“For . . . what didn’t happen.” She was digging herself deeper and deeper.
“Oh, that!” He chuckled. “Believe me, the one thing I wasn’t was mad. Crazy, maybe. But not mad. So shall we pretend to forget about it?”
“Yes. That’s a good idea.” Ignoring her blazing face, she changed the subject. “How’s my stallion doing?”
“He was fine early this morning. But he was a little stand-offish with me. I can tell he’s a one-woman horse. Maybe you should go and say hello to him.”
“I’ll do that.” Erin thought she might have been dismissed, but when she turned away and headed for the stallion barn, Luke walked with her.
“So, are you going to tell your father about our visitor?” he asked her. “For the record, I think you should.”
Erin shook her head. “There’s no point
in it now. My dad has enough worries on his mind. The same goes for Sky. Whoever came around and left those tracks, they’ve probably moved on.”
Shadows deepened around them as they walked into the stallion barn. The horses nickered and stirred, wanting attention. Erin stopped by Tesoro’s box. At the sound of her voice, the palomino thrust his elegant head over the gate. Erin stroked his satiny golden neck, whispering little words of praise as her fingers freed a tangle in his mane. In a moment, she moved to greet the other two stallions. As she stroked and talked to them, she sensed Luke’s eyes on her. The awareness rippled over her skin, like a breeze over quiet water.
“Horses always make me feel peaceful,” she said as they turned to go back the way they’d come. “Do they make you feel that way, too?”
“I never gave much thought to that,” Luke said. “I like horses. But I spend so much time with them, they’re just part of my work.” He slowed his step, allowing her to keep pace with him. “You’re not limping. Your ankle must be better.”
“It is, as long as I don’t overdo.”
“Have you told anyone else about our visitor? Maybe your boyfriend?”
Her calm mood evaporated. “No. And he’s not my boyfriend. We broke up last night, for good this time.”
“I wondered when I saw you get out of that smashed-up SUV. Not that it’s any of my business, but I hope the breakup didn’t have anything to do with his seeing you and me together.”
“Of course it didn’t. I was the one who broke up with him. I didn’t love him and I wasn’t ready to get married. And when I told him that, he started driving like a maniac. If he’d hit that cow on the road, he could’ve gotten us both—” She broke off as the realization struck her. “You saw me come home? What were you doing, waiting up for me?”
He looked at her as if she were five years old. “I’m not your babysitter, Erin. I was having trouble falling asleep, so I went outside and sat on the porch. That’s it. I was hired to shoe horses, not be your nanny.”
Go play with your dolls! The words were different, but the meaning was the same and stung just as deeply. She might be his boss’s daughter, but to Luke, she was nothing but a bothersome teenager.
“Fine. Maybe it’s time you got back to work. And I don’t need a babysitter or a nanny. I don’t need anybody looking out for me, especially you!”
She spun away from him and stalked toward the rectangle of sunlight at the far end of the barn. This man had opened her to a world of new sensations and emotions. But Luke Maddox was more than just exciting. He was also responsible, caring, and gentle, a man who could calm a frightened horse with a word and a touch. He was a man she could even love.
But he’d made it clear that he didn’t want her around. And why should he? As far as Luke was concerned, she was nothing but a privileged brat, no different from other ranchers’ daughters he’d met and brushed off.
She bit back a whimper as she stumbled over an uneven spot in the floor. A dart of pain shot into her ankle. Chin up, she kept moving toward the door.
“Erin.”
The hunger in his voice stopped her as surely as if he had reached out and seized her arm. She turned to see him standing where she’d left him, his hands at his sides, open in a gesture of surrender.
“Come here.”
Nothing, not even common sense, could have stopped her. She ran to him and flung herself into his arms. He caught her hard against him, lifting her off her feet as his lips found hers. His kiss ignited heat waves that spread through her body, as if every part of her had been touched with glowing flame.
His bare skin was cool and damp from the water. Her hands ranged like wild things over his body—the muscular planes of his shoulders, the crisp mat of hair that trailed down his chest to narrow and vanish under his jeans. As he deepened the kiss, she arched against him, aching to feel the full length of his body touching hers.
Her damp shirt clung to her breasts. She gasped as his hand brushed a sensitive nipple through the thin fabric. The light contact triggered shimmers of need in the depths of her body. She moaned, reveling in the new sensations. Never in her young years had she felt more alive.
Drunk on her own daring, she let her roaming hand move downward to the hard ridge that rose beneath his jeans. As she pressed it, he groaned, then suddenly thrust her away from him.
“My God, Erin, are you trying to get yourself raped?”