Rodeo Riders Read Online Free PDF Page B

that’s for sure,” the man said as he walked away.
    “Who was that?” she asked when the silence threatened to drive her crazy.
    “Todd Little Deer, but we call him Slim. Not too original. He’s been with me since shortly after I got into the business. He knows what I’m thinking before I do.”
    “That’s good, I guess.”
    “Sometimes. Let’s go for a walk.”
    Although he’d presented it as a statement, she recognized the undertones of an order. Instead of refusing, she closed the door behind her and climbed down the two steps. As before, the moment the distance between them disappeared she felt his power and strength, the testosterone rolling off him. If she’d been a mare in heat, she would have turned her back to him and lifted her tail, signaling her readiness to be bred.
    Bred. Carrying Cougar Lighthorse’s child?
    “Where—where are we going?”
    “To where we both belong.”

Chapter Five
    “Have you ever wanted anything else?” Cougar asked when he stepped in the large barn with its multitude of stalls. The double doors hung open. Faint light slid in through the opening to touch the stalls on either side of the center space. Every stall was occupied, but only two of the horses acknowledged their presence. The rest, worn down from their long day, couldn’t care less.
    “Other than being involved with the ranching life? When I went to college, I thought a lot about my options, but too many entailed spending my days in an office, living in a city.”
    He shook his head. “And you need space.”
    “I do.” And the chance to prove I haven’t lost my nerve. “What about you?”
    He hadn’t touched her tonight. Instead of feeling safer and more self-contained, she ached for the brush of skin against skin. Every molecule of her being was tuned in to him, so much so she half believed he could see beyond her clothing to breasts, belly, hips and mostly what waited between her legs. Even after her eyes adjusted to the muted light, she felt isolated from the outside world. There were just them and the horses.
    One stomped its hoof, shaking her mind loose of whatever spiderweb it had sunk into and reminding her that she’d asked a question. “It goes without saying that you need to be where you can see the horizon,” she said. Her voice seemed to echo off the weathered wood.
    “Because I’m Native American?”
    “Because you grew up surrounded by nature.” She touched his forearm. Just like that, her flames were fed. “I think the setting gets in our blood. No matter what people like us do with our lives, we’re not satisfied unless we’re surrounded by what was embedded in us as children.”
    “You’re philosophical tonight.”
    Either that or something was driving her to lay more of herself before him. Someone might be in the barn, maybe bedded down in a stall with his or her horse, but she didn’t sense the presence of another human. Just him. “It hasn’t been an easy day for me,” she admitted.
    “No, it hasn’t.”
    She forced her hand back to her side. Maybe she wouldn’t be this aware of him if they hadn’t had sex, but she wouldn’t take bets. Possibly he’d touched her hormones in ways they’d never been touched.
    “Is—is that what you wanted to talk about?” she asked. “Why my time was so slow?”
    “I don’t need to ask. I know why.”
    His words were still echoing around her when he took her hand, lifted it to his mouth and touched his lips to her knuckles. A rolling shiver ran from her fingers up her arm and down until it settled between her legs. Her knees nearly buckled.
    “You—you do?”
    “I’ve been there.”
    His fingers now laced in hers, he lowered their hands so her knuckles brushed his thigh. His pulsing warmth nipped at her.
    “Do you recall what announcers say when they introduce the riding events?”
    Incapable of concentrating on anything beyond pounding need, she shook her head.
    “They tell the bronc riders to check their gear—and