Protecting Kate: Dark Horse, Inc: Book 1

by Amy J. Hawthorn

  The symphony? With pageant queen Kate MacDonald? Really?

  Shit.

  “So, that’s Trent Dawson? I’ve heard the name, but never met him in person.” She watched the tall, seemingly shell-shocked male retreat.

  “He’s a good man. He just prefers to keep to himself. You won’t see him unless you head out to the Walkers’ stables. Other than making an occasional appearance because Sandy bullied him into it, he spends all of his time with his horses. He doesn’t care for crowds.”

  When Carol took a bite of cake and beamed at Kate with a cat that ate the canary smile, Kate froze.

  Oh dear God. She’d been suckered in more ways than one. No one ever escaped Carol’s matchmaking.

  Chapter Four

  Gravel crunched in Kate’s driveway, and she didn’t know whether to be relieved that Trent hadn’t stood her up or disappointed because she had to actually go on the farce of a date. Even though Trent seemed to be a completely different breed of man than her ex-husband, she was in no way looking for a relationship.

  Apparently, he felt the same way. At the barbeque, when Carol backed him into the corner, he’d gone right past reluctant and straight into unwilling. She couldn’t say she blamed him.

  She took a deep breath and reminded herself to look on the bright side. At least at the symphony, they wouldn’t have much time to make small talk. Thanks to years of pageants, social appearances and charity events during her year as Miss Kentucky, she could make small talk with even the shyest or most boring of guests.

  Not that she enjoyed it, but she could.

  She grabbed her clutch and wrap then resisted the urge to check her clear lip gloss one last time. She hadn’t worn more than minimal makeup two or three times in the past year, but old habits died hard. In her previous life, appearances had been everything.

  Heavy footsteps sounded from the porch, and she opened the door.

  Dear God.

  He’d been handsome in faded old jeans on the night they’d met, but in a tux he stole her capacity for intelligent thought. His dark blond hair had been brushed into shining waves that reached his collar. A black jacket framed broad shoulders that somehow seemed even larger than she remembered. He filled her doorway with raw power, his formal clothes doing nothing to subtract the masculinity from his presence.

  Her mouth dried and parts of her that had slept for the past year awoke and took notice. They became anything but dry.

  He stared down at her for a moment and then he blinked, seeming to shake off his stupor. Yet he didn’t say a single word. Could he be that unhappy to go out with her?

  “Hello.” If he wouldn’t talk, she’d have to.

  “Hi.” His expression—or lack of expression—gave her no indication of his mood or thoughts. Great, just great.

  “It looks like it’s going to be a nice evening. It’s almost a shame to spend it indoors.”

  He held out a hand for her keys. When she handed them over, he locked her door and double-checked it. Keeping her keys, he took her arm in his other hand and silently led her to his truck. The calluses of his palms rasped over the skin of her elbow in a light whisper.

  He opened the door, waited until she got inside and shut it for her. A moment later, he joined her, dropping her keys in the console and they were on their way in a silence so heavy she could choke on it.

  “I apologize for bringing the truck. I would have brought my car, but a friend is in town on business and borrowed it for the week.”

  “No problem. You really didn’t have to come all this way to pick me up. I wouldn’t have minded meeting you at the symphony hall or at a restaurant. I wouldn’t have even told Carol on you.” She gave him her best cheeky grin.

  “Not necessary.”

  Okay. So her pitiful excuse for a joke hadn’t worked. He kept both hands on the steering wheel, shoulders stiff. She hated that he’d been put in an awkward position because he’d done her a favor. A huge favor.

  She still couldn’t believe that he’d bid ten thousand dollars for a night with her. What had he been thinking? Clearly, he hadn’t been trying to get into her bed. Though he’d been a perfect gentleman at every point in their brief acquaintance, he seemed to want to put as much distance between them as possible.

  Why?

  Accustomed to men suffocating her with charm, she didn’t understand him.

