Lovell, Cooper - Tessa's Highlander (Siren Publishing Classic) (6 page)

She was about to continue, her mad just getting good and warmed up, but the words simply melted on her tongue when Gavan turned his head up toward her from his kneeling position on the floor and looked at her. His amazing, deep amber gaze warm with an expression she couldn’t immediately identify. It looked like his eyes were pleading with her for something, and at the same time, there was just the tiniest bit of a smirk in the corner of his mouth, much like the one she thought she saw this morning when she’d first opened the door.

Oh, he was definitely
lickable
, but what a pain in the ass!

She stood stupidly, staring down into his ruggedly handsome face with her mouth still agape, rant completely forgotten, when he reached up and, placing a finger under her chin, pushed up to close her mouth.

“You might want tae be careful o’ catching flies with that trap, lass,” he said, and his mouth curved into a devastatingly sexy smile, the tip of his tongue playfully caught between his teeth.

“
Arrrrggghhhh
!” she growled, and, throwing her arms up in the air, stormed out of the room mumbling curses under her breath—something about overgrown, presumptuous, and personal space issues.

* * * *

There was no denying it. He’d already come to the conclusion before he’d allowed himself to look into her eyes that day that she would be the undoing of him. As he’d lifted his gaze upward to her, fully intending to let her get all her frustration out before pulling her to him to kiss her hard, he’d resigned himself to the fact that trying to resist her was a losing battle. To hell with avoiding her in order to keep from feeling the pain he would be exposing himself to by falling for a wild spirit. He wanted her and would be satisfied with any part of her he could get, if only for a short while.

For over a week they’d been sniping at each other. He repeatedly found himself pushing her buttons just to see those beautiful eyes turn dark, her cute ass jiggle as she stormed about, and to hear her mutter her highly inventive and frequently very witty curses. But as much as he enjoyed getting her ire up, he loved discovering the sweetness she tried to hide. She thought she was some tough little cookie, but no matter how angry he made her over something stupid, a midmorning cup of coffee prepared just the way he liked it and some delicious homemade treat appeared for him every day. He’d overheard her on the phone several times discussing the details of making an appearance to raise money for animal shelters, playgrounds, and other community endeavors.

He walked through the house in search of her, with the intention to tell her how he felt. The sight of her retreating form caught his eye through the patio doors that faced the back acreage. Tessa was storming toward the barn, obviously intending to take out one of her horses since the
Keds
had been replaced by well-worn, black riding boots. He’d seen the pictures of her in the library, dressed in her riding habit as a little girl and teenager in various competitions and exhibitions. Having been raised on his family’s horse farm, Gavan knew that there were times that only a good, long ride would give a person the time and solace needed to sort things out and calm down.

Judging by her stride and the poker-straight carriage of her spine, one of those horses was in for a long afternoon.

Chapter Five

Gavan couldn’t look away from her. She rode away from him, and because she rode English, her lush bottom raised from the saddle, her lithe legs gripping the animal between them. A pang of envy at the horse, currently held between her delicious thighs, coursed through him. Her hair bounced and shimmered with her every movement making him long to wrap his fists in it and pull her to him. He watched intently as she put the horse through his paces, every movement of her body the source of a new aching desire in his own.

At the far end of the pasture, she turned the horse back toward the barn and once again he could see her face.
Gah
, she was beautiful. The icy weather had painted her high cheekbones a comely, pale pink against her light olive skin. Her eyes glistened and danced with excitement and she wore an expression of pure elation, her smile wide and unaffected.

“Gavan, you are in some serious trouble.” He sighed aloud to himself.

* * * *

Normally, Tessa would be more conservative in which mount she chose. She’d been working slowly with the high-spirited horse and had made a little progress with him, but today she was up to do battle with the huge, white beast who seemed to have a stubborn streak as long and wide as her own. After apologizing to Aladdin because taking out another horse felt like a betrayal somehow, she saddled Blanco and climbed up.

The proud, intimidating stallion trotted out of the barn, his high spirit held closely in check by his rider. Tessa nudged the great, white beast’s flanks with her heels to incite a canter, then again to increase the horse’s pace to a relaxed gallop.

Halfway across the pasture, Tessa nudged Blanco into a full gallop and directed him to the low spot in the fence, which the horse easily cleared. Exhilarated, feeling the cold wind in her face and the horse’s muscles moving between her thighs, Tessa guided Blanco toward the tree line for a long, therapeutic ride.

Once within in the trees, Tessa coaxed the animal to a walk and her mind began to swirl.

“Ho-lee crap! What the hell was that?” she asked Blanco. “I mean, come
on.
He ignores me for days on end, no wait, he provokes me constantly for days on end and is the rudest, most arrogant bastard I’ve ever had the displeasure to encounter, and then all at once he whips a charming sense of humor out of his pocket?”

She stopped talking to maneuver around a large stump and under a low-hanging limb before continuing.

“He actually smiled! Oh, yeah. I thought I saw one as soon as I opened the door this morning, but it disappeared so fast, I thought I’d imagined it. But, there in the library, I caught not only another smirk, but was lucky enough to have a full-on, dazzling smile bestowed upon little
ol
’ me. And, oh, Blanco, what that smile did to me! Who’d have thought the man had such a gorgeous smile? Whew!” She stopped talking and let her mind wander over his sinfully sexy lips and all the things she wanted to tell him to do with them as she leaned forward to stroke the horse’s smooth neck.

