"And now?"
"Now, I know it is."
He broke into a canter, riding with her until the lights of Royal Meadows began to flicker on and glow. He hadn't expected to spend a comfortable, contented hour in her company, and found it odd that underlying all the rest that buzzed between them they'd seemed to have formed a kind of friendship.
He'd been friends with women before, and was well on the way to being convinced he'd do just fine keeping it all on a friendly level with Keeley. He was the one who'd initiated the sexual charge, so it seemed reasonable and right that he be the one to dampen it again.
The logic of it, and the ride, relaxed him. By the time they reached the stables to cool down the horses, he was in an easy mood and thinking about his supper.
Since she was interested, he told her of the yearling training, the progress, the five-year-old mare with colic, and the weanling with ringbone.
Together they watered the horses, and while Brian took the saddles and bridles to the tack room, Keeley set up the small hay nets and set out the grooming kits.
They worked across from each other, in opposite boxes.
"I heard you and Brendon are heading off to Saratoga next week," she commented.
"Zeus is running. And I think Red Duke is a contender, and your brother agrees. Though I've only seen that track on paper and in pictures. We're off to Louisville as well. I want to be well familiar with that course before the first Saturday in May."
"You want Betty to run the Derby."
"She will run it. And win it." He picked up the curry comb to scrape out the body brush. "We've conversed about it."
"You've talked to Brendon about the Derby?"
"No, Betty. And your father as well. I expect Brendon and I will talk it through while we're away."
"What does Betty have to say?"
"Let's get on with it." He glanced over, saw she was running her fingers over Sam's coat, checking for lumps or irregularities. "Why aren't you still competing? With that one under you you'd need a vault for all your medals."
"I'm not interested in medals."
"Why not? Don't you like to win?"
"I love to win." She leaned gently against Sam, lifted his leg and sent Brian a long look that had his stomach jittering before she gave her attention to picking out the hoof. "But I've done it, enjoyed it, finished with it. Competing can take over your life. I wanted the Olympics, and I got it."
She shifted to clean out the next hoof. "Once I had, I realized that so much of what I was, what I felt and thought had been focused on that single goal. And then it was over. So I wanted to see what else there was out there, and what else I had in me. I like to compete, but I found out it doesn't always have to be done, and won, in the show ring."
"With the kind of school you've got going here, you should have someone working with you."
She shrugged and began to rub in hoof oil. "Up until now I'd been able to draft Sarah or Patrick into giving me a hand. Ma helps out when she can, and so does Dad. Brendon and Uncle Paddy put in hours with each one of my horses as I got them. And the cousins-Burke and Erin's kids from Three Aces-they're always willing to pitch in if I need extra hands."
"I haven't seen anyone working here but you."
"Well, that's very simple. Patrick and Sarah are off to college-and Brady, who's another I can browbeat into shoveling boxes when he's here. Brendon's doing a lot more traveling now than he used to. Uncle Paddy's in Ireland, and the cousins are just back from a holiday and in school. Either my mother or father, sometimes both, show up here at dawn half the time. Whether I ask them or not."
She got to her feet. "And now that I've got you interested, I've come up with a part-time groom/exercise boy/stablehand. That's a pretty good deal for a small riding academy."
She strolled out to start the evening feeding.
"You could get an eager young boy or girl to come in before and after school-pay them in lessons."
"Before school, eager young boys and girls should be eating breakfast, and after they should be playing with friends and doing homework."
"That's very strict."
She chuckled and mixed some sliced carrots into the feed as an extra treat. "That's what all my students say. I want them well-rounded. My family saw to it that I had interests and friendships outside the stable, that I got an education, that I saw something of the world besides the track and the barn. It matters."
They divvied up the horses, and the stables filled with the sounds of whickers and whinnies as the meal was served.
"If you don't mind my saying so, you don't seem to be getting out and about much now."
"I'm compulsive. Goal oriented. I see what I want and well, it's like putting on blinders and heading down the backstretch. All I see is the finish line."
She leaned in to rub a gelding's neck as if he were a pet dog. "Which is why my parents wouldn't let me spend my entire childhood around or on a horse. I took piano lessons, and as soon as I started I was determined to be the best student at the recital. If it was my job to clean the kitchen after dinner, then that damn kitchen was going to sparkle so bright you'd need sunglasses for your midnight snack."
"That's frightening."
Responding to the humor in his eyes, she nodded. "It can be. Focusing on the school means, even though it's still a single goal, that my compulsion to succeed is spread out to encompass so many elements-the kids, the horses as well as the academy itself. Once it's firmly established, I can delegate a bit more, but I need to learn from the ground up. I don't like to make mistakes. Which is why I haven't been with a man before now."
He was thrown off balance so quickly and completely, he could hear his own brain stumble. "Well, that's... that's wise."
He took one definite step back, like a chessman going from square to square.
"It's interesting that makes you nervous," she said, countering his move.
"I'm not nervous, I'm... finished up here, it seems." He tried another tactic, stepped to the side.
"Interesting," she continued, mirroring his move, "that it would make you nervous, or uneasy if you prefer, when you've been... I think it's safe to use the term 'hitting on me' since we met."
