Fortune's Second-Chance Cowboy

by Marie Ferrarella

  “Sure.”

  She stood up, telling herself she was making way too big a deal out of this. Chance was just giving her a simple horseback riding lesson—same as what he was hired to do with the boys. She had to stop feeling so nervous about it.

  So nervous about him.

  A thought suddenly occurred to her. “Are you going to be teaching me to ride in the corral?”

  Chance hadn’t given it much thought. “Yes. That’s where I’ve been doing it with the boys. Why? Would you rather not have your lesson there?” he asked, sensing her reluctance.

  She avoided making eye contact with him as she spoke, not wanting to see amusement or something even more demoralizing in his eyes.

  “I’d rather we didn’t have an audience,” she confessed. “Is there any place else that we could go for these lessons?”

  “Sure. It’s a big ranch,” he reminded her. “I just thought you’d rather get your first lessons somewhere where you felt safe.”

  That was when she finally looked at him. “Why wouldn’t I feel safe somewhere else?” she asked him.

  “The corral’s contained. If I give you riding lessons out in the open, I figure you’d worry that Mirabel could get it into her head to just run off with you on her back.”

  “Oh.” Enlightenment came to her riding a thunderbolt. He wasn’t talking about her feeling safer in the corral because she felt he wouldn’t try to kiss her in broad daylight in front of possible witnesses. He was talking about the mare running off with her. “You’ve got the faster horse, don’t you?” she asked.

  “No disrespect meant for Mirabel, but yes, I do. By quite a lot when you come right down to it.”

  This time her eyes didn’t leave his when she responded. “Then if something happens, say, to spook Mirabel, you could catch up to me on your horse, couldn’t you?”

  “If it came to that, yes. But from what I’ve been told, Mirabel doesn’t spook easily. That’s one of the reasons why I picked her for you.”

  She believed him. “Then I’d rather you took me somewhere where no one else can watch and see how bad I am at this.”

  “You’re not bad at riding,” he told her. “You just need to learn the right techniques, that’s all. It’s not all that hard.” He tried to soothe her, but he could see his words weren’t working. “But if you feel that strongly about it, I know this quiet clearing not too far from the lake that’ll do just fine for our purposes.”

  A quiet clearing by the lake sounded as if it would do fine for other purposes, too, Chloe thought. But she kept that to herself, hoping that the same idea hadn’t occurred to him.

  * * *

  Because the lake was some distance from the corral, Chance decided to take her there on his horse. He told Chloe that right now it was safer for her if they rode double on his horse.

  “What about Mirabel?” Chloe asked, wanting to be clear on the logistics. “Isn’t she coming, too?”

  “She’ll be right behind us,” he explained. “I’ll just hold on to her reins so she doesn’t get it into her head to hang back.”

  “And your horse won’t mind?” she asked, looking at the black stallion that Chance had already saddled and was waiting for them in the stable. Mirabel was in the next stall, saddled, as well.

  Chance unconsciously furrowed his brow. He wasn’t sure he understood her question. “Mind what?”

  “That we’re both going to be riding on him at the same time?” She looked at the stallion doubtfully, worried about the extra weight.

  Chance laughed, tickled by what she was innocently suggesting. “He’s fine with it,” he told her. “He’s not the jealous sort.”

  Chloe flushed. When he said it out loud like that, she realized that she sounded like an idiot. “I didn’t mean...”

  He was quick to try to save her from embarrassment. “I know what you meant. C’mon, we’re wasting daylight,” he urged. “Or was that the idea?” he asked, pretending to look at her as if the light had suddenly dawned on him.

  “No,” Chloe denied quickly. She wound up sounding almost breathless.

  He was going to have to tread lightly with this one, Chance thought. Most of the time, he preferred to keep to himself and not bother interacting with people. It saved time and saved him from spinning his wheels. But he had to admit there was something about this woman that had burrowed under his skin.

  He liked seeing the way her eyes flashed and the way she tossed her hair when she was digging in and being stubborn. But for all that, Chloe made him think that he was dealing with a vulnerable, wounded bird.

  The whole thing was a revelation to him, he thought. He had never realized until just now that he had any desire to protect a wounded bird.

  Or that he rather liked it.

  Maybe his soul hadn’t died on the battlefield after all.

  “Then we’d better get going,” he told her. “Come on. Let’s get you up there.”

  The next moment, while Chloe was absently regarding just how much taller his stallion appeared in comparison with her mare, she felt strong hands come around her waist. Suddenly, she was airborne.

  As her breath caught in her throat, Chance had her in the saddle in a matter of seconds. She barely had time to suppress the cry of surprise that had all but escaped from her lips.

  And then, the next moment, there he was, right behind her. Snuggly right behind her, she couldn’t help noticing as his body seemed to fit perfectly against hers.

  A multitude of sensations went zipping through Chloe, some familiar, some brand-new, all unsettling.

  A riding lesson, this is just a riding lesson, she silently insisted.

