The By Request Collection. Kate HardyЧитать онлайн книгу.
he replied. But she had already turned away, busy with the horse, restraining his jerky movements with a firm hand on his bridle.
“This is Spirit,” Beau said. “He’s got a lot to learn, doesn’t he, Ruby?”
“He sure does. He’s not taken kindly to wearing a saddle. He’s going to hate it even more once I ride him. But that’s not happening today.”
The horse snorted and shuffled his feet, pulling back and away from her. “Hold steady, boy,” Ruby said, her voice smooth as fine silk. “You’re not gonna like any of this, are you now?”
The horse bucked, and Brooks made a move to lunge over the fence to help Ruby. Beau restrained him with a hand to the chest. “Hang on. Ruby’s a pro. She won’t put herself in danger.”
Brooks wasn’t too sure about that. The tall stallion dwarfed Ruby in size and weight. Watching her outmaneuver the animal made Brooks’s heart stop for a moment. Hell, she could be crushed. She slid him a sideways glance, her beautiful eyes telling him she’d just seen what he’d done. What was it she called him? Galahad. Hell, he was no knight in shining armor. To most of the people who knew him in Chicago, that label would be laughable. But today, right in this moment, he didn’t give a crap about what anyone called him. But he did care about Ruby, and it surprised him how much. He didn’t want to see her get trampled. “Are you sure? That horse looks dangerous.”
“He could be, but Ruby knows her limitations. She’s got a way about her that outranks his stature. She’s gaining his trust right now. Though it doesn’t look like it, she’s giving him some leeway to put up a fuss. This is his second day wearing a saddle. He’s got to get used to it, is all.”
“It takes a lot of patience, I see.”
“Yep,” Beau said. “For the trainer and the animal.”
For the next hour, Brooks watched Ruby put the horse through his paces. Every now and then, she’d inform him what she was doing and how the horse should respond. Nine times out of ten, the horse didn’t make a liar out of her.
Beau had excused himself a short time ago. He had a meeting with his accountant, and though he invited Brooks to join in, he’d also warned that it would bore him out of his wits. Brooks had opted to stay and watch Ruby work with the stallion. He could watch that woman for hours without being bored, but he didn’t tell his father that.
When Ruby was done, she unsaddled Spirit carefully, speaking to the horse lovingly and stroking him softly on the withers. Then she set him free, and he took off running along the perimeter of the large oval corral, his charcoal mane flying in the breeze.
Ruby closed the gate behind her and walked over to Brooks, removing her leather gloves and pocketing them.
“Impressive,” he said.
“Thanks. Spirit will come around. He’s a Thoroughbred, and they tend to be high-strung.”
“Is that so?” Brooks met her gaze. “Sort of reminds me of someone I know.”
Her index finger pressed into her chest. “Me?”
“Yeah, you.” Her finger rested in the hollow between her breasts. If only he didn’t remember how damn intoxicating it’d been when he’d touched her there. How soft she’d felt, how incredibly beautiful and full her breasts were. The thought of never touching Ruby like that again grated on him.
“Well, you’re half-right,” she said. “Both my parents were Mexican, so I’m a purebred.”
“What about the other half?”
“I’m not high-strung or high-maintenance. I’m strong-willed, determined. Some have called me feisty.”
“And they lived to tell about it?”
She snapped her head up and saw his grin. “You’re teasing me, Galahad.”
What he was doing was flirting. He couldn’t help it. Ruby, being Ruby, was an aphrodisiac he couldn’t combat. And he was beginning to like her nickname for him. “Yeah, I am.”
She smiled back for a second, her eyes latching onto his. Then his gaze dropped to her perfectly sweet mouth. Suddenly all the things he’d done to that mouth came crashing into his mind. And all the things she’d done to him with that mouth...
“Spirit,” she said, “uh, he’ll bring in a good sum.” She began walking. And now she was back to business and a much safer subject. It was necessary, but Brooks had to say he was disappointed. He walked beside her as they headed into the stable.
“He will?”
“Absolutely, once we find the right buyer.”
He squinted to adjust to the darkness inside the furthest reaches of the barn. It was even colder in here than outside.
Ruby grabbed a bucket, a brush and a shoe pick. “Beau’s been great about giving me input on who our horses end up with. Especially the stallions. They’re in demand, but not everyone is cut out to own one.”
“You mean you can tell when someone is all wrong for the horse?”
She handed him the brush and a bucket.
“Pretty much.”
“That’s a talent I never knew existed.”
“It’s no different than anything else. You wouldn’t buy a car you didn’t feel was the right fit. A mom of three wouldn’t do too well in a sports car. The same holds true for a single guy on the dating scene. He isn’t going to buy a dependable sedan to impress a girl, now is he?”
Brooks smiled. “I never thought of it that way.”
“The horses I train need to go to good homes. They need to fit. Spirit wouldn’t do well with a young boy, for instance. He’s not going to be someone’s first horse. But a seasoned rider, someone who knows animals, will be able to handle him, no problem. Beau has built his business on putting his horses with the right owners. It’s a partnership.”
Ruby removed her hat and stuck it on a knob on the wall. With a flick of the wrist, she unleashed her mane of dark hair, and it tumbled down her back. It was the little uncensored, unknowing moves that made Ruby so damn appealing. She was pretty without trying and as free a spirit as the horse she’d just trained.
“What?” she asked, catching Brooks staring.
“Nothing.” He stepped closer. “No, that’s not true,” he said. “I’m standing here, looking at you and wondering how the hell I’m going to keep from touching you again.”
She got a look in her eyes, one he couldn’t read, and bit down on her lip. “We, uh, w-we can’t.”
But it was what she said with her eyes, and her stutter when she denied him, that gave him hope. “It’s hard for you, too. You like me.”
“I like a lot of things. But I love Beau. And I don’t want to—”
“Ruby.” The bucket and brush fell from Brooks’s hands and thumped to the ground. She gasped as he approached. He took hold of her arms gently, and her chin tipped up. He gazed into defiant eyes. Was she telling him to back off or daring him to kiss her? There was only one way to find out. “Ruby,” he rasped and walked her backward against the wall. There was no way anyone could glimpse them from outside. They were alone but for dozens of horses. “You want this, too,” he whispered, and then his mouth touched hers, and the sweetest purr escaped her throat. He deepened the kiss, tasting her again, her warmth, the softness of her lips burning through him.
She threaded her arms around his neck, tugging him forward, making him hot all over. She was a dynamo, a fiery woman who kissed him back with enough passion to set the darn barn on fire. Their bodies melded together, a perfect fit of small to large. They’d made it work one time before, and it had been heaven on earth. He wanted that again. He wanted to touch her and make her cry out. He wanted to