Heartstealer (Women of Character3 (7 page)

"I can hope. Now, can I help
you with something?" Renee asked.

"I wanted to go riding. Am I
too late?"

"Nope. I can get a horse
saddled."

"I saw a chestnut out in the
corral yesterday when they were evaluating all of us as to riding skill. I
think his name is Dandy. Do you think I'd be able to use him?"

Renee twirled the ends of her hair,
a look of uncertainty crossing her face. "Gee, I'd have to check with the
boss."

"If you’d rather, I can
ask him."

Renee grimaced. "No, I might
as well face the music now. I’ll be right back."

About ten minutes later Renee
reappeared with the chestnut horse she had requested. From what she had seen of
this animal, he would be a challenging ride.

"The boss said you could use
him."

"Oh, great! When I saw him the
other day, he looked like he'd be fun to ride."

"He is. He's quick and smart
but too much for a beginner." Renee tightened the saddle girth.

"So I guess you’re still
working here?" she asked the younger girl.

Renee nodded. "Yeah. Sloan
read me the riot act. You can be sure next time I’ll listen up."

Jacie rubbed the horse's soft
muzzle and led him from the barn. "You sound like my type, Dandy, quick
and smart."

"Jacie."

She looked up and found Sloan
walking toward her, leading his horse behind him. "I apologize for
snapping at you. I thought the horse was going to hurt you."

"As I said to Renee, it came
out all right."

"Still, next time don’t
take chances. If you'd like some company, we could ride together," he said
as he climbed into the saddle.

She felt a shivery vibration at the
back of her neck and slowly nodded her head in agreement. "Sounds like a
good idea. It’ll be fun to have a guided tour." She certainly would
like to learn more about him.

They rode to the steel gate fence
that led the way to the open pasture. Sloan maneuvered his horse's hindquarters
away from the gate, opened it for both of them, then closed and refastened it.
His horse moved up against hers. "It’s obvious you've been around
horses some," he remarked conversationally. "You're a good rider from
what I saw yesterday."

"Thanks," she said
nonchalantly. Indicating her horse, she added, "This guy here looks pretty
athletic."

"He's fast and sometimes
unpredictable," he cautioned.

She lifted a brow. "That's the
best part. I look for unpredictability in all my males."

He let out a laugh, as if she had
caught him by surprise. Still smiling, he removed his hat and ran a hand
through his hair. "You have an answer for everything, don't you?"

"I try. So tell me about this
horse."

"We use him sometimes in
gymkhana games. He's got stamina, and he can take some rough play."

Stamina, a word with its own
connotations. "All the better," she said huskily. With an inward
groan, she wished his words didn't have such an erotic effect on her body. She
knew the moment his glance fell to her tight T-shirt with ‘skydivers do
it in the air’ written prominently in red across the front. She was very
conscious she hadn't worn a bra. She cursed the heat that moved into her
cheeks. It was ridiculous. She had worn this shirt countless times without
thinking about it.

He shoved his hat down on his head
and looked up the trail. "Not everybody can ride him," he muttered,
clearing his throat.

"I'm honored you're letting me
ride him then," she said with surprise.

"You wouldn't be if I thought
you couldn't handle him." He nudged his horse forward and then turned in
the saddle to look back at her. "By the way, you haven't seen anyone
around other than the other guests, have you?"

"No, why?"

"One of the stable hands,
Donny, thought he spotted someone this morning hiking on the trails. It's not a
problem, but if someone's on our land I like to have them sign in at the
office. From time to time hikers have gotten lost. It creates a problem because
then we have to go and find them."

"I haven't seen anyone around.
If I do I'll let you know. Where are we going to ride? I have about two hours
before my next ground lesson."

 "Follow me," he
invited as he urged his horse into a trot. "If you think you're up to
it."

She pressed her heels into her
horse's sides and felt his quick leap forward. "That sounds like a
challenge. I'm always up for a new adventure." She caught up with him
easily as she was sure he intended.

