by Jaci Burton
Her hair had been swept off her shoulders, but some of the curling tendrils framed her face. Her look of intense concentration made Kyle yearn for her to give him the same kind of attention.
And then he made the mistake of leaning over and touching her. She smelled of peaches and summertime. And when she smiled at him, her amber eyes so innocent and full of sensual curiosity, Kyle wanted to gather her up in his arms and kiss her senseless. Then drop where they stood and pound his cock inside her until the need for her went away.
His attention diverted back to his job when a couple of daring steers attempted an escape from the gate. "Brady! Get Tom and Jody to sweep around the left and cut off those two critters trying to back out of the gate." Brady nodded and spurred his horse into a gallop and headed off after the escapees.
Once the animals were cornered he turned back to Sabrina and found her watching him this time.
He ached at her look of pain and confusion as their eyes met. He could swear he saw tears, but was too far away to tell for sure. Maybe it was just the sun glinting off her eyes. Either way, it was clear she was hurting, and Kyle knew damn well he was the one who caused her pain.
"You should go talk to her." Jenna's voice startled him as she placed her hand on his shoulder.
"I didn't hear you come up. Talk to who?"
"You know who. Sabrina."
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"Why do I need to talk to her?" He turned to look at his sister.
"I don't know. Why don't you tell me?" Jenna had that look about her again, the one that said he did something wrong and better make it right.
"I don't know what you're talking about," he lied.
Her lips formed a straight line and her eyes shot a don't give me that look. God, she always looked like Mom when she glared at him that way.
"She's upset. What did you do?"
Leave it to Jenna to assume he was the one at fault. Well this time at least, she was right. "I didn't do anything."
When he would have turned away she held his arm. "She's falling in love with you, you know."
Kyle's mouth hung open in shock. "She's what?" He glanced at Sabrina and back at Jenna. "You're blind. She is not."
Jenna nodded. "Yes, dumbass, she is. With you." She added a teasing grin as she said, "Why, I have no idea, but she is."
"Why would you think that? Did she say something to you?"
"No, she doesn't need to. I'm a woman in case you've forgotten. I know that look."
That obviously meant since he was a man he was clueless. "What look?"
She sighed in frustration then began to explain with a back and forth tilt of her head. Like she was lecturing a five-year-old, for God's sake.
"The one a woman gives a man when she's in love with him. I can't explain it. It's kind of a dreamy-eyed, lost in thought, head-a-million-miles-away kind of look. And she gets that way when she's looking at you. Why are men so dense?"
No, Jenna had to be wrong. Sabrina couldn't stand the sight of him right now. There was no way she was in love with him.
"Kyle," Jenna said softly. "Are you falling in love with Sabrina?"
Well wasn't that the damndest question he'd ever heard? "Me? In love with--well hell." He hung his head and stared at his boots, the same way
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he used to when he was a kid and in trouble with his mother. "I don't know, Jenn. To be honest, I don't know."
Jenna stepped into her brother's arms and hugged him. "Think about it then," she said against his chest. "And be careful with Sabrina's heart while you're thinking. She's vulnerable and susceptible to being hurt. I don't want you to be the one who hurts her. And I don't want to see you hurt again either." She reached up, kissed her brother's cheek and walked away to watch the roundup with Sabrina.
He couldn't believe that was his sweet baby sister, so grown up now she was giving her brother romantic advice. It used to be the other way around.
If what Jenna said was right, if Sabrina was in love with him, then what he had done the other night was even worse than he thought.
He didn't want his heart stomped all over again any more than Sabrina did. They needed to talk. After the roundup, after he sorted through his own feelings.
K K K
Kyle mounted his horse and joined the cowboys working the cattle into the pen.
Sabrina's gaze was glued to Kyle's every move as he kicked his horse into a fast gallop and tore after running calves, neatly cutting them away from the adults and herding them into the secondary pen attached to the long metal chute. The hooves of his horse kicked up mounds of dust behind him.
