Chapter 9
Chapter Nine
Warrick
I shouldn’t be having this much fun toying with Zara—but I did. Without knowing it, she was a sort-of, kind-of guinea pig for the riding school I wanted to open, teaching kids, teens, or even adults.
We had some beautiful trails out there, and I knew the summer attracted a flood of visitors, so if I got that off the ground, it would be another income source for the ranch.
How many irons do you have in the fire? The processing plant, the riding school, the town fair, the rodeo, and now teaching Zara to ride.
We walked briefly behind the massive stable, beyond the tool shed, and past the solar panels. I increased the pace to a slow canter, avoiding a trot whenever possible, due to the discomfort it caused the rider, especially a novice. The canter was a much easier gait.
With a quick look to the left, I saw that she was doing great, and even while I read the tension in her frame, she was not strangling the reins like any novice would. Her seat was good, and she moved with the horse as if she’d been riding for years.
She’s a quick study.
“What is that?” Zara asked.
“It’s an anaerobic digestion biomass power plant,” I explained. “It breaks down biodegradable material, and we use it to manage waste or produce fuels. See that solar panel over there? This plant and those solar panels power the ranch. I know it sucks up a large chunk of land but it is worth it to be resourceful and reduce our carbon footprint.”
“You don’t use fuel here?”
“Only in the ATVs and a backup generator if we do get a blackout from a storm,” I replied. “And we have power cells stored as a backup to the backup.”
“I see,” she nodded.
I headed down to the corrals, trying—and failing—to not dwell on how her body had felt against mine. She was so petite, I dwarfed her by a mile, but her body was so soft. She also had the curves I could enjoy—if I was an asshole and preyed on my employees.
Almost everything around us was nature; it was simple and peaceful. Occasionally, a bird singing high in a tree’s branches broke the silence, and it was not long before I reached the part of the hills where the trails began.
“Here, we have plenty of trails,” I said. “Some of the trails get higher than others, and it is a test to someone’s grit and their lungs to get so high.”
“Do you know the trails well here?” she asked.
“Every single one of the thirty-five we’ve got around here,” I replied. “I’ve been over this plot of land since I was a kid. I remember my father taking me on his lap to the highest point we call Eagle’s Crag. I couldn’t have been more than four back then.”
We turned around, and I checked on her, only to find her rubbing her thigh—the first sign of her legs getting numb.
Damn it.
Getting Silver to stop, I slid from the saddle and crossed over to her. Zara looked down, surprised. “What’s going on?”
“You’re losing feeling in your legs,” I said. “It's common, but let's get you down before you can’t walk.” I made a come-on motion. “C’mon then. Let’s get you down.”
Zara let go of the reins, grabbed the horn, and gently swung her right leg over—but she lost her balance. I grabbed her in time and eased her stuck boot out of the stirrup. As I got her on her feet, she crumpled.
“Shit,” she muttered. “I didn’t realize I’d gone numb.”
“Yeah, it happens,” I helped her hobble to my horse. “I’d tell you to walk it off, but we’ve got to get back to the house, and it’s a long way to go. We need to get you to lie down.”
“My legs feel like wet noodles,” she grumbled.
“It happens. Come on,” I said, lifting her up to my saddle before I swung up behind her and positioned her sideways across my legs so the blood would flow better.
Her bottom on my lap didn’t help the pressure on my cock, though; it was a herculean job not to let the friction and her rolling hips distract me or watch her breasts subtly bouncing from the front. It was impossible to ignore the way my body was reacting to her.
It was disarming and seductive all at once as we started riding. It was a little touch and go at first, but after a few minutes, I got into enough of a rhythm without anyone falling off. We got back to the house in record time, and I spotted no one to help her inside.
“I guess I have to get you inside,” I said while I descended from Silver’s back and helped her down. “We’ll get your horse legs ready in no time. How are you feeling now?”
“Not so bad,” Zara replied, as she hopped on one leg as we headed in. “How do you guys do this every day and not crumple every day?”
“We’re born into it,” I replied, stepping onto the stairs.
