Sweet Talking Cowboy by M.B. Buckner Read Free Book Online Page B

short glass.  Why?”
    He looked at the small furrows between her brows, knitted
with concern.  He grinned that same sheepish smile again.  “I think I should
buy a bottle and take it home with me.  I had a real interestin’ dream.”
    Briann looked away quickly, but not before Slade saw the
faint flush that tinted her face pink.  Then he knew he hadn’t dreamed it.
    “Maybe I owe you an apology?”  He said softly, still
wondering if his alcohol induced memory had made him imagine the warmth of her
response.
    She looked down at her hands, and then forced her eyes up to
meet his.
    “You don’t owe me an apology, Slade,” she confessed her face
burning under his intense scrutiny.  Then she pulled her eyes away and focused
on the filly in the stall.
    When she looked away, he worried about what he didn’t
remember.  Had it been more than a kiss?  “Maybe you need to tell me exactly
what happened?”  His voice was soft, but she heard the concern in it.
    “It doesn’t matter.  It wasn’t anything…much,” she managed. 
This was so embarrassing, she thought silently.  She wondered how much he did
remember.
    One of his hands shot out and gripped her arm.  “Did I hurt
you, Bri?” he demanded.
    Her heart was almost spazzing out of her chest, but she
shook her head negatively.  “No.”
    “Did I do more than kiss you?”  If that much of the dream
was real, perhaps the rest was real too.
    She hesitated.  How could she admit she’d let him get his
hand under her shirt, on her bare breast, or how much she’d liked it.
    He swore softly.  “Damn, Bri, I’m so sorry.”
    When she lifted her eyes and looked at him she saw the guilt
in his expression.  It broke her heart.  “You didn’t do anything I didn’t want
you to do, Slade,” she confessed quickly.
    He searched her face.  “Are you sure?”
    Briann nodded.  “I was surprised.”
    “By the way I kissed you?” he probed.
    Again she nodded.  “And the way it made me feel.”
    He hesitated before he continued, not sure he wanted to hear
if she was repelled by his actions.
    Finally he asked.  “How, Bri?  How did it make you feel?”
    She shook her head negatively.  “Just let it go, Slade. 
Just forget it happened.  Let’s just be like we’ve always been.”
    His head moved slowly from side to side.  “That can’t
happen, sugar.  I kissed you the way a man kisses a woman he wants.  I remember
that much.  I think you kissed me back, but I need to know.  Did you, Bri?  Did
you like my kiss enough to kiss me back?”
    Slowly she raised her eyes to meet his and then shyly, she
nodded.  “I’ve never…been kissed…like that.  It made me….feel…things.”  She
dropped her head and turned away.
    Silence stretched between them until she opened the stall
door and went inside.  Bending over, she lifted the horse’s front foot and
working a coin out of her pocket, used it to clean out the crevice around the V
shaped ‘frog’ that protrudes from the center and back of the hoof and cushions
the footfall to protect the delicate bones in the equine leg.
    “What’s wrong,” Slade asked, moving into the stall, stopping
in front of where she was bent over the animal’s hoof.  Taking his pocket knife
from his pocket he opened it and handed it to her.
    Briann took the knife from his hand and hoped he couldn’t
see how just being this close had caused her heart rate to increase
dramatically.
    She used the point of the knife to scrape the manure and
shavings out of the crevices in the oval shaped hoof.  “I dunno.  There was
something in the way she shifted her weight just now that looked like she might
be uncomfortable on this foot, but I don’t see anything.”  Handing the knife
back to him, her strong fingers pressed on the bottom of the hoof and around
the sides, looking for any sign of soreness from the horse, but the animal
ignored her actions.
    Slade closed the knife then returned it to his front