Safe in His Arms Read Online Free PDF Page A

suggest starting with the brush.” Adam kept his voice nonchalant. “I like to go front to back, neck to tail, kind of like washing a car. Then you can come around and repeat the process on the other side.” He tied the lead rope to the cross rail of the hitching post.
    “Have you ever washed a car?”
    It was a fair question. Guys like him usually didn’t wash cars. She was a smart cookie who knew that. “Matter of fact, I have washed a car. Will’s, not mine. We used to hang out at his house because . . . I guess because we could do things like wash his car in the driveway. It was a novelty for me.” He rested his hands on Rocket Fuel’s back and gazed at her. “Ready to get started?”
    “Ready as I’ll ever be.” She set down the caddy and pulled out a brush before slowly approaching the horse. “Would you mind staying right there for a little while? Just until I get the hang of it?”
    “Be glad to.”
    With the brush in her left hand, she stroked Rocket Fuel’s neck so lightly that it probably tickled him. He snorted, and she drew back. “I’m doing it wrong.”
    “Use a little more pressure. He’s a big guy. He can take it.”
    “Okay.” She stepped closer and put some muscle into it. She had a cute habit of poking her tongue into her cheek while she concentrated on her work.
    “That’s great. Perfect. So you’re left-handed?”
    “No. This is the arm that was broken, and my physical therapist told me to use it whenever I could, since my natural tendency is to use my right.”
    “Broken?”
    She hesitated. “Maybe I should tell you what happened. It’s not a big secret or anything.”
    “You’re not required to.” Although he did want to know. Some of the soldiers didn’t want to talk, which he understood, but knowing the nature of the trauma helped him work with them. The horses, instinctive creatures that they were, didn’t need to know a damned thing, but Adam was only human.
    “It might help if you know where I’m coming from.”
    Will had cautioned him not to counsel without a license, and to be up front about that with the people who came to his ranch, so he delivered the usual disclaimer. “Just remember I’m no therapist, just a guy with a ranch and some horses.”
    She glanced up at him, a gleam of humor in her eyes. “I’ll keep that in mind.” She returned her attention to the horse. “Should I do his legs?”
    “Sure. Brush everything except his privates.”
    A quick smile put a dimple in her cheek.
    She was a beautiful woman, and a plucky one, too. She crouched down to brush Rocket Fuel’s fetlocks, putting herself close to his hooves. Maybe she was beginning to believe this horse wasn’t out to hurt her.
    When she didn’t continue with her story, he thought maybe she’d decided against telling it, after all.
    But then she spoke. “Remember the fire that broke out during a concert a few months ago?”
    His heart stalled. “You were there?”
    “Yes. I got caught in the crush and knocked down. I was lucky that I only ended up with a couple of broken ribs and a broken arm. But it scared the bejeezus out of me. People were . . .” She swallowed. “Crazy.”
    He had the impulse to walk around the horse and hold her, but he didn’t think that would be a wise move. “I guess you must have gone alone.” He’d met her two friends, and they would have fought that crowd tooth and nail to make sure they all got out unscathed.
    “I went with a guy.”
    Adam sucked in a breath. He tried to remember if anyone had died in that mob scene. He wasn’t sure. “Did he . . . was he . . .”
    “Oh, he’s fine.” She brushed Rocket Fuel’s foreleg again and again. “He used to run track, so he vaulted over people on his way to the exit. I tried to follow him, but that didn’t work out.”
    “He
left
you?” Adam’s muscles bunched in an instinctive response to that horrific news. Good thing Mr. Track Star wasn’t standing here, or he would no longer