Heartbreak Ranch (5 page)

“I’m not gonna lie; it’s bad, real bad,” a gravelly voice said.

Without considering her actions, or the risk of getting caught, Graysen moved closer and peeked around the door. Colt was kneeling on the ground next to an open animal stall. She couldn’t see very well, but it looked as though he was rubbing something. Concern wracked his handsome face. The men all seemed focused on whatever was on the ground in that stall. One of them spoke.

“Have you given any thought to—”

“Yes.” Colt’s voice was harsh. “We’ll wait to see how it goes. Jack, just do whatever you can to save her.”

Colt talked with Jack and the other man for a few more minutes. As they turned to leave, Graysen became anxious; she was standing near the main door and was concerned she would be discovered. Luckily, the men left through the back entrance to the barn. Colt stayed behind and looked after the horse. Graysen watched him as he stood and headed toward the front door. Quickly she jumped back, so he couldn’t see her. But it was pointless, Colt had already spotted her.

Colt walked outside and stood close next to Graysen. Looking out into the night, he said, “So do you always listen in on other people’s conversations?”

Graysen hesitated to speak, afraid that she would break that spell that kept him standing so close. “I saw the lights on when I was walking back to my cabin.”

She should have known the decision to see if Colt was in the barn would put her in a situation like this. The others had left, and now she was alone in the dark with Colt, the tension snapping in almost visible sparks between them. She felt more exposed and more vulnerable to the growing attraction between them now that they were alone.

It was useless. She couldn’t lie to herself any longer. Graysen reflected on her first day on the ranch as a string of frustrating little skirmishes, and she wanted more. At the lodge he’d stood beside her too long and stepped away too soon. She felt like a coiled spring. She knew Colt was the reason she walked over to the barn. Every time she saw Colt McCord, he got sexier. His sensuality wrapped around her, its grip growing stronger each time he spoke.

Fearing her desire was obvious, she tried to make it seem like she was merely curious about the problem in the stables. “You rode up on the trail today because of what is going on in the barn didn’t you?”

Colt looked at her expectantly. His lips were unusually full for such a rugged-featured, masculine man, striking her as sensual yet firm. He gave Graysen a small smile. “I didn’t figure you for someone who would be so interested in our ranch after barely one day here.” Colt took her hand and led her inside. “C’mon, I’ll show you.”

Graysen gasped. Her hand cradled in his strong grip gave birth to a tingling sensation that began at the tips of her fingers and grew slowly, travelling up the length of her arm until it reached her shoulder, and skated to her heart, causing it to beat wildly. The memory of how tightly he held the reins of the wild horse in the corral last night and how tenderly he held her hand when he introduced himself whirled through her mind. She tried not to lose herself in the moment. She willed herself to ignore the growing flutter in her belly.
Don’t be beguiled
, she warned herself.

He led her over to the stall where he had knelt moments earlier. A young foal lay in a bed of hay. It was almost entirely chestnut, but had a large white splotch on its belly. From the position it was in, Graysen thought it was sleeping, but then she caught a glimpse of the forlorn look in its eyes. She noticed its leg was outstretched and wrapped in bandages, and her heart caught in her throat.

“Her leg became trapped in a snake hole when she was out running the fields today. We freed her, but her leg was broken. This morning on the trail we were looking for White Pine’s vet, Jack Evans.” Colt’s voice was pained.

Seeing the young horse, injured and helpless, wounded Graysen. “Will she be okay?”

“As young as she is, it presents a problem. She needs to be able to run every day and give her legs the exercise they need so they can develop properly. She is in real bad shape. We don’t know if she will ever walk again. We might have to put her out of her misery. Jack thinks we shouldn’t let her suffer any longer, but I just can’t bring myself to do it, not yet. I have to give her a chance.” His green eyes welled with sadness.

