Bad Boy Romance: Nick (Romantic Suspense Alpha Male Romance) (New Adult Rock Star Contemporary Short Stories) (Hard Rock Star Series Book 2) (22 page)

Ava's head filled with naughty
images of the delectable cowboy, wondering if he was as skilled in other areas
as he appeared to be in training horses and aspiring, young horse trainers.
Perhaps a week at the ranch wouldn't be such a horrible experience now. With
eye candy like that, who cares about mucking out barns or chasing away
chickens. She'd do it all happily if she could keep that talented cowboy in her
sights. Maybe she should make the suggestion to the owner—he'd have a whole lot
more guests on the ranch. Hell, women would flock in hordes to watch that man
at work. Ava had always figured herself to be the kind of girl who would go
crazy over a hot fireman or sexy policeman, but she couldn't imagine any one of
them—or even a whole group of them—holding a candle to this guy.

He looked up then, glancing in
her direction. His eyes found her, grazing over her body from head to toe. It
was an incredibly bold move, given that he knew she could see him, and Ava
couldn't help but wonder if the sexy cowboy was more cocky or confident. At the
same time, she could feel heat begin to creep into her cheeks and she nearly
laughed aloud; she was blushing like an inexperienced school girl!

“Great,” she thought wryly.
“Next, he'll have me tongue-tied and giggling like a teenager, too.”

He turned away a moment later,
the young horse trainer garnering his attention. Ava turned away, too, heading
back into the cabin, still smiling over her silly, adolescent response to the
sexy wrangler. Christie was there, all ready to head up to the house for lunch
with Will, and by the time they walked back outside the cabin, the wrangler was
gone; only the boy and the horse remained in the training pen and he was
nowhere in sight.

“Am I imagining things?” she
thought half-humorously, wondering if perhaps the country air was messing with
her head and she'd imagined the too-hot-to-be-real cowboy.

Wandering up to the house, the
door was open for them before they reached the top of the front porch, Will
already standing there beyond the threshold.

“Come on in,” he welcomed them,
leading them to the oversized dining room beyond the front foyer. “This is
Noah. He's um...a wrangler here,” Will motioned to the man walking into the
room from the opposite direction.

“Oh, thank God,” Ava thought
silently. It wasn't only that she got to see the sexy wrangler again—sure, it
was a nice perk—but his presence there confirmed that she wasn't losing her
marbles.

“You joining us for lunch,
Noah? I'm sure these fine ladies wouldn't object to your company,” Will
offered, the light of an ever-ready matchmaker gleaming in his eyes.

Noah was silent for just a
moment, his eyes grazing over Ava just as they had outside of the cabin. He
spoke to Will without turning to look at him. “I really wish I could, Will. Unfortunately,
I need to get a few hours in if I'm going to see what I can do with the new
arrival later on.” His eyes stayed fixed on Ava as he spoke, and while she had
no idea what he was talking about, it seemed to her there was a double innuendo
in his words. And if she was the “new arrival,” she'd love to find out what he
could do with her, too.

He left then and the remaining
occupants of the room sat down at the table as a plump, middle-aged woman
brought in a giant tray, laden with food that smelled a thousand times better
than anything Ava or her roommates could whip up in between classes.

Will chattered on about life on
the ranch as they ate, and Ava had to admit that it sounded a little more
interesting than she had originally thought—at least it didn't seem that he
spent all his time knee-deep in...less appealing aspects of the job. He offered
to take them out to the training pen after lunch to see a wrangler in action,
but as they strolled over to the fence, she experienced a small wave of disappointment,
hoping it would have been the sexy wrangler from earlier working with the
horse. Instead, Will introduced them to John, an experienced cowboy who'd been
working on the ranch for decades. He held a long rope in his hand, attached to
the horse's bridle, and he spoke loudly but calmly to the docile creature,
leading it around the pen. Though he never used it, the man held a whip draped
over one arm, and Ava covered her mouth aghast when she first saw it. Will was
quick to explain that the whip was never used to harm or discipline the horse.
The pressure exerted was only ever enough to express to the horse how it should
move. Ava wasn't entirely convinced; she couldn't help but wonder if there
wasn't a better way to train the horse.

