Capturing the Cowboy's Heart (21 page)

“What’s not going to work, Dalton?”  He raised a questioning brow.

Just then
Burk came riding up
behind them.

Lacy straightened, nearly clipping his chin in the process.  Then she attempted to scoot forward again.

“You got ants in your pants?” Burk asked
her
with a grin as he rode up beside them.

“
Burk’s right. 
You need to relax
,” Cade said, his arm curling securely about her waist.

Easier said than done.
“I’m trying.”

Burk
nodded
.  “A horse can sense discomfort in a rider.”

“I can’t help it.  I’ve never been on a horse before.”  Nor had she ever imagined how sexually arousing sharing a ride on one could be.

“City girl.  I forgot
,” Cade admitted.  He
slowed his horse.
 
“Now relax before you
get
both of us thrown.”

He knew full well it wasn’t the horse that had her squirming. 
“Unlike you, Tyler, I wasn’t born in the saddle.”

Burk
chuckled
.  “
Gotta love a
woman with sass.  Now, if you two will excuse me, I’ll just ride on ahead
and clear the pond of wild animals
.” 

Wild animals.
What a load of bull.  But Burk’s words reminded her of her mission.  To teach those two a lesson. 

“
Would you like to learn to ride?”

His offer, not at all teasing surprised her. 
“
Y
ou’ve got your hands full taking care of the ranch and all.”

“The horses need to be ridden, Dalton.  Might as well teach you while I exercise them.  Besides, it’ll give you more to write about.”

“I’ll think about it.”  That is, if she could ever
redirect her thoughts from
things she shouldn’t be thinking of. 

“Good.  Can’t have a ranch hand that doesn’t know how to ride
a horse
.”

“Cade...”

“Hmm?”

“Do you think we could do some of the interview while we’re out here?  You’re always so busy.”

“
L
et me get this straight.  You want to interview me while we’re buck naked in the pond?”

He wished.  “A journalist does what he or she has to do to get the story
.”

“I don’t have a problem with it if you don’t,” Cade muttered behind her
.

She’d see about that.

T
hey rode out into a clearing that circled a small pond.  The water was a deep, dark blue that looked cool and incredibly inviting
in the afternoon heat
.  A scattering of water lilies added a splash of color as they mingled with the cattails. 

“Well, well, I see you two kids made it here in one piece,” Burk called out
f
rom where he sat perched atop a large flat rock near the water’s edge.

“No thanks to Dalton,” Cade said with a chuckle as they rode around the pond to where Burk sat waiting.

“I wasn’t the one driving the horse,” she replied.  “You were.”

“I wasn’t ‘driving’ it,” he pointed out. 

“Fine, guiding it or whatever you cowboys choose to call it.  It wasn’t exactly an easy ride.”

“Can’t argue with you there,” he whispered against her hair.  “It was a little
harder
than usual.”

With his arousal still pressed against her backside, Lacy found herself blushing at Cade’s husky words.  She immediately scooted forward and forced her attention to the water.  He was so going to pay. 

“At least, we won’t have to share our bath with any ducks today,” Lacy pointed out as she looked out over the water.

“Hmm,” Cade said, stroking his chin, “that’s strange.”

“What’s strange?”

“It’s just that there’s always at least a few ducks swimming around here.”

Burk made a tsk-ing sound from where he sat.  “Yeah, I noticed that, too.  One of them Biter fish must have eaten them.”

“Biter fish?” Lacy eyed Burk suspiciously.  “Never heard of them.”

“Believe it, Dalton,” Cade told her.  “We’ve lost more ducks to the Biters.  They have a thing for painted toenails, so I’d be real careful if I were you.

She couldn’t decide who was the bigge
r
storyteller, Cade or Burk.  But it was Cade she wanted to see squirm, just as he was trying
his best
to make her do.  “I’m not afraid of fish.  Even ones that have a thing for painted toenails.”

“Good, because being the gentlemen I am I’m going to let you go first.”  Cade motioned toward the water.

She
snorted.  “Funny, but I never really considered you the gentleman type.”  Burk and Cade were nothing more than a couple of overgrown boys, having fun at her expense.  It was time to turn the tables and give them a little taste of their own medicine. 

She wriggled about in the saddle, deliberately brushing her backside against Cade.

“What are you doing?” he asked in a tight voice.

“Just trying to figure out how to get off of this thing.” 
She
squirmed a little more.  

He
muttered a curse
. 
“
S
wing your leg slowly over
his
neck
and
I’ll lower you down.”

“
T
hat sounds easy enough.” 
She
leaned back against him, her fingers clasping the top of his jean-clad thighs for balance as she raised her leg and swung it over top the horse’s head.

He
lowered her to the ground as if she weighed nothing at all.  The grassy bank felt cool beneath her bare feet as she turned to look up at him.  “Thanks.” 

He gave a nod and then reached behind him to retrieve her things from the saddlebag.  “You’ll be needing these.” 

She
took the bundle and carried it over to the edge of the pond where she tossed it onto the ground beside her.  Then she turned, raising a hand to shield her eyes from the glare of the afternoon sun as she looked back at the two grinning cowboys.  Let the fun begin.

