Chapter Four
Evie stood on the sidewalk outside the hotel and looked left, then right. The map the concierge had given her listed a number of entertainment or cultural options within the city center. She contemplated the choices and then admitted to herself that she wasn’t really in the mood to play tourist.
Not that she was devastated. The shock and disappointment of yesterday had worn off a little, thanks to the solid nine hours of sleep she’d had last night and some quality animal fats at breakfast, but she still felt…fragile.
She was hurt Troy had treated her so casually, so dismissively. Why hadn’t he simply been honest with her, right from the start? A short but painful conversation the morning after their night together would have saved her a lot of angst and humiliation. Not to mention an expensive long-haul flight. Instead, he’d played along. She still didn’t understand why he’d done that.
She tried to put herself in his shoes as she waited for the lights to change, a cool breeze chilling her cheeks. Her best bet was that he’d jollied her along because he hadn’t wanted to hurt her. Plus there was the fact that her older brother was his best mate, her father his mentor. Troy would hate to think either man would think less of him because of anything that had happened with her, and a one-night stand looked a lot worse to a protective brother or father than a failed attempt at a long-distance relationship. One could be interpreted as opportunistic, the other as good intentioned.
So, basically, Troy had been covering his ass and, in a dumb way, trying to protect her.
She made a rude noise, which earned her a wary look from a female passerby. Evie smiled to show she wasn’t on the verge of flipping out, then dug out the city map again. She wasn’t going to mooch around all day going over and over this stuff in her head. She needed a distraction.
If she was back home, she’d saddle up her horse and ride up to the canyon. The red rock formations and deep green water in the ravine never failed to calm her and clear her mind. If she was at university in Townsville, she’d go on campus and spend some time in the hobby farm, tending to the animals that were part of her training. But she wasn’t in either of those places, she was here in Tulsa, and she needed saving from herself.
Her eye fell on a monkey symbol to one side of the map and her shoulders relaxed a notch. The zoo. Perfect. She’d go hang with some fur people, see how they did things on this side of the world. That ought to kill a couple of hours.
It took her a few minutes to work out where the bus terminal was, but from there it didn’t take her long to find her way to the Tulsa Zoo. She spent two hours wandering around the exhibits, laughing at the antics of a family of young chimpanzees, admiring the prowling majesty of the snow leopards, and talking to the staff. She was lucky enough to run into one of the big cat specialists near the snow leopard habitat, and when he learned she was studying vet science, he took her behind the scenes to see the zoo’s new Malayan tiger cubs: Henry, Leon and Ava.
She was pleasantly hungry and a little tired as she headed back to the hotel, jet lag starting to take its toll. Her mind felt clearer, though. Yes, she was hurt and even a little angry, but life went on.
She glanced at the massive chandelier as she crossed the foyer, making a mental note to ask what the rate for a double room was before she left. Tanner would no doubt object, but she would reimburse him for her share of the hotel bill, even if she had to slip the money into his suitcase for him to find after her departure.
No doubt he would love that. Imagining his chagrined, offended expression made her smile to herself. He was such a Marlboro man, with his steady, deep voice and sharp gray eyes. He didn’t say too much, but she got the feeling he noticed plenty. He’d noticed her, definitely, which was why she’d landed on her feet, instead of being stuck in a grubby motel with dubious security.
Maybe she’d buy him a little thank-you present before she left for Santa Fe. He’d really hate that.
She was still grinning at the idea when she let herself into the room and stopped in her tracks, her phone and key card falling from suddenly lifeless hands.
Tanner was on a towel on the floor beside her bed, his lean body stretched into a dynamic yoga pose, every muscle on display thanks to the pair of tight black boxer briefs he was wearing. Her stunned gaze traveled from the knee he had planted on the towel, up thickly muscled thighs, past the generous bulge in his underwear, over his hard, sculpted chest and along his outthrust arms.
Wow. Just…wow.
She’d seen plenty of male bodies in her time. Her brother’s, Troy’s, the three boyfriends’ she’d had in her twenty-five years. Guys from university, partners of girlfriends… None of them had looked like this.