"I don't think that's the proper term at all." Since he seemed to be boxed into a corner, he decided he was really only standing his ground. "I acted in a natural way regarding a physical attraction. But-"
"And now that I've reacted in a natural way, you've felt the reins slip out of your hands and you're panicked."
"I'm certainly not panicked." He ignored the terror gripping claws into his belly and concentrated on annoyance. "Back off, Keeley."
"No." With her eyes locked on his, she stepped in. Checkmate.
His back was hard up against a stall door and he'd been maneuvered there by a woman half his weight. It was mortifying. "This isn't doing either of us any credit." It took a lot of effort when the blood was rapidly draining out of his head, but he made his voice cool and firm. "The fact is I've rethought the matter."
"Have you?"
"I have, yes, and-stop it," he ordered when she ran the palms of her hands up over his chest.
"Your heart's pounding," she murmured. "So's mine. Should I tell you what goes on inside my head, inside my body when you kiss me?"
"No." He barely managed a croak this time. "And it's not going to happen again."
"Bet?" She laughed, rising up just enough to nip his chin. How could she have known how much fun it was to twist a man into aroused knots? "Why don't you tell me about this rethinking?"
"I'm not going to take advantage of your-of the situation."
That, she thought, was wonderfully sweet. "At the moment, I seem to have the advantage. This time you're trembling, Brian."
The hell he was. How could he be trembling when he couldn't feel his own legs? "I won't be responsible. I won't use your inexperience. I won't do this." The last was said on a note of desperation and he pushed her aside.
"I'm responsible
for myself. And I think I've just proven to both of us, that if and when I decide you'll be the one, you won't have a prayer." She drew a deep, satisfied breath. "Knowing that's incredibly flattering."
"Arousing a man doesn't take much skill, Keeley. We're cooperative creatures in that area."
If he'd expected that to scratch at her pride and cut into her power, he was mistaken. She only smiled, and the smile was full of secret female knowledge. "If that was true between us, if that were all that's between us, we'd be naked on the tack room floor right now."
She saw the change in his eyes and laughed delightedly. "Already thought of that one, have you? We'll just hold that thought for another time."
He swore, raked his hands through his hair and tried to pinpoint the moment she'd so neatly turned the tables on him, when the pursued had become the pursuer. "I don't like forward women."
The sound she made was something between a snort and a giggle, and was girlish and full of fun. It made him want to grin. "Now that's a lie, and you don't do it well. I've noticed you're an honest sort of man, Brian. When you don't want to speak your mind, you say nothing-and that's not often. I like that about you, even if it did irritate me initially. I even like your slightly overwide streak of confidence. I admire your patience and dedication to the horses, your understanding and affection for them. I've never been involved with a man who's shared that interest with me."
"You've never been involved with a man at all."
"Exactly. That's just one reason why. And to continue, I appreciate the kindness you showed my mother when she was sad, and I appreciate the part of you that's struggling to back away right now instead of taking what I've never offered anyone before."
She laid a hand on his arm as he stared at her with baffled frustration. "If I didn't have that respect and that liking for you, Brian, we wouldn't be having this conversation no matter how attracted I might be to you."
"Sex complicates things, Keeley."
"I know."
"How would you know? You've never had any."
She gave his arm a quick squeeze. "Good point. So, you want to try the tack room?" When his mouth fell open, she laughed and threw her arms around him for a noisy kiss on his cheek. "Just kidding.
Let's go up to the main house and have some dinner instead."
"I've work yet."
She drew back. She couldn't read his eyes now. "Brian, neither of us have eaten. We can have a simple meal in the kitchen-and if you're worried, we won't be alone in the house so I'll have to keep my hands off you. Temporarily."
"There's that." He couldn't stand it. How could he be expected to? She'd thrown her arms around him with such easy affection. And his heart was balanced on a very thin wire. Trying to keep the movement casual, he set her aside. "Well, I could eat."
"Good."
She would have taken his hand, but his were already in his pockets. It amused and touched her how restrained he was determined to be. And if it made her naturally competitive spirit kick in, well, she couldn't help it, now could she?
"I'm hoping to get down to Charles Town and watch some of the workouts once you take Betty and some of the other yearlings to the track."
"She'll be ready for it soon enough." Relief was like a cool wave through his blood. Talking of horses would make it all easier. "I'd say she'll surprise you, but you've been up on her. You know what she's made of."
"Yeah, good stock, good breeding, a hard head and a hunger to win." She flashed him a smile as they approached the kitchen door. "I've been told that describes me. I'm half Irish, Brian, I was born stubborn."
"No arguing with that. A person might make the world a calmer place for others by being passive, but you don't get very far in it yourself, do you?"
"Look at that. We have a foundation of agreement. Now tell me you like spaghetti and meatballs."
"It happens to be a favorite of mine."
"That's handy. Mine, too. And I heard a rumor that's what's for dinner." She reached for the doorknob, then caught him off guard by brushing a light kiss over his lips. "And since we'll be joining my parents, it would probably be best if you didn't imagine me naked for the next couple of hours."
