Adrian smiled at Marie. The woman seemed sincere enough, but why would she try to stay at the farmhouse when she clearly knew the solitude wasn’t for her? Maybe the company employed her as more than merely a cook? What if her employer decided Adrian needed a chaperone? Adrian stumbled on some unseen mount on the floor.
“You okay, Adrian?”
Adrian nodded and continued to walk toward the kitchen.
Should she laugh or cry? Maybe she should just be thankful the company was giving her the opportunity to redeem herself and not be angry at their lack of trust. Still, it stung that her employer might have thought she needed a babysitter. Her professional self-confidence took another nosedive, but she mentally squared her shoulders. She’d show them just how professional she could be. She was good at what she did—hell, she was excellent at what she did. If she kept her hands off Wade and Maverick, nobody would be able to complain.
“So, how about that coffee?” Adrian asked.
Half an hour later, Adrian grabbed a camera, stumbled outside and squinted at the brightness of the late afternoon sun. Her ears still rang with the incessant chatter of Marie’s voice. Once her eyes had adjusted to the glare, she promptly forgot about the tall woman stirring and whipping up concoctions in the kitchen.
A short distance away from the house, the wooden barn and plastered stables nestled against a backdrop of bright blue winter sky. The fence of the attached corral glimmered like silvery fish under the rays of the sun. Yellowed grass contrasted with the few African Daisies adorning the walls, and inside the enclosure, a white mare shook her mane and protested her entrapment.
Although not part of her mandate, Adrian couldn’t resist depressing the shutter of her camera. She could always use these pictures to adorn her office. Moving closer to the barn, she heard the clap of hooves and frowned. The men wouldn’t ride the horses inside the barn, would they? Upon rounding the corner of the building, she found another larger enclosure where Wade and Maverick were busy putting two stallions through their paces. She retreated and peeked around the corner, ensuring the men couldn’t see her.
Muscles rippled in Wade’s thighs as he leaned forward, rubbed the horse’s neck and whispered something in his ear. Adrian stifled a giggle when the black stallion shook his head in disgust and started forward.
“Whoa there, boy. No need to get frisky on me.” He tugged at the reins and glanced at Maverick. “You would think this ole cuss would be happy for a chance to get out of the stables, but no. He’s clearly not satisfied with prancing around in the paddock.”
“Maybe we could take them out for a short run. Sun’s not going down for about two hours, so we have time.”
A stable hand emerged from the long shadow attached to the side of the building. “I could ride with you to show you a short route so you can get better acquainted with the horses. Harvey here”—he pointed toward Wade’s horse—“likes to run a while every afternoon, but I kept them inside until you arrived, so he is a little grumpy.”
Maverick stood in his stirrups and let out a loud whoop. “At last, someone matched the perfect horse to Wade.”
Wade grinned. “What are you waiting for?” he addressed the stable hand. “Get your horse so that I can help get the friskiness out of this old man.”
The lad hurried inside and minutes later, the three riders headed out toward the hills at the back of the house. Adrian turned away from the barn and strolled to the entrance gate. With the sun behind her, she took a couple of landscape photos of the general setup. She found a bench under the empty branches of a large oak tree and basked in last rays of the sun. She leaned her head back, closed her eyes and allowed the silence to wash over her.
When was the last time she’d had a couple of hours to herself without having to plan for a deadline? Relaxing in the sun felt more like a holiday than work. She had three weeks to complete the photos and needing only fifty quality shots with the men and the gear, she could afford to let her hair down a little. The stress of the past year and the late nights preparing for the assignment caught up with her and she drifted to sleep.
Wade waited until the stable hand had ridden a significant distance in front of them. “I really like her.”
Maverick reined in his horse. “Yeah, she didn’t seem to mind our touching her.” He squirmed in the saddle. “Damn, just thinking about her makes riding a real chore.”
Wade grinned. “It doesn’t help that the sexual tension she ignites could light up a ballpark.” They rode in silence for a while. “You think she’ll be open to sharing?”
Maverick grunted. “Do you really want to discuss this now? My shoulder is killing me and this is not the biggest saddle I’ve ever sat in.”
“I think we should broach the subject tonight. Hell, I could do with a little relaxation after the long flight.”
“Jesus, Wade, we barely know her.”
“It has never stopped you before.”
Maverick slowed his pace slightly, allowing the stable lad to pull farther ahead. “What if we approach her and she takes it the wrong way.” He waved his hand in the air. “It could ruin the whole project if we’re not comfortable with each other.”
“Adrian’s not a teenager anymore. She struck me as someone who knows what she wants, but she’s too afraid to take the risk. I doubt she’d hold it against us if we make the suggestion. As for the work, I think she is about as professional with her photography as we are with our rodeo work. Nothing will interfere—especially not a bout of good sex.”
Maverick remained silent for a while then he nodded. “Let’s see how she feels about it tonight. There’s no harm in asking.” He gently drove his heels into the horse’s side and the pair rushed forward to catch up with their guide.
The sound of hooves thundering startled her awake and Adrian wiped the sleep from her eyes. It had been more than an hour since the men had left and a dull headache throbbed behind her eyelids from the sun. The men rode the horses to the stables and Adrian quietly walked toward them.
Finding the stables empty, she snuck around the corner. Experience taught her that catching her subjects off-guard often rewarded her with the best photos.
The men’s muted voices sounded from inside the tack room. She tiptoed to the door and peeked inside. Row upon row of saddles, reins, stirrups and other leather paraphernalia hung on the one wall. Against the other wall, bales of hay were stacked to the roof, while the ones in front displayed gaping holes like a first grader’s missing front teeth. Wade and Maverick stood side by side, each with his hand on the leather seat of a saddle.
