WHY the hell had he said that? He didn’t react, the only change in him was the tick in his jaw that he knew was flickering like crazy. Mia wasn’t a girl in a bar, she was his boss and he was here to do a job. So what if she looked like a goddamn supermodel?
She was flushed. It was unmistakable, just the pinkest of tinges coloring her cheeks, and she knew that he’d noticed. He listened to her clear her throat, smiling when she gave him a confused kind of look. He shouldn’t have said it, but he hadn’t exactly been lying, which meant he wasn’t about to try to extract himself out of it. If he did, he knew he’d only dig the hole deeper for himself anyway.
“Ah, shall we go saddle up?” Mia asked, her voice husky.
He shouldn’t have flirted with her. “Sure thing.”
Sam bent to collect the wrapper from the sandwich he’d eaten, balling it up, the water bottle swinging from his other hand. Mia glanced at him, and he gave her a quick smile back, not wanting to encourage her but not wanting to be a dick, either.
“Thanks,” Mia said, turning back to him and taking him by surprise.
“For what?” he asked.
“For saying I’m pretty,” she said. “It’s been a long time since I received a compliment, so thanks.”
He nodded. “You’re welcome.” He should have told her more, should have said she was damn beautiful, because she was, but he left it there. She hadn’t been fishing for compliments, and he wasn’t used to dishing them out.
He followed her past the stables, the horses all poking their noses out of their expensive houses. He’d been in some beautiful establishments, but the Ford ranch with all its luxury equine facilities was truly something else. He wondered if Mia had designed the place or whether it had already been here, but something told him that her daddy had built it especially for her. The entire ranch was immaculate and he couldn’t wait to take a proper look around the grounds and find out more about their operations. He gathered the ranch was successful, but clearly it was her father’s other business interests that had elevated his wealth.
“Have you always ridden?” he called out to Mia, standing beside a sweet-looking bay horse and letting him nuzzle his shirt.
“Yeah. Well, since I could convince my mom to let me ride.”
“Your mom?” he asked, curious since she hadn’t spoken about her before. He’d gotten the impression it was just her dad at the main house.
“Yeah, my mom. She loved horses, but she was cautious about letting us ride too young.”
“Hey, at least yours gave a damn. My mom up and left.”
Mia frowned. “I’m sorry to hear that.”
“So your mom, does she…” Sam wondered why he’d never heard about a Mrs. Ford before. He didn’t exactly move in the elite circles of folk like the Fords, but still …
“My mom passed away,” Mia said quickly. “I was only a teenager, so it was pretty rough, but she was a wealthy woman before she met my dad, and when she knew she didn’t have long to live, she built me this.” Mia held out her hands to gesture around. “I lost my mom, but I ended up with the best stables money could buy.”
“I’m sorry,” Sam said, seeing the pain on her face, the glint in her eyes the moment she’d spoken about her mother.
“Hey, she was a great mom. It’s just that I’d give all this up, every single thing, if it meant I could have her back, you know?”
“Yeah, I know,” he said. “Believe me, I get it.” And he did. His mom hadn’t died, she’d left. His dad had stuck around, but he’d been an asshole, and when he’d died after a short illness a year ago, he hadn’t even shed a tear. He’d have traded both of his parents a hundred times over to get just one parent who gave a damn about him.
“Enough about me, sorry. I don’t usually tell anyone that, I just…” She threw her hands up. “Why do I keep telling you so much? I’m used to keeping to myself and training without hardly seeing another soul during the day, and now that you’re here I’m pouring my soul out to you.”
“That’s the problem when you’re a loner,” Sam told her, chuckling and stroking the horse beside him.
“Maybe I am a loner,” she mused, making him laugh. “Hell, maybe that’s why you kept rubbing me the wrong way so quickly.”
Sam shrugged. “Takes a loner to know one. Now go saddle up. I need to leave at a decent hour so I don’t have to feed my own horses in the dark again.”
Mia disappeared and he talked to the horses, wandering down the line to look at all of them. He’d only seen her ride the one, her favorite mare, but he had a feeling she was full of surprises, and her horses all looked impressive.
When she didn’t reappear, Sam went looking for her, wondering what the hell was taking so long.
