License to Love (4 page)

“Let’s just breathe.”

Did he say breathe? She crossed her arms, but he
straightened up and grabbed her wrists, pulling them to her sides. He’d trapped
her so she had to look at him. Even with the shade on his eyes, she could see
their cool blue color and knowing look.

“Just like that, Missy. Now close your eyes.”

“What?”

“Close them.”

They snapped shut. Knowing he was inches from her face,
watching her, made her breathe faster and faster. She couldn’t hear anything
but the air she sucked in.

“I want you to stay just like that until you calm down.” His
hands softly squeezed her arms. She could do this, she could! Sounds of the
countryside became louder as her breathing became quiet. But his strong, quiet
voice still sounded in her head.

She never liked it when men told her what to do, so she
didn’t understand the pleasant chills his commands sent through her or the
surprising comfort she felt from his hands.

“Calm now?” His voice sounded so near. Close enough to tilt
her mouth up and kiss him. No, no, no! Breathe.

She nodded to his question after several deep breaths.

“Good, now open your eyes and try again.” He let go and
stepped back, ending the closeness.

Now steady, she felt riled for reacting to him that way. But
she was back in her game.

“I’ve got it,” she said, determined.

He raised an eyebrow at her, like he was questioning her
cockiness.

“You sure you’re cut out for this?” His teasing tone was
back as he watched. She swung up and made it this time.

After the men whooped, she said, “I’m glad I’m at least
giving you some entertainment.”

Jeffrey snorted, but remained still. She became fully aware
now that she had a live animal under her, one that had a mind of his own.

“Yup, now you’re in the saddle,” Brent said from below. “Do
you know what to do up there?”

“What?” Her concentration went to crap. Jeffrey decided to
show her what to do and started moving slowly around in a circle.

“Grab the reins!” One of the men yelled from the fence.

“I got it.” She declared again to all three men and the
horse. “I watched you guys do it, I read how to do it, and now I’m going to do
it.”

“All right, Missy, do you know how to lead him?” Brent
prompted her and then watched.

“Pull in the direction I want to go, right?”

“Hope you kept your job back home,” he joked.

“No.” She kept her mind on her task this time. “The jackass
I worked for sent me packing when I told him to cool things.” Her hands gripped
the reins like she was hanging over a cliff, but the horse let her lead. She
relaxed and quickly fell into a rhythm, smiling at the sudden thrill of it.
This
wasn’t
that hard, once she realized she could do it. She risked a
quick glance over at Brent to grin in victory. “Why are you looking at me like
that?”

He looked displeased about something.

“You slept with your boss?”

“Huh?” Her horse took the opportunity to turn the other way.
She had to twist her head sharply to look at Brent. “What are you talking
about?”

“What you just said. He fired you over it.”

“That’s not what I said!” She jerked the reins and the horse
snorted. Oh crap. Jeffrey jerked upward.

Heart flying up her throat, she bit off a scream.

“Calm now!” Brent called in a mellow voice. “He’s playing
around.”

Since she had to keep both hands on the reins, she couldn’t
rub her chest like she wanted.

“That wasn’t what I said,” she said again, irritated to the
point of overheating because he had misunderstood her to such an extent.

“Calm down, keep leading him around.”

Brent stood back and watched her. If he was nervous about
her riding Jeffrey, it didn’t show. Thankful for his calmness, she felt herself
relax.

“You’re doing good.” That came from one of the men by the
fence. When she rode by them, both said hello.

“This is Dale.” Brent introduced him. “And this tall guy is Ivan.”

“Howdy, ma’am,” Dale said, touching his hat.

She glanced over and nodded. She was heading away from them
when she heard Brent say, “You two should be working, not gawking.”

With the sun shining brighter than before, she grew warm.
She’d dreamed the night before that she fell off while Brent watched. But so
far, so good. Missy only wished she wasn’t such a novice. How was she going to
convince them she was serious about this when she had so much trouble just
getting on a horse? Okay, it was a little rough at the beginning, but she
enjoyed this.