Tanner Harding’s body was powerful and sleek and utterly compelling. And she couldn’t take her eyes off it, even though she knew she was staring and that she’d interrupted his yoga session and that, yes, she was still staring and, God, what would all that hard muscle feel like, pressed up against a person?
“Just got to stretch out my quads, then I’ll be done,” Tanner said in his low, easy way, apparently completely unaware of the fact that she’d been turned into a pillar of salt by the sight of his near nakedness.
“Um, sure. You do what you’ve got to do. I just came back to, ah…” Her gaze fell on her suitcase, and she said the first thing that popped into her head. “Grab my swimsuit. Thought I’d go for a swim. In the pool. Because the hotel has one.”
He turned his head to look at her then, his gaze sliding down her body to where her phone and key card were still at her feet. Blushing, she bent to scoop them up.
“I was about to hit it myself once I’m done here.”
“Great. You can show me the ropes.” She did a mental eye roll at the absolute rubbish that was tumbling out of her mouth. What was wrong with her?
“It’s just a pool, no ropes. But I’m happy to volunteer to push you in if you need encouragement.” His expression was carefully neutral, but the light in his gray eyes told her he was laughing at her.
And why wouldn’t he? What grown, adult, non-virginal woman got this flustered by the sight of a man in his underwear? She could probably walk down the street and see ten Calvin Klein billboards that were equally revealing.
Yes, except there is absolutely zero chance that you could hold out a hand, take a step forward and actually be touching one of those men.
“I’ll just grab my suit,” Evie said, sidestepping toward her case.
Tanner watched her, that laughing light still in his eyes, as he stretched his left leg in front of him, placed his left heel on the towel and leaned forward.
Muscles rippled and tensed beneath lightly tanned skin. Evie realized she was sweating behind her knees and that her hands were clenched into fists. Wrenching her gaze away, she flipped up the lid on her case and scrambled through the layers in search of her swimsuit. By some miracle she put her hand on it straight away, and she yanked it free and stood, spinning on her heel—only to find herself facing a solid wall of muscle.
She swallowed, the sound audible in the suddenly very quiet room.
“Excuse me.” She stepped around him, practically running to the bathroom. She sagged once she was safely behind the closed door. Then she slapped her open palm against her own forehead.
She needed to stop behaving like an idiot every time she caught a glimpse of Tanner’s body. He must think she was the biggest rube, blushing and stammering all over the place because she’d seen him in his underwear.
Get a grip, Forrester. You are better than this.
She was. She was on track to graduate first in her class from her five-year Bachelor of Veterinary Science degree. In the year between graduating high school and taking up her place at university and every summer since, she’d worked on her father’s cattle station, mustering and helping with the calving, taking care of the livestock alongside her brother and father. She was strong, resourceful and independent, not dithering and flustered and girlish.
She frowned at herself in the mirror, unhappy with how pink her cheeks were. Turning away from her reflection, she changed into her swimsuit. At least going for a swim might help with her jet lag—far better to do some exercise than succumb to a nap and mess up her sleep patterns even more. After pulling a T-shirt on over the top of her suit, she took her hair out of its ponytail, braided it, then wrapped it into a bun high on her head so it wouldn’t get in the way.
When she exited the bathroom, Tanner was waiting in a pair of board shorts and a T-shirt, a pair of flip-flops on his feet.
“You ready?” he asked, his gaze flicking impassively down her body before returning to her face.
“Sure. Let’s do this,” she said, doing her best to sound blasé and devil-may-care. As if that was going to make him forget her blushing, stammering routine of five minutes ago.
“Then let’s roll,” Tanner said.
And for better or worse, Evie followed him out of the room.
*
In the history of great ideas, suggesting he and Evie hit the hotel pool together was not one of his best or brightest. Standing in the elevator, Tanner kept his gaze fixed on the floor indicator. Unfortunately, it didn’t stop him from catching glimpses of Evie in her one-piece swimsuit out of the corners of his eyes.
