Here Comes Trouble (15 page)

"You think she's been jacking with me?" Terri
asked with anger in her tone.

"Yep," he told her and flinched when her face
flushed red. "Let's go ride, darlin'." he said before she could
wind up to curse him.

Joel knew that Diamond would follow Ace pretty
much anywhere he went. They were pasture mates and best friends, so
he started them at a slow walk toward the gate near the barn by the
employee bunkhouse. The bunkhouse was dark except for the porch
lights when they passed by and the horses were grazing in their
paddocks.

None of the hands were around, they were
probably all at the weenie roast and campfire already. It was just
now getting dark, but Jarvis had gone out to build the fire an hour
ago. It was probably roaring by now, and the beer he put in the
back of the chuck wagon cold. Joel knew they'd be drinking tonight,
but he didn't care. Everyone had been working hard, they deserved a
break.

After he led Ace through the gate, he pulled
it wider for Terri to pass. "Nudge her in the sides and click,"
Joel instructed when Terri just sat there looking at Diamond's head
like she was willing her to walk again. To his surprise, she did
just what she needed to do, and guided Diamond through the gate
then gently pulled back on the reins and said "Whoa!"

"Great, job, Terri..." he encouraged then
swung the gate closed and latched it.

"So far, so good," she said and he still heard
uncertainty in her voice.

After remounting, Joel gathered up his horse's
reins and clicked to start him forward.

Terri pulled Diamond up beside him and they
rode in silence. Slowly, the gentle rocking of the horse under her
and the slight warm breeze blowing in her face relaxed her and
Terri did actually start enjoying the ride. Maybe it was the man
beside her, maybe it was the great horse under her, she didn't
know, but she was now enjoying something she had started to
dread.

Joel looked over at her and grinned. "Okay, no
falling asleep. Time for lesson number two. You need to learn to
ride a trot."

Terri's eyes widened and fear shot through
her. "A what?" she squeaked.

"A trot," he said his voice trailing off as he
kicked his horse to a faster pace. Immediately Terri was jarred
from her peaceful seat and her teeth rattled as Diamond sped up to
keep pace with Joel's horse.

Every bone in her body rattled, as she bounced
around in the saddle. Grabbing the horn, she held on tight and
yelled, "Joel stop!" He pulled his horse to a halt and waited for
her to catch up, but Diamond didn't slow down until she was right
beside him. "What the hell!" she shouted accusingly.

"Darlin', if you plan on walking that horse
everywhere we go, it's gonna take you a week to drive that cattle
to the back of this property. You need to learn how to trot and
canter. It's a little more difficult, but you can do it," he
said.

"I don't care if it takes me a month, I'm
walking," she told him belligerently.

"It's like making love," he said in a low tone
that sent tingles down her spine. Once his words registered warmth
spread through her body.

She cleaned her ear with her pinkie finger,
because she was sure she hadn't just heard him say what she thought
he said.

"
What did you say?
!?" she asked
incredulously.
Riding a horse was like making love?
She
didn't know what kind of kinky shit he was into, but it sure wasn't
in her repertoire.

Joel chuckled, then laughter rumbled in his
chest, before he bent over the horse's neck trying to get himself
under control.

"What the hell is so funny?" she asked
indignantly. He says something like that then he was laughing at
her
? Terri thought Joel really must be working too hard,
either that or he'd lost his mind.

He gasped a few times then told her weakly,
"Riding a trot is like making love...roll your hips, lift in the
stirrups with your legs and get into rhythm with the horse...that
way you won't chip your teeth. Hold on tight to Diamond and watch,"
he said and she shortened up her hold on the reins. Joel kicked Ace
and he took off at a trot again and Joel moved fluidly in the
saddle demonstrating his words.

Heat sizzled along her nerve endings and her
mouth went dry. Seeing him on a horse was erotic, especially when
he put those thoughts in her head. Terri knew what it was like to
make love to Joel, and her body remembered too. A buzzing started
at her core and desire shot through her. He made a large circle,
then came back to her side.

"Get it?" he asked and she nodded because she
couldn't find her voice. It was trapped somewhere between her
stampeding heart and her throat.

"Ok, I'm going to sit here, you give it a
try."

Terri took a deep breath and let it out
slowly, then she loosened up Diamond's reins and clicked to her at
the same time she pressed her heels to the horse's sides. The horse
started walking.

"Do it again, sweetheart," Joel
yelled.

Terri clicked to the horse again and gritted
her teeth as Diamond picked up her pace and she began bouncing in
the saddle violently. After a minute Joel's words came to her and
she found the horse's rhythm and lifted on the bounce and tried
rolling her hips. After doing that several times, she got into
rhythm with her movement and the ride smoothed out miraculously
even though the horse was still trotting.

With a devil on her shoulder, Terri
exaggerated her rocking motion in the saddle and made another
circle with Diamond. Her eyes locked with Joel's when she passed
him, and she grinned. In the full moonlight, she saw he was the one
gritting his teeth now.

He was right, this was like making love, and
at that moment, that was exactly what she'd like to be doing, with
her sexy riding instructor.

CHAPTER EIGHT

With a growl, Joel kicked Ace into a trot and
passed by the woman who had set his body on fire with her taunting.
Dammit, she said she wanted him to keep his hands off of her, had
practically demanded it, but here she was teasing him again. Her
signals were definitely mixed, and he was about tired of it. Joel
didn't want a relationship, but he damned well wanted her again.
And she knew it.

She thought Rocky had been torturing her with
the riding lessons, well Terri was torturing him with her teasing.
His dick was rock hard and there wouldn't be any relief anytime
soon. Shifting in the saddle, trying to get comfortable again, he
kept riding toward the creek and didn't look back at her again, but
he heard Diamond's hoof beats, so he knew she was there behind
him.