The glance he gave her was hard to
read. "I figured as much," he said. "After seeing you stop that
horse, I’ve come to the conclusion you like to leap in with both
feet."

She shrugged, sensing a deeper
meaning behind the question. "What have I got to lose? If you don't try
new experiences, you get stuck in the same rut, afraid of change." She
chewed the inside of her cheek. "Everybody needs change." No matter
how scary, but she didn't add that. She gave him a sly glance instead.
"Even you might need a change. Think of the new dimensions you could add
to your life by learning how to skydive. I could be your personal
trainer."

He kept his horse at a brisk trot,
but she had no trouble hearing what he said. "I think James has given you
the wrong impression. My refusal to skydive isn't because I'm afraid. I appreciate
your offer, but I've no interest in it."

"James said you jump off
horses. I don’t think I’d want to do that."

"That’s different.
Sometimes it’s necessary when you’re rounding up cattle, you have
to get off in a hurry. It makes no sense to me to jump out of a plane.
There’s no real purpose."

"I suppose I could take that
personally and feel insulted," she came back, amused. "But I'll
overlook that little comment since you’re taking me on a ride. Tell me,
does everything you do have to make sense?"

He gave her a surprised glance
before turning his attention back to the trail. "Usually."

"Don’t you ever act on
impulse?" she asked incredulously.

"Nope."

Jacie thought of the kiss
they’d shared yesterday. "Hmm, well then, let me make some sense out
of this business for you. Experienced skydivers are sometimes utilized in
rescue missions where no one else can get in. Personally, I've been on two such
assignments. The first one was scary, I'll admit that right off." She
flipped back her hair, keeping her glance trained ahead. "But if my
brother and I hadn't gone, a little girl might have died." It had been a
touch and go situation, one she hadn’t been asked to repeat. But if
called upon again, she knew she would do the same.

"I appreciate what you're
saying, Jacie, and I know there are times when such a profession would be very
important, but I'm afraid it isn't going to make a difference. Most of the
people here are doing this just for recreation . . . something new and exciting
in their lives." As he pulled his horse to a standstill, she saw the
tensing of his jaw. "Can you tell me there isn’t some threat of
death, no matter how small, involved in each jump?"

"Of course there’s
always that possibility, but that threat can lie anywhere," she came back.
"I could get off this horse, fall, and land on my head on that rock over
there."

His look was tolerant.
"You’re beating a dead horse if you think you’ll change my
mind."

"Anything’s
possible," she said, undaunted. "Why don't you tell me why you're set
against skydiving? My family has always made a pretty good living at it. I just
moved into it naturally but I’m not going to say I don’t like
it."

"I have nothing against the
business."

"Then why?" she
persisted.

He threw her an exasperated glance
and shook his head. "You don't let go, do you?"

She shook her head.
"Never." Silence fell between them, the only sound the metal clink of
the horse's shoes on the stone ledge and the sigh of the wind through the
trees. Jacie waited.

"I once knew someone who'd
take risks without thinking of the consequences. She needed almost continual
change and her needs hurt the people who loved her the most."

"You said that
yesterday." She swallowed hard, feeling a tightening in her chest.
"Was she an ex-wife?"

"No." His face remained
expressionless, yet she sensed a deep vibration of emotion emanating from him.

She drew in her breath and then
plunged ahead. "And you got hurt," she said softly, knowing it was
the truth. She wasn’t sure she really wanted to know. It was getting very
personal, to say the least.

He looked over at her with a set
jaw, dark brows pulled together. "I was too young to really know much
about it. My family got hurt . . . my father."

Her mouth opened in wonder.
"Y-your father?"

"It was my mother." He
looked at the trail ahead of them, then his watch. "It's not skydiving in
particular, she never attempted that . . . not that I know of, anyway. It's the
whole idea of living life looking ahead to the next challenge, laughing at the
idea of death."

"I’ve looked death in
the face but I didn’t laugh.  Life would get pretty boring if there
were no challenges."