She was on the short side—he estimated maybe five foot one or two—but she was perfectly proportioned, with sweetly curved hips and slim legs. One glance had confirmed what he’d observed last night—she had a peach of an ass, lovingly outlined in plain black Lycra.
He shifted his weight, conscious that neither of them had said a word since they’d left the room.
“What did you get up to this morning?” he asked.
The elevator arrived at the pool level and a waft of chlorine hit them as they stepped into the corridor.
“Not much. Walked around a bit, then went to the zoo.”
“Haven’t been to the zoo in years.”
“I have mixed feelings about them. Habitats are so much better than they used to be, and there’s a lot more enrichment to keep the animals entertained, but still… It’s not freedom, is it? But then you have to balance that against the loss of natural habitats and the risk to endangered species. Zoo breeding programs might be the only way we can save some species.”
Her expression was earnest, her brow furrowed. This was something she really cared about. Then he remembered she’d mentioned she was “practically a vet”. Clearly, animals were a passion for her.
“And here I was, thinking you’d probably gone shopping,” he said as they swiped their way into the pool area. A quick glance revealed they had the space to themselves.
He wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing.
“Ugh. I hate shopping. The only time I go, it’s got to be a Seal mission—in and out in the shortest time possible.”
“Careful. The sisterhood is going to revoke your lady card if you keep talking like that,” he said.
She huffed out a laugh as they dropped their towels onto the wooden bench lining the wall.
“I’ll take the risk.”
He stripped off his T-shirt and Evie immediately picked up her towel and folded it into a neat square. It hadn’t escaped his notice that she got a little skittish every time he wasn’t fully dressed. Any other time and place, he’d take full advantage of that, but he’d already decided he wasn’t going to be an asshole where she was concerned.
“I’ll probably swim a mile,” he said. “Don’t feel like you have to stick around if you get bored.”
“Okay, I won’t.”
He dove in at the deep end and struck out, quickly falling into a steady freestyle stroke. Swimming always helped clear his mind and he let all the minutiae of his day fall away and turned his thoughts to tonight.
He’d drawn one the tour’s toughest animal athletes for tonight’s ride. Carnage was a five-year-old bull with an impressive history of destroying riders’ dreams. The last four outings, Carnage had tossed his rider in under three seconds. He was going to take some beating. This afternoon, Tanner planned to watch some footage of the bull in action, see if he could pick up any signature moves, any habitual behaviors. Like a footballer watching tape, he liked to find his enemy’s weaknesses, if he could.
From what he’d seen so far, though, Carnage didn’t have many. He was simply a mean-as-snot, cantankerous, rank bull who did not like to feel the weight of a man on his back and was prepared to do almost anything to relieve himself of that burden.
So. It was going to be one of those nights, but the flip side of that was that if he could stick the ride and qualify, he’d be sure to land good points, which would put him in a good position to take out this event. The end of the tour was still a long way off, but he’d been consistently in the top at every event so far this year. If he could keep that up and keep accruing points, he’d be walking home with another gold buckle and another million dollars in his pocket.
Not that he needed the money. Taking out the AEBR World Championship two years ago had solved most of his money problems. That and the ongoing sponsorships he’d secured as a result of his rising profile in the sport. That didn’t mean he didn’t want another gold buckle, though, and the extra money would mean the plans he had for his Current Creek property could happen sooner rather than later.
It took him a while to register there was someone swimming laps alongside him. First he caught a glimpse of something out of the corner of his eye when he did a tumble turn at the end of the pool. Then he felt the wash from another swimmer’s wake. He broke his rhythm to look to his left, and sure enough, there was Evie, slicing down the pool with an efficient freestyle stroke.
He kept an eye out for her after that. She wasn’t as fast as he was, but she wasn’t slow either, and when he finished his laps and stood in the shallow end, she was only a single length of the pool behind him.
It took her a few seconds to register he’d stopped swimming—she reached the shallow end, turned, then swam a few strokes before stopping and standing.
Her chest rose and fell as she lifted a hand to push loose strands of hair off her face.
“Was that a mile already?”
“Let me guess—you normally swim two,” he said.
