Sunset Seduction - By Charlene Sands Page 0,27

but gave Audrey credit for being smart with animals. She’d pretty much insisted on it. He hoped like hell nothing had gone wrong.

His mind flashed to the jet-black stallion rearing up on hind legs and stomping down on his body.

He scrubbed his jaw with his free hand and blew out a deep breath as he drove his truck past the ranch gates. He’d never forget the chest-crushing agony he’d endured when the two hooves beat down on him. Luckily, his body had curled up in a defensive position and rolled partway away. The brunt of Trib’s horsepower hadn’t hit him, or he probably wouldn’t be here today.

He bounded from the truck and strode into the house. Nothing stirred. The house was empty but for one wisp of a girl sleeping in her room. Luke strode to the parlor and poured himself a shot of Jim Beam. He sipped his drink and headed to the kitchen to grab a late-night snack. Maybe Sophia had sent Audrey home with leftovers. He could only hope.

A distant sound filtered through an opened inch of the kitchen window. Luke gathered his brows. It sounded like a splash. He strode to the sliding door and gazed out. Only a slice of the moon appeared, not enough to brighten the sky, but lamps by the water’s edge illuminated a female figure in the pool. Luke opened the door without making a sound and stepped outside.

His eyes adjusted to the dim light. The figure of a woman in a red thong bikini emerged clearly now. Her back was to him, her feet skimming the shallow steps of the pool. He zeroed in on her derriere and the sliver of cherry material pressed between twin cheeks of firm melon-shaped eye-popping perfection.

A fast flash of recollection jolted through his system, a dropkick of reality. That murky mystifying night at the cabin was beginning to clear. He knew that body.

He swallowed silently and shifted his gaze, hoping to find he’d been mistaken. Hoping to hell it was a wicked trick of the eyes. His gaze locked onto coltish and beautifully sculpted legs, glistening with droplets of water.

He shook his head in denial. It couldn’t be.

But dread knocked into his gut.

He forced his gaze to travel upward, to the flowing blond waves cascading down the woman’s back in layers of unrestrained freedom. His body seized up in a viselike grip. Choked with the truth, he couldn’t breathe. Flashes of memory brightened, shining revealing light on the mystery.

Those golden locks of hair had tickled his chin.

Those smooth shapely legs had straddled his body.

Those arousing perfect cheeks had caressed his thighs.

His boots ate up the distance to the pool’s edge.

She sensed his presence and whirled around to face him.

“It was you.” He heard the disbelief rolling off his tongue.

Her eyes widened with fear. She must’ve thought he was a stranger, but the second she recognized him coming out of the shadows, her expression quickly changed to guilt.

He caught her red-handed and there was no denying it.

“Luke, I…”

“It was you all along,” he repeated. “That night in the cabin.”

Luke had never really been aware of the grown-up, feminine version of Audrey before. But now, he couldn’t help noticing. She was a stunner in that strip-of-nothing swimsuit. There wasn’t much more material on the front side of her suit than there was on the back. Her breasts filled and then spilled out of the top. She was every man’s fantasy, a freaking advertisement for sexy and untouchable. Except that he had touched her. He’d touched every inch of her body.

The shock of it bore down on him like a two-thousand-pound steer. He was torn between anger at her deception and raw, unequalled lust. How the hell hadn’t he figured this out before now? Was it that her work clothes had concealed an hourglass figure that could send a man straight to heaven…or hell, in his case? Or was it that the idea of making love to Audrey would’ve never crossed his mind? Or was it that he’d shoved the memory of the seduction to the hidden recesses of his mind because she wasn’t an option?

All three reasons held merit.

“I’m glad you remember now.” The bravado in her soft voice stilled his heart.

“That night, you came into my room—”

“My room,” she corrected.

“You came to me without hesitation.”

She’d climbed into the bed with bold intentions. Luke had taken what she’d offered—a woman who hadn’t been shy about what she wanted.

Audrey took one step up from the shallow end