IT HAD BEEN A SHITTY morning and Calder was on edge. Drae and Cam had boarded the agency plane just after dawn on what could be a wild goose chase to Denver where Majid was supposedly hanging out. He’d received four fucking messages from Dashur about Sharif plus a half dozen more from the King’s piss-ant head of security who was clearly desperate to save the situation along with it his job.
He couldn’t wrap his mind around the fact that this was the kind of shit Alex dealt with on a regular basis. No wonder his nephew wanted to take a step back, and not just to focus on Meghan, either. It would take better men than all of them put together to put up with such crap on a long-term basis.
Plus, his head was pounding. Lack of sleep. Shit-tacular breakfast choice that ended up being all sugar and no substance. A ridiculously long shower hadn’t helped. Not when his sex was hard, heavy, and distracting as fuck. Stephanie.
She was the source of everything that was dancing on his last nerve. Kissing her had been a mistake. Especially since all he could think about now was doing it again. And again. The minute he’d tasted her, he realized he’d been starving. For her.
Needing a break and some air, he headed out to the stable determined to take one of the stallions out for a good, long run.
“Hiya, Gus,” he boomed across the paddock. “Can you saddle up Zephyr for me?”
The genial horse master came ambling toward Calder, removing his sunglasses at the last second. “No can do, Mr. Dane. He’s already out and about this morning. Will another horse do? Plenty to choose from,” he drawled.
“Zephyr’s out? Who’s riding today, Gus?” He knew it certainly wasn’t Alex because he rarely rode due to his old injuries. And with Drae and Cam gone that didn’t leave too many other choices since he sincerely doubted one of the women was strong or experienced enough to handle the feisty stallion.
Gus reacted like he was reading his mind and smirked. “Actually, sir, it’s Ms. Bennett. The ladies went into town in Mr. Marquez’s car but she wanted to ride for a bit so she hung back.” He scuffed the toe of his well-worn boots in the dust and added, “She specifically asked for a spirited stallion.”
Boom! It was like a bomb went off in Calder’s brain scattering his thoughts into a million fragments. The stallion was big and ornery. Stephanie wasn’t up to such a strong horse—she was far too feminine and genteel for a ride like Zephyr. Plus, there was a squad of security people engaged in a refresher exercise with live ammunition about a forty-minute ride from the compound in a mock village referred to as Little Tikrit. Motherfucker. Could this get any worse?
“Which way did she go, Gus?” he snapped as he pulled his phone out and fired up a text to Alex.
“Said she was going out to the ravine,” he answered pointing east.
Well, thank God for small mercies, he thought since Little Tikrit was in the opposite direction.
“Get me a strong mount and hurry.” At Gus’s raised eyebrow, he checked his sharp delivery and added, “Sorry. There’s a training exercise going on, and I don’t want Ms. Bennett to run into any trouble.”
“Understood, sir,” the horse master boomed as he took off at a fast clip toward the stable.
Two seconds later his phone rang. Alex.
Barking like a lunatic, Calder skipped the Hello part of the call and immediately started talking. “Dude—did you know there was a training exercise in Tikrit scheduled for this morning?”
Alex answered, “No. But why is that a problem?”
“It’s not a problem,” Calder snapped. “At least it wasn’t until I found out that Stephanie took a horse out for a la-de-dah.”
His nephew chuckled and said, “Settle. It’s cool. She knows how to ride, man. Probably better than you.”
“I don’t give a fuck how well she rides, Alex!” he yelled. “That training exercise is using live rounds. What if she stumbles into the secure zone?”
“Did she tell Gus where she was going?”
“Yeah, yeah. Something about the ravine, but you know women. She could be anywhere.”
“First of all,” Alex said sharply, “every saddle we have is fixed with a GPS. You can access her locale pretty easily from your phone so don’t freak out. And Stephanie isn’t stupid. If she said the ravine then that’s where she’s headed. She’s well aware of the need for safety and wouldn’t, as you put it, just go la-de-dahing about.”