The rest of the day passed by
in a hurry, Christie pulling Ava along to one area of the ranch or another. As
the two returned to the cabin long after night had fallen, Christie headed for
bed while Ava opted to indulge her tired legs in a relaxing dip in the hot tub.
Turning on the jets, she climbed in, and instantly she could feel the luxurious
heat of the water soothing her muscles. Closing her eyes, she leaned back as
images of the sexy wrangler sprang to her mind. “Oh no you don't,” she
chastised herself. This was intended to be a relaxing bath, not a stimulating
one, and given that her vibrator was miles away back at home, sexy men and
naughty sex needed to be the furthest things from her mind.

Stepping out of the tub, she
wrapped a towel around her and tiptoed to her bedroom in search of clothing. It
was too warm for a bathrobe, so she opted for a strapless, azure blue sundress
instead with an A-line fit and a hem that fell to mid-thigh. Now too revved up
for sleep, she walked out onto the front porch, the lights from the training
pen catching her attention immediately.

“Damn,” she breathed,
relinquishing all hope that her mind and body might settle down. “Out of the
hot tub and into the fire,” she mocked herself dryly.

The sexy cowboy was there with
a different horse than the one she'd seen him and the young trainer with
earlier that day. He had ditched the cowboy hat, no longer needing it to shield
his eyes from the sun, and she could see that his hair was dark, left just long
enough that it added to his rugged appeal.

The horse was larger than the
one from earlier and jet black without a single marking anywhere on its body.
Its head was lowered slightly, waving back and forth from side to side, and its
ears appeared pinned back, near his neck. It pawed the ground with his foreleg
forcefully, and although Ava had no experience with horses, its body spoke
volumes in a language that even she could understand. The horse was nervous,
angry, untamed, and there was no one else there for it to vent its aggression
on but the cowboy.

It wasn't wearing a bridle or
saddle, and the cowboy had no whip like the man she'd seen earlier. Noah
appeared to have absolutely no way to get the horse under control but he also
wasn't moving out of its way. Ava's pulse sped up, her breath catching in her
throat. Instead of retreating, the man moved in closer, meeting the horse's
gaze directly and speaking to it in hushed tones. Slowly, the animal's head
stilled, its ears turned forward and slowly, it ceased pawing at the ground.
The cowboy continued to speak quietly, his hand coming up to touch the side of
the horse's head. He held his hand still for a moment and then stroked the
horse gently.

Ava hadn't realized she'd been
moving forward until then, down the steps of the front porch and halfway across
the distance that had been between them. She stopped, watching, mesmerized by
the way the man calmed the wild animal. It was breathtaking. He moved along the
length of the horse, talking all the while, and then steered the horse's
direction with a single, firm push. It began to follow his rudimentary
commands, obeying the cowboy, moving around the pen. He stopped each time the
horse seemed to be getting riled up, calming him with only his hands and voice.
Ava didn't know how long he continued; it could have been seconds or hours, she
really wasn't sure. The cowboy stopped then, reaching for a bridle slung over
the fence. Approaching the horse slowly, he fit it into place, though the horse
began to paw at the ground lightly, increasing Ava's heart rate once again.
But, as soon as the cowboy was finished, the pawing stopped.

Stroking the horse's head with
one hand, he reached into a container behind him, retrieving a handful of apple
slices and feeding them to the horse one at a time. Patting the horse for a job
well done, he turned then, spotting Ava right away. He looked at her for a
moment, his hand moving to calm the horse who had begun to paw nervously again,
noticing Ava's presence. As the pawing ceased, the cowboy started over toward
her, and although she hadn't the slightest idea what to say—a rare occurrence
for Ava—she moved forward, slowly closing the distance between them.

“He's brand new here,” the
cowboy spoke, saving Ava from having to delve deep for some witty remark. “I
bought him from a man who was going to make him into a gelding, thinking he was
too unruly to ever be manageable.”

“But, you were able to train
him,” she replied, disturbed by the thought of such an atrocity over an
animal's natural behavior.

He smiled then, “Not exactly. He'll
let me near him, sure, and he'll even follow a command or two, but it will be a
while before he's letting me ride him without bucking me off every chance he
gets.”

