Natural Attraction (3 page)

I see her respond to a few more of Mr.Eye Candy’s questions, some of which make her shake her head and then she starts looking worried. 

Uh oh.

I can only assume that something Mr.Eye Candy has said is not aligning with our plan.  Perhaps his boss has sent him down to tell us to saddle up and be ready for my demonstration of riding Maverick?  Oh well, here goes.  Perhaps I can turn my charm on for Mr.Eye Candy and he’ll be able to put my case to his boss, and
then
we can be on our way.

I watch him turn and approach the car with long, ground covering strides.  He is wearing old faded jeans that fit nice and snugly around his
well-muscled thighs.   He has his Nickelback shirt hanging loosely, untucked over the top of his jeans. 

As he draws closer I note that he has dark blonde hair with just a hint of red through it.  His hair is cut to be short at the back and longer on top.  It appears to be overdue for its latest trim which gives him a sexy, messy look.  There is a fringe sweeping down over his sunglass covered eyes.  He also has what looks like a three, maybe four day growth, make for a gorgeously masculine look like you’d see on a movie star headshot advertising a guy from
Fight Club
. 

Fucking hot!

No wonder Jen had pulled her
big
smile.    

I hit the button to start winding the window down as he approaches the car.  I am busy watching the window lower slowly when I see him stoop down, grab the door handle, and yank the door open.

“Ashleigh Thompson?” He asks leaning over and placing his hands on the roof of the car above my head. 

“Yes!”  I announce cheerfully.

Why not be cheerful when the hottest piece of Man Candy I have seen in years is leaning over my car staring straight at me? 

Woohoo!

Jax and my bed could most, most,
most
definitely wait.

“You’re late,” he announces gruffly in a deep rich tone.

“Um yes.  Sorry about that.  We had a small communication problem with my horse on the way here, but it’s all sorted now,” I explain flashing him my best rendition of a winning smile.

“
Got that from your friend,” he clips starting to look annoyed.

Shit.
 

Maybe I should have apologized for being late?

“I assume communication problem means your horse wouldn’t get on the float?” He questions me with an almost exasperated tone.  A tone that I get the feeling isn’t going to lead to good things for me.

“Um yes?”
I reply in a much quieter, much less cheerful voice.  What is it with this guy?  He is starting to look pissed now.

“That figures,” he sighs and looks back at Jen and Maverick at the yards seeming to resign
himself to something.  “I’m Jax Walker.”

What.The.Fuck
? 

He is named after the love of my life?  How did this happen? 

Thank you God
. 

Seemingly all my hard work and injuries are now paying off.  How else would I have had a chance to meet this version of Jax without having stacked headfirst off yet another horse?  I knew there had to be a higher meaning to my dogged persistence to become an adult equestrian and here-he-is.

“You planning on getting outa that car and showing me your horse?”  He asks impatiently.

“Um, well that’s complicated.  I know that Jack wants me to ride my horse in front of him, but I have a slight problem with that.”

I lift my bandage wrapped wrist towards his face for his inspection.  I notice that his eyebrows lift and a muscle starts to twitch in his cheek.

“I had a little fall off him a few days ago.  In doing this, I sprained my wrist, broke two ribs and got the concussion from hell.  I have just spent the last two days lying in a dark room vomiting if I moved my eyes.”

“I see…  That is a
complication
…  Who's Jack?” He asks drawing his eyebrows together and pinning his sunglasses on me.

“Your boss?
  I think… the older guy who Jen was referred to by her friend.  The guy who is going to retrain my horse for me so next time I climb on him, I can stay there.  Is there any chance you can help plead my case to him and get me out of the riding demonstration for today?”

Well I wasn’t going to say his boss was an
old
guy, just in case he is one of those guys that have a good relationship with his boss.  The last thing I need to do is offend him even more when he already seems pissed enough with me as it is. 

At this rate I doubt he’s going to be receptive to my rapidly forming marriage plans for him.  Especially if I say anything else to annoy him more than I already have.

Jax suddenly throws his head back and starts laughing. 

Loudly and heartily.
 

Not exactly the response I
was expecting, but boy is it good to watch.  His laughter booms over the top of the car and it gives me an opportunity to see the flash of his neat white teeth and bingo, the mother lode, two gorgeously perfect dimples. 

I love dimples!
 

Could this day get any better?

I dreamily stare at his dimples, mesmerized.  As I stare, he finally stops laughing and stoops back over the car to look me direct in the eyes again.  Well I think he is looking me direct in the eyes, it is a bit hard to tell through his dark sunglasses.

“Y
eah, I can probably do that.  Well at least for today anyway,” he chuckles and continues smirking while examining my face carefully.

“Thank you, thank you,
thank you
!  You are a legend.  You don’t know how much that is going to mean to me.  I’ve been petrified that Jack is going to turn my horse away because I can’t ride him today,” I babble.

I begin to develop a plan to gracefully exit my vehicle and give him a thank you hug.  I have decided that a hug would be an excellent idea.  I have decided this because I will then get the opportunity to cop a feel and confirm that his chest feels as hard and muscle-bound as it looks.

“He is.”

“He is what?” I ask confused.

“Going to turn you away,” he returns.

“Um, how do you know that?”  I ask as I swallow softly because a lump is forming in my throat.

How could he know that?

I haven’t even spoken to the guy yet.  Jax must have his boss’s trust if he lets him make decisions on his behalf.

