Strictly Business by Aubrianna Hunter

wasn’t wearing any makeup, as far as he could see.
    She was stunning. He found his body reacting simply to
having her near. “Belladonna. Princess Belladonna, actually.”
    “She’s beautiful. An Appaloosa?”
    He’d forgotten that she knew something about horses. “Yeah,
we mated her with Satan. He’s a Colorado Ranger Horse. But he has Appaloosa in
his background. We thought we might get some strong, pretty babies.” She seemed
nervous. He wondered if it was because of the mare or him.
    “Aahh, yeah. They should be pretty. And fast too. Satan is
wicked fast.”
    They were both talking just above a whisper, trying not to
upset the mare, but still be close enough to help when it was time.
    “I’m sorry your plans got cancelled.” She looked over at
him, seeming surprised that he knew. He shrugged. “I heard you talking to
Mike.”
    “Oh, no big deal. I’ll call the hotel and cancel.”
    “Hotel?” She’d been going to a hotel with that guy?
    “Yeah, we were doing dinner and dancing in Evanston. Then a
spa day and massage tomorrow. I was actually coming out here to tell someone we
were leaving. So you guys didn’t think we ran off or something.”
    He felt his hands clenching into fists at his side. They
were going to spend the night together. She’s going to spend the night with
that idiot? He wanted nothing more than to scream at her. Or grab her and
kiss her. Some piece of him was silently screaming, “Mine! He can’t have
her, she’s mine!” Through the haze of anger, it did register that she
didn’t seem all that upset about it. Was she interested in Mike? She had to be,
right? She was going away with him for the weekend. All of a sudden he heard
Cody’s voice in his head. “I never touched her.” Was he wrong about her
again?
    “So, you’re…dating…Mike?” His voice was deeper than he would
have liked, but it was mostly calm. He also remembered Cody telling him to try
being nice to her. He was trying.
    “No, we’re not dating.” She looked at Jake. “We’ve been
friends since college. Mike, Cindy and me. I just wanted to, um, get away this
weekend. Take a break from the ranch. Mike was going with me.”
    “But last weekend I saw you sleeping on him on the couch.
You guys seem pretty… comfortable together.” He looked at her, watching her
response.
    “Well, yeah.” She shrugged a shoulder. “He gets me. I’ve
known him for over ten years. I can just be myself with him.” She looked up at
Jake, the unspoken comment, unlike you hung in the air.
    “I see.” Jake was silent for a few minutes, glancing over at
Belladonna.
    After a few more minutes, Jake finally found his voice
again. “I think I owe you another apology. Several of them actually.”
    She looked shocked, mouth open, eyes wide. He smiled wryly.
“It was brought to my attention that I haven’t been particularly nice to you.”
    “It’s okay, I haven’t been 'particularly nice' to you
either, just forget…”
    “No, it’s not okay. You’ve fought back, but I think I probably
started us off wrong on day one. Then proceeded to make things worse from
there. Could we maybe try again?”

Chapter 14
    She didn’t know what to say. She was baffled. But, she would
really like more nights like this. Nice conversation, no yelling, no fighting,
no snide remarks. “Yeah, sure. Let’s start over. I think I’d really like that.”
She wondered if that meant the kiss was erased too.
    All at once Jake jumped up. The rear legs were out. She
watched him grab the legs and pull. He waited a beat while the mare pushed and
then she saw him pull again. After hours of waiting, it seemed like just
minutes and there was a new foal laying there.
    They waited a while, watching silently while the mare
recovered and the baby rolled and neighed. She saw Jake look underneath as the
horse started to get to its feet.
    “It’s a colt!” His eyes were shining, excitement making his
face radiant.
    She found herself grinning foolishly.