Page 41 of Stud Ranch

The Alaskan landscape had a beauty and charm unlike any other place she’d ever been. She’d been to exotic locales to make movies and even spent time in Europe in her early twenties, but this world switched on a light inside her.

The leaves were greener than anywhere else. The mountains higher, sharper; the air fresher. She drew in deep breaths of it, filling her lungs over and over, letting it blow away her cares.

Though she still felt the strain of being in Shaw’s presence, she wasn’t letting it bother her. They all seemed to be living in the moment. Actually, when she woke up, there seemed to be a difference in the guys.

Even after their wild threesome, she’d picked up on a constraint between them. Now that seemed to have vanished, blown out to sea on the warm air currents.

Feeling more confident on horseback, she removed one hand from the reins she held loosely and brushed a tendril of hair behind her ear.

The trail they took carved through thick underbrush and eventually straightened out. When they started up a hill, she slid backward in the saddle. She let out a gasp, and Shaw moved to her side.

“You all right?” His sharp gaze locked on her face. Suddenly aware of how well he really knew her, she schooled her features to not reveal fear.

“I’m fine. Where are we going, anyway?” The horse continued up the incline that rose in increments toward a peak as sharp as one of the big mountains.

“The trail takes us through some beautiful country. Just over the ridge you’ll see some prime grazing lands where our cattle spend the warmer months of the year.”

Now this Shaw was new.

She arched a brow. “Since when do you know about cattle?”

He cocked his head to the side. “I have spent a lot of months living like a cowboy.”

Today he looked the part too, sporting a long-sleeved chambray shirt open at the collar, a pair of jeans almost worn to the same hue as the shirt, and a brown cowboy hat that she never, in a million years of seeing him in a hockey helmet, would have been able to picture him in.

“It suits you.”

He stared at her for a long moment while their horses continued up the incline. Shaw glanced at Dylan in the lead, and she wondered if he could hear their conversation over the rustle of horse and leather.

She plowed on with the topic. “Did you change your mind about coaching hockey in Alaska?”

The flex of his jaw only added to his cowboy allure. “I’d still like to do that.”

Since he didn’t say anything more, they rode in silence to the top of the incline. As she crested the rise and saw the beautiful land below, she wished she could put the brakes on her horse and stop to just stare at the striking scene.

A river cut a path through the valley below. The pale blue water glittered in the sunlight, and tall reeds grew on the banks.

“Are we crossing that?”

“Yup. Don’t worry—it’s not deep at this time of year. Just hang on, and grip your horse with your thighs…” Shaw broke off at the innuendo in his words.

Oh, she’d be gripping someone with her thighs. Two someones, if she had any say in the matter. Just watching both men roll in their saddles, their hard thighs tensing and their spines straight, lit her body up. The sway of the horse underneath her didn’t help her arousal either.

When she made it to the bottom and crossed the creek without any issue, she punched a fist into the air.

Shaw laughed at her. “Good job, love.”

Her heart snagged on that endearment. Love.

Dylan used it too, though she never gave it a thought from him. But Shaw had once loved her.

She brushed the thought away. She was just being touchy about his feelings. Two years was plenty of time to fall out of love with her.

She, on the other hand, wished she’d been so lucky. It would be so much easier to just appreciate Shaw for his body and amazing skills in bed and ignore the feelings he roused in her.

Second chances didn’t happen often, and they definitely didn’t happen on sex ranches. She’d just get through this week and try to relax and enjoy the experience so she could return to her daughter rejuvenated, just in time for the terrible twos everyone warned her about.

Though she couldn’t imagine her sweet little girl being anything but the same loveable child who climbed in her lap several times a day with a teddy bear and her thumb plugged into her mouth.

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