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Authors: J.R. Ward

Leaping Hearts (22 page)

BOOK: Leaping Hearts
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“No!” they both said, freezing over the sink.

Before the chorus of denials continued into another refrain, Chester laughed out loud. When his jacket materialized in front of him and he was bid a sturdy good night, he felt like he’d been bootlicked through a doggie door, but didn’t mind. He’d had enough fun at their expense for one night.

As the man stepped out into the cold air, he paused to zip up his jacket. When he turned around and glanced back at the house, he saw through the window that Devlin and A.J. were entwined in an embrace, oblivious of the world.

His smile as he turned away was one of approval. Devlin was looking more and more like his old self. And that girl, well, she was pretty as a picture and had the stuffing to take him on. It was a good match, he decided.

Betcha those dishes won’t be done till the morrow, he thought.

9
 

I
T WAS
a week later that A.J. rolled over in Devlin’s bed and realized she was in love with him. Coming out of a wistful dream, something about riding Sabbath through Virginia’s best hunt country, she felt very male arms wrapped around her and the cushion of a sturdy chest against her back. She turned over slowly, careful not to wake him.

In the gray light of the early-morning hour, his face was a study in strong shadows, from the hollows in his cheeks and the deep sockets of his eyes to the arching iron of his jaw. He was beautiful, a sublime model of masculine form, a living, breathing dream.

And with the deepest, most feminine part of herself, she knew he was hers. Just as she was his. Their hearts and minds had come together. They’d become so close, she wasn’t sure where he left off and she took over and she didn’t care about her lost individuality. She was half of herself without him, more than her whole with him.

A.J. put her lips against his throat, over the thick vein that pounded with the beat of his heart. Against his surging blood, she whispered, “I love you.”

It was the first time she’d ever said the words to a man.

This realization made the statement seem even more powerful.

When it came to men, she’d never given herself easily. There had been a few boyfriends in college, but she’d been so focused on riding, the relationships had been brief and
casual. The trend had continued as she’d turned professional. Before Devlin, men had always seemed an unnecessary complication in a life long on challenges and squat on time. But he was different. Her heart told her so.

Given her lack of experience with romance, she found the confidence with which she could say, “I love you,” surprising. In previous relationships, she’d never been able to return the sentiment. She hadn’t been sure what love was, only that she didn’t feel it. Now it was clear. What else was so thrilling, so frightening, so intoxicating, so precious, so overwhelming, as love?

Part of her wanted to nudge Devlin awake and break the news but she held back. She was assuming he felt the same way but she wasn’t sure. She was ready to make a commitment to him, to their future together as life partners and professional allies, but her newfound love for him made her vulnerable. She wanted him to make the declaration out loud first.

A.J. stretched, feeling her legs slide against Devlin’s. He groaned in his sleep and gathered her even closer to him, tucking her into his side. As his breathing returned to the soft, regular rhythm of deep sleep, she found herself smiling, despite her heavy thoughts. There were so many benefits to being with him. Aside from their sensual exploits in the night, sleeping in a real bed again was another bonus. She hadn’t quite lost the appreciation of having some space to move around in at night, even though Devlin tended to take up more than his fair share of the bed. The couch had been good enough for a short stay but there was real luxury in being able to stretch out without running the risk of rolling onto the carpet and winding up under a coffee table.

Her smile didn’t linger. With a painful lurch, her thoughts drifted to her father. His birthday was the following weekend. She was dreading the idea of going and wished she could bring Devlin with her.

He began kissing her neck. “What are you stewing about?”

“How did you know?”

“I’m psychic.”

“Really?”

“Don’t tell anyone, but I moonlight as a fortune-teller.”

“So where’s your crystal ball?”

“Don’t need one. They’ve been replaced by a Web site with links to the other side.”

She laughed. “I guess the Internet’s everywhere.”

“Well, it was fine until Gates came in. Now there’s only one server you can channel Elvis on and a single search engine to find people’s past lives and dead relatives.”

When her giggles subsided, he asked again what was on her mind.

