Wrangling the Redhead - By Sherryl Woods Page 0,30

spirit like this. It’s like something sucked all the life out of her.” When Lauren seemed about to say something, he frowned. “Don’t start on that homesick nonsense again.”

“Is it really such a crazy idea?” she asked. “Horses have emotions, too. They get attached to people and other horses. Think about it. Was there anyone at the old ranch who spent a lot of time with her? Did she have a stablemate that was always turned out to pasture with her?”

“No,” Wade retorted, unable to conceal his impatience. “Maybe I should get the vet out here again.”

“That’s up to you,” Lauren said with a shrug. “But I think you’re wasting your money.”

Wade wasn’t going to stand here and discuss her ridiculous idea another minute, not when he couldn’t seem to drag his gaze away from the streak of dirt on her pale cheek or the strands of straw stuck in her hair.

“Come here,” he murmured.

She blinked and stared. “Why?”

He grinned and hoisted himself onto the gate of an empty stall. “I’m not going to bite. Come over here.”

She took a cautious step closer, and then another. “What is it?”

Grinning now, Wade beckoned her closer. Once she was standing right in front of him, he tugged a clean handkerchief from his back pocket and wiped the smudge from her cheek. He noted with satisfaction that her amazing eyes went wide at the gesture. Cupping her chin in his hand, he reached for the straw, then brushed the wayward curls away from her face. He felt her tremble when his knuckles grazed her soft skin.

“That’s better,” he said when he was done. She started to back away, but he placed his hands on her shoulders and kept her right smack between his splayed thighs. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

“Okay?” she whispered, her expression dazed.

“All those spills didn’t bruise you, did they?”

“Oh,” she murmured, then gave him a rueful grin. “I am a little sore, but I haven’t checked out the part I landed on in a mirror yet.”

He managed a perfectly serious expression. “I could check it for you,” he offered with what he hoped was just the right touch of magnanimity.

She laughed then. “You wish.”

He returned her gaze solemnly. “Yeah, I do.”

She seemed totally taken aback by his honesty. “What are you saying, Wade?”

He swallowed hard and forced himself to say it. “I want you. God knows I don’t want to, but I do.”

The reply made her frown. “If it makes you this uncomfortable, maybe you should keep fighting the urge.”

“Probably should,” he agreed, allowing his thumbs to begin a slow massage of the petal-soft skin along her collarbone. He caught the pulse jumping at his touch, the quick rise of heat in her cheeks. “But then I ask myself why we should deny ourselves something that promises to be so incredible.”

He dared a bolder caress, a skimming touch that traced the curve of her breast, flicking across the peak in a way that left it pebble-hard against her blouse. He heard the hitch of her breath, caught the unmistakable flare of desire in her eyes. His own body was rock-hard with anticipation, the bulge in his jeans unmistakable. He watched her eyes go even darker when she caught sight of it.

“Wade?”

He wasn’t entirely certain if it was a question or a plea. He smoothed her hair back, then rubbed his thumb across her lower lip. His own pulse began to pound when she stunned him by drawing his thumb into her mouth and sucking on it.

The game had started out of a sense of yearning he didn’t quite know how to handle. Now it had turned serious, and while he knew the rules of this particular game, knew the moves that brought pleasure and the dangerous pitfalls of playing, he couldn’t predict which of them would win. Maybe both of them would. Maybe it didn’t even matter. Maybe, for now, it was just about the game itself.

He drew her closer, tighter, until she was pressed against the heat of his arousal. For an instant that was enough. But then an agony of wanting tore through him, even as she reached up and dragged his head down until his mouth met hers in a crushing kiss.

From the moment they’d met, from the first fiery exchange of words, he’d known that Lauren was a passionate woman, but he hadn’t expected both of them to go up in flames so fast, so furiously. She was tugging frantically at his shirt, at the buckle