Page 34 of Irish Rebel
“Before school, eager young boys and girls should be eating breakfast, and after they should be playing with friends and doing homework.”
“That’s very strict.”
She chuckled and mixed some sliced carrots into the feed as an extra treat. “That’s what all my students say. I want them well-rounded. My family saw to it that I had interests and friendships outside the stable, that I got an education, that I saw something of the world besides the track and the barn. It matters.”
They divvied up the horses, and the stables filled with the sounds of whickers and whinnies as the meal was served.
“If you don’t mind my saying so, you don’t seem to be getting out and about much now.”
“I’m compulsive. Goal-oriented. I see what I want and, well, it’s like putting on blinders and heading down the backstretch. All I see is the finish line.”
She leaned in to rub a gelding’s neck as if he were a pet dog. “Which is why my parents wouldn’t let me spend my entire childhood around or on a horse. I took piano lessons, and as soon as I started I was determined to be the best student at the recital. If it was my job to clean the kitchen after dinner, then that damn kitchen was going to sparkle so bright you’d need sunglasses for your midnight snack.”
“That’s frightening.”
Responding to the humor in his eyes, she nodded. “It can be. Focusing on the school means, even though it’s still a single goal, that my compulsion to succeed is spread out to encompass so many elements—the kids, the horses as well as the academy itself. Once it’s firmly established, I can delegate a bit more, but I need to learn from the ground up. I don’t like to make mistakes. Which is why I haven’t been with a man before now.”
He was thrown off balance so quickly and completely, he could hear his own brain stumble. “Well, that’s... that’s wise.”
He took one definite step back, like a chessman going from square to square.
“It’s interesting that makes you nervous,” she said, countering his move.
“I’m not nervous, I’m... finished up here, it seems.” He tried another tactic, stepped to the side.
“Interesting,” she continued, mirroring his move, “that it would make you nervous, or uneasy if you prefer, when you’ve been... I think it’s safe to use the term ‘hitting on me’ since we met.”
“I don’t think that’s the proper term at all.” Since he seemed to be boxed into a corner, he decided he was really only standing his ground. “I acted in a natural way regarding a physical attraction. But—”
“And now that I’ve reacted in a natural way, you’ve felt the reins slip out of your hands and you’re panicked.”
“I’m certainly not panicked.” He ignored the terror gripping claws into his belly and concentrated on annoyance. “Back off, Keeley.”
“No.” With her eyes locked on his, she stepped in. Checkmate.
His back was hard up against a stall door and he’d been maneuvered there by a woman half his weight. It was mortifying. “This isn’t doing either of us any credit.” It took a lot of effort when the blood was rapidly draining out of his head, but he made his voice cool and firm. “The fact is I’ve rethought the matter.”
“Have you?”
“I have, yes, and—stop it,” he ordered when she ran the palms of her hands up over his chest.
“Your heart’s pounding,” she murmured. “So’s mine. Should I tell you what goes on inside my head, inside my body when you kiss me?”
“No.” He barely managed a croak this time. “And it’s not going to happen again.”
“Bet?” She laughed, rising up just enough to nip his chin. How could she have known how muchfunit was to twist a man into aroused knots? “Why don’t you tell me about this rethinking?”
“I’m not going to take advantage of your—of the situation.”
That, she thought, was wonderfully sweet. “At the moment, I seem to have the advantage. This time you’re trembling, Brian.”
The hell he was. How could he be trembling when he couldn’t feel his own legs? “I won’t be responsible. I won’t use your inexperience. Iwon’tdo this.” The last was said on a note of desperation and he pushed her aside.
“I’m responsible for myself. And I think I’ve just proven to both of us, that if and when I decide you’ll be the one, you won’t have a prayer.” She drew a deep, satisfied breath. “Knowing that’s incredibly flattering.”
“Arousing a man doesn’t take much skill, Keeley. We’re cooperative creatures in that area.”
If he’d expected that to scratch at her pride and cut into her power, he was mistaken. She only smiled, and the smile was full of secret female knowledge. “If that was true between us, if that were all that’s between us, we’d be naked on the tack room floor right now.”
