Closing The Gap (Dangerous Pasts, #1) (7 page)

“How many horses do you have here?” His voice sounded scratchy to his own ears as he tried to cover his burgeoning lust.  She didn’t seem to notice.  An adult beverage would be excellent right about now to calm his nerves and numb the hot blood flowing through his veins that continued causing the annoying tingling and swelling in his underwear.  Thank god he hadn’t decided to free ball it.

“Right now, I have twenty head here although there are thirty total stalls and ten acres.  I’m truly blessed.  Owning this type of property is rare so close to the city.  I have six broodmares and their foals along with the yearlings and two year olds.  We evaluate them as soon as possible to determine if they should go out for training.  My resident trainer, Chad Greene, lives here on the farm.  There’s a full apartment in the barn.  He’s wonderful with the young horses and the old riders, like me.”  She gave a wink and a grin, then continued.  Josh noticed that she’d loosened up while talking about her horses.  He was happy to see that her frosty exterior had started to thaw.  “Chad trains my personal show horses as well.  They’re both geldings and they’re here on the farm.  The only horse out right now is our futurity contender for Nationals, Flame.  For political reasons, it warranted sending him to the top trainer in the country.  He has a good chance at winning.  He’s pretty talented.”

“Boy, are you speaking my language when you refer to politics.  Hockey has that in spades.  I guess we’re lucky it isn’t as bad as football or basketball but it’s still rampant.”

“I know.  I’m sure it’s a lot like horse showing.  All the outsiders notice is the shine of the finished product but they don’t understand the pain and sacrifice that it took to get to the top and stay there for any length of time.”  Her voice contained a gritty resolve as though she’d been through the ringer in the horse industry and still lived to tell the tale.

Surprised that Lake had grasped the exact meaning behind his words, Josh appreciated that she’d reflected before responding.  This diminutive female, how did she appear to understand him so well without noticing she did and why did it feel so imperative to know her better?  If she could be so passionate about her work, she could be passionate about everything.  Even him.  Not sure how their superficial conversation had skittered below the surface into deeper territory, he found he liked it.  Josh only had meaningful discourse with his dad, Jason and Kevin Winters, his broadcasting partner. A woman with her own thing going was attractive.  Alarm bells rang in his head to watch himself.  This one in particular needed nothing from him judging by the horses and the farm itself.  There were millions of dollars reflected right in front of his face.

She leaned in to Lily to give her one final stroke and then turned toward the barn.  “The others are inside today.  They work with Chad daily, depending on where they’re at in their training.”

Josh enjoyed following Lake up and down the barn aisles as they greeted the horses.  He especially liked the view of her back side as she walked in front of him and led the way.  Her black pants hugged her ass in all the right places and the fuzzy green sweater begged to be rubbed.  Thank God she wasn’t looking at his face the majority of the time.  She’d notice the longing written all over him and turn away, disgusted by his baser emotions.  This woman possessed so much more substance than the women he normally dated.  He was out of his element and hoped he wouldn’t say or do something offensive.  When he felt unsure, it became second nature for him to fall back on his Trashman persona.  He still liked to pick it up and wear it like a mask whenever he needed to.  Rude comments or actions couldn’t hurt The Trashman like they could hurt Josh. 

Lake even provided him with carrots and peppermint balls as treats for his new friends.  He’d had no idea certain horses went for peppermints and he got a kick out of holding out his hand and letting their soft noses search out and grab each tasty morsel.  After meeting the last horse, Lake’s Country English show gelding, Tempo, he glanced at his watch and found enough time had passed to head for the arena.  He’d called in a favor to get this window of private ice time so didn’t want to push it.

They strolled back to Chuck’s car and he held the door open for Lake as she slipped into the passenger seat and fastened her seat belt.  Lake asked Josh about his Hall of Fame ceremony and he found himself excited to share that part of himself.  He also spoke about his career and how lucky he was to retire without being forced out of the game by an injury.  The conversation flowed and it felt good to glance over and have her there beside him, seeming comfortable.  Things were going well.  Now, if only he could tamp down that desire that was starting to bust loose like a runaway train every time she got near him.

