by Jade Allen
Ava stepped out of the car, turning to take in the view around her. She had never seen so much open space, and it was...breathtaking. Beyond the open expanse was lush, green forest in every direction and the mountain range beyond drew the eye upward, making it seem like the land went on indefinitely. She had expected to be greeted by the noxious smell of animal and manure, but instead the air smelled...clean.
“I told you it wouldn't be so bad,” Christie whispered, obviously recognizing the awed expression on Ava's face.
“I'm willing to concede that the place doesn't smell like an outhouse,” Ava teased quietly.
A man came out of the house to greet them then. He must have been nearly seventy-maybe older-and as wrinkled as a prune, but he wore a kind expression that made him seem immediately likable.
“Hello ladies. My name's William Winchester—just call me Will, but not Bill. I managed to avoid the name all these years and I don't want to pick it up now. I'm the owner of the ranch,” he welcomed them, extending his hand in greeting. “I'll take you over to your cabin so you can get settled, and then what do you say you join me at the house for lunch? Don't worry, I'm not the one doing the cooking. We have an in-house chef for that, or else all our guests would be stuck with my specialty night after night.” “It's hot dog spaghetti, in case you were wondering,” he whispered conspiratorially, and Ava couldn't help but laugh.
“It sounds like your specialty might rival mine—macaroni and cheese whiz...a la Ava,” she teased back.
“That sounds wonderful,” Christie replied, beaming brightly. “Um, the cabin, not the spaghetti...or the macaroni,” she smiled apologetically.
The three laughed and the two women followed Will beyond the house to a grouping of cabins about twenty yards behind and to the right. The cabins were quaint, but immaculately maintained with a small, wooden front porch on each one. Inside the “grand” one-bedroom cabin—the largest unit the ranch had—was a cozy living room with a fireplace and a kitchenette off to one side. The bedroom was a decent size with two double beds and a large curtain that could be pulled to separate the space. The bathroom was painted and decorated in the same style as the rest of the cabin, but beyond the stand-up shower and small pedestal sink was a deep, luxurious-looking hot tub—a welcome sight but it looked a little out of place in the rustic cabin.
Their luggage was deposited by the front door by the man who had picked them up at the airport, who nodded goodbye and waited for Will on the grass beyond the front porch.
“If you need anything, just mention it to anyone you see working around here,” Will explained. “They all know that, outside of taking proper care of our animals, making sure the guests are comfortable is our number one priority. Now, lunch will be ready in about half an hour, so you just go ahead and take your time getting settled. I'll see you up at the house shortly.”
Will turned and left the cabin then, and Christie turned to look out the back window, overlooking the vast fields and forests.
“Tell you what, Christie,” Ava started, making her way in the opposite direction. “You go ahead and shovel manure and rub down cows...or whatever it is you do here, and I'll spend the week right here in the hot tub. Deal?”
“Ava,” her friend complained good-naturedly.
“OK, fine. You can join me in the hot tub, but keep to your side, and you're the one who has to tell Will that we've opted for a week of luxurious relaxation instead of rustic farm work,” Ava teased.
She turned into the bedroom instead, depositing her luggage there and then reemerged into the living room. Wandering out onto the front porch, she intended to take another look at the scenic forest and mountain range but was greeted by another sight instead. There, not thirty feet in front of her was an impressive, four-legged creature. It's long, chestnut mane and tail glittered in the sunlight, and its eyes met Ava's, surprising her with the alertness she saw there. Next to the horse stood a young man, he couldn't have been more than sixteen or seventeen years old, rubbing the animal while he spoke to it in quiet tones before taking hold of its reins and slowly stepping backward. The young man's movements were deliberate, as if he were reciting a set of instructions in his mind. Although Ava hadn't seen a horse or its trainer once in her life, she could easily tell he wasn't very experienced. It was interesting to watch; the horse more accustomed to the movements than the young man.