“You have to use this one.” Wade tapped on the saddle in front of him. “It’s wider and might aid you in keeping your balance better. It wouldn’t do for us to have a re-run of the Houston rodeo and have you topple off the horse. You might just break your neck instead of just dislocating your shoulder. I don’t want to return to Texas with a crippled friend just because you decided to play macho man.”
Maverick glared at him. “Dammit, Wade, you’re not going to let that go, are you? I still want to kill the bastard that didn’t tie the flank strap properly.”
“No use crying now. You should have made sure then and now your punishment is to use a safer saddle.”
“My shoulder has nothing to do with my ability to ride a horse,” Maverick grumbled. “You know I can handle it.”
Wade grinned. “Can you? How’s your shoulder doing without the painkillers?”
Maverick shrugged. “I haven’t tried it and the pills are working so why find out?” He sighed. “Okay, I’ll use this saddle for one day and if I’m fine, I’ll try the other one.”
Wade nodded and lifted the stirrup to examine it further. “Fair enough.”
The yellow light filtering through the dusty windows added an old-world quality to the air and Adrian lifted the camera to her eye. She caught Maverick running his hand lovingly over one of the saddles, a pensive look on his normally smiling face. Wade stood with one hand on his hip and the other on the stirrup of a saddle. She took the photo as he turned his head to glance at her.
Satisfied that the photos depicted the men struggling to choose between the array of products, Adrian acknowledged Wade’s glance with a nod. She caught her lower lip between her teeth while she swung the camera between the men, snapping various shots of them in different positions.
Why did every photo look better than the previous one through the viewfinder? And why couldn’t she decide what she wanted? This was
so
not her. She had an eye for finding excellent compositions and never doubted her own choices. So what was her problem now?
Adrian closed her eyes and took a deep breath as realization hit her. The photos perfectly illustrated her indecision about the men. Maverick promised a carnival ride with fun and laughter foremost on his mind, while Wade reminded her of a river, calm on the surface but with enough hidden currents to surprise the unwary. Both drew her like a bee to a honey trap.
She didn’t dare give in to the attraction she felt toward them—not with a chaperone that could enter the premises at any given moment.
Adrian retreated out of the door and strode toward the wooden beams of the corral. She rested her arms on the middle pole and stared out to the hills beyond, forcing her mind to calm and her thoughts to settle. Within minutes, she had identified numerous locations for photo opportunities.
She pictured the men riding over the hilltop at dawn, their Stetsons pulled low over their eyes and their bodies silhouetted against the rising sun. The empty arms of the weeping willow at the creek provided the perfect milieu for pictures of them relaxing with the horses.
Someone touched her shoulder and she jumped.
Maverick frowned at her. “You look serious. Anything you’d like to share?”
“No, I’m scouting the available locations.” She nodded toward the stables. “Seen anything you like?”
With his smile firmly in place again, he draped his arm over her shoulders and walked her toward the house. “The quality of the saddles look good, but the lassos haven’t been worked. We’ll have to spend much of this week softening them.”
A tremor ran though her at his touch. “Lassos?”
He stopped mid-stride and turned her to face him. “Hell, woman, don’t tell me you have no idea what a lasso is?”
She shook her head. “Hmm-mm, remember I’m a South African city girl. What I know about horses would leave space on the surface of a microchip.”
He threw his hands theatrically in the air. “Good Lord, we’ll have to demonstrate their uses when we’ve worked them a bit.” His eyebrows wiggled suggestively and a slow smile spread over his lips.
Adrian’s insides turned to jelly. “Okay.” She ducked from under his embrace and walked to the porch. “You must be tired by now. Dinner will be ready by six if you want to take a nap.”
Maverick reached for the handle and held the door open. “Nope, I found the best way to acclimatize is to get into the daily rhythm of the place you’re at. If I sleep now, my body will tell me I need to keep sleeping for at least eight hours. So, let’s get something to drink, light the fire in the lounge and get to know one another a little bit better.”
It was the getting-to-know-one-another part that scared the light right out of her camera’s flash. The more she learned about them, the harder it would be to resist their charms. Maverick followed her into the house, the heat from his body scorching her and tingling her senses. In the narrow, dimly lit passage, his scent enveloped her, making her want to inhale deeply to store the smell like she saved her photos on the memory card.
Damn, Adrian, you’re pathetic.
Chapter Four
They found Wade crouching in front of the fireplace. A wisp of smoke curled lazily into the chimney while he stacked bigger logs on the heap of tinder. The smell of eucalyptus drifted into the room. Maverick strolled to the bar and examined the contents as Adrian walked to the window. With the sun low on the horizon, the temperature had dropped significantly and she hugged her arms across her breasts.
“What can I get you guys?” Maverick asked.
Wade didn’t hesitate. “Whisky for me, please.”
Adrian turned away from the window. Wade had finished building the fire and the flames licked greedily at the dry wood. He’d dragged the couches closer to the flames and joined Maverick at the bar.
“Adrian?” Maverick enquired.
She waved her hand. “Any red wine will do, please.”
After receiving her drink, she sat on the couch closest to the fire. The men settled in the folds of the oversized chairs and stared into the fire. They appeared pensive, like they were homesick. She’d like to know what made them happy, what angered them—all in order to plan her photos, of course. She pointedly ignored the voice in her head whispering that she was fooling herself. After toeing off her shoes, she pulled her feet under her.
“Tell me about your life in Houston.”
Wade leaned in his seat, his discomfort evident. “We’re normal cowboys who happen to be lucky on the rodeo circuit.” He nodded in Maverick’s direction. “Maverick’s family owns a ranch outside Houston while my parents now live in town. I’m an only child. Both Maverick and I are unmarried.”
“Where did your parents live before they moved to town?”