My Indian

A/N: Thanks again for the reviews!
KD - patience!!!!!!!!!!


Four

The place was pretty empty the following day, all those required were packed into a truck and taken to the local market to pick out some new stock. I was briefly asked to go, but that was halted by Lyle commenting that “Zack’s needed out in the field.”

So I agreed to stay with Lyle and the females of the family in the house and me and Rex in the great outdoors.

I must admit to having watched Rex as we worked, my eyes wandering away from the cattle for moments at a time. It was clear that the man liked a smoke and the company of animals was good for him. Although he hunched himself over in the saddle, his shoulders were dropped and he seemed content to just watch and sit still.

Lyle had stayed for business, his mind focused on keeping the place running while the other fellas were out getting cows. Bella would help him, filing and faxing and phoning. I wondered if she minded being a glorified secretary when the men around her all did the full work. She replied, “I ain’t no feminist like you get in the city. I don’t mind doin’ the women’s jobs, after all I still got a head on my shoulders and a whip for a tongue. I can fill my boots as well as anyone on this ranch.”

“Come on, young slick, let’s get back,” Rex pulled his horse, Mallow, up beside me and we wandered back to the corral and stables together in silence.

Young Slick. He’d started calling me that, a sweet endearment about my city roots. I didn’t mind it at all. In fact, I loved it, the way his tongue clicked on the “ck” making this sexy sound that rang in my ears for hours.

We pulled up into the yard and dismounted. Rex took the reins and indicated that I should stay where I was. I obeyed, a little confused.

He brought Pride out. She was on a long rein and he was walking some feet in front of her, guiding her, but not forcing her. Her head flicked back and forth but she was calm enough.

Rex opened up the fence of the corral and let her loose, standing back to close the fence. He put a foot on the fence and lit up another cigarette.

“Why don’t you give her another go?” he said quietly, his eyes not leaving the mare.

“Y’sure?”

“Don’t get all scared on me or she’ll have you alive. Your arrogance got you through yesterday –”

“I wasn’t trying to be arrogant.”

“Well, whatever, slick. Point is, you can’t be a pussy ‘bout this. She’ll eat y’alive if you lose your nerve,” He barely looked at me as he spoke, that black cowboy hat casting a shadow over his face. I desperately wanted to see those rich eyes.

“What d’you want me to do?”

“Just go on in, give her a stroke, then saddle her up.”

“Okay.”

I climbed over the fence slowly, keen to hang back in case the girl sensed my wariness. Oh and I was wary. Since I found out about her ancestry in the open skies of the wilderness my nerves were high. Although the foreman had trusted me, at that point, with my face only inches from her own, I wanted to run away from those hooves.

She was quiet as I touched her nose, my fingers attempting to be gentle but firm. Rex’s eyes were on my back as I stroked the mare, my heart beating fast. I wondered if she could hear it.

“Saddle, young slick.”

I nodded briefly and then headed off to the fence, retrieved the saddle Rex had hung up and wandered back to the horse, albeit in a very, very stupid fashion –

“Don’t come up – ”

She kicked me. I’d approached her from behind, spooked her out and had a pair of hooves pushed back into my stomach. I thanked the Lord that I had held the saddle, its thick leather protecting me from a set of broken ribs. However, I didn’t get off completely free. I was thrown back onto my back, the wind knocked out of me.

“ – Behind her,” Rex whispered. I thought I imagined a little smile on his lips as he jumped over the fence to control the horse, careful that Pride didn’t stamp me down.

With my ass still in the dirt, Rex calmed the mare down and led her out to her stable and returned to me, taking the saddle from my grip, “Let’s get you in the house and lying down.”

I tentatively nodded and he helped me to my feet, wrapping one of those slender arms around my waist. He smelt of clean soap, cigarettes and horse hair along with some musky scent that was all his own. I tried hard to focus on putting one foot in front of the other but I had his perfume drifting around me and his warm arm supporting me. I knew he was a beautiful man but this was beyond my comprehension.

I couldn’t get engrossed in another man’s embrace. I was out in the middle of nowhere and one slip I could be beaten back to Tulsa.

Bella came running out the house, “What the hell happened?”

“Pride changed her mind, about me,” I wheezed, my other arm being lifted by the woman. “Seems I pissed her off.”

“Shit!”

I was carried up to my room, lower legs getting weaker with the steps. I’d landed right on my ass followed swiftly by my back. The pain was leaking upwards.

“You just lie still, y’here,” Bella fussed, helping me onto the bed and pulling blankets around me.

“Bella, you go downstairs and make him some tea, ‘kay?” Rex was washing his hands in my small basin.

“I’ll be right back!” Her concern was sweet as she rushed away.

“Sorry ‘bout that,” Rex said suddenly, pulling his hat off from his head, fingers roughing up his hair. “Forgot to warn you.”

“My own fault,” I replied, wincing at the feeling beneath my back. “Shouldn’t have been so-”

“Hold still, slick, or you’ll hurt yourself even more,” He was by my side holding my shoulders down gently, those rough hands turning soft. “The tea Bella’s gunna bring you should calm you down, keep you relaxed.”

He really was beautiful. I’d wanted to see those chocolate eyes and now I could look directly into them.

Intense. He was completely intense, studying each of my features with stunning curiosity. He was now sat beside me, one hand on my chest, the other by his side. Was it wrong to wish I was naked?

I hoped he couldn’t feel the beat under his fingers. Although with the look he was giving me, maybe he could.

He flinched and stood quickly as Bella re-entered the room. I didn’t say a word, didn’t move a muscle as the young wife placed a hot mug of tea on the bedside table.

“Rex, Lyle wants you downstairs. I’m gunna look after Zack now.”

Rex nodded, picked up his hat and left without a look to me. I was dreaming things, surely.