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Authors: Lisa Mondello

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BOOK: Nothing But Trouble
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She snapped her gaze at him and eased up on the reins only to have Dolly start off in her own direction.  “I didn’t mean it like that.  Don’t read more into my words than what’s there.”

When Dolly began veering off the path, Melanie pulled on the reins to keep the horse from wandering over to the grassy area.  The mare’s head bobbed up in protest.

“She’ll keep doing that.  She loves to snack.  You have to show her you’re in charge.”

Melanie was quiet for a moment.  “I didn’t grow up the way you think I did,” she finally said.

“It’s none of my business.”

“You asked.  You think you’ve got me figured out, but you don’t.  You think I’m just another spoiled rich girl who’s trying to get her way.  And you may be right, up to a point.  But it’s not what you think.”

He looked at her then, saw the vulnerability that softened her features.  She looked fragile, like the petal of a wildflower blowing in the wind.  He hated himself for what it made him want to do.  If they hadn’t been riding, he probably would have lifted her small body into his lap and kissed her until it brought a smile to her face.  She had that way about her that made a man want to hold her and protect her.  She was pretty when she smiled.  Different than the kind of beauty she held out for the world, like the woman she’d been when he first met her yesterday.  The woman he saw now was unpretentious and pure.  Something he hadn’t seen much in the women he’d known.

“Okay, I asked.  So tell me.”

It took her a while to start, as if she was trying to decide if maybe she didn’t want to talk about it at all.  Stoney figured that was her choice.  Curious or not he wasn’t going to push her.  Everyone had their own private thoughts and pains to wrestle.

“Most people think all I am is a pretty face.”  She blushed and dipped her gaze as if she were embarrassed.  “You think I’m beautiful, too, don’t you?”

He couldn’t help but look at Melanie then, as if he were transfixed by some force.  It was the last thing he’d expected her to say.  For any other woman to say those words, he would have thought it was a loaded question, meant to tease and taunt him.  Part of the game of seduction.

But in Melanie’s eyes, he didn’t see the playful game he’d seen in other women.  Although that was exactly what he thought--Melanie was indeed a beautiful woman, from her soft brown eyes right down to her luscious legs--not saying anything at all seemed like a better way to go.

“Some people raise their kids to play piano or do gymnastics or play football.”  She looked at him, her full lips tilting into a wry smile.  “Or ride bulls.”

He hadn’t realized she knew that he was a bull rider.  But then again, she’d spent a lot of time drinking tea and sharing small talk with his mother.  She could have had his whole life story spelled out by now from diapers to flunking grades.

“That one was my own doing,” he admitted, listening to the clip clop of the horses hooves on the trail.

“I was raised to be the beautiful woman on the arm of a congressman, or businessman, or whoever would elevate the family name in the business community.”

“I thought the world had progressed beyond that sort of thing.”

She chuckled.  “Wyoming might have been the first state to grant women the right to vote, but that doesn’t mean everyone came up to speed.  From the time I was a little girl, I was entered into one beauty pageant after another, sent to finishing school as if that was the only thing that I was good for.  I even had a coming out party when I was eighteen.  All the girls from my family’s circle of friends did.  It always seemed a bit archaic to me.”  She heaved a soft sigh and added quietly, “Still does.”

“So how is it that a debutante, destine to be the wife of a congressman, goes to college to become a Zoologist?”

“I was adamant about going to college for something other than social graces and how to organize a charity benefit.” 

She giggled finally and he decided he like the sound of her laughter.  It made his head feel a little lightheaded, the way the fresh air made him feel after a good hike up the mountains.  Only this time, it was the simple musical sound coming from Melanie that made him dizzy. 

“Thank God my other girlfriends didn’t have to suffer the same way I did where my parents’ attitude was concerned.  They were actually encouraged to do more with their lives.”

“No doubt you kicked up one hell of a hissy fit in protest.”  He eyed her teasingly.  No doubt the rebel in this woman emerged more than not.

“There’s more to me than what you see on the outside.  I've had to fight tooth and nail to get where I am now,” Melanie said, turning her attention away from him to the direction that Dolly seemed to want to go.  She made a clucking sound with her tongue and pulled on the reins, but Dolly wouldn’t have any part of it.  The horse made a beeline to a high grassy spot that had just come into view.  “Oh, heck.  All she wants to do is eat grass.”

“I told you.”

“Can we rest a while?”

He nodded.  “There’s a water hole just a few hundred yards.  The horses can get some water and we can rest.  Maybe we’ll even get lucky and find those strays.”

They rode the rest of the way in silence until they reached a small swampy pond located a little ways off the trail they’d been riding.  They dismounted and the horses led themselves to the water without any coaxing.

The sun was starting to sink in the sky, painting soft shades of pink and gray and amber over the mountains.  Long shadows stretched across the meadow on the far side of the pond where Melanie walked, picking cornflower blue wildflowers. 