“I
hope you know it’s a travesty that you can’t skate.  Are you sure you were born in the land of ten thousand lakes,
Lake
?”

Lake wobbled to and fro on her white figure skates that she’d borrowed from Summer.  At first, she had trouble staying upright.  As she started to get the hang of it, she became encouraged she hadn’t made an undignified fall on her butt.  Josh stayed glued to her side and reminded her of Chuck who always considered the comfort of others before his own.

“It
is
embarrassing.  My mom went into labor while in a fishing boat on one of our local lakes, hence my unique name.”

“I wondered where your name came from.  How did Summer get her name?”

“She was born in August.  It was really hot and my mom’s not very original.” 

Lake speculated over the true cause of her instability.  Was it the thin metal she balanced precariously upon or his large hand pressing into the small of her back causing those distressing tingles throughout her body?  He had the most beautiful hands she had ever seen on a man with long, tapered fingers in spite of large palms.  They were smooth too and those hands provided the inspiration for her errant thoughts.  She imagined them running down the length of her arms and legs.  Feeling the blood rush again to her nether regions, she wondered how the simple images could make her so hot in spite of the coolness of the arena.

“If I had known in advance this date was ice skating, I might have passed on presenting the winning bid.”  Lake teased him as she glided forward and skidded to the left.

“Hey, if anyone can get you standing on your own two blades, it’s me.  You’ll be twirling like Michelle Kwan in no time, oh ye of little faith!”

“Just don’t morph into The Trashman because you’re here in your element.  If you start swearing, making fun of me or checking me into the boards, I make no promises that I won’t burst into tears.  I could also make like Tonya Harding and take you out the knees.”

“If I do that, I give you leave to kick my ass with a blunt object.” 

She swayed to the left again and grazed his hip so Josh took that opportunity to grab both of her hands and turn her around so she skated backwards.  A look of sheer panic must have crossed her face at the movement because there were both his dimples again, to reassure her.  Damn him and that triumphant expression.  Her mind searched for a way to turn the tables.

“No you don’t mister.  I can’t even skate forwards so it’s a given that I can’t skate backwards.”

Lake held on even tighter to his hands and marveled at how good they felt and what a perfect fit they were for her much smaller ones.  A distinct heat resonated between their two bodies in spite of the chilly temperature.

“Just trust me to hold onto you.  I won’t let you fall.”

That might already be too late.  As she looked at Josh and trusted him to hold her upright she felt vulnerable, as if she’d just jumped from an airplane at ten thousand feet depending only on her thin, silk parachute.  Lake stared into his blue eyes and wanted to feel safe with him; wanted him to be her safety net.  He’d been trustworthy since the moment they’d met. 
Can I take it one step further?
  She imagined the walls of her fortress starting to crumble, pebbles raining down from the walls to lie atop the grass underneath.

As they skated backwards towards the net, Lake noticed two hockey sticks lying on the ice.  Seriously, he wanted to play hockey with someone who couldn’t move more than a few feet on their own steam let alone skate towards the net and shoot?  She considered the possibility.  If he asked, she’d try it.  What if she never saw him again after tonight and he went back to Chicago?  Other people weren’t in the arena to witness her make an utter fool of herself.  Lake had been brave before her divorce and she wanted to experience that warm rush of freedom again.  She could surely slap a couple pucks around without hurting herself, couldn’t she?

****

J
osh picked up a stick and held it out towards her as he kept the other one gripped in his left hand.

“The arena crew wasn’t sure who’d be here with me so they set up a net just in case.”  He sported a cat ate the canary grin on his face. 

“Lake Harrison, will you play with me?” 

He gave a couple lifts of his eyebrows and paused as he waited for her reaction.  He knew the offer pushed the envelope, but just couldn’t stop himself.  Since she didn’t own much in the way of skating skills, he’d set up a line of pucks for her and let her take a few shots at him.  Pucks sailing around his unprotected body and head were a small price to pay to soften the expression on that lovely face of hers.  Obviously, she had a competitive streak gleaned from many years of showing horses at the highest levels.  It also couldn’t hurt that showing off his hockey expertise would raise his wavering confidence.  At dinner, he’d be sure to offer himself up as a human sacrifice to the Gods of horseback riding in payback.