“What if I said I was just relishing the morning light?”

“You’d be lying.”

“What would you say if I asked you to go to my father’s birthday party next weekend? I know it’s going to be torture but I’d really like you to come with me. I need your support.”

He tilted his head down. “Then I can’t say no, can I?”

His smile was slow and tinted with passion, but when he went to kiss her, she stopped him with a hand on his chest.

“Devlin, I need to know. Are you okay with this?”

“Sure. If it’s important to you for us to go, then of course we will.”

“No…I meant us.”

So much for waiting, she thought.

Devlin moved his hips against her pelvis. “I’m a little more than just okay with you. Fantastic. Delirious. Desperate. I think those are a little more apt.”

“I mean about continuing with our training.”

He took a deep breath. “I think we’re working together well. We’re making progress. What do you think?”

“I wasn’t the one who had a problem with it.”

His words became slow, deliberate. “From an objective point of view, I still believe it’s just not smart. But I can’t give you up and I don’t want anyone else training you, so I think we’re stuck with each other.”

A.J. smiled and kissed his lips. “I just knew you’d come around to my way.”

As his tongue slipped inside her mouth, she decided they could talk more about their relationship later. Now was a time for making love. And then there was breakfast and
training and another meal or two. And then they could go back to bed together.

“I think we’re ready to try the water today,” Devlin said later as Sabbath was being tacked up on the crossties.

When A.J. nodded in agreement, Chester headed out to the ring to fill up the jump.

A little later, after she’d led the stallion out of the stables and gotten a leg up, A.J. noticed Sabbath was particularly antsy and sensed it was going to be a long training session. Unlike the horse, she was feeling sluggish. After she and Devlin had made love, she’d fallen back asleep, snoozing all the way through breakfast until she’d been woken up by her name being shouted up the stairs. It was obvious why she’d crashed. There was such relief in knowing Devlin was now committed to both her and their training. She felt as though they could now move ahead freely and that some of her bigger worries were behind her. Unfortunately, the consequence of her napping was that her reflexes were slow and she wasn’t riding as well as she usually did. The stallion sensed it. Unlike the last few sessions, when he’d settled down and begun to focus, now he acted up, resenting her lack of concentration.

When the flatwork was finished and A.J. brought the stallion toward him, Devlin toyed with the idea of calling it a day. Things hadn’t gone well in the warm-up and the rest of the session probably wasn’t going to be much better. He was thinking it might be wise to hold off trying the water jump but A.J.’s face held a wealth of determination.

“You still ready to do the water?” he asked.

“You better believe it.”

Bringing up the clipboard, he detailed the jump order. “Just take it slow and easy. See how he handles it.”

She nodded, reining the stallion around.

Sabbath tossed his head, impatient to get jumping. He always perked up when they started going over fences but today his exuberance had an edge to it. When she urged him into a canter, she found herself having to hold him back.

They took the first two uprights in the rough form characteristic
of their early training, and coming into the corner the stallion was shaking his head, fighting the lead change. They took the next series of oxers badly and rails hit the ground in their wake, a drumroll of failure. A.J. tightened her lips and the reins, feeling frustrated as she brought Sabbath around to face the water jump that was set up in the dead center of the ring.

It was an unassuming low rail fence followed by a square pool. The purpose was to test the horse’s ability to cover distance as well as his reaction to visual stimuli. Depending on the weather, the water could look relatively benign or very intimidating, as it did at the moment. In the gray morning, wind licked across the surface of the water, agitating the reflection of a dingy, cold sky.

As soon as Sabbath caught sight of what they were heading toward, A.J. could feel him tense. During the flatwork, they hadn’t used the middle of the ring, so it was the first time he’d noticed the jump. She gave him some encouragement with her leg and held steady, prepared for trouble. Surprisingly, he settled down and seemed to concentrate while continuing forward. For a split second, A.J. was lulled into relief, but then the stallion shied to the left so violently, she lost her seat and was thrown from him like a doll. It happened faster than a breath.