Dale and Ivan had left but Brent leaned on the fence rail
and watched for a while, until she rode up alongside him. She gave him a sweet
smile. “This isn’t hard after all.”

He nudged back his hat to look up at her.  “You’re done?”

That was a trick question, but she did want back down on the
ground.

“Yeah, are you going to help me?”

A smile tugged on his lips. What else could she do? She’d
rather ask for help than land on her butt trying to get off by herself.

“You want my help?” he asked as he held her gaze. “That
means I’ll have to touch you.”

The word ‘touch’ rolled off his tongue as if he’d said
‘caress’. She knew he was teasing about her reaction to his rear swatting, but
she wouldn’t react this time around.

She asked, “Afraid of my cooties?”

She made light of his comment, but her body was on a
completely different wave length as she thought about his hands on her.
Listen
up
, she thought to herself,
he’s a man, just a regular guy working a
ranch
. A regular guy with a sexy, quick grin, and a voice that could soothe
her rattled nerves back from the edge.

“Grab the horn and swing your leg back over.” He stepped
close, ready to ease her down. She gripped the pommel and swung her leg over
like he said. Just then he pressed his hand against her hip. “Easy now.”

That was not -
was not!
- the place to touch a woman
while telling her to take it easy. She felt her traitorous body jerk and could
only pray he didn’t notice.

She slid against him the entire way down, and fell back into
his chest. They both knew she could have done it without him. He hadn’t moved,
so she couldn’t either. Her heartbeat jack hammered into overdrive as her back
pressed into him.

Could be worse.

Could be her
front
pressed into him.

“I . . . I, ah, need a bath.”
I need out of here!
His
arms encircled her and she couldn’t look away from his bare forearms. Lightly
tanned. Strong.

“A bath?” he asked as if he’d been thinking about it.

She recognized the bedroom voice. “I’ve never been on a
horse before. It tends to make a person sore.” Her voice came out sounding
stiff, killing the building mood. Good. It seemed like a dangerous path to go
down.

She hadn’t spent that much time on Jeffrey but it was a
pretty good excuse. Missy dared one glance at him, and Brent seemed to catch
the questioning in her look.

He eased back, holding the reins, and gave her room to step
away. The flirtatious glint in his eyes faded away.

“Would you like to see how to take the tack off and cool
down the horse before you go?” he asked with a hand on her shoulder to guide
her back a step.

“Sure.” She walked beside him into the stable yard, glad for
the space between them. This touching didn’t mean anything. At least it
shouldn’t.

She didn’t say much while she helped him, but her mind ran
around in circles. How could she have accidentally mentioned Russ and what
happened at her old job? After that, Brent had turned on the charm. Now probably
thought she was easy. She couldn’t let that kind of thinking ruin things here.

“Well, that was fun.” She walked briskly away like she had
important things to do.

* * * *

She didn’t do bad at all in the end, he thought as he
watched her go. So why did she turn into a stiff greenhorn when he brought Jeffrey
out? He wouldn’t have thought he could make her that nervous . . . or that he
could calm her down like that.

He’d gotten an aching erection while he watched her breathe
with her eyes closed. Luckily, as far as he could tell, no one saw. Boy, he’d
never hear the end of it.

“That little lady’s got you already.” Dale’s voice boomed
from behind him. Brent turned, giving the robust man a hard look.

“I can’t send her away.” He yanked his gloves off and
stuffed them into his jean pocket. “I explained it to you.”

“You said she’d be helping out around here. Looks like she
don’t know a lick about horses.” Dale shook his head like this was one of the
worse offenses committable.

“She’s learning fast.” Was he defending her?

“What about our work?” Dale pressed.

“Hey, I’ll handle it.” After a pause, Brent added, “I saw
you and Ivan watching her today.”

“Yeah, you aren’t the only one.” Dale seemed to think it was
funny. He had a mustache, black like his hair, and he always had a half smile
on his face.

It wasn’t that he wanted her, Brent just didn’t want anyone
saying something suggestive about Missy. “Listen, you’re right about how much
work we have to do around here. Let’s get to it.”

“So leave the drooling to you?”

