“What are you doing here?”
“Had a girl I needed to kiss.” And see and touch. He’d only been back in town a few hours. Hadn’t planned it. Couldn’t explain it. “Any students here?”
She shook her head. “No.”
“Brothers?” His hands slid lower down her back.
Her breath came faster. “Um…no.”
Her eyes were wide on his, their bodies flush chest to thigh, and he couldn’t remember ever being this happy to be back from a trip. His fingers grazed her cheek, then slid around until he cupped the back of her neck. “Anyone at all I should worry about?”
“Worry about?”
He covered her mouth in answer, savored the softness of her lips under his. She’d been skittish and shy when they last parted, so he went slow, and he felt the exact second she let go and relaxed into him. She smelled sweet and fresh, like vanilla and honey. Felt even better as her fingers slid up and into his hair, her breasts pressed against his chest. Maybe he hadn’t lost as much ground as he’d feared.
He continued loving her mouth, sliding his tongue against hers. When she sighed and slipped more fully into his arms, he walked her back into an empty stall, took his time, kissed her like he wanted to. Like he’d thought way too much about. And, holy hell, kissing her shouldn’t make him this hot, not in all the places he was now burning. He deepened the kiss, tightened his grip at her neck and waist. The kiss was hot and hard and when he lifted his head, he found her eyes were still closed.
“So damn sweet.” Which only made him want her more.
She blinked up at him, eyes dazed, looking every bit like a girl who’d been thoroughly kissed. “It’s hard to breathe around you.”
“Is that a good thing?”
“I don’t know.”
She smiled up at him and he was nearly knocked off his feet. This quiet, unassuming girl was going to kill him. He took a deep breath and forced himself to step back. “Let’s go for a ride.”
“On a horse?”
Stephen half laughed, half groaned, thinking of the kind of ride he really wanted, and dropped a kiss on her nose. “Yes. We need to do something with you standing here sexy as hell, your mouth all red and shiny.” It was either ride or go home and take a cold shower. Of course, a ride might be damn uncomfortable at the moment.
He let her step away, knowing his attention clearly baffled her. He liked that too. “I’ll ride Roma.”
“Roma?”
“He has to be ridden, right? I’d rather it be me than you.” Silly, maybe; she could obviously handle herself, but he still had this urge to protect her.
She moved toward the tack room. “You’ve ridden before?”
“Not in a while, but my uncle had horses, so I rode quite a bit as a kid.”
“Okay. That’s Roma’s bridle there.” She motioned toward a hook and pointed out the rest.
They saddled the horses, Hannah moving around the barn with way more confidence than she moved around him. Once out of the gate, the horses walked easily beside each other aside from a few sidesteps by Roma. The afternoon sun was at their backs, beginning its descent over rolling hills. Not hills really, more like gentle slopes, just enough to add texture to the landscape.
He glanced over and down at Hannah, as her horse was several hands smaller than Roma. He was struck with a sudden vision of laying her down in the soft grass, making love to her with the sun shining in her hair. “This is nice.”
“I like it. It’s always calmed me.”
The things he was thinking about doing to her would not inspire calm. “Freedom Farm. Did you name it?”
“Yes. It didn’t have any name before.”
“Because it gives the kids freedom?”
She smiled. “Exactly.”
Roma’s ears pricked and he shied as they passed another horse in the last turnout pasture. Winnie walked on unaffected. “So is this your only job, you’re full-time here?” He’d wondered, because she said she was a physical therapist, if maybe she worked somewhere else too.
“Yep, this is it. I’m lucky. I wouldn’t make enough from students to cover a place like this, but it was all left to me when the previous owners passed away.”
He looked over at her. “Left to you? You were related?”
“No. They didn’t have any other family. I spent lot of time out here as a teenager and…I guess they thought of me as a granddaughter. I didn’t expect it, but I’m grateful. I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else and there’s so much more I want to do. So many ideas I—” She brought Winnie up short.
Stephen did the same and followed her gaze to the top of the ridge. “What is it?”
“Nothing. I just thought I saw something. Or someone.”
“Is that part of your property up there?”
“Yes.”
He didn’t care for the worry in her voice. “What someones are supposed to be there?”
“People from the city, I guess. Surveying? I don’t know.”