Secret Love - Brenda Jackson [27]
You’re beautiful, too, Jake thought as he watched Diamond interact with the huge palomino. Even now he doubted she was wearing makeup, but the smooth freshness of her dark skin, her eyes the color of whisky and the fullness of her lips made her a delectable sight early in the morning.
“I’m glad you like her. She belongs to one of my nieces, but I’m sure she won’t mind your riding her. Christy’s a real big fan of yours.”
Diamond glanced up at Jake and smiled again, the same smile she gave him whenever she saw him, the one with the ability to stir his insides.
“Are you ready to ride?”
Diamond nodded. “Yes, I’m all set.”
Jake watched as she mounted the mare, not surprised with the ease with which she did so. According to what she’d told Blaylock yesterday, which the older man had been most eager to share with him and the men over breakfast, was the fact that Diamond was not a greenhorn when it came to riding a horse. Although she had not been raised on a ranch, as a child her father had made sure she had gotten numerous riding lessons.
“Then let’s go,” Jake said, turning his horse toward the north pastures. He decided to set out at a slow pace. It would be a long workday and he didn’t want to tire out the horses too soon.
They rode in silence. Jake tried not to think about what had transpired between them the night before and knew that nothing had truly been resolved. If the truth were known, he wanted her now more than ever. His suggestion that they behave like two intelligent human beings and not like two animals with a strong urge to mate wasn’t working. At least it wasn’t working for him. All he had to do was to glance over at her, sitting comfortably astride the horse, looking every bit as tempting as she had yesterday, and his body was reacting. He was aware of the blood flowing hot and thick through his veins and the quiver surging through his loins.
There was something sexy as hell about a woman in jeans, he thought, especially tight jeans. His mind suddenly began imagining all sorts of things. For instance, the pleasure he would feel in peeling those tight jeans off her body.
Jake cursed under his breath. He definitely didn’t need those kinds of thoughts. He needed all his strength and focus to be concentrated on today’s activities, which were to move the herd to the high pastures without any problems.
He shook his head. The only problem he could think of was riding on a horse next to him. “Watch yourself today, Diamond,” he decided to say, breaking into the silence by making the first attempt at conversation since leaving the cabin. “I’ll be too busy to keep an eye on you.”
“I’ll be careful, Jacob.”
“And another thing.”
She glanced over at him. “Yes?”
“The men, they’ll be branding the cows. I don’t want them to get careless and start branding each other. They need to stay focused on what they’ll be doing, and you’ll be a distraction.”
When he saw Diamond raising a questioning brow, he continued, “You have the ability to make a man lose focus, Diamond. The men are in awe of who you are. I don’t want any careless accidents to happen.”
For some reason, Jake got the impression she was caught off guard by what he had just said to her. He wondered why she would be. Surely the woman knew how beautiful she was and that there were a number of men fascinated by that beauty both on and off the screen. He had even seen a huge poster of her in one of his teenage nephew’s bedrooms a few months ago.
“Do you think I shouldn’t come?” she asked quietly.
“To be quite honest with you,” he said slowly, “right now I’m questioning my decision to let you come along. I can’t afford any on-the-job accidents.”
Diamond brought her horse to a stop. “I’ll go back then, Jacob. The last thing I want is for my presence to cause problems for anyone.”
Jake looked at her, studied her. She wasn’t acting sulky or pouty. He saw genuine concern in her features. He wondered how often she’d felt that because of who she was, she would have to act or behave a certain way not to cause problems