Sweet Talking Cowboy (19 page)

“Don’t you realize what it would mean to you, as his
trainer, to ride him to a World Championship?”  He kept looking at the back of
her hair, resisting the temptation to bury a hand in it.

“Slade, I’m not stupid!  Of course I know what it could
mean.  It could be a once in a lifetime opportunity!”  Now she rolled onto her
back and turned her head to glare at him.  “But I’m a mother, before anything
else.  I can’t just go on the road for weeks at a time and leave Tris with Aunt
Poog.  Not to mention all that traveling, by myself.  It’s just too much.”

His eyes softened.  “You wouldn’t be by yourself, now.  And
we could take Tris with us.”

She sighed and sat up, leaning back against her pillow and
the headboard of the bed.  “Tris is in school.  I can’t just take her out.  I
know its kindergarten, but that’s where she gets the foundation of everything
she’ll ever learn.”

He sat up, crossing his long legs and facing her.  “Bri, I
understand how important school is to Tris, but it’s not goin’ to be just you
anymore.  We are goin’ to be in this together.  We’ll work things out.  I don’t
want you to miss the chance to take Cowboy all the way.  You’ve done great
things with him and you deserve to be the one who is aboard when he wins that World
Championship.  A horse like Cowboy doesn’t come along every day.”

She shook her head.  “You take him.  That will make them
happy and I know you’ll be fine with him.”

“Not for a million dollars,” he said adamantly.  “There is
no way I’ll take the horse that you’ve worked on for so long.  What kind of
person would I be?”

She shrugged.  “Then I guess they’ll just have to find
someone else.  I can’t be gone like that.  It wouldn’t be fair to Tris or Aunt Poog.”

“Well,” he switched the television off, throwing the room
into darkness except for the light filtering through the drapes from outside
the window.  “We’ll talk about it some more later.  You campaignin’ him to that
championship could mean a lot to both of us and our future as trainers.”

Briann sat there in silence for a minute, listening as he
stretched out again and turned on his side.

“Our future as trainers?”  She said into the darkness. 
“What is that supposed to mean?”

Slade sighed patiently.  “Once we’re married, it just makes
sense if we do our trainin’ from the same barn.  A family business.”  He didn’t
turn his head toward her.

Another heavy silence filled the room as Briann thought that
over.  “Just where do you think this barn will be?”  She couldn’t imagine her
and Tris leaving Aunt Poog to go live in the apartment over the barn at the Butler
farm.

He could almost read her mind and chuckled softly.  “Do you
think Poog will let me move in there with y’all?  I know you don’t want to
leave Poog and I’d never be comfortable in the house my dad built, but it does
belong to me.  We could make it into a small hotel, build an indoor arena over
there, expand the barn and turn the Butler Farm into a place to give training
clinics.  We could start a breeding operation at your place and continue to
live there.  It might take a little time, but Mike had a couple hundred acres.” 
He stopped talking and just looked at her.  “We could do whatever we decide we
want to do.”

Briann could just imagine how thrilled Aunt Poog would be. 
She had always loved Slade like a son.  But how would that work out for them,
being married?  She had no intention of becoming his meek and obedient wife. 
This marriage was not what she wanted and she didn’t plan to let him forget it
for one minute.

“Sounds like you’ve given this a lot of thought.  I imagine Aunt
Poog would be happy to give you a room,….the guest room.”  Briann snapped
wanting to make sure he understood she wasn’t welcoming him into her room.

His chuckle shook the bed, but when he spoke she could hear
the sarcasm in his voice.  “Guest room, my ass!  Whose bed am I sleepin’ in
now?”  Without waiting for her to answer, he continued.  “I already told you,
ours will be a real marriage.  I’m sure your closet might be a little crowded,
but if the last two mornin’s are any indication, your bed will be plenty big
for the two of us, since you don’t seem to spend that much time on your side anyway.”

Briann felt her face burn and was glad it was dark in the
room.  She couldn’t think of a comeback, so she slipped down in the bed again
and turned her back to him.