From the corner of her eye, she caught sight of another figure moving into view from the direction of the ranch house. He was tall, well over six feet, and broad chested. Wearing a simple, white T-shirt, she could decipher the outline of every sinewy muscle. His five-o-clock shadow did nothing to hide the rugged outline of his jaw, and he wore a cowboy hat, shielding his face from the sun, but drawing attention to his dark, vivid, sapphire blue eyes. He walked over to the boy who was stiltedly leading the horse around the pen. He spoke to him for a moment and then stood back, observing. Suddenly, the boy moved more confidently; his steps were more fluid and his eyes were focused on the task at hand.
Ava's head filled with naughty images of the delectable cowboy, wondering if he was as skilled in other areas as he appeared to be in training horses and aspiring, young horse trainers. Perhaps a week at the ranch wouldn't be such a horrible experience now. With eye candy like that, who cares about mucking out barns or chasing away chickens. She'd do it all happily if she could keep that talented cowboy in her sights. Maybe she should make the suggestion to the owner—he'd have a whole lot more guests on the ranch. Hell, women would flock in hordes to watch that man at work. Ava had always figured herself to be the kind of girl who would go crazy over a hot fireman or sexy policeman, but she couldn't imagine any one of them—or even a whole group of them—holding a candle to this guy.
He looked up then, glancing in her direction. His eyes found her, grazing over her body from head to toe. It was an incredibly bold move, given that he knew she could see him, and Ava couldn't help but wonder if the sexy cowboy was more cocky or confident. At the same time, she could feel heat begin to creep into her cheeks and she nearly laughed aloud; she was blushing like an inexperienced school girl!
“Great,” she thought wryly. “Next, he'll have me tongue-tied and giggling like a teenager, too.”
He turned away a moment later, the young horse trainer garnering his attention. Ava turned away, too, heading back into the cabin, still smiling over her silly, adolescent response to the sexy wrangler. Christie was there, all ready to head up to the house for lunch with Will, and by the time they walked back outside the cabin, the wrangler was gone; only the boy and the horse remained in the training pen and he was nowhere in sight.
“Am I imagining things?” she thought half-humorously, wondering if perhaps the country air was messing with her head and she'd imagined the too-hot-to-be-real cowboy.
Wandering up to the house, the door was open for them before they reached the top of the front porch, Will already standing there beyond the threshold.
“Come on in,” he welcomed them, leading them to the oversized dining room beyond the front foyer. “This is Noah. He's um...a wrangler here,” Will motioned to the man walking into the room from the opposite direction.
“Oh, thank God,” Ava thought silently. It wasn't only that she got to see the sexy wrangler again—sure, it was a nice perk—but his presence there confirmed that she wasn't losing her marbles.
“You joining us for lunch, Noah? I'm sure these fine ladies wouldn't object to your company,” Will offered, the light of an ever-ready matchmaker gleaming in his eyes.
Noah was silent for just a moment, his eyes grazing over Ava just as they had outside of the cabin. He spoke to Will without turning to look at him. “I really wish I could, Will. Unfortunately, I need to get a few hours in if I'm going to see what I can do with the new arrival later on.” His eyes stayed fixed on Ava as he spoke, and while she had no idea what he was talking about, it seemed to her there was a double innuendo in his words. And if she was the “new arrival,” she'd
love to find out what he could do with her, too.
He left then and the remaining occupants of the room sat down at the table as a plump, middle-aged woman brought in a giant tray, laden with food that smelled a thousand times better than anything Ava or her roommates could whip up in between classes.
Will chattered on about life on the ranch as they ate, and Ava had to admit that it sounded a little more interesting than she had originally thought—at least it didn't seem that he spent all his time knee-deep in...less appealing aspects of the job. He offered to take them out to the training pen after lunch to see a wrangler in action, but as they strolled over to the fence, she experienced a small wave of disappointment, hoping it would have been the sexy wrangler from earlier working with the horse. Instead, Will introduced them to John, an experienced cowboy who'd been working on the ranch for decades. He held a long rope in his hand, attached to the horse's bridle, and he spoke loudly but calmly to the docile creature, leading it around the pen. Though he never used it, the man held a whip draped over one arm, and Ava covered her mouth aghast when she first saw it. Will was quick to explain that the whip was never used to harm or discipline the horse. The pressure exerted was only ever enough to express to the horse how it should move. Ava wasn't entirely convinced; she couldn't help but wonder if there wasn't a better way to train the horse.
