Tame Horses Wild Hearts

by Alison Paige

  “You already did.” She tried to squirm free but his arm was steel around her waist, pressing her firmly against him. His body heat warmed her, contrasting the cool water, making his embrace a haven she didn’t want to leave. But pride wouldn’t let her stop trying.

  “Things changed,” he said.

  “Because you’re working for me instead of my father?”

  “Yes. No. Not only that. It’s complicated.”

  “What’s complicated? You didn’t have a problem the night we got back from the breeders.” Her face went hot with the memory.

  “That’s what you want?” His dark eyes turned hard, cold. “Like it was that night?”

  No. That night was sex, pure and simple. No emotion. No connection. Kate wanted so much more. Raw sex wouldn’t be enough, not by half. But having Joe back in her bed was at least a place to start. There was more between them than sex, she was sure of it. She just needed a chance to bring them close again. Kate wasn’t experienced enough in this sort of thing. She didn’t know any other way.

  “Is that my only option?” she asked.

  His fingers pressed into her sides. She could see his jaw muscles flex. He stared at her for several seconds, his breaths heavy, his brow deeply furrowed.

  Something flickered behind his eyes finally and he looked away. When he turned back she could tell he’d found a measure of calm. He set her away from him.

  “Damn it, Kate. It can’t happen. This is the only way I know how.” He swam to the shore.

  Kate was still trying to figure out what the hell she was missing in Joe’s answer that would have it make sense when the group arrived back at the stables.

  This is the only way he knew how to do what? And what’d it have to do with sex? She hadn’t asked him to explain. There wasn’t another moment when they were alone. She’d been left to try and puzzle it out on her own.

  It was giving her a headache. She couldn’t think about it anymore. Between trying to decipher Joe’s cryptic explanations and enduring all of his pretend advances, her brain was fried and her body was screaming for relief. Hell, even Eddy was starting to look doable. If they didn’t catch her stalker soon she’d be dead anyway. Can a person die of sexual frustration?

  Kate pushed it from her mind, losing herself in the simple pleasure of brushing Wizard. She filled the hay box and water bucket, then gave the big mare’s strong neck a few loving strokes. The fresh, sweet smell of hay mixed with the more pungent aromas of the stables swirled around her in the stall and Kate breathed it in. Like a secret elixir her tensions eased. Nothing soothed her like the smell of horses.

  She emerged from the stall renewed. “Tony, you’re going to be late for dinner. What took you so long to water Coco?”

  He looked over his lopsided shoulder at her, a water bucket dangling at the end of his arm, his other arm high in the air as counter balance. “This is Sylvester’s. Already did Coco.”

  “Why isn’t Nisha watering her own horse?”

  Tony’s tan face pinked with his explosive grin. “Told her I’d take care of it. Girls like it when you do stuff for’em.”

  Dating advice from a ten year old. She should call Joe over to take notes. Speaking of the devil, where was he? Kate shot a glance back toward the office. She could see him through the windows, his white T-shirt hugging nicely over his muscled back.

  “Can I go? This is heavy.” Tony shifted the bucket to his other hand. Water sloshed out, soaking his jeans from the knee down. He didn’t seem to care.

  “Sure, sweetie. But from now on, Nisha takes care of her own horse. If she can’t take care of Sylvester, she can’t ride him.”

  Tony nodded quickly as he turned and waddled on down the aisle. Kate headed in the opposite direction. She heard Clayton’s voice before she saw around the corner into the office.

  “She doesn’t need to see them.”

  “Wrong,” Joe said.

  “See what?”

  Both men threw her somber expressions. Kate looked at the photos in Joe’s hands. Bile churned her stomach.

  “Not again.” Her voice was barely a whisper.

  “They’re just photos,” Clayton said. “Taken with a high-powered lens. Proves we’re doing good. He wasn’t able to get close.”

  “Proves he’s desperate,” Joe said. “Probably pissed.”

  “He’s sending something every day now?” She caught Joe’s gaze. “Is that because of us?”

