“I didn’t know you had Malika with you, so I only brought the one horse.Why don’t Malika and I ride on ahead while you wait for your dad?”she said.
That wouldn’t be wise.Malika had zero filters.She’d tell his mother everything she wanted to know, and he could tell that his mother had questions.
Plenty of questions.
“Or,” he said, “we could all stick together.I don’t mind walking.”
His mother’s saintly smile turned pure evil.“Don’t be silly, sweetie.There’s no need for you to walk.Your dad will be along any time now, and he’ll be as worried as I was about that riderless horse.”
Huck Hanson arrived shortly after Malika and his mom disappeared down the trail.He, too, led a spare horse.
“What the hell happened to you?Where’s Malika?”he demanded.
“With Mom.”
Jayce repeated his story, except added more detail.
“That little research guy’s becoming a problem,” Huck said.He peered at his son.“Sheik Ali’s little sister isn’t becoming one, too, is she?”
The sun, through the trees, grew uncomfortably warm.Jayce had never considered his dad to be especially astute when it came to him and his relationships with women.He might have been wrong.
He tried to brazen it out.“Malika?Why would she be a problem?”
“Because she’s good-looking, she’s forbidden—that always adds spice—and she’s got guts.If I were in your shoes, she’d be a problem.A mighty big one.But Burning Scrub has twenty-five million dollars riding on her.A chunk of that goes to the ranch.So, if she turns into a problem for you, she becomes a problem for everyone.And if she does become a problem, she had better be worth it.”
Jayce wrestled with guilt.He didn’t give a damn about the money, but the people he cared about did.And it bothered him that Malika—who was beautiful, forbidden, and brave—had been reduced to a dollar figure by those very same people.Not even the brother she clearly worshipped cared about what happened to her.
“She’s not a problem,” he said.
Not a big one.
Because even though she confused him, he was beginning to care.
*
Malika
Malika was alittle put out with Jayce.
Mavis had warned her not to raise his expectations.But he had raised hers, then made no attempt to so much as kiss her again, and it was unfair.Where was his fire?His passion?What happened to the man who’d punched the little out-of-stater on her behalf?
There was the distinct possibility that a small part of the fault lay with her.She might have rushed things.The steps were important, her sisters agreed.
But she’d been so impatient.
A nasty thought wriggled in.What if he hadn’t enjoyed kissing her as much as he’d enjoyed kissing Belle?Belle was more beautiful than she was.Did she kiss better too?Was she more worthy of ruin?
That couldn’t be it.Plenty of men had indicated they would be willing to ruin her.Sadly, the right opportunity had never presented itself.None of them had been as challenging as Jayce, either.
“Where did you find the courage to face down a bear?”Vanessa asked, impinging upon her conundrum.
Jayce’s mother sat a horse well.Not stiff, in the more formal, equestrian style, but with the grace of a woman who spent a lot of hours in a saddle and was good friends with her ride.Malika didn’t have the same relationship with the pinto she rode, but the horse was sweet-tempered and agile, and she enjoyed her immensely.
“I didn’t need courage.I did what Jayce instructed me to do if I should encounter one,” she said.
“Good for you.”Vanessa smiled with approval.“You’ve got common sense.”
Malika glowed.She did have common sense.Plenty of it, although it was rarely recognized, and having a woman such as Vanessa, who she admired, praise her for it, was lovely.
