Cowboy Dragon Page 9

  “What’s this?” she asked, too surprised by the sudden gift to be anything but giddy with the prospect of wearing it.

  “I don’t want that pretty skin of yours getting scorched by the Texas sun while we’re out.” Then he smirked at her, making her toes tingle. “That, and I wanted to picture you the same way you were thinking about me last night.”

  Her heart about leapt out of her chest, and his dominant glance down her body only further cemented his point.

  Harrison just handed her the reins to Cookie’s saddle and moved a few paces away, watching her closely.

  “Picture what?” Reno asked as he walked between them for more supplies.

  “Uh, nothing,” she replied. “Just an inside joke about cowboy hats.”

  Harrison was smiling at her, amused by her stuttering.

  “Ah.” Reno shrugged and went his way.

  Holding the reins, Marian hooked a boot through one stirrup and tested the saddle to make sure it was secure. It was, and she was grateful Cookie was only fourteen or so hands tall, basically pony-size, or she’d have trouble getting up.

  She’d need to leap off the bed of a raised truck to get onto the monstrosity that was Rusty.

  Harrison just stared, waiting for her to prove she wasn’t the city slicker he’d always said she was.

  With a huff and an unladylike grunt, she lifted her other leg up and over the saddle, landing her butt in the center but almost missing the other stirrup. A moment later, she was composed and ready to go.

  How did you make horses go again?

  “Not half bad,” Harrison said, turning his horse with one hand and heading away from her.

  Out toward the horizon.

  “Where are we going?” she called behind Harrison, suddenly all nerves now that she was atop a horse that could bolt or buck her off with ease.

  Cookie nickered as if annoyed they were just standing around lallygagging.

  “We’re going to the northeast pasture. Headcount was a bit low this morning, so I think there are a few strays that wandered from the herd and got stranded out in the rocks by the ridge.”

  If there was anything she’d learned this past week, cows were indeed a new level of frustrating.

  She tapped her heels into Cookie’s sides, and Cookie went straight into a trot that felt like the world was going by in a blur as the horse bobbed up and down. Then, once Marian pulled back on the reins, Cookie fell into step right alongside Harrison, who still dwarfed her.

  “That excited to see me?” he asked with a smirk. He had a day’s worth of stubble, which only accentuated his sharp, masculine jaw and expressive lips.

  “Just getting the hang of things.” She fumbled with the reins for a moment, then had it figured out, lessons from years ago finally coming back to her. “By the way, thank you.” She tipped her brand-new hat to him, and he tipped his back with a satisfied smile.

  “My pleasure, Miss West.”

  And as their two horses trotted out toward the west, leaving the ranch an almost invisible dot behind them on the horizon, Marian wondered for the first time what a life like this would actually look like.

  Hard, honest work. Plenty of sun. Nothing but wilderness and clean air for miles.

  Good company. Trustworthy people.

  Hot nights full of sweat and pleasure with a devastatingly handsome cowboy that was intent on rocking her world, even if he was a dragon.

  Maybe she’d have to break her rule about cowboys after all.

  14

  Harrison supposed life couldn’t be more perfect than it was right now.

  A blazing blue sky with streaks of white across it. Open plains and fresh air. A trusted horse and satisfying work. And the most beautiful woman in the world riding right next to him.

  Well, perfect except for the part where she now knew he was a dragon, he supposed.

  Off in the distance, gray, billowing storm clouds were moving eastward, but he figured they had a few more hours before it reached them.

  Then again, Texas was as serene and pretty as it was unpredictable at times.

  Marian clicked her tongue to make Cookie move a bit faster to keep up with Rusty, who seemed intent on being a step ahead at all times. But Rusty was just stubborn when it came to both people and horses alike.

  Harrison looked over at her, feeling more than a little pride at seeing her handle the reins and the rough terrain they were traveling over just fine, moving her hips with the horse and angling her body as they went down switchbacks and between rocky outcroppings.

