Tamara’s call leaves me in a state of mental turmoil. On autopilot, I have a quick shower and dress in jeans and a T-shirt. I don’t know what she can or will try to do. All I know is whatever it is, it will hurt me. I go out to the living room and flash a bright smile at Lars.

He looks at me with narrowed eyes. “What’s wrong?”

I shake my head, my smile in place. “Nothing. Everything is just perfect.”

“Something is wrong. Tell me what it is, baby.”

God, I want to confide in him, tell him the whole sordid story, but now I have another sword hanging over my head. Telling him could mean he’d lose his job. I know he loves being here, and the last thing I want to do to him is to part him from his beloved mountain. I walk up to him and rub my hand against the bulge in his pants. His face changes as I knew it would. His cock jerks instantly to attention.

He groans. “Hell, Tamara. You’re going to make me come in my pants.”

I take my hand away. “What have you got planned for us today.”

He gives a slow smile. “We could start by finishing what you just started.”

I put Tamara out of my mind and grin at him. “That’s just to keep you keen and mean for when I show you my cherry pop routine.”

“I am keen and mean.” His eyebrows fly into his hat. “Wait! Your what?”

I wink. “You’ll just have to wait and see, won’t you?”

“You expect me to wait after telling me about your cherry pop routine?”

I stand on the tips of my toes and nibble at his earlobe. “Trust me, it’s worth the wait.”

He runs his hand through his hair. “Jesus, woman. You sure know how to drive a man crazy.”

“What’s the plan for today?”

“Come on. We’re taking the horses out,” he says, picking up a bag.

“What’s in the bag?”

“Let me in on what a cherry pop routine is and I’ll tell you what’s in the bag.”

“No way. Only a fool would accept a cow in exchange for magic beans.”

He throws his head back and laughs, the sound warming my heart and saddening it at the same time.

We go to the horse barn to get our horses. If I thought the sexual tension was bad before, it is ten times worse now. I just want him inside me all the time. I force myself to stop thinking about sex and concentrate on saddling Thunder.

I set Thunder’s saddle in almost the same time frame as Lars saddles Devil’s Ride, which makes me really proud. We go through the barn doors and out into the sunshine,

“So, what are we doing?” I ask

“We’re going on a picnic.”

“A picnic? Really?” I feel my heart lift.

His dimples show. “That’s the plan. But we don’t have to if you’d rather show me your cherry pop routine instead…”

“Nope, that’ll keep. I want to go on a picnic,” I say with an easy smile as I prepare to mount Thunder.

“Shame,” he replies, swinging his leg over Devil’s Ride.

Lars leads us beyond the horse pasture where the rest of the horses are roaming freely for the day. Dismounting from his horse, he opens the fence and waits for me to ride through before closing the fence and getting back on Devil’s Ride. We change from a canter to a gallop, but Lars lets me decide the pace I am comfortable with as we cross the open grasslands. The wind tears through my hair and I bend forward and laugh with exhilaration as I urge Thunder to go faster. It is one of the most amazing sensations I have ever experienced. The power of the animal beneath me makes me feel one with nature and fantastic speed makes me feels as if I’m flying.

Soon, Lars gives me a hand signal and we drop to a trot. My face feels flushed as I look at him. He smiles encouragingly at me. I pat Thunder’s neck and start to notice the scenic landscape around me. More than once, I find myself silently praying that one day I will have the chance to live in a place as beautiful as this, doing something as fun as this. Eventually, we arrive at an Aspen grove.

We follow a narrow trail that winds between the majestically tall trees and to my delight it opens out to an enclosure of vibrant green grass. There is a stream running through it with mossy stones at its banks and the air is lovely and cool. Red flowers sprinkle the ground and there are lilies growing in amongst the Aspen.

“Like it?” he asks.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything more beautiful,” I reply, gazing at my surroundings in amazement. How can one place be so beautiful in so many different ways? I never thought that a ranch would be my favorite place on earth, but it truly is. I haven’t been many places, but this is by far the most magnificent.

We dismount and let the horses drink the fresh, cool water before we tie them to a tree. Lars unloads the bulky bag from his horse and walks to a shady patch. He pulls a blanket from the bag, lays it out on the ground, and signals for me to sit on it. I take a seat and watch as he unpacks the basket he brought with him. Inside, it is filled with food.

“Mini sandwiches and turkey and ham. I also brought the condiments because I don’t know what you like,” he says, unveiling a packet full of small sandwiches and a whole bunch of condiment bottles.

“Chocolate covered strawberries,” he adds, extracting a long Tupperware container of the fruit from his basket.

“And,” he finishes, “a bottle of champagne.”

“My, my,” I murmur, widening my eyes.

Ignoring the sandwiches, I take a chocolate covered strawberry from the bowl. “You could do one more thing to make it better,” I say, taking the entire strawberry in my mouth and biting off the stalk. It is just as juicy and sweet as I expected.

“What?” he asks, leaning back.

“Kiss me.”

“I can do that.” He pushes himself against me, eating the rest of the strawberry from my mouth. I groan and allow him to finish the chocolate flavored kiss with a sweep of his tongue.

“Now it’s perfect,” I whisper.

But it wasn’t truly perfect until I undressed and, unmindful of a couple of peeping tom wild pigs in the grove, showed him the cherry pop routine that I stole from Jesse and he had slurped champagne from my breasts.