“I’m going after her,” Calder bit out as Gus came toward him with a beautiful chestnut stallion—saddled up and ready to go.
“Let me know when you locate her,” Alex said, “and fire up the GPS program so you don’t spend time looking where she isn’t.”
“Will do. I’ll be in touch.” And with that, he swung up into the saddle, consulted his phone, checking out the GPS, then grabbed the horse’s reins and took off in a cloud of dust.
ALEX WAS LAUGHING WHEN HE called Meghan. She and Tori, with Lacey and the baby in tow, had driven into town on the pretense of checking out a new boutique but he knew the real reason had been to get Tori away from the Villa for a bit while Carmen, Betty, and Ria got up to no good.
When she answered, the first thing he asked was whether the phone was hooked into the car’s blue tooth– which meant everyone could hear their conversation—or whether it was just the two of them. He didn’t think Tori needed to hear what he had to say.
“Just us, Major,” Meghan told him. “Why? What’s up?”
“Stephanie took Zephyr out for a ride and Calder reacted like she was flying a 747 without auto-pilot. He’s now jumped on a mount and ridden off into the desert to rescue her ass! Can you believe it?”
“Oh, my God! For real? Doesn’t he know? I mean, honestly. Stephanie’s the last person needing an equestrian rescue.”
“Exactly,” he chuckled. “I’m guessing her background hasn’t exactly come up in conversation.”
Meghan laughed. “Yeah, well—from what Tori told us, I don’t think there was much conversation going on last night.”
“Meaning?”
“Well, I believe there was an AARP make-out session, at least that’s what Tori thinks. Something about heavy breathing and smeared lipstick.”
“Hmmmm. That reminds me. Did I happen to tell you how great my cock looks covered with that lipstick you got from Chanel?”
He thoroughly enjoyed Meghan’s throaty laugh. “Goddammit Major Marquez. Why’d you have to go and say that?”
“Squirming in your seat, my beauty?”
“Actually, I’m standing, but yes.”
He growled into the phone. “When will you be home? I’m hungry.”
“Didn’t Carmen make you lunch? I told her we’d be gone the whole day.”
“That’s not what I’m hungry for.”
“Oh.”
“You think about that while you’re doing whatever it is that you’re doing— then bring that pussy home to me dripping wet.”
“Alex?”
“Yes?”
“I, um….shit.”
He chuckled. “Imagining my tongue licking your sweetness?”
“Yes, dammit.”
“Where are you? Is anyone around?”
“We’re waiting in a store for something Lacey ordered for Dylan. The girls are busy picking out onesies for the babies while I talk to you.”
“Good. Go to the ladies’ room and take off your panties. Send me a picture of them stuffed in your purse. I think that’s enough to get your flesh quivering in anticipation.”
He could hear the hitch in her breathing and grinned. The woman was sexy as fuck and she was all his.
“I’m hanging up now,” she told him.
It took less than five minutes for her to send a text with the picture of her sheer yellow panties crammed inside her purse along with a message that read, I want you to tie my hands to the bedpost.
Shit. Now he was the one to squirm as a hellacious hard-on gripped him while the vision of his naughty redhead tied to the bed while he ate her delicious pussy danced in his mind’s eye.
MY GOD, BUT IT’S BEAUTIFUL here, Stephanie thought. No wonder Tori fell in love with the place. With nothing but wide-open spaces for hundreds of miles around, the Villa de Valleja-Marquez was a world unto its own.
She’d passed on a trip into town with the ladies, not because she wasn’t up for a shopping excursion, but because she needed time to think. Time to wrap her mind around what had happened last night.
Riding like the hounds of hell were chasing her, she’d given Zephyr full rein, letting him gallop, his hooves pounding out a rhythm on the hard-packed ground that was all-too-familiar to her. It was exhilarating and therapeutic all at once.
At their destination, Zephyr relaxed into an easy canter, as if he knew that was what she needed. Coming to rest at last along the beautiful desert stream that wound one end of the ravine to the other, she just sat there, reins hanging loosely in her hands, mind wandering.