“Hey, do you need a hand back there?” he called out.
He squinted in the half-light, dark compared to the full-sun glare outside when he ducked through the doorway and into the tack room.
“Oh, shit, sorry, just give me a sec.”
He stopped. Sam stood in the middle of the small room, saddles and bridles covering every inch of wall space, and Mia pressed into one corner, her tears impossible to hide.
“Hey,” Sam murmured, striding over to her. Hell, he hadn’t expected her to be crying. He’d thought she might need a hand carrying some gear out, but … he didn’t know what to do.
“I’m fine, please,” she said, holding one hand up to her face, the other stretched out in front of her as if trying to push him away before he was even close.
“You’re not okay,” he said, knowing how gruff he sounded but unable to help it. “Come here.”
She shook her head. “Please, I’m fine,” she managed, voice cracking.
“Your mom, huh?” he asked, knowing that there was no way in hell he’d managed to say anything to upset her this much. She was still grieving, he could see that from a mile off.
She nodded, dropping one hand, the other still covering her face. “Yeah,” she whispered. “It’s just I haven’t talked about her for a long time. She’s been gone twelve years so I shouldn’t be reacting like this.”
“Come here,” Sam said, not taking no for an answer this time as he opened his arms and pulled her in.
He held her, tight, letting her cry. She sobbed once, loudly, a noise that made his heart lurch for her, feeling her pain, before she went silent and relaxed in his arms. It had been almost a year since he’d held a woman like this; comforted a woman and held her and felt something for her. He stiffened. Only that woman had played him, ripped his heart out when he’d have done anything for her. Anything.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I’d tell you it’ll get easier, but I doubt it will.”
He didn’t sugarcoat things, even this type of thing, but he did feel for her. She’d tried to talk about her mom all nonchalant to him, laughing about her beautiful stables, when in reality it had torn her in half and left her crying all on her own. She’d lost her mom and her best friend as well; no wonder she’d been prickly when he’d tried to muscle in and take over with the one thing she did have—her horses.
Mia pushed back and he wished she hadn’t. He’d liked the warmth of her against him, the tickle of her long hair catching in his stubble as he’d inhaled her shampoo or whatever it was on her that smelled so damn delicious.
“Sorry,” she murmured, her hands to his chest as she stepped back. “I don’t ever let anyone see me cry.”
He believed it. She didn’t strike him as the type to let anyone see her vulnerabilities.
Sam glanced down at her, at her hands against his chest, at the way she was looking up at him, her eyes wide. Her mouth parted, tear-stained cheeks making her look so vulnerable that it tugged at something inside of him he’d thought was long buried.
“You’ve got nothing to apologize for,” he muttered, slowly raising a hand and brushing his thumb gently across her cheeks to blur the tears away.
Mia stayed still, her palms still planted against him, head tilted. He looked at her mouth, fought the urge to rub his thumb across her soft pink lips. Instead he dropped his hand, skimming past her long blonde hair on the way past.
Sam bent a little, eyes on her mouth, imagining what her lips would taste like. He wanted to kiss her so damn bad, wanted to push her up against the wall behind her and kiss the hell out of her. But he didn’t.
He’d sworn off women for a reason, and sexy or not, he wasn’t about to take advantage of his boss up against a wall. Even crying she was beautiful, but he wasn’t going there. He couldn’t go there.
Dammit!
Her eyes were dancing, her lips were parted, her hands were slowly dropping away from his chest. But instead of closing the distance between them, instead of hungrily tasting her lips against his, he took her hands, stepping back and squeezing them.
“You take all the time you need,” he said instead, hearing the husky note of his own voice. “I’ll be out here.”
He walked out, ducking back through the door and out into the bright sunlight again. Goddamn it! What the hell had he just done? He’d always prided himself on being able to keep his shit together, and he’d let himself get way too close to Mia.
He stalked off, pleased to be alone while she pulled herself together. When he’d found Kelly in bed with another guy, he’d vowed never, ever to let himself get close to a woman again. He’d loved her, damn, had he loved her, and she’d gone behind his back and fucked another guy in their bed when he’d been out at work. Add to that the fact he’d had to pay her big time because they’d been living together for over three years and their home was considered relationship property, and it had been enough for him to never let any woman get close again.
