Page 24 of Westin
“That almost sounds interesting.”
Westin chuckled, but he didn’t seem to have a lot of sympathy for her. He swung up onto his own horse, his movements so smooth that it was obvious this was just another part of his everyday life. He looked good on a horse. Those thighs looked like they were made to straddle… Well, they looked good with that thick leather saddle horn between them.
He directed his horse out of the barn, and Lea’s followed without any prodding from her. She made a little noise, having forgotten what it felt like to have such a powerful beast between her legs. The saddle squeaked and rocked beneath her, and the horse blew air from its nose as they moved out of the heated confines of the barn. The morning—if you could call it that, seeing as how the sun wasn’t even up yet!—was crisp, their breath coming out in visible puffs of smoke. It couldn’t have been above freezing, maybe even colder than that. Lea was suddenly grateful for Clint’s faithless wife and her heavy down jacket.
It had seemed like she’d just fallen asleep when Westin was suddenly there, shaking her bare shoulder in an attempt to pull her out of her dreams. If only he’d been able to see what was going on in her subconscious, he might not have bothered her. He might have wanted to join her!
She’d been dressed in nothing but her panties when he came into the room, too. She wasn’t so lost in her dreams that she didn’t see the gleam that came into his eyes when the blankets shifted and exposed one full breast. Not only was there a gleam in his eyes, but his hand curled into a fist after he reached out to touch her and thought better of it. She could see by the movement exactly what he had intended to do, and she rolled onto her back to give him a good look. She was more than open to that touch, and she’d made it clear to him twice now. Unfortunately, this cowboy had a code and he was sticking to it no matter how many times she exposed herself to him. He’d moved away, mumbling something about waiting for her in the hall before he slammed through the door.
He was unbelievably frustrating at the same time he was so endearing it only made her want him that much more. It’d been a long time since she’d known a man with strong morals.
“Where are we going?” she called out to him as his horse picked up speed and hers moved into a nice trot to follow.
“Check the fences.”
“Check the fences? For what?”
He glanced back at her, a wry smile turning his handsome face into something even more intriguing. “Breaks, honey. Anything that might allow one of our cows out, or something else in.”
“Oh.”
He slowed his horse, waiting for her to catch up. After a minute, their horses moved into a nice gait next to each other. “This is a working ranch. We still have to do our work even while we’re protecting you.”
“I’ve heard that a time or two in the past twelve hours.”
“I’m sure you have.”
“Your Miss Dulcie thinks very highly of you.”
Westin’s expression surprised her a little. He didn’t smile that cocky smile, nor did he seem at all pleased with her comment. He adopted more of a grave expression, his blue eyes as dark as a stormy sea.
“She talked about all five of you like you were her children or something.”
“Miss Dulcie is too good to be real sometimes.”
Lea tilted her head slightly. “Why do you say that?”
He shrugged. “She deserves more, that’s all.”
It was an odd comment. He didn’t seem willing to elaborate on it, either. He patted his horse’s neck and gave it a slight kick, picking up the pace just a little. Her horse did the same, keeping right up with him like it knew somehow that they were supposed to stay close to each other. Horses were amazing animals. Lea remembered there was once a time when she wanted to grow up to be a big-animal vet. She’d had it all planned out—how she would open her practice down the road from her grandfather’s house, how she’d buy herself a truck and go to all the farms and ranches in the area, how she’d be best friends with all the horses in the area. It was a childish dream that evaporated the day her father died and her mother packed her away, taking her as far from the memories as she could get.
As an adult, Lea could hardly blame her mother for her reaction. As a child… she spent a long time being very angry with her mother.
She wondered what her life would be like now if she had followed her dream despite everything. Where would she be? What kind of life would she have now? But the thing was, she had a feeling she would have ended up right where she was, somehow. On a ranch, riding a beautiful horse with a handsome cowboy. So, really, she couldn’t complain.
“Did you know Miss Dulcie’s husband? Asa?”
Westin nodded, glancing over at Lea from under the brim of his cowboy hat. “I did. He was the one who hired me.”
“What was he like? To hear her tell it, he was a saint.”
Westin laughed. “No, Asa was no saint. He’d be horrified if he even heard someone make that comparison.”
“Why?”
“Because Asa was a man’s man. He liked to drink and gamble and spit and cuss…” He laughed again. “He was a charmer, a businessman, a good boss. But at the end of the day, the label that made him happiest, that defined him the best, was cowboy.”
“I believe it.”