CHAPTER NINETEEN

Right. She could do this. Bea glanced down at the horse, waiting for her to move. Buffy did not move. She shot a quizzical look at Austin, who had climbed the fence and was watching her perched on the top rail with the faintest trace of smugness on his features. She should be mad, but all she really wanted to do was kiss that expression right off his face. “So…how do I get her to move? Pull on the reins or…?”

“Give her flanks a gentle dig with your heels.”

Bea blinked. Right. Just like that…but Austin was looking at her like he was expecting her to fail, and she sat a little straighter in the saddle. She tapped Buffy’s right flank with the heel of her boot. Buffy didn’t budge. Austin’s eyebrow kicked up when she looked to him for guidance, and Bea narrowed her eyes a little before trying with her other heel.

But Buffy, apparently, was disinterested in moving.

“Try both of them together.”

“That won’t hurt her?”

He shook his head, that damn sexy smile playing with his mouth. “She’s as tough as old boots.”

Bea tried both heels. Still no luck. It was clear Buffy wasn’t just tough, she was freaking immovable. But Bea was not going to be defeated. She made a clicking noise like Austin had done and wriggled in the saddle a little as she said, “Let’s go, girl.” It barely caused an ear twitch. She looked at Austin. “I don’t think she likes me.”

He shrugged. “Nah, she can just be old and crotchety sometimes.”

A rather inelegant snort slipped from Bea’s lips. “I know how she feels.”

Austin laughed, but then he clicked twice under his tongue. “Walk on,” he commanded, and Buffy ambled off again.

Her hands tightened on the reins as Bea glared at him. “Could you not just have done that to start with?”

He grinned. “Learn, you must.”

Rolling her eyes, Bea held on tight and tried to remember to relax again and get into the rhythm. After two rotations, Austin asked, “You okay if she picks up the pace a little?”

Feeling brave and, hell, even a little daring, Bea nodded. “A fraction, sure.” No need to go wild.

He nodded and clicked again. “Hey up, Buff,” he commanded.

And just like that, the horse picked up speed. It wasn’t exactly a trot, more a fast walk, but enough to accelerate Bea’s pulse for a short burst until she realized she could handle it, and it settled again. She was definitely bouncing more now as she tried to relax into the rhythm and keep her center, which was a lot harder than she’d have thought.

Despite her concentration on the horse, she was very much aware of Austin’s gaze. She couldn’t see it because she was keeping her eyes firmly fixed on Buffy, but she could feel it. And it wasn’t one of concern or anxiousness. He was totally checking out her ass as it lifted off the saddle.

And for damn sure he was staring at her bouncing chest.

“Don’t think,” Bea said as they went around another time, “I don’t know you’re staring at my boobs.”

“Ugh, aren’t men the worst?” a warm female voice asked.

Startled, Bea glanced over her shoulder to find an older woman sitting next to Austin on the railing. “I thought I raised you better, Austin.”

God…Austin’s mother. Bea was so surprised to see her out here, she almost fell off the horse, but she managed to stay seated as Austin gave the command for Buffy to slow, then return to him. Within a minute, Bea was off Buffy and meeting not only Austin’s mother—Margaret—but his sister-in-law, too, who had ridden up during the introduction on a muscular black stallion that looked like he could eat Buffy as a snack.

“You’ve got a really nice seat about you,” Jill said.

Jill was a petite brunette who looked about thirty, with a rangy kind of vitality. “Thank you, but I think you’re being too kind.”

“Nonsense,” she dismissed. “A few more lessons and you’ll be riding like a pro. You’re a natural. You can come out here anytime if you want to ride some more. I can teach you if Junior here isn’t home.”

Bea blinked at Austin. “Junior?” Oh, dear God. They called him Junior?

Austin rolled his eyes at his sister-in-law before addressing Bea. “The hazards of being the youngest of many,” he explained.

“Yep,” his mother confirmed with a smile. “By the time Austin came on the scene, there were a lot of names to remember.”

“I told Margaret they should just have called him six,” Jill said cheerily.

“We contemplated it,” she confirmed, with a very definite twinkle in her eye. It was clear Margaret Cooper didn’t take herself too seriously.

Ignoring his mother, Austin glanced at Jill, who was clearly having a fabulous time at his expense. “Why don’t you show Beatriss some of your moves?”

Even standing here in front of his family, he added that soft, seductive little accent to the end of her name that was definitely not junior. It was like a tray of oysters and a shot of tequila to her libido.

“Oh, yes.” Austin’s mom clapped her hands. “That’s a great idea. Why don’t you help Jill set up, while Beatrice and I find a perch.”