His body knew she was there too, and it wasn't
helping things. Maybe he'd skip dinner, and go for a cold dip in
the creek instead. That thought brought to mind others about skinny
dipping with the curvy brunette in the creek and he
groaned.

It took twenty minutes or so for them to reach
the wide part of the creek. Joel slid to a stop and hopped down off
of Ace, then pulled his saddle bags from behind the saddle and
walked over to a grassy clearing near the bank. A minute later
Terri guided Diamond over by Ace and he heard her groan as she
eased out of the saddle, and the sound cut through him.

Ignoring the jolt of awareness that shot
through him, Joel flicked open one side of the pack and pulled out
a blanket, then flicked it open and spread it on the ground. He
stood back up and took a deep breath and let it out slowly, closing
his eyes and enjoying the soft warm breeze rustling through the
trees. The slow flow of the current in the creek reached his ears
and calmed him.

"Joel?" Terri said softly from behind him and
he opened his eyes and cast her a tight smile, before he opened the
other side of the pack and pulled out the wrapped sandwiches,
chips, and two beers he'd brought for dinner.

"I hope you like turkey," he said as he knelt
and laid the food on the blanket.

"It's beautiful out here," she said in a low
awe-filled tone. He glanced up and saw her face lifted toward the
sky as she took it all in.

The reflection of the moonlight on the moving
water flickered over her face, making her look ethereal, mysterious
and damned delicious.

He realized just then he might have made a
mistake picking this place. The stars blanketing the sky, the
rustling trees and the night creatures singing their songs made for
a pretty damned romantic setting. And so not what he
intended.

Joel had just wanted time alone to think, and
to talk to her where there weren't fifty people wanting his
attention, or watching them. But this sure looked like a perfect
scene for seduction. A Hollywood producer couldn't have scripted it
any better.

Dragging his eyes away from the way her
breasts strained at the buttons of her cropped button up shirt
which was tied right below her full breasts, his eyes fell on the
creamy skin of her exposed stomach, then flickered lower to her
damned cute little navel.

His mouth watered and his tongue itched to
circle it, to taste her and see if his memory had exaggerated how
good she'd been on his lips. Like fresh strawberries, sweet with a
tart edge that drove him crazy.

He longed to trace her hipbones and kiss where
they showed above the low slung jeans she wore, to lick her heat
and hear those little sounds she made when she came for him. Joel's
dick went rock hard behind his zipper, painfully so.

There wasn't a damned place on the woman's
body he could focus on that didn't make his current problem
worse.

He was definitely going to have to take that
swim before long, he thought and pushed up to his feet then tossed
his hat onto the blanket. He'd build a fire first, maybe that would
distract him.

Walking down to the edge of the creek, Joel
gathered up some larger stones from the bank, then dropped them a
short distance from the blanket. Kneeling he cleared a spot, then
arranged the stones in a circle before he got up and brushed off
his hands.

"Wanna help me get some firewood? I brought
some stuff to make S'mores for dessert," he told her with a
strained smile. He could think of better things he'd like for
dessert, but it looked like he was going to have to settle for
graham crackers.

"Sure," she told him and walked by his side
picking up stray pieces of dry wood that looked like they'd make
good tinder. They brought their bundles of wood back to the circle
and dropped them. Joel gathered up some leaves and moss and made a
cone in the center of the ring, then pulled matches from his pocket
and lit it.

Leaning low and cupping his hands around the
fledgling flame, he blew on the kindling and before long he had
smoke then fire. Taking a few smaller pieces of firewood first, he
crossed them over the kindling, and when they caught, he added a
few more.

"There, that should get it going," he told her
then stood and found her staring at him, her eyes glittering in the
moonlight. Joel's eyes moved to her full lips and her tongue darted
out to wet them and he imagined her mouth on his cock like it had
been that night a year ago.

Joel stifled a groan and dragged his eyes back
to hers, then cleared his throat and told her in a rough voice that
didn't even sound like his own, "Let's eat, I'm
starving."

He averted his eyes then sat down on the
blanket and busied his hands separating the food. When she sat on
the blanket beside him, he handed her a turkey sandwich and a beer,
without looking at her. He knew if he looked at her, he was going
to kiss her, and then like that fire it would flame and he had no
hope of controlling it or himself. Then she'd get pissed at him for
breaking his promise.

Joel threw down his sandwich, before he'd even
unwrapped it, then pushed up to his feet. "I'm going for a swim,
I'll be back in a minute," he told her in a choked
voice.

"Don't you want to eat first? I thought you
were starving," she asked with confusion then nibbled at the corner
of the sandwich.

"No, I'm...overheated. I need a swim," he
forced out then and headed for the trees.

What he
needed
he wasn't going to get
from the woman he wanted it from, he was sure of that. As he
staggered through the trees, unbuttoning his shirt as he went he
thought maybe it was time to try flavor number eight to take the
edge off, but for some reason he didn't think that would help.
Having sex with someone else wouldn't help.

He wanted the beautiful, sassy and sexy woman
he'd left back by the fire nobody else. He'd lost his taste for
other flavors. That thought scared the crap out of him and he
shoved it to the back of his mind, but it got tossed right back at
him.

Or maybe you can grow up and quit thinking
with your dick, his conscience offered. Karen had hurt him badly,
but Terri was right, the flavor system wasn't making him feel
better...at all. It was turning him into a man he didn't even
recognize. He'd gone from faithful husband to faithless houndog in
a year's time.

Joel had bigger things to worry about right
now than his personal sexual hell though. His floundering,
financially strapped dude ranch needed his focus. But the sexual
tension he'd been living with since Terri Cassidy had walked back
into his life was distracting him from what was important, Terri
Cassidy was distracting him.