  She watched the alternating sections of dense trees and rolling green fields go by and wondered if he resented her. Had he only bid out of some sense of duty or honor?

  Of course he had. Why else would he have bid so much?

  Stop.

  This was one date. If she continued overthinking his motivations, it would turn into the longest and most excruciatingly boring night ever, which wasn’t fair to him.

  “So how long have you known the Mitchells’?” Her upbringing insisted she at least make another attempt at polite conversation.

  “Nearly as long as I can remember. Sandy and Harlan Walker raised me, and they’ve been close friends with the Mitchells since the dawn of time, I think.”

  She remembered Carol mentioning they’d taken in a friend of their son’s and how he’d had a natural affinity for horses that outshone even Harlan’s. Considering how many parties and charity events she’d attended over the years, it seemed odd that she’d never bumped into him somewhere along the way.

  Had she been that self-absorbed? She didn’t think so. Then again, she she’d spent her time being the perfect wife to a man who hadn’t deserved the effort, let alone her love.

  “Was it Harlan who taught you how to breed horses?”

  “Breed, train, buy, sell, you name it. Harlan knows his business, and it seemed to be a natural fit for me. He’s always said I have it in my blood.” He smiled, but was it doubt she heard in his voice?

  “What about their son, Justin? Was he as interested in the horses as you?”

  Quiet filled the cab until she worried that she’d stumbled upon an off-limits topic. She hadn’t, had she?

  Oh no. Shit. Shit. Shit. How could she have been so careless?

  She had and didn’t know whether it was better to apologize or change subjects and let the painful topic rest. Finally, he answered but, if possible, his hands gripped the wheel tighter and a muscle twitched in his jaw.

  When a sad smile cracked through his tension, her heart melted. “No, no matter what Harlan tried, Justin never did click with animals, especially the horses. With Sandy and Harlan as parents, one would have thought that he’d be the damn horse whisperer, but no. He didn’t care for them, and they didn’t care for him. He just wanted to be a soldier. I miss the idiot something fierce.”

  “I’m so sorry. I forgot he passed away. What a way to put a damper on a date. Usually I’m great at the small talk thing, but my skills must be getting rusty. I don’t use them much anymore. How about a nice, simple topic? Something other than the weather though, since everyone talks about the weather.” God, now she was babbling. How low could a beauty queen sink?

  “Why don’t you turn on the radio and choose something you like? I’ll listen to any song by a group with a guitar player in its crew.” He looked straight ahead as he drove out of Riley Creek and toward the highway, but she swore his lips twitched with a hint of amusement. Well, she might feel like a dumbass, but his amusement was light years better than her previous attempt.

  Plus, it seemed to have lessened the strain in his shoulders, so it was a definite improvement.

  “There aren’t any guitars at the symphony.” Great job, queen of the obvious. She mentally smacked herself in the forehead.

  “No, I don’t believe there are.” Was he biting the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing at her? But, you know what? He already thought she was a goofball, so she might as well go along with it. Even her making a fool of herself was better than their awkward beginning.

  “So, do you even like the symphony?”

  “No, not really. Not at all,” he said with a s
hrug.

  She hadn’t thought so. She hated to make assumptions about people, but she would have pegged him as the type to listen to country music and drink a cold beer in the shade. “Does Carol know this?”

  “She does.”

  Which didn’t make any sense. Suspicion swelled. Carol said he didn’t like crowds or people, so why would she expect him to take her somewhere she knew neither of them liked?

  Though it seemed improbable, she asked anyway. “Can I ask, is it the music itself or the concert hall?”

  “I have nothing against music of any kind, but sitting cooped up indoors in a suit is not the way I prefer to spend my downtime.” He shook his head, both hands in a death grip on the steering wheel signaling the return of his earlier tension. “What is she plotting?” The question seemed directed to himself as he cocked his head as if in thought.

  As they neared the freeway entrance that would take them to the city, he flipped on his turn signal. The highway sign near the interstate showed an arrow pointing left. Were they really going to sit for a couple of awkward hours in a place that neither one of them had any desire to be?

