My gut reaction was to refuse. It wasn’t just the thought of sitting on top of a massive animal with a tiny brain, sweet and unassuming though Penny looked. It was knowing that Jesse would touch me again, that the fires he would light across my skin would threaten to merge into one and burn me from the inside out.
But . . . as I looked between his open expression, the clarity in his stormy eyes, and Penny’s calm, stoic vibe . . . I couldn’t refuse him.
‘Five minutes,’ I murmured, unable to help matching his smile.
I followed him out into the corral, half blinded by the sunlight after the peaceful gloom of the barn. My heart was pounding as we walked across the soft dirt.
‘All right,’ he said, giving Penny a pat on the neck as I stood next to her, suddenly conscious of the enormous gap between the ground and the stirrup Jesse had just pulled down. ‘If you put your left boot in the stirrup and your left hand on the pommel –’ He waited for me to do so, stretching as high as I could reach while she stayed mercifully still. ‘Then on three, you push up, and I’ll lift you the rest of the way.’
Swallowing, I nodded, waiting for his countdown – and on three, as I pushed off the ground, his strong hands gripped either side of my waist, lifting me as easily as . . .
Flashes of our hook-ups thundered into my mind, but almost before I realized it, I’d swung my leg over Penny’s back and was sitting astride her. The imprint of his hands remained as he stood back, grinning. Penny all but dozed next to his arm, utterly unperturbed.
‘Holy shit,’ I murmured, registering just how far away the ground was.
He chuckled.
‘Right foot into the other stirrup,’ he said, adjusting the reins and hooking them over the pommel. I nudged the toe of my boot in and tried to adjust myself in the saddle, surprised at how comfortable it actually was, the way the raised back and tall pommel held me in place. ‘Now, sit back a little, keep your back straight – that’s it, that’s perfect,’ he instructed, clicking his tongue and holding the reins at Penny’s head to ask her to walk forward. The motion was strange, a gentle rolling from side to side, but as I sat back, trying to move with it as I’d seen Lottie do before, it wasn’t as terrifying as I’d imagined.
‘This is . . . okay,’ I said, smiling as he beamed at me, walking backwards to check my position as Penny walked slowly on. ‘Do I need to hold the reins?’
‘Sure,’ he replied, before explaining how they worked, his fingers brushing against mine as he lifted the soft leather into my right hand. ‘Try a stop with her, just a gentle pull towards you.’
He let go of her head, her small ears pricking towards him. I did as he’d instructed, pulling back for a moment and staring at him in astonishment as she came to an easy stop.
‘I did it!’ I said stupidly, before leaning down as much as I dared to pat her neck.
‘You look good up there,’ he said, taking me in as he adjusted his hat. ‘Natural cowgirl.’
As I opened my mouth to protest, he moved closer, gently taking my boot in his hand and sliding it out from the stirrup, keeping his hand on my leg.
‘Were you nervous?’ he asked, looking straight up into my face.
For a second we were back in his truck, hands clasped, moments from a kiss that felt as though it might change it all.
In a whisper, he added, ‘No dancing, Jessica.’
Everything around us blurred into nothing; even the fact that I was sitting astride a horse faded away.
‘Not of riding,’ I murmured, my pulse beginning to pound as his eyes flared.
‘Unhook your other boot,’ he ordered, a new, raw quality entering his voice. ‘Then swing your right leg over the front and slide down. I’ll catch you.’
I hesitated, feeling the ground being pulled from beneath me, slowly. But I did it anyway, his hands clasping my waist in the same place as I dismounted. This time, they didn’t let go.
‘Why do I make you nervous?’ he asked, waiting for me to look up, not knowing what to do with my hands, our bodies just inches apart. I met his eyes again, every feeling and emotion rushing in together and meeting with a crash.
‘I don’t trust myself around you,’ I whispered. ‘Every time you touch me . . .’
He clenched his jaw, leaning down.
‘I don’t know how much longer I can go without havingyoutouchme, Jessica,’ he said, running one finger up from my chest, slowing at the nape of my neck. ‘No matter how much I imagine it, or how many times I fuck my own hand in the shower. I want it to be you.I want you.’
I held my breath, vaguely aware that Penny had wandered off in the corral, of the sounds of distant voices, that we weren’t alone.
Reaching between us, I ran my fingers over his belt buckle, increasing the pressure as I moved down. His grip on my waist hardened, his finger trailing up to my jaw, hooking it under my chin to bring me closer.
‘You coming out on the ride today, Hestia?’
