Page 67 of Tempting as Sin
“Let’s go,” Jo said. “You said you wanted to ford a creek and ride uphill. This is your big chance. Try not to screw up any more than you can help. We’ll let Lily go first to show you how.”
That was the minus. The plus was that Rafe got to watch Lily’s seat on a horse, which was exactly as good as Ezra had said. She was always a pleasure in jeans, and if his mind went straight to Reverse Cowgirl during the more tedious phases of plodding up a never-ending mountain with dust in his mouth and flies in his hair, you could hardly blame him. Everybody got to go to their Happy Place.
“Pay attention,” Jo boomed from behind him. “What are you thinking about? Stop thinking it. Look at Lily’s back. That’s how you do it.”
Lily turned and glanced back at him with a rueful smile, and he said, “Yeah, you’re right. That’s what I was thinking.” But he sat up straight. Eye on the prize. Discipline. He had it. He did it. When it started to hurt, he kept on doing it, and when it hurt more, he set his jaw and focused.
“Better,” Jo said. “You sore?”
“You could say that,” he said. “Never mind.”
She grunted. “One thing I’ll say for you. You got guts.”
Lily turned around again. “What do you have?”
“Guts,” he informed her.
“Oh,” she said. “WhatIhave, personally, is bruised lady parts.” She smiled at him sweetly. “It’s been a while. Just wait until we go downhill. Ow.”
They were heading around a corner, though, and Rafe caught his breath and forgot the flies and the dust and a pair of bollocks that felt like Dr. Ezra had been performing surgery on them.
A sapphire lake ringed by evergreens lay spread out like a jewel beneath the granite-faced summits of the Rockies, their peaks crowned with white even in midsummer, under a pristine blue sky dotted with a few fluffy white clouds. The trail sloped gently downward all the way to the lake, and on the other side, an enormous emerald field was dotted with purple.
It was a postcard, and it was so much more than that. The crispness in the air up here, the buzzing of insects, the scent of horse and pine, the sound of the wind, and more than anything, the scale of it. You couldn’t put that in a picture. You could only feel it in your heart.
“Lupines,” Lily said on a breath, her voice full of wonder. “Oh, it’s beautiful.”
“If you want to pick up the pace,” Jo called out from behind Rafe, “now would be the time.”
Lily didn’t need any more invitation than that. She’d signaled to her mare already, and the horse was pulling away in a medium-fast trot, Lily’s gorgeous backside barely touching the saddle.
“Posting to the trot,” Jo said. “That’s a pretty thing to watch.” Which was true. Rafe hauled on his discipline once more, gave Thunderbolt a nudge, and followed after, rising and falling with the horse with every bit of back and abdominal strength he had.
Down the slope, more than twice as fast as they’d ridden up, and the trail was evening out, sweeping around the lake, its surface smoother now. Another message from Lily, and she was cantering, moving like she was part of the horse.
“Now’s the time,” Jo said again. “Come on, cowboy. Show us what you got.”
Rafe took a long breath, let it out, and signaled with knees, rein, and body. And Thunderbolt ran.
So different than in the paddock. The horse’s mane was flying, and so was the horse. He was trying to catch up to Starlight the same way Rafe wanted to catch up with Lily, like the gelding had never happened and a wilder, more ancient voice called his name. Picking up on his rider’s emotions, and putting them into action.
At first, Rafe focused on getting it right. On holding on with his legs, on keeping his body moving with the horse’s. And then they swept around the bend, Lily was ahead of him, leaning forward in the saddle, urging her horse into a gallop, and he forgot to think about getting it right and just did it.
The motion was him, and he was the motion. The ground flashing away below, the sound of beating hooves in his ears, the wind in his face. It was like a tumbler had clicked into place in a lock and the door had opened. He got it. Hegotit.
Around the meadow, now, the hoofbeats softened by the grass, and the beauty that was Lily on a white horse ahead of him. The horse’s tawny tail and mane flying, and the sight of horse and rider taking the turns like they’d been born to do this. Once around, twice, and Lily was leaning back, bringing the mare out of the gallop, back to the trot again, and then to an amble, and Rafe followed along like it was natural. Because, finally, it was.
Lily discovered that she was laughing out loud, patting her horse’s neck. She walked Starlight down to the lake and let her take a drink, and when Rafe came up beside her, she had to smile at him, too, didn’t she? “That was awesome,” she told him. “That was amazing. That was singing karaoke with you, dancing on the stage like I was floating, feeling your magic and trusting it to carry me, too. It was falling in love with life again, just like that night. Coming out of my cocoon, unfolding my wings, and flying.” She laughed again from pure delight. She should feel self-conscious, but she couldn’t. “Sharing so you know.”
He took off his sunglasses and smiled back at her, his silver-blue eyes warm, the creases around them deepening. Every inch a man, and nothing cocky about him.A face full of joy,she thought, and then she said it, because how could she not?
“Weeping may endure for a night,” she told him, “but joy cometh in the morning. That’s what they say, and every once in a while, it’s even true.”
His face changed, and his body did, too. He came to attention. What he said, though, was, “You’re beautiful. You were beautiful that night, and you’re even more beautiful today. And I love watching you fly.”
She leaned over in the saddle, and so did he, and when she touched her lips to his, there was that current between them again. Softer this time, and sweeter, too. A river, not a jagged streak of lightning. A connection, and a promise.
Jo’s voice, behind them. “Felt good, did it? You figure out why I gave you Thunderbolt? Feel like you finally got it right?”
