Chapter 15
STEVIE
Stevie had taken one look at the jeans and T-shirt she’d been wearing when the text came in and changed in a flash.
Not into the skirt – which was actually a dress – from The Corral which would have immediately rolled up to be more like a waistband the minute she sat on Gertie, but into a long, flowy soft skirt that was much more conducive to riding a horse.
And she’d taken off her underwear.
Yup, she was excruciatingly aware as she approached the stables that she was bare-assed naked beneath the skirt.
Going commando wasn’t something Stephanie did but this Stevie person?
She was a whole new kettle of fish. She’d even tidied up down there because apparently cowboys like to eat so why not make the table presentable?
Oh Lordy!
The thought of that tripped her pulse and squeezed between her legs, making her aware again of her lack of underwear. It was so damn… illicit but in a thrilling way. In a dirty-little-secret way. Which was, she assumed, exactly the way Clay wanted her to feel.
Him and his anticipation.
Well, two could play at that game. And she had the perfect item of clothing in her arsenal to jack up his anticipation a little more. She’d see him his panties and raise him some ribbons. Six little purple ribbons to be exact, holding her cleavage-baring, white top together in a faux-corset style.
Stevie spotted him as soon as she stepped from the bright sunshine outside into the cooler, darker surroundings of the stables.
He was standing at the far end between two saddled horses, stroking them as he quietly murmured things she couldn’t hear.
But the way his attention snapped to her the second her foot crossed the threshold turned her legs to jelly.
Backlit by the sun from the other side, she couldn’t see his eyes but she could feel them. She could feel them raking her body, zeroing in on her skirt then on her shirt. Homing in on the ribbons. How she made it all the way to him without stumbling, Stevie had no idea.
‘Hey,’ she said faintly as she drew level, her hand automatically reaching to pet Gertie’s neck as her eyes roved over the way his plaid shirt stretched across his shoulders and the worn denim of his jeans fit snug on his lean hips.
The urge to walk straight into his arms was almost overwhelming but she tempered the impulse.
Fooling around in a loft and hugging were two very different things.
Even virgins knew that.
‘Hey.’
‘Hey, Stevie.’
Startled at the voice, Stevie glanced across to find Dev inside a nearby stall, his arms propped on the gate. She hadn’t even noticed him. Had he noticed the way she only had eyes for Clay?
‘Oh, hey.’
Stevie smiled at the cowhand. She really liked Dev. He was good company with a charismatic personality and having him here was a pertinent reminder that this trail ride was not an intimate day with Clay but a business transaction for the ranch.
‘I’m afraid you’re stuck with this bozo today.’ He tilted his chin at Clay, who ignored him in favour of that row of ribbons. ‘Mags’s just getting over a migraine.’
‘Yes, Theresa said. Poor thing, how’s she doing?’
They chatted for a minute about headache remedies before Clay interrupted with a blunt, ‘Don’t you have work to do?’
Stevie blinked at the brusque interruption, but Dev was clearly not perturbed, laughing at Clay’s unimpressed expression. Tapping the brim of his hat with two fingers in some kind of half-hearted salute, he said, ‘Aye aye, boss.’
Clay shot him an irritated look. ‘Jackass.’
‘You know,’ Dev said cheerily as he turned his attention to Stevie, ‘there’s a feedback form on the website where you can rate your trail ride experience. Be sure to give him a one star rating if he stays grumpy.’
Stevie pressed her lips together to stop from smiling as Clay growled, ‘Dev.’
Another irrepressible grin lit the man’s face as he tapped the gate twice. ‘Have a great time,’ he said before disappearing inside the stall.
‘Ribbons, huh?’ Clay murmured as she returned her attention to him.
‘Yup.’ She held his gaze despite the mad quaking of her insides.
He looked like he wanted to say more but a quick flick of his eyes sidewards told her he was being careful in case Dev could hear what they were saying.
Holding out a helmet she hadn’t realised was dangling from his fingertips, he said, ‘Put this on.’
‘Nope.’ She shook her head. There was no way she was wearing that thing.
‘Those are the rules.’
Stevie was so over rules. ‘And you’re not a rule breaker?’
He smiled slowly. ‘I don’t need to follow the rules.’
A shiver skittered across Stevie’s bare arms, raising gooseflesh despite the warm day. Such an arrogant statement. ‘Are we going to be cantering across fields, jumping fences or flying down the sides of mountains?’
‘Nope.’
‘And are you going to be there to guide me?’
