"No, but I'm breathing hard."
"Oh good grief," she muttered, but she could barely suppress a laugh that rose up in her when he flashed a devilish smile that sent desire and heat rolling through her body.
"I'm not giving in. You're injured. I'm in charge."
"When did you get so ornery?"
"I could ask you the same thing, except oops, you've always been ornery."
"Now that's a sweeping statement, considering you haven't seen me in ten years."
"Prove me wrong and get on without any further argument." She waved at a spot on the seat behind her.
He sauntered toward her, adjusting his Stetson lower on his forehead. "Bravo, you've learned to stand your ground, Brat."
She shrugged like it was nothing, but she was thrilled that he noticed. "You don't come within inches of dying without rearranging some things."
"Ornery suits you." He slid onto the back of the ATV behind her. "I like it."
Well, look at that, Mr. Alpha Cowboy CEO was going to do it. He was going to let her lead. Being the second-youngest of five kids, she was accustomed to being brushed aside and minimalized. But surprise, surprise, Ridge didn't steamroll her, and she appreciated it.
That is until he snaked a big, strong arm around her waist, and all the air evaporated from her lungs.
It took her a second to calm her raging hormones, fumble with the key dangling in the ignition, and start the ATV. She could feel his breath on the back of her neck and that was totally distracting.
She wanted to ask him to stop breathing.
Also, she wanted to tell him to stop smelling so good. Because he did. Smell good. He was getting all tangled up in her nose and her memories and confusing the hell out of her.
"Locked and loaded," he said, wrapping his tongue slowly around each word, making it sound bizarrely sexual. "Let's buzz."
"I'm driving here. We'll buzz when I'm ready."
He laughed like she was the most hilarious thing since America's Funniest Home Videos. "All right, honeybee. Buzz when you're ready."
Well, of course she was ready now. She didn't want to keep sitting here in the hot sun with his arm wrapped around her, going nowhere.
She popped the clutch, put the ATV in gear, and took off.
His arm was tucked right up underneath her breasts. Crossing boundaries. Invading her personal space. Too intimate by half.
It felt territorial.
It felt like foreplay.
Gak!
But she couldn't protest. He needed to hold on to her or risk falling off.
She drove. Going perhaps a bit faster than she should across the craggy terrain, anxious to get back to the house and off the ATV.
A dangerous part of her wanted to savor the feeling of being snugged up against his hard-muscled chest, his thighs strapped around hers. To revel in his warmth, the pressure of his legs, but she needed to focus on getting them from point A to point B as quickly and safely as she could.
Since her accident, she'd become an overly cautious driver. But not today. Not with this pulsing thrill shooting through her. Today, she felt headstrong and reckless and brave as hell.
The landscape whipped by at dizzying speed. Slow down. But he laughed in her ear as if he was enjoying the pace, and so, insanely, she sped up.
Idiot. What was she doing?
They flew across sand and sagebrush, thrust forward by paddle tires beating out a steady rhythm against the ground. Momentum rocked his body forward, pressing his hips against hers, each bump and rut pushing them closer together, each vibration a jolt of awareness.
As if in concert with the machine, the wind picked up, blowing warm air over their bodies, matching their ground speed with whirling energy.
A sense of inescapability, of baffling aptness, crashed through Kaia like thunder. This was what she'd been waiting for. A man worthy of changing her life for.
No, no. no. Not him. It could not be him.
A jackrabbit jumped out in front of the ATV. Startled, Kaia swerved, plowed right over a tumbleweed kicking up a thick rooster tail of sand. She swallowed back the gulp of fear that leaped into her throat, eased off on the throttle, and inhaled a deep breath of dusty air.
"Good reflexes," Ridge whispered.
The vibration of his voice sent a quiver straight through her center. She felt dizzy, but it had nothing to do with the speed or the jackrabbit or hitting the tumbleweed and everything to do with the man at her back. His arm was latched tight against her belly and ribs, hard and firm, more holding her in place with his steady strength than hanging on.
His grasp reminded her how long it had been since a man had held her. Ages. Eons. She'd been too busy for a relationship. Too busy even for sex. Her life filled with school and animals and family, and then the wreck, where her biggest goal had been first, not dying, and then getting well, getting healthy, getting her life back.