Now he only did one-night stands or casual flings. He met women when he was away traveling, when he could make it clear that he was only in town for a night or two. There were no strings attached, there were no expectations. He wasn’t an asshole, he didn’t use women, but he made it clear that it was only ever going to be a fun night between the sheets.
But Mia was different. Mia was girlfriend material. Mia was from Texas, she was beautiful and she was … the kind of girl he didn’t need to get close to or lead on.
Sam went for a walk to cool off. He’d screwed up, but he wasn’t going to let it happen again. Mia was off limits. Mia was his boss. He just needed to keep telling himself that.
His dog appeared out of nowhere and Sam realized he’d forgotten all about him.
“Hey, Bluey,” he said, giving him a big pat when he loped over. “Come with me, bud.”
He had everything he needed in his life. He had his ranch, his dog, his horses, good people working on his ranch and his own work. He didn’t need anything else, and he needed to remember it next time he got up close with the gorgeous Mia Ford.
* * *
Mia was wondering if she’d gone crazy. Had Sam almost kissed her? She lugged her saddle, bridle and brushes out to the stables and looked around for him. He wasn’t anywhere to be seen, but she knew he wouldn’t be far. Which meant she had about zero seconds to get her shit together.
She let herself in with Fred, the gelding she’d told Sam about. She needed to get her head back in the game and forget all about what had almost happened. Because it hadn’t happened, which meant nothing had happened. Sam wasn’t interested in her, he never would be. Guys like him didn’t like girls like her, she had no expectations there. What she had was a crush on him, a little fantasy that wasn’t ever going to come true. It had been a moment, and that moment had well and truly passed. But Kat had been so right. She was craving being up close and personal with a man, and having a guy like Sam so close had brought it all back to her.
“Come on, we can do this,” she said to the horse in a low voice, brushing him down quickly before saddling him up. She used the soft body brush on his face before putting on his bridle, then double-checked his girth and went out to get her helmet, which she’d forgotten.
“Oh,” she said, almost walking smack-bang into Sam. He was standing outside the stable, hands shoved into his pockets.
“Sorry, didn’t mean to startle you,” he said.
She looked up at him, wanting to avoid his gaze but at the same time desperate to know if what had almost happened before had been a mistake or not. From the hungry way he was looking back at her, she was fairly certain it hadn’t been a mistake.
“How long have you been standing here?” she asked, suddenly wondering if he’d been listening to her talk away to the horse in a low voice as she’d prepared him.
“Not long. A few seconds,” he said, running his fingers loosely through his hair. “You know, I’d love to get back in the saddle. It’s been too long since I’ve had time to actually ride for pleasure.”
She wasn’t sure what he was trying to say. “You want to cancel our training session and go for a ride around the ranch instead?” she asked.
He grinned. “Hey, I’m not letting you off that easily. How about I bring one of my own horses tomorrow? You can show me around the place after I’ve worked Tex.”
She couldn’t help the smile that quickly spread like wildfire across her lips. “I’d love that. I always try to give my horses a fun riding day once a week, so that’d be perfect for Indi.”
He nodded. “It’s a date then.”
Mia opened her mouth, about to agree, but nothing came out. She knew he hadn’t meant it like that, but …
“Bad choice of words,” he muttered. “But I’m sure you get my drift.”
Mia nodded. “I’m going to grab my things and I’ll meet you in the arena.”
She didn’t wait for Sam to answer, just hurried into the tack shed again to grab her helmet, clasp it firmly under her chin, and wiggle her fingers into her leather riding gloves.
She paused, looking out the door at Sam as he walked away. She eyed his jeans, the way his Wrangler’s hugged his ass and tapered down over his long legs. His shoulders were wide, but there wasn’t an ounce of fat on him, his shirt tucked in and making that abundantly clear. He was the perfect physical specimen of man, but something had stopped him from kissing her before, and she wanted to know what. Because now she’d almost tasted his lips, she’d be thinking about it long after he left this afternoon, she was sure of it.