“Coz I’m Jack,” he grins cheekily at me.

“My parents
love America and decided to call me
Jax
instead of the Aussie version of the name, Jack.”

Mortification hits me and sends ice to my veins. 

Oh my God!

He’s the
old
guy Jack?  And I called him older?  Shit.  Jax might be ten years older than me but that would have to be the maximum.  It is more likely that he is only about five or six years older.

There go my wedding plans. 

He must think I’m either a total idiot or a total bitch after saying that. 

Realizing the mistake I have made, my mouth continues to work separately to my frozen mind.

“I like the name Jax – a lot,” I whisper and lean back into my seat wishing it would swallow me whole.  I am too embarrassed to say or think about anything else.  At this point it seems senseless to even try to explain my monumental mistake. 

Perhaps God will take pity on me and a massive rift will appear in the ground.  This whole car can then descend into the bowels of the earth.  That would be a good thing because at least my last Earthly vision would be this demigod of a man before me called
Jax
.

“
Ashleigh aint so bad either,” he smirks, flashing his dimples at me again, resending me into that stupid dream like trance.  My mind is once again sidetracked.  This time with thoughts of what his dimples might feel like with my lips on them if I could get anywhere near them.

He squats down next to the car and looks up at me. 

“Here’s the thing.  I am gunna send you and your horse home.  For today.  Your body is all kinds of fucked up.  Your horse has given you physical injuries and probably a shitload of mental ones too. You can come back when you are back in one-piece, physically at least.   I’m still gunna want you to ride him for me but you need to be not fucked up to do that.  You also need to know I don’t retrain horses.  I just work with horses coz I like ‘em.  Sure, I can probably do what you are expecting and ‘fix’ your horse.  Or make it
look
like I’ve fixed him anyway.   Give him to me for an hour or two and he’ll be a real good horse for
me
to ride.  That won’t mean he is for you.  The number one problem with most of the trouble horses in the world is actually the rider.  Horses aren’t natural born killers, they’re natural born scaredy cats, and for you to be able to ride him, he has to trust you. 
You
also have to be a confident leader.  I need to ‘fix’ you first and then he will fix himself.  Do you hear what I am saying?”

Well this is a revelation.  How the hell did he know I wasn’t a confident rider?  Is he a psychic?  It makes absolute sense though.  Rather disappointing sense, but sense nonetheless.  I suppose the upside is that he is telling me to come back and I get to see him again.

“Yes, I hear you.” I respond softly looking at my own reflection in his sunglasses wondering what color his eyes are.  “We’ll come back when I am better.”

Of course we will. 

Even better, I just want to stay here and stare at you for the rest of my life, you gorgeous, gorgeous man.

He leans in closer and looks into my eyes looking like he is going to say something else.  Close enough that I can feel his warm breath tickling against my face.  I swing my eyes to his lips, my mind wandering off to other places where those lips aren’t just close to me, they are on me. 

He sighs then makes a sharp grunt as he swings away from my face and straightens up next to the car. 

“
Good.  Let’s get this horse back on your float and get you home.  I’ll see you next time.” 

He then swings away and saunters towards Jen to help her put Maverick back on the float.  He does this leaving me with a huge, empty feeling of loss that I cannot explain.

Second Chance

Jen’s butt has barely touched the driver’s side seat before I am at her.

“Old?  You call that old?  What the hell do you think we are?  At the age of twenty-eight, I for one do not consider a thirty something, movie star look-alike male
old.
  Now I know you are a full three months younger than me, so to you I am probably the old one out of the two of us, but
really?
 

Explain yourself woman before I drag you out of this car and bitch slap you to bring you to your senses.  In fact, I think I’ll bitch slap you twice because this has to be one of the stupidest things you have ever told me.  As well as this, I need you to be clear that I will not, ever, put up with you being stupid. 

I grew up with a family of stupid people.  A family so stupid I can barely stand to spend five minutes of my time in the same room as them.  It is because of this that I most definitely will not spend my free time hanging around with you.  I will not spend my time with someone who appears to be undergoing some sort of adult aged, genetic mutation.  A mutation that sees her turning stupid as she grows
old.

In fact, don’t worry one bit about Maverick back there in the float, we need to head straight to the nearest Health Service.  We need to do this so I can get you checked out and medicated.  We need to do this because I will sure miss the shit out of you if I have to stop seeing you because you have morphed into a stupid person.
 
Where’s my IPhone?  I need to look at my GPS app and find the nearest Health Service. Stat.”

Jen watches me begin frantically searching for my IPhone in my handbag. 

“Shit Ash, take a breather will you? I haven’t seen you this riled up in a while.  Well, when I say in a while, I should probably clarify that it's been a whole three days since your last rant.  We both know that that is only due to the pain meds you’ve been on.  Clearly you were quite taken with Jax?  To this fact I have only one thing to say.  I saw him first so the way I see it, I get first dibs.”

“And what about Jason, your
fiancé?”
I ask acidly.  I am annoyed that she would even consider cutting in.  Especially on the man who, I am now sure, I am going to marry and have lots of babies with.

“Yes well, you do have a good point there.  Sadly for Jax I’m off the market.  And luckily so because, according to a medical expert I recently met, I have some weird genetic mutation that sees me destined to become too stupid to maintain friendships and relationships anyway.”

She says this in a serious tone with just a tiny hint of a smile sneaking onto the corners of her lips.