Page 6 of My Cowboy Temptation

Those pert breasts strain against her shirt, bouncing with every movement, and her strong, curvy thighs tighten around her horse for balance and support as she rides.

Fuck me if I don’t wish I’m that goddamn horse, and Callie Castle is riding me hard, fast, and just as furious.

“Are you going to just scowl at me all day?” she asks, bringing her horse to a walk.

I come up alongside her. “When you’re riding so recklessly? Hell yeah.”

“Come on. You know I’ve been riding these trails since I was a kid. I could do it with my eyes shut,” she boasts.

“Maybe six years ago. But you haven’t been on these trails in that time, and you sure as hell don’t know what condition they’re in. What are you thinking?”

She ignores my question. “What are you thinking? I would imagine that Castle Creek’s ranch manager would have a million other things to do besides playing babysitter to me. You could have sent any of the other ranch hands out, but you came instead.”

“I had pity on the other guys.”

She smiles. “Sure. And it has nothing to do with the fact that out here, just the two of us, with no one else around, we can do just about anything we want?”

The prospect of what anything we want might entail has my dick twitching.

I close my eyes for the barest second and take a deep breath to get control of myself. “Callie, you can’t go talking like that. Not about me,” I say, my voice gruff.

“Why not? I’m not the same seventeen-year-old girl that you can push away and pretend you don’t have feelings for. I see the way you look at me, Brody Dalton. I see the longing in those eyes, the way your eyes followed me the moment I walked into the kitchen this morning.”

“Hell, you make me sound like a stalker. Or at the very least, a perverted old man. I’ve known you since you were a baby, Cal. Saw your daddy bring you home from the hospital. Been there for every birthday until you turned eighteen. There’s no world where the two of us can be together. Your dad is like a brother to me. You don’t fuck your brother’s daughter.”

She looks at me expectantly. “You’ve thought about it then? About fucking me?”

I muffle a groan at hearing the words “fucking” cross those pretty, full lips. “It doesn’t matter. I owe your dad too much to do anything like that.”

“Why would he have to know?”

I can’t believe I’m even having this conversation. “There’s not a hell of a lot that happens around here that your dad doesn’t know about.”

“Only because he has you as his eyes and ears. You don’t have to share this with him. It would be our secret.”

“Callie, honey, you’re talking dreams and rainbows. I’m too fucking old for someone like you, someone with their entire future ahead of them. Besides, I heard you might be picking up for London in a month, an assistant to some artist. That’s got to be a big deal.”

She shrugs. “Maybe. I don’t have it yet. He’s talking to two other applicants before he decides.”

I like this topic. It’s safer for us both. “So who is this artist, and why do you want to work for him anyway?”

“Theodore De Longer. He’s a genius and is something of a star in the art world. Working with him could open so many more doors for me.”

I run my hand through my beard. “How is bringing him coffee and taking his phone calls going to help open doors exactly?”

“Being his assistant would involve more than just that. I’d be making all of his appointments, liaising with art galleries and their managers, meeting other artists. You know, networking. Not to mention that I’ll be watching him work, hopefully learning some new techniques. If he trusts me, I might even be able to assist him with some of the painting.”

“What about your work? Isn’t that going to cut into your time? I may not know a lot about art, but I’ve always known you’ve got talent.” She always could create such vivid imagery with just the few strokes of her hand. The painting of the barn cat she made when she was twelve still hangs in the barn now, not just for sentimental reasons, but because it was a hell of a rendition of the old tabby.

Callie’s quiet. “I don’t really have much of anything left now, though, do I?”

Shit. That’s right. The jack-shit stalker destroyed it all last night. “I’m sorry, Cal.”

“It’s okay. I’m trying to somehow put a positive spin on it.” She pauses, biting her bottom lip. “To tell you the truth, I’ve been wondering for a while now if I’ve been going in the wrong direction. With everything gone and having to start all over again, maybe it’s time I try something different.”

“Any ideas what that might be?”

“Maybe. But I want to be sure.”

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