Page 99 of Last Chance Cowboy
She wondered if it was going to be more sex, and she wasn’t opposed to that.
“Have you seen the Mustangs yet?”
“What?”
“It’s called Mustang River. Did you think it was just for fun?”
“I hadn’t really thought about it. I mean, to me, a Mustang is a car.”
He chuckled, leaned in, and bit her shoulder.
She jumped.
“It’s exposure therapy,” he said, kissing her after. “Now you’re getting used to having your shoulder bitten.”
Sheswatted at him.
“But you don’t have to get close to the Mustangs.”
“All right. I think… All right.”
Which was how she found herself bundled into his truck before the sun rose, going up a strange back road that curved dramatically and carried them back toward the ranch.
“We’re going west,” she said.
“Very good,” he said, his praise sending a shot of pleasure straight to her center.
They hadn’t had coffee or anything, and she still felt sleepy when they pulled up to the top of a ridge.
“Come on,” he said, getting out of the truck. She got out, too, and they sat there on the edge of the ridge. It was all silent, all still.
And then the sun began to rise, brilliant beams of light pouring over the mountain, down into the valley below. And that was when she saw them. Moving slowly through that valley, at least a hundred horses, maybe more. Brown and white speckled, some black with white socks, all absolutely beautiful, and she didn’t generally feel that way about horses.
“This is amazing.”
“They’re wild.”
“This is so silly, but I really didn’t know there were still wild horses, much less that they were in Oregon.”
“Yeah. The local authority is always wanting to thin the herd. I’m rooting for them. I’m always on the side of survival.”
She looked at his profile, all lit up in the early morning light.
Of course he was.
And he really loved horses, she could see that. It was a part of him. That made her feel more motivated to try to sort her relationship out with horses. Even if the idea made her feel a little bit nervous. It was a long-standing phobia, even if it didn’t make a lot of sense.
If she avoided everything after one adverse reaction, she would avoid everything.
Well, you have spent a decent amount of time doing that.
That hurt.
“How many horses were on your dad’s ranch?”
“Oh, at least this many. We had a herd. He ended up taking a lot of older horses, horses that didn’t really serve a purpose. We had the breeding stock, but my dad just loved horses. He wasn’t a man who talked much about his feelings. He was quiet. Kind of… Gruff, really, but you could see his soft side when he worked with the animals.”
She didn’t say anything, but it reminded her a lot of Zane. There was softness to him, and she had gotten glimpses of it over the past few weeks.
