Linda Warren - Caitlyn's Prize

“Any ideas?” she asked as she caught sight of Harland and his cowboys on the horizon. They were watching, waiting for her to make a fool of herself.

“The old-fashioned way?” Coop suggested.

“Okay.” She knew cattle and she knew horses, and both were unpredictable. Cait wasn’t counting on Boss being docile and following her to High Five. He was in the midst of sealing a thirty-second love affair with a high-priced cow, and he wasn’t going to take their intrusion kindly. “Let’s give our quarter horses a workout. Ready?”

“Yep. Watch those sawed-off horns.”

“I’ll take the left,” Cait said as she meandered into the herd. Coop moved to the right of the bull.

The cows scattered, and as soon as Boss spotted the riders, he swung his head in an agitated manner and pawed at the ground with a you’ll-never-take-me stance. Cait patted Jaz’s neck. “Okay, let’s show him who’s the boss.”

They effectively cut him away from the herd, and Boss wasn’t happy. He charged, but Jaz did her magic, swinging back and forth, not letting him get by. The bull charged the other way, but Coop was there, blocking his path. Boss swung toward Cait again and she let Jaz work the way she’d been trained. The quick moves had Cait on full alert. She had to stay focused and not lose her balance.

As the bull switched gears and charged toward Coop yet again, Caitlyn pulled the Hot-Shot cattle prod from her saddle and rode in and zapped the animal from the rear.

Not liking the sting, Boss spun round and round, snot flying from his nose, and then made a dead run for High Five.

“Hot damn,” Coop shouted. He rode right on the bull’s tail, whooping and hollering.

Jaz was ready to run, too, and Cait had a hard time controlling her. As Jaz pranced around, Cait saw that Judd had joined Harland and the boys. There was no mistaking him. She backed up Jaz with a quick step, thumbed her nose at the watching crowd, then hightailed it for High Five. She didn’t even mind eating Coop’s and Boss’s dust.

“Yee haw,” she cried, just for the hell of it, immensely grateful she hadn’t made a fool of herself. Or maybe that was a matter of opinion.

When she caught up with Coop, he was watching Boss refamiliarize himself with the High Five herd, sniffing each cow to make sure he hadn’t missed one while he was rambling.

“That bull has one insatiable appetite.”

“It keeps calves on the ground,” Cait said, trying not to smile. “Now let’s fix that fence.” She turned Jaz and saw the rider coming their way. “Now what?”

Judd, tall and impressive in the saddle, was headed toward her. He rode a magnificent black stallion, as magnificent as the man himself. Both exuded strength, power and a touch of splendor. And she could be suffering from too much sun, because Judd had more of a touch of the devil than of splendor.

“I’m going to get Rufus,” Coop said. “You’re on your own.”

“Gee, thanks.” She nudged her horse forward to meet her neighbor, wiping dust from her mouth with the back of her hand. At that moment she realized what a sight she must look, with dust from her hat to her boots and sweat staining her blouse. She smelled as foul as her horse, and the fact rubbed like a cocklebur against the feminine side of her nature.

“Why are you playing rodeo in my herd?”

“I was told to get my bull out, and that’s what I did.” She kept her voice neutral and didn’t react to his angry tone.

“My boys could have cut him out much easier.” His tone didn’t change.

She rose a bit in the saddle and the leather creaked. “I thought I did a damn good job myself, considering time was of the essence.”

He squinted against the noonday sun. “What do you mean?”

“Harland said he was going to shoot him if I didn’t get him out in a nanosecond. Something about ‘registered cows’ and ‘Judd Calhoun wasn’t pleased.’”

His face tightened into those taut lines she knew so well. “I never said anything about shooting the bull. You have my word he won’t be shot. Just keep the damn animal on your property.”

A quick thank-you rose in her throat, but his last sentence killed the idea like a blast from a shotgun, successfully scattering it to the saner regions of her mind.

“That’s what I’m doing,” she said through clenched teeth.

He motioned over his shoulder. “I’ll have the fence repaired.”

“I can fix the fence.”

“I want it done right and not half-ass.”

Any other time she would have spat holy hell at his high-handedness. But it would take money to repair the fence properly, money she didn’t have. For the sake of High Five she pushed her pride aside. And the weight was heavy. It took her a full minute to nod her head.

He stood in the stirrups and picked up his reins. Suddenly he eased his butt back against the leather, his black eyes holding hers with a gleam she remembered from her younger days—a gleam of playful teasing. Talk about a blast from the past. It was so unexpected it almost knocked her out of the saddle.

“Your blouse is open.”

She glanced down and saw that two snaps were undone, revealing the white lace of her bra. They must have come open when she was bulldogging Boss. Oh, sh…

Raising her eyes to his, she replied, “I know. I like it that way. It’s cooler.”

“It might give Yates the wrong idea.”

“Maybe. But that’s none of your business.”

He inclined his head, and she wondered if he remembered all the times he had undone her blouse, and what had followed afterward. With all the women who’d followed her in his life, she doubted it. But she remembered the tantalizing brush of his fingers and the excitement that had leaped through her—much as it was doing now. Some memories were gold plated and stored in secret places. Why she’d chosen this moment to review them was unclear.

“Enjoy the fresh air.” He kneed the stallion, and the horse responded beautifully, turning on a dime and kicking up dirt. She watched rider and horse until they disappeared into the distance.

Then she slowly snapped her shirt closed.

JUDD GAVE BARON HIS HEAD and they flew through fields of coastal and herds of cattle. They sliced through the wind effortlessly, but no matter how fast the stallion ran, Judd couldn’t outrun the fire in his gut from when he’d looked at Caitlyn.

He shouldn’t feel this way after all these years. How could he hate her and react like this? All he could think about was reaching out and undoing the rest of those snaps, lifting her from the saddle and then sliding with her to the grass. Nothing existed but the two of them, and together they rode to places only lovers knew about….

His hat flew off and he slowed. He turned Baron and headed back for it. Reaching down, he swiped it from the ground. After dusting it off, he galloped toward home. And put every memory of Caitlyn out of his mind. That came easy. He’d been doing it for years.

Over the ridge, Harland and the cowboys were waiting. Judd stopped.

“Get supplies and fix that fence today,” he said to the foreman. “I don’t want that bull back in my herd.”

“You want us to fix the fence?” Harland asked, a touch of sarcasm in his voice.

Being second-guessed rubbed Judd the wrong way. Harland questioned too many of his orders, and he wanted it stopped.

“Do you have a problem with that?” he asked, his eyes locking with the other man’s.

“No, sir, but—”

“On the Southern Cross, I’m the boss and what I say goes. If that doesn’t suit you, you’re welcome to leave. Now.”

“C’mon, Judd, I’ve worked here a long time. I just thought Miss Belle should be the one to fix the fence. Her bull broke it.”