Karen Anders - High-Stakes Colton

“Maybe,” she responded noncommittally. He cocked his head, and there was interest in those blue eyes, but she couldn’t be certain exactly what the source of it was. When he turned it on, the heat was so intense, she felt scorched clear down to her toes. She had muscles quivering in places she’d normally have to be naked to have quivering, and he hadn’t so much as laid a finger on her.

And, God help her, in that moment, she certainly wanted him to lay fingers and a whole lot more on her.

Trying desperately to shake herself free from such a spellbinding haze, she broke away from his intent gaze and sidestepped around him. Unfortunately, it required her to slide and put her hands briefly on his chest since they were in such close quarters. Without warning he settled his arms around her and spun her toward the door, not letting her go immediately.

His skin burned beneath her palms and the look in his eyes sent weakness through her, her nipples were so tight they hurt.

His head dipped, but he didn’t move any closer. The twitch of his lips was more of a real smile now, one that made it all the way to his eyes, crinkling the corners. And wasn’t that just lethal and oh so sexy. “Maybe, huh? Don’t be too worried about setting me in my place. I can handle rejection.”

She couldn’t help it. She smiled back. “I’m taking a shot in the dark here, but I bet that doesn’t happen to you often if at all.”

He lifted a shoulder, but didn’t respond.

She still didn’t believe the interest wasn’t just a cover for something else.

“I won’t keep you any longer.” It was his voice, she decided, as if he was hypnotizing her the way he did horses. The timbre of his voice when he said “keep,” how it dropped an octave, melted her. “Oh, thanks for the towels.” The twinkle resurfaced, as did the eye crinkling. “And for the concern over your brother, but I can handle him.” He was intensity personified, which she was clearly struggling to resist. She really didn’t need him to be charming, to boot.

“Thank you for the compliments.”

“All true.”

She was looking straight at him—like she could look anywhere else, even if she wanted to—and she could swear he was telling the truth. Maybe she was paranoid. Maybe he really was simply here to train Zorro and to kill some time flirting with an heiress.

But being paranoid was what had kept her one step ahead of her father and brother, the press, businessmen who thought she was a pushover, and blue-eyed flirts who thought she was starved for attention and might be an easy lay. She couldn’t afford to be anything but an island.

But he made it easy to respond to this verbal foreplay he’d so effortlessly begun. Like, even if she didn’t have bigger things to worry about, she’d want the attentions of a guy who may be anywhere from a low-down spy to a bedpost notcher.

“You wouldn’t be trying to get us both into trouble, would you?”

His lips curved. There was a flash of white teeth. “Maybe,” he said before he closed the door.

She stood there for a moment, then realized she was in the hall. How she’d gotten there escaped her.

Maybe she was starved for attention and maybe he was cowboy sexy wrapped up in a gorgeous, well-muscled package with all kinds of sidetracking possibilities.

But everything about her upcoming coup d’état had to stay hush-hush. She was going out on a limb with her plans, going against her father’s wishes and now against Fowler’s.

She was an island all right. One surrounded by shark-infested waters.

She couldn’t trust a soul. Or could she?

Was Jake one of those hungry sharks or was he that lone rescue ship on the horizon?

* * *

A few days later, things weren’t any better. She’d tossed and turned every night thinking about Jake and his hot body and tame-the-savage-beast sexy voice.

Currently, she was grinning as she stood behind the open stall door and watched Clay Ford, one of her kids from the community project Colton Valley Ranch Gives Back lead Lotus out. She had no worries about the horse acting up. Excluding Clay doing something totally unusual, Lotus would go through the motions on autopilot, as she’d done a million times before.

Other than overseeing the breeding, shoeing and general upkeep of the stables, Alanna had kept pretty much to the arena and away from Zorro’s paddock. She didn’t want to come into contact with Jake. Hopefully, he could do his horse-whispering magic, then go back to where he came from.

Just because she took the time to put on makeup and a little lip color or take care to put on some skinny jeans with a black tank and a short-sleeved checked shirt tied under her breasts and a pair of really cute black boots when she normally wore ratty working clothes and worn brown boots didn’t mean a thing.

She certainly didn’t need to worry about Lotus misbehaving. The one she needed to worry about was herself. In any near vicinity, Jake was potent enough. Up close in any personal proximity, he was downright intoxicating. He was intensity, charm, humor with the kind of focus that made her want to smooth her hair back and moisten her lips. Hell, if she was honest he made her want to do a whole lot more than that. There had been moments where she could have sworn he was thinking the same thing. Thank God there had been plenty of interruptions.

Even if Jake wasn’t the enemy she feared—and she wasn’t certain about that yet—he wasn’t an ally, either. Of any sort. Couldn’t be, not in her current circumstances. She just hadn’t counted on that bothering her so much.

She closed the stall door as soon as the horse was out, then walked on ahead of them, toward the crossover to the other aisle.

“What if she doesn’t go?”

She turned and smiled when she found him still standing just outside the stall. “No worries, Clay. She’s quite the lady and will be fine. You did say you wanted to learn to ride.”

He nodded, his whiskey-brown eyes still wary of the mare which wasn’t a bad thing. A healthy respect for animals that weighed tons of pounds and could with a flick of their head or a movement of their body do some serious damage. He was a handsome kid, one who had that bad boy vibe going and the chip on his shoulder, using a disarming grin to get by. He’d gotten into some trouble with the law over shoplifting, but it was because he was living on the street.

It was satisfying work—more than satisfying, she thought, as she replayed some of the kids’ reactions today as they spent time around these magnificent beasts.

In the few months since she’d worked to get the program going, it had never ceased to move her, the way the animals brought out so much in jaded teens who were otherwise so closed off, mostly due to forces beyond their control and largely terrible situations and circumstances. She wasn’t sure if she could save any of these kids, the system was a tough place to be, but she hoped she could give them some values and responsibility, show them what it was to work hard for a good cause. Give them a purpose for now and maybe...just maybe they would find something they could use for their continuing journey into adulthood.

She wanted to enrich their lives, giving them windows of opportunity to express and enjoy themselves in ways that conventional therapy methods could not. Oftentimes, the look on a teen’s face made it clear how vitally important their being here really was.

It was invigorating, but also exhausting. A whole lot of emotions were being expended into the air of Colton Valley Ranch Stables every single day, and it did zap a person, even if it was for the very best of reasons. Today had been one of those days. She’d debated even working with Clay, not wanting to risk him or Lotus picking up on her less-than-sharp reflexes, or worse, her tension. Tension that really had nothing to do with the day she’d put in, and everything to do with the man who had invaded her world. But the day she’d put in made hiding those feelings a little tougher. And she needed all the stamina she could muster to make it through this lesson.