“I’m not leaving until I know she’ll be okay.”
Jenkins gave a short laugh, and Logan and he exchanged an indecipherable look between them as Jenkins handed him a blanket.
“I had a feeling you, infuriating woman, were going to say that. Here, bunk down on the hay, and get some rest at least. You’re no good to Millie if you keel over from exhaustion, and you’ll just make more work for me, too, so do as you’re told, and lie down.”
He gave her a shove toward the hay bales, and as it was a case of give in or fall flat on her face, Lindsey thought it wisest to choose the first option. Right now, Logan was positively oozing dominance, and disapproval, and she wouldn’t put it past him to make do on his earlier threat of putting her over his knee, if she didn’t do as she was told.
While a small part of her was dying to experience a spanking at his hand, she didn’t want that to take place in front of her father’s head groom. They would all have enough explaining to do come morning, and then there was the matter of Logan’s fee. While she had some money saved—not much, considering her dwindling allowance—it would not be enough to cover his emergency call-out, she was sure, and her father would never agree to pay it, even if he had the cash for it, which she highly doubted he did these days.
“Okay, okay, no need to be so bossy.”
Jenkins snorted in amusement at her murmured words, and she forgot to breathe as Logan crowded her in against the stall wall and grasped her wrists in a tight grip by her sides. With the rough wood pressing into her back and his considerable height towering over her, she couldn’t move, could barely breathe, truth be told, when he dipped his head to make sure only she would hear his words.
Puffs of air ghosted across the sensitive spot just under her ear, and she knew he would be able to tell how much his nearness was affecting her. No way would he miss the way her pulse started to resemble a demented gnat jumping about, and Lindsey shut her eyes to block out the knowledge that Jenkins was privy to all this.
“You haven’t seen me bossy yet, girl. You really don’t want to either.” He rubbed his stubbly jaw along her scarred jawline, and Lindsey barely suppressed a whimper of need at the trail of fire that contact left behind. Every scent seemed intensified in this moment, especially when he shifted slightly, and she felt the unmistakable evidence of his erection digging into her hip. It made her heart skip a beat to know that he wasn’t immune to her, that this insane attraction that seemed to pulse between them wasn’t just felt by her.
Nothing would ever come of this, but it did soothe her bruised heart, and gave her the courage to whisper her response.
“Maybe I do want to see that side of yours, Sir.”
She felt the vibration of Logan’s groan in answer all the way to her toes, before he let her go. Bereft of his body heat, Lindsey shivered. Logan swore under his breath, ran a hand through his hair, and before she could blink, he’d wrapped the blanket firmly around her shoulders and then pushed her down on the hay.
“Get some rest, woman.”
She couldn’t help but smile at the gruff timbre of his voice and the way he turned his back on Jenkins to adjust himself. His blue gaze connected with hers as he did so, daring her to say anything, it seemed.
In truth, she was far too exhausted to do anything but grin. It seemed her body had just been waiting for her to assume the horizontal position before it gave up.
* * * *
Not surprisingly, Lindsey fell asleep the minute she stopped struggling. By the time he exited the stall, avoiding the head groom’s searching glance, her even breathing told him she was gone. Against his better judgment, he turned to look at her and promptly regretted that decision. With her long curls framing her face, which was now utterly devoid of any make-up, she looked very young and vulnerable—far too young for him.
That realization meant that his current boner deflated, and he could walk in some degree of comfort. He really needed to get laid, and soon. At least that way he should be able to control his body instead of it acting like a randy teenage boy when he was close to Lindsey. Logan conveniently chose to ignore the little devil sitting on his shoulder, the very one telling him that he’d been around plenty of women both at the club and his practice displaying far more flesh than Lindsey currently did.
She looked positively nun-like. Ugg boots hid her feet from view, and while the jeans hugged her slender body in all the right places, they certainly weren’t designed to snare a man. She’d even buttoned her blouse all the way to the top. More’s the pity. Then again, he might have embarrassed himself had he seen more than the glimpse he’d caught in the car to fuel his imagination.
