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seemed to add, “If you’re too scared,” and Keena straightened her back to take advantage of the quarter inch she rounded down from. Ryan didn’t appear impressed in the least.
“No, that won’t be necessary. I’m sure one of the others needs you.” With that she spun away and hurried down along the bank and then inland a bit so the trees hid her from his sight.
When the small group of voices was not as distinct, she stopped to lean against a tree with her eyes closed. This was peace. The first night, when she had gone to bed, she couldn’t sleep. The sounds of the many bugs outside scared the crap out of her. For the first time, she had missed the arguing neighbors, the dogs barking in the back alley, and the noisy traffic. However, the second night, after she’d downed a warm drink Mirabelle made her, which Keena knew for a fact it had alcohol in it, she’d slept much better. Keena wasn’t much of a drinker, having never acquired the taste for it, but whatever Mirabelle had concocted tasted more like chocolate.
Something rustled at her side, and she jumped, biting off a scream. She peered around the side of the tree to find Ryan standing some feet away. The man moved like an animal, with feral grace, and she’d bet anything he made the noise on purpose to scare her, the jerk.
“I said I can go alone,” she snapped.
He came forward and walked right by her without saying a word. He stopped at the bank and watched the water, unmoving. For a moment, it seemed like time stood still, or it might have been Ryan himself, not appearing to breathe or move. He was like a statue, bringing to Keena’s mind the night that was supposed to be her honeymoon night. The pain had been so intense, she had held still as possible, as if that would keep her from shattering into a million pieces.
Ryan didn’t turn around when he spoke. “You don’t like me, do you?”
Rather than answer his question, she formed one of her own while strolling up beside him. “You strike me as the kind of man that doesn’t give a damn what others think, so what does it matter if I do or don’t?”
“I guess it’s a day for unanswered questions.”
He looked up at the sky, although Keena didn’t believe he felt what she had earlier when she enjoyed the sunlight, the breeze, just nature itself. Ryan might be observing everything, but he wasn’t participating in it. He was a spectator from a distance. She almost laughed at that assessment. Now she was the empath.
All at once, Ryan stood before her, their bodies not inches apart. How did he move without her sensing it, hearing something, or even disrupting the air around her? “Tell me a fact you don’t mind a stranger knowing,” he insisted.
Her eyes widened, and then she slipped into teasing mode, what she had done with Steven when they were dating. The attitude was protective. She’d learned that much with her minor in psychology to diagnose her own issues. “You want to know so much, cowboy, you go first.”
He hesitated. “I’ve been around horses all of my life. I’ve broken them, trained them. Yet, I was surprised they still took to me after . . .”
“After what?”
His gaze dropped to her lips. He was trying to distract her from the question for some reason. It was working. She swayed toward him, steeled herself, and then swayed again. After bringing her hands up between them, she rested them on his chest, marveling that any man could make her want to be in his arms so badly while at the same time make her want to run away screaming. None of it made sense.
Ryan’s mouth seemed to descend toward hers. They were going to kiss, and he didn’t like her. She didn’t like him, didn’t want any man, least of all a sexy cowboy who could have any woman he wanted. Warm breath bathed her lips. Keena almost rose up on her toes to close off the last centimeter of distance between them. A memory of the church lobby rose in her mind, of everyone standing around staring at her with pity on their faces, of China yakking on in the background of Steven’s call saying she didn’t know this would happen. Of course she did. China was every man’s fantasy and every woman’s nightmare.
Keena pushed Ryan away and turned to face the water. She clenched her hands together in front of her, trying to pull herself together. This wasn’t what she was here for, to have an affair. “I’m not here to have sex, so I’d appreciate it if you kept your hands to yourself.”
With that statement, she started back to find the others, but Ryan stopped her.
“Keena?”
Frowning, she glanced back. “What?”
“What is your fact?”
She blinked. “Are you serious? No comment about what I just said, just something about myself I don’t care if a stranger knows?”
He nodded.
She rolled her eyes and sighed. “Fine. My mother died of cancer when I was four, and my father ran off with a woman to make a slut of a daughter just like her.” Keena slapped a hand over her mouth. What the hell! She hadn’t meant to say that. Those family skeletons were one step down from revealing to him what Steven had done. She turned her back on Ryan but didn’t walk away, pressing the heels of her hands to her temples. “I don’t know why I would ever admit that to you, to anybody.”
When he spoke, it was from directly behind her, but he didn’t touch her. “Maybe I am an empath. I don’t mean I have a gift to bring out what others would like to keep hidden, but from a child, I’ve had an affinity toward animals. I could read them, I guess. When others couldn’t break a horse, even resorting to harsh methods, I could with a word or a touch.”
She grinned back at him. “You’re calling me an animal now?”
A ghost of a smile touched his full lips, and she found that she missed the chance to taste them.
“No, that ability had never translated to humans.”
Had never, she thought. Did that mean she was the first human he read now, or it happened when he grew up? And what did it have to do with her blurting out what she found hard to talk about with Aunt Delores, who knew all the truth, let alone this man, who she’d met just days ago?
He brought his hands down above her shoulders but drew back before he made contact. “Let’s not give it a spooky explanation. I’ve always enjoyed psychology.”