And as if his words had been prophetic, morning found her
wrapped around his big body, snuggled close in the security of his arms, on his
side of the bed.  Extricating herself from his embrace wasn’t as easy as
getting there had been.  Even asleep, he held her tightly and during her
attempt to free herself she looked up to find his blue eyes open, looking
steadily at her.

“Wanna finish what we started yesterday in the sleeping
compartment of the trailer?” he asked softly.

“No.  I do not,” she snapped.  “Turn me loose.”

Instead of releasing her, he rolled so he was above her,
looking down, his eyes hooded with desire.  “No need to hurry, Bri.  Let’s just
spend a little time together, here, this morning’.”  He dropped his head and
nuzzled her neck, his breath hot against her soft skin.

“Slade,” she pushed against his broad chest, fighting the
desire that was starting to stir deep in her body.  “Stop this.  Now.”

“Why, baby?  It’s what we both want and whether you want to
admit it or not, we both know it’s true.”  His mouth was next to her ear and
his tongue slipped out to trace the edge of it.

“No,” she pleaded, more with herself now, than with him. 
She didn’t want to give in to the heat that was quickly sweeping through her. 
Her hands were no longer pushing at him, but were instead, slipping across his
chest in what she suddenly realized was a caress.  “Damn you, Slade Butler, why
do you have this power over me?”

He chuckled deep in his throat.  “The same power you have
over me, sugar?  I can’t help that I’m always wantin’ to touch you, to hold
you,” his lips trailed across her cheek.  “To taste you.”  His mouth found hers
and they were lost in a long deep kiss that went on and on.

His hands were like hot coals.  They slipped over her body
and left it smoldering where he touched.

Briann shoved the bedspread off him so her hands weren’t
encumbered by it and were free to slip across the long hard muscles of his
shoulders and back.

Slade rolled onto his back, bringing her up on him and
quickly pulled the sheet from between them.  “God I want you, Bri,” he
whispered raggedly.  His hands moved down her back to settle on the rounded
muscles of her rump.  “You’ve got the sexiest ass I’ve ever seen.  Just
watching you yesterday in those tight breeches tore me up, and when you turned
your back to me and mounted that horse, I almost died.  Sticking that smart-assed
tongue out at me only made it worse.”

She dribbled kisses down the cord of his neck and nipped his
collar bone gently.  “And you make love with words as well as you do with your
body,” she confessed.

He rolled her back beneath him.  “We can wake up like this
every mornin’,” he whispered, his hands slipping beneath her tee-shirt, finding
the elastic band of her panties and beginning to work them down.

The shrill ringing of the phone beside the bed jerked them
both back to reality.  Slade swore crossly and rolled onto his back, his
breathing ragged.

Briann lifted the phone to her ear and managed a reasonably
steady, “Hello?”  After a second she spoke again, her voice taking on a note of
urgency.  “Thank you so much…….Yes, we’re on the way!”  She replaced the phone
and looked at Slade, her eyes wide with fear.  “There was a fire at the show
grounds last night!  They lost four horses in it.  They don’t know which horse
belongs to who.  I have to go.”

He was out of bed as fast as she was, snatching on a pair of
jeans and his boots.  It took Briann a little longer but within ten minutes
they were in Slade’s truck flying down the highway to the show grounds.

When they arrived, they were flushed with relief to see
Cowboy and the Palomino tied to a tree well away from the still smoldering
barn.  There was a cluster of people gathered near the ruins and Briann could
tell from the anguish radiating from them that they were the owners of the four
horses who’d perished.  Her heart broke for them.  When things settled down a
little, she managed to make her way over to offer them her condolences and
couldn’t help the tears that slipped down her cheeks when she recognized their
grief.  It was almost as painful as losing a member of the family.

The drive home was uneventful except every time she looked
into her rearview mirror, she saw Slade’s tan truck following behind the horse
trailer.

The drive did nothing to settle her feelings of being forced
into something she wasn’t sure of.  She knew that in spite of all the trouble
that had come between her and Slade, she still loved him.  She’d never stopped
and was sure she’d never love another man and she accepted that Tanya had
played her for a fool with her bitter lies.

