I ignored the beauty of it, refusing to let him charm me into my death. “You’re lying.” I stared him down.
He lost the grin and put on his innocent-as-a-lamb expression. “Nope. Dry as a bone. Come on, I brought you an old nag.” He gestured to the brown one with his chin. “She couldn’t buck you off if she wanted to, and I promise, she won’t want to. And she doesn’t bite either.” His elbow came up to greet the teeth of the blond one who had swooped its head in towards his waist. He didn’t look like he’d hurt it, but he’d done a good job of blocking its moves.
“Ha! That one just tried to bite you!” I backed up a little, making sure I had plenty of room to maneuver if it decided to come after me next. The thing was huge, towering over Mack who was pretty damn tall himself.
“This one’s feisty, I admit. But I’ll be riding her and you’ll be riding her momma, so you’ll be fine. Cross my heart,” he said, making an X on his chest.
“Your heart’s on the other side.”
“I know,” he said, winking. He held up crossed fingers. “Got all my bases covered, just in case.”
My mouth dropped open at his casual dismissal of my well-grounded fears. “You don’t have to kill me by horse, you know. All you have to do is sign the papers.” When he looked at me quizzically, I explained. “People die on those things every day.”
“Not on my horses they don’t.” He held out his hand. “Come on, wife. Come take a little ride with me. Let me show you all the things you’ll be missing when you go back East and leave me here with a broken heart.”
My heart melted just a little bit in that moment, and I was pretty sure I’d never get it to go cold again. It wasn’t just the things he said but how he said them. He swung so easily between strong, sexy cowboy and soft-hearted loverboy, he was making me dizzy with it. Maybe even a little love-drunk.
I stood, grabbing his hand petulantly and scowling at him, doing my damnedest to not fall for his charms. “You’re not going to have a broken heart, you big dummy.”
He put his hands on my waist and leaned down, putting his lips near my neck and ear. “It’s already bruised.” And then he lifted me up all of a sudden, causing me to whoop with fear.
The horse he was putting me on didn’t bat an eyelash, but the other one jumped to the side and made snorting noises at us. From my new perspective on top of the two-story horse, I could see the blonde one was very agitated.
“Oh my god,” I whisper-squealed, forgetting about everything else, “I’m on a horse!” My butt muscles clenched so tight, my whole body raised up about three inches. Sweat broke out all over my body and my heart doubled its pace.
“Just relax,” he said, adjusting a stirrup and putting my foot in it when he was done. He walked around the horse and did the same on the other side. “She’s as gentle as a baby. You won’t have to do anything. She’ll just follow my horse wherever she goes and all you have to do is enjoy the view.”
I snorted. “Yeah, right.” My hands and thighs were trembling.
He came to my left side again and put the reins in my hand, leaving his fingers on top of mine. He stared at me as he gave me a quick lesson. “If you want to go to the left, just move your hands like this.” He dragged the leather strips to the left. “The bit in her mouth and the reins on her neck and head will let her know what you want to do. If you want to go right, take the reins and do this … see?” He went the opposite direction, reaching over the horse’s neck to demonstrate, waiting for me to nod my head before continuing. “When you want to stop, just pull back gently. Not too hard, she has a sensitive mouth. Try not to raise them up high, just keep them at waist-level. When you want to go, loosen the reins and give her a kick or squeeze her with your legs and click your tongue and she’ll go.”
“I thought you said I was just going to follow you and I wouldn’t have to do anything.” Sweat kept pouring down my sides and back. The heat had nothing to do with it; it was all plain old, garden-variety, paralyzing fear.
“I’m giving you instructions, just in case,” he explained.
“Just in case what?” The pitch of my voice came out way too high, but I couldn’t control it.
He didn’t answer me until he was on his horse’s back. “Just in case my horse bucks me off and throws me to the ground, knocking me unconscious.”
“What?!”
He shot me a grin and pulled his reins sharply to the left while kicking his horse and talking to her. “Get-up there, girl.”
I was so busy watching him ride away, I was totally unprepared for my horse to follow. She jerked me to the side and then backward as she moved to follow Mack’s horse, and I had to grab the saddle horn sticking up in front of me to keep from falling off. My reins dropped to her neck and hung down limply on the sides in big loops.
“I lost my thingies!” The right words wouldn’t come out in my panic.
“What are thingies?” he shouted, not even looking.
“The leather things! The reins!”