She sailed in ahead of him, leaving Brian helplessly and utterly aroused.
There was nothing like an extra helping of guilt to cool a man's blood. And it was guilt as much as the hot food and the glass of good wine that got Brian through the evening in the Grant kitchen. The size of it left little room for lust, considering.
There was Adelia Grant giving him a warm greeting as if he was welcome to swing in for dinner anytime he had the whim, and Travis getting out an extra plate himself-as if he waited on employees five days a week-and saying that there was plenty to go around as Brendon had other plans for dinner.
Before he knew it, he was sitting down, having food heaped in front of him and being asked how his day had been. And not in a way that expected a report.
He didn't know what to do about it. He liked these people, genuinely liked them. And there he was lusting after their daughter. An alley mutt after a registered purebred.
And the hell of it was, he liked her as well. It had been so simple at first, when there'd been only heat. Or he'd been able to tell himself that's all there was. For a time it had been possible to tolerate being in love with her-or at least talking himself out of believing it. But caring for her made it all a study in frustration.
He could certainly convince himself that he was in love with the idea of her rather than the woman. The physical beauty, the class, the sheer inaccessibility of her. That was all a kind of challenge, a risk he enjoyed taking. But she'd gone and opened herself up to him, so every time he was around her, she showed him more of herself.
The kindness, the humor, the strength of purpose and sense of self he admired.
And now this teasing, this sexual flirt in an innocent's body was driving him mad. And God help him, he liked it.
"Have some more, Brian."
"I'll be sorry if I do." But he took the big bowl Adelia offered him. "Sorrier if I don't. You're a rare cook, Mrs. Grant."
"Dee, I told you. And rare was just what I was for a number of years. Before Hannah retired-that was our housekeeper. She was with Travis longer than I've been with him. When she retired a few years back I just didn't want another woman, a stranger, you know, in the house day and night and so on. I figured I'd better learn to cook something more than fish and chips or we'd all starve to death."
"Nearly did the first six months," Travis commented and earned a narrow-eyed stare from his wife.
"Well, sure and the experience made you get a handle on that fancy grill outside, didn't it? The man was spoiled rotten. I wager you could even put a meal together for yourself, Brian."
Idly he rubbed Sheamus-who was snoring under the table-with the side of his boot. "If I've no choice in the matter."
Brian caught the lazy look Keeley sent him as she sipped her wine. Heat balled in his belly. In defense he turned to Travis. "I'm told you enjoy a hand or two of poker from time to time."
"I've been known to."
"The lads're talking about a game tomorrow night."
"I might come down-I've heard you're a hard man to beat."
"If you're going to play cards, you should ask Burke to join you," Adelia put in. "Then maybe Keeley, Erin and I can find something equally foolish to do with our evening."
"Good idea. More wine, Brian?" Keeley lifted the bottle, cocked a brow. The purr in her voice was subtle, but he heard it. And suffered.
"No, thanks. I've work yet."
"I'll walk down with you when you're ready," Travis told him. "I'd like a look at that colicky mare."
"The two of you go ahead. We'll see to the dishes."
Travis grinned like a boy. "No KP?"
"There's not that much to be done, and you can make up for it tomorrow." She got up to clear, and kissed his temple. "Go on, I know you've been worrying about her."
"Thank you for
the fine meal, Dee," Brian added when she angled her head.
"And you're very welcome."
"Good night, Keeley."
"Good night, Brian. Thanks for the ride."
Adelia waited until the men were out, then turned to her daughter. "Keeley, I never would've thought it of you. You're tormenting the poor man."
"There's nothing poor about that man." Delighted with herself, Keeley broke off a piece of bread and crunched down on it. "And tormenting him is so rewarding."
"Well, there's not a woman with blood in her could argue with that. Mind you don't hurt him, darling."
"Hurt him?" Seriously shocked, Keeley rose to help with the dishes. "Of course I won't. I couldn't."
"You never know what you will or you can do." Adelia patted her daughter's cheek. "You've a lot to learn yet. And however much you learn you'll never really understand everything that goes on inside a man."
"I've good a pretty good idea about this one."
Adelia opened her mouth, then shut it again. Some things, she knew, couldn't be explained. They had to be lived.
Chapter Seven
Brian came to know the roads leading from Maryland into West Virginia as well as he knew those in the county of Kerry. The highways where cars flashed by like little rockets, and the curving back roads where everything meandered were all part of his life now, and what some people would say led to a feeling of home.
There were times the green of the hills, the rise of them, reminded him of Ireland. The pang he felt at those moments surprised him as he didn't consider himself a sentimental man. At others, he'd drive along a winding road that followed a winding creek and the land was all so very different with its thick woods and walls of rock. Almost exotic. Then he'd feel a sense of contentment that surprised him nearly as much.
He didn't mind contentment. It just wasn't what he was looking for.
He liked to move. To travel from place to place. It was all to the good that his position at Royal Meadows gave him that opportunity. He figured in a couple of years, he'd have seen a great deal of America-even if the oval was in the foreground of each view.
Books by Nora Roberts Page 42