Whoa, that came out of nowhere. 
In a rush, he understood his dad’s words.  One date wasn’t going to be enough.  A lifetime might not be enough.  Her uniqueness had crawled under his skin in record time, making him want more of the same.  He’d see her again and do whatever was required to make that happen in spite of the long distance.  Hell, with hockey season almost over, he wouldn’t mind spending more time with his dad over the summer.  The anticipation of more dates, leading straight to the bedroom coursed through his body.  He welcomed it, interested and intrigued by where his fascination with her might go.

She scrunched up her brow, weighing the pros and cons.  Her face lit up with multiple expressions and he wondered if she knew how many flitted across in rapid succession.  He hoped that she didn’t.  He found he wanted to experience the myriad of her emotions.  Maybe soon she’d trust him enough to tell him her story, the one he knew lay buried just below the surface.  He held his breath waiting for the final response but she remembered herself, and tempered her face not giving anything further away.

“Sure, sounds fun.  I know it’s hard for you to believe after my skating here today has rivaled Mike Modano, but I’ve never shot a puck prior to today.  I want to be able to tell my sister that I took a shot in this arena from the blue line.  If I don’t, she might never let me hear the end of it.”

He smiled at the Minnesota North Star reference and thought back to the auction.  So, she knew about hockey and kicked it old school.  Josh liked it.  He wondered how Lake and Summer could turn out so different with Summer being such a blatant tease.  He looked forward to further conversation at dinner to draw it out of her.  For now, he was grateful that Lake didn’t have Summer’s more vivacious personality.  He normally dated her type and he found the refined and reserved Lake to be a breath of fresh air.  It had been many years since he’d had to work this hard to impress a woman, wanting to produce his best self just for her.

Glancing backward, she scoped out the distance between the blue line and the net. 
Didn’t she know it was about sixty four feet?
  She couldn’t make that shot unless she put everything she had in her slight body behind it and she aimed dead on the net.

“A shot from the blue line?  Are you sure you can make it that far?  Don’t you want to start a little closer, superstar?”

Josh set four pucks up in a straight line around twenty feet from the net, confident that distance offered a good starting point.  She seemed much more stable after being on the ice for a half hour so he was no longer worried leaving her alone would cause her to fall.  He found that keeping her mind and body engaged relaxed her more in his presence.  If by a run of beginners luck, she managed a shot on goal, he planned to make a half-assed attempt at a save and let it blow past him.  Her smile lit up the arena so he found himself working to get one.

Funny, he’d never cared much about smiles.  Once he got their clothes off, and then them off, he didn’t need to gaze at a woman’s face.  Unbidden, his dad’s words popped into his mind.  He needed to stop behaving like he’d been born in a barn.  Had he just listened to his head and not his dick in a situation involving a beautiful woman?  That was a first and presented a foreign concept to explore later when got back to his bedroom alone.  He drifted backwards and took his place in the net.

“Ready?”

“As I’ll ever be.  Here goes.”  She wound up and took a pretty stable shot, teetering on her skates.  It had the distance but arced wide and left of the net.  Like most rookies, she over-corrected and the second and third shots sailed wide right. 

“This is your final shot.  Since our dinner reservations are in an hour, this should be the last one or we’ll be late.  Do you really want to back up and take it from the blue line?  Wouldn’t you have a better chance at actually making one if you stayed right there?”  His joking tone belied his true intent because a radical idea had sprung into his consciousness.

“Bring it on, Adams.  I am not afraid.”  With one hand pressing into a curvy hip and the other clutching her stick, she looked super sexy giving him lip while tossing her long hair to the side.  Her taunting him that way brought him further assurance she’d loosened up over the course of the afternoon.  The time had come to nudge her even further.