She retrieved Fred, pulled her stirrups down and mounted, walking out to the arena with her head full of Sam. She didn’t know what it was about him, but her mom was usually an off-limits topic with anyone except her siblings or her best friend, Kat. But standing there before, when he’d asked her a simple question, it had all but poured out of her, and for some strange reason it had felt so right.
“We’re going to show him exactly what we’re made of today,” she muttered to the horse she was riding.
Her horse broke into a trot, and she laughed. Maybe her animals could understand her after all.
She flushed thinking about the way Sam had held her, his big arms and even bigger body engulfing her as he’d hugged her and comforted her. He might be a loner, but the way he’d behaved had shown her that deep down he was a big softie, and he hadn’t liked seeing her cry. There was a lot more to him than met the eye, and Mia was curious now. She wanted to know all about Sam and what made him tick, what had made him the man he was today, and she wanted to know now.
* * *
“He’s pretty excited,” Sam said, standing in the middle of the vast arena as Mia cantered around. He’d set up four jumps in a row, just as she’d instructed him to do, in a grid for Mia to canter down, and he was waiting for her to come back around.
“Maybe it’s because of you,” she shot back, her smile infectious when she rose slightly out of the saddle and let her horse go faster.
“Perhaps, or perhaps he just needs settling.” Sam watched her carefully, critiquing her when he could, even though her riding today was almost faultless.
“Shall I do it again?” Mia called out.
“Yes. But this time, try talking to him. You’re both doing well, but I think he would settle into his natural rhythm better if you were soothing him more with your voice. Hell, sing to him softly if you have to, but just calm him by letting him listen to you.”
“The horse whisperer telling the rider to actually whisper to the horse!” she called back.
“Laugh all you like, but there’s nothing I would change about your riding or his capabilities.”
He saw her smile and knew she liked the compliment.
“Don’t go getting a big head, just ride him and talk to him.”
She did exactly that, and he had no idea what she told the horse, but he cleared the grid beautifully, his timing perfect, his legs tucked neatly under him, his ears pricked. Even when he landed he didn’t try to rush off.
“Perfect!” he called out.
Mia slowed him to a trot then a walk, loosening her reins and letting the horse stretch his neck out. She did a big circle before coming over to him, but her smile was gone, replaced with a deep frown as she stretched her leg out, foot out of the stirrup as she flexed her ankle.
“Shit,” she swore, dropping her reins as she went to dismount.
“What?” he asked. “What happened?”
“Ugh, cramp in my calf,” she moaned. “It’s bad.”
“Stop,” he ordered as she went to wriggle down. He placed his hands on her leg, pulling her long black leather boot off.
Mia stayed still, leg stretched out as he dropped her boot and started to massage her muscle, pushing his fingers hard into her leg. He rubbed back and forth, knowing exactly what that kind of cramp felt like.
“Better,” she murmured as he kept working, not about to stop now that he knew it was helping.
Sam glanced up at her, saw the relief on her face, eyes shut, face tilted up to the sky. He smiled and kept kneading, wishing his fingers were on her bare skin instead of through her riding pants.
“Thanks,” she said, flexing again, and he took his hands off her.
“No problem. Great riding out there.”
It was hot, the sun unrelenting, and her face was pink and gleaming when she smiled down at him. He noticed the long braid she had hanging down her back had become messy, wisps escaping and sticking to her neck. She looked more gorgeous than ever, and he diverted his eyes, not about to let his mind go there again.
Mia swung her leg over and he glanced at her boot just as she came flying toward the ground. Sam acted fast, grabbing her around the waist, his hands firm to her body as he caught her and stopped her from landing.
“Boot,” he muttered as she gasped.
Mia froze in his arms, and he slowly let her go. Her hands landed on his shoulders as she turned, standing on one leg, laughing as she tried to hop to her boot and failed.
“You’re completely useless when you’re not on a horse,” he said with a laugh.
Mia was laughing too, and he kept hold of her as she bent to retrieve the boot, pink-socked foot pointed out at a weird angle as she tried to keep her balance.
“Thanks, you’re really great with compliments, you know that?”
Sam held her around the waist as she went to put her boot on, steadying her when she wobbled. He hadn’t expected her to forget all about putting her boot on and stare up and him instead.
