Free The Quiet Seduction by Dixie Browning Page A

whole lot better. “Soft landing, I hope.”
    â€œThat damned mare—I think she’s going to drop her foal any day now. The vet said they get irritable justbefore they deliver. Do you call it deliver when it’s a horse? Oh, Lord, the things I don’t know,” she said, looking helpless, hopeless, and totally irresistible.
    Closing the distance between them, he eased his hands over her shoulders, leaned closer and sniffed. And tried not to laugh. The lady reeked of barnyard effluvia. “Yeah, I guess you do need a shower. Use all the hot water you need, the laundry can wait.”
    She didn’t even try to escape, just stared up at him with those changeable green eyes of hers. “Oh. Um, thanks.”
    â€œAnd listen, those mares of yours don’t care what you call it—they’ll come through just fine. We can call the vet and he can either come out or tell us whatever we need to know. We’ll set up camp out in the barn if we need to, okay?”
    â€œWe?”
    â€œUh, you. Me, too, if it’ll help.”
    The way she was staring at him, she must think he’d lost what few wits he’d managed to retain. All she said, though, was, “I stink. For goodness’ sake, let me go wash this smell off. I left my clothes on the back porch, but don’t even think about putting them in the wash until I’ve soaked out the worst of the…the—”
    â€œEssence of horse. You got it. And, Ellen, promise me you’ll quit worrying?”
    â€œNo, but thanks, anyway. I mean, for caring— I mean, being concerned about—”
    â€œShh. Caring will do. It’ll do just fine.” And he leaned over the few inches that separated them and kissed her. Gently, holding her away from his body. Better to let her think he was leery of getting too close to the smell of horse manure, than allowing her to realize how she was affecting him. At this rate, it wasgoing to take more than a long cold shower to bring him back down. About a five-mile jog should do it.
    The kiss ended almost before it began. He would have liked to explore further—much further—but it was the kind of kiss she needed at the moment. Non-threatening, non-demanding. Just the soft, hesitant press of his mouth to hers.
    She stepped back as if just remembering that she was practically naked. “Don’t come any closer. I warned you, I stink.”
    â€œYeah, now that you mention it…” Grinning, he turned toward Pete’s room. If she thought that was why he hadn’t made more of the moment, let her believe it. Better that than she find out that while his head might be screwed up, there was nothing at all wrong with his libido.
    Now that he was improving physically, he obviously needed something more demanding than housework to work off excess energy. He would just have to figure out whatever he could manage to do, inexpertly or not, that would wear him out and at the same time allow Ellen to sit and put her feet up for a few minutes. He owed her that much and far more.
    What he didn’t owe her was to move in on her like a rutting animal. For the first day or so after she’d lugged him home with her, his physical reactions hadn’t been so pronounced. She had iced his swollen joints with a sack of frozen peas and rubbed something smelly on the injured flesh. Horse liniment, probably. He must have made a sound the first time, because she had glanced up and asked if it stung.
    Looking back, he was pretty sure it hadn’t been the liniment that had caused his reaction, nor even the painful pressure of her hands on his swollen flesh. Ithad been those hands of hers stroking his bare skin while she’d knelt in front of him. Even in the condition he’d been in then, it hadn’t taken much memory to know that some things were off limits, no matter how great the temptation.
    Ellen was one of those things.
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    By the end of the week the