“Oh, just Bea is fine,” Bea assured. Austin had claimed Beatrice for his own, and she liked it that way.

Margaret nodded affably. “C’mon, Bea, this way.”

Bea followed Austin’s mom with some trepidation. Was this just a friendly overture or an excuse for the third degree?

Margaret climbed the railings like a damn billy goat in three quick, effortless moves before seating herself easily. Bea followed, looking more drunken penguin, but she managed, clutching the top bar tight as she squirmed around a little to find the most comfortable position.

“Austin was telling us this morning that you’re from LA.”

Okay…Margaret was getting right down to it, then. “Yes,” Bea said as she kept her gaze trained on the setup occurring in the arena.

“We’ve spent some time in LA.”

Bea prepared herself for a scathing assessment of her home city. Bea knew it could be brash and pretentious in all its trendy, cilantro-loving, turmeric-smoothie-drinking, freeways-and-Hollywood, faux-glittery facade that often hid deeper vices.

But she’d loved it, too. Sure, she’d turned her back on it, but it was as much a part of her as Credence was of Austin.

“It was fabulous,” Margaret said. “We had such a good time. It was so…I don’t know. Potential seems to sparkle in the air there. And all those amazing food trucks and omigod”—she clutched Bea’s arm—“the ramen noodles! I salivate whenever I think about them!”

Bea blinked. She’d expected complaints about the traffic and the smog and the sheer vanity of the place, but Bea got the feeling Austin’s mother was a positive person. The kind who always saw the good in things.

She could see why Austin was the person he was, growing up with his mother at the helm. Optimistic, enthusiastic, pragmatic. Like all things were possible. Bea had been raised with the up and downs of her mother’s moods and then the shadow of her death and the strictures that had come as a consequence.

“The ramen is excellent,” Bea agreed, smiling at the rapture on Margaret’s face.

“Unfortunately—” Margaret sighed. “There’s not a lot of that around here.”

“True.” Bea nodded. “But you do have Annie and her pies, which really should be proclaimed as some kind of national treasure. They alone are worth a dozen food trucks and all the ramen in LA.”

“Ah…so you’ve found our very own culinary angel and her heavenly delights?”

“I have. And they have found my ass.”

Margaret laughed. “I hope this isn’t a weird thing to say considering we’ve only just met, but I think your ass is just right. And, by the way my son was checking it out as you rode around on Buffy, I’d say Austin does, too.”

It was weird, and a tide of heat rose in Bea’s cheeks, but as their eyes met, Margaret didn’t seem too self-conscious about it, and her gaze was open and friendly. Bea wondered if she was about to get the talk, but Margaret just gave Bea’s arm a little pat before turning her attention to what was happening in the middle of the arena, and Bea felt absurdly like crying.

How she could have done with some of Margaret Cooper’s brand of mothering when she was growing up. Austin was a lucky man.

“Oh, look, Jill’s saddling up.” She glanced at Bea. “She is utterly thrilling to watch. Just you wait and see.”

Bea cleared the thickness from her throat, turning her attention to the ring to discover Margaret was not wrong. The horse, whose name was Kong—unsurprisingly—was fast and amazingly agile, turning on a dime, and the control that Jill had over the beast was absolute. The horse may look as if he could stomp an entire city into the ground, but he was totally under Jill’s command. And if Bea had batted for the other team, she’d have a huge girl crush right now.

Hell, who was she kidding? She did have a huge girl crush…

Jill was very good. Also, clearly passionate about the sport and about horses. Not even Austin, who had joined them, his thigh a hairbreadth from her thigh, was enough to break her attention.

“She’s amazing,” Bea breathed out in a husky kind of rush as Kong rounded the barrels in a quickstep figure-eight pattern.

“How long did it take her to learn to do that?”

“Jill grew up on a ranch on the other side of Credence,” Margaret answered. “So she’s been riding a long time, but she’ll be the first to admit anybody can do it as long as they love horses, have the nerve, and practice.”

Bea laughed. She couldn’t even get a horse to move, and Jill was making her valiant steed turn tight and leap over jumps without putting a single foot wrong. She’d need more than practice. She’d need divine intervention. Maybe wings.

“Can you do that?” she asked Austin.

“No way. I’ve been thrown from a horse enough to make me far too chickenshit for that kind of stuff.”

He grinned at her, completely unconcerned that she might judge him as somehow less of a man for not wanting to try. But she didn’t. She actually liked that about him. A guy who didn’t need to prove himself to anyone, who was comfortable enough in his own skin to say no.

She nudged her thigh against his, and her breath hitched at the contact, which felt both electric and soothing at the same time.

