulders. To their immediate right, where the bluff fell away, there was nothing but open air, and at least a hundred-foot drop to the next shelf of the mountain. “Is this the place you used to visit?” she asked.

  “No. It’s still a bit farther on.” Moving toward her, he took by the arm. “Come on. I think we should turn around.”

  “But I want to see. And I won’t fall,” she assured him. “I’m as sure-footed as a mule.”

  Wary, Linc shook his head. “That has to be the craziest thing I’ve ever heard. I’m supposed to be a patient. And you’re the nurse. What are we doing out here mountain-climbing?”

  She grinned at him. “Are you tired?”

  “No. Not in the least. But—”

  “I’m the nurse and I’m making sure that you’re getting your exercise. And from what I can see you haven’t gotten enough yet,” she said impishly.

  Before Linc realized what he was doing, a chuckle rumbled up from his chest. “Are you always like this?” he asked.

  “Like what?”

  The corners of his eyes crinkled with amusement. “Are you always so chipper and adventurous. And happy?”

  It was such a joy to hear him laugh and see him smile that Nevada felt as though she was standing on bubbly water instead of rocky ground.

  “Usually. It’s much more fun than being angry and sad.” The afternoon had grown hot and Nevada used the back of her forearm to wipe at the perspiration that dotted her forehead. “Have you ever been happy, Linc?”

  He laughed again and Nevada realized she could get addicted to the pleasant sound. It was low and as roughly masculine as the tough brown whiskers on his face.

/>   “You mean, you wonder if I’ve always been a sulky bastard?”

  Her smile was shy and totally enchanting to Linc and he suddenly realized it felt good to be walking in the woods with Nevada. He’d not ever done such a thing with a woman and this excursion was turning out to be far more pleasant than he’d ever expected.

  “I didn’t use those words. You did,” she reminded him.

  He shrugged and glanced away from her as the reality of his life begin to edge its way back into his thoughts. He wasn’t sure he knew what being happy was. But one thing he did understand, he wasn’t the badgered, broken man his father had been.

  “I’m mostly happy, Nevada. And that’s all a man can hope to be.”

  A brief smile touched her lips. “Well, I guess that’s all a woman can hope to be, too.” She stepped forward and carefully took hold of his bandaged hand. “You know what, I’d be even happier if you’d lead me on down the mountain. I want to see where you used to sit and dream as a boy.”

  He could feel something warm tugging at his insides and he realized he was glad that she’d shaken him out of his dark mood, that the two of them had made a sort of peace between them.

  “All right. We’ll go on down. Just hold onto my hand. I don’t want you to fall,” he told her.

  Nevada shook her head regretfully. “I can’t. If I slipped you’d try to grab me and that wouldn’t be good for the new skin forming over your fingers. But don’t worry about me. Like I said—”

  “You’re a surefooted as a mule,” he interrupted. “And just about as independent.” Turning his back to her, he motioned toward the center of his belt. “Hold onto to my belt loops. And don’t argue. The next few feet down are a little scary.”

  Nevada latched her fingers through the loops of his jeans, while thinking nothing could be as frightening as the strange emotions that were beginning to rush over her like a sudden burst of hot sunshine.

  Linc Ketchum was her patient. She wasn’t supposed to be feeling anything toward the man except concern for his physical well-being. But everything about him mesmerized her and she could only wonder how long it would be before he totally captivated her heart.