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Her pulse lurched as her stomach dropped. “This Monday? Like in three days?”
“Yes.”
“But I still have two weeks left.” A protest she never thought she’d voice two weeks ago.
“What do you need them for?” her dad asked, a frown evident in his stern tone. “If the problem is fixed, you can come home and get back to work.”
Raine stiffened, her jaw clenched once more. “I haven’t stopped working, Daddy, and Fire and I are doing better than ever.” The force of his silence had her pulse speeding up and she scrambled for something to convince him. She wasn’t ready to go home yet. “You were right that the change of scenery would be good for us. Reyes is really good with Fire, and I want to see how far we can get with the time that’s left.”
“I don’t like you being out of competition this long.”
She rolled her eyes toward the ceiling in frustration. “That’s what I said when you ordered me up here for a full month. But I still came. Now things are going good and I need you to trust that I’m doing what is best for me and Fire and our future. Please.”
After another moment of hesitation, a grudging grunt of concession came across the line. “Okay, then. I’ll schedule the transport for two weeks from now and send you the details.”
Relief had her leaning forward onto her forearms on the counter. “Thank you. And don’t worry, I promise you’ll be impressed when you see us next.”
“I better be.”
“You will.” She fiddled with the charger cord. “If there’s nothing else, I have to be down at the barn by eight, so I should get to bed. Say hi to Mom, and love you both.”
“Love you, too, sweetheart. I’ll talk to you soon.”
Raine disconnected the call and pushed up with her palms flat on the counter as she blew out a breath. She had not expected the panic that had hit at the thought of going home early. She hadn’t lied when she told her dad she wanted more training time, but she hadn’t been completely truthful, either. It wasn’t only the training, it was Reyes. Despite the impenetrable wall he’d erected between them, she still looked forward to seeing him each day, and not only because he was so damn sexy.
After their initial butting of heads, they’d had a couple of good days that first week, and when she wasn’t so frickin’ hyper aware of him as a man, she thoroughly enjoyed learning about the horses and the rescue operation from him.
She made her way over to the patio doors that offered a clear view of the barn with the upstairs apartment still lit up in the dark of night. There was a lot more to learn before she left—about the horse rescue, and about Reyes. And maybe that was her problem. After that second kiss, she’d been focusing too much on the sizzling physical undercurrents when she should be concentrating on the friendship aspect. She had two weeks to scale his wall, and like with the jump, instinct told her failure wasn’t an option.
16
Three weeks into her stay, and Reyes still couldn’t force his gaze away from the sway of Raine’s ass as she left the barn on her way back to the guest house after practice. One more week. He just had to hang on for one more week and life would go back to normal.
He snorted at his wishful thinking before taking a couple of brushes to Taz’s stall. The woman had slowly been driving him insane over the past week and he desperately needed some stress relief. Last time he tried cleaning tack, she’d grabbed a clean cloth and joined him. Watching her rub the leather turned him on while she peppered him with endless questions on the horse rescue operation.
She took in everything he shared with her and kept asking for more. His heart greedily hoarded every second they spent together, because it was killing him to keep her at arm’s length and act as if her going home to Texas in one more week was no big deal.
Taz gave a soft wicker as he entered the stall, and Reyes offered the thoroughbred a couple sugar cubes and a firm forehead rub. Then he settled in with a brush in each hand; curry comb in one, dandy brush in the other. Unfortunately, the rhythmic motions over the gelding’s silken hide didn’t offer the usual meditation effects as his mind remained firmly fixed on Raine.
Not only did she tempt him every damn second of every damn day in those curve-hugging T-shirts and skin tight breeches, but as he’d feared the first week, he found he really, really liked her. He respected her work ethic and was impressed with her thorough approach to learning about the rescue, as well as her intuitive suggestions from a different perspective. He’d be talking to Janine about implementing a few of Raine’s ideas.
As for the horses, similar to her riding, she possessed a natural talent working with them whether in the saddle or on the ground. Saving Grace and Willow Moonlight were progressing beautifully under her gentle hand.
The woman also had a dry wit that had him fighting hard to keep the barriers up between them. He’d bitten back more grins and laughter in the past week than he had in the past three years. Genuine laughter, not the fake response he’d perfected so everyone would believe everything was okay.
The close quarters of the office were the most difficult. Seduced by her unique floral and horse scent, he used the excuse of paperwork to get close enough to feel her heat, but then had to resist reaching out to skim his rough fingers over her smooth skin. It was pure torture not to touch.
Self-inflicted, sadistic torture.
Yeah, he couldn’t wait for her to leave and go back to Texas, and at the same time, he feared once she did, he’d never know normal again.
“So what’s RazMaTaz’s story?”
Reyes flinched hard at the unexpected sound of Raine’s voice at the stall door. With his heart thumping in his chest, he shot her a quick glance. “I thought you left for the day.”
Talk about being distracted—he hadn’t even heard her boots on the cement.
She slid the stall open to step inside and rub her hand on Taz’s forehead. “I forgot my phone in the office.”