  His scowl faltered, a hint of tenderness flickering through his eyes. “Not likely. He needs things between you to start coming together. Probably sent these to prove he’s able to reach you no matter what we do.”

  She held out her hand for the pictures. “Lemme see.”

  “No, Kate,” Clayton said. “You don’t need to see.”

  “She does.” But when Joe tried to give her the pictures, Clayton snatched them away.

  “You trying to scare her?”

  “Yes.” Joe’s attention stayed fixed on Kate. “She needs to know this is serious. Not a time for distractions.”

  “Let me see, Clayton.” Kate held her hand out to him, waiting.

  Clayton sighed, resigned, and gave her the photos. “We won’t let him near you.”

  Kate swallowed her heart out of her throat, scanning the pictures. “Clearly, he doesn’t have to be near.”

  There were five in all. She was naked in every one, wet in the shower. The pictures were shaking.

  No. Kate’s hands were shaking. She looked to Joe. “How?”

  “Window was open. He must’ve been in a tree behind the main house.”

  “He climbed a tree? That sounds so…”

  “Desperate.”

  “Yes,” Kate said.

  Joe shoved his hands in the front pockets of his jeans. “He’s got a timeline. Time’s running out.”

  She held a hand to her stomach wishing it to calm. “When?”

  “Your birthday.”

  “Tomorrow?”

  “Right.”

  She couldn’t think. Her head was going to explode. She shuffled to the desk and tossed the pictures onto the blotter, then dropped into the chair. Joe and Clayton tracked her progress, Clayton worried and hovering, Joe stoic and determined.

  Kate ignored them both, propping her elbows on the desk, holding her head in her hands. “How do you know about a timeline?”

  She hadn’t said his name, but Joe answered. “He sent a letter to your father. Told him he was asking you to marry him on your birthday.”

  Her gaze shot to his. “And you knew this when?”

  Joe didn’t even have the decency to look ashamed. He folded his arms over his chest and stiffened his jaw. “It’s why he hired me.”

  “You didn’t say a word.”

  “Better you didn’t know.”

  “Why?”

  “It’d skew your perspective. Make you feel you’re only in danger on that day. You’re not safe ’til we catch him.”

  Was it true? Maybe. Hell, she didn’t know. Kate stared at the pictures fanned on the desk between her elbows. He’d caught her at her most vulnerable. Naked in the shower. How long had he stayed in that tree watching her?

  “Where’d he leave these?” she asked without raising her head.

  “There,” Clayton said. “On the desk. In the envelope.”

  Kate’s gaze shifted to the left. She read her name printed in block letters, a red heart pierced with an arrow drawn over the final three letters of her last name.

  She looked back to the photos. They showed her from her chest up, grainy, but unmistakably her. She stood with her head tilted back into the stream of water, hands raking through her hair, breasts bare for all to see.

  Kate looked up at Clayton. “You found them?”

  “Um, yeah.” Clayton’s fair, towheaded complexion reddened.

  “Shit.” Tears stung her eyes. She blinked them back, looked away. Gawd, she hated him. Hated the person who’d taken these photos, hated Clayton for seeing the
m, hated Joe.

  Her stalker stole her privacy, stole her. He’d exposed her, stripped her bare in front of him, in front of everyone, and there was nothing to be done about it. He’d seen. They’d all seen.

  She swung her gaze to Joe, his scowl so deep the wrinkles over his brows shrank his forehead. She’d had sex with Joe. He’d touched her naked body, but this was different. She was a thing in these pictures, no rights, no privacy. It didn’t matter how strong she was, how nice, how innocent. She wasn’t a person. Her stalker had taken everything that was her.

  “Bastard.” Her voice was soft and weak, emotions clogging her throat. She stared at the photos, her body going numb. She couldn’t feel the chair beneath her, the desk under her elbows. She couldn’t hear over the pound of her heart, and the tears pooling in her eyes began to blur her vision.

  “Enough.” Joe grabbed the photos from the other side of the desk, straightened them into a stack and shoved them into the envelope.

  “Hey.” She stood, her gaze tracking the photos. “What’re you going to do with them?”

  “Are you pissed?” Joe folded the envelope so it was no bigger than the pictures.