“Blanco, I swear, his sexy smile threw me for such a loop that when he actually cracked a joke, albeit at my expense, I couldn’t get it together fast enough to do anything but leave the room. Honestly, I don’t think I could have strung words together to form a sentence if my life had depended on it at that point. Until then, I didn’t think he was capable of anything more than grunting. Heck, I have to admit that I’ve been just the tiniest bit afraid of him. I mean, he’s all broody and huge.” Tessa giggled as she poured her heart out to her new “therapist,” who responded aptly with well-placed snorts, huffs, and ear wiggles.

“Oh, and do I even need to bring up that out-of-left-field kiss the other night? I mean talk about hot! I felt my body react more to that one kiss than all the times I’ve ever had actual sex put together. Whew! I just don’t understand what made him change his mind. Nothing was changing mine at that point. I just know those lips are capable of amazing things.

“Maybe he’s just really shy or something, right? I mean, what if I was just too forward for him at first and I put him on guard. Okay,
seriously
on guard. I suppose that doesn’t matter, though, right? He seems to be coming around. Maybe we’ll be able to work together. I guess when I get back to the house I’ll call Jaime and tell him I was mistaken when I left that message the other night. Then maybe I’ll work on being a little nicer to Mr. Murdoch.”

Feeling like she had a firmer grasp on the situation, Tessa grew silent and enjoyed wandering aimlessly through the woods, letting her mind have its way with Gavan’s gorgeous body.

* * * *

Silently cursing the amount of time he’d had to waste going from one lumber yard to another to get just the quality he required, Gavan was surprised when he entered the house hours later to find that Tessa hadn’t returned from her ride yet. A protective swell moved through him and he began to worry when he noted that the sun was sinking in the winter sky. As he stood at the sliding patio door to look out at the forest that lined the back of the property she’d disappeared into earlier, debating on whether or not he should saddle up one of the other horses and go looking for her, Tessa burst out of the woods, kicking the great white stallion into full gallop. Immediately, Gavan could see that something was wrong. Very wrong.

As he reached for the handle to slide the door open, the danger at hand came into his full view. Three feral looking dogs were fast on the hooves of the horse. Tessa was standing in the stirrups, leaning forward over the horse’s neck, urging him to run faster, but the dogs were gaining. Her sandy-colored mane whipped behind her, a look of determination laced with pure fear on her face.

Seeing her in danger propelled Gavan into action. He ran to the barn to grab a shovel he spied leaning outside and turned to run toward Tessa and the danger closing in behind her.

That’s when it happened.

One of the dogs leaped and grabbed the big white steed’s right rear leg. The horse bucked and kicked out behind it, catching two of the dogs, sending them reeling, loud yelps of pain cutting the air. As though he realized that his pack size had dwindled, the third dog turned tail and ran back toward the woods. Being out of immediate danger didn’t quell the horse’s distress, though, and he continued to buck and rear. Just as the two momentarily dazed dogs rose and ran to the woods to join their turncoat friend, Tessa lost her mount, flew through the air, and fell to the ground, landing with a thud and a cry of pain.

Gavan was upon her in an instant. Not wanting to move her in case of spinal injury, he dropped to his knees, gently caressed her face with his big, rough hand, and begged her to open her eyes.

“Please lass, open your eyes and look at me. I’m
goin
’ tae run and call an ambulance, just try tae look at me first and tell me you’re okay,” he pleaded.

Tessa’s eyes fluttered open. “Okay?” she moaned, “No, I’m
not
okay. I feel like an ass, I’m pissed off, and my ankle hurts like hell!”

Gavan, stunned, just looked at her beautiful face for a moment and then sat back on his heels to laugh with nervous relief. He brought his hand to his face and rubbed the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger. Leave it to her to immediately be so irritated at what could have been a very tragic incident.

Placing one arm behind her back and the other under her knees, he scooped her up like she was no more substantial than a rag doll and headed toward the house.

She squirmed in his arms. “Gavan, I have to get Blanco. I don’t even know where he ran to.” As she said this, they both looked in the direction of the barn and saw the white stallion standing next to it, munching on the recent alfalfa delivery she’d planned to haul into the barn when she returned from her ride.

Seeing that the horse was obviously content and going nowhere, Gavan said, “I’ll get you
intae
the house and settled with your ankle up, then I’ll see tae the horse. My family has a horse farm, so don’t worry, he’ll be in capable hands.”

Once in the house, Gavan planted Tessa on the couch and gingerly removed her riding boots. With great care, he assessed her ankle to decide whether or not they needed to rush directly to the emergency room or if he did, in fact, have time tend to the horse and get it to safety before the feral dogs returned. He instinctively knew that if Tessa wasn’t in dire need of medical attention and something happened to her horse, she would be devastated. After a few minutes of inspecting, flexing, and extending—all the while enjoying having her delicate little foot in his hands—Tessa convinced him that she would be fine for a little while with an ice bag, a glass of water, and some ibuprofen. Gavan propped the twisted ankle up on a pile of pillows and placed a bag of frozen peas atop it. He handed Tessa her glass of water and the pills, asked three times if she needed anything else, and left to take care of Blanco.

* * * *

By leaning off the side of the couch as far as possible, palm on the floor to support her upper body, and craning her neck way to the side, Tessa managed to watch the rear view of Gavan walk all the way to the awaiting Blanco. She wasn’t aware of pain in her ankle at all as he covered the distance from the house to the barn. Ibuprofen or even morphine couldn’t hold a candle to that sight as a painkiller. When he took hold of Blanco’s reigns to lead him into the barn and was out of sight, Tessa leaned back and closed her eyes to relax.