Destined for Love (Love in Bloom: The Bradens, Book 2) Contemporary Romance (2 page)

“A girl like me? I’ll have you know that I’m a vet, and I’ve worked around horses my whole life.” She felt her cheeks redden and crossed her arms, jutting her hip out in the defiant stance she’d taken throughout her teenage years.

“So I hear.” He lowered his chin and lifted his gaze, looking at her from beneath the shadow of his Stetson. “From the looks of it, all that vet schooling didn’t do you much good, now, did it?”

Ugh!
He was maddening. Jade pursed her lips and stalked away in a huff. “Forget it. I can do this by myself.”

“Sure you can,” he mused.

She felt his eyes on her back as she took Flame’s reins and tried to lead him up the steep incline. The enormous horse took only three steps before stopping cold. She grunted and groaned, pleading with the horse to move, but Flame was hurt, and he’d gone stubborn on her. Her face heated to a flush.

“You keep doing what you’re doing. I’ll be back in an hour to get you and that lame horse of yours.”

An hour, great
. She was aching to tell him to hurry, but she knew how long it took to hook up the horse trailer, and she had no idea how he’d get it all the way down by the ravine. She watched him ride away, feeling stupid, embarrassed, angry, and insanely attracted to the ornery jerk of a man.

“WHERE’RE YOU HEADED?” Treat, Rex’s oldest brother, hollered as Rex hooked up the horse trailer.

Treat owned upscale resorts all over the world, and up until six months earlier—when he’d fallen in love with Max Armstrong, a woman he’d met at their cousin Blake’s wedding—he’d traveled eighty percent of the time, negotiating deals and conquering competition. Rex had watched Treat change and adapt his life to match his newfound love. Within a few short weeks, he’d hired corporate underlings to take over much of his traveling, and he’d decided to put down roots in Weston and help Rex and their father on the ranch.

Rex was glad for the help, and Treat was a good man. They were long past the angst he’d felt about Treat taking off after college to start his resort empire, leaving Rex to hold down the fort at home. And even though they’d confided in each other many times over the years, Rex held his tongue when it came to admitting exactly whom he was helping that chilly morning. He wasn’t proud to be helping a Johnson—even a beautiful, feisty one like Jade—but how could he leave her stranded? Hell, who was he kidding? His body was still humming from their brief encounter. There was no way he’d turn away—and there was no way he’d give his family a reason to doubt his honor.

“Just helping a buddy out. I’ll be back in an hour or so,” Rex answered, climbing into the smallest pickup truck they owned. He figured it would take him twenty minutes to get to the road that led into the ravine and another twenty minutes to maneuver down the shoreline—if the truck and trailer could even make it.
Maybe I should call her own damned family to get her
. He couldn’t shake the feeling that he was on the verge of something dangerous, and he couldn’t turn away, either. Rex Braden didn’t leave damsels in distress. No matter who they were.

“Want me to come along?” Treat asked.

“No!” He didn’t mean to sound so emphatic. “Sorry, it’s early. Just get started on the morning rounds. Can you give Hope some water, too? I exercised her this morning.”

“Sure, got it covered.”

THE GRASSY STRIP along the shore was too narrow to take the truck all the way down to Devil’s Bend, but he got pretty damned close. He wrestled with the lie he’d told Treat. Lying wasn’t something he enjoyed, but if his father found out he helped a Johnson, all hell was liable to break loose. Rex had made the mistake of mentioning Jade’s brother, Steve, after he pummeled Steve in high school for making a smart-ass comment about Rex’s younger sister, Savannah. He’d never forget his father’s eyes turning almost black and the gravelly, angry sound of his voice when he told him that the Johnson name was never to be spoken in their home—
And when I say never, I mean never.

He reached Devil’s Bend and slowed his pace before moving around the final curve. Jade spurred a hunger in him that he’d never felt for another woman. It was a risky game he was playing, allowing himself to be in the cab of the truck with Jade. He’d survived his attraction to her for all these years by steering clear of her—and now that he was about to come as close as he’d ever been with the woman he’d secretly pined for, he wondered if he’d be able to behave.

Jade’s voice carried around the bend. “You’re such a beautiful boy. You know I’d do anything for you, even get a ride with that obnoxious hunk of a man.”

Rex’s muscles tensed.
Obnoxious?
Okay, yeah, he could be obnoxious. It was the
hunk
part that gripped him in all the right places.

“What kind of a man treats a woman like that? Huh, Flame? An arrogant, self-centered one, that’s what kind—and he probably has a tiny little thing in his pants, too—spurring on all that anger behind those rippling muscles.”

What the hell was he doing here?
Tiny little thing? I’ll show you a tiny little thing!
He considered leaving her there, but that would just give credence to her gibberish.

He took a deep breath and stomped around the corner. “Let’s go,” he said.

Jade flashed a victorious smile, telling him she’d known he was there all along.

She looked past him. “Where’s your trailer?”

