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When he sat back down, I expected him to look at me, knowing full well what he was doing, but he didn’t. He merely started shaking the pepper onto his lemon chicken.
I ate a few spoonfuls of vegetables and steamed rice. It was all that I could have since I started this new diet. Considering I used to pig out on the spring rolls and beef lo mein, no one seemed to notice.
After we cleaned up, I snuck out the side door to do a final night check on the horses. I’d made it three steps before I heard the door click and the footsteps.
I didn’t have to look behind me to know who it was; there was a confident rhythm to his step that I’d recognize anywhere. I closed my eyes for a brief second while I continued to walk toward the stables.
“You barely ate anything.”
“I wasn’t hungry.”
His arm brushed up against me, and I pulled my arm in closer to my side. “What are you playing at, Ream?”
“I’m not playing.”
I stopped dead in my tracks and spun around. “Bullshit.” I was the one who flirted. I didn’t like that Ream was making my heart jump out of my chest every time he leaned close. “Stop whatever it is you think you’re doing.”
Ream ignored me and kept walking to the barn. I watched him from behind for several seconds, admiring how his faded jeans clung to his ass and thighs. I rarely painted nudes, but the thought of painting Ream was playing in my mind.
He reached the barn door and swung it open. “Coming?”
Barn. Alone. With Ream. Shit. He thought he could play this game better than me, and I excelled at flirting. Well, I did until he screwed that up too. Now, it wasn’t any fun.
I reached the barn door and his whispered words swept across my skin. “I missed you.”
Oh God. I was used to being in control, and tonight he made me feel completely out of control, especially when he surprised me with saying shit like that. “Well, I didn’t miss you.”
Ream didn’t say anything as he followed me into the barn. The five horses stuck their heads out over their Dutch doors and a few nickered at us, knowing they were getting their night hay.
I noticed Ream keeping his distance from them by staying in the center of the aisle so the horses’ noses couldn’t quite touch him. Clifford tried his very best, stretching his thick neck out as far as he could then nodding his head up and down lifting his lip and flapping it.
I laughed at my obnoxious horse, and Ream froze, eyes watching me. I tucked my hair behind my ear and his eyes followed that too. Heat blazed. That familiar belly drop hit hard and fast as I looked back at him, neither of us moving. God, I missed this. Us hanging at the farm together. The comforting presence of him at my side. Did I just think that? We had comfort, then we had anger. Now it was … well I didn’t know what it was, but getting back to the ease between us was impossible.
I needed to get my mojo back and get control here. I chewed my lower lip, raised my brows, and cocked my hip. I excelled at this. I loved flirting. It gave power and I liked power, and I felt like Ream had it all right now so I needed to take some of it away.
When he began walking toward me, I decided that playing with Ream was a mistake. He obviously wasn’t going to back off. I quickly turned and grabbed the scissors hanging on the wall and cut the binder twine on the bale of hay against the wall. The twine snapped just as Ream came up behind me. I jerked, the presence of him so close to putting my confidence to shame.
His breath wafted across my ear as he leaned in, never touching but so close that I could feel every inch of him. “Fire playing with fire only leads to an uncontrollable inferno. You ready for that, Kitkat?”
I pulled hard on the twine and my elbow shot back hitting him square in the chest. I smiled when I heard him grunt. “I’m not fire. I’m the fire hose.”
The sound of his laughter had me swinging around, needing to catch a glimpse of the easygoing Ream that I’d tried to eradicate from my mind. It was a mistake because the memories hit me like running into a brick wall.
A loud bang sounded and I jerked my eyes away from Ream to Clifford, who was nodding his head up and down while kicking his hoof into the stall door. “Coming, buddy.” I picked up a flake of hay and passed it to Ream.
He backed away without taking the hay. “I don’t do horses.”
“What?”
He shook his head. “I’ll wait outside for you.”
“You’re kidding, right? Just throw it in his stall.” I pushed the hay into his chest and he had no choice but to take it or let it drop. “That guy over there.” I pointed to Clifford, who was making the racket and was the only horse in the barn that would make Ream’s job difficult. Clifford liked to nip playfully, and he had a big reach with that neck of his.
He hesitated and I smiled. It was cute. This hot, sexy guy who was all muscles, tattoos, and confident was nervous of a group of horses that were likely more terrified of him after the abuse they’d been through. Okay, except Clifford. He wanted attention and wasn’t scared to demand it. Ha … He and Ream should get along perfectly.
I threw hay to the other four horses before he even managed his one. He stood facing Clifford, who was sticking his neck out like a giraffe and trying to grab the hay from Ream’s hands. Clifford was getting pissed off and kicking the stall door harder. It looked like Ream was contemplating how he was going to get close enough to throw the hay in without the horse attacking him. The funny thing was that Clifford would suffer to Hell and back, and had, and he still didn’t have a mean bone in his body.
