They rode past the stables, and Cathryn admired the neat paddocks and barns, several of which hadn’t been there during her last visit. Money on the hoof either grazed without paying attention to them or sent soft, curious nickers their way. Playful, long-legged foals romped over the sweet spring grass. Rule lifted his gloved hand to point out a structure. “That’s the new foaling barn. Want to take a look at it?”
She nodded and they swung the horses’ heads in that direction. “There’s only one mare due right now,” he said. “We’re just waiting on her. The last few weeks have been busy, but we have a break now.”
The stalls in the foaling barn were airy and spacious and scrupulously clean; as Rule had said, there was only one occupant now. There in the middle of a large box stall stood a mare in a posture of such utter weariness that Cathryn smiled in sympathy. When Rule held out his hand and clicked his tongue, the mare walked to him with a heavy tread and pushed her head over the stall to be petted. He obliged her, talking to her with that special crooning note in his voice that soothed even the most nervous of animals. When she had been younger Cathryn had tried to duplicate the tone and its effect, but without result.
“We’re one of the best horse-breeding farms in the state now,” Rule said without any evidence of pride, simply stating fact. “Buyers are coming from every state, even Hawaii.”
When they resumed their ride Rule didn’t say much, letting Cathryn see for herself the changes that had been made. She was also silent, but she knew that the operation she saw was well run. The fences and paddocks were in excellent shape; the animals were healthy and spirited with no signs of ill-use; the buildings were strong and clean and wore fresh coats of paint. The bunkhouse had been added to and modernized. To her surprise, she also noticed several small cottages to the rear of the ranch house, some distance away but within a comfortable range. She pointed to them. “Are those houses?”
He grunted an affirmative answer. “Several of the hands are married. I had to do something or have some good men a long way off if I needed them during the night.” He slanted a dark glance at her, but Cathryn had no objection to the houses; it seemed a logical move to her. Even if she had an objection she wouldn’t have voiced it, not wanting to start an argument with him. Not that Rule argued. He simply stated his position and backed it up. Without looking at him she was aware of the power of his body, his long, steely-muscled legs that controlled half-ton horses with ease, the dark-fire gaze that made people back away.
“Want to ride out and see the cattle?” he asked, and without waiting for her answer headed out, leaving Cathryn to follow or not. She followed, keeping the gray’s head just even with the chestnut’s shoulder. It was a brisk ride to the west pasture where the white-faced Herefords were grazing, and it made her predict ruefully that she would regret all of this in the morning. Her muscles weren’t used to so much activity.
The herd was small—astonishingly so. She said as much to Rule, and he drawled, “We’re not in the cattle business anymore. What we raise is for our own use mostly. We’re horse breeders now.”
Stunned, Cathryn stared at him for a moment, then shouted, “What do you mean? This is a cattle ranch! Who gave you the authority to get rid of the cattle?”
“I don’t need anyone to ‘give’ me any authority,” he replied sharply. “We were losing money on the cattle, so I changed operations. If you had been here, I’d have talked it over with you, but you didn’t care enough to visit.”
“That’s not true!” she yelled. “You know why I didn’t visit more often! You know it’s because of—” She cut herself off abruptly, sick with emotion but still stopping short of admitting her weakness to him.
He waited, but she said nothing else and he turned Redman’s head back to the east. The sun was dipping low, but they kept to a leisurely pace, not talking. What was there to say? Cathryn paid no attention to their exact location until Rule reined in his horse at the top of a gentle rise and she looked down to see the river and a clump of trees, the wide sheltered area where she had swum naked that hot July day, and the grassy bank where Rule had made love to her. Though aware that he was watching her with sharp intensity, she couldn’t prevent the healthy color from leaving her cheeks. “Damn you,” she said in a shaky voice, leaving it at that, but she knew that he would catch her meaning.
He removed his hat and raked his fingers through his hair. “What are you so upset about? I’m not going to attack you, for heaven’s sake. We’re going to walk the horses down there and let them have some water, that’s all. Come on.”
Now the color flamed into her cheeks and she seethed at how easily he had made her make a fool of herself. She took a tight hold on her self-control and followed him down the slope to the river with no hint of her agitation showing on her face, but every inch of her body remembered.
It was here that he had found her skinny-dipping and harshly ordered her out of the water, threatening to haul her out if she didn’t leave it willingly. She had stomped out of the river, outraged at his high-handed attitude, and waded right into battle without once considering the possible consequences of attacking a man while she was totally nude. What had happened had been more her fault than Rule’s, she admitted now with more maturity than she had been capable of eight years earlier. He had tried to hold her off and soothe her out of her temper, but his hands had slipped over her bare wet flesh, and he was all man, so blatantly virile that his masculinity was like a flashing neon sign to every woman who saw him. When he ground his mouth harshly against hers, stopping her screams of fury, she had changed in one heart-stopping instant from white-hot fury to the dark blaze of desire. She had no idea how to control her own responses or exactly what responses she was arousing in him, but he had demonstrated the last point in the most explicit way possible.
When he dismounted to let his horse drink, Cathryn followed suit. He noticed the slight stiffness of her movements and said, “You’re going to be sore if you don’t get a rubdown. I’ll take care of you when we get back.”
She stiffened at the thought of him massaging her legs and refused the offer more abruptly than she’d meant to. “Thanks, but I can manage it myself.”
He shrugged. “It’s your pain.”
Somehow his easy acceptance of her refusal irritated her even further, and she glared at him as they remounted and began the ride back to the house. Now that he had mentioned it, she was aware of her steadily increasing soreness with every yard they covered. Only pride kept her from requesting that they slow the pace, and her jaw was rigidly set when they finally reached the stables.
He swung out of the saddle and was beside her before she could kick her feet out of the stirrups. Without a word he reached up and clasped her waist, carefully lifting her down, and she knew that he realized just exactly how uncomfortable she was. She muttered her thanks and moved away from him.
“Go on up to the house and tell Lorna I’ll be ready to eat in about half an hour,” he ordered. “Hurry, or you won’t have time to get the horse smell off beforehand.”
That thought loosened her stiff muscles, and it wasn’t until she was going into the house that she thought to be irritated at the fact that mealtimes had to conform to his schedule. She hesitated, then remembered that, after all, he did the work around there, so it was only fair that he have hot meals. On the heels of that thought came the idea that he could always eat with the other hands; no one had invited him into the main house. He hadn’t waited for an invitation, she thought, then sighed, and dutifully passed along his message to Lorna, who smiled and nodded.
Neither Monica nor Ricky presented themselves, so she dashed up the stairs and took a fast shower. Meals on the ranch weren’t formal, but she changed into a sleeveless cotton dress rather than jeans, and carefully applied her makeup, driven by some deeply buried feminine instinct that she was hesitant to examine too closely. As she was brushing her dark mahogany-red hair into a smooth bell that curved against her shoulders, a brief knock sounded on the door, which promptly opened to admit her stepsister.
Her first thought was that Ricky’s last marriage must have been a rough