The rest of the day passed by in a hurry, Christie pulling Ava along to one area of the ranch or another. As the two returned to the cabin long after night had fallen, Christie headed for bed while Ava opted to indulge her tired legs in a relaxing dip in the hot tub. Turning on the jets, she climbed in, and instantly she could feel the luxurious heat of the water soothing her muscles. Closing her eyes, she leaned back as images of the sexy wrangler sprang to her mind. “Oh no you don't,” she chastised herself. This was intended to be a relaxing bath, not a stimulating one, and given that her vibrator was miles away back at home, sexy men and naughty sex needed to be the furthest things from her mind.
Stepping out of the tub, she wrapped a towel around her and tiptoed to her bedroom in search of clothing. It was too warm for a bathrobe, so she opted for a strapless, azure blue sundress instead with an A-line fit and a hem that fell to mid-thigh. Now too revved up for sleep, she walked out onto the front porch, the lights from the training pen catching her attention immediately.
“Damn,” she breathed, relinquishing all hope that her mind and body might settle down. “Out of the hot tub and into the fire,” she mocked herself dryly.
The sexy cowboy was there with a different horse than the one she'd seen him and the young trainer with earlier that day. He had ditched the cowboy hat, no longer needing it to shield his eyes from the sun, and she could see that his hair was dark, left just long enough that it added to his rugged appeal.
The horse was larger than the one from earlier and jet black without a single marking anywhere on its body. Its head was lowered slightly, waving back and forth from side to side, and its ears appeared pinned back, near his neck. It pawed the ground with his foreleg forcefully, and although Ava had no experience with horses, its body spoke volumes in a language that even she could understand. The horse was nervous, angry, untamed, and there was no one else there for it to vent its aggression on but the cowboy.
It wasn't wearing a bridle or saddle, and the cowboy had no whip like the man she'd seen earlier. Noah appeared to have absolutely no way to get the horse under control but he also wasn't moving out of its way. Ava's pulse sped up, her breath catching in her throat. Instead of retreating, the man moved in closer, meeting the horse's gaze directly and speaking to it in hushed tones. Slowly, the animal's head stilled, its ears turned forward and slowly, it ceased pawing at the ground. The cowboy continued to speak quietly, his hand coming up to touch the side of the horse's head. He held his hand still for a moment and then stroked the horse gently.
Ava hadn't realized she'd been moving forward until then, down the steps of the front porch and halfway across the distance that had been between them. She stopped, watching, mesmerized by the way the man calmed the wild animal. It was breathtaking. He moved along the length of the horse, talking all the while, and then steered the horse's direction with a single, firm push. It began to follow his rudimentary commands, obeying the cowboy, moving around the pen. He stopped each time the horse seemed to be getting riled up, calming him with only his hands and voice. Ava didn't know how long he continued; it could have been seconds or hours, she really wasn't sure. The cowboy stopped then, reaching for a bridle slung over the fence. Approaching the horse slowly, he fit it into place, though the horse began to paw at the ground lightly, increasing Ava's heart rate once again. But, as soon as the cowboy was finished, the pawing stopped.
Stroking the horse's head with one hand, he reached into a container behind him, retrieving a handful of apple slices and feeding them to the horse one at a time. Patting the horse for a job well done, he turned then, spotting Ava right away. He looked at her for a moment, his hand moving to calm the horse who had begun to paw nervously again, noticing Ava's presence. As the pawing ceased, the cowboy started over toward her, and although she hadn't the slightest idea what to say—a rare occurrence for Ava—she moved forward, slowly closing the distance between them.
