He let out a long sigh of contentment. “He’s going to make a fine race horse in a few years,” he said.
“When will he start training?” she whispered.
“When he’s two. He won’t do any actual racing until he’s three.”
As if he knew they were speaking about him, High Five protested by giving his head a sharp jerk, throwing Rusty’s hand off. Automatically, she leaned backward, but there was nowhere to go, except into the cradle of Luke’s arms. “Whoa,” he said, tightening his hold around her.
Instead of moving away from his embrace, she rested the back of her head against his neck and chest, reveling in the feel of his maleness. Luke was strong, his touch firm and persuasive. His thigh brushed her hip, sending a jolt of pleasure racing through her insides. How was it that he could do this to her so easily? He made her totally lose control of her senses. And when he was near, this near, she wanted nothing more than to lose herself in him.
His lips, moist and warm, touched the side of her neck, nibbled at her ear. He whispered something, but she couldn’t make out what he’d said. Her pulse leapt with excitement. Carried away by her own response to him, Rusty twisted around. Looking up into his eyes, she said, “Sam made a huge confession this morning.”
A look of relief washed over Luke’s face. “I’m sorry I lied to you, but I didn’t want to betray Sam.”
“I know that.”
The way he looked at her made her blood pound hard and her face flush miserably. She knew he wanted to kiss her, and she desperately wanted to kiss him, but she wasn’t about to let it happen again.
Suddenly she pushed away from him. Earthquakes, or no earthquakes, she had to start being strong where Luke was concerned. She hurriedly got to her feet and moved away from him. Luke picked up a fistful of hay, squeezed it and tossed it down before standing up.
They stood watching each other. She was happy for the occasional whinny. Maybe with the noises around them Luke wouldn’t be able to hear her heart beating so viciously. She wound her hands inside the coat she wore, mostly to keep them from trembling rather than to protect them from the cold.
“Luke, we can’t keep doing this.”
“I know.” He took a step toward her.
“I mean it,” she said a little too harshly, intending to ward him off.
Nodding his head in agreement, he took another step. And then another. An undeniable magnetism was building between them, and there was nothing she could do to stop it. Nothing.
And soon she didn’t want to. His mouth swooped down on hers without warning, sending new spirals of ecstasy through her. His kiss was urgent, and she shocked herself by returning it with reckless abandon. She tried to remember they were in the stables, surrounded by horses. There were stable boys outside the building, in the not too far off distance. Anyone could walk in on them at any time, and yet she continued to kiss him.
He smelled like a mixture of outdoors and a clean shower. And his mouth tasted like cinnamon. Winding her hands around his neck and through his hair, she accidentally knocked his hat to the ground. But he didn’t stop kissing her to pick it up. Instead, his kiss grew even more intense until her knees weakened with desire. Had he tried to strip her naked and take her in the hay, she might have let him.
Who was she kidding? At that moment, she was thinking about doing the very same thing to him. Of course, she would have let him.
His deft fingers fumbled with the buttons on her blouse, one hand quickly slipping inside to find her breast and toy with her nipple. His mouth left hers to nibble at her earlobe and neck. “Rusty, touch me,” he groaned.
Her mouth burned with fire. “I am … touching you,” she said in a broken whisper.
“Not there,” he said, reaching for her hand and placing it against his erection. “Right there, baby. Right there.”
He was fully erect and as hard as a rock in her hand. She rubbed her fingers along the length of him, enjoying the feel through the denim of his jeans. He closed her hand around him and held it there. “Ohhhh, baby. I want you so badly.”
Waves of ecstasy throbbed through her. She was about to tell him that she wanted him too, but there was a noise behind her, and suddenly Luke was pushing her hand away.
“Jeremy!” Luke said in surprise, his voice strained and hoarse. “Shit,” he added in a voice barely loud enough for anyone to hear except her. Luke stepped away from her, ran his fingers through his hair and bent to pick up his hat. His eyes met hers briefly before she closed them to save herself from further embarrassment.
“I … I, uh,” the boy stuttered. “I just wanted to see High Five.”
“Why aren’t you in school?”
“Teachers’ in-service day.”
“Yeah? He’s going to be a champion, don’t you think so?”
She listened to the two of them exchange a few words, then Luke said, “Rusty, have you met Becky’s son, Jeremy?”
