Page 9 of Wild and Wanted

Clay smiled and shrugged. ‘That’s her job, I guess.’ Even if her daughter was a fully grown adult. But, he supposed, having lost one daughter, Cindy probably couldn’t help being overprotective.

Stephanie didn’t comment; she just petted Gertie and said, ‘So, where do we begin?’

He smiled again. ‘At the beginning. This, Stephanie’ – he gestured to Gertie – ‘is a horse.’

She laughed and it was like nothing he’d expected, full and bold, her blue-grey eyes sparkling purple, her cheeks dimpling.

Jesus – a man could do a lot of crazy things for a pair of dimples like that.

‘Please,’ she said after her laughter died, and she was looking at him with the corners of her mouth still a little upturned, the freckles on her nose severely distracting. ‘Call me Stevie. My friends call me Stevie.’

Stevie. It suited her, this woman with the bold laugh and dimples, and Clay was willing to take any inch she was prepared to give.

‘We gonna be friends, Stevie girl?’

He’d meant it to sound light and playful. A little flirty perhaps. Not so… possessive. Like she was his Stevie girl. For fuck’s sake, he was teaching her to ride a horse, not staking some kind of claim. And yet, she didn’t shy from the question, pretending he hadn’t asked it in the way that he had.

She didn’t play coy.

She just looked him straight in the eye and said, ‘I really hope so,’ and it felt like a whip lash to his chest as he sucked in a breath.

Clay knew when a woman wanted him. The past decade of his life most of them had been pretty damn frank about it. Stevie was not. But he could see it in those hazy purple eyes anyway and he reached for the strength to resist because he knew what to do with frank women. He did not know what to do with a woman who wasn’t.

Plus – she was a guest.

Nodding awkwardly, he turned away, striding to the gate post where he’d hung a helmet earlier and returned with it dangling from his fingers. ‘Pretty sure this will fit,’ he said as he handed it over.

She took it from him, inspecting it with little enthusiasm before glancing at him. ‘I’m only going to be sitting on the horse, right?’

‘Afraid it’s going to mess up your hair?’

‘Yes.’

Her glare was a touch haughty which, weirdly, Clay kinda dug. ‘No helmet, no ride.’ The last thing the ranch needed was Stephanie freaking Everhart falling off a horse and breaking her very pretty head. They didn’t need that liability.

‘You didn’t wear a helmet yesterday.’

‘I’ve been riding since I was two.’

‘Yeah, but that horse looked like he was trying to kill you.’

Clay chuckled at her summation of events. ‘She wasn’t trying to kill me.’

‘You could have fooled me.’

He shrugged. ‘She was just scared.’

‘Of what? She looked like she could have slain everyone watching just from the hatred beaming like red lasers from her eyes.’

The picture she painted was vivid and this time Clay full-out belly laughed, picturing Electra with laser beams coming from her eyes. It felt good to laugh after that moment they’d had. He could feel his swagger returning.

Horses he knew. Horses he could talk about. And he liked having his feet on solid ground. ‘She has baggage,’ he said eventually. ‘But if you want to learn to horse’ – he petted Gertie with his other hand – ‘you have to wear a helmet.’

She huffed but took it, passing him her hat as she settled the offending item on her head and fastened it under her chin. Clay didn’t comment as she shoved her hands on her hips and raised her eyebrow; he just walked the half dozen paces to the fence post and hung her hat there before returning.

‘Let me show you a few things before we start.’

Clay gave Stevie a quick once around the horse, pointing out what was what with the saddle and relaying a few fun horse facts people usually liked to know. When they got back to the start again he said, ‘Ready to mount up?’