sniffed. “While they were fixing it they might have altered it ‘slightly.’”
“Slightly?”
“Oh, come on, it’s such a minor thing to do!” Silver protested. “Lots of girls have it done. At least I didn’t do the boob thing.”
His attention dropped to her chest and he raised one eyebrow. “You sure about that?”
She grabbed his wrist, pulled off his glove, and pressed his hand to her chest. “Feel it! It’s one hundred percent natural!”
He went still, his gaze on his trapped hand, which was now full of warm, squeezable, female boob. His thumb rested right over her nipple, which was rapidly hardening.
“Uh . . . I . . .”
She hurriedly released his hand and threw his glove back at him. “Do you want to untie Bill from the back of my saddle if you’re going to take him down the slope?”
“Yeah, yeah, I’ll do that now.” He dismounted and untied the rope, glad that he was out of her view as the fit of his jeans grew way more uncomfortable. “You can start on down. I’ll be right behind you.”
* * *
Silver kept her gaze on the downward slope, which was way less regular than the previous route, with several switchback turns to avoid large boulders or landslides. Why had she put Ben’s hand on her boob? What on earth had she been thinking?
Again, it all came down to her inability to have a normal conversation with anyone. She just didn’t know how to do it. He must think she was insane. She should never have agreed to come on the trail ride. She’d been so shocked when her dad had agreed she could go by herself that she hadn’t thought things through. Being out here without her usual support team was making her look like an ass.
But if she wanted to break out of her light comedy, blond girl roles and appear in the gritty Western, she needed this kind of experience on her resume. She wanted to act, to show the world that she wasn’t just a pretty face, and was more than willing to take a huge pay cut to do the independent film if they’d have her.
Silver stared off over the valley. Had her father just been humoring her all along? Did he think that ten days stuck out here would be enough to make her give up her dreams and return to the kind of roles that had made her famous and her family rich? The more she thought about it, the more likely it seemed. Maybe he’d told Ben Miller to make things as difficult as possible for her....
A shadow loomed over her and both she and Ladybug jumped a little to the side as a turkey vulture flew low over their heads. Silver banged her elbow on the protruding rock wall and muttered a curse as her mare righted herself.
“You okay?” Ben called out to her from behind.
“Yup.” She wasn’t in the mood to turn around and talk to him right now—what with the boob incident, and her gathering suspicions that Ben and her father were somehow in cahoots.
She focused her attention on the path ahead. It had taken way longer than she had anticipated getting down. She hadn’t reached the valley floor yet, and the sun was already overhead. She was so hot that rivulets of sweat were running down her back. When she was on solid ground, she would take off her fleece and leave just her T-shirt on. The thought of jumping into the creek with or without a naked Ben in it was really appealing.
She took the last angled corner and walked Ladybug out onto the sparse grass, turning in a circle to watch Ben complete the descent. Despite the fact that he was managing his horse and Bill and Ted, he still looked more competent than she ever would. He barely moved in the saddle yet was so in tune with Calder that it was like watching poetry in motion. He clicked to the mules, took the last turn with a dexterity that impressed her, and came down in a cloud of dust that briefly obscured him.
He pulled up beside her and silently offered her his water bottle. She showed him her own, and drank from that, still unwilling to share more than she had to with him.
He took off his Stetson and knocked the dust off it. “Jeez, it’s hot. Let’s find some shade, check the time, and have something to eat.”
She was more than willing to get out