“He's brand new here,” the cowboy spoke, saving Ava from having to delve deep for some witty remark. “I bought him from a man who was going to make him into a gelding, thinking he was too unruly to ever be manageable.”
“But, you were able to train him,” she replied, disturbed by the thought of such an atrocity over an animal's natural behavior.
He smiled then, “Not exactly. He'll let me near him, sure, and he'll even follow a command or two, but it will be a while before he's letting me ride him without bucking me off every chance he gets.”
“How did you do it? I mean, Will was explaining how it works earlier, and there were ropes and whips...”
“I just do things a little differently. The trick is to start off fully knowing the horse will respond, instead of trying to convince him to. He recognizes that. He trusts that you know what you're doing,” he said simply, opening the pen's gate and stepping out, closing it firmly behind him. “It's like walking into a room full of toddlers; you have to know you've got everything under control or they'll walk, run, skip, hop and jump all over you.”
“Come on,” he motioned for Ava to follow. “I'll show you.”
“Sure thing,” she replied aloud. “But I bet you've got other tricks I'd love for you to show me,” she added silently. Though, she was genuinely interested in how the cowboy managed to control a horse so easily.
“You haven't spent much time around horses,” he surmised accurately.
“No, not once before today actually. I thought I was a city girl through-and-through, but I'm enjoying it here much more than I thought I would.” “Of course, the sexy scenery doesn't hurt,” she mused wordlessly.
He led her beyond the barn to another corral, stopping briefly to ask a young man in the barn to bring out a particular horse. He opened the pen gate, motioning for Ava to step inside, and she did so nervously, not certain she wanted to come face to face with a wild animal like the one in the other pen. A moment later though, she breathed a small sigh of relief, the young man leading a much smaller, more docile-looking horse into the pen.
Noah removed the horse's reins, patting its head and speaking quietly once again. He started moving then, signaling for the horse to follow—and it did. He stopped and the horse came to a halt.
“Come here,” he told her, and she complied, feeling a bit like the obedient horse for a second.
Taking her hand, he guided her fingers to the horse as a tremor of desire surged up her arm in response to his touch. He continued to guide her, stroking along the horse's head, and Ava did her best to focus on the task at hand instead of the cowboy's body, so close to her own. He released her hand then and she nearly sighed in disappointment, reining in her response at the last seco
nd. She continued to stroke the horse, surprised by the sleek, soft feel.
“Now, tell her what you want her to do,” he told Ava, moving directly behind her.
“I'd love to tell you what I want you do to,” Ava spoke, realizing too late that she'd spoken aloud, heat creeping into her cheeks once again.
“I'd love to hear what it is you want me to do,” he responded easily, his voice huskier, just a hair's breadth from her ear. “But first, we should finish with Maggie, or she might feel jilted, coming out here for nothing,” he continued, but he was suddenly even closer than before, his lips lingering close to her ear while she could feel the heat radiating from his body, now less than an inch away from hers.
She nodded, grateful the cowboy couldn't see her face at the moment, giving her a chance to regain her composure. “I want her to follow me,” Ava told him, turning her head as she spoke, finding his eyes bright with desire.
Taking her hand, Noah showed her the command she'd need and then stood back just a step to let Ava take the helm. Feeling a little silly, she stood tall, summoning all the confidence she had, and motioned to the horse. Maggie started toward her instantly and Ava smiled, taking a step back to start moving around the pen.
“Um, how do I tell her to stop,” Ava asked the second time around the pen, realizing that they might continue around in circles all night otherwise, Maggie appearing perfectly content to follow Ava's movements.
Noah showed her from where he stood, leaning against the fence, watching her from the other side of the pen. She motioned for Maggie to stop and the horse complied instantly. Ava reached out her hand automatically, stroking the animal's smooth head, pleased with their mutual accomplishment.
“That was amazing!” she beamed, having had no idea that working with a horse could be so enthralling. Though, it didn't hurt that the trainer could have been GQ’s sexiest man of the year.