  The Stetson he’d custom ordered earlier this week looked damn near perfect on Marian, and her brown hair was tied in a low ponytail past her shoulders. The work shirt she had buttoned loosely over a gray tank top did little to hide her curves, and her jeans hugged her ass in ways that made his hands itch to hold her again.

  Harrison had thoroughly enjoyed his life before she’d come into it, for certain. He loved his job, loved the wild freedom of untamed land. But through it all, something had always felt empty deep within him.

  Over the years, he’d been with other women. Tried to see what all the rage was that had humans acting like animals in heat every damn day of the year. But he’d never felt what humans liked to call “passion.” Yes, he felt it for the outdoors, felt it for the thrill of being a cowboy, but not for making love.

  Until Marian…

  “Watch that loose dirt there,” he said, going ahead of Marian as they led their horses down a hill. In the distance, he could see two stray cattle standing shoulder to shoulder, doing nothing but soaking up sun.

  “I see it,” she replied, steady hand on her reins as she led Cookie like a veteran horseman, not a greenhorn.

  A minute later, Rusty was neighing at the cows, dislodging them from their idleness as he drove them toward the next one he saw at a distance.

  “So you’ve been a cowboy a long time, I suppose?” Marian asked, still a hint of nervousness in her voice, though it certainly wasn’t for fear of riding. She’d conquered that in the first three minutes.

  “Long, long time. Some things have changed over the years. Others…” He stared out over the open land. “Some things are still the same.”

  “I don’t know if I envy that or not. Seems like it would be lonely after a while.”

  “If being a cowboy is anything, it’s learning how to be lonely as a profession.” Even as he said it, though, there was a certain loneliness deep in his heart that he didn’t want to go back to.

  Life before Marian.

  Mate, his dragon growled, nearing on a snarl, trying to get his attention.

  But she was a human. Fragile, short-lived, and a hell-raising, trouble-attracting one to boot.

  He diverted from the topic of dragons and himself altogether, uncomfortable getting closer to questions about him. “So what about cowboys makes you hate them so much? Is it just because of your father?”

  Marian shook her head, cheeks rosy on her heart-shaped face from sun and honest work, hazel eyes more green than brown outside like this. “No. He was just the first. There’s been a whole string of them since I was eighteen. Like I couldn’t stop going after the thing that was bad for me.”

  “Tell me more.” He hollered at the next cow, and it fell into the small pack they’d already rounded up.

  “I never lived in any of the big cities when I was younger and still lived with my dad. Too many people, too far from Dad’s work. Then even in Houston, my aunt lived not far from a large ranch. So there were always wranglers coming in, traveling for work, getting into trouble. My first boyfriend was a young buck with dreams of being a rodeo cowboy. Up and left without a single word one day.” She had a wistful, regretful look in her gaze out over the horizon. “But I guess I should’ve seen it coming. From there, it was just predictable.”

  Harrison clenched his teeth, hand tightening around his reins. He wanted to find each of these punks and beat them senseless. But that was going to get him nowhere, making a fus
s over what was already done.

  Still, if any man looked at her wrong now… Harrison’d make up for all her past boyfriends and beat the living daylights out of anyone that bothered her.

  “Bunch of assholes, that’s what they were,” he grumbled. “Couldn’t see a good thing in front of them even if it kicked them right in the goddamn face. They didn’t deserve you then, and they sure as hell don’t deserve you now.”

  Marian looked over at him and smiled, and the pure radiance of her face almost knocked him off his horse. “Nobody’s ever said that before, so thank you.”

  He huffed, pushing Rusty toward the next stray. “Just speakin’ the truth.”

  There was another moment of silence as he could feel her eyes on him, and he feared if he opened his mouth again, he’d say more nice things.

  There was nothing but nice things to say about Marian.

  “So did you know my pa?” she asked.

  “Can’t say I did, not for more’n five minutes. He was just a young herder that happened to be in the right place at the right time.”

