Hearts Are Wild

by Patrice Michelle

  Sabrina waved goodbye to Dirk and turned to take in the Lonestar ranch. A rambling white ranch house with hunter green shutters and a long front porch sat back from the long driveway. Ten feet away from the ranch house sat a smaller house painted with the same overall look. A barn and stables that led into gated wide open pastures completed the overall “ranch” look.

  “Hi, Sabrina.” Elise waved to her as she walked out of a screen door from the main ranch house. Skipping down the steps, she said, “I was getting worried about you.” Looking around, she had a puzzled expression on her face. “Uh, where’s your car? I heard one pull up.”

  Sabrina put down her suitcase and hugged her friend tight. “Speedy Rental Car didn’t have a car available for me yet, so I hitched a ride into town with Dirk Chavez.”

  Releasing her, Elise pulled pack as she waggled her eyebrows up and down. “Oooh, Dirk, eh? How’d you manage that?”

  “He had just arrived at the airport and was standing at the car rental counter using a pen he’d borrowed when he overheard where I was going,” Sabrina said with a smirk.

  Elise laughed. “And here I thought it was something more dramatic like you tripped him to get his attention or even better, dazzled him with that brilliant smile and that gorgeous body of yours.”

  Sabrina glanced down at her low-riding jean shorts and casual green tank top and looked back at her friend with a wry smile. “Somehow I don’t think the outfit was what did it. I think it was the rescuer in him that made him have pity and offer me a ride.”

  “Ah,” Elise said with an understanding nod.

  When Sabrina stared off into the beautiful rolling pastures beyond the main ranch house, deep in thought, her friend continued, “Thinking about your dad again?”

  Sabrina met Elise’s green gaze. “Yeah, even though it’s been seven years, it still hurts. When I heard the CB call in his truck and found out Dirk was a firefighter, it brought it all back.”

  Elise took her suitcase from her and set it on the porch. Wrapping her arm around Sabrina’s shoulders, she started toward the stables. “Your dad wouldn’t want you to be sad, Bri. He loved you with all his heart. Did I ever tell you he told me that?”

  With a bewildered look, Sabrina shook her head.

  “He told me while we were sitting in the dorm room your first day at college. Your mom and you had gone out shopping for food for the fridge.”

  Sabrina’s heart lurched. Her dad wasn’t a demonstrative person. She knew he loved her, but he rarely showed, much less expressed, his emotions.

  Stopping mid-stride, she glanced at her friend. “He said that to you?”

  Elise nodded. “Yeah. Maybe it was easier for him to talk to someone he didn’t know very well. I think he was feeling sad that he was losing you to the next stage in your life and he didn’t know how to express those emotions to you…so he told me.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me?” Sabrina asked, upset her friend held back from her.

  Elise squeezed her shoulder and continued walking her toward the stables. “Because you lost your dad that very next day. I thought I’d wait until you were over his death, but as time went on, it seemed you just became very sad whenever you thought of him. Remember? You’d be depressed for a couple of days if his name came up. I didn’t want to contribute to that.”

  “Why tell me now?” Sabrina’s chest felt heavy with the knowledge.

  “Because I’m older and hopefully wiser and I realize that what you need to hear is just how much your dad loved you, how much he wanted you to be happy. He told me that’s what he lived for…to make sure his little girl was the happiest she could be in life.”

  Tears gathered in Sabrina’s eyes and she swiped them away. She missed her dad terribly, but Elise’s words were like a balm to her frazzled, exposed emotions when it came to her dad’s sudden death in that downtown building fire. The fact she didn’t get the chance to say goodbye always tore at her heart.

  Wrapping her arm around Elise’s trim waist, she hugged her back. “Thanks for inviting me and for finally sharing what my dad said to you. It does help a little.”

  Her friend grinned. “See, that’s just what I’m here for…to cheer you up.”

  As they entered the stables, Elise called out to a man who’d just ridden in from the pastures.

  “Hi, honey. Come meet my college roommate, Sabrina Gentry.”

  A rugged-looking man wearing a black cowboy hat dismounted from his horse. His scuffed, dusty boots stirred the dirt floor as he walked over to meet her.