Yes, she’d made a mistake to give credence to Tanya’s
deceitfulness and maybe another mistake by not letting Slade know about
Tristin, but she didn’t want to marry him to try to correct past blunders.  She
wanted Slade to love her.  She couldn’t deny the attraction that almost bonded
them.  It was much too powerful, but what she couldn’t forget was, not once had
love been mentioned.  Even the night Tristin had been conceived, he hadn’t
mentioned love.  Desire?  Yes.  Want?  Yes.  Love?  Sadly, no.  How long would
they be married before he tired of the daily routine of being a full time
husband and father?  Slade was accustomed to going at the drop of a hat to a
horse show half way across the country, or being on the road for months at a
time giving clinics in different states every weekend.  Sure, he wanted to be
Tris’s dad and that probably wouldn’t change.  Dads weren’t required to be as
diligent as moms were.  She wished she knew the right thing for them all, but
she didn’t and unlike Slade, she was sure a forced marriage wasn’t it.  By the
time she was half way home, her anger at being forced into this corner had
resurrected itself.

She almost expected him to bypass the driveway leading up to
her home, but he turned in right behind her.  He parked next to the barn and
when she had exited her truck and reached the back of the trailer, he was
already there, pulling the back door open. 

As soon as he saw her walk around the trailer, he knew she
was angry again.  Without looking at her, he stepped in and unfastened the
palomino and backed her out.  He passed the lead rope to Briann and returned to
unload the bay gelding while she led the mare to the barn.  Deciding the
animals deserved a little freedom; she passed the entrance to the barn and
opened the gate to a shady, grassy paddock on the other side of the driveway. 
When she turned the mare around preparing to slip the halter off, Slade led the
gelding in and turned him around facing the gate also.  Once freed of their
halters, both horses trotted off for a relaxing roll in the warm sand near the
water tub.  Slade took the halters from Briann and walked back to the barn.

He helped her put her show gear in the tack-room and made
sure it was covered, then put the left over feed and hay away while Briann
gathered her clothes and personal stuff from the dressing room of the horse
trailer.  His timing was perfect and he followed her to the house, only a step
or so behind, neither of them speaking the entire time.

Poog greeted them with smiles of welcome with only a little
concern reflected in her loving eyes.  When she recognized the anger in
Briann’s stiffly returned hug, she cast a worried look at Slade who simply
shrugged.

“I’ve made a pound cake,” she said, “so hurry back down
after you hang your clothes up and we’ll cut it.  Oh, I almost forgot.  That
captain or detective that Evan worked with wants you to call him right away.  I
guess he didn’t have your cell number.”  Her words were directed at Briann’s
retreating back as the younger woman proceeded through the room headed for the
stairs that led up to the bedrooms.

“Thank you,” came the chilly reply, “I’ll return his call
from the study and I don’t want any cake.”

Slade frowned.  “Well come on back down anyway.”  He didn’t
like the coolness she was directing at Poog and wanted the air cleared as soon
as possible.  “We have things to decide before it’s time to pick Tris up from
school.”  His eyes followed until she disappeared from view.  “She’s determined
to make me regret this.”  He muttered more to himself than to Poog, but she
answered.

“Put yourself in her shoes, Slade.  Suppose it was her
forcing you into marriage.  How would you react?”

He didn’t answer, but allowed the question to roll around in
his head.  He knew exactly how he would react.  He’d be angry, rebellious,
bitter and stubborn, but in the end he’d accept it, because Tristin was his
child.

When he turned to face Poog, a soft smile lifted the corners
of his lips.  “Are you gonna cut me a piece of that cake?  You know pound cake
is my very favorite.”  He pulled the cap off his head and hung it on the back
of a chair.  They talked while she made coffee and sliced the cake.

When Briann returned a little later and settled in a chair beside
Poog, her aunt and Slade were busily devouring the generous slices of cake on
the table before them.  Briann felt weak and shaky.

Poog reached for her hand and grasped it quickly, sensing
her niece’s inner turmoil.  “Good Lord, Briann, what happened.  You’re as pale
as a ghost.”

“Detective Richardson called to tell me that they’ve
arrested Evan’s murderer,” she said softly.

“Well, praise the Lord!”  Poog’s voice was bursting with
joy.  “It took them long enough.”