Page 68 of Tempting as Sin
Rafe turned in the saddle, put his sunglasses back on, and grinned at her. “Yeah,” he said. “Reckon that’s what everybody’s talking about.”
“The horse,” she said, “or the girl?”
“Oh,” he said, “I’d say both.”
Which was all very wonderful until they were headed down the mountain again, and Rafe was trying not to let his beautiful moment be drowned out by hours of jarring designed to take his manhood straight out of the picture.
“All right?” Lily asked after one particularly rocky stretch.
“As long as I never want to father children,” he said through his teeth, “brilliant.”
Her laugh floated back to him. “I’m not much better off, if it helps. Never mind. I have a plan.”
“Unless it involves anesthesia,” he said, “I don’t care.” Sounded narky, but then, hewasnarky. Even the thought of sex wasn’t helping as much as it should have. He was fairly sure he’d never want to use his testicles again.
That was one moment. The next, Lily’s horse was backing up with dancing steps, and Thunderbolt was whinnying. No mere dancing for him, though. He reared. And Rafe stayed on. This morning, he’d fallen off. Now, he stayed on.
“Whoa,” he said. “Whoa, boy. Settle down.” Thunderbolt dropped to four legs again, and Rafe gave him a pat. The horse’s skin quivered, and Lily, ahead of him, said, a little shakiness in her own voice, “Well,thatwasn’t there this morning.”
A rotten log beside the track was ripped to pieces, but that wasn’t the main thing. That would be the mound of dung in the middle of the track that was more like a mountain. Thesteamingmound of dung. And then there were the paw prints in a muddy patch near that rotten log. A good fifteen inches across, with the claw marks gouging deep into the earth.
“That’s a grizzly,” Jo said unnecessarily, since the horses had all received the message already and were dancing as much as the track and their riders would allow. “Could be close to a thousand pounds. Big sucker. We’ll pick up the pace a little.”
“Should we do something?” Rafe asked. “How long are those claws, anyway?”
“Four inches,” Jo said. “And nothing to do but let him know we’re here and let him keep out of our way. Shooting him would just make him mad. You could sing, though.”
“Ah…” Rafe said. “I couldsing?Reckon I could, but…to soothe the savage beast, or the nerves, or what?”
“I’d feel better about this,” Lily said, “if you hadn’t just told me that you’d been attacked by a sharkandbitten by a poisonous snake. Twice.”
“Could be I’ve used up my bad luck,” Rafe said. Lily wasn’t sounding scared anymore, so that was good.
“A shark and a snake,” Jo said. “That’s some double-barrelled luck, all right. Maybe we should make you ride in front.”
Lily snorted, and Rafe said, “Good idea,” edged his horse around hers, and started off again.
“Joke,” Jo called from the back. “You’re the client. I’ll ride in front.”
“Nah,” Rafe said. “You can ride in back, and I’ll hope he sneaks up on us.”Do me a favor,he thought. He might not be the best rider in the world, but he made a fair-sized shield. “Also, if it’s singing that’s required, I’m the loudest.”
“All right, then,” Jo said, surrendering to the inevitable. “No reason for him to go for us anyway, if he hears us ahead of time. I’d do the singing myself, but it could be worse than a bear attack. Only woman ever asked to shut up during the National Anthem at the rodeo.”
Which was why Rafe spent the last hour of the ride singing with Lily and warding off bears.Waltzing Matildafirst, and then the official anthem, boring except for the last line,Advance Australia Fair.He could get behind that.Down Under,naturally, with him tapping out the beat on the horn of his saddle, and Lily going to town on the chorus until Jo had no choice but to join in, bellowing it out in a way that seemed likely to spook the horses, if not the bear. After that, Rafe sang some Keith Urban, the next best Aussie thing he could manage. Keith wasn’t a bad bloke, and he did a nice line in I’m-here-for-you songs, the kind a wounded, wary woman might need to hear.
At first, he slowed it down. He couldn’t see Lily, but he sang to her anyway. He sang that blue wasn’t her color, that she’d been made for something better. She didn’t say anything, but maybe she heard. He sang about how life went by too fast in the city, and it was time to slow down and live for now. When he finished that one, Lily said, “That’s it. That’s how I felt. How can you know that? It’s like you’re in my head.”
“Nah,” he said. “Paying attention, that’s all. Anybody can do it. You do it all the time.”
“Maybe,” she said, “but I’ve never seen a man do it. Except maybe Jace, with Paige.”
“Well, there you go,” he said. “We’re special. Just like the two of you.”
After that, he went for it. He sang that she’d been unlucky before, but she was here with him now. That those days were over, because this time, he’d do the fighting for her. After he’d finished, he sang it again, and this time, she sang her parts.
By the time they got down the mountain and dismounted, the horses were calm again, and he’d forgotten how sore he was. There were some tears in Lily’s eyes, and when he stepped to her, put a gentle hand under her chin, lifted her face to his, and kissed her, a couple of them spilled over and made their way down her cheeks.
“Stupid,” she said, laughing and brushing them away.