  Putting out his hand, he said with a grin, “Colt Tanner. Nice to meet you, Sabrina.”

  When Sabrina smiled and took his hand, he glanced back and forth between the two women, his expression amazed. “Other than a slight difference in height, it’s uncanny how much you two look alike.”

  Elise laughed and let go of her friend to step into her husband’s embrace and wrap her arms around his waist. Hugging him, her expression happy, she replied, “Yeah, while we were in college, even though Sabrina’s complexion is darker than mine, people mistook us all the time for sisters, and if they were drunk, twins.”

  Colt kissed his wife on the forehead, saying in a gruff tone, “Darlin’, I could spot you in a crowd fifty feet away with your back to me.”

  Sabrina grinned at the love that reflected in his gaze when he looked at Elise.

  “Oh, to be a newlywed,” she sighed dramatically.

  “That could be easily remedied,” Elise shot back. “Dirk is available.”

  Unconsciously, Sabrina stiffened. “Uh, I’m not ready to settle down yet.”

  As she spoke, another man on horseback trotted into the stables, his brown cowboy hat pulled low over his face.

  “Well, then do I have a man for you,” Elise teased. Sweeping her arm toward the man as he approached, she said, “Sabrina, meet Mace Tanner.”

  Mace walked his horse close to them and pulled off his hat. Looking down at Sabrina, his gaze intrigued, he said, “Howdy, ma’am.” His tousled, light brown hair, square jaw and beautiful green eyes caught her attention. She couldn’t help but smile at the interested look in his gaze as he held hers.

  Her smile turned into a grin as she remembered the “ladies’ man” description Dirk had used to describe Mace.

  He leaned on his saddle horn and winked at her. “You must be Elise’s friend, Sabrina. I promised her I’d take you on a tour when you were ready. How about now?”

  Sabrina shook her head as she looked up at him. “I’ve never ridden a horse before.”

  Mace put out his hand and she put hers in his, expecting him to shake it. Instead he held fast and looked at Colt. “Give her a boost, bro.”

  Before she could decline, Colt had grabbed her waist and lifted her up on the horse in front of Mace. “Enjoy your tour,” he said with a grin. Then he looked at his brother with a meaningful gaze. “Behave, little brother.”

  Mace gave a deep laugh as he turned the horse around back the way he had entered the stables.

  As Mace’s horse trotted out of the stables, the unfamiliar, bouncing movement underneath her made her stiffen. Gripping the saddle horn for support, she said in a nervous voice, “Whoa there, horse.”

  When they emerged and headed toward the open fields, Mace wrapped an arm around her waist and said in an amused tone, “Relax, Sabrina. It’s half the battle in learning to ride a horse.”

  Sabrina tried her best to relax when Mace urged his horse into a full gallop as they took off across the green pasture.

  When they’d ridden for a while and Mace had pointed out different sections of the Lonestar ranch where the cattle and horses grazed, he slowed his horse to an easy walk.

  As he started to pull his arm away from her waist, fear of falling made Sabrina clasp his hand and hold it in place.

  Mace chuckled in her ear and wrapped his arm around her waist once more, this time pulling her against his chest. “Better?” he asked in a soft tone.

  Sabrina lau
ghed. “Yeah and why do I get the feeling you don’t mind a bit?”

  “’Cause I don’t, darlin’. Not at all.”

  “So I’ve heard. Your reputation proceeds you, Mace Tanner.”

  “Ah, someone’s been talking about me?” His tone dropped to a seductive whisper near her ear. “I hope it was all good.”

  “Considering my source was a man, er…I hope not,” she teased.

  “No worries there. Must’ve been jealous,” came his amused, yet assured response.

  “Are you always so sure of yourself?” she asked, both intrigued and entertained by his sexy confidence.

  “Why not?” She felt his shoulders move behind her in a shrug. “I have nothing to lose.”

  “Now I like that attitude,” she said, openly smiling.

  “I think we’re going to get along just fine, Sabrina.” he replied with a chuckle. “Elise tells me you’re here for a couple of weeks.”