  There was no need for her to react like this to any of this. Chance was just doing her a favor, teaching her how to ride so she could go out with the boys. She had to think of it in that light, she told herself.

  And only in that light.

  Chance brought his arms around her, picking up his horse’s reins as he formed a protective circle around her.

  “You all right?” he asked.

  “I’m fine,” she answered. If you don’t count the fact that my heart is just about ready to break the sound barrier.

  She felt Chance leaning into her. Her heart raced a little harder.

  The next moment he was whispering into her ear. “I guarantee that you’ll feel a whole lot better if you breathe.”

  “Right. Breathing,” she agreed the next second.

  And then, just to prove that she had heard Chance, she went on to elaborately do just that.

  * * *

  Chloe really didn’t remember the journey to the clearing, at least, not when she thought if it in terms of miles or scenery. All she was aware of was how the gentle back-and-forth rocking of the stallion caused Chance’s body to move seductively against hers. She was concentrating so hard on not reacting to him that she didn’t even realize when they’d reached their destination.

  “We’re here,” Chance announced.

  The next second, without any warning, Chance was dismounting. Abruptly deprived of his support and thinking something had gone wrong, Chloe quickly turned to look down at him and wound up nearly tumbling out of the saddle.

  “Hey, no sudden trick moves until after I’m satisfied that you know how to ride. We don’t want to rush you off to the nearest doctor.” He looked up at her face. She’d turned almost completely pale. “Hey, are you all right?” he asked, concerned. “I was just kidding.”

  “I knew that,” Chloe mumbled although she clearly didn’t.

  “Good.” He didn’t believe her for a second. Chance extended his arms up to her and said, “Let’s get you down from there.” Taking hold of her waist, he eased her down until her feet were back on the ground. “This is the last time I’m going to help you dismount,” he
told her. “I’ll teach you and then you’re on your own.”

  He saw the apprehensive look that crept over her face. Rather than being off-putting, he thought she looked even more adorable.

  “Don’t worry,” he assured her. “You’ll do fine.”

  “I wasn’t worried,” she informed him perhaps a little too quickly.

  He graciously accepted her protest, even though he felt he knew otherwise. “My mistake.”

  Bringing Mirabel closer to Chloe, he announced, “Okay. This is lesson number one.”

  And so it began.

  * * *

  Chance patiently kept at it for the next four hours, verbally diagramming every move he wanted her to make so precisely that after a little while, Chloe forgot to be nervous.

  Progress came by tiny inches—but it came.

  At the end of the session Chloe had a good handle on the basics. He’d taught her how to fluidly mount her horse and how to dismount, as well. He’d taught her how to give the most basic commands to the animal so that the mare knew when she was expected to go and when to stop.

  Through it all Chance didn’t raise his voice or lose his temper, nor did he easily dispense praise, either.

  He did, however, let her know if she was doing something wrong so that she wouldn’t repeat it. On the few occasions that she did repeat her mistake, he patiently reviewed the steps again, and had her go through the paces over and over until she got it right.

  And then, finally, when she thought she was never going to see it again, it happened.

  Chance smiled.

  “I think that’s it for today,” he told her.

  She was exhausted and so ready to go home, but even so, she had to ask him. “That bad?”

  “That good,” Chance corrected.

  Her eyes fairly danced as she asked, “Really?”

  “Really,” he echoed. “And our next session is going to be in the corral,” he informed her, “because you have nothing to be ashamed of. Now, for your reward, I want to take you to see something that a lot of people live out their whole lives without ever being able to see or appreciate.”

  “Oh? What?”

  The nervousness was back in her voice, Chance thought. But he knew just how to put it to rest. Taking her hand, he led her over to the lake.

  “Look,” he said, pointing out what he wanted her to see.

  Once again, Chloe’s breath caught in her throat.

  Chapter Eleven

  Chance was right. It was glorious.

  Chloe had seen sunsets before. They were, after all, a part of everyday life. But she’d never seen one like this.

  Standing there with him, at the edge of the lake, she looked up at the sky.

  And promptly had her breath stolen away.

  There was a multitude of muted colors reaching out to the heavens, as if the sun was having one last hurrah before finally retreating into the dusk and then the darkness, where it would wait for dawn and a rebirth.

  “I never get tired of seeing this,” Chance told her. “Makes me realize how really beautiful nature is. It also makes me feel that no matter how bad things might seem, in the scheme of things, everything is going to be all right.”

  Listening to him, Chloe could appreciate the noble sentiment—as well as the man who uttered it. “It is magnificent.”

  Maybe it was the sunset that did it. Or maybe it was standing here so close to Chance, being infused with a sense of peace she hadn’t felt in a long time.

  Maybe it was all of the above.

  Chloe couldn’t honestly pinpoint the reason. All she knew was that when she turned toward Chance, she felt this undeniable, incredible pull within her. Pulling her toward him.

  It kept her transfixed so that when Chance lowered his head, bringing his lips close to hers, she didn’t move. Didn’t breathe.