She couldn’t turn around. She was so humiliated she wanted to run away and never be seen again. Shuddering, she fought for control and tried to make light of the situation. After all, Luke was acting as if nothing was wrong. Why couldn’t she?
Forcing a smile to her lips, she spun around quickly. “You must be Jeremy.” Of course, he was Jeremy. Hadn’t Luke just said so, you idiot? she admonished herself.
He looked like his mother; wavy, dark hair and amber eyes. He was tall, just under six foot, she decided. And lean and muscular. His nose and cheeks were covered with a smattering of freckles, which gave him a wholesome look. He was dressed in jeans, boots and what appeared to be an old letter jacket. Class of seventy was embroidered across the pocket. It had probably belonged to his father.
Rusty smiled and offered her hand. “Hi, I’m Rusty. I’m so happy to finally meet you.” Sam and Becky were going to be married, which meant that Jeremy would be her brother. Stepbrother, but a brother just the same. She’d never had a stepbrother or stepsister. Even with all of Natalie’s marriages, there’d never been any children.
He took her hand, gave it a quick shake, then released it as if it were burning a hole through his palm. “Me, too,” he said, giving her a funny look, then turning his head toward Luke. She noticed his cheeks begin to redden.
Rusty watched their exchange, noticed Luke drop his gaze to the front of her chest and back to her face. What in the world was wrong with him? Couldn’t he forget about sexual things even for a minute? He then cleared his throat loudly, startling High Five and her, as well.
She gave him a look of disgust and ignored him. “So, Jeremy, I hear you like working with the horses.”
“Yeah, I …” the boy looked at Luke again, as if he were silently begging him to help him with something. “Yeah.” He turned around quickly and studied High Five. “Here, boy.”
Luke elbowed her and nodded toward her chest again. Rusty started to move away from him, but he grabbed at her sleeve, leaned in closely and whispered, “Your blouse is unbuttoned.”
She was mortified, and she would kill him. Not in front of Jeremy, but as soon as they were alone. Grabbing at the tiny, pearl buttons, she tried to fasten them without success. She’d no sooner get one buttoned when another would pop open.
“Excuse us for a minute, Jeremy.” Luke stepped in front of Rusty, pulled the lapels of the sheepskin coat in front of her and lured her around the corner. Once they were out of sight from the boy, he said, “Here, let me, before you rip one or all of them.”
Slapping at his hand, she said, “I can do it.” She began tugging the buttons through the holes and, sure enough, one small, white, pearl button ended up on the ground. “Look what you made me do!”
He took over, patiently buttoning the rest, then buttoning the warm jacket around her. While his hands were at work, her gaze darted around the tack room in frustration, studying everything but Luke. She didn’t want to look at him, but somehow couldn’t help herself.
Feather-like laugh lines crinkled the edges of his eyes, and a gleam of interest appeared, letting her know he found the whole situation amusing. She was thinking about slapping his smug face when he surprised her with a kiss on the tip of her nose. Tilting his head, he chucked her under the chin and said, “We’re not finished, you and me.” He bent down, picked up the tiny button, rolled it between his fingers and pocketed it.
A shiver ran up her spine as she watched Luke walk away.
He might not be finished with her, but she was definitely finished with him.
And when had she become a liar? she wondered.
Jeremy tossed a tennis ball in the air a few times before throwing it out past the fence. He grinned wildly as Jack ran after the ball. “Bring it back, boy.” A cloud of smoke surrounded his mouth when he spoke, a reminder of the cold, brisk air.
“You really like animals,” Rusty said, half asking, but already knowing the answer. “Maybe you’ll be a veterinarian someday, like your mom.”
“I’ve been thinking about it.”
Jack brought the fuzzy, green ball back and dropped it at Jeremy’s feet. The boy picked it up and threw it in the opposite direction this time. Jack happily took off after it again.
Jeremy had been avoiding looking at her, and it wasn’t hard to guess why. He was probably still embarrassed over the scene in the stables earlier. And she couldn’t very well blame him. She herself was dying inside. But he was just a kid. It was up to her to try to make things easier for him.
“I’m sorry about that little scene earlier. You must think … well, I can only imagine what you must think.” She twisted her hands in front of her. A wind blew a chunk of hair in front of her face, and she brushed it out of the way.
He shrugged. “I’m cool.”