  She nodded. “Yeah, I’m taking some time away from work to, um…find my inner self.” She couldn’t help but laugh at her own inside joke. Her cousins would be howling and rolling on the floor with laughter if they’d have heard her comment.

  But Mace, being the type of man he appeared to be, drew his own conclusions. He spread his fingers across her rib cage saying, “Just let me know and I’ll be glad to help you find out exactly what makes you purr.”

  Sabrina’s heart raced at his words, but underneath that sexy confidence something about Mace felt like he was holding a part of himself back. She recognized that attribute well…she’d perfected it herself.

  “I’ll keep that in mind,” she replied with a chuckle.

  Sitting up straight, Mace gave her space as he said, “Ever been on a ranch before?”

  She shook her head.

  Turning his horse toward a different pasture, he said, “Come on, let’s go meet some of the Lonestar ranch hands. They’d love to tell a beautiful woman all about what they do on a daily basis.”

  “And what do you do? Well, besides flirt outrageously with your female guests.”

  “You mean there’s more to life?” he asked in a shocked tone. Sobering, he continued, “I help run the ranch, but I spend most of my time working on marketing for the rodeo side of the Lonestar. What about you? What do you do when you’re not flirting with men you’ve just met?”

  “Touché,” she said with a grin. “When I’m not taking an overdue long vacation in the summer, I help run an advertising agency in Arizona.”

  “Darlin’, we should definitely exchange notes,” he commented, his tone more than a little suggestive.

  “You are too much,” she shot back at his double entendre.

  “I’m a man and you’re a gorgeous woman. You can’t blame me for tryin’,” came his unrepentant reply.

  “I imagine it’d be so easy to fall under your spell.” She gave a soft laugh at how much this man’s attention boosted her ego.

  The truth was this vacation was also about getting away. Her confidence had really taken a beating with Jeremy’s rejection. When her boyfriend told her his career came first, she knew he wasn’t the man for her. No man would say something so heartless to a woman, especially a woman he was sleeping with.

  At least she didn’t think so. Maybe that was her problem. Did she expect men to fit some ideal mold and they just never seemed to measure up?

  “Won’t know just how easy until you try…” Mace countered, his teasing suggestion drawing her out of her reverie.

  Laughing and shaking her head at how skilled this man was at turning even the most mundane conversations into a flirtation, she parried, “I’m here for two weeks, Mace. The words ‘take it slow’ come to mind.”

  Chapter Two

  “Sure you don’t want me to help you with that?” Mace drawled from his leaning position against the stable door.

  Sabrina tossed her long dark braid over her shoulder and blew her wispy bangs away from her eyes as she looked at him.

  “I know exactly what you want to help me with, Mace Tanner, and the only one getting a rubdown is Lightning,” she quipped, turning back to the horse as she unbuckled the saddle.

  “I’m good with my hands. How long you gonna keep me at bay, darlin’?” he cajoled.

  “’Til the cows come home,” she teased.

  After several seconds of total silence, the sound of a cowbell ringing and fake mooing coming from the stall doorway had her laughing out loud while she pulled the saddle off the horse and put it away. “Go back to work, Mace. I’ll join you for dinner later.”

  “You know you’re breakin’ my heart, don’t ya?” he asked, sounding wounded.

  Sabrina cut her gaze back to him to see a cowbell hanging from his neck as he put his hands over his heart, the expression on his face as if he were in real pain.

  “The only thing I’m breaking is your string of successful seductions.”

  Elise’s laughter floated from behind Mace before she appeared beside him. Looping her arm around his, she tugged on her brother-in-law’s arm. “She’s got ya there. Come on, Mace. You’ve played constant host since Bri arrived. Let’s give Bri a few moments alone.” She looked at her friend and finished with a laugh, “Even if she wants to spend them working.”

  “I find grooming a horse relaxing somehow, strange as that sounds,” Sabrina said as Elise pulled Mace away. “See you guys in a half hour,” she called after them.

  Turning back to Lightning, Sabrina looked around for the grooming brush until she spotted it up on a wood shelf on the wall. Standing on tiptoe, which probably gave an additional three inches to her five-foot five height, she tried to reach the horse brush that some too-tall moron had put on a high shelf. Didn’t they realize not everyone in this world was over six feet tall?

