She met his gaze. “I would never do that to you. I swear it.”
He nodded and turned toward his own tent. “Let’s get packed up.”
* * *
Ben led the way up the slope that looked over the interior of Morgan Valley. There were several ranches out here with land boundaries that met and separated and rejoined like the random outlets of a creek. BB had secured access to most of the valley for the trail rides. In return, Ben, or whoever was leading the ride, would report back on boundary fences, the presence of predators, water issues, or any of the hundreds of problems running a large ranch brought up without having the necessary hands.
Budgets were tight these days even at his own family ranch. If Ben saw a fence that needed mending, he’d get it done with the assistance of his guests who got to support with real-time ranch conservation. He’d even moved a few cows out of a flooded field into a safer one on the Garcia ranch once, which currently needed all the help it could get. If he saw any predators, he also had permission to hunt them. It was an arrangement that had worked well so far.
Somehow, despite not having bathed in the creek or had a proper shower, Silver still looked good. He guessed carting around that Korean skin cream was worth it. He should’ve told her that he was going to wash in the creek, but he hadn’t thought she’d come looking for him for a while. When he’d heard her footsteps, he should’ve kept his boxers on and called out a warning. Had he wanted her to see him naked? If that was true, what was wrong with him?
The last time he’d felt so off-kilter was as a stupid teenager who’d done some stuff so out of character that he still didn’t understand it himself. Mind you, she could’ve walked away, and she hadn’t. He’d noticed the second she’d stopped retreating and stayed to watch.
At least he’d told her that he was turning around and coming out. That had done the trick, but he’d noticed that she’d still gotten an eyeful. He half smiled to himself. And she hadn’t exactly run away screaming; she’d had enough time to make a joke about a certain part of his anatomy. . . .
“Why have we stopped?” Silver asked as she came up alongside him.
“I wanted to show you the valley from up here.” He stood in his stirrups and pointed downward. “We’re going to make our way to the floor and head out to the right of the canyon where the trees are.”
“It doesn’t look that far,” Silver commented as she shaded her eyes against the glare. There were patches of green, but big stretches of dry barren grassland that in the summer months were a real fire hazard. Morgan Creek ran through the top right corner of the valley and meandered its way down to Morgansville, past Morgan Ranch, and disappeared underground just after the town.
“We’re higher than you think, and going down can take twice as long as going up.” He turned to look at her. “You know how to shift your body weight to balance out the horse, right?”
“Yes.” Silver nodded. “Lean back and let the horse do the work.”
“Ladybug’s a champ at this so you’ll be fine. I’ll deal with the mules.” He handed her his water flask and waited as she took a sip before handing it back. “Any questions?”
She looked him up and down. “You should use sunscreen.”
“I do.” He blinked at her.
“Your nose is red.” She leaned over and lightly touched it. “Stay right there.”
A second later she was slathering his nose and face in something that smelled like a bunch of roses.
“There, that’s better.” She recapped the lotion and put it back in her pocket.
“Thanks, Mom,” Ben quipped, surprising a laugh out of her as she picked up her reins.
“Trust me, Ben Miller, I have no motherly feelings toward you whatsoever.”
“Was it something I said?” Ben asked innocently.
“You have the body of a god, and you darn well know it,” she said severely. “I’d have to be dead not to appreciate it.”
“A god?” Ben echoed and patted his chest. “And it’s all natural and homegrown.”
“Like your beef?”
“You could say that.” Ben studied her. “You had a nose job, didn’t you?”
“Where did that come from?” she squeaked.
“Because we’re talking about appearances.” He paused. “You might as well admit it. I’m not going to tell anyone.”
“I broke my nose and had to have it reset.” Silver sniffed. “While they were fixing it they might have altered it ‘slightly.’”
“Slightly?”
“Oh, come on, it’s such a minor thing to do!” Silver protested. “Lots of girls have it done. At least I didn’t do the boob thing.”
His attention dropped to her chest and he raised one eyebrow. “You sure about that?”
She grabbed his wrist, pulled off his glove, and pressed his hand to her chest. “Feel it! It’s one hundred percent natural!”
He went still, his gaze on his trapped hand, which was now full of warm, squeezable, female boob. His thumb rested right over her nipple, which was rapidly hardening.
“Uh . . . I . . .”
She hurriedly released his hand and threw his glove back at him. “Do you want to untie Bill from the back of my saddle if you’re going to take him down the slope?”
“Yeah, yeah, I’ll do that now.” He dismounted and untied the rope, glad that he was out of her view as the fit of his jeans grew way more uncomfortable. “You can start on down. I’ll be right behind you.”
* * *
Silver kept her gaze on the downward slope, which was way less regular than the previous route, with several switchback turns to avoid large boulders or landslides. Why had she put Ben’s hand on her boob? What on earth had she been thinking?
Again, it all came down to her inability to have a normal conversation with anyone. She just didn’t know how to do it. He must think she was insane. She should never have agreed to come on the trail ride. She’d been so shocked when her dad had agreed she could go by herself that she hadn’t thought things through. Being out here without her usual support team was making her look like an ass.
But if she wanted to break out of her light comedy, blond girl roles and appear in the gritty Western, she needed this kind of experience on her resume. She wanted to act, to show the world that she wasn’t just a pretty face, and was more than willing to take a huge pay cut to do the independent film if they’d have her.
Silver stared off over the valley. Had her father just been humoring her all along? Did he think that ten days stuck out here would be enough to make her give up her dreams and return to the kind of roles that had made her famous and her family rich? The more she thought about it, the more likely it seemed. Maybe he’d told Ben Miller to make things as difficult as possible for her....
A shadow loomed over her and both she and Ladybug jumped a little to the side as a turkey vulture flew low over their heads. Silver banged her elbow on the protruding rock wall and muttered a curse as her mare righted herself.
“You okay?” Ben called out to her from behind.
“Yup.” She wasn’t in the mood to turn around and talk to him right now—what with the boob incident, and her gathering suspicions that Ben and her father were somehow in cahoots.
She focused her attention on the path ahead. It had taken way longer