  “Yes.”

  “Good.” He shoved them into his back pocket. “Then they’ve served their purpose. Stare at them any longer and they do more damage than good.”

  “Joe, answer the damn question.” Kate didn’t give a shit why he’d shown them to her. She wasn’t about to let them leave her sight.

  “Into a file with the other—”

  “No. Shred them.”

  “They’re evidence,” Clayton said.

  “Shred them.” She could hear her voice going higher, shriller. She couldn’t help it.

  Clayton moved next to the desk. “Kate, no one will ever see them.”

  She snapped to him, venom in her voice. “You saw them. So did Joe. This ass shouldn’t have been able to take the photos in the first place, but there they are. No one could stop it from happening. If they exist, so does the risk. I want them gone.”

  Kate looked to Joe. His deep scowl had smoothed to a shadowed frown, and the look in his eyes seemed resolute. His mouth held an easy part between his lips, the small scar in the corner the only flaw. His broad muscled shoulders relaxed.

  “No one will see them unless they’re needed as evidence.”

  “No.”

  “Kate. You can destroy them personally once we’re sure. Trust me.” Joe had an air of quiet confidence that somehow helped slow the tremor shaking through her body.

  She exhaled, tried not to puke and dropped into her desk chair. “Fine.”

  “We’ll get’im, dollface,” Joe said.

  “Promise?”

  “Promise.”

  “Stay.” Kate’s voice was soft and fragile. So unlike the woman he knew her to be. Damn the son of a bitch who was doing this to her.

  “I’ll be right next door.”

  “I want you here. I need…” Her voice wavered as though she’d cry. She glanced away for a moment tucking strands of flyaway hair behind her ear.

  Her brows knitted tight, she laced her fingers in her lap and met his gaze. No tears. “Please.”

  Joe’s heart pinched. “I can’t.”

  “You won’t.”

  She was right. He should’ve left already. Hell, he should’ve never come in. He should’ve seen her to her room, waited in the hall for her to turn the lock and then gone to his room next door. Instead he stood on the wrong side of her closed bedroom door leaning his shoulder against it, hand on the knob.

  “It’s not how I work,” he said.

  “You’ve never slept in the same room as someone you’re guarding.”

  Joe slipped his hands in his pockets, tried not to notice the way her night-top clung to her breasts, the way the darker flesh of her nipples shone through the thin fabric. The way her mint green panties peeked between her legs as she sat cross-legged on the bed. And the way her room already smelled like vanilla and wildflowers.

  He tried. It wasn’t working. “If I stay we wouldn’t be sleeping.”

  “And that’s why you won’t stay?”

  Joe rubbed the knot tightening at the back of his neck, ignoring the growing discomfort lower on his body. “I’m here to protect you, not fuck you.”

  “Then don’t fuck me. Make love to me.”

  “Kate.” His gut twisted. He knew where this was going and it made his palms sweat. His heart was like a freight train in his ears. He couldn’t stop what was coming and he wasn’t sure he wanted to.

  “There’s something between us, Joe. I know you’ve felt it. And I know it scares you. But I don’t know why.”

  “Doesn’t matter.”

  “Dammit, Joe, just admit it. I know you care about me. Just say it.”

  Jeezus. He pushed from the door, angry and scared and horny and everything else. “I care. Alright? Yes.”

  She flinched at his sharp tone but didn’t miss a beat. “So what’s the problem?”

  Joe stepped closer. He barely realized he’d moved. “Listen, I’m good at my job, Kate. Damn good. But I’m a disaster at relationships.”

  “Welcome to the club.”

  He moved closer. “No. Don’t you see? I’ve never guarded someone who meant something to me. I don’t know how. I can’t think straight. And I won’t risk your life because of my lousy hang-ups. I’d rather lose you as my lover than lose your life. I won’t risk it.”

  A smile, barely there but so sexy it made his gut tighten, blossomed across her lips. She pushed to her knees. “I will.”

  Kate had his T-shirt fisted in her hand before Joe realized he’d moved all the way across the room to the bed. She yanked him to her, crushed her mouth to his, her tongue teasing along his lips, sweeping into his mouth.