Coming to Arizona at a time when she’d been feeling restless and lonely had seemed like the thing to do. Spend time with Tori and Drae, get ready for a new chapter in all their lives, enjoy the pending arrival of a new life. Simple. Easy.
What was that quote she liked so much? Life is what happens when you’re busy making plans. Yeah. That was it. Oh, my word but how perfect was the sentiment?
Never in her wildest and most secret dreams had she ever envisioned meeting a man such as Calder Dane. He intrigued her. Infuriated her. Pissed her off with his hard-assed attitude. Made her laugh like she hadn’t in years. Challenged her in ways that surprised the holy crap out of her. Oh yeah—and he got her thinking about hot, sweaty nights spent in a bed with linens scattered on the floor from the fury of their lovemaking.
Kissing him had probably not been her brightest move but once his lips had joined with hers, she’d been lost. If Tori hadn’t interrupted when she did, who knows what might have happened.
And that was what was bothering her the most. She didn’t do wham-bam sex. Oh sure, she’d had a few one-off moments in the years since Daniel died, but every one of them could be chalked up to satisfying a physical need. And every single encounter had been something she controlled and allowed. Never had she let her emotions engage and she certainly never just stood by docile and meek while a man claimed her in so basic a way.
What in the hell was she doing?
A distant sound cut through her reverie that made her twist in the saddle and search the landscape for what it was. A horse and rider were approaching at a pretty fast clip. Out in the middle of nowhere as she was—it was hard to imagine running into anyone else. As the pair got closer, it was pretty evident whoever it was had been expecting to find her. Alone. In the desert. Oh great.
Her anxiety hit the stopper the moment she realized that Calder was the rider and he was clearly making a beeline straight to her. What in the fucking fuck? she thought with a harsh grimace. Surely, this couldn’t be happening.
Slowing his mount to a fast canter, he pulled up alongside her and reached out to grab the horn of her saddle.
“Are you alright?” he asked in a not too friendly tone.
Oh, just fucking great. Mr. Hot and Cold. Yanking off the baseball cap she’d worn, she slapped it dramatically against her thigh and glared at him. Was she alright? Who was he kidding?
“Of course I’m alright,” she bit out with a pithiness that spoke volumes. “Why wouldn’t I be? Please tell me you didn’t track me down just to see if I was still in the saddle.”
Those steely blue-gray eyes narrowed at her response, but that didn’t mean he let go of her saddle. Was this idiot under the impression she couldn’t take care of herself? Boy—was he ever in for a shock.
“Your thanks is underwhelming, Queenie,” he snapped.
Oh no he didn’t! “What exactly am I thanking you for, you pompous oaf?” Snap. He fully deserved that one.
Ooooh, now he was mad. She could see it in his expression. Fuck him, she thought.
“Excuse me, lady, but you wander off on the biggest and most ornery horse at the Villa. What in the hell did you think would happen? Nobody would worry? Or check up to make sure you were still in one piece?”
He was yelling, and if she wasn’t so pissed off at his high and mighty attitude, it might even have been funny. With lips pursed in a grim, tight line, she put the ball cap back on; yanked furiously on her ponytail, making the band that held it together slide tighter against her head.
“For your information, Mr. Dane, I did not wander off. I knew exactly where I was going and look! I ended up precisely where I intended. I, in no way, needed to be rescued, and I find it mildly insulting that you thought I did.”
“The horse…” he said but that was all she let him get out.
“Zephyr? We’re old friends. I’ve ridden him before.” She gave him a look that suggested he go shit in his hat.
What ensued after that was a sort of eyeball war as Calder glared at her with a mixture of concern, confusion, and anger while she metaphorically nailed his arrogant ass to a wood door with her eyes.
Part of her wanted to kick his overbearing butt into next week while another part considered leaping on him and tearing his clothes off. Suddenly screwing his brains out while on horseback seemed like a completely reasonable thing to do.
“Stephanie,” he growled. He didn’t continue with whatever he planned on saying, just grimaced and shook his head. Did he actually think she was some foolish woman-child he needed to coddle—save from the big bad horsey? Oh for heaven’s sake. This really was too damn much.