She smiled, then adjusted the straps of her swimsuit with her thumbs.
“No way. I try for half a kilometer, usually.”
Her nipples were beaded beneath the wet Lycra, every curve of her plump little breasts revealed to him. He could feel himself getting hard, and he sank down into the water, ducking beneath the surface then pushing his hair back with his hand when he emerged.
“So is swimming your thing?” she asked.
“Bull riding is my thing. Swimming helps keep me flexible.”
“And that’s important for bull riding?”
“Only if you want to stay on. Staying in the saddle is all about anticipating what the bull is going to do next and moving your body weight around to counterbalance. Gotta be flexible and have good reaction times.”
“And do you?”
“I do okay,” he said. He wasn’t about to brag about his wins or his points. His ego wasn’t that fragile.
Evie put her head back and pushed off from the pool bottom so she was floating on her back, arms and legs loose at her sides. He allowed himself a single hungry glance at her breasts and thighs before following suit.
For a moment there was only the lap of the water against the sides of the pool, the distant hum of the filter, and the sound of his own breathing in his head as they floated side by side. Despite his acute awareness of Evie, it was surprisingly companionable.
She was an easy person to spend time with.
“I’m feeling a bout of nosiness coming on,” Evie said, breaking the silence.
“Try to resist it.” He smiled up at the ceiling, imagining her brow furrowing as she tried to work out if he was joking or not.
“I don’t think that’s going to work, sorry. So I’ll just ask—what does Tanner Harding do when he’s not riding bulls?”
“I’ve got a place in Colorado. At the moment I’m breeding ranch horses, and in the summer there are a couple of cabins I rent out to fly-fishers. The plan is to build more cabins, develop that side of the business, once I retire.”
“And when will that be?”
“When I can’t ride anymore, or when I don’t want to.”
Most likely it would be the former, not the latter. Nothing in the world matched the visceral thrill of pitting his strength against the raw, untamed power of a bucking bull. In the off-season, he missed it like a drug, even though each year his body accumulated more and more injuries. A few aches, sprains and concussions had always seemed like a small price to pay for doing something he loved so much.
“I hated it when Troy started riding. I’ve only ever watched him once,” Evie said. “My heart was in my mouth the whole time. Probably just as well things didn’t work out between us.”
He turned his head so he could see her. Her gaze was focused on the ceiling still, and she looked wistful.
“You planning on letting him know you’re in town at all?” he asked.
He was no expert, but it seemed to him she might benefit from having it out with Troy.
“I don’t know. Part of me wants to just walk away, never speak to him again. But I know that won’t last, and he’s practically family, so…”
“You never know, he might have something to say that’s worth hearing.”
“He might. But he might also say things I don’t want to hear. This whole trip has been humiliating enough already. I don’t know if I’m up for more.”
Her words got to him so much he tensed and started to sink. Pushing his feet to the floor, he stood.
“There’s no call for you to feel humiliated. You didn’t do anything wrong.”
“Yeah, I did. I was gullible and naive, and I’m smarter than that.”
“It’s not gullible to love someone,” he said gruffly.
Jesus. Was he really having this conversation? Since when had he turned into Dr. Phil?
“It’s gullible to ignore all the things you don’t want to see and concentrate on only the good things,” she said.
“Sure you’re not confusing gullibility with stubbornness?”
Her shocked laughter was so loud it echoed off the water. She flailed her arms, and her head sunk beneath the water before she stood, spluttering and blinking.
“Give a girl some warning before you drop a truth-bomb, why don’t you?” she said.
“You can handle it.” He swam toward the ladder. “I need to head across to the stadium. What do you want me to say if I run into Troy?”
He pulled himself out of the pool and glanced back at her, waiting for her answer.
She stared at the water for a beat. Then she shrugged and looked up at him.
“Tell him I’m here. What the hell, might as well get it over with.”
She looked about sixteen years old with her hair slicked back, not a smudge of makeup in sight.
“He got your number?”
“I’m sure it’s still in his little black book somewhere.”
He grabbed his gear.
“You’ll be hearing from him,” he promised.