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look made her squirm a little she was surely coming up short in the man s mind. It
shouldn t matter to her, but for some reason it really did.
He spit another stream of tobacco. I will give you a chance when I think you honestly
give a damn about this place.
I do care about it here, she lied.
That s a joke. Don t for one minute think you can fool an old man. This has been my
home since I was in my early teens. I love the land, love the people, love the animals
even more. Some little city girl doesn t get to come in with all her daddy s money and act
like my home ain t good enough for her. I don t appreciate that none. Surprisingly, his
voice stayed level throughout.
I am not some spoiled little brat, she told him. And if you care so much about this
place, why is it failing?
Maybe that s something you ll have to find out. Anyway, from the talk I had with your
daddy, he realizes he made some mistakes along the way. I don t believe you can do this
at all, Miss Storm.
Her fists clenched at her sides. That s the rudest thing I ve ever heard.
I wasn t trying to be rude, just stating the facts, Tony said before turning away to
leave.
I wasn t done speaking to you, she said, frustration clear in her tone, making him
pause before turning back toward her.
When I feel you have something valuable to say, I ll chat longer. And with that, he
walked away, leaving Brielle stunned, hurt, and extremely pissed off.
I should fire him right now, she muttered, but then clasped a hand over her mouth.
She really didn t want him to overhear that. She wasn t so naïve as to think this place
could run without him. And one way or another she d get Tony to like her, although after
those words of his, she shouldn t give a damn what he thought about her.
No, wouldn t happen. That man would always do what he wanted. Even if he loved her
sure, sure he would still do things his own way. That was just the sort of man he
was. Stubborn. Ornery. Set in his ways.
Brielle found her temper waning as she made her way to the arena. She was shocked
when she realized that she sort of liked the gruff old guy. And she should have hated him
on principle alone.
When she turned a corner and looked up, she found Colt putting a saddle on a majestic
brown horse that she was sure she should know the breed of, but she knew less than
nothing about horses. The horse, unfortunately, wasn t the only majestic creature in the
place. The way Colt s muscles bulged made her slightly lightheaded. This man was much
finer than the guys she normally hung out with, despite their expensively honed gym
bodies. Yeah, working on a ranch seemed to do good things to a lot of the population of
Sterling. At least from what she d seen so far.
You ve ridden before, right?
Brielle was startled to realize Colt was speaking to her. No, she hadn t ridden, not even
once.
Of course I have.
Sauntering over to the horse, she thought back to the cowboy movies she d watched,
put her foot into the stirrup and hefted herself onto his back. She was a little wobbly, but
felt immense pride as she sat astride this massive animal. And she was facing the right
way.
Man, it was a long way to the ground.
I picked Bluegrass because she s pretty mellow. I figured the only horses you ve
ridden have been at some hoity-toity country club.
She? Oops. She should have inspected the horse more closely. Well, you can figure
what you want. I don t care, she said, hating that everyone s opinion of her was so poor.
This man was going to drive her nuts he was presumptuous and ill-mannered. If she
could go riding with anyone else, she d be much better off, but so far there were no other
volunteers.
This ride will take a while, Ms. Storm, so hold on and follow my lead. Colt walked
over to an even bigger horse than hers, one who was pure black and seemed jittery as he
or she? waited to be ridden. She really should ask what breed the horses were, but
if she did, he d probably look at her with that maddening gleam in his eyes that screamed
city girl.
As she wobbled in her saddle, Brielle started thinking that maybe she d made a
mistake, but then as they started out from the barn, the only thing she could concentrate
on was trying not to fall off. She didn t have any more time to worry about what would
happen if she couldn t manage to hold on.
CHAPTER TEN
HEN THE OPEN grass on the hills did nothing for him, Colt knew he was in a
seriously bad mood. It was foolish, really no, it was completely ridiculous
but watching Hawk flirt with Brielle had thoroughly pissed him off.
W
Yes, Colt knew logically that it had been harmless, and yes, he knew Hawk was even
more afraid of commitment than he was, but still, he couldn t banish the jealousy. Hawk
had been his friend since the first day of kindergarten, but that didn t mean they hadn t
always enjoyed competing with each other.
Actually, an entire group of them really liked to push each other to the limits, to see
how far they could take things. It was good for them and never before had jealousy been
an issue.
Never before today.
Colt had practically seen red when he witnessed Brielle s reaction to meeting Hawk.
But at least he had his answer on whether to sleep with this woman.
If he didn t, he had a feeling she wouldn t leave his consciousness alone. And she was
something that he couldn t have haunting him for the rest of his days. He didn t want to
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