Rancher and Protector

He hadn’t laughed in years, or so it seemed. Not since … well, a lifetime ago.

“Easy there,” said the woman he’d been told was the most dishonest piece of work this side of the Mississippi.

Standing in a beam of sunlight, she looked like an angel. One of those made-in-Taiwan Christmas tree toppers, the kind with masses and masses of fake blond ringlets. Except her hair was real. He took in the bloom of color across her cheeks. Her tipped up nose. Plump lower lip.

Gorgeous.

“Shit.”

“What?” she asked, turning toward him. “Am I doing something wrong?”

“No,” he said. Get a grip, Colt. You’ve seen beautiful women before. “Just walk on up to him. Trust me, he knows what you want to do.”

She didn’t look like a criminal.

But Logan, his best friend, swore up and down that she’d stolen his son. Hidden the boy—her nephew—away in some kind of boarding school, and she wouldn’t tell Logan where he was. Didn’t have to tell him because she had full custody of the child, thanks to Logan’s brush with the law and her sister’s death. From what Colt knew of her, she was a deceitful city dweller with the morals of a snake. And so Colt had built up an idea of what Amber Brooks would look like—and this wasn’t it.

She was just about to put the halter on the horse when she sneezed again. The gelding started; Amber darted away. “Okay, that does it,” she said. “I’ll never make it as an intern if this keeps up.”

“You can’t back off now,” he said. “The horse will think he’s won.”

It might have been a few years since he’d worked his father’s ranch, and he might have been young back then, but when you were dealing with animals, you wanted to be in control.

“I’m scared,” she admitted. “Seriously, I think I should wait for Jarrod. He’s the person I’m interning with, and when he helped me out yesterday, I wasn’t half as scared.”

“That’s because he was standing right behind you,” Colt said, moving up next to her and urging her forward with his hand. “And I can, too.”

She was short, no more than five-three, with enough curves to fill a road map. But his buddy had warned him that Amber Brooks was a real piece of work. He’d known Logan since high school and was inclined to believe his friend. She might look heaven sent, but she was no angel.

“Here,” he said. Damn it. “It goes like this.” He demonstrated how to hold the halter, how to put the horse’s nose in first, than how to slip the crown piece through the brass buckle. “See?”

“Oh, yeah, that’s right,” she said. “I remember now. It’s like the harness that people use for bondage.”

Colt froze.

“Not that I’m into bondage or anything!” she quickly exclaimed, and if he read her body language right, she couldn’t believe she’d said the words. “I did a paper on fetishes when I was working on my masters.”

“Uh-huh.”

So. She was highly educated. Probably thought she was better than everyone else.

“Thanks,” she said, wry amusement on her face. “Honestly, I feel like an idiot.”

“You’ll do fine next time,” he found himself saying. “Let’s go.”

“Where?” she asked.

“I was told to help you saddle up the horse. That you were wanting to learn how to ride.”

“Ride?” she repeated, her blue eyes suddenly huge. “Oh, I—uh …”

He waited, wondering what the deal was with her. Why was she at this camp if she didn’t know anything about horses? She was the reason he’d taken the job. It was a deal he couldn’t refuse. In exchange for locating Logan’s son, Colt would receive the papers on his buddy’s best roping horse—an animal that’d been sitting around for a few years, sure, but a damn good horse all the same. The gelding was just the ticket Colt needed. A tie-down roper was only as good as the animal he rode, and for the past few years, Colt hadn’t been that good.

“Well,” he said, “the only way to learn is by working with them. Go get me a lead rope.”

“Is that the long cord thingy?” she asked.

He nodded. He needed to get to know her better. To put her at ease. To become her friend.

She came back into the stall, lead rope in hand.

He snapped the rope to the horse’s halter.

She was temptation wrapped in denim, and that presented a hell of a problem. He planned on betraying this pretty little package one day soon.

Chapter Two

Ride, Amber thought with a gulp.

She realized in that instant that it was one thing to decide to become a hippotherapist, quite another to actually do it … especially when horses were involved.

“Go on,” Colt said, motioning her ahead of him.

He didn’t look happy. She wondered if men like him found it tedious to teach newbies like her. His expression was as dour as a thundercloud.

“Where should I take her?” She glanced up at Flash.

“It’s a him,” the cowboy said. “There’s a rack out in front of the stable. Tie him out there.”

It was as if a really scary monster was following on her heels; that’s what leading a horse felt like.

Get used to it, Amber. A horse might be just what Dee needs. And if that proved true, well, she’d buy him ten horses.

Colt appeared unfazed by his surroundings. How nice to have been born on a ranch. Maybe if she’d been born on one, too, she wouldn’t feel so dang scared.

“How long have you been in the horse business?”

“Long time,” he said.

They stepped out of the shelter of the barn, and after being inside for so long, Amber had to blink in the glaring sunlight. It was bright outside, but so beautiful. Tall trees framed a parklike setting. She was pretty sure the trees were redwoods, they were so huge. In the distance she could see the empty army barracks. It seemed sad that up until last year the place had been abandoned. Well, now the Golden State Therapeutic Center, aka Camp Cowboy, made good use of it.

“No,” Colt said. “Not like that.”

Amber glanced down at the cord she’d wrapped around a pole.

She’d been so deep in thought she hadn’t given a second thought to how she tied it. “Not like what?”

“You need to use a quick-release knot.”