“What?” he asked, voice low since they were standing so close.
It would have taken only one movement to have Mia’s body close up against his, her torso to his, her slender body butted right up to his chest. But instead of moving, he stayed rock still, not getting closer, not letting anything more happen.
“Before. In the tack shed,” she murmured, tilting her face up. “You stopped something before it was about to happen.”
He sure as hell hadn’t expected her to bring that up. But now she had, he could hardly lie and pretend that it hadn’t happened. He was plenty of things, but liar wasn’t one of them.
“I did.”
“Why?” she asked.
Sam groaned. This was not a question he wanted to answer. She raised her mouth, expectantly, and he stared down at her, swallowing hard. This was not going to happen. His heart beat faster, hands warm against her sides.
To hell with it. Some part of his brain disagreed with him, pushed him over the edge and shattered all the willpower he thought he had.
Sam reached out and unclasped her helmet with one hand, taking it carefully off her head. She ran her fingers through her hair, pushing it off her face, and when she was done, when she looked back up at him, he bent low and kissed Mia, one hand still holding her helmet, the other around her, his palm flat to the small of her back. His lips moved softly across hers, their mouths slow, gentle, tasting her and wishing to hell he hadn’t gone there. When she let out a little moan, the faintest of noises, it was all the encouragement he needed. Sam dropped her helmet and raised his hand, stroking down her long braid and then settling on her cheek.
He kissed her again, this time less sweet and more urgent. When her tongue touched his, he responded, pushing his lower body against her as he fought to get closer to her, to feel her hard up against him.
It was Mia who broke the kiss, pulling back, palm to his chest as she smiled and then wobbled straight back into him.
“I’m still on one foot,” she whispered, laughing when he caught hold of her elbow. “And you’re kind of making it hard for me to keep my balance.”
Sam laughed too, bending to help her with her footwear. Her hands rested on his shoulders, and he listened to her sigh when he stood up.
“What?” he asked.
“Nothing,” she said, looking embarrassed.
Sam touched her shoulder and studied her, wondering what she was thinking, what she expected from him. He should have told her first, before kissing her, that he had nothing to give. Not emotionally, anyway.
“Thank you.” Her voice was low as she pushed away and leaned into her horse instead, holding onto the reins and giving him a look he couldn’t decipher.
“For the lesson?” he asked.
She shook her head. “Nothing, don’t worry. I’d better get this one back to his stable for a brush down.”
Sam stood and watched her go. He couldn’t figure women out, never had been able to, maybe never would. He just hoped Mia didn’t have any expectations where he was concerned after one kiss, no matter how good it had been.
* * *
Mia watched Sam’s vehicle disappear in a cloud of dust as he headed down the drive for home. She raised her hand, touched her fingers across her lips and smiled thinking about the way she’d felt when he’d kissed her. She should have said something, anything other than ‘thank you’ to the man who’d kissed her and made her feel like a breathing, feeling, sensual woman again, but instead she’d lost all power to speak and had fled the scene. What she should have done was wrap her arms around his neck and kiss the hell out of him again until he’d been the one to pull away.
Her phone buzzed in her pocket and she picked it up. It was Kat.
“Hey,” she said, smiling when she heard her friend’s cheerful voice.
“How’s your day been? Any progress with the Handsome Horseman today?”
“Ha-ha, very funny.” Mia wasn’t about to breathe a word of what had happened—Kat would never let her live it down if she knew.
“Look, I know you’ll want to kill me, but my cousin is arriving in from L.A. in the morning, and I might have promised that we’d double date. Is there any way you could go out for dinner with him tomorrow night?” she laughed. “I’ll be there too but…”
Mia groaned. She hated when Kat tried to set her up with anyone. “I’m not going on a blind date with your pretend cousin. You know I hate that sort of thing!”
“First of all, he’s not a pretend cousin. For the record, he’s cute and single and charming, so you’ll have a great night with us,” Kat said, as if she were talking to a petulant child. “Secondly, I have a dog being flown in for a specialist surgery. He’s going to be one of the first dogs in the state that receives the new prosthetic elbow joint that we’ve been trialing. I’ve been waiting a long time to find the right large canine candidate, so my cousin will pick you up and I’ll come along later with Matt. He’s the other vet consulting on the case, so we’ll all be kind of new to each other. It’ll be great!”