After half an hour, Jill called it a day, slowing Kong to a stop and dismounting, sliding off the saddle like she was wearing chiffon instead of denim and landing on her feet light as a freaking fairy. Austin and his mother dismounted the rail, and Bea followed suit, taking care to leave some distance between her and Austin.

“That was amazing,” Bea gushed as Jill joined them.

Jill smiled. “Thanks. I get a kick out of it.”

“Do you miss being on the circuit?”

“Yes and no. Probably more before I married Clay. Think I’d find the traveling and the long separations from my man too hard.”

My man. Jill said those words with gusto. With pride and a certain amount of je ne sais quoi that left Bea in no doubt that Jill was utterly into Clay.

“And I love teaching.” She shrugged. “I’m good at it. Plus, it gives me an income, independence. I miss that most from being on the circuit, I think.”

Bea understood that. She’d been independent since she’d left college and scored her first-ever job straight out of the blocks at Jing-A-Ling after refusing the leg up from her father at the agency he worked for, determined to cut her own path. And the fact that she could quit her job and still support herself was not only enormously freeing but was also a source of pride.

“Finding what you love to do in life is a gift.” Bea had felt that about advertising. But since quitting, she’d discovered that sometimes what you loved could be bad for you. Toxic even.

“Yeah.” Jill nodded. “It is. Finding someone to love, even more so.”

Jill’s gaze met hers, but before Bea could parse if the comment was general or pointed, Austin jumped in.

“I’ll give you a hand to put the equipment back,” he said, turning away and heading for the arena.

“Nah, leave them,” Jill called after him. “I’m doing some training with one of the Watsons’ quarter horses tomorrow. No point putting them away just to pull them out again.”

“Okay.”

He returned to the group, but instead of maintaining the distance Bea had created, he stepped closer, his fingers finding the backs of her thigh, his biceps rubbing against hers.

“Well, I think it’s time for afternoon drinks on the porch,” his mother announced. “Brian and Clay should be home soon, and I have a hankering for a nice chardonnay.” She smiled at Bea. “Would you like a glass?”

Bea was torn. She was curious to meet the man who had Jill utterly smitten and also more than a little curious to meet Austin’s father, but Austin’s thumb was brushing lazily at the point where her thigh met her ass, and desire to be alone with him drummed an even louder beat.

“Umm.” She glanced at Austin. “Do we…have time, or…?”

Their gazes met, and she saw the same desire flaring in Austin’s eyes. He draped his arm around the front of her shoulders, his big forearm a solid weight against her chest, his body hot and hard against her back, her Thursday panties well and truly tangled.

“Sorry, Mom, we have plans that don’t involve chardonnay.”

The smiles on Margaret’s and Jill’s faces left Bea in little doubt that they knew exactly what Austin’s plans were, but it didn’t make Bea blush this time. It made her feel…special.

“Okay, okay.” Jill grinned as she gave Austin’s shoulder a playful pat before turning her attention to Bea. “Have a lovely evening. I hear you’re camping out under the stars, and you’re going to have a gorgeous night for it.”

“Yes,” Margaret agreed. “You haven’t seen stars until you’ve seen Credence stars.”

“I’m looking forward to it.” Bea smiled and hoped neither of the women could see that the only stars she was interested in right now were the kind that came with orgasms. Although she suspected they both could.

Hell, she suspected Kong, who was staring straight at her, knew it, too.

“Remember what I said,” Jill pressed. “If you ever want to come out and ride Buffy again, just give me a call. Junior”—she stopped as Austin glowered at her—“sorry, Austin has my number.”

“If you want to come out for any reason,” Margaret added, “we’d love to see you again.”

“Thanks.” Bea nodded. “I might just take you up on that.”

Why not? She was making friends. Why not Margaret and Jill, too? There was something appealing about the warmth between these women. It spoke of affection and fondness and family, and didn’t that open up a thick vein of yearning.

“Okay, bye now,” Austin said.

Bea smiled and bid them goodbye one more time before allowing Austin to turn them around and head for the gate. Once they were out and walking back toward his cabin, she said, “Do you think they know we’re going to your cabin to fuck?”

He laughed. “Probably. But all that really matters to me is that you think we’re going to my cabin to fuck, because I swear I’d made a pact with myself to be the perfect gentleman until I got you alone under the stars tonight.”

Bea shot him a look full of abject horror. “Austin, I am so horny, I’d drop to the ground and do it right here, right now if we didn’t have an audience. I don’t want you to be a gentleman. I want you to be a freaking caveman.”

His hand tightened on her waist as he picked up speed. “Hurry.”