  “Can I hear the story of what happened? The day you gave him the dragon’s talon?”

  “Not a whole lot to say. It was just a day like any other, only a spring storm had been raging for days and days. I had to move one of our herds away from the river because the banks were going to overflow at any minute.”

  She listened intently as he focused on work while talking.

  “We were just making the final crossing over a small stream that had become a shallow river overnight, almost to the enclosure, when a flood came barreling down like a stampede.” Of course, Harrison left out the part where he’d been in a fight with something much more dangerous than any river, and he’d been wounded badly, but he wasn’t going to worry the lady about it. “Got the herd clear just as the bank we were on collapsed, sending my horse and me right into the water. Don’t remember much after that except a rope wrapping around my chest and pulling me free sometime later.”

  “Was it my dad?”

  “Yessiree. Caught me and plucked me out of the river. I still don’t know how he did it, standing from the opposite side of the river.”

  “He was always a better roper than a wrangler. He even tried his hand as a professional calf roper, but by the time he started, he was too old and worn down to make it far.”

  “Damn shame. He would’ve done well. At any rate, he dragged me to shore, barely alive and breathing. I’d traveled for miles, didn’t even know where I was at by then. He insisted on taking me back to his place, but I wasn’t going to leave my herd to the whims of the storm, so he gave me his name and I gave him the coin for saving my life. Shortly after, my horse, which had done a better job of getting out of the river than I had, showed up, and Frank and I parted ways.”

  “Sounds just like him. Terrible with words and showing affection, but he’d put his life on the line to save another person without a second thought.”

  Harrison looked over at Marian, who was watching with rapt attention. “I never thought I’d see the coin again. But however poor or well he did as a father to you, Marian, he gave you more than enough mettle in your blood to survive against the odds.” He winked at her, liking the way she blushed whenever he did that. “Hell, I think he’d be proud to know you’ve stood toe to toe with the fiercest dragon crew in all of Texas for a whole week and lived to tell the tale.”

  “Shucks, if I wasn’t mistaken, I’d say you liked me, Harrison.”

  “What’s not to like?” He looked overhead, noting the dark clouds were getting close, fast. Damn weather. “But don’t go getting ahead of yourself. You’ve still got a lot to prove.”

  But the warmth in her eyes mirrored the heat in his heart whenever their gazes met like that. Need and protectiveness surged in him, and he turned his horse away before she noticed how hard he was getting just looking at her.

  “Hurry up. Storm’s coming our way.” They came up to another cow, one who’d found some particularly tasty grass in the middle of a ditch. “You wanna do the honors?”

  “Can I?”

  “Just get up beside it and make some noise.”

  She guided Cookie down the side of the ditch, then yelped and whipped her hat around above her. The cow seemed to barely notice her, then, after a minute, annoyed, finally mooed and made for the rest of the group.

  Marian beamed up at him, setting her hat back on her head and sitting proud in her saddle. It looked like this feisty little woman was more cowboy than even she knew.

  “Good job, Miss West.”

  But the satisfaction of the moment was immediately broken as Cookie whinnied loudly and began to buck wildly, spooked by something Harrison hadn’t seen or heard. Marian screamed, grabbing the reins and trying to pull Cookie back, but Cookie’s eyes were wild with fear, her instincts making her jump and turn in circles.

  Harrison raced toward Marian, fearing the worst. He’d watched humans die right in front of him when their horses lost it. It was not something to take lightly.

  If something happened to this woman that was slowly becoming the center of his world, he’d never forgive himself.

  15

  Was this how it all ended? Thrown off or crushed by a horse just as she’d finally impressed Harrison with her ranching skills?

  The irony of it would be hilarious to Marian if the very real fear of death wasn’t present right now.

  Cookie bucked, almost throwing Marian off as she tried to regain her grip on the reins that were quickly slipping through her fingers. She was both grateful she’d never experienced this kind of sheer terror before and sad she didn’t know how to properly react when a half-ton animal decided it wants you off its back.