  His body responded with mind-numbing speed, heat scorching through his veins, shaking the muscles of his thighs. He couldn’t fight her. He couldn’t fight his need for her. He didn’t want to. Joe scooped his arms around her waist and pressed her body to his.

  She was lean and strong but so soft her body molded perfectly to his. He could feel the stiff points of her nipples against his chest, the warm give of her belly pressing along his sex. Sensation sizzled and tingled over his skin, coiled in the constricting sac of his balls. She tasted honey sweet on his lips, her wildflower scent warming through his mind and body.

  They broke apart for several heated breaths, panting as she jerked his T-shirt up his chest, her hands greedy over his muscles, pushing and yanking the fabric up his arms and over his head. Joe got his second hand free while Kate worked his belt and jeans.

  He framed her face with his hands, held her still for a deep, soul-quenching kiss. But when her hand fondled over his naked penis, his breath caught. He pulled back to see her fist tight around his stone-hard cock, his jeans shoved down to his knees.

  “Make love to me.” She leaned in, kissing and nibbling his neck even as she pumped his shaft.

  His hips rocked with each stroke, he couldn’t help it. “Kate. I don’t want to screw this up. Don’t want to lose you. I can’t.”

  She stopped, leaned back to look him in the eye. “You won’t,” she said, her tone sure. “This is right. I feel it.”

  Kate scooted back off her knees, braced her arms behind her, legs open so he could see how her cream had moistened her panties. “Do you feel it, Joe?”

  Everything inside him snapped tight. His heart skipped. A warm shudder tickled down his spine. She was so beautiful, her dark hair blanketing over her shoulder, a thick wave resting above her breast. Her eyes were that brilliant green again, like the morning sun through stained glass. Only now lust weighted her lids adding a sultry gleam that made his hands clench and his chest squeeze.

  She was braless, sexy in the nearly see-through white tank top, her body radiating sexual need. He could feel it, see it, and it made everything male inside him go weak and hard at once.

  Joe toed off his shoes and ripped his
socks off with his jeans and underwear. The Velcro ankle holster came off in one quick yank and he mounted the bed then her without registering the movement. She fell back, his body covering her from chest to groin. He wanted to feel all of her, her soft curves, tight puckers and warm wetness.

  He kissed her, exploring her mouth with his, tracing kisses along her cheek, nibbling her ear. He took her wrists in one hand, dragging them up above her head, perfecting the teardrop curve of her breasts. Her nipples jutted toward him, tenting the sheer fabric so he couldn’t resist shifting lower to suckle her.

  Kate wriggled with the tender draw on her flesh, her hands fiddling with something. “Oh, shit.”

  Joe looked and only then noticed he held her wrists beneath the tall stack of pillows. Something firm yet soft, rubber, brushed his knuckles. “What is that?”

  “Nothing. Leave it.”

  Joe pulled it out. He got to his knees, Kate’s legs on either side of him. “A vibrator?”

  Her ears were blood red, her hands covering her face. She shook her head, her voice muffled against her palms. “Shoot me now. Just shoot me now.”

  “Relax. I’m a man. We love toys.” The dildo was less than half his size and it dawned on him he may have hurt her the other times they’d been together. She hadn’t said anything, but he made a mental note to take greater care. He flicked the button on the battery pack and the vibrator hummed to life.

  Kate’s hands came off her face, eyes wide. “What’re you going to do?”

  He made his smile wicked and bobbed his brows. “Playing. Now, take off your panties.”

  Her breath shuddered but after a moment’s hesitation, Kate obeyed. She tossed her little green underwear to the floor and started to squirm out of her top.

  “No. Leave that.” He liked the way the sheer material lay like gossamer over her full breasts and molded wet to her nipples where he’d tasted her. The darker flesh wrinkled tighter as he watched, her nipples like dark juicy raisins.

  His gaze dropped to the glistening folds of her pussy, her curls wet with cream. He dipped his finger into the heat of her body, smoothing easy through the soft flesh.