Her face drops. “Ah, no thanks.”
I open the gate and lead the mare out. Patsy stands with an impatient look on her face as I lead her into the barn and tack up.
Maggie follows, looking around the barn. The look of wonder is back on her face. My heart hopes there’s something in that expression tethering her to this ranch, to this man.
“Ready?” I ask.
“I think so?” She eyes the horse nervously.
“This old girl is the soundest ride on this ranch, Sunshine. You’re safe.”
She gives me a scrunched-up smile before stepping toward the horse. She rubs her neck, relaxing a little as Patsy bends her neck around and sniffs her.
Maggie giggles. “She likes me.”
The sound goes straight to my cock, which I have been consciously ignoring since I rolled out of bed and left an almost naked Maggie wrapped in my sheets.
“Course she does. You’re very likable.”
The woman rolls her damn eyes at me, and I love it. The need to fuck the sass out of her is setting my body on fire. I get the feeling today’s goin’ to drag.
“Foot in the stirrup.” I point to the iron hanging from the fender.
She lifts her foot and slides it all the way in. I push it back until the ball of her foot in her boot is across the iron. “Not too far in, keep the iron under the ball of your foot, okay?”
She nods.
I take her hands and wrap the fingers on her left hand around Patsy’s mane at her withers, the other I curl her fingers around the pommel of the saddle. “Pull up, push off the ground at the same time. Swing into the saddle.”
“Pull, push, swing . . . got it.”
She takes a few little hops and pulls as she propels herself up and onto Patsy’s back. A natural.
“Nailed it, beautiful.”
The smile over her face is doing things to me no man should survive, especially since I’m about to be in close quarters on the back of a horse with this woman.
She adjusts the camera around her neck, and I slide her foot from the iron and shove mine in, seating myself behind the saddle.
“Your foot back in, Mags,” I rasp into her ear.
Her face turns, her gaze pinning mine. “You never call me that.”
“Can I?”
“Sure,” she whispers. “I mean, I’m not gonna lie, I prefer Sunshine, but let’s mix it up.”
I nip her earlobe, and she leans back into me.
Well, this is going well.
Patsy shifts on her feet, resting her hind left, absolutely bored with life and oblivious to what is happening on her back.
Maggie slides her foot back into the stirrup iron and I adjust the reins in her hands. “Squeeze your legs to send her forward. To stop, lean back a little and apply a little backward pressure on the reins.” I slowly pull them backward, my hands around Maggie’s. “And she will pretty much ride at any speed you tell her to. To go left, pressure on the left rein. To go right, pressure on the right. Once you stop, if you need to reverse?—”
“She does that?” Maggie’s eyes widen in joyful surprise.
I chuckle, tugging gently on both reins with my two ring and pinky fingers. Patsy’s head drops and she takes a few steps back.