“Poor girl is exhausted.” Logan nodded at Jenkins’s quiet assessment of the situation as he walked Millie up and down the length of the stable. The old horse walked easier, and seemed more with it, at least. “If you don’t mind me saying, you don’t look much better, Doc. Wanna bunk down with her and catch forty winks? I’ll wake you in an hour so you can watch Millie. Doesn’t take two of us right now, does it?”
Logan gave a short laugh in answer and shook his head.
“No, if I do that, you’ll never get me up again. It’s been one hell of a day. I’ll take Millie, and you’ll rustle us up some coffee. It’ll be a few more hours before I’m confident she’ll be okay.”
Jenkins nodded, handed him the reigns and, glancing between Lindsey and Logan again, smiled.
“Coffee I can do.” He looked as though he was going to say something else, but then seemed to think better of it and disappeared through a tiny door at the end of the stables. Left to his own devices, Logan took a good, long look at his surroundings. Something definitely wasn’t right here. Apart from Millie’s stall, only two of the others were occupied, and they weren’t racers. One of them was Georgina’s personal horse, a gentle mare called Daisy, which nickered at him softly as he walked Millie past her stall. The only other occupant of the once-thriving stable block was a black and highly spirited stallion. He pawed at the ground and butted his head against the stall in a far-too-aggressive manner. Logan didn’t recognize this one, and Jenkins confirmed his assessment when he reappeared with two steaming mugs of coffee.
“Don’t mind him, doc. Right temperamental bastard, he is. Worth a fortune from what I can gather. His lordship is holding him for a friend, hence I’m more or less living here to keep an eye on him.”
Jenkins handed him one of the mugs and shrugged his shoulders, when Logan quirked an eyebrow at him.
“I don’t ask questions I don’t want the answers to. Let’s just say I need this job. As you can gather, there really isn’t any need for a head groom, not with two horses left, and if it was up to his lordship, we’d only have Lady Georgina’s. It’s why I had to ring you when old Millie took a turn for the worse. His lordship would have made me shoot her before he called out a vet, and I couldn’t do that to Miss Lindsey’s horse. The poor girl has enough on her plate right now what with…”
Jenkins blanched as though he’d said too much already, and hastily took a gulp of his scalding coffee. A nasty itch spread between Logan’s shoulder blades. Things were definitely not right at the Callan-Brannan estate.
“Meaning?” he asked, knowing full well that he was unlikely to get the answers from Jenkins. The old guy was fiercely loyal to the estate and Lindsey in particular. Sure enough, Jenkins shook his head, and looked across at Lindsey. She’d turned in her sleep. Mouth open, Logan was pretty sure she was snoring softly, and his gut tightened in unwanted emotion. Just like it had before, the rush of protectiveness he felt toward her took him by surprise. Her chest rose and fell with her breathing, one long strand of her hair acting like a beacon toward the way the fabric of her blouse stretched with every inhale, invoking a renewed tightening in his groin.
He wanted her, plain and simple, and he couldn’t have her. The whole thing was ludicrous. The first woman who really got his motor revving since he’d lost his wife was the one he could never have. He was
under no illusion that Lindsey would tumble into his bed with very little persuasion needed on his part, but she deserved more than a quick tumble.
They clearly shared some combustible chemistry, but that wasn’t enough basis to build a relationship on, and Logan had no intention of settling for anything less. It would be demeaning to everything he’d shared with Elena, all their hopes and dreams of a future, and chemistry aside, Lindsey and he were too different, and that’s if you overlooked the huge age gap. He’d been in his first year at Vet College when she’d been born, for fuck’s sake. That alone was reason enough to ignore the ache in his balls. He wasn’t a damn teenager to be led around by his cock, that’s for sure.
Belatedly, he realized that the silence between Jenkins and him was reaching uncomfortable levels, and he tore his gaze away from Lindsey to find the other man watching him.
“Mind me asking why you turned up together, doc?”
There wasn’t any censure in those words, but Logan didn’t like the speculative gleam in the other man’s eyes, because it meant that Logan was far too easy to read in regards to Lindsey. Schooling his expression into one of bored indifference, he shook his head.
“None of your business, Jenkins. I’m here to help Millie, that’s all.”
