She sobered.
His very densely muscled chest. A chest that left her warm and tingly in places she shouldn’t consider in correlation with her boss.
Hurrying to the dry shed, she grabbed a small hay bale and hauled it to the pasture. As soon as the horses saw her, they trotted over. She paused to reach into her pocket and pull out a bag of baby carrots she’d picked up at Meyers’ Supermarket.
The animals crowded in, each waiting for their carrot. She pushed Stella’s nose away as she reached to pluck a second into her teeth before the other horses got their first. “You greedy thing, wait your turn.”
After all the horses received two carrots and a second hay bale, she left the pasture and secured the gate behind her. The sun on her shoulders felt nice. She stopped walking and tipped her head, allowing the rays to touch her skin.
For several seconds, she soaked up the sun. When was the last time she felt such… She drew in a deep breath of hay and grass-scented air.
Peace.
The word formed in her mind with garlands of flowers draped around it.
She opened her eyes, shocked at what she was feeling. The last time she remembered acknowledging such a moment, she was a young adult, recently let loose on the world and with all the hopes and promises of a future ahead of her.
In a short week, she got it back.
She continued on toward the barn with thoughts of oiling saddles out in the sunshine-dappled yard for the rest of her day lingering in her mind.
Now that she had peace, she wasn’t about to let it go. She’d grab on with both hands and fight tooth and nail to keep it.
* * * * *
Aidan stopped with one foot in the yard, the other on the porch step, watching Liberty from across the yard. She stood with her head tipped back, eyes closed and such a beatific expression on her face…
His heart squeezed with a soft clutch of awareness, and acknowledgement too, if he was honest.
The attraction wasn’t going away—hell, now instead of a light flicker of flames between him and Liberty, flames shot higher into the air. Give him another week and it’d be a wildfire.
Watching her enjoy the moment with the sun shining on her pretty features and toying with the colors of her hair, sending them from blonde to red depending on the way she moved, had him wondering where the hell this all would end.
In a short spell, they’d grown less stiff with each other. Doing manual labor or working with the horses brought about a sort of camaraderie between them.
Then Liberty surprised the hell out of him, like a bit ago. He was innocently enjoying her frustration with him over the spaghetti pot, when she hit him with the water.
As soon as that icy water hit his chest and trickled down, so did a dark need to sweep her up and show her how much he enjoyed her little trick. For a solid minute, he told himself that kissing that sass right off her sweet lips would not be a good idea. When he stepped toward her, he didn’t have any recollection of doing so.
The fact she got the last word in, and the spaghetti pot and a few other dishes were now drying on the rack, wasn’t lost on him either. If his cousins found out he let a woman steamroll him, he’d never live it down.
Liberty broke from her pose and continued on to the barn. Aidan stood rooted in place, wanting to follow her. Knowing he shouldn’t. He didn’t have any reason to work side-by-side with her every minute of every day…he just liked to.
In the end, he gave into his urges and trailed after her. The sound of some faint country tunes projecting from her phone reached him, and so did her singing. He listened for a minute and winced at the godawful sound coming from the woman.
He stepped into the barn and spotted her hefting a saddle into her arms. She stopped singing at once.
“You heard me just now, didn’t you?” Her face told him she hoped he said no.
He dipped his head in a nod.
She groaned. “Don’t even say it. I’ve heard it enough in my life.”
“Heard what?”
“I can’t carry a tune in a bucket.”
He pinned his lips shut. Somehow the fact that the woman couldn’t sing only endeared her to him more. “I wasn’t gonna say that.”
“Well, my ex did plenty.” She carried the saddle outside and then returned for the polish and cloth.
“If you wanna sing, you should sing,” Aidan took up the conversation where they momentarily broke off.
“That’s not what Redding said.”
Anger scraped across his senses. Before now, Liberty had closed herself off about her past, saying nothing about her roots and background. The fact she was spilling this to him right now made him want to go find her fucker ex-husband and rip his head off, even if it did seem a bit extreme.
She brushed by him, and Aidan threw out an arm to stop her. She came to a dead halt, looking up into his eyes with surprise.
“I’d say your ex was ten gallons o’ shit in a five gallon bucket. You should sing if you wanna sing, Liberty.” Why did his tone sound like a mix of banked fury and balls-hot lust?
He dragged in a deep breath, filling his head with the scents of the barn—hay and horse—and more…woman. The same scent he detected in the bathroom after her shower. And the memory of that first morning when the remnant of his dream turned to reality after he dragged her down on top of him.
Christ, he wanted to do that again. His stare locked onto her lips.
A puff of air left her. The top of her head reached the middle of his chest. The perfect place to tuck her up against him and protect her from idiots like her ex who insulted her and probably left a trail of hurt.
He dropped his arm before he could snap it around her and yank her into him.
“That’s the nicest thing anyone’s ever said about my ex,” she said with a glint in her eyes.
He tossed his head on a deep laugh. She joined in, and seeing that big smile wreathing her features only sent another ripple of desire through him. She skirted past him and sauntered outdoors, still laughing.
He grabbed his own saddle to polish and followed her. She’d settled the saddle over a sawhorse she’d set up and with cloth in hand, she began to work the oil into the worn leather. He set up next to her where he could steal peeks while they worked together in the sun.
The music still played on her phone, and sometimes he caught her mouthing the words, though she didn’t make a peep again.
His musings turned to another track. For several weeks, he planned a road trip to see about buying a new horse to add to his gene pool. He thought about asking Kaoz to join him—his cousin’s knowledge would be welcome—but now he wondered if Liberty might like to go.
It meant hours spent in the truck beside the woman he could barely shake from his mind.
He lifted his head from his task. With her head bowed, he wasn’t able to make out her face. What would she say to his idea?
When a tune he knew came on, he started singing low at first. Then he grew louder as he worked. She stopped polishing to stare at him, a big grin on her face.
He fired off the quick succession of lyrics in the same country twang he already called his own.
Liberty’s eyes sparkled.
He stopped singing. “What?”
“You…”
“Can’t carry a tune in a bucket either?”
They shared a smile. After she returned to her work, her smile remained on her face, growing as she rubbed the leather in small circles. And damn if he could stop looking at her wearing that sweet expression.