Page 20 of Live Love Lasso

He glances at the edge of the gulch where the ponies’ cries ring off the rock, then back at me. “Yeah, Lemon, it does.”

Fuck. Me.

Furyon

I was heading home for the night when my mustang tattoos started throbbing so bad, I had to drive out here to check on the herd. Instinct told me something was wrong, and when I stopped on my usual viewing rock to take a peek, I found the horses going wild, eyes white and milky like the moose and Mykel’s cattle.

And then Lemon Knox barreled up outta the damn gulch like a heathen and bowled me over.

Now she stands with both hands raised in supplication, ruby eyes wide. “I did not do this, Furyon. I know how it looks. I was just reading my welcome book and enjoying some peace and quiet.”

Squealing echoes off the rock walls of the gulch, furious-sounding.

“Yeah.” I wave at her empty hands. “What book?”

She turns bright red. “I dropped it down there when one of the ponies bit me.”

At my look of suspicion, she waves at her knee. It’s bleeding, the skin all scraped up.

“See?!”

She’s getting flustered, starting to tap one foot as her cheeks go from pink to red. Crimson eyes flick to my mouth, her pupils widening. When she looks up and sees me watching, she glances off toward the wide open fields over my shoulder.

I jerk my head toward my pickup. “Get in, Lemon. We’re gonna go to my place and talk about this.”

“What about the ponies?” Her tone is soft, cautious.

I run a hand through my hair, resisting the urge to rip the bun out and start over. I walk to the edge of the rock and watch the mustangs, but they’re still fighting and squealing. They’re off somehow, and my tattoo still throbs.

Returning to Lemon, I pass her and grab the passenger door, opening it. “They ain’t ponies. They’re horses. Go on now, get in.”

She lifts her chin like she’ll sass me, but she does as I ask and hops in delicately, crossing her arms as she stares straight ahead.

Like earlier, my mind supplies a perverse vision of her on top of me in the truck, her mouth all over mine. It’s not what I should be focusing on right now, but there’s a palpable chemistry between us. She’s too damn pretty and distracting.

Her continuing to be where the problems are does not bode well for any sort of sexy future.

She’s quiet all the way to my place. She remains that way while I call Echo and Sheriff Rygold to let them know what’s going on. Lemon’s utterly silent until I lead her into the kitchen and pat my counter.

She looks around as she hops up onto the butcherblock surface.

After opening the cabinet next to my sink, I withdraw my first aid kit. I set it on the counter next to her thigh. Her pleasantly firm, thick thigh. Mental images come to me again. My teeth buried in that pretty pale skin. My tongue between her legs.

I’ve got to get it together. I don’t lust after anyone in this haven. I never have. I haven’t been on a single date in the entire fifty years I’ve lived here. I’ve kept my head down, making a few friends and looking after the animals.

But all those carefully laid plans are dashed at the way this female’s blood smells.

“Don’t lick it,” she says.

I jolt, wondering if she heard my damn thoughts.

She chuckles, but it sounds nervous. “I know dark elves sometimes drink blood. This blood’s got horse saliva in it though, on account of the bite I mentioned.”

“So you said.” I grab a cotton swab and dab at the blood, sniffing carefully. I do smell horse on the wound. I don’t think she’s lying. I look up at her as I clean the scrape. It ain’t deep, but whatever got her took quite a bit of skin off. “Why’d it bite you? You get close to a foal?”

She shakes her head. “I was sitting on a big boulder there by the river, reading the welcome book. The ponies, I mean horses, were fine, and then they started leaping onto the rock and trying to bite me.” She narrows those pretty eyes at me. “What were you doing there, anyway?”

I spread a little bit of antibacterial ointment on her knee. She hisses and grabs at my forearm, and the dominance of it stands the hair on my nape. I glance up at her to find her second eyelid flashed over her eyes, fangs bared.