The way the sun reflected off of her blue eyes, making them appear almost translucent, stole all of his attention. Why did she have to be so damned pretty? Why couldn’t she be a horrendously ugly woman instead of a skinny little flick of a woman with a wide mouth that he couldn’t help but want to kiss? Standing beside his six-foot-three frame, she was at least a foot shorter than him, even with those fancy boots on.

She narrowed her eyes, and he fought the urge to lean down and take her mouth in his, to taste those lips, feel her tongue, and fill his hands with her firm breasts.

“Hello?” she said with an annoyed wave of her hand. “Could you stop ogling me long enough to help me with my horse?”

Shit
. What was wrong with him? He shook off the momentary fantasy and grabbed the horse’s reins. All that sexual frustration came out as a grunt and a harsh, “Let’s go,” as he marched off with her horse, as if Flame had been following him all his life, leaving her to scurry after him.

“How far is it?” she asked.

He stared at the ground before him, feeling the poor horse limping behind him. What the hell was she thinking? She couldn’t weigh more than a buck five. She shouldn’t be out here alone. Anything could happen to her.

“How’d you get the trailer down here? Was it difficult to come down the hill?”

He was so busy trying to calm his raging hard-on that his answer came out as a snap. “Jesus, just walk.”
I
am
an ass
.

She stomped ahead of him then, and he didn’t have to worry about being annoyed by her questions anymore, because as they loaded the horse in the trailer and settled into the small cab, she didn’t say one word.

He didn’t mean to be so unfriendly, but damn it, how was he supposed to react? She was so damned hot, and so damned annoying. Most women swooned over Rex, and this one…this one was downright pesty. And her sweet perfume was infiltrating not only his senses, but he could feel its delicious scent settling into his clothes. He rolled down his window as they pulled out of the narrow, winding dirt road that led away from the ravine. He navigated around giant potholes and took the ride as slow as he possibly could to protect the horse.

He stole a glance at her as she stared out the passenger window like a sullen child. Her slender nose tilted up at the tip, her cheekbones were high, like his mother’s had been, and her neck was long and graceful.

The left wheel caught on a pothole and her body flew toward him as he brought the truck to a quick stop. She caught herself with her right hand on the dashboard and her left hand clutching his forearm. For a moment their eyes locked, and he swore he saw the same want in her eyes that he felt stirring within him. How good would it feel to lean over and place his mouth over her sensuous lips?

In the next breath, she was tearing herself away from him, breathing fire, her eyes dark as night, as she scrambled out of the cab. She tugged the edges of her shorts down and stomped to the back of the trailer, where she swung the doors open.

“If you hurt him, I’ll kill you!”

What the hell was I thinking?
Rex walked calmly to the rear, where the horse was safe as could be.

Jade closed the trailer doors and wagged her finger inches from Rex’s face. “Don’t you hurt that horse or else, you hear me? Who taught you to drive anyway?”

He smiled. How could he not? She looked adorable spouting off threats like she could carry them out. He had to stop thinking of her in terms of cute and sexy. She was a Johnson, end of story. He headed back toward the truck.

“Smiling? You’re laughing at me?” She stalked back to the truck.

He climbed in beside her, and she stewed the rest of the way. He finally pulled up beside the trees at the top of her property and stopped the truck. Without a word, afraid of what might come out of his mouth, Rex stepped from the truck and headed for the trailer.

“Aren’t you bringing him down to the barn?” she asked, hurrying out of truck.

He lowered the ramp and backed the horse out.

“Nope,” he said.

“What? What kind of gentleman are you?” She yanked Flame’s reins from his hands.

“The kind that knows better than to walk on Johnson property.” He tipped his hat and smiled. “You’re welcome.” He wanted nothing more than to drive down that driveway with her in the cab of the truck, if for no other reason than to be next to her for a little longer, but he’d taken enough of a risk bringing her this far. He wouldn’t dare give Earl Johnson any reason to start breathing down his father’s back. He needed to get away from the Johnson property, and he needed another damned icy cold shower.

JADE STOOD IN the road, watching Rex’s truck disappear around the corner. Everything she thought she’d known about Rex Braden when they were younger seemed to still be true. He was a grumpy, cocky, beautiful man.
Damn him
. She had to admit, though, the fact that he’d actually spoken to her—and helped her get her horse out of the ravine—was far more than she’d ever thought possible between a Johnson and a Braden.

She walked Flame down the long driveway and into the barn. The familiar smell of manure and hay wrapped around her like a warm hug. The smell was too pungent for most people, but to Jade it represented everything she’d ever known and loved. It represented home. The sounds of the other horses brought a smile to her face, as she’d soon be setting them free in the pasture. She stroked Rudy’s jaw as she passed his stall. Rudy was one of her favorite horses. He was a bright red sorrel with white stockings and a blaze, and he was not only magnificent to look at, but his spunky personality reminded Jade of herself. She wasn’t exactly a rebel, but she wasn’t a conformist either, often leaving her family and friends, and even herself, to wonder what she might do next.

