Free Steel and Hardness by Abby Wood Page A

“If you’re
nice to me, I might let Taylor join in the fun…that’s if he can
keep up with us.”
    “Fuck, yeah.” Bryce threw the floating
device toward them. “How did the case go? Did you close it?”
    “Yep.” Taylor grinned. “I’m off for two
weeks, same as you now. Next time, we go out together.”
    “Good.” Bryce jumped up on the tube and
shook his short brown hair free of water. “That’s the way it should
be.”
    Pauline wiped her face from the splash of
water. Lowering her hands, she grinned. “Let’s not waste time
standing around jawin’. I can only stay for two days. Unlike you
two luckies, I have to go back to work on Monday. Shalazam’s new
owner is coming to the stables with a couple investors. It’s
important that I be there. If I don’t sign the papers, I’ll lose
the money I’m counting on to keep the stables open.”
    “That doesn’t make sense. Shalazam is your
horse.” Taylor pushed the side of the inner tube down in the water
and jumped on. He held out his hands.
    Pauline turned around and let him lift her
onto his lap. She leaned back. “For how much I’ve depended on that
horse making me money through the years, I was young and foolish
ever signing a contract with a deadline clause in it. Live and
learn, I guess.” She kicked her feet and splashed Bryce. “Enough
talk, guys. Let’s go. I want to see what you both have planned for
me today.”
    Pauline found it hard to believe that on a
day like this, with the sun shining, with hardly a breeze in the
air, the nights turned so cold you needed jackets to stay warm once
the sun went down. The guys explained that the higher elevation
played games with the nighttime temperatures. She hadn’t believed
Tony and Donovan, the other agents on Bryce and Taylor’s team, this
morning when she walked outside of the cabin and they told her it
was going to be a scorcher.
    Relaxing on the river with not a worry on
her shoulders was the very best way to spend the day. She envied
the life Tony and Jolene had up here all alone. She sighed and let
her head fall back on Taylor’s shoulder. It wasn’t that she didn’t
love the ranch and horses. She did, but she’d be glad when the last
sale would allow her to break away from her uncle’s control. When
that was finished, Jack Sergoni would be out of her life for
good.
    Taylor’s hands got busy exploring her body.
She leaned back enjoying the way his caresses made her smile. “You
keep that up, and I’ll figure out some way to have sex with you on
the inner tube, Taylor.” She squirmed on top of Taylor as he
pinched her nipples.
    His hand slid down her bare midriff, over
the top of her Levi's cutoffs, and settled between her legs. “Think
you can lose the shorts, brown eyes?”
    Her creative mind pushed right into how it
would feel to make love on the water floating down the river out in
the open. She smiled. “What if we fall off?”
    Taylor chuckled. “Then we go swimming.”
    Loving the idea, she undid the button and
zipper, lifted her ass up, and wiggled out of her shorts and
panties. “Where do I put them? I don’t want to lose them in the
water.”
    “Hang on.” Taylor used his feet and arms to
paddle the inner tube closer to the middle of the river where Bryce
was floating with his head back, eyes closed, oblivious to the
world. “Hey, wake up!”
    Bryce lowered his chin and glared.
    “Catch.” Taylor wadded up the denim and
threw the shorts over the water.
    Bryce caught the package one-handed. “What’s
this for?” He gazed at Pauline. “Shit. You lucky dawg.”
    “Don’t you know it, partner.” Taylor held
Pauline’s waist.
    Turning around on the inner tube while
wobbling side to side on the water wasn’t an easy thing to
accomplish. Every time she lifted her foot to change position, the
inner tube dipped, threatening to spill them both to the churning
water. She lifted her gaze and motioned with her head. “You could
help Bryce.” Laughing, she wiggled