She surreptitiously stole glances at his handsome face and lithe body as he yelled directions to the wranglers, only half listening as Jenna explained the roundup process.
"He's good isn't he?" Jenna said.
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She nodded. "Yes, very good." It was clear who the best rider was in the group, although Brady was almost as good as Kyle. They both rode as if they and their mounts were one being instead of separate rider and horse, leaning easily from one side to the other as the horses made sharp turns and stops.
"He could have won everything if he'd continued to compete."
"He was that good?" Sabrina turned reluctantly from watching Kyle to question Jenna.
"The best out there. It was a given he'd win the All Around Champion the year he quit." Jenna sighed in obvious frustration for her brother.
"But now we'll never know."
To be that good, to know he could have been the top winner, and still he walked away from it all--he gave it all up to help his family save the ranch. Sabrina wished she could tell Kyle how much she admired his courage and dedication to his family. But she couldn't.
She hadn't been able to face him. Not since the night she completely embarrassed herself. They hadn't had more than a few seconds of conversation, although he had tried to talk to her. She just couldn't. Not yet. She was still mortified at her own behavior and was afraid she'd burst into tears or humiliate herself in some other way if he so much as looked at her cross-eyed.
Get Kyle off your mind, Sabrina. Concentrate on the roundup. "They're cutting the calves and penning them separately to do all the vaccinating and castrating and tagging, right?"
Jenna nodded. "Then they'll force the calves into the chute, and two cowboys will set up on either side. One will tag and vaccinate, the other will castrate."
"Yuck." Sabrina didn't really want to watch that part, but if she was going to own a ranch she'd better get used to it.
Jenna laughed. "Yuck is right. I never much cared for it myself, but it's a necessity. More than one bull in a pasture is a dangerous thing."
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"I suppose you're right, but it just seems so inhumane."
Sabrina smiled a greeting as Emma Stevens walked up and stood next to Jenna. "It's not really. They only feel the sting for a few minutes and then it's over. And like Jenna said, too many bulls and you have some way overworked heifers."
Even dressed down in worn jeans and a denim shirt, Emma was lovely. Her hair was pulled up in a ponytail and she looked like a young girl instead of a grown woman.
"Ever hear of Rocky Mountain Oysters?" Emma's wicked grin told Sabrina she wasn't talking about the ocean kind.
"No. Do I want to know about them?"
"No, you don't," Jenna said.
"Now I'm really curious. Tell me."
Emma and Jenna looked at each other. Jenna just shook her head and shrugged as if to tell Sabrina she had given her fair warning.
"Well they have to do something with the leftovers from the castration. It's a cowboy thing. Something about proving their manhood by frying and eating them. I've heard they're a real delicacy, but have to admit I don't have the stomach to try." Emma shuddered as she finished her explanation.
Sabrina stuck out her tongue in distaste. "That's disgusting."
>
Jenna laughed. "You can say that again."
The women spent a few minutes in entertaining conversation about cowboys and oysters.
"How's Petunia?" Emma asked.
"She's doing great. Getting bigger and plumper every day," Sabrina answered. "She's penned up in back of the house today so she doesn't get trampled. And not one bit happy about it either."
"I'll be she isn't," Emma replied with a grin.
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With a cloud of dust trailing behind him, Brady approached the edge of the corral on his horse. Tipping his hat to the women, he addressed Emma.
"Kyle wants you over at the back end of the chute to check the vaccination supply, Em."
Emma nodded. "I'll head on over there."
Brady held out his hand. "C'mon, I'll give you a ride."
One side of her mouth lifted in a wry grin. "Think you can handle me and that horse at the same time?"
"I can handle you and ten horses, darlin," he answered with a smirk.
"Let's go."
Without hesitation, Emma slid her booted foot on the stirrup and grabbed Brady's hand. He easily slung her onto his lap in one fluid motion.