"Maybe." Her answer
clearly had not pleased him. "I guess it all depends on the challenges you
want. Now, if you're ready, we've got a demanding ride ahead. We're going to have
to bushwhack our way through part of the trail."

She tried to marshal her thoughts
but she kept thinking of what he’d said about his mother. Judging by his
expression, however, he wasn’t answering any more questions. She fought
the temptation to probe, knowing it was time to back off.

"That sounds
interesting," she told him instead. "Lead on, Sloan, I'm ready."

Sloan wasn't ready to move on. He
was mulling over what Jacie had revealed to him about rescue missions. It put a
slightly different perspective on the way he saw her. He realized his thinking
about her up until now had been abstract and perhaps distorted. He didn't
usually make presumptions about people, but in this case he had. Was he
allowing his experience with his mother to color his perception of Jacie? She
saw no problem risking her life and jumping out of a plane. She didn't see it
in the same way he did. Jumping from a height of several thousand feet was
crazy, no matter how you sliced it.

He shook his head with wonder.
Despite her somewhat cavalier attitude, he sensed there were deeper currents to
her. He still couldn't believe he had brought up the topic of his mother. It
wasn't something he had ever talked freely about. At least she’d had the
sense not to ask him any more questions. He nudged his horse into a walk. Good.
He didn’t need strangers knowing about his life. He should keep his
thoughts to himself in the future. She was too quick on the pickup. He’d
be giving her his entire life story if he wasn’t careful. She had a way
of watching you with an intensity that made you want to spill your guts.

"You know these trails pretty
well." Her voice floated over to him. They were only about ten feet apart,
but because of the rock over their heads, her voice sounded slightly
disembodied.

He twisted in the saddle.
"James and I explored these hills as teenagers, but we don't ride here
that often anymore, the trail has pretty well disappeared."

"Some of it looks pretty
hairy," she said, leaning over in her saddle to look at a vertical drop of
about two hundred feet.

To Sloan's way of thinking Jacie
looked natural in the saddle, her hair tossed by the wind with pieces of twig
caught here and there, her cheeks pink.

"How did you feel about those
narrow ledges we crossed?" he asked curiously. "Did they frighten
you? I wouldn't have taken you down here unless I knew it was safe."

She gave him a broad smile as they
reached a level area. Dropping her horse's reins, she spread her arms wide and
lifted her face to the dappling of sun through the trees. "Heck, no, it
was exciting. I’ve taken rides on ledges more frightening than these down
in South America. We used donkeys then. Of course," she added dryly,
"I was more worried about the snakes and crawly things in the
jungle."

"Come over here and let me
show you something." He dismounted and waited for her to join him on a
narrow outcropping of rock. He turned to the open expanse stretched out in
front of them. "This area is loaded with maple, oak, ash and an occasional
beech tree." Treetops with their deeply changing hues of green lay just
below them.

He took a deep breath into his
lungs as he looked at the valley below. "The view never ceases to amaze
me. There’s no air like up here." He reached out and gently turned
her toward the distant horizon. "Do you see that ribbon of water down
there? That’s the Hudson River. The theory is that some of the ledge
we’re standing on matches ledge found way down there in the valley."

"That’s amazing. I guess
it must have sheared off a long time ago."

"Probably."

"It’s beautiful up here,
so real and simple, the view uncluttered. I can’t thank you enough for
showing this to me. It’s so different from what I’m used to.
Sometimes you forget about the wonders that can be seen just by looking around
you."

"By the end of the month, you
won’t even notice it," he said with cynicism.

She turned to him indignantly.
"I resent that. I’ve always appreciated beauty such as this. It
should never be taken for granted."

He lifted a brow.

"Is this your overall opinion
of women, or is it just me?" she demanded.

He swore he saw sparks shoot from
her eyes. "Hang on, hang on. I guess I’m just cynical when I hear
how beautiful it is, then someone throws away their food wrappers."

She held her hands up in front of
his face and moved her fingers back and forth. "Look, no wrappers, nothing
hidden."