heard him draw a slow breath.
“I think I’d like to see Daisy lose control,” he said after a lengthy pause. “I think it would be incredible.”
“Well, it’s not going to happen.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure. We might just have to wait until you’ve returned to Kentucky, but it will happen. I promise you.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
IF HE thought his promise was a comfort to her, he was wrong.
Daisy slugged her pillow hard and then again before finally getting comfortable and falling back asleep. But in the morning her temper was still on edge.
Thankfully, working with Señor Gutierrez helped keep her mind off Dante—during the day at least. At night, however, she found herself thinking about him endlessly. It was awful wanting someone this much, awful craving contact. She thought she’d give anything to be in his arms, against his chest, breathing him in.
She’d never felt like this before. If this was lust she could do without it.
Four days passed, four very long days. When she finished work on Thursday she remained at the paddock near the stable, not able to face returning to the empty hacienda-style house.
This is for the good of the family, she reminded herself, picking up the heavy rope and tying it into a loose knot. You’re here for Dad and Zoe, and it won’t be forever.
She swung the rope over her head and let it fly. The loop landed around a fence post and she pulled hard, cinching the knot.
“Do it again.”
The voice was Dante’s, the energy his, too. Daisy felt a shiver run through her. Slowly she turned and looked over her shoulder. He was every bit as tall and sexy and devilishly gorgeous as she remembered. “Hello, count.”
Was that cool, calm voice hers? She couldn’t believe she could sound so calm when her heart had begun to race, thumping like a wild bronc.
“Can you do it again?” he asked, leaning on the fence railing, watching her where she stood in the center of the ring.
“Of course. I could lasso you, if I wanted.”
His eyes gleamed. “You’re that good?”
“I’m very good.”
His laugh, husky and low, soothed her somehow. “You’ve never lacked confidence.”
He was wearing jeans and boots and a tight black T-shirt and as he swung himself up onto the top railing, muscles popped in his forearms and biceps.
She felt heat bloom within her, and happiness, too. She shouldn’t care that he was back and yet everything in her was responding to him. Everything was turning on. “Why should I? I can do anything I want to do.”
“I’ll have to remember that.” The way he said it sounded very sexual and lethal at the same time.
He watched her move to the fence post and untie the knot she’d thrown. He was a couple feet away but she felt him so strongly that her hands shook.
“Señor Gutierrez said you’re a fast study,” he said.
The sun was beginning to drop in the sky but it was still warm, still a beautiful day. The blue of the sky stretched forever. She stalked to the center of the ring. “I could have told you that.”
“He said you know what you’re doing.”
“I think I did tell you that.” Her lips twitched. “About a hundred times.”
“Not a hundred,” he answered mockingly. “Maybe eight times.”
“Nine,” she retorted.
“You are incredibly stubborn.”
“Yes. One of my many virtues.”
“You do have many virtues, but I don’t think stubbornness is one of them.”
“Maybe you just need to learn to appreciate it.”
He laughed softly, and she cast him a cool glance. Their eyes met, and Daisy saw appreciation in his gaze, appreciation and something else that made her heart falter and her belly tighten.
He wanted her.
Her throat felt raspy as she breathed in. She forced her stiff fingers to get a better grip on the rope. Desire was something she didn’t know how to deal with, especially since that desire had to take a back seat to everything else happening.
What good was desire then?
But she couldn’t think this way, couldn’t think of the wanting or the needing because it would only lead to disappointment. If she let herself start feeling she’d just get trampled. Men like Dante didn’t make commitments. Anabella had virtually said the same thing. Men like Dante made love and walked away.
She hated the walking away part because she hated being left behind. She could ride a horse, rope a steer, jump a fence, deliver a foal. But she couldn’t say goodbye.
Yet she’d have to say goodbye. If not tomorrow, then in a few weeks. Her insides knotted. She twirled the rope higher overhead until she was standing beneath the spinning circle. “How long are you going to be back?”
“Just for the night.”
Her heart plummeted to her toes in the tips of her boots. “What brought you back?”
“You.”
She almost dropped the rope. The loop sagged and she caught the circle with her other hand. Turning to face him, she wiped a bead of moisture from her brow. “Me?”
“I need your help.” He jumped off the fence into the center of the ring. “I was hoping you’d help me with Anabella for a few days until I can find her a suitable chaperone.”
“A chaperone? But she’s in school.”
“She’s already been kicked out. She’s in her room right now, throwing a tantrum, I imagine.”
That didn’t take long, Daisy thought. “What happened?”
“The school wouldn’t tolerate her promiscuous behavior.” He said the word promiscuous as though it were a snake coiling on his tongue. “I don’t believe she’s actually promiscuous, but she’s had a boyfriend, an unsuitable boyfriend, and she snuck out of the dorm to see him last night.”
“Ah.”
The furrow between his black brows deepened. “She’s determined to ruin her reputation.”
“She’s seventeen.”
“Not all girls are so bent on self-destruction.”
“But