  A mixture of dread and resigned duty filled her until she forced herself to shake it off and remember that the auction could have ended far worse. So she’d be bored when she would have rather stayed home with Bonnie. She should be thankful that Trent had bailed her, a stranger, out of a bad situation, and leave it at that.

  Trent came to a stop and the turn signal tick-tick-ticked as they waited in silence.

  “Change of plans. Go right.” They hadn’t actually promised to go to the symphony and were under no obligation to do so. Though, they both felt an obligation to go on this silly date. “I wish we could go riding. I figure that’s more to both of our liking, but that’s out thanks to this damn dress.” She was a very capable rider, but unless she wanted to pull the tight sheath up to her hips and flash her ass at Trent, riding was a big fat no today.

  “You’re wish, my command.” He quirked an amused grin her way. “Lead the way, beauty.”

  She matched his grin with one of her own, making his even brighter and, dear lord, could he get any hotter? A total one-eighty from Preston’s polish that demanded acknowledgement, his rugged earthiness said take him as he was or leave him.

  Warmth blossomed in her chest and spread to some very unexpected places. She shifted her legs and turned to take in the intersection before them.

  He checked to make sure the traffic was clear and made a right turn.

  “Chicken for dinner okay? No! Wait, how about garbage pizza? I’ll call it in and we can pick it up on the way. I haven’t had Pop’s pizza in years.”

  “Sure. I’ll eat anything. Even…garbage pizza.” Bless his heart, he didn’t even look surprised or confused by her odd behavior. Preston would have overrode her suggestion they skip the formal plans and he probably wouldn’t even have acknowledged her choice of greasy pizza with anything but a scathing look of disdain.

  “It’s just a pizza with the works. It’s messy, but so very good. I promise.”

  A sudden fit of nerves threatened to steal her momentum. Feeling as if she’d fallen down a rabbit hole, she didn’t know what to do or what to say. She’d never hijacked a date before.

  She gave herself a moment to get her nerves under control.

  She couldn’t leave the evening this way with the two of them roaming the city aimlessly.

  “Okay, so here’s the plan. What do you say we go and sit by the lake and have dinner? We can tell Carol that we had a picnic by the lake, which will be true and get both of us off the hook. We don’t have to stay long. There’s a quiet, private place I know.”

  He didn’t voice his opinion, but his grin was back and the sight of it brought her a mountain of relief. Immediately, she relaxed at the thought of sitting and listening to the water lap at the shore.

  Using her smartphone, she found the number and called in their order, sat back and smiled. She started to question how something so basic could make her this happy, but she stopped herself. The whys didn’t matter. The only thing that did was enjoying the happy when it came her way, no matter how large or small.

  And she suspected that Trent could use a shot of happy too. How did she make a gruff, quiet man, whose only concern seemed to be his horses, smile?

  “You know what? I haven’t done this in forever. I wished I’d thought ahead and worn real clothes.”

  “Real clothes? No offense, but the dress you’re wearing must have cost a small fortune. How is something so expensive not considered real clothing?”

  “Uhm. Yeah, it was no bargain. It’s an old one from before I moved out. My cousin insisted I bring all my clothes with me. I nearly refused, but if you knew Leigh Ann, you’d understand why I caved. What I mean by real clothes is something that I would wear every day.”

  When his features twisted into a look of utter bafflement, she burst out laughing. “What’s that look for?”

  “I’m just trying to picture what a ten-thousand-dollar beauty queen wears everyday if a seven-hundred-dollar dress doesn’t fit the bill.”

  “Old jeans and T-shirts. Cowboy boots.”

  He turned his nose down at her as if she were delusional.

  “No. Really. When I left my ex-husband I took very little aside from the clothes. Even then, I didn’t have anything practical to wear. He thinks I’ve sunk to the farthest depths of humanity by leaving him and coming back home to live in squalor.” She made air quotes around the word squalor.