“If you say so, doc.” He grinned and then promptly sobered. “On that subject, I’m not sure who’s gonna foot the bill for tonight. His lordship will do his nut when he hears I called you out and—”
“Let’s not worry about that now.” Logan interrupted the other man. “I’m sure we can come to some form of arrangement over the finances. Lord knows I don’t need the money, and this is Millie. Like you said, she’s special to Lindsey, and we had to see her through this.”
Jenkins’s smile in answer lit up his lined face, and Logan shook his head in grim amusement.
“Aye, that she is. I still recall Miss Lindsey taking her first riding lessons on her. God knows how many times she took a tumble, but she kept at it.”
Logan, too, was transported back in time. Elena’s laughter rang in his ears as she encouraged a seven-year-old Lindsey to get back on the horse, while Logan had watched from the sidelines. A keen equestrian, Elena had also been a riding instructor, so naturally Georgina had called on her childhood friend when it came time for her only daughter to have riding lessons. Back then, the Callan-Brannan stables had been a name to be reckoned with in the horse racing industry, and Logan had been overjoyed to count them as one of the first clients to his fledgling veterinary practice.
“Just like a little bird,” he murmured and Jenkins sighed.
“Yeah, she sure was. I was worried she’d give up on riding after her accident, and if it wasn’t for Millie here, she might well have done. However, Millie has such a sweet temperament and she was pining for her, so we got Miss Lindsey back on her horse, thank goodness. Only time I’ve really seen her smile since is when she’s with Millie.”
That itch intensified to unbearable levels, and Logan had to ask.
“I was out of the country, so only got sketchy details. What exactly happened?”
Jenkins shot him a glance and seemed to mull over his answer for a while. It took him walking Millie up and down the entire length of the stables before he took her back to her stall.
“Reckon we ought to let her rest a while now.” At Logan’s nod, he shut the door and sat down heavily on one the many bales lining the way. “You might want to sit down, doc. This isn’t a pretty tale.”
It was only when Logan had sat down with his back leaning against the wall that Jenkins continued.
“Miss Lindsey was away at college. In her final year, and she was all set to win the horse-jumping championships for her school that year. Anyway, she was out training, not her usual horse, and from what we could piece together, she was on her way back when a motorbike came out of nowhere. Spooked her horse. It went into a stampede, and tried to jump the iron railing of a cemetery. It didn’t make it. They both ended up impaled on the damn things. The horse had to be put down, and Miss Lindsey, well, she needed lots of surgery. Had to be cut off the railing, which had embedded itself in her left cheek.”
He smiled grimly at Logan’s sharp intake of breath.
“Yes, like I said it wasn’t pretty. They had to break and reset her jaw, among other things. It was a long recovery, and then reconstructive surgery. They worked wonders, really, but she’ll always be scarred. She was only seventeen, far too young to deal with the emotional impact of it all, let alone the physical side, and her parents….” Jenkins spat on the floor and shook his head again.
“Carry on. Her parents what? Surely they supported her through this, right? This wasn’t her fault, after all, was it?”
Jenkins sighed.
“Well, I’m sure Lady Georgina would have done but she had her own issues at the time. It’s not well known, but she was pregnant, see.” This was news to Logan and he blew out an exasperated huff as the truth began to dawn on him. Maurice and Georgina had been trying for years to have another baby, so this would have been a very big deal indeed, some might say a miracle, and as Lindsey didn’t have any siblings, that left only one conclusion.
“Let me guess, the trauma of her daughter’s accident caused her to lose the baby?”
Logan swore under his breath when Jenkins nodded.
“Aye, so they say, but between you and me, the gossip from the servants said differently. It hadn’t been an easy pregnancy, and Lady Georgina was on strict bed rest. That’s why no one outside the family knew of her pregnancy. I reckon that boy just wasn’t meant to be, and she’d have lost him anyway.”
“Fuck, it was a boy?”
“Aye, and I can see from your reaction you know what that meant. His lordship, well, he went a bit crazy after it all. Blamed Miss Lindsey for it all. I seem to recall he hollered at her that she owed him, had cost him his son and heir and all that bullshit. Pardon my French and all, doc.”