“This isn’t funny.” At least, only in a really irritating
way. “I’m not drooling over her. I’m showing her what we do around here so
she’ll see she isn’t cut out for it.”

“Oh.” Dale gave him a conspiracy-style nod before going into
a good belly laugh. Brent turned and strode away, straight for Ben’s house.

But it was Missy’s house now. Everything felt out of whack
with Ben gone. With Missy around. No joking with Ben, riding together, talking
about next year and their dreams for their ranch.

How was he supposed to feel about the woman?

He banged on her door twice and waited, but she didn’t
answer. He knew she’d gone inside, so he cracked it and called her name.

A muffled noise came back. Irritation made him itch all over
as he wavered at the door.

Cursing himself, he quietly walked across the front room to
the hallway. She’d made a good dent in the mess, he saw, by stacking boxes and
papers in the corner. “Missy?”

“Brent?” she called from the bathroom. He heard either
surprise or panic in her voice. “Do you mind? I’m taking a bath.”

“Oh.” He tried to remember why he came. “I need to talk to
you.”

“Now?” She sighed. “Well, you’re here. Start talking.”

“For a city girl, you don’t have much class.” That didn’t
sound as funny out loud as it had in his head. It was suppose to lighten the
mood.

“I’ve got a surprise for you, cowboy. I grew up in a small
dirt town.”

She did? She didn’t look like it, though she didn’t exactly
talk like city dweller, either. “My men spent all day watching you instead of
working.”

“So talk to them, not me.”

He opened his mouth, an argument in mind, but just then his
mind came up with a picture of Missy on the other side of the door . . . in the
bathtub . . . surrounded by pretty pink bubbles. A nice hot bath sounded pretty
darn tempting at the moment.

“Are you still there?” she asked through the door.

“Uh, sorry. I was thinking about what I’d say to Dale and
Ivan.”

“Hmm, I bet.”

Now what? He tried to think up a comeback, but what could he
say to a naked woman in the tub?
Can I join you?
He spun around and
headed out, wondering if he imagined the feminine laughter chasing him out the
door.

Chapter Three

The darkness, the cold, but mostly the quiet didn’t make for
a good evening as Brent stood with Dale outside the stables. He thought about
inviting him up to the house, but while he thought about it, Dale excused
himself to go home. He wanted to see his girl, Alice.

Brent had wanted a family of his own just a few years ago,
but he hadn’t been interested in dating since Kathryn left. Ben always kept him
company when he got down about it. They kept busy with work too, their dreams,
and having a good time with Dale and Ivan. They had some pretty wild poker
nights. He didn’t exactly need a woman in his life.

This holiday season would be tough without Ben around.
Sometimes he wished for a special someone in his life, especially this time of
year, but he didn’t need to think like that.

He sighed and walked through the stables to say goodnight to
the horses. Missy hadn’t asked which ones had been Ben’s, meaning they were
hers now. Seemed odd to him. If she wanted money, she could sell them. He
didn’t like that thought one bit.

Dancer snorted at him, like he was asking where Ben had
gone.

“Sorry, buddy.”
Sorry Ben’s not here.
He faced
forward, and though he wanted to turn and look at the stallion, he couldn’t.

Shaking his head, he left. How had he gotten so spooked
about the whole thing? The horse couldn’t blame him. No one did. So why did he
feel so guilty about Ben?

Outside again, he headed for his house, but he spotted Missy
walking on the road, bundled up in her red coat and a scarf. Guess the cougar
comment hadn’t scared her enough to keep her inside after dark.

“Want company?” he called out because she looked lonely. How
could she not be when she’d left her life to come out here? It looked like she
shrugged, so he jogged over. “What are you doing out here by yourself? It’s
late.”

“It’s seven in the evening.” She rubbed her nose in the
cold.

“And cold.”

“You’re out here, too.” She blew out a breath. If she hadn’t
run earlier, he might have asked her to go into town for a movie or dinner.

“Did you eat dinner yet?” Where had that come from? That was
worse than inviting her into town. One look at her expression in the yard light
confirmed that she was not going anywhere alone with him. He spared them both.
“Guess not. Are you heading back?”