“How did you do it? I mean,
Will was explaining how it works earlier, and there were ropes and whips...”

“I just do things a little
differently. The trick is to start off fully knowing the horse will respond,
instead of trying to convince him to. He recognizes that. He trusts that you
know what you're doing,” he said simply, opening the pen's gate and stepping
out, closing it firmly behind him. “It's like walking into a room full of
toddlers; you have to know you've got everything under control or they'll walk,
run, skip, hop and jump all over you.”

“Come on,” he motioned for Ava
to follow. “I'll show you.”

“Sure thing,” she replied
aloud. “But I bet you've got other tricks I'd love for you to show me,” she
added silently. Though, she was genuinely interested in how the cowboy managed
to control a horse so easily.

“You haven't spent much time
around horses,” he surmised accurately.

“No, not once before today
actually. I thought I was a city girl through-and-through, but I'm enjoying it
here much more than I thought I would.” “Of course, the sexy scenery doesn't
hurt,” she mused wordlessly.

He led her beyond the barn to
another corral, stopping briefly to ask a young man in the barn to bring out a
particular horse. He opened the pen gate, motioning for Ava to step inside, and
she did so nervously, not certain she wanted to come face to face with a wild
animal like the one in the other pen. A moment later though, she breathed a
small sigh of relief, the young man leading a much smaller, more docile-looking
horse into the pen.

Noah removed the horse's reins,
patting its head and speaking quietly once again. He started moving then,
signaling for the horse to follow—and it did. He stopped and the horse came to
a halt.

“Come here,” he told her, and
she complied, feeling a bit like the obedient horse for a second.

Taking her hand, he guided her
fingers to the horse as a tremor of desire surged up her arm in response to his
touch. He continued to guide her, stroking along the horse's head, and Ava did
her best to focus on the task at hand instead of the cowboy's body, so close to
her own. He released her hand then and she nearly sighed in disappointment,
reining in her response at the last second. She continued to stroke the horse,
surprised by the sleek, soft feel.

“Now, tell her what you want
her to do,” he told Ava, moving directly behind her.

“I'd love to tell you what I
want you do to,” Ava spoke, realizing too late that she'd spoken aloud, heat
creeping into her cheeks once again.

“I'd love to hear what it is
you want me to do,” he responded easily, his voice huskier, just a hair's
breadth from her ear. “But first, we should finish with Maggie, or she might
feel jilted, coming out here for nothing,” he continued, but he was suddenly
even closer than before, his lips lingering close to her ear while she could
feel the heat radiating from his body, now less than an inch away from hers.

She nodded, grateful the cowboy
couldn't see her face at the moment, giving her a chance to regain her
composure. “I want her to follow me,” Ava told him, turning her head as she
spoke, finding his eyes bright with desire.

Taking her hand, Noah showed
her the command she'd need and then stood back just a step to let Ava take the
helm. Feeling a little silly, she stood tall, summoning all the confidence she
had, and motioned to the horse. Maggie started toward her instantly and Ava
smiled, taking a step back to start moving around the pen.

“Um, how do I tell her to
stop,” Ava asked the second time around the pen, realizing that they might
continue around in circles all night otherwise, Maggie appearing perfectly
content to follow Ava's movements.

Noah showed her from where he
stood, leaning against the fence, watching her from the other side of the pen.
She motioned for Maggie to stop and the horse complied instantly. Ava reached
out her hand automatically, stroking the animal's smooth head, pleased with
their mutual accomplishment.

“That was amazing!” she beamed,
having had no idea that working with a horse could be so enthralling. Though,
it didn't hurt that the trainer could have been
GQ
’s sexiest man of the
year.

“Yes, you were,” Noah commented
huskily, the combination of Ava's enthusiasm and her feminine curves driving
him crazy.

Since he'd started helping Will
out, he'd made it a policy to keep his distance from the newcomers vacationing
on the ranch. They'd show up usually more interested in bashing country living
than learning about it, sticking up their noses at any task or ranch hand they
felt was beneath them. Unfortunately, it usually didn't take them long to
figure out who he was though, and then he was stuck fending off every uppity
young gold-digger throughout the entire duration of their stay. But, there was
something different about Ava, and he just couldn't help himself.