Tease Me (One Night with Sole Regret #7)(45)
Author: Olivia Cunning

Her dad waved eagerly and called, “Going for a ride?”

“Yeah,” she called back, not looking at him. Knowing she’d break if she did. Just seeing his strong profile in that familiar Stetson had her feeling all sorts of little-girly weaknesses. “We won’t be gone long.” To keep him from trying to delay her, she added, “I’ll stop by the house when I get back.”

She scrambled up the gate and slid her leg up and over Ginger’s bare back before turning the horse toward the pasture.

“Be careful out there,” her father said.

“Don’t worry!”

Ginger trotted out of the barn and sprinted through the pasture with her head and tail held high, as if to brag to the other horses that she was going out with her human and they weren’t invited.

Madison’s knees clamped into Ginger’s sides as the horse took a sudden turn around Bullet and almost unseated her. Perhaps darting off without a saddle hadn’t been the best idea. It had been months since Madison had ridden a horse, and she couldn’t recall the last time she’d ridden bareback.

Ginger automatically headed for the gate that led to the back eighty acres of the Fairbanks’ property. The extra pastures were not often used now that her parents had stopped raising cattle and only kept half a dozen horses for recreational use. The expanse of land was now more wilderness than ranch, but she preferred to ride the trails there. The terrain was familiar, and she didn’t have to worry about trespassing on some trigger-happy rancher’s land or worry that any motorized vehicles would make Ginger nervous.

As Ginger’s steady gait allowed her mind to wander, her thoughts kept returning to one person: Adam. The only thing that was clear to Madison was that she loved him. She couldn’t let him go.

It boggled her mind how easily he could throw caution aside and fall headlong into forever. She wasn’t half as impulsive as he was. She never would be. She admired him for it and appreciated that quality in him, but when his tendency to jump over barriers before checking if there was a cliff on the other side confronted her head on, she panicked. That was what had happened when he’d asked her to marry him. And happened again when he’d asked her to move in with him. She’d panicked. He encouraged her to be more spontaneous—more reckless—but when it came down to action, she was intrinsically cautious. She’d always been that way. She wished he could be more understanding of her hang-ups and not assume that because she didn’t immediately jump aboard his crazy train that it didn’t mean she never wanted to ride his rails. She just needed time to think and since her brain seemed nonfunctional when his sexy self was in her vicinity, that meant she had to do her thinking when she wasn’t around him.

She spent the entire ride thinking. About her life. Her job situation. Her living situation. She thought about her parents and her sister. But most of the time she thought about Adam. She missed him like crazy already. And she wanted him in her life. She was going to get him back, and she would never let him go. If she’d had her cellphone with her, she’d have called him right then and shared all her thoughts with him. Unfortunately, she’d left it in her purse, which was in the kitchen next to more of those cinnamon rolls.

That wasn’t so difficult, was it? For once, the voice of reason in her head was her own, and not her sister’s.

Not difficult exactly, but definitely not easy.

She turned Ginger and headed back for the barn. Now that she had that bit of crazy sorted out, she could go back to Adam and explain where her heart was. Hopefully, she could fix things between them. He had to take her back, he just had to. She laughed, hearing herself sound like a teenager with her first crush.

But she was no teenager and Adam was no crush.

After she called him she would hop on the next flight to New Orleans and see him again before the evening was out. And if she couldn’t get on a plane, she’d drive all night—whatever it took to get back to him as soon as she could. Why had she left him in the first place? Oh yeah, because he loved her enough to marry her.

“Ginger,” she said, patting the horse’s shoulder, “sometimes I can be completely daft.”

Ginger bobbed her head, agreeing, and Madison laughed.

“I’m glad we could have this talk. You’re such a good listener. Ever consider a career as a counselor?”

Ginger nickered.

“Gid’yup.” Madison shifted forward to urge Ginger into a gallop. Now that she had a game plan—a rather weak one, but it was a plan—she was eager to execute it and start her forever with Adam. If he wanted a ring on her finger, she’d wear it. If he wanted them to live together, she’d pack her bags. If he wanted her to walk down the aisle—well, she wasn’t quite ready for that step yet, but an extended engagement sounded like a piece of perfect.

Without warning Ginger stopped short, rearing on her hind legs, forelegs flailing as she screamed in terror. Madison tried to grab for the startled horse’s neck, but she was already flying backwards. A sickening crunch was followed by excruciating pain up her back and into her left shoulder. Her arm crumpled as she instinctively tried to catch her fall. Then her teeth clanked together as the back of her head hit the ground. All the wind left her lungs on impact, and she lay stunned, unable to move or even cry out. She gasped for air, her lungs stinging in protest. She tried to draw a hand to the back of her head, but her arm wouldn’t move. Fuck, she’d fallen off her horse dozens of times training for rodeo. She knew better than to land like that. Ouch. She winced and turned her head, but could see nothing but tall grass through the narrