A Merger by Marriage (8 page)

“Sounds perfect,” he heard himself say and wondered just how long it would remain so.

* * *

Beneath Scarlett’s watchful eye, Violet packed a suitcase full of essentials and ignored most of her sister’s questions.

“At least tell me this,” Scarlett said. “Are you going to give the man a chance to rock your world?”

Violet sat down on the bed beside her sister. “I’m afraid that if I do that by the time we get divorced I’ll be madly in love with him.”

“But wouldn’t it be worth discovering he’s madly in love with you, too?”

“JT’s right. Your happiness with Logan makes you want everyone else to find love.” Violet shook her head. “It’s not where JT and I are heading.”

“You’re just afraid. Before Logan, I was afraid, too. But trusting him—trusting myself—let me see with my heart as well as my head. All I’m suggesting is that you do the same thing.”

“JT doesn’t want to let me in. Trying to get to know him is like slogging through mud. Forward progress is slow and exhausting.”

“But it’s still progress.”

“And what if I do get to know him only to discover that he’s been damaged so badly he won’t be able to accept love much less return it.”

“If anyone can fix him, that person is you.”

Scarlett’s faith strengthened Violet. Was it possible that what had started out as an inspired business strategy could become a viable, satisfying and permanent merger?

“We’re having a party at JT’s ranch on Tuesday. I need you, Logan and Harper to come for moral support.”

“Of course we’ll come, but you don’t really need us. You and JT will do great together. I think you make a wonderful team. I’ll bet Tiberius did too. It’s probably why he left the stock to you instead of to JT with the caveat that you couldn’t dispose of it until far in the future.”

Ever since the reading of his will, Violet had wondered about Tiberius’s motivation for doing so as well. Why had he given her the stock and forced her to hold on to it knowing that she wouldn’t be able to vote?

Plagued by questions she’d never know the answer to, Violet drove to JT’s ranch and arrived at three in the afternoon. JT’s housekeeper took charge of Violet’s luggage and informed her that JT was in the barn. Curious, Violet went in search of him.

To describe JT’s property as a ranch was a little misleading. What he had was a first-class training facility for show horses. The barn was a state-of-the-art structure with an impressive lobby whose walls were lined with large photos of expensive-looking horses doing dressage or jumping fences. The centerpiece of the room was a large bronze horse and female rider. Violet wondered if it had been modeled after JT’s grandmother.

Off the lobby were several offices, currently empty. A door toward the back had a sign on it that indicated it led to the barn. Violet pushed her way through. She expected to be hit with heat, noise and stench, but it was a comfortable eighty degrees, and the few sounds that reached her ear were muted crunching and an occasional nose clearing. As for the smell, whatever air conditioning JT had incorporated into his design also pulled the dust from the air as well as the strongest of the horsey odors of hay, sweat and manure.

The concrete floor between the stalls was newly swept and free of dust. Violet wandered along, peering into stalls as she went. With each step she took, she found herself growing more and more calm. By the time she rounded a corner and spotted JT, down on one knee, wrapping some sort of poultice around a horse’s knee, she was humming.

“Hi,” she said, stopping ten feet from the large horse.

JT glanced up at her greeting and offered her a lopsided grin that made her heart jerk almost painfully. He wore camel-colored jodhpurs and knee-high boots. A navy polo shirt showed off the strong column of his throat and his powerful biceps.

“I’ll be just a couple minutes more, then I can give you a tour of the place.”

“Take your time.”

She was enjoying the view. After not seeing JT for five days, she’d almost been able to convince herself that the way she’d melted beneath his kisses had been a symptom of her shock at learning what Tiberius had left her and reaction to her impulsive and speedy wedding. Then he’d returned and she’d proposed that they move in together. She could deny her feelings to Harper and Scarlett, but it was a lot harder to lie to herself.

She was hoping the chemistry between her and JT would combust and land them in bed together. Admitting it made her giddy. She’d disavowed the truth long enough. She wanted JT Stone in a big way and her subconscious had positioned her perfectly to act on those feelings.

“You ready?”

While she’d been coming to grips with her desires, JT had finished with the horse and a groom was leading it away.

“Sure.”

JT guided her down the row of stalls, telling her a little bit about all the different horses.

“Until I stepped into the barn, I didn’t realize this was a training facility,” she exclaimed as he opened one of the stall doors and stepped inside. “How many horses do you have here?”

“We have fifty in training. They’re all housed on this side. Across the arena is a whole other line of stalls where we keep horses for sale and the mares who are either in foal or who have babies. There’s another forty over there.”

“So, this is much more than a hobby for you.”

“Not really. Vic manages the facility and deals with all the clients. Ralph is in charge of the training. Sid handles the sales. Bonnie keeps everyone healthy and watches over the mares. The place doesn’t need me to run.”

But from the way everyone they met asked his opinion or updated him on the barn’s occupants, she gathered he was the heart and soul of the operation.

“This is Milo.” JT laughed as they approached a stall and he had to push the horse’s nose away from his pocket. “You get treats after you work, not before.”

“Is he yours?”

“No. He belongs to a very talented ten-year-old girl. I’ve been his trainer for two years.”

Keeping her gaze off her husband’s handsome face—relaxed and unguarded for the first time she’d noticed—was necessary to avoid embarrassing herself with renewed pleas for his kisses. Instead, Violet stared at the horse. His back was well over five and a half feet off the ground. “A little girl rides this horse? That’s a long way to fall.”

“She’s been riding since she was three. She has an amazing seat. The sort my grandmother had. And a real feel for the horse. She and Milo are quite a team. She’ll be by for a lesson tomorrow. You can see for yourself.”

“I’d like that.”

JT slipped a halter over the horse’s head and led him out of the stall. He held the lead rope out to her. “Can you hold him for me while I get my saddle and bridle?”

“Me?” She squeaked out the word after sizing up the enormous animal. “I’ve never handled a horse before.”

“He’s a big pussycat.” JT put the rope in her hands. The horse took a step toward her, his ears forward. “Blow lightly into his nostril. He likes it and it will help you two get acquainted.”

If it had been anyone but JT she might have assumed she was being pranked. Still, she felt silly following his instructions until the big horse pricked his ears and breathed back at her. On some sort of horse level they were communicating. By the time JT returned with a saddle and bridle, she had grown brave enough to pet the horse’s soft nose and scratch his cheek.

“Looks like you two have hit it off,” JT observed, setting the saddle carefully on the floor. He held out a brush. “Feel like giving me a hand?”

“Sure.” She sounded more confident than she felt, but as she applied the brush to the animal’s rich brown coat, she was overcome by a sense of peace. No wonder JT enjoyed his horses. Being with them grounded him firmly in the moment. Nothing mattered but the stroke of a brush against Milo’s warm flank. It was the perfect counterpoint to the Las Vegas strip. “It’s very Zen,” she remarked.

“This is where I spend my days. I can handle just about any crisis after a few hours with the horses.”

JT tossed the saddle onto Milo’s back and fastened the cinch. While he worked, he spoke softly to the horse. Mostly nonsense, but it was his melodious tone that the horse listened and responded to. And he wasn’t the only one. Violet found herself lulled as well.

“Can you hand me his bridle?”

His question snapped her out of her trance. Spending time with him like this meant she risked falling beneath JT’s spell. Eventually, reality would intrude and she’d be in too deep. She just had to decide if getting hurt was worth the ride.

“Here you go.”

The horse stood patiently while JT slipped off the halter and replaced it with the bridle. His actions were smooth and efficient. Remembering Scarlett’s opinion about JT’s hands, Violet watched as he fastened buckles, double-checked the fit of the cinch and soothed the horse with a stroke along his shoulder. By the time JT turned the horse toward the door that led into the arena, Violet was experiencing waves of heat that had nothing to do with the air temperature.

“You can watch me work Milo from there.” JT pointed to the far corner where several chairs sat on a raised platform. He handed her a small towel. “We use crumb rubber as a footing to keep down the dust, but you’ll probably want to wipe off the chair.”

She glanced down at her flat sandals and pale blue skirt. “I guess I’m not really dressed for the barn, am I? If I’m going to visit in the future, I’d better wear jeans.”

“And boots as well. Not everyone is as careful where they put their feet as Milo. I wouldn’t want your pretty toes crushed.”

“You think I have pretty toes?” His offhanded compliment made her grin.

His eyes glowed as he gave her a quick once-over. “I think you have pretty everything.”

It was on the tip of her tongue to shoot back that he hadn’t seen her everything, but then she recalled how he’d caught her skinny-dipping. At the time, he’d been so annoyed, it hadn’t occurred to her to wonder how much he’d seen. Now, she suspected he’d glimpsed more than he let on.

“JT...” She had no idea how to convey what she wanted without giving away too much.

“Don’t read too much into that,” he told her. “You’re beautiful. I find you attractive. It doesn’t mean I can’t control myself around you.”

His words acted like an ice bath. “I’m not sure whether to be insulted or relieved.”

Teeth flashing in a wry grin, JT led Milo to the center of the arena, leaving her standing in an emotional stew of her own making. When she’d set out to discover JT’s true identity, the one a painful childhood had forced into hiding, she’d done so thinking that it would do him good to connect with people.

But after seeing the way he related to his barn staff and the joy he received from working with the horses, she realized he wasn’t the damaged train wreck she’d assumed. He had a healthy outlet for his passion. A place of peace that benefited others. He wasn’t exactly the loner she perceived him as—and felt sorry for. What else had she gotten wrong?

As Violet watched JT swing his long lean form into the saddle, she felt her perceptions shift. Her ego had fooled her into believing JT needed her when it was so obvious that he had things all figured out. He didn’t need her to run to his rescue with a marriage of convenience or to draw him out of his shell for his own good. He’d been doing just fine on his own. Yet he’d accepted her help. It wasn’t as if anyone could force JT to do something he didn’t want to do.

Milo moved through a series of maneuvers that looked complex, but which the horse executed with ease. JT sat quietly in the saddle, appearing on first glance to be more passenger than active participant. But his concentration told a different story. Violet paid closer attention to his hands and legs. Still she couldn’t discern what JT was doing to make the horse side-pass one direction for a few steps and then abruptly switch and go the other way.

JT was asking the horse to dance for him. His control over the animal was amazing. And sexy as hell.

After fifteen minutes he dropped the reins onto Milo’s neck and patted the horse on both shoulders. His broad grin made Violet catch her breath. So this was what it felt like to swoon over a guy. She’d never experienced anything like it and wasn’t sure how to behave now that her body had a mind of its own.

“That was amazing,” Violet called, stepping off the platform.

JT dismounted and led Milo toward her. He stroked the horse’s neck. “He did all the work.” A slight sheen had developed on JT’s forehead, contradicting his assertion.

“I don’t believe that.”

Their eyes connected and locked. JT’s smile faded. What had been warm flesh a moment earlier became solid granite, and Violet’s heart sank as she watched the doors slam shut over his thoughts. After several heartbeats, JT sucked in a deep lungful of air.

“I lied to you earlier,” he said, his gaze probing hers, searching for answers, but giving nothing away.

The disappointment she’d felt seconds earlier faded slightly as her heartbeat accelerated beneath his intent expression. “About what?”

“About—”

“If you’re all done with Milo, Boss, I can take him.” A groom stepped into the arena. “Bonnie is in with Bullet and wonders if you can come look at the foal. She’s wondering if we should call the vet.”

“You’re busy,” Violet said, taking a half step back. “And I promised Harper I’d come in early today so we could discuss a joint promotion.” As excuses went, it wasn’t the best, but she needed time to regroup and figure out what she really wanted from JT before things started to happen. “We can talk after work tonight.”

He caught her arm and kept her from moving away. The groom was fast approaching. Violet’s heart thumped hard against her ribs as JT lowered his lips toward her ear.

“Your sister was right,” he murmured, his warm breath sliding seductively over her skin. “I am hungry for you.”

And then he was handing Milo off to the groom and striding away from her. Violet stared after him, her knees pressed together for stability because the strength had gone out of her muscles.

He was hungry for her?

He was hungry for her.

Well, that was good because she was hungry for him as well.