He watched her, like he had so many times during the day, wondering what she was thinking, and how she’d managed to land herself here on Black Rock.  Sure Gerald Hammond had a hand in sending her his way.  What most men would consider a blessing--having a woman as pretty as Melanie for a whole month--Stoney considered a curse.  How the hell was he going to keep his mind out of the gutter when the woman had legs that went on for miles and sun kissed lips he couldn’t help but want to devour? 

“We’d better be getting back,” he called out to her. 

She swung around, and his breath caught in his throat just looking at her softness.  He didn’t like the way it made his body respond.  He had no business having a fling with a high society gal like Melanie.  Seeing her like this, all untamed and pretty like she was part of this life and the land itself, as if she’d always been here, made him forget just what kind of expectations a woman like she had.  Expectations he could never live up to.

He swallowed hard, trying not to think about how the setting sun made Melanie’s hair look like midnight and gave her smooth skin an exotic air.

Wild sex.  A fling.  Yeah, he could handle that.  Right now that was all he had to offer.  It was what he was used to on the rodeo circuit.  But he could tell that Melanie wasn’t the wild fling sort of woman.  She was the forever kind, and that meant hands off.  He had nothing to give a woman like Melanie Summers.  Nothing but trouble and hard living.

* * *

Melanie tossed her hair back over her shoulder with one hand, her fingers lightly grasping a bouquet of flowers in the other.  “So soon?  I thought you wanted to look for stray cattle.”

Stoney cleared his throat.  “I’d be worried if it was one of the cows were ready to calf.  Mitch can take care of it.”

“Give me a minute.  These daisy and wild irises are just too beautiful to pass by.”

Melanie lifted the bouquet to her nose, and closing her eyes, drew in a deep breath of the light sweet fragrance.  Bending down, she plucked a few more of the yellow flowers she didn’t know the name of and added them to the bunch she had already gathered.  She’d have to remember to ask Adele the name when they got back to the house.  Then she wrapped the flowers together with a green stem so as not to bruise them on the ride back.  “I thought Adele might like some flowers for the dinner table.  Does your mother like flowers?”

“What woman doesn’t?  It’s been a long time since she had fresh flowers set on the table.  She’ll be pleased.”

“Pretty aren’t they?”

“Yeah,” Stoney said. 

He cast her a long glance, his eyes dark with heat and then suddenly black with annoyance.  Abruptly, he turned away and mounted his horse.

Now what was that all about?  Cowboys.  Where they all so complicated or was it just Stoney?  One minute he seemed like he was actually beginning to enjoy her company, the next he acted like he hardly wanted her around.

It didn’t matter if Stoney Buxton enjoyed her company.  She needed Stoney to help guide her through the next month.  It didn’t matter if they were best friends or not.  It may make it more pleasant, but they didn’t have to like being together.

She pushed aside her hurt feelings and carefully secured her bouquet in the saddlebag before mounting Dolly.  Although the air was cooling off with nightfall just around the corner, Melanie felt beads of sweat trickle down her chest and the side of her face.  She quickly wiped her forehead with a shaky hand.

Her blood sugar must be low after all the exercise she’d done earlier, she realized.  She’d always been so regimented about exercise and eating on schedule to keep her diabetes under control.  She’d have to watch it more carefully from now on.  That was the whole reason for this trip.  To prove she could handle herself despite her medical condition. 

She wished she’d remembered to toss a small can of juice in the saddlebag before they left the ranch.  She’d need to get back quickly and have something to eat before her sugar got too low.

She needn’t have worried.  The ride back to the house took half the time it had taken them to get out to the pond. 

When they made it to the stables, Melanie quickly dismounted Dolly and put her in the stable, saddle still on her back.  “I need to get something to drink.  I’ll be right back in a few minutes to take care of Dolly.”

Stoney’s hard gaze sliced through her as she walked away at a quick pace.  Her hands were shaking bad, and fatigue was setting in.  She didn’t have time to test her blood.  If she didn’t get some sugar into her system, she was going to pass out, and then all hell would break loose.  Her expedition into the wilderness would be over before it even began.

Fifteen minutes later, after a glass of orange juice and a few crackers, she was feeling like herself again.  She rounded the corner to the stables where she found Stoney.  He didn’t look at her, just continued to brush down Dolly’s coat. 

“I told you I didn’t want you to pamper me.”

His voice was biting.  “The horses get taken care of first.”

“I told you I’d be right back.  I would have done that,” she said, reaching for the brush to stop his brisk motion.

The instant their hands touched, she felt a disturbing jolt of electricity.  It would have been easier to think that it was her anger waiting to be unleashed at Stoney’s inference that she abandoned Dolly’s needs.  Anger like she always had when her diabetes kept her from doing something that was important to her.

But anger had nothing to do with the surge of sensation racing through her, making her senses come to life.  It was the mere presence of Stoney standing close to her, their skin singing with a single touch.

His hands were rough and callused against hers, proof of the hard work that drove him on a daily basis.  A shiver of sensation tantalized her when she thought of what his hand would feel like on her neck, against her breast.  He didn’t move his hand, and she wondered if he felt the same surge of desire that had taken hold of her.  She lifted her gaze to his face.  The answer was clear.

BOOK: Nothing But Trouble
11.38Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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