  She called for Harrison, but the world was a blur as Cookie leapt higher and farther than ever before, and she felt her body fly off the saddle, the earth and sky spinning around her as she prepared to hit rough, rocky ground.

  But instead of the ground, she collided into a firm chest and big arms that caught her midflight, barely moving even as her eyes felt like they were still going in circles from the momentum.

  She looked up and saw Harrison. But instead of amusement or annoyance like she expected, there was only pure worry in his gaze as he looked her over. His breaths were quick, his heart thudding against her shoulder, going nearly as fast as her own was at the moment.

  “Are you okay? Are you hurt, Marian?” he asked urgently.

  Off to the side, Cookie bucked a few more times, then bolted in the direction of the ranch, leaving the two of them alone with Rusty ten feet away.

  How had he crossed the distance between them, gotten off his horse, and been in just the right place to catch her in such little time?

  “I’m okay, I think.” She looked down herself as well, surprised nothing was broken or sprained. “Hands are a little sore from trying to hold the reins, but nothing else.”

  He utterly surprised her by lifting her right hand to his mouth, kissing it and running his thumb soothingly over her palm, making her skin tingle with warmth where he touched. Then he did the same with her other hand, such care and softness in his demeanor she wondered how this could be the same Harrison who’d greeted her on the road to the Dragonclaw Ranch a week ago.

  “It’s a damn good thing that’s the only thing that’s roughed up. I’ve seen much worse injuries from much smaller startles.”

  “Me too.” She winced at the thought. “I figured I was gonna die there for a moment.”

  “Not on my watch, you won’t.” His blue gaze lit up with determination, and she relaxed into his arms for a moment, just glad to be held and supported by him after something so scary that had left her feeling completely out of control.

  And as worry and fear melted away more with each passing second, bubbling arousal was taking its place, thrumming in her body like a sensual melody.

  “You good to stand?” Harrison asked, trying to look unaffected as well, and she nodded. Any longer and she’d s
tart getting ideas about the two of them, tangled together again like they’d been last night.

  He set her down lightly, and she noted the gray clouds above were getting closer and closer.

  “What do you think spooked Cookie like that?”

  “Not sure. Nothing’s ever spooked that mare in its whole life.” He appraised the ground, and his gaze settled on something for a moment, eyes going slightly wider before he looked back at her and shrugged. “Probably a jackrabbit or sumthin’.”

  “I guess so,” she replied, curious what he’d seen but unable to see anything but dirt and rocks and grass on her own part.

  Honestly, she just wanted to feel his arms around her again.

  Harrison walked over to a spot and picked up her hat, which she hadn’t even noticed had flown off in the commotion. Then he brushed if off, then came over to set it lightly down on her head.

  “There, good as new.” He gave her a satisfied smirk. And when she wrapped her arms around his big midsection, he didn’t stop her.

  “Thanks to my cowboy.”

  “Says the cowboy-hater.” He rested his hands on her hips, the touch light and sensitive at first, but his grip got steadily hotter, pulling her closer.

  Their eyes were locked as Marian watched Harrison.

  Then there was a flash, followed by a crack of lightning several seconds later.

  And the sky opened up, and water poured down on them.

  “Hot damn,” Harrison said.

  Marian thought Harrison had been talking about the sudden cloudburst, but he hadn’t moved a muscle, still looking down at her.

  Hot damn, indeed.

  She ignored the rain as it fell down in waves, cool and clarifying and suddenly wet on her exposed skin. Within moments, it was soaking through her shirt, her bra, her jeans, but she didn’t care as they moved closer together, the shade of his Stetson keeping the rain off her face as little rivulets poured off the brim.

  It was the most beautiful sight she’d ever seen in her life. Dark, thick clouds spread across the heavens above. The sound of a billion raindrops washing the earth around them, turning the landscape into a wet paradise as a few beams of light cut through the clouds far off in the distance.