This one’s going to hurt, she thought in midair.

The ground rushed up to meet her with an eagerness she could have done without. Landing in a heap, she tasted dirt in her mouth and felt a shooting pain in her upper body. With a groan, she rolled over to free the arm that had taken the lion’s share of the impact, cradling it against her chest as she squinted up at the disinterested sky. She felt as if someone were needling her shoulder and elbow with a hot poker.

Devlin ran to her while shouting for Chester’s help in corralling the stallion, who was galloping frantically around the ring.

As Devlin’s face pierced her tunnel vision, A.J. noticed he was white as a sheet.

“I’m gonna feel this one in the morning,” she said through clenched teeth.

“Can you sit up?”

“You got a crane handy?”

With his help, she managed to lift her upper body off the ground and she found, after blinking a few times, that the stars dancing in front of her eyes disappeared.

“I don’t think he likes water,” she said, struggling to get to her feet. Leaning on Devlin, she took a few tentative steps, trying to inventory any other contusions. Luckily, it seemed like only her arm was hurt. When she felt a bit more steady, she shrugged Devlin away and walked on her own over to Sabbath. Chester had managed to catch him. The stallion’s eyes were wide with fear, his body twitching in spasms.

“He lame?” she asked tightly.

Chester shook his head. “Ya seem to be carryin’ that load.”

“Give me a leg up.”

Behind her, Devlin felt nauseated.

“I think we should break for now,” he said, trying to remain calm.

He didn’t like the wild panic in the horse or the pain carved in his woman’s face.

In fact, there were so many things he didn’t like about what had just happened, it was hard to pick the worst of it all. The moment he’d seen A.J. was going to take a fall, his life had come to a halt as he confronted losing her. In the eternal second it’d taken for her to become airborne and then hit the ground, his heart had stopped beating and cracked in half with terror.

And now she wanted to get back on the godforsaken horse.

He watched as she took the reins from Chester.

“A.J., don’t be ridiculous,” Devlin said sharply. “That stallion is a live wire and you may have a broken arm.”

“Get me up on this damned animal,” she bit out at Chester, lifting her left leg impatiently.

For a man who thought he knew all about suffering, Devlin found a new kind of hell as she settled into the saddle.

“You can’t be serious!” His voice was surging with emotion.

When A.J. headed back out to the jumps, he felt Chester’s hand on his shoulder.

“Ya fall off, ya get back on. Ya know the way.”

Devlin had done it countless times himself. Except that last time.

“Well, it’s a damned stupid idea! What the hell is she thinking?”

“You’d have done the right same.”

“And look where the hell I ended up,” he said, limping over to the rail. He wanted to leave the ring but couldn’t.

Up on Sabbath’s back, A.J. was blinded by pain. The stallion was skipping under her but it wasn’t playfully. The horse was nervous and that made him more unpredictable than usual. The fact that she had the use of only one arm made the situation especially dangerous.

Every time a hoof hit the ground, she felt a white-hot sensation shoot from her elbow to her shoulder. Worse, she lacked the strength to hold her arm tightly against her body and the injured extremity was flopping around, making the pain unbearable. With resolve, she tucked her hand into the waistband of her pants to reduce the jarring and noticed in the process that her fingers were becoming numb. She wasn’t sure how much longer she could go without passing out, but she was determined that they go over one jump.

As she struggled with her agony, A.J. told herself she wasn’t going to die from the pain. All she had to do was get over a jump and then she could baby herself. It wasn’t going to take long.

The pep talk didn’t really help so she gritted her teeth, pulled Sabbath together as best she could and took him over two uprights, avoiding the water hazard altogether. By the time she was finished, the horse had calmed down but she’d broken out in a sweat from the suffering.

She steered the stallion over to the two men and fell to the ground as she dismounted.

Devlin helped her to her feet, his face a tight mask.

“I’ll take care of the spook,” Chester said to no one in particular and left with the horse.

“We need to take you to the doctor.” Devlin’s voice was flat.

BOOK: Leaping Hearts
13.24Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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