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She smiled at him. “There’s always room for improvement.” Then she added magnanimously, “The judge is open to another demonstration if you’d like to try upping your score.”
“Oh she would, would she?” He crawled toward her like a stalking predator. She jumped to her feet, shrieking, and running for the stairs. She didn’t make it two steps before his arms wrapped around her from behind. He lifted her up off her feet. She squealed and giggled as he carried her over to the couch.
But her laughter quickly died down as he got down to the business of showing her just how skilled he was in the performance department.
Chapter 4
ISOBEL
Every limb was sore as she climbed out of bed the next morning. Yes, they finally made it up to Hunter’s bed—just before dawn, on round number four. She never knew a man could have that much stamina. But then again, she’d never met Hunter Dawkins before.
She smiled, clutching the spare blanket she had wrapped around her body to her chest. For only having one night with him, he definitely made sure it was one hell of an experience.
But it was over now.
The smile dropped from her face as she watched Hunter sleeping peacefully, the morning light streaming in on his gorgeous face and exposed back. The sheet was pulled up to the bottom of his spine, but the tantalizing curve of his ass was visible right at the top of the fabric’s fold.
She bit her lip. He’d had a couple hours of sleep. Maybe they could fit in just one more—
No. She cut the thought off at the root.
It was daylight. The clock had more than struck midnight. It was time to go back to the real world.
There was no way she was going to tarnish the perfection of last night with awkward morning after BS and false promises that they’d call one another—or worse, him not even asking for her number. No, she’d just quietly exit stage left before he even woke up.
With effort, she pulled her eyes away from the gorgeous specimen on the bed and turned toward the stairs. She winced at the loud creak of the second stair as she started heading down. Whipping around to see if the noise woke Hunter, she saw that other than him shifting slightly, he didn’t stir.
She let out a deep breath and then tested each step before putting weight on it. It seemed to take forever, but she finally got to the bottom of the stairs. She gathered her clothes from where they’d been tossed off the night before and dressed in record time.
Then she grabbed her purse and was out the door, biting her lip as she closed it gingerly behind her.
She ran to her car and pulled away from Hunter’s house with only a quick wistful glance in her rearview mirror. The cabin looked like something out of a fairytale, a cabin in the woods with trees shading it.
She shook her head like she could clear it from the spell of sex and pheromones that she’d been lost in for the last fourteen hours.
Hunter’s gravel driveway was longer than she remembered it. It wound through the woods almost like a little road. Isobel glanced down at her rumpled clothes and then pulled over just long enough to change into a summer dress she’d thrown in her bag at the last minute. First impressions could be everything. The dress gave the message that she was friendly and approachable.
She got going again as soon as she could though, glancing over her shoulder every few seconds. But Hunter’s truck never appeared and in another minute she finally pulled out onto the paved county road. With a press on the screen, she pulled up the directions she’d already input into her GPS for Mel’s Horse Rescue.
It was half an hour away and she scanned radio stations to distract herself from thoughts of Hunter while she drove. Unfortunately, the only station that wasn’t full of static was a modern pop country station blaring crap she couldn’t stand. After a few minutes, she gave up and turned off the radio all together.
And in the silence that followed, she couldn’t help her thoughts turning to the man she’d left back in bed.
What would he think when he woke up and found her gone? Would he just be glad she’d left with no awkward fuss? Or did last night end up meaning more than just a one-night stand after all…
Her hands tightened around the steering wheel and she shook her head. No. She wasn’t a stupid girl.
But try as she might, she couldn’t get the sexy man with his gorgeous body and intense eyes out of her head. Suffice it to say, it was a long thirty minutes.
When she finally saw the sign for Mel’s Horse Rescue, she was more than relieved. She couldn’t believe after all the shit she was running away from it was thoughts of a man that had her so distracted.
Maybe it was just easier to focus on Hunter than her real problems. Either that, she sighed, or Hunter was just a man worthy of distraction.
She drove past the gate into a gravel driveway leading to the ranch. As she pulled up, she saw a large three-story building in the distance.
It was time to move on. Several vehicles were parked in a small parking area off to the left of the main building. A few trucks of various sizes. One dirt-spattered SUV. Isobel’s little Toyota was dwarfed by the others when she pulled in and parked beside a huge Dodge 4x4. That wasn’t intimidating or anything.
She took a deep breath and then stepped out of her car.