Graysen was overcome with emotion. Unable to hold her feelings back any longer, a tear slowly trickled along the curve of her cheek. Colt looked at her with genuine concern. She looked down at the floor of the barn, scraping the toe of her wedge sandal through the scattered hay on the barn floor. As she tried to collect herself, a rough thumb came to her cheek and lightly brushed away a tear. Colt’s hand cupped her chin, bringing her head up so that her eyes met his. He was no longer the cocky cowboy, playfully teasing her, but gentle and warm.

“You’re full of surprises, Iowa.” The husky tone of his voice betrayed his thoughts. His pet name for her dripped from his tongue like honey in his pitch-perfect southern timbre. “It’s getting late. I’ll walk you back to your cabin.”

Graysen gave him a small smile and nodded. She looked back at the stall where the foal was resting, feeling a wave of sorrow crush her. She shook her head, trying to release herself from the sadness that flooded her thoughts. She reminded herself:
Colt is standing right next to you. He is actually walking you back to the cabin
.

As they walked across the ranch, Colt started up the conversation again. As if sensing her mood, he tried to lighten it by teasing her. “So, only twenty, huh?”

Dryly she responded, “I’ll be twenty-one next month.”

Colt chuckled. “Yeah, I do believe you mentioned that. So are you in college?”

“I just graduated from Iowa State University. I pushed myself so I could finish early and I am starting on my Master’s degree in August.” Colt made some joke about her being one of those girls who went off to dude ranches for vacations. Graysen wasn’t in the joking mood, at least not about the vacation.

“I was invited to go to Italy with some friends this summer, but my mom insisted I come here with them instead.”

“Italy?” He chuckled. “You made the right choice. The White Pine Ranch is greater than anything you could see in Italy.”

“Greater than seeing Botticelli’s illustrations?”

“You betcha.” He smiled.

“What about
Piazza della Signoria or Giotto’s Tower?”

“
Sì, signorina
.” His attempt at Italian with a southern accent was bordering the absurd.

Graysen’s frustration at the direction of their conversation spilled over. “I just don’t see how a bunch of dust and heat and cows live up to all of those things.”

“Tread lightly, Iowa, that’s my ranch you’re putting down,” he pretended to be insulted. “I happen to like dust and heat and cows.”

Graysen relaxed a bit and laughed along with him. “I thought the Edmistons owned the ranch?”

“Well, they do, but they made me a partner after I graduated college. Ever since the Edmiston’s took me in, I’ve grown comfortable with ranch life. This place has been my home for a long time. I don’t ever see myself anywhere else.”

“You went to college?” Graysen immediately regretted the shocked tone accompanying her question.

He smiled. “Texas A&M. Heck insisted I go. He said I couldn’t allow all of my potential to go to waste. I did well, had a 4.0, and graduated with a degree in Agribusiness. My heart was here the whole time. This is home. I can’t imagine not ever being part of this ranch.”

Graysen nodded, trying to wrap her head around the concept of a person actually preferring to live out here, so completely removed from civilization. “I love school; I finished my undergraduate degree in Architecture last month and began working towards earning my Master of Architecture in August.”

“Architecture?” He turned and looked at her as they walked. “I can’t picture you sitting behind a desk drawing buildings all day, Iowa.”

“I happen to like designing buildings, and I’ve always been good at the math needed for the precise nature of the work.”

“Nope. Can’t see it,” Colt teased her relentlessly.

“What is it that you can see me doing?” she asked, trying to sound playfully annoyed.

“Not riding a horse, that’s for damned certain.” Colt grinned crookedly, looking so insufferably pleased with himself. “How someone almost gets thrown off one of those trail ponies, I have no idea.”

Graysen giggled, remembering the embarrassing early morning scene. “I was just sitting still. It was Mouse’s fault! She was jumpy from the start.“

“Well, Iowa, I wouldn’t want you to miss out on the complete White Pine experience, so I am going to make it my life’s mission to see you know how to ride.”

Graysen took a deep breath, her mind taking her all sorts of places and none of them involved riding a horse. Heat curled through her belly, and she swore Colt could read her thoughts.

