Page 33 of The Last Second Chance
She took the lead rope from Jax, let Apollo smell her. He stamped once and then nudged her with his nose, nibbling at the sleeve of her jacket.
God, he was spectacular.
She wouldn’t accept. Couldn’t accept. No matter how much she wanted them. And oh, did she want them. But it was too much, too outrageous. And it put her in too vulnerable a position. She wasn’t going to have Jax fund her dreams.
The horse nudged her again, this time in the pocket with carrots. She fished out a carrot and held it, palm flat. Apollo nosed her palm delicately. But rather than take the treat, he swung his head up aiming instead to take a chunk out of her shoulder. She blocked him easily.
“You are a bastard, aren’t you?” she whispered to him.
His big, black head lifted as if in agreement before swooping in to take the carrot.
She shook her head. “Put them back on the trailer.”
“Don’t be stubborn,” Jax warned.
“You think I’d actually accept a huge chunk of your bank account in the form of horseflesh?”
“If you don’t, you’re a stubborn idiot,” he said mildly.
“Starting to piss me off.”
“Back at ya, baby. Would you really turn these two away just to spite me?”
This wasn’t the plan. She was going to start this on her own. From scratch. Small, selective. Build slowly to establish a reputation for quality. The program would be her baby.
And now Jax had his fingerprints all over it. She didn’t need him, or his flashy gifts. She felt her temper kick into a rolling boil.
“I’m not accepting them,” she snapped.
Jax handed over Apollo’s lead to Carter. “Get them bedded down,” he told his brother. “I’ll handle her.”
“The hell you will!” Joey thought she caught the glimpse of Phoebe beaming at them like an idiot as Jax dragged her inside the stable and into her cramped office. He kicked the door closed behind him and crossed his arms, ready for the fight.
“Let’s have it.”
Happy to oblige, Joey launched into the argument. “You can’t just come in here and run things,” she said stalking back and forth keeping the shabby metal desk between them.
“Who says I’m trying to run things?”
But she was too wound up to converse. “You’re either trying to manipulate me into sleeping with you, or you’re trying to weasel control away from me.”
“That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard you say, Joey. And I’ve known you since you were a kid.” He was fired up now. “You forget that I know you. That means I know there is nothing under the sun that a man could buy you to make you feel obligated to fall into bed with him.”
He had her there.
“So you bought them to run things and just generally drive me crazy?”
“They’re in your name, Joey. You own them.”
She slammed a hand down on her desk. “Bullshit. I didn’t pay for them.”
He shrugged. “It’s your name on the bill of sale.”
Joey yanked off her wool cap and threw it against the wall.No. No. No. This wasn’t how it was supposed to happen.
“You were pissed because you thought they were mine. Now you’re pissed because they’re yours. Who was going to buy them in your plan?”
Carter. Well, the farm. The farm of which Jax was one-third owner.