Logan gave a short laugh, and unable to sit anymore started to pace the stable. He understood only too well the effect grief could have on a man but this…this was unacceptable on so many levels.
“Aye, it was and is a mess, you could say. Things have got slightly better since then, but Miss Lindsey here, she is still trying to make up for something that wasn’t her fault, and I fear in his lordship’s eyes, nothing she ever does will be good enough. So, she can really do with a friend, doc.”
Chapter Four
Lindsey woke up with a crick in her neck, straw sticking up one nostril, and the sound of raised male voices. Great, Papa was annoyed again about something or other. A gentle shake to her shoulder and the delicious smell of caffeine registered next, and Jenkins’s concerned face swam into view when she pried her heavy eyelids open.
What was Jenkins doing…?
With sudden and gut-wrenching clarity, last night’s events came rushing back into her mind. Sneezing, she sat up too fast and the room spun as she swung her legs on the ground.
“Easy there, Miss Lindsey. Here, have some caffeine to get that motor going.” Jenkins pressed a travel mug of hot coffee into her hands, and closing her eyes, Lindsey inhaled deeply of the life giving elixir. Two sips of the fragrant brew later, she felt slightly more with it, even as her stomach cramped at the argument she was overhearing.
“I don’t give a shit. You never should have been called in the first place, let alone to that old horse. Jenkins had his orders. I’ll sack him for this.”
Lindsey gasped in horror, and Jenkins paled and straightened up slowly. Right now, he looked every one of his sixty-two years. Misery curled in her gut, even as Millie sticking her head over her stall in greeting soothed that particular anxiety.
“I’m so sorry about this,” she murmured to Jenkins, and he shook his head.
“Not your fault, Miss Lindsey. The important thing is Millie is okay. Doc worked wonders on her. It’s good to have him back.”
Lindsey silently agreed, as the door to the stables flew op
en and her red-faced Papa marched in. She resisted the urge to curl into a small ball. She wasn’t in her bedroom, hiding under her duvet, and besides, she wasn’t a child anymore. Millie needed her to stand up for her. It was, after all, the only thing of hers—apart from the club, which her parents didn’t know about—that meant something to her these days. Well, that and a stony-faced Logan, who followed her father into the stables. His expression softened slightly when he spotted her awake, and Lindsey could have drowned in the intensity of his gaze.
Her father’s raised voice made her swing her attention back to him, and she got to her feet when he advanced on Jenkins and her.
“You, are fired, Jenkins. How dare you go against my explicit instructions? You should have shot that horse the minute it started to show symptoms, instead of throwing good money after bad, let alone phone a vet who doesn’t even work for me anymore.”
Jenkins’s shoulders slumped, and when he didn’t put forward anything in his defense, Lindsey stepped in front of her enraged parent.
“Papa, this isn’t Jenkins’s fault. He phoned Logan under my instructions. Millie deserved a chance to—”
“You, young lady, hold your tongue. I know full well you’re behind all this, and I’ll get to you in a minute. You and your irresponsible behavior. I’ll be glad to be rid of you. I pity poor Kevin for taking you on. Still, I’m sure he’ll whip you into shape.”
Bile rose in her throat at the mention of his name, and she shook her head.
“I haven’t agreed to that, yet, Papa.” How she managed to get those words out, she would never know. Sure enough, her father swore. Spittle flew in her face in his outrage and she flinched as he raised his hand, only for that move to be blocked by an equally-as-furious-looking Logan.
Where her father’s anger mottled his skin—and he looked on the verge of having a heart attack—Logan’s quiet fury on her behalf was sexy as fuck. His blue eyes blazed in their anger, his nostrils flared, and his jaw tightened as he dropped his voice to a deceptively low, controlled growl that sent shivers down her spine and a rush of moisture into her knickers. A completely inappropriate response in front of her father, but her body didn’t seem to care about that one iota. Fortunately, the men were too focused on each other to notice her drooling.
Auctioned to the Gentle Dom [The Spectrum Auctions 5] (Siren Publishing Classic) Page 4