"See you later," Emma said and waved as Brady wrapped an arm around her and urged the horse forward in a quick gallop.
"Those two will get married some day, mark my words," Jenna said.
"Emma and Brady?" Sabrina hoped the surprise she felt didn't show on her face.
"They've been antagonizing each other since they were kids. You'd think they hated each other, but they don't. They say there's a fine line between love and hate you know."
Sabrina watched as Brady halted the horse at the entrance to the chute, and jumped down, Emma still in his arms. He held her for a couple seconds longer than seemed necessary, their eyes locked on nothing and no one but each other, until Emma abruptly shoved him back, straightened her shirt and stomped away. Brady stood there for a few seconds laughing at her, then climbed on his horse and rode off.
"Well I was totally wrong then."
Jenna turned her attention to Sabrina. "About what?"
"I thought Emma had something going with Kyle."
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Her eyes widened and she laughed out loud. "With Kyle? No way. He's like Emma's big brother. He's been playing peacemaker between her and Brady for as long as I can remember. There's never been anything between the two of them."
"I see." At least she felt a little better about kissing Kyle. The last thing she wanted was to come between a couple.
"Besides, Kyle's interested in you, not Emma."
Jenna had spoken so matter-of-factly Sabrina wasn't certain she'd heard her right. "Me? No he's not."
"Please, I'm not blind. And I know my brother."
"Well I can guarantee he isn't interested in me."
"How do you know that?"
Should she say anything about that night? God it was embarrassing enough to think about what happened, let alone share it with anyone.
Especially Jenna. She didn't want Jenna to think badly of her.
Jenna turned, her hand lightly grasping Sabrina's arm. "Hey, you can tell me. What is it?"
She desperately needed someone to confide in. Her emotions were a jumbled mess of contradictions and uncertainties, and a sounding board would be helpful. So she took a deep breath and spit it out before she changed her mind. "The other night in the barn Kyle and I kissed."
"Really?" Jenna's eyebrows lifted in interest. "Tell me more."
She stared ahead at the cattle, watching as three wranglers worked the pen, cutting the calves out of the herd and separating them. "Nothing much to tell. We kissed and he stopped it from going any further."
"Kyle stopped it? Why?"
"Because he's not interested. That's why I say you're wrong."
"Hmmmm."
Sabrina looked at Jenna. "What does that mean?"
"When he kissed you, how did it feel?"
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Sabrina was taken aback. "You're kidding, right? You want me to tell you how it felt to kiss your brother?"
Laughing, Jenna nodded. "Yeah. How did it feel? Was it a short kiss, a long one, did you both laugh, was it awkward?"
"No. It was perfect." She couldn't believe she was having this conversation with Kyle's sister.
"Ah. And did he seem as if he wasn't enjoying it?"
She could still remember every detail of their kiss. Kyle held her like he never wanted to let go. He kissed her thoroughly, passionately, pouring desire and longing into each brush of his lips against hers. Or so she thought until he pushed her away and said he wasn't interested.
"No, he seemed to enjoy it." She was not going to tell Jenna about Kyle's erection. She drew the line there.
A self-satisfied smile on her face, Jenna rested her forearms on the corral rung. "He's interested." She turned her head and grinned at Sabrina. "He's a man, Sabrina. Don't ever forget that. And he has conflicting emotions too, just like women do."
"I guess so." She had thought only of her own feelings and emotions about that night. Never about Kyle and what he might have felt.
"Amanda burned him bad. And since the divorce he hasn't wanted a woman, hasn't dated one, phoned one, barely even talked to one. But with you--he watches you, all the time, finds ways to talk to you, even irritates you in an effort to protect himself. Remember what I said about Emma and Brady? How there's a fine line between love and hate?"
Sabrina nodded.
"Same thing with Kyle. He irritates you, tries to get you angry with him. Love and hate are very powerful emotions. If he was indifferent then you could rest assured he didn't care. He's not indifferent to you. He's interested, for sure."