She was relieved to find that Flame was no longer favoring his leg. She turned on soothing music and took a few deep breaths to calm herself down before moving to Flame’s side. She closed her eyes for just a moment to focus her mind on Flame instead of Rex. She concentrated on his breathing and found the rhythm of his breath and his heartbeat. She ran her hands along Flame’s back and sides, soothing his body with a series of slow, gentle strokes. She felt her body relaxing as the music and the feel of the horse soothed her as much as she did him. Jade had always believed that touch could heal, and although she put medicine first, she believed in a more holistic, compassionate approach to animal health care, and she included touch, which she also studied, in most of her healing protocols.

She wondered what Rex would be like if someone took the time to touch him in a soothing way. He reminded her of an injured animal. At first glance, they were cute and you just wanted to touch them, but get too close and they would bare their teeth. Jade knew the secret, though. Once she moved past those teeth and soothed their injuries, they were just as gentle as she first imagined they might be.

Yeah, right.

She really wasn’t sure what to make of Rex. One minute he was mean as a snake and the next he was going out of his way to help her. She’d thought there was a flash of something between them when she’d been practically knocked into his lap. She had the overwhelming urge to kiss him, but then she looked into those dark Braden eyes and she saw a flash of something dangerous there—the heat of which she might not be able to resist—and she bolted. Besides, he ran so hot and cold that he’d probably reel her in only to turn her away, and she was
not
going to be the girl Rex turned down. That would be all she needed. Especially in their small town.

 She ran her hand down Flame’s healthy legs, gently squeezing each muscle beneath her hands before moving to the injured limb. She moved carefully along the areas behind his knee, no longer quite as worried about a ligament or tendon injury. He might have just had a bad step. She ran her fingers along the back of his knee and was relieved that there didn’t appear to be any swelling or tenderness to the touch.

After icing his leg, she went back into her father’s house to check her work schedule for the day. She wanted to make sure she had time to ice Flame’s leg a few more times.

“Hey there, darlin’,” her father called from his office.

She grabbed her calendar from the table by the door and walked into his modest office.

“Hi, Daddy.” She kissed him on the cheek. Earl Johnson was a big man, weighing in at almost three hundred pounds. Even with his six-foot stature, there was no way around that belly of his. Her father had retired from his job as an agricultural engineer just a few years earlier.  All her life, he’d managed their ranch in addition to his career. It seemed as though he worked from the moment he returned home from his job until long after she had gone to bed. And even with all that hard work, she couldn’t remember a time when he wasn’t heavy. He was a man who worked hard and loved to eat, and the combination caused Jade to worry about his health.

“Your brother called,” her father said. “He’s coming over next weekend. Your mother was thinking about lunch Sunday afternoon.”

“Sure,” she said, writing it in her calendar. Jade was a visual woman. She’d tried to use the electronic calendar on her phone, but it drove her crazy. She still relied on paper calendars and she assumed she always would.

“You heading out to the Marlows’ ranch today?” he asked.

“Yeah, I was planning on checking on their mare before going to see my other clients.” She flopped onto the upholstered chair beside his desk as she flipped through her calendar.

“You okay, sweetie?”

She nodded. “Yeah, I took Flame out, and he took a bad step. He seems fine, but I was stupid to do it.”

“I wondered where you’d gone so early.”

She read concern in her father’s blue eyes, which had recently begun to look more gray than blue. Rex’s words played in her mind.
The kind that knows better than to walk on Johnson property.
Maybe she’d just feel him out a little and see if the feud still ran as close to the surface as she remembered.

“I saw Rex Braden when I was out riding this morning.”

Her dad lifted his eyes from the spreadsheet on his desk and in a calm, even voice said, “You did, did you?” He pressed his lips into a firm line, and a deep vee formed between his thick brows.

Chills ran up Jade’s back. She recognized that shadowy look in his eye. She’d been reading her father’s moods since she was a little girl. She felt the cadence of his breathing, measured his body language, and tested the waves of his stare, just as she did with the animals she cared for. At that moment, she saw a storm brewing behind those eyes and realized that the bad feelings toward the Bradens hadn’t lessened one bit. Her father wasn’t an aggressive man. One look was usually enough to get her or Steve to walk away from whatever he might find offensive.

“I’d better go get started before the day gets away from me.” She rose to her feet.

As she passed his desk, her father reached for her hand with his warm, fleshy fingers.  “Darlin’, now, you know better than to do anything to embarrass this family, right?”

There was that stare again.

“Dad, I’m over thirty years old. Have I ever embarrassed you?” She flashed her best daddy’s-little-girl grin to hide her clenching stomach.

“No, I don’t guess you have. Just you stay away from those Bradens.” He dropped his eyes back to the desk with a dismissive nod.

Jade sighed.
Hal Braden was your best friend for years. Isn’t it time to bury the hatchet?
She walked out of his office knowing she’d never have the courage to say any of those things. Small towns bred small-town values: family loyalties and hard work. Who was she to break that bond? No matter how much she might want to.