With my arms around her middle and my fingers unintentionally brushing her breast, I held her against me. She didn’t seem to notice or get offended by the accidental touch. I helped her into her room and remembered what my mother told me about women and crouched under her shoes.
I rubbed her sole, and a laugh punched itself from her throat while she pulled her foot away. “S-stop, I’m t-ticklish.”
“Good to know,” I stood and brushed my hands over my jeans. “Get some rest. I’ll get Connie or Marie to come check on you. See you soon.”
“Thanks,” she replied. When I got to the door, she added, “You’re not that bad of a person, Warrick.”
I pivoted. “Are you saying you’ll forget my ill-thought comment?”
“No,” her head rolled on the pillow. “I’ll remember those words to the day I die; I just won't hold you to it anymore.”
“That’s a relief,” I replied. There had been a few moments when I’d wondered if she’d felt the same attraction between us that I did. “I’ll call for the champagne. We can have it with caviar and oysters and…and I dunno, what do rich people eat.”
She snorted. “And there you go, being a jackass again.”
I saluted her. “See you later. I’ll be on the ranch.”
After switching Silver for Bandit, a ranch workhorse, I rode out to the pasture to meet my men under the shadow of the mountains beyond us. Ahead, a line of trees ran parallel to a scattering of sheds backed along a pasture, followed by an old building—well-maintained but showing the record of its repairs in varying states of wood.
The pasture I was headed to was fenced off to the right of the barn and a corral to the left. Two horses that I knew Frankie and Isaac preferred to ride were grazing under the shade of several huge Arizona cypress trees. I spotted the two crouching over a one-year-old calf.
A heart-rending bawl had me speeding up.
“What happened?” I asked, nearing the two.
“Lucky here somehow managed to get himself injured with some barbed wire,” Frankie replied.
The calf’s head reared up, and it bawled again as Isaac tried to navigate the wire cutters under the ugly twist of barbed wire tangled around the calf’s foot. “Need a hand?”
“Nah,” Frankie shook his head as he held the calf down so Isaac could work. “We got this; go over to the other guys. They might need you.”
I lingered though, listening in as Frankie soothed the calf with a calming tone and stroked it until it stilled enough. At last, Isaac got him free and set to work doctoring his cuts. The calf bawled, but Isaac persisted until he was done. Only then did I ride off to meet the others and walk into hell.
“—I know, but what do you think of the new girl, Zara?”
Santos turned his horse. “She’s hot, but I think Bossman stamped his name on her and put a bright neon sign saying no touchie on her forehead.”
“Yeah. From the few times I’ve talked to her, she strikes me as smart, independent, and I don’t know, just…like you say, content doing her own thing,” Connie said. “She’s definitely got the hots for Boss, though.”
I cleared my throat. “Can you jackasses not talk about me as if I weren’t five feet away from you?”
Lucas laughed out loud. “Oh, come on, we’re teasing. You know we are.”
“Are you?” I asked, knowing they were lying through their teeth.
Santos, Connie, and Lucas shared a look before they spluttered with laughter. “No, I’m sorry. I’m not teasing, but come on, you know it will be a good thing if you two did?—”
“No,” I said stiffly. “Let me emphasize that for you: hell no. She’s my employee, not some twisted fairytale of loosey-goosey or some rom-com ripped out of a corny romance book. I will not be crossing that line. Do you know the lawsuits that can come from that? I’d be taken to the cleaners because of that.”
“But what if she wants it too?” Connie asked.
Good God, they were not going to let this go, were they?
“You three are thorns in my side,” I grumbled. “Please let it go.”
Connie rode over to my side and nudged me with her boot. “I know it sounds bad, but what if it was a good thing? What could be so bad if you let yourself go for a moment and try it? You’ve not had any fun in years.”
I felt like I was screaming at a windmill.
“Stop,” I sighed. “Please stop. It’s never gonna happen.”
“I only want you to feel something for once,” Connie replied. “I want you to smile. From what I’ve seen, she’s made you crack one or two.”
She was right—but still, nothing would come from it. She was my employee, I was her boss, end of story.