Cool? What did he mean by that? “Really?” She was so desperate for his approval of her. She was going to be the older sister, after all. His mentor.
“You and Luke have a thing going. That’s cool with me.”
“No, we do not have a thing going,” she said with determination. He shot her a look, raised one dark brow. She sighed. “Well, maybe we do.” This wasn’t easy, talking to a little brother. “What I mean is, I’m sort of … fond of him.” Fond wasn’t exactly the right word, but it was too late now. Besides, how could she tell Jeremy that she had the hots for Luke? That she wanted him? That she lusted for him? And at the same time she found him abrasive, pushy and too sure of himself. She couldn’t.
“And I think he’s fond of me, too.” She wanted him to understand that she didn’t just grope men in the stables for the sake of groping. And she didn’t let men grope her. Only men she was fond of. Only men who were fond of her.
“Yeah, I kinda figured that.”
She wanted to laugh. He looked so serious. Maybe she was making way too much of this. Maybe it was time to change the subject. She’d been about to ask about his school, when he said, “So, I guess we’re going to be related soon.”
Her eyes opened wide. “Yes.” She smiled softly. “How do you feel about all that?” She wasn’t sure if anyone had told him of Sam’s and Becky’s plans.
“I’m cool with it. I mean, Sam’s pretty cool for an old guy. And my mom, well, she likes him a lot.” He leaned his hip against the hood of Luke’s pick-up truck. “What about you?”
“Oh, I’m definitely cool with it.” She tried not to laugh. “Really cool, brother.”
He grinned at her. So, he liked the idea, too. Jack barked, tired of being ignored. He picked up the ball with his teeth and set it on Jeremy’s shoe. Jeremy picked it up and heaved it. Jack chased after it.
“So,” he said, “you wanna hang out later, or what?”
Hang out? “I’d love to.” She tilted her head to the side. “What does that mean?”
He laughed. “You know, like do you want to go ice skating, or something? We could go over to Smith’s pond.”
“I’m afraid I don’t have any ice skates.”
“What size shoe do you wear?”
“Seven,” she said cautiously.
“You can borrow my mom’s. She wears an eight. But that’s okay, just wear an extra pair of thick socks.”
“Well,” she hesitated. She didn’t know how to ice skate. But she didn’t want to disappoint Jeremy either. They were going to spend some quality time together, and there was no way she was going to spoil it. Even if it meant she could break an ankle on the ice. “It sounds like fun.”
“What sounds like fun?” Luke asked, coming out of the barn.
“Rusty and me are going to go down to Smith’s pond later and ice skate. You want to come?”
Luke leveled his eyes on Rusty, raised his dark brows, and then said, “I’d love to come.” She’d caught his double meaning. He was such a cad sometimes, and yet he’d made her insides tingle with just those few words.
Swallowing hard, she pretended not to have heard him. She glanced at Jeremy to see if he’d caught Luke’s double entendre, but he was busy playing with Jack.
Oh, God, had she been so sexually deprived all those years that now the least little thing that a man said to her made her crazy with lust?
No, that wasn’t the case at all.
Because there was only one man that made her feel like that.
And that was Luke Galloway.
THE PICK-UP TRUCK BUMPED down the Meyers’ gravel drive. Rusty was thankful for her seatbelt. Becky and Jeremy lived in a modest, brick home with plenty of land around it and an old fashioned wishing well at the end of the drive. The house was nearly hidden behind dozens of evergreens. When Luke came to a stop, Jeremy charged out through the front door carrying a duffel bag. He tossed it into the truck bed and opened the passenger door.
Leaning in, he said hello to Rusty, then peered anxiously across the seat at Luke. “Let me drive?”
“Sure,” Luke said, opening the door and scrambling from the seat. Jeremy ran around the front of the truck and got behind the wheel. His grin stretched across his freckled face. He looked like a child sitting on Santa’s lap, eager and anxious.
Rusty finally figured it out. He was only fifteen. He didn’t have a license to drive. “Luke, do you think this is a good idea? He could get hurt. We could all get hurt.”
“He’s a careful driver.” He unbuckled her seatbelt and gave her a nudge. “Scoot over.”
She did so reluctantly, allowing him to slide in beside her. He tossed his big arm across the back of the seat. His hand rested on her left shoulder, his hip pressed against hers.