* * *
“I feel ridiculous in these!” Jake hissed at her as he stood on one side of Sandy, tugging on the edges of the chaps she had handed him when he’d walked into the barn. She eyed him critically and did up the buckle another hole at the back.
“That should help,” she said.
“Thanks,” he said. “They’re heavy across my hip bones.”
“You’ll get used to them, and they’re less heavy once you’re in the saddle. Better than your jeans riding up and rubbing a blister on your shin,” Liz replied.
“Still feel ridiculous,” he muttered, and picked up a brush, sliding it over Sandy, who was in the cross-ties beside them.
Jake didn’t look ridiculous, because the chaps fit him like they were his, the leather hitting him in just the right spot on the back of his thighs. She had been right, his ass—which was already superb—looked even better this way. With a long sleeve Henley shirt and his long legs covered in the polished brown leather, he looked every inch like his brothers, even though he’d never ranched a day in his life. She’d been right that first day on the porch. He looked the part easy, given his genes.
Moving around the horse, Liz met his eyes over its back, and she winked at him. “I think you look hot.”
He let out a quiet rumblinghmmm, and continued to brush Sandy down, his big hands expertly flicking the dirt off her coat, like he’d done it a thousand times.
He stopped suddenly, leaned over Sandy’s rump, and caught her eye again, his own sparkling with mischief. Her stomach fluttered, because he truly was devastatingly handsome when he was relaxed and happy, the way he was now.
“So I should wear them later? Maybe without the jeans?” he quipped, and then went back to brushing.
“Jake! Jesus,” she hissed back, heat flaming over her cheeks, which were now likely the color of a tomato. “Not now.”
He stepped around Sandy, dropping the brush back into the box on the wall, and as he passed her, he pulled her over to him, their bodies fitting against each other perfectly. His hand sliding dangerously up her back made her want to forget about the ride and just take him home, and his breath on her neck made her wish he’d pin her to the wall and—
“Yes, now,” he said, and his lips found her pulse point, slowly sliding over her skin.
She fisted his shirt. “If you keep this up, we won’t get on the horses.” It was going to be hard to concentrate if he didn’t let her go.
“I keep thinkin’ about last night,” he murmured in her ear, his other hand now pulling her hips in closer to him, their belt buckles clinking. Then he abruptly let go and walked over to the saddle rack, pulling up the saddle blanket resting on top of the saddle.
She was going to lose her mind with this man. He could rev her up and then set her on idle, all the while knowing exactly what it was doing to her. She growled at him and took the blanket from him wordlessly, mock glaring at him for good measure.
“Enough of that for now, Mr. West. You need to learn how to tack up.”
He held his hands up in placation and dutifully listened as she showed him how to set the saddle blanket and place the saddle, how to do up the cinch.
He’d said he was familiar with English tack, so she showed him the differences, then stood back and let him do it himself. Sandy, as always, was the perfect teacher, sound asleep even when Jake pulled the cinch tight. Once he’d done that, he moved around to Sandy’s front legs, and picked each one up, pulling it out.
Sandy woke up at that and obliged the odd behavior, wiggling her upper lip through Jake’s hair as Jake bent over to pick up the leg.
“Get in line, sweetie, I’ve already got a girl,” Jake murmured to the horse, then laughed and scratched the old mare’s jaw, which promptly put her back to sleep.
Liz stopped, registering that Jake had just called her his girl.Oh. It probably meant nothing. She refused to put more meaning behind a simple silly statement to a horse.
But it flipped her stomach.
“What the hell is he doing?” Tanner asked. He was standing in front of Chip’s stall. The horse’s head hung out the open stall door, ears forward toward him, but Tanner’s head was turned, and he was eyeballing Jake like he was a madman.
“Ask him yourself.” Liz stood back. No way she was getting between them.
“I’m pulling the skin tight under the girth, er, cinch. Smooths the hair out, prevents girth sores, from what I remember. I dated a show jumper, she did this with all her horses,” Jake replied directly.
Liz’s eyebrows shot up.”Well, okay, then,” she said. “We don’t do that, but all the same, fill your boots, cowboy.”
“We gonna offer them a mint and tuck them into bed with lullabies after?” Tanner muttered under his breath, and went back to buckling Chip’s bridle. Jake didn’t reply.
“Don’t push his buttons today, you big friggin’ idiot,” Liz hissed at him.
