The Rancher's Redemption by Melinda Curtis

Author:Melinda Curtis
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2018-07-12T13:53:52+00:00

CHAPTER ELEVEN

THAT KISS MEANT NOTHING.

Ben had been trying to tell himself that all the way back to the ranch.

It was like telling himself that keeping the bull-for-land trade a secret from Rachel was the right thing to do. He could say the words as often as he liked, but he couldn’t escape the nagging feeling that it wasn’t true.

There was truth in their kiss.

Well, at least the second kiss. The first had been more like a dress rehearsal of an opening argument that struck all the wrong notes. But the second kiss...the one where his feet had been firmly planted on the ground? His wide stance hadn’t stopped the emotional turf from shifting inside of him. He wanted to tuck Rachel under his arm and lift any burden she faced.

Unfortunately, he and his family were part of her many problems.

And yet, option four. They’d be fools not to partner together to face a powerful water corporation.

Ben led Blackie to the barn. The stallion had a manner of walking that was more like an athlete’s strut after a spectacular score. He kept outpacing Ben and bumping him in the shoulder with his broad chest.

“Dude,” Ben said the third time it happened. “I’m not sure you have anything to strut about.” Ben certainly had nothing to be proud of. What right did he have to kiss Rachel?

Correction. What right did he have to kiss her twice? Because now that he’d kissed her, he felt the strongest urge to be by her side and to make life easier for her, which would be difficult given she didn’t trust him.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Katie and Hip ran up to Ben from the main barn with a white billy goat trotting behind them. “Nobody takes that devil of a horse out. If anything were to happen to him, Big E would kill me. He cost the ranch a fortune.”

“Blackie was fine.” Ben handed over the broken rein, appreciative of Katie’s offer to brush the horse down and clean his hooves. He had another case to prepare for. The one against the Falcon Creek Water Company. “He needed a little airing out.”

Hip sat on her haunches and stared off at the pasture, ears pitching toward a prairie dog poking his head above ground. The goat reached them and bleated, as if chastising Katie and Hip for leaving him behind.

“Blackie?” Katie’s slender red brows lowered. “You don’t call a horse like this Blackie. Blackie is a swaybacked trail horse that’s so old he refuses to die. This—” she pointed at the stallion with both hands “—this horse is royalty. The monthly insurance on him alone is more than most house payments.”

“Calm down. Blackie is fine.” Ben gave the horse a pat and received a nose nudge in return.

“Fine?” Katie latched on to the bridle and examined Blackie’s head, gasping when she noticed the rein had snapped off. She stared at Ben harder than any opposing attorney ever had. “He broke free?”

“No. Ferdinand startled him.”

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