  Didn’t do anything—except will the moment to go on forever.

  Her wish increased tenfold when he finally kissed her.

  The moment their lips met, she could feel something explode within her. Something gleeful and joyous, as if she had been holding her breath, waiting for this to happen from the first moment she’d met him.

  Hoping this would happen, she realized.

  And yet, it surprised her.

  Surprised her that Chance kissed her. What surprised her even more was that she actually felt something rather than just the deadness that had existed within her ever since she’d first found out that Donnie was never coming back to her.

  Chloe could sense her heart slip into a wild double-time beat when Chance deepened the kiss, when his arms went around her waist and pulled her flush against him.

  Almost breathless, she laced her arms around his neck, leaning into Chance as well as into his kiss. The sun might have been setting over the lake, but right now, it felt as if it was bursting out from within her, sending out long sunbeams to every single part of her.

  She was certain that if Chance opened his eyes, he would see her glowing in the dark.

  Chance wasn’t sure just what had come over him. Yes, it was a beautiful sunset, and yes, he was here sharing it with a beautiful woman, but that alone wasn’t enough for him to do what he was doing. They worked together, and he firmly believed that it was never a good idea to mix work with pleasure.

  Since he’d come back from the service, he’d been a loner and the first to admit that things ultimately had a habit of not working out in these sorts of situations. When that happened, they wound up turning awkward. He made it a point to never stay in any one place for long, moving on when he grew restless, and he knew that he could do that here, too.

  But there was something about this place, about the work that was being done, that appealed to him. That spoke to him. Peter’s Place was a place he could believe in and for the first time in a long time, he found himself wanting to be a part of it, not just in a cursory way but in a way that actually mattered. That made a difference.

  He wanted to make a difference.

  That was all the more reason for not getting involved with a woman who worked here, he argued with himself. But again, there was just something about Chloe that reached right into his gut and grabbed him. Something that made him want to protect her, want to be her hero and want to make her smile.

  Heaven knew that right now, she was making him smile. Not only that, but it had been a very long time since kissing a girl had actually rocked his world, and she was certainly doing that right now for him.

  So much so that he shed his common sense like a snake shed its skin and continued doing exactly what he had been doing.

  Chance tightened his arms around her, getting lost in the kiss he had initiated. Getting lost in the sweet, heady fragrance he always detected whenever he was standing anywhere close to Chloe.

  He could feel himself wanting her.

  If she were any other woman who had crossed his path for the evening, he might have gone on to see where this would lead. But he instinctively knew that Chloe wasn’t someone meant for a casual coupling—or even a torrid one. Chloe was the kind of woman a guy brought home to his mother—if he had a mother.

  But for him that hadn’t been the case for a long time now, he thought. His mother had died six months after he’d graduated high school. His father had died in a hunting accident years before that. Being on his own and alone had been a way of life for him and he’d made his peace with that.

  Until now.

  He didn’t have to be told that Chloe could be easily hurt, and he already sensed that she had been hurt—badly—by something or someone. There was pain in her eyes when he looked into them, even when she was laughing at something. He wasn’t about to add to that pain. He didn’t need that on his conscience.

  But he knew that if he continued kissin
g her like this, he was definitely going to want more, and he also knew that if he pushed, even just a little, he could convince her to make love with him.

  But that’s not how he wanted it to happen.

  And that wouldn’t be fair to her. So, hard though it was for him, Chance forced himself to draw his mouth away from hers.

  His heart still hammering wildly, he made himself take a step back, although he still kept his arms around her waist, wanting to take comfort in that contact for just a moment longer.

  Chloe’s eyes sought his, and he saw the question in them. Why had he stopped? He also felt her shudder as she tried to catch her breath.

  Chance was coping with a few struggles of his own. He wasn’t accustomed to abruptly stopping like this once he’d started kissing a woman. But he knew he had to.

  “I think we should be getting back before Graham sends out a search party to come looking for us.”

  The sun had all but set, taking almost all of the available light with it. But there was still just enough left for him to see that her cheeks had grown appealingly pink.

  Had he embarrassed her by kissing her? Or embarrassed her by stopping? He couldn’t tell.

  “We wouldn’t want that,” she agreed. She kept her face averted as they walked back to their tree-tethered horses. “Thanks for the riding lesson,” she told him, trying to sound casual. “And for sharing the sunset.”

  Chance laughed softly. “Not exactly mine to keep,” he told her. “The sunset,” he explained when he saw her looking at him quizzically. “As for the riding lesson, that was my pleasure.” Mindful of her still-limited experience, he helped her mount, then swung onto his own horse. “But remember, you’re not off the hook yet. I still have a little more to teach you.”

  As they headed back to the ranch, Chloe felt her thoughts—and her pulse—race. Maybe she was just reading things into what Chance had said, or maybe that kiss they’d shared had changed her focus. Whatever the reason, Chloe caught herself thinking that Chance had a great deal to teach her and riding was only a small part of it.