“I bet I could teach you a thing or two ...” his voice became more intense, “… about horses, that is.” Colt winked at her slyly and blatantly stared as warmth spread over her cheeks blooming from a pink flush into a soft red as it spread across the surface of Graysen’s luminous, pale skin.

His longing stare promised all sorts of things, or maybe it was her mind’s wishful thinking trying to spin her fantasies into reality.

Graysen’s heart was beating rapidly as they approached the cabin, and she glanced up at his face, which was partially shadowed by the moonlight. Her voice was just above a whisper. “I bet you could ...” He was standing so close to her, so close that she could feel his warm breath on her face.

Kiss me, just kiss me already.
She wished he would have picked up on her unspoken plea but he didn’t.

“Goodnight, Iowa.” He flashed a killer smile as he left to return to the stables and the foal.

***

Graysen slipped her shoes off and crept quietly into the cabin. She took extra care not to make noise since her parents were sleeping. Her brother and sister were still at the lodge. Once in her bedroom, she carefully shut the door and hurried to the window. She gathered the lace of the curtain back and watched as the silhouette of Colt’s body was veiled by the dark Wyoming night. After closing the curtain, she decided to draw herself a bath. She really meant to take a quick bath in the big claw-footed bathtub, but when she sunk down into the warm, sudsy water, she groaned and leaned her head back on the rolled-up towel. She shut her eyes and pictured Colt. He was standing smack in the middle of her fantasy. He had a big smile on his sexy face. He was bare-chested, and his belt buckle was undone showing a fine line of dark hair extending downward. She lazed in the water until it went cold, thinking about Colt’s body crushing hers when they made love. She lingered in those thoughts, wondering how he was in bed, knowing if he was half as good at love making as he was at horse training she would be in trouble.

At twenty, she was one of the last of her friends who still clung to her virginity. Actually, she wasn’t clinging to it; she just hadn’t met the right man yet. There was never anyone who she could confidently say she wanted to be with. Graysen knew when she gave herself fully to a man it would be with someone who she deeply cared about and had a shot at a meaningful relationship with. She knew Kevin wasn’t that man. His attempt at kissing her left her feeling as combustible as a damp firecracker. The idea of practical, sensible, and safe Kevin looked good on paper, but like a plain bologna sandwich on white bread, he was boring and tasteless. Despite wanting a planned out life, Graysen knew she didn’t want an Oscar Meyer relationship. No boring main course for the rest of her adult life was going to cut it. She wanted to eat her dessert first. She craved deep, dark, decadent chocolate cake and she wasn’t going to settle for anything less. She wanted to gather up every bit and not miss anything on her plate. Colt McCord was that chocolate cake and she planned on savoring every inch of him.

“Damn it! Damn it!” Colt kicked his boots through the hay and feed scattered along the barn floor. He could have kicked himself for not taking the opportunity to kiss that beautiful woman when he had the chance. When they’d said good night, she’d raised her toffee eyes to his and gazed at him through her long eyelashes. She was practically begging him to take her in his arms and taste her soft, lush mouth. Truth be told, he was nervous and impatient. He was sorely out of practice when it came to wooing a woman, let alone kissing one.

Although he was a bit rusty at matters of the heart, not a single woman had ever affected Colt like Graysen Beaufort. She was a paradox in a pair of heels. One minute she was the stiff, socialite, city girl and the next moment a kind, tender woman tearing up at the sight of an injured foal. She had him in knots. His gut twisted up like a combine in an F5 tornado.

Earlier at the corral while they were talking, the breeze had set free a strand of her chestnut hair and it swept across her face. He had to thrust his hands into his jean pockets just to keep himself from gently tucking it back behind her ear. His hand twitched just from thinking about how it would feel as he rubbed it between his rough, callused thumb and index finger. He thought of how he would lightly graze her earlobe, gently tugging at the diamond stud embedded in her flesh. He would glide his knuckles against her jawline and …
Slow that horse down cowboy …
Colt scratched his head if he were trying to free those thoughts from his mind. He shifted his attention back to the foal.