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"Well it seemed that way at first, when he kissed me," she explained.
"But then he stopped and said we couldn't. He couldn't. He wasn't ready."
"That doesn't surprise me. Kyle's always been cautious about everything. He takes nothing lightly, and after Amanda he's going to tread softly where another woman is concerned."
"Doesn't matter anyway." Sabrina shrugged, trying to show Jenna she didn't care. "Even if there was something there, we can never be. I'm leaving in a while and he values his independence too much to want a relationship. I can see that and so can he. I think we're being very smart about this and not letting things get out of hand."
Jenna laughed. "Love rarely fits into a neat organizational plan. When it happens, it's never expected. Like a powerful Oklahoma twister, it blindsides you, takes your whole world and tumbles it around, and you're never the same again."
Jenna's words echoed in Sabrina's mind as she trudged, laptop in hand, toward the end of the portable chute attached to the calves' pen.
There she set up to enter data on each of the calves as they were tagged.
This allowed ranchers to keep track of their inventory in a much more modern way than riding out to the grazing areas and counting heads.
As each of the calves was loaded into the chute to be what Sabrina squeamishly referred to as folded, spindled and mutilated, she entered their description and tag numbers into the stock inventory database. She tried not to listen to the incessant bawling of the calves as one by one they were led into the narrow chute and literally manhandled at both ends.
"Trust me, it's all for dramatic effect. They bawl like that if you pull their tails too, which doesn't hurt them at all." Kyle stood behind her, his
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voice resonating, instantly reminding her of the night they kissed, of the feelings he stirred.
"It's not bothering me at all, really," she answered as she added another inventory number to the database.
"That's why you're sitting here with your cute little nose wrinkled in distaste and all but shuddering every time one of them squalls like a baby, right?" He grabbed a chair an
d pulled it close to hers, peering over her shoulder at the growing list of numbers on the inventory sheet.
Why did he have to sit so close? She scooted her body in the opposite direction trying not to appear as if she was avoiding him.
"You're going to fall off the chair if you keep sliding your butt to the other side to get away from me." The obvious humor in his voice revealed her subtle attempts weren't so subtle after all.
"I wasn't trying to get away from you," she said as she continued to stare at the monitor, ignoring him. "I was merely shifting in my seat to get more comfortable."
"So when you fall off the chair, the hard, dry dirt will be more comfortable than the chair, then?"
God, the man was annoying. Why couldn't he just leave?
She looked at him, noting the way the dimple in his right cheek showed more prominently when his lips were curved in a genuine smile.
She sighed, her frequent self-reminder that there was no magic between her and Kyle immediately banished. As soon as she gazed into the depths of his warm green eyes she was hopelessly lost.
"We need to talk."
"About what?" She knew about what, and didn't want to talk about it with him. Ever.
"About what happened the other night."
She turned back to the monitor, hoping for one of those squealing calves to come flying through the chute so she could look busy again.
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"There's nothing to talk about. It happened, it was a mistake, it won't happen again."
"Is that how you really feel?" His fingers tucked under her chin as he turned her face toward him. "Is it?"
What was she supposed to tell him? The truth? He pushed her away last time. She wasn't going to let it happen again. No matter how much she longed to feel his lips on hers again, or how fast her heart beat at his nearness. Even if the warmth of his fingers resting at her neck caused her pulse to beat so hard she could feel the rapid throb against her throat, she was stronger than her desires. It wasn't going to happen, and that was that.
"I...I don't want to discuss this any more." She turned her head away and Kyle dropped his hand.
"This is going to stay between us until we talk it out, Sabrina." His voice was low and quiet, but the underlying emotion was evident.
She just didn't want to believe he felt anything. It was safer that way.
"I really don't want to talk about it Kyle. Please."
Silence followed her plea until she turned her head to look at him.
His lips were tight, his emotions once again masked.