  “What do you think?”

  “I think he’s selfish and only concerned with climbing the ranks of politicians and bluebloods. His opinion of anything in my life is the equivalent of cow shit.”

  “I don’t know about that. Even cow shit can make for some pretty good fertilizer.” There was that half grin he liked to hide. She needed to reevaluate her plan to make Trent smile, right here, right now. Those slow, lazy grins were going to be her undoing. Coupled with his slate gray eyes, he was downright swoon worthy.

  She gave him a fake gasp. The quirk of his lips turned into a full blown smile and she contained her reaction, barely. “Was that a joke, Trent Dawson?”

  Instantly that killer smile turned off. Sad to see it go, she poked him in his bicep. His heavily muscled bicep. “Hey. I’m just pla—”

  The corner of his mouth twitched as if he fought back laughter. “You know, for a proper beauty queen, you’re an awful lot of trouble.”

  “That’s former proper beauty queen to you. I think I’m finished with that part of my life. I was always the good girl and always did exactly what everyone expected of me. I think that’s how I ended up with Preston and in the unhappy world that I allowed to swallow me. I was content to float along and let everyone make all my decisions for me.”

  “So what’s next?”

  “I haven’t figured that out yet, but you can bet that it will be what I want to do, not what everyone else tells me I should.”

  “That’s a damn good start.” His words sounded like something a MacDonald would say. The realization made something soft and warm uncurl in her chest.

  He pulled into the pizza joint’s parking lot and just as he came to a stop she jumped out, called out a cheerful “be right back!” and hustled across the lot.

  He really needed to break her of that habit, but how could he? The sight of those long, lean legs and her sweet, curvy ass hypnotized him as they walked across the lot in the sexiest sway of hips he’d ever seen.

  Was she even aware of the group of teenage boys who were too stupid to hide their lust-filled looks? Did she have a clue that the slightly older man, who’d opened the door for her with a gentlemanly nod, turned to check out her ass after she entered?

  Not to mention that he hadn’t been able to pull his gaze away, and she wasn’t his type. He had no room in his life for high heels and designer dresses.

  Yet, he couldn’t convince himself that Kate attracted that kind attention intenti
onally. He hoped that his brain hadn’t been overrun with lust and had lost its ability for rational thought. He figured the odds were fifty-fifty at best.

  The door opened and yet another unknown male, this one closer to middle age with a large beer gut held the door open and he wasn’t surprised to see Kate walk out carrying a large pizza box and carryout bag. She smiled a thank you at the poor soul holding the door open and the sap’s chest puffed up with pride. A few seconds after she passed, he released a sigh and his belly doubled in size as he relaxed.

  Trent shook his head and went around to open the door and take the food. He set it in the backseat and resisted the urge to put his hands on her. He wanted to grip her hips and pull her close. He could have easily used helping her up into the truck as an excuse to get close, but his last few functioning brain cells warned him off.

  He had no desire for a beauty queen or any of the surrounding drama and headache in his life. None. Especially one with a walk that made grown men swoon, a fondness for horses and a voice like warmed honey.

  She smiled up at him with a sweet warmth that melted his resolve as he shut the door for her.

  No.

  He’d take her to the lake, eat some pizza and play nice. Then he’d take her home and it would be end of story.

  He got in the driver’s side. “I would have paid if you’d actually let me park the truck first. You gotta stop jumping out of moving vehicles. You’ve been in my ride twice and both times, you’ve hopped out like it was on fire. It’s not that dirty.”

  “No, it’s actually a very nice truck. I like it. You were in your spot. And this is my treat, since I kidnapped you.”

  “Kidnapped? You did not kidnap me.” The thought of a curvy little beauty queen holding him hostage made him laugh. He couldn’t wait to see what she’d come up with next.

  “Yes I did. We had plans, and I hijacked them.” She spoke of kidnapping and hijacking as if they were shopping at the mall.