Page 66 of Bound to Him
I pointed at Willow. “Don’t you dare do it.”
Noah frowned at me.
With a flick of her ears, Willow wandered away from the mounting block. I groaned but didn’t move fast enough to stop the trouble in progress. Noah had been in the midst of swinging his foot over her rump to dismount, after working his courage up, and hadn’t stopped. His leg went down beyond the block and he thumped to the ground with his foot dangling, caught in the stirrup.
He let out anoomph, and I snagged Willow’s reins before she could hurt him, but he’d gone down hard on his back. I held Willow still and moved around to his side.
Noah slapped the ground with his palms and stared at the sky, shaking his head. “Horses. Why horses?”
“Sweetheart, I know you had the breath knocked clean out of you, but you need to get up now, you hear? Move out of the way. She’s big and you don’t want to get stepped on.”
He nodded. It took him a minute to unhook his foot from the stirrup, but once he did, he rolled to his belly, pushing up to his feet as he went. I let out a relieved breath as he limped to the other side of the mounting block and plopped down on it. Willow whickered and I shushed her. It wasn’t her fault Noah didn’t know what he was doing. “Good girl,” I said, giving her a kiss on the nose before I raced over to check on my pouting husband. I went to my knees in front of him and ran my hands along his arms and legs. His eyes were too wide and his breath came out in a fast pant, but each part of him I ran my fingers over didn’t get me more than a grunt here and there.
“Nothing feels broken.” I knocked on the riding helmet. “Are you okay?”
“My back hurts,” he said quietly.
Crawling around to the side of the block, I tugged up his shirt gently, but there were only a couple of red marks where he must have landed that might bruise. I tugged the shirt down and pressed a kiss to his shoulder. He glared at me, and I began to chuckle.
“Asshole.” Noah got to his feet, and I swatted at his ass, knocking off some dust. He narrowed his eyes on me as he took off his helmet. I half expected him to toss it at me, but he set it down on the block. “I told you what would happen if I fell off that horse.”
“Oh, my little mouse of a husband has sass. Tell me. What’s going to happen?”
He crossed his arms. “I said if I fell off, you were on the couch.”
Nodding, I scratched my chin, and his shoulders went back like he was getting ready for a good fight. My blood ran hot. “Technically you landed on your ass trying, and failing, to jump off the horse yourself. You weren’t paying attention to Willow. You didn’t fall off the horse, you fell off the mounting block.”
He gasped. “She moved!”
“You were taking too long. She was bored.”
He huffed. “Whoever heard of a boredhorse?”
“Hey, horses are people, too. And people hate to wait around.” I had to bite the tip of my tongue when his hands dropped and he slapped his thighs, as if he actually wanted to yell at me. I knew if I laughed I’d never win this battle of wits. “How ’bout this?” I stood and wrapped my arms around him. “I’ll kiss each and every one of your bruises.” I tapped his lips. “Oh look, there’s one.”
His mouth twitched toward a smile as I leaned down and covered it with mine. We kissed for a while, slow and gentle, not something we’d done too much of in the past. When I straightened, he blinked up at me, his gray eyes dark in the growing dusk. I couldn’t get over how much I loved staring into his face. I rubbed my hands along his sides, and he gripped my shoulders until it almost hurt.
“Dinner should be ready. I’m going to take care of the horses. Go inside. If Mama wants to feed you before I’m done, let her.”
“Okay.” He raised his chin, waiting. A thrill zipped through me as I kissed him again. The tip of his tongue fluttered against mine, and I was lost for a while longer until the back door banged open and someone let out a piercing whistle.
“You boys better get your behinds in here!” Mama yelled, but I could hear her amusement. When I glanced that direction, she was a stern outline against the side of the house.
Noah groaned and hid his face against my chest. She couldn’t really see us, at least not well enough to know my hard-on pressed happily against his, but I bet she guessed well enough what we were up to.
“I’m sending Noah in,” I yelled back, and he smacked my chest. “Go.”
Grinning, I stared at his ass as he sauntered back to the house and didn’t miss him adjusting his cock. I let out a long breath and patted Willow. “You like that one? I think he might be a good one.” She leaned against my hand in a supportive way, and I combed my fingers over her mane. “Yeah, he’s on loan, though. Not a keeper. Ain’t that some shit? Glad he’s here, though.”
The horses were happy to go in the barn and get their saddles off. I made quick work of getting them squared away for the night and whistled on my way back to the house while carrying Noah’s shoes. The second I stepped in the back door, Mama whacked my arm with a wooden spoon in a sneak attack, and I dropped the shoes I had in my hand.
“Hey, now. What in the world was that for?”
Noah smirked from his spot at the table, and I wrestled Mama for the spoon. She laughed and swatted at me, and I only triumphed and stole the spoon because she’d never actually hurt her own son. Daddy roared with laughter as I stuffed the spoon in my back pocket.
“How on earth was he bucked off Willow?” Mama demanded.
I glanced at Noah. “That the story he told?”