“I don’t know about you boys, but I’m really looking forward to this.  It’s so hot out here.”  That said, she dropped her hand to the waistband of her shorts and undid the top button, revealing a section of lavender lace.

Cade’s eyes rounded and his mouth dropped open.  “Uh,
Dalton
...”

“Ladies first.”  She spun around to face the water and eased the
body hugging
tank top up over her head, tossing it
on
to the ground
next to her
.

Cade cursed behind her.

“Lacy’s right,” Burk joined in.  “It’s hotter than hell out here.”

Her back to them, she
continued her little striptease show, pushing her shorts down over her hips until she could step out of them.  Then she
moved closer to
the water’s edge and bent to scoop up a handful of water, splashing it onto her face and neck.  “Ah, this feels so good.”

She stood and turned to find both men watching her, mouths agape.  Lacy couldn’t help but grin.  Cade’s jaw was practically resting on his saddle.

“Cade?” she said sweetly.  “Is something wrong?”

“Looks just fine to me,” Burk mumbled.

“That’ll be enough of that!” Cade said, his head snapping Burk’s direction. 

“What?”  

“Staring, damn it!  It’s not polite to stare at a woman that way.”

“Is that so?” Lacy replied, folding her arms.  “It sure looked to me like you’re doing plenty of the same yourself, Mr. Tyler.”

“I wasn’t staring.”

“Oh,
then t
here
must be
something behind me that caught your eye?”  She pivoted to look out over the pond.  “A turtle, perhaps?”

She was killing him.

Cade was still in a state of shock at Dalton’s little strip show she’d just performed.  It had all been a joke.  At least on his and Burk’s end.  Never in a million years had he expected Lacy to
start taking off her clothes
.

His eyes widened as
Lacy reached for the strap of her bra.
 
“Aren’t you boys hot?”

Only in my jeans!

He
forced his gaze to the ground only to have it boomerang back to Lacy.  He was having a hell of a time keeping his eyes off her.  Then, he glanced over at Burk and found hi
s friend
looking at Lacy like he’d never seen a woman in her undergarments before.

Cade shot down from his horse and stomped over to where Lacy’s clothes were lying.  “All right, that’s enough!”   

“What’s enough?”
she
asked with an air of innocence.

He scooped up her
things
and stepped toward her.  “
This
is enough!”  He shoved
her discarded
clothes into her hands.  “Get dressed,
Dalton
.  You shouldn’t be standing there in your...”  God help him, someone just turned up the heat.

“Skivvies?” Burk finished for him.

He
turned a darkened scowl to
Burk who was
looking at Lacy like she was a frosty mug of beer on a Friday night.  “Go home.”

“I live here.”

“Then go back to the ranch and clean stalls or something!”  He didn’t like the thought of Burk seeing Lacy in barely more than a few pieces of thread.  Hell, he shouldn’t be seeing her dressed like that. 

Burk pushed off his rock and moseyed on over to his awaiting horse.  “Whatever you say, boss.”  He shot Lacy a quick wink before riding off into the woods. 

Lacy tossed her clothes back down to the ground between their feet.  “What is your problem?  You’re like a bear with a thorn in your butt!”

He shouldn’t be looking at her, but he was.  The soft sensual curves of her body...

“Consider yourself the thorn!” he growled, angry with himself for wanting her.  “Now put your clothes back on,
Dalton
.”  He bent to retrieve her clothes
again
and shoved them back into her arms.

This time she
threw the bundle at him.  It hit his chest and
fluttered
to the ground once more.  “Wrongo, cowboy.  I came here to bathe and that’s exactly what I intend to do.  If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen!”

Heat hell.  It was more like an inferno.  “Look,
Dalton
, you don’t understand,” he told her as his errant gaze drifted down to rest on the swell of her breasts.  Despite his good intentions,
he
found himself wondering what it would be like to peel away the lavender lace that held them and cup their fullness in his hands... 

She
stepped closer, lifting her beautiful face to his.  “Then make me understand.”  

She was like the desert highway after a summer rain, hot and steaming.  His gaze settled on her lips.  They were so close, parted just enough for him to slip his tongue between them if he wanted to.

Lord, how he wanted to.
 

“Get dressed, Dalton.  You just can’t go around stripping down in front of men and not expect them to...” his words trailed off.  She was so close he could smell her sweetness.

“To what?” she demanded in a sultry whisper that stirred his blood. 

“To do this!”  Grasping her by the waist, Cade
dragged
her
up
against him
and
captured that tempting mouth of hers
in a hungry kiss
. 

She
didn’t pull away.  Instead, she leaned into his kiss
with a soft moan
, threading her fingers through his hair.

Hunger was nothing.  He was starving.

He
ran a flattened palm
down
the satiny length of her bare back
.  Cupping
her backside,
he drew
her even closer to his
need
.   

She clung to him, grinding her hips against his thick arousal
while their tongues twined
.

Her reaction to his kiss was pure torture
.  Cade knew he was
quickly reaching the point of no return.
  And he couldn’t do that with this untruth between them.