  She lowered her arm and looked around the horse’s stall. Nope. No stepstool in sight, darn it. Sighing, she stood on her toes again, straining her calf muscles as her fingers brushed the bristles and pushed the brush back away from the edge of the shelf.

  Lightning neighed behind her, apparently impatient for her to get on with the grooming. After being on the ranch for over a week, Sabrina still hadn’t gotten up the nerve to ride a horse by herself, but she’d asked Elise to show her how to groom one and found she really enjoyed the task.

  Eventually she’d work her way up to riding on a horse on her own, but in the meantime, she convinced Elise to let her give Lightning a good rubdown when her friend arrived back from a ride with Colt.

  Mace had been a gracious host and constant companion, all the while never giving up on seducing her. And as much as she had fun joining in their outrageous flirtation, she didn’t let it go any further.

  She liked Mace, found him very attractive, but a part of her held back and she wasn’t sure why. She didn’t feel guilty not indulging with Mace because the rule between her and her cousins was “If he trips your trigger, go for it”. Mace made her laugh and her ego soar but something was missing…oh yeah, the tripping of the trigger part, she thought with a smirk as she put one hand against the wall while reaching with the other in one last attempt to retrieve the grooming brush.

  “Here, let me help ya.” Strong hands came around her waist at the same time the man spoke. His hard chest pressed against her back, causing her to freeze and her heart race.

  He smelled so good, like faint cologne and leather. God, he smelled of leather, she thought as he easily lifted her so she could retrieve the brush. The smell of leather was the ultimate turn-on for her. Sabrina quickly grabbed the brush and waited for the stranger to set her down so she could see his face.

  Instead, he lowered her slowly to the ground as he said in a low, husky voice, its deep timbre skidding down her spine, “I don’t think I’d ever be allowed on this property again…” He paused and let go of her waist with one hand so he could push her heavy braid away from her neck as he finished with a whisper in her ear, “if Colt knew the impure thoughts running through my head right now.”


  Sabrina’s heart slammed in her chest at her reaction to this man, a man she’d yet to see, a man who had the hots for Elise, big time!

  As she started to speak, the man set her away from him saying in a gruff tone, “I’m sorry, Elise. I shouldn’t have said that.”

  Sabrina turned around, saying, “Well, I guess it’s a good thing I’m not Elise, so those impure thoughts can just stay between you and me.”

  When she let her gaze scan the man’s six-foot tall form, the first thing that came to mind was definitely impure thoughts… Did he ever trip her trigger…wow!

  Trim, jean-clad hips, a silver and gold buckle, a black T-shirt that fit his muscular physique very well, broad shoulders and the sexiest, square jaw she’d ever seen. But what made her body jerk to attention was the intense look in his arresting teal green eyes, before his expression shifted to surprise. Man, she’d love to have him look at her like that! Well, technically he did, but he thought she was someone else.

  His straw cowboy hat hid his hair color, but from the color of his eyebrows, she’d say his hair was dark blond.

  He quickly swiped his hat off his head as an embarrassed expression crossed his face. “I’m sorry, ma’am. Please forgive—”

  Ohmigod, he had the sexiest wavy dirty blond hair she’d ever seen! She interrupted him before he could finish. “Impure thoughts are only bad if they aren’t returned.” She followed her comment with a devilish grin.

  His regretful look changed to surprise at her statement. Then a broad smile spread across his face as he put his hat back on his head and held out his hand. “I’m Josh Kelly. My family owns the neighboring Double K property next to the Lonestar.”

  Sabrina shook his hand. “Nice to meet you, Josh. My name is Sabrina Gentry. I’m a college friend of Elise’s visiting for a couple weeks.”

  Josh’s grip was firm and once he shook her hand, he didn’t let go, but instead ran his thumb slowly across the soft flesh between her thumb and forefinger as he spoke. “Are you from Virginia, too?”

  She looked down at their hands, mesmerized by the seductive movement of his finger across her skin and the tingling sensation it caused to slide up her arm. Blinking to clear her head, she met his gaze once more.