Page 53 of Cowboy Under Siege

His back was rigid. The tendons in his forearms were more roped than usual, and she guessed it wasn’t because he was a nervous rider. He’d been confident enough to get on the back of that bull, after all.

Somehow, she needed to break through this loaded silence, to make him see how genuinely sorry she was that she didn’t stay in the saferoom. In her defense, she’d only ordered that dumb blanket on a whim. Besides, who the hell even had a saferoom in their home?

Several sleepless hours of tossing and turning taught her that she preferred the scent of clean male musk to lavender anyway. Of coursethatthought scared her, but she wasn’t givinghimthe silent treatment, now was she?

Her horse kept wanting to give Jaren’s the lead. She could fight it, but what was the point? Her mind was beginning to accept that Jaren had a better grip on her protection, and she needed to fight off the streak of independence that had guided her for her entire life and—in this case—let him take the reins.

She gave her mare its head, which meant Trinny ended up riding a few paces behind Jaren. It allowed her the opportunity to study him. The lines of his back were relaxing more and more with every foot they ascended up the mountain.

God, his shoulders wereso broad. She gripped her reins tighter, palms suddenly sweaty from the need to spread across those shoulders that had become her shield over the past few days.

It all began with him showing off on that bull and then saving her and the boy back in the arena. He was a real-life hero.

With the same skill and ease he handled everything, his body rolled with the horse.

“How long have you been riding?” she called out to him.

For a moment, she didn’t know if he’d respond. Only the soft coo of a mourning dove answered her.

He clicked to his horse, and it dropped back to pace next to hers. Jaren’s black eyes landed on Trinny’s. The force of that look hit her core and traveled south between her thighs.

“Not long. I owe everything I know to Case.”

She pictured the man, and the beautiful blonde he was with too. “He seems like a good guy. Emersyn is fantastic too.”

He ducked his head in a nod.

The atmosphere between them was charged with a strain that no amount of small talk would dispel. She had no idea how to set things right between them, yet they had days—maybe weeks or months left together—and she had to try.

“I learned to ride when I was four,” she said.

“Young.” The word grated past his lips, the sandpapery sound hitching over her senses.

“Grandfather gave me a toy horse for my birthday and it sparked an interest in me.”

“No wonder you jumped that fence to save the boy.”

She thought of that toy horse hitting the dirt and the boy chasing it from the top, and her stomach clenched all over again. “I didn’t think about that, but I guess so. Anyway, after I received my toy horse I wanted nothing more than to ride a real horse. One day when my mom and I were visiting my grandparents, Grandfather took me off alone to a ranch where a friend of his kept horses and let me ride one. After that, nobody could get me out of the saddle.”

He cut a glance at her. It was loaded with intensity and interest but something more that she couldn’t pick out.

The trail was dappled with sunlight peeking through the trees and creating vibrant spots of green. The whole universe seemed to be humming with life.

And whatever was going on between her and her bodyguard was even stronger.

She went on, “I took all the lessons. My grandfather gifted me a real horse, a cute little pony I named Polka.”

That earned her a quick upward tilt of Jaren’s hard lips. “Why Polka?”

“I was also in love with polka dots at the time.”

“I see.”

She studied his profile. What did he really see? Was it the lonely life of a young girl who didn’t ever fit in with the society her mother forced on her? The high-class friends who only had time for her if their parents were around to see?

“The rodeo was the first time I really relaxed in my whole life.” Her confession brought his head around and his stare back to hers.

His gaze punched through her. Her stomach took a wild leap.

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