Tessa Radley - The Saxon Brides

She approached a little nervously. Breeze turned her head, pricked her ears and gave Alyssa an enquiring look.

“Bend your leg.”

Alyssa obliged. The next moment Joshua hoisted her through the air. She landed in the English saddle and picked up the reins, while he adjusted the stirrups.

She stared down at his dark head. His hand brushed the inside of her jean-clad thigh, causing a frisson of heat. Her breath caught. She hated this tense awkwardness that yawned between them like a chasm and craved a return of the Joshua who had shown her around the vineyards. The Joshua with love for the land and passion in his eyes.

Even though she’d told David she couldn’t do the article, Alyssa couldn’t help wishing that Joshua would cooperate on the story. That way he’d have a chance to air his side of the situation to the public and she’d be able to do the article that David wanted so badly—and even clear up the damage she’d done to Joshua’s reputation last time.

The end result would be win-win all round. Then she and Joshua might be able to resolve this friction between them. Become colleagues or even—

“How does that feel?”

At the question she abandoned her wishful thinking and stood up in the stirrups. Both legs felt even. She pulled a face. “Wobbly. Like I haven’t been on a horse in a very long time.”

Joshua’s head tilted back and his black-as-midnight eyes clashed with hers. Her heart flopped over.

“Your stirrup leathers … are they even?”

“They’ll do.” Alyssa made a pretence of fiddling with the reins—anything to avoid looking at Joshua, not to feel that shameless heart-stopping surge of want that simply glancing at him aroused.

“Okay.” With economy of movement, Joshua swung himself easily up onto the bay’s back. Alyssa watched furtively through lowered lashes as he settled himself. He sat straight, totally at one with the horse beneath him; the broad shoulders tapering down beneath his blue-and-cream-striped shirt to where his faded jeans rode low on his hips. She didn’t even see the command he gave to make the bay move. No doubt he’d been riding all his life.

As they rode out of the stable block, a black horse trotted poker-legged along the length of the fence, neck arched, his head held high. Beautiful but defiant.

“I’m glad you’re not riding him.” Alyssa tipped her head in the stallion’s direction.

“I want to enjoy the ride.” Joshua turned his head to look at the horse. “And I won’t if I ride that animal. It takes hours to catch Ladykiller.”

Alyssa gave the stallion a look of sympathy. But the horse belonged here. She didn’t—and never would.

Joshua had made that very clear.

An hour later the rolling grasslands ended. The trail entered dense, overgrown bush and narrowed dramatically. They rode in single file with Joshua ahead.

Alyssa looked around with interest. Roland would’ve taken the same path and passed beneath the same trees. She called out, “So how much farther to go?”

Joshua turned in the saddle. “Not long now. We’re nearly there.”

Birds chirruped in the canopy overhead and bits of sunlight dappled the lush green ferns under the trees. Alyssa’s heart lifted. She banked the scents and sounds to remember later, when she was back in the rat race of Auckland amidst the hurly-burly of deadlines and rush-hour traffic.

“Hold tight,” Joshua said a few minutes later.

Alyssa’s breath caught in her throat as she saw the incline that he planned to ride down.

She tugged on the reins to slow Breeze down. “I can’t go down there!”

“Yes, you can. Believe in yourself. Lean back a little, hold the pommel of the saddle and try to relax. Come, follow me. You can do it.”

Already he was descending. Alyssa could hear the scrabble of loose stones under his mount’s hooves, could see his back swaying in time to the horse’s stride. Rigid with apprehension, she let the reins slide through her fingers as Breeze extended her neck, lowered her head and pricked her ears forward. Alyssa grabbed at the pommel, and stared through the space between the mare’s ears and hoped frantically for the best.

At the bottom of the incline she let out a whoop of triumph that caused Breeze’s ears to flicker back. “I did it!”

She couldn’t believe the sense of achievement she felt.

Joshua was waiting. He shot her the first grin he’d given her for what felt like a century. “Of course you did. Did you think I would’ve let you get hurt while you were in my care?”

As she heard the words, a penny dropped. Joshua was the boss. The final responsibility always stopped with him. Shielding a female worker from ugly gossip after she’d been harassed, making sure his mother wasn’t upset while she mourned her dead son, protecting Amy from any sexual indiscretion that Roland might have committed. How many more burdens did he assume?

The boss. The guy who carried all the weight. Didn’t he ever tire of it?

“Don’t you ever want to share the load a little?”

“What load?” The grin disappeared and he stared at her blankly.

Alyssa wanted the grin back, wanted to see the flash of white teeth and the way his eyes lit up and crinkled at the corners. “The load of taking care of everyone around you. It must grow exhausting.”

“Not really. I like to see people grow and achieve things that they doubted they could.” He nodded at the incline. “Like you did there.” He wheeled the big bay around and moved forward.

And that was the quality that made him such a great boss. She’d watched him at work in the winery. He had the ability to encourage people to try new things, to strive to do their best. Alyssa was thinking so hard about Joshua, she almost missed the first view of the waterfall as they rode into a sunlit clearing, and Joshua reined in ahead of her.

Her breath caught at the sight of the water tumbling down the sheer rock face, frothing into a lazy pool at the bottom. Roland must have spent hours here. A perfect swimming hole for a hot summer’s day.

Breeze stopped alongside Joshua’s bay.

“I didn’t bring togs to swim in,” Alyssa said.

“The water is icy this time of the year. In a month or so it will be warmer. We can eat instead.”

Hunger rumbled in her stomach. “I didn’t even think of food.”

“I brought some lunch,” Joshua revealed, dismounting. “We can eat that beside the waterfall.”

“You made food?”

“Not me, Ivy made it.”

But he’d remembered to organise it. Alyssa had always considered herself organised, but Joshua’s attention to detail was overwhelming.

He helped her off the horse, his hands firm at her waist. Alyssa suppressed the flare of awareness. Relief overtook her when Joshua moved away to tether the horses. She sat down on a soft mound of grass above the water’s edge. From here the view of the waterfall was spectacular. It bubbled over a ledge of rock and plummeted over the drop into the dark green pool below, the sound oddly soothing. A sense of peace stole over her.

“It’s beautiful. I can see why Roland loved it here.”

Joshua flung himself down beside her and started to unzip the saddle pack he held. “It wasn’t the beauty that Roland loved. It was the danger the place represented.”

“Danger?” Alyssa stared at him. “Where?”

“See those rocks?” He pointed to boulders at the side of the ledge over which the waterfall flowed. “Roland liked nothing more than challenging a friend to dive from there.”

Alyssa’s heart sank like a stone as she took in the sheer height of the drop. “Was he insane?” The words burst from her.

“He loved the adrenaline rush. Roland never felt fear.”

She had to ask. “Didn’t anyone get hurt?”