‘Yes.’
Folding her arms, she lifted her chin. ‘And will you let anything happen to me?’
Stevie knew she was sounding bratty because that was hardly something anyone could guarantee, but she was dressed to impress, her hair flowing loose; she didn’t want to ruin the look with possibly the least attractive item anyone could wear on their head.
An item that screamed novice, rookie, amateur.
She didn’t want him to think of her in those terms – her virginity was already doing all the heavy lifting on that front.
‘Never.’ His voice was thick with absolute certainty, which ruffled through muscle fibres deep and low.
‘Then I’m going to be fine without.’ She held his gaze defiantly. ‘I’m not going to be wearing a helmet in any music video so I might as well get used to going without.’
He stared her down for long moments before nodding and tipping his chin at Gertie. ‘Hop on.’
They didn’t talk until the cabins, which were placed well clear of the ranch outbuildings, were behind them.
Stevie, smug in her helmet victory, was content to hold a slow trotting pace alongside Clay, enjoying the flutter of wind through her hair and the play of sunshine on her shoulders.
Even if the intimate rub of the saddle through the thin cotton layer of her skirt was a particularly torturous level of eroticism.
Did he know that would be the case? Yeah… he knew.
When they veered to the left away from the mountains, following well-worn car tracks, Stevie frowned. ‘Aren’t the trail rides in the other direction?’
‘Yes.’ He glanced across at her, as breathtakingly in command on Electra as he’d been that first day. ‘But I thought you might like a more personal tour. To see a part of the ranch that regular guests don’t see.’
Might like a personal tour with this man who had grown up here? Hell yes. She smiled. ‘I’d like that.’
‘You see that tree line over there?’ He pointed at the distant thicket of trees the other side of the pasture.
‘That’s where we’re headed. There’s a creek that runs through the trees and on the other side is probably my favourite spot on the whole ranch.
’ He tapped his saddle bags. ‘I packed some food.’
‘You had me at personal tour.’
He grinned, his face lighting, and Stevie’s heart skipped a beat. ‘Right answer.’
Clay slowed the pace as the land gradually rose, following the car tracks in the general direction of their travel and Gertie’s gait adjusting accordingly. ‘So…’
Stevie wasn’t sure if guests were supposed to be quiet and enjoy the scenery on these rides but pretending Clay was just a ranch guide and she one of his clients given she was now pantiless because of him was just too weird.
Plus the slower motion of the horse navigating the increased gradient was creating havoc between her legs and she needed a distraction.
‘You and Dev. How long have you known each other?’ There was a cadence to the two men’s interactions that spoke of a long relationship.
‘He joined the RVR twelve years ago. He had ranching experience in Texas and had dropped out of school at sixteen. Came around looking for work. Mom took pity on him and he’s been here ever since.’
‘He and Mags seem… like they might be into each other.’
Clay laughed like it was the funniest thing he’d ever heard. ‘Nah, that’s just them. Mags was fourteen when he first arrived so they’re more like brother and sister. They sure as shit bicker like siblings.’
Or like two people who were one random trigger point away from kissing each other’s lips off. But maybe brothers didn’t want to know that about their sisters.
They rounded a bend that gave way to a sweeping view across pasture land to where they were heading, and Stevie’s breath caught.
It was stunning and she could only imagine how amazing it must be to live here.
Up ahead, a cluster of tall spruce trees stood sentinel around a rough log cabin situated, she figured, to capture the vista perfectly.
Was it a special guest cabin reserved for people wanting absolute privacy? Honeymooners, maybe? Celebrities?
The tyre tracks they’d been following veered off towards the trees, cutting a path through them to the cabin. Tipping her chin at it, she asked, ‘Who lives there?’
‘I do.’
Stevie blinked. She knew Clay lived on the ranch somewhere, he’d said as much the night he’d dropped her to the cabin after The Corral, but she’d assumed for some reason – too many of Yolly’s cowboy romances maybe – that he lived in some communal bunk house with the other cowhands.
Although, now she thought about it, the son of the owner and a former rodeo star who’d made bank during his career being relegated to a bunk did seem unlikely.
‘Oh,’ she said as the horses plodded by. ‘You must have an amazing view.’
‘Yeah.’ He smiled but more to himself than her. ‘It’s real pretty.’
‘Did you… build it?’ It looked rustic enough to be hand-hewn and from the little she’d gleaned about Clay in the almost two weeks she’d been here, it looked like something he was more than capable of doing.