Slapping his hand away from the horn of her saddle, she pulled back on Zephyr’s reins and delivered a solid kick that instantly spurred the magnificent stallion into a fast gallop. She’d show him!
What the fuck, Calder thought as he watched, stupefied, while Stephanie tore off away from him on the beast of a horse.
Quickly following her, he urged his mount to go faster as she pulled even further ahead. Panic and concern for her safety gradually slid away, replaced by a growing awareness that the woman he imagined needed rescuing was a serious force to be reckoned with in the saddle.
He watched, fascinated, as her thighs gripped Zephyr’s heaving flanks and her ass undulated with perfection atop the fast moving horse. Imagining those same thighs wrapped firmly around his waist, as he rode her into oblivion while her ass rose and fell with each stroke of his cock, wrecked his fucking brain.
It wasn’t her who needed a rescue. It was him.
He never caught up to her and finally stopped even trying. What was the point when she so clearly had the upper hand and had made it plainly obvious that she wasn’t amused by his shithead assumption that she couldn’t handle the big horse.
He found her in the barn, calmly running a body brush down Zephyr’s neck as she quietly spoke to the handsome horse. It was ridiculous to feel jealous of an animal, but in that moment, he did. What he wouldn’t give to have her stroke his skin that way and murmur husky words of praise after he’d made love to her.
She looked up when he leaned against the half door of the stall. Expecting to see a smirk on her face, he was slightly stunned to find her with a serious, contemplative look.
“Can we walk back some of the animosity and start over?” he asked.
So many emotions flashed in her eyes and across her face that he lost count immediately. Feeling frustrated and annoyed that this one woman seemed impervious to his charms, Calder struggled to find his center. Suddenly, the whole world seemed tilted.
A cool, slightly wounded expression stayed on her face when she finally spoke.
“Start over at which point? The one where you imagined I was foolish enough to ride out on a horse I couldn’t handle?”
He stared at her searching for words. The ice-cold drip of having acted like a pig started feeding into his senses.
“Or maybe back to the point when I politely asked you not to address me by a term that made me uncomfortable?”
Swallowing the lump in his throat, he could do nothing else except stand there and take whatever she dished out.
“No? Hmmm. How about start over from the point where you thought insulting me in a room full of people when I questioned your authority was appropriate? What?” she snarked. “Still no?”
By this point, he was cringing and she was openly fuming.
“Oh, I know! How about we start over at the beginning—when we first met—and I wasn’t quite the vapid, blond, beauty pageant bimbo you imagined?”
Fuck. That one hit the mark with an uncomfortable thud.
Tossing the grooming brush into a nearby bucket, she wiped her hands on the front of her jeans, stroked the horse’s neck twice then made for the stall door where he was standing.
He backed away and let her secure the latch while he continued clutching at straws—silently begging for the right words to come to him. He had—nothing. Each one of her accusations was spot-on. He’d behaved like a dick—plain and simple. His conscience was bothering him, big time, ‘cause that wasn’t the way he was. At least, not with anyone else—only her.
This time when she took off her baseball cap, she also yanked the elastic tie that held her hair in a ponytail and shook her blond mane until it fell across her shoulders. Sighing heavily, Stephanie gave him a look that held some regret mixed with resolve and said, “Look, Calder. Being thrown together by circumstance is not the basis for a friendship. Especially so because we’re little more than strangers and affect each other like alcohol on a cut. I can’t keep sparring with you. That’s not why I’m here. You’ve made your judgment of my life and me plainly evident from day one. Let’s just agree to disagree and leave well enough alone.”
No, no, no. That was not what he wanted. Calling him out for being an ass was one thing. Pretending there wasn’t something else going on under the surface was another.
“I’m sorry…” he blurted out.
“Yeah, I can see that. But being sorry after the fact—well…thank you, I guess but more than that? Nope.”
She paused while he stewed then offered a half-hearted, “See ya,” and dashed off.