Kat knew all she had to do was play on her animal heartstrings and she’d have her in the bag, but a date? Seriously? Going out with someone she’d never even spoken to or met before was her idea of a disaster.
“Fine, but you need to make it clear that I’m not some desperate single and that I’m doing you a favor. This is just a group of people having dinner, not a double date, okay?”
“Of course! I promised him a fun night out, so I just don’t want to let him down.”
Mia wished she wasn’t such a pushover when it came to Kat, but it was what she’d said the other night that was playing on her mind. She didn’t get out enough, and she hadn’t dated in such a long time. Was it really that hard to meet a decent guy and have some fun along the way?
She chatted to her friend for a while then said goodbye, and her stomach did a little jump when she thought about going out with a man. Only it wasn’t Kat’s mystery cousin that was making her stomach flip and her heart race; it was Sam. She doubted she’d ever be able to look at his lips the same way again.
Groaning and pushing all thoughts of Sam away, she walked up to the main house and went around back, kicking off her boots and heading inside.
“Dad?” she called out, knowing he was in there somewhere. “Dad?” she said again, wandering down the long hallway and heading toward his office. He liked to work from home whenever he wasn’t traveling, and when she paused outside to knock on the doorframe, he finally called back out to her.
“Come in, just finishing up some paperwork.”
Mia smiled and entered, loving the feel of the thick, luxurious carpet beneath her socked feet. The hallway and kitchen were all hardwood floors, but everywhere else the carpet was extravagant and plush. She glanced around his office—her father had his head bent and was scribbling away at something—and she smiled as she always did when she looked at the pictures adoring the walls and dotted among books on his dark oak bookcase that sprawled the length of one wall. There was a big photo of her mom, her head tipped back in laughter and her eyes shut, that always sent a shiver through Mia. And then there were endless photos of her siblings—Angelina on the day she graduated law school, Cody outside his new office building, Tanner riding a bull with one hand thrown back, and Mia standing with Indi, her head resting against her horse’s neck.
“I look at every single photo every day,” her father said, rising from his desk and coming over to kiss her cheek. “How’s it going with the horseman?”
Mia kissed him back and wished she didn’t feel so conflicted when it came to her dad. She loved him fiercely but they so often butted heads and clashed over her decisions.
“He’s … well, interesting,” Mia said truthfully. “Not what I expected, but he’s good at what he does,”
“Pleased to hear it. Join me for a drink?” Her father crossed the room and poured himself a whisky. She shook her head, but happily sunk down onto the big buttoned leather sofa to sit with him.
“You’re sure it’s worth spending money on this horse, Mia?”
She nodded, hoping they weren’t going to argue again. “Yes, I’m sure.”
“There a reason you’ve come over to see me? Or was it just my good company you wanted to enjoy?”
Mia laughed. Trust him to ask her outright. “I actually just wanted to see you, but now that you’ve asked…” she cleared her throat. “I really appreciate you bringing Sam Mendes here to the ranch, but I need you to run things by me first when it comes to the horses. I thought we agreed that I was in charge of all the horses on the ranch?”
He chuckled and took a long sip of his drink. The straight liquor on ice would have made her stomach heave. “Mia, you’re too close to this horse.”
She took a deep breath, determined not to say anything she’d regret later.
“I’m actually very proud of you, whether you believe me or not, and I can see how capable you are, but I have an obligation to keep my employees safe, and no ranch hand can be expected to go near that beast. We need to take advice on him, and I was told Sam was the best man for the job.”
Mia nodded. He was right—she knew it and he knew it.
“I need your word that this is the last time you’ll step in and go over my head though,” she said. “I understand why you did it, but just…”
“You have my word, Mia. Now come have dinner with me. This old man is sick of dining alone.”
She laughed and pushed to her feet. “Fine. But you eat out more than you eat in, and I don’t believe for a second you’re dining alone when you’re out.”
Her father gave her a wink, and she rolled her eyes and headed for the kitchen. He might be old, but he was as sharp as a tack.