Lovers at Heart(50)

She shook her head and kicked the dirt, wishing she’d worn her riding boots. The toes of her new Rogues were getting scuffed and dirty. Could today get any worse?

“Hey!” she called after him. When he didn’t stop, she thought he hadn’t heard her. “I said, hey!”

He came to a slow stop, but didn’t turn around. “You talking to me? I thought you were talking to that lame horse of yours.” He cast a glance over his shoulder.

Jerk. “His name is Flame, and he’s the best damned horse around, so watch yourself.”

His horse began its lazy stroll once again.

“Wait!” Goddamn it! She gritted her teeth against the desire to call him an ass and shot a look at Flame, still favoring his leg, softening her resolve.

“Wait, please.”

His horse came to another stop.

“I need to get him home, and I can’t very well do it myself.” She kicked the dirt again as he turned his horse and walked her back. He stared down at Jade with piercing dark eyes, his jaw still clenched.

“Can you help me get him out of here?” Up close, his muscles were even larger, more defined, than she’d thought. His neck thicker, everything about him exuded masculinity. She crossed her arms to settle her nerves as he waited a beat too long to answer. “Listen, if you can’t—”

“Don’t get your panties in a bunch,” he said, calm and even.

“You don’t have to be rude.”

“I don’t have to help at all,” he said, mimicking her by crossing his arms.

“Fine. You’re right. Sorry. Can you please help me get him out of here? He can’t make it up that hill.”

“Just how do you suppose I do that?” He glanced at the steep drop of the land just twenty feet ahead of them, then back up the ravine at the rocky shoreline. “You shouldn’t’ve brought him down here. Why are you riding a stallion, anyway? They’re temperamental as hell. What were you thinking? A girl like you can’t handle that horse on this type of terrain.”

“A girl like me? I’ll have you know that I’m a vet, and I’ve worked around horses my whole life.” She felt her cheeks redden and crossed her arms, jutting her hip out in the defiant stance she’d taken throughout her teenage years.

“So I hear.” He lowered his chin and lifted his gaze, looking at her from beneath the shadow of his Stetson. “From the looks of it, all that vet schooling didn’t do you much good, now, did it?”

Ugh! He was maddening. Jade pursed her lips and stalked away in a huff. “Forget it. I can do this by myself.”

“Sure you can,” he mused.

She felt his eyes on her back as she took Flame’s reins and tried to lead him up the steep incline. The enormous horse took only three steps before stopping cold. She grunted and groaned, pleading with the horse to move, but Flame was hurt, and he’d gone stubborn on her. Her face heated to a flush.

“You keep doing what you’re doing. I’ll be back in an hour to get you and that lame horse of yours.”

An hour, great. She was aching to tell him to hurry, but she knew how long it took to hook up the horse trailer, and she had no idea how he’d get it all the way down by the ravine. She watched him ride away, feeling stupid, embarrassed, angry, and insanely attracted to the ornery jerk of a man.





(End of Sneak Peek)