Page 68 of Breaking All The Rules
He passed her the reins. “Hold these and put your feet in the stirrups.”
Bea took the strips of leather and guided her feet into the stirrups. They were a little low, and Austin adjusted them with quick, efficient ease.
“Right,” he said, absently stroking Buffy’s rump. “Hold the reins loosely for now and just get a feel for how you’re sitting in the saddle. Stay loose and relaxed. Go with the movement of the horse, lean into it.”
She nodded. “Okay.”
“Good. Let’s go.” And then he clicked under his tongue and said, “Move on, Buffy.”
The horse ambled forward, and Bea’s pulse spiked again at the first movement, her torso lurching to compensate for the momentum, her hand gripping the saddle horn. It seemed ridiculous that her heart could be beating as fast as when she’d been executing a burnout in her car, considering there were Galapagos turtles that could walk faster than Buffy at her current speed, but it was rattling along in her chest.
Her BMW may have bristled with horsepower, but right now she had the original horsepower between her thighs, and that was thrilling in an elemental way. A way that she wouldn’t have thought she was aware of until this moment.
“Relax,” Austin said. “Go with the bounce.”
“I am relaxed,” Bea said, instantly stiffening.
“You’re going to snap that horn off if you’re not careful.”
Bea glanced at her white-knuckled grip. Okay, maybe he was right. Forcing herself to ease off, she watched as color flooded back into her knuckles.
“Find the rhythm of the horse.”
She rolled her eyes. Clearly Austin’s role was to be some kind of Jedi master, spouting horse-riding platitudes that were supposed to build character as well as skill. “Yes, Yoda.”
He chuckled. “Lean into the horse, you must.”
Ignoring him, Bea forced herself to take some deep breaths and relax into the rhythm of the horse as Buffy dutifully plodded around and around the oval.
After a half dozen turns with Austin’s occasional pointers, he brought Buffy to a stop with a quiet, “Whoa there, girl.”
The horse stopped abruptly and Bea had to grab the horn to prevent herself from pitching forward.
“You could have warned me we were stopping.”
“Sorry,” he said, looking completely unabashed and hiding his amusement poorly. “It’s not usually an issue when the horse is barely moving.”
“I think you’re enjoying this a little too much.”
His face broke into a broad grin. “I am. I’m also a little turned on.”
Bea arched an eyebrow. “Because a grown woman requiring training wheels to ride a horse is some kind of kink of yours?”
His hand slid onto her ankle and traveled slowly up her calf…to her knee…to her thigh, a hot tingle crawling the rest of the way up and settling between her legs. “It is when the woman is you.”
“You’re having Lady Godiva fantasies, aren’t you?”
He chuckled. “I am now.”
The temptation to get the hell off this horse and go check out Austin’s cabin was strong with this one, but there was time for that later. “How about I master this clothed first?”
“Spoilsport.” He laughed. “Okay, your turn. Take the reins and ride her around a few times like we just did.”
Bea blinked. “Ohh-kay.”
“You don’t have to if you don’t want to, but don’t worry, until she’s instructed otherwise, Buffy’ll walk at the same pace and I’ll be sitting”—he pointed at the nearest railing—“just there.”
“What if she spooks?”
