Money Shot (10 page)

“Can you trust me?” The sexy cowboy asked me the same question again, and there was nothing more I wanted in this world than to see the knowledge hidden behind those eyes, and I knew that giving myself over to him was the only way it was going to happen.

For the first time in my life, I jumped in with both feet.

“Yes. I trust you.”

He smiled at me and just said, “Feel around. She’s got a small horse in there, your arm isn’t going to bother her in the slightest. You know what horses look and feel like. Close your eyes and ‘see’ this horse. And tell me what you feel.”

So I did.

It was warm and slick, and the mare’s contractions played havoc on my arm, but after a few minutes, even feeling through the thick, balloon-like sac covering the colt, I could picture it in my mind.

“That’s... that’s a nose, and shoulders, and a hoof.”

“Feel around, try to find its other hoof. She isn’t backward, she’s just... awkward. Find her other hoof, and see if you can pull it, so both hooves are together.”

I felt around, but could only find what seemed to be the foal’s knee.

“Follow it, and pull. Try to get her leg to unfold. Hooves first is best.”

“I think... I need both hands.”

“Here, let me get you... ”

I didn’t wait for the glove I knew he was reaching for, I just slid my other hand inside, my eyes still closed, intent on the image in my head of this colt’s leg being stuck and causing all the problems we were trying to fix.

Any words spoken around me seemed to disappear, and I went with what felt right. I’d seen this done a million times, and the sexy cowboy was right, this was amazing.

I had my face pressed to a horse’s ass, literally, and was feeling around inside of her, coaching and guiding the colt’s leg, still inside the thick sac, into the correct position for birthing. I tugged gently, felt some resistance, took a breath and shifted my grip, tugging and testing once again, and suddenly everything shifted.

“You got it, didn’t you? I just saw her stomach roll some. Both hooves are facing out, with the colt’s nose near its knees?”

I made sure before answering.

“Yes. Yes, she’s good now.”

“Ok, then pull out of there. Hurry, before the next contraction. She should have the rest of this herself. Get out of the way and let her do her thing.”

Now I’d seen many, many colts born before, but this was the first one I’d had a hand in myself, so once the next contraction brought two hooves and a nose forth, I felt myself grinning like a damn fool.

The mare took a few minutes to rest before summoning the strength to push out the shoulders, and I knew from watching dad that once the shoulders came, the rest would happen rather quickly, so I just sat back and watched.

Dad and Sexy watched with me over the next half hour or so as the rest of the birthing process was completed by foal and mare, and eventually sexy noticed that my un-gloved arm, and most of my clothes, were stiff with horse guts.

He pointed me out of the barn and toward the large ranch house and a shower, telling me where towels were, and where to find an extra shirt and pants for after.

Chapter Two

Adam

I heard the singing before I heard the water running, and I followed the sweet, joyful sound down the hall to the guest bathroom.

As usual, the bathroom door’s broken lock meant that as the pressure difference from the hot, steamy air inside the bathroom meeting with the colder, drier air in the hall from the air conditioner kicking on, the door cracked open an inch or two, allowing all the heated air from inside the bathroom to flow out into the hall.

It also meant that I could see into the bathroom, somewhat.

I stood outside the door for a second, not peeking inside, but trying to place the feminine voice showering in the hallway.

I also made a mental reminder to add fixing this door lock to the list of things I, or my brother, needed to get around to doing inside the ranch house, instead of focusing all of our time and money on things that needed to be done outside, with the horses, cows and what-have-you.

The singing stopped, as did the sound of the running water, and I started to step away from the bathroom door, like I was about to get caught doing something wrong. I took a few steps back the direction I’d come from, trying to get away from the door before the person inside realized that it was open, but then I remembered that I’d been heading the other way, and headed back.

Just as I was about to be clear of the door and on my way, the door opened wide and a soft, warm, feminine body collided with mine in the hall.

“What the hell? Were you watching me? Did you open the door?”

“No! Of course not. I was just walking by.
You
ran into
me
. I was just passing through. And everyone knows this latch is broken. Usually people use one of the other bathrooms, or they prop this one closed with that towel holder if they’re going to use this one.”

“Maybe you should have told me that before you sent me in here to shower? I was only following directions, remember?”

“I didn’t... ”

Before I could say that I didn’t send her anywhere, as I had no idea who she was or why she was showering in this hallway to begin with, she slammed the door in my face.

