As I entered the tack room, I reached into my pocket and pulled out the little horse trinket. It slipped from my hands and slid across the floor. I considered just leaving it there. I didn’t think God or the universe or what-the-fuck-ever wanted to send me any good luck, but when I remembered the earnestness on Celeste’s face as she’d given it to me, I couldn’t let myself give up, especially not when I’d woken with a blanket tucked around me and a vague memory of Blake’s hand brushing my cheek. Had he really come into my room last night? I’d pretty much given up on the idea of anyone here being interested in my well-being.
I bent down and started searching the floor for the little horse. It was almost the same color as the straw that was scattered all over the floor, and I didn’t see it anywhere. “Shit. Where is it?”
I crawled around moving farther and farther from the spot where I dropped it. Had it really gotten that far away? Finally, I saw a glint of gold. When I scooped it up and stood, I realized Blake had come in. He was watching me, a wary look on his face.
“What were you looking for?”
I shook my head. “Nothing.”
He narrowed his eyes. “Riley, what’s in your hand?”
My pulse sped up and heat rushed to my face. “It’s nothing.”
I started to back away. “I’m… I… need to go to the bathroom.” I turned to go but Blake seized my wrist. I tried to pull away, but he pried my fingers open before I could.
“You’re not taking drugs while you’re working for me,” he snapped just before he saw the tiny horse. “This is… Fuck, it’s a little horse.”
I closed my fingers back around it and pulled away. “I know what it is.”
“Why wouldn’t you just—”
“Because you don’t have a right to know everything about me, okay? But I love that you just assumed anything I would hide would be drugs.”
“I’m sorry, Riley. Your father said—”
“Right. Because my father really knows me.” I turned to walk away again.
“I was wrong,” Blake said. His words froze me in my tracks. I hadn’t expected him to admit that. “I shouldn’t have made an assumption. I won’t listen to anything else he says about you.”
“Y-you won’t?”
“I promise.”
I turned around, and we stared at each other. The air felt thick between us. I wanted to hate Blake. I wanted to hate everything about this fucking ranch, but I didn’t. I liked the animals, and I was starting to appreciate how well Blake had everything running. I didn’t want to have to live with my father, but maybe I wouldn’t have to if I could just stick this out.
“The horse was supposed to be a good luck charm. A… friend gave it to me before I came back home.”
“Supposed to be?”
I moved closer to Blake. “Celeste—she taught an art class I took but she was also my friend—she thought I could find a way to do what my father wanted, to please him, and then maybe I could move back to Atlanta, and… I don’t know, but I don’t think it’s working.”
“Riley?”
I looked at him, and heat seared into me from his dark eyes. He was so close he seemed to surround me with his heat, his scent—sweat, fresh grass, and something musky that was just Blake. Need thrummed through me, dizzying me with its intensity. “Yes?”
“I believe in you.”
He held my gaze, and I reached for him, hooking my fingers in his belt loops and pulling him to me. His lips brushed mine. Then the barn door banged open, and we jumped apart.
“Blake? You in there?”
It was Casey, a ranch hand about my age and a fucking cock blocker.
Blake cleared his throat. “Back here. In the tack room.” He turned back to me. “I’m sorry. That shouldn’t have—”
“I wanted it, and you did too.”
Blake shook his head. “We can’t, Riley.” There wasn’t time for him to say anything else before Casey appeared in the doorway. “One of the pregnant cows is acting funny. I brought her into the covered pen for you to take a look.”
“Thanks, Casey. I’ll check her now. Why don’t you and Riley go have a look at the new fence. I’m hoping to move the cows back out there in the morning.”
“Yes, sir.”
Blake walked away, and I didn’t get another chance to talk to him alone that day.
The rest of the week passed and absolutely nothing happened between me and Blake, not that I’d thought it would. He wasn’t going to risk his job for me, and I shouldn’t want him to, but every time we touched as we worked, even the smallest brush of forearms, electricity crackled through me. Blake never acknowledged it, but I heard his intake of breath on more than one occasion. A few times when no one was near us, I glanced down and saw his hard cock pressing against his tight jeans.