"I know what Ellis said." He came to stand in front of me, looking down. "I was there."
"Then you know it worked."
"It worked," he agreed. "This time."
"I did the math?—"
"Daniela." He crouched down in front of me, eye level, the lasso loose in his hands. His voice was even. Patient. The paddock voice. "You dropped your outside hand at a full gallop with the camera running and a fence post coming up at thirty miles an hour. If Bishop had shifted two inches left?—"
"He didn't."
"If he had."
I pressed my lips together.
"Say it," he said.
"I could have gone down," I said. "Under his feet."
"Under his feet," he confirmed. "At thirty miles an hour." He held my gaze. "You want to tell me again that the grab looked better?"
I said nothing.
He stood up.
"Hands out," he said.
I looked at the lasso.
Looked at him.
"We're doing this?" I said.
"We're doing this." The corner of his mouth pulled. Not quite a smile. "Hands out, Daniela. Or I'll put you to bed and we'll talk about it in the morning."
I held my hands out.
He shook out the lasso—soft nylon, his working rope, worn smooth from use—and looped it around my wrists with the focused efficiency of a man who did this for a living. Not tight. Enough. He ran the tail through the headboard slat and secured it and stepped back and looked at me.
I pulled once, testing.
Wasn't going anywhere.
He reached out and tipped my chin up. "You scared me today."
The playfulness dropped out of his voice for just a second.
"I know," I said. "I'm sorry."
"You're not sorry yet." The corner of his mouth pulled again, the almost-smile coming back. "But you will be."
"That's—" I started.
"A promise," he said. "Not a threat."
He sat on the edge of the bed beside me and ran one hand slowly up my thigh and I forgot what I'd been about to say.
"Here's what's going to happen," he said, conversational, his hand moving higher. "You're going to stay exactly where I put you. You're not going to rush me. You're not going to tell me you've done the math." His fingers found the hem of my shirt. "And you're going to think very carefully about whether dropping that hand was worth it."