Of course, since the latch was broken, it just bounced in its frame and swung open again, wider this time.

She turned to glare at me, and I just shrugged my shoulders in a ‘see? It’s broken!’ look, wondering who she was and why she was so pissed at me when all I did was walk down the hall.

She surprised me though. Instead of turning on me again in anger or embarrassment, she turned toward me with her face beaming, a clean white towel wrapped around her body, and her hair tied up in a messy knot on top of her head.

I was suddenly struck by her beauty. Ok, maybe she wasn’t classically beautiful, but she was striking, for sure.

The joy on her face lit her from within, and her eyes shone bright with color. Her skin glowed pink from the heat of the shower, and I found myself imagining what it would be like to tug the towel from around her, and see her in all of her glory, right before pulling her close, tipping her head back, and tasting those full, pink, grinning lips.

“Was that not the coolest thing ever? I mean, I’ve seen that a million times, but I’ve never been a part of it before. Not really. Dad always brings me with him when I’m home, but he makes me hand him stuff. I don’t normally get to help much.
It was beautiful.”

Surprised and confused, I muttered, “What was the coolest thing ever? The door swinging open?”

“No! The colt being born. You were right when you said that sometimes you’ve just got to jump in blind and see what happens.”

“That does sound like me, but we’ve never met... ”

“I’m not sure I ever could have done it, you know? If you hadn’t been there, guiding me through it. So thank you. Thank you so much!”

And with that odd conversation coming to its end, I stared in shock at her as she took a few steps toward me, closing the distance between us, and throwing her arms around me for a hug.

“I’m not normally a jump-in-and-see-what-happens person, but it worked out there in the barn. And it was all because of you, so thank you.”

She said the words, rambling on about how it was amazing to just jump in, and how it was so warm, and slick, and a beautiful thing to be a part of, and without thinking, I jumped right in myself.

I slid one arm around her waist and pulled her tight. I tilted her head back with my other hand, silencing her with a slow, warm kiss.

She froze at first, but as my mouth moved over hers, I felt her melt into it. I could almost hear the words ‘jump right in’ still running through her head as I felt her give in and start to return my kiss.

Her mouth opened under mine and I deepened the surprise kiss with the stranger wrapped in a towel in the hallway by sliding my tongue over her lips and tasting her mouth in a slow, exploratory kiss.

After a few heated minutes kissing her in the hall, I pulled my mouth from hers and looked into her kiss-clouded eyes.

I had no idea who she was or how she’d come to be showering in this shower, but I was grateful.

I’d been having a hell of a day, and this just made all of that disappear in one lusty kiss.

As she looked up at me with her big, wide eyes practically begging for another kiss, I smiled down at her. She raised herself up on her tip toes, pressing her lips to mine, this time being the one to instigate a kiss, and I hugged her tighter.

I left an arm around her waist, but I slid my other hand down over her still warm and wet body until my palm found and cupped her ass over her towel.

I used my grip on her ass to pull her closer still, and felt the heat of her through my clothes and knew she could feel the hardness of my growing erection through her thick towel.

She moaned against my mouth as her arms tightened around my neck and I was tempted to walk her backwards into the bathroom, close the broken door and press her against the inside of it so that no one could interrupt what I wanted to do to the sexy little stranger next.

She pulled her mouth from my kiss just then and looked up at me again.

“Dad was right, some things you definitely can’t plan for.”

“Your dad? Who’s your dad?”

“That would be me.”

My head turned on a swivel to see Danny and Scott headed down the hall toward me.

“Doctor Danny? What are you doing here?”

“My daughter Grace, who I see you’ve already met, and I came to help Scott here out with the mare. Mind taking your hands off my daughter now, before I have to do it for you?”

I pulled back from Grace like I’d been burned, and looked to my twin brother Scott in confusion.

“I didn’t know. She was... and I just... ” I muttered incoherently.

I could tell Scott was holding something back, but I couldn’t tell if it was laughter at my predicament, anger at my getting caught with our best vet’s daughter, or jealousy because I’d been doing, from the look on his face, what Scott had been wanting to do to her himself.

I looked back at Grace, only to see all of the color drop from her face, making all the pretty pink skin from a moment before turn almost as white as the towel barely hiding her nakedness.

As she looked back and forth between me and my brother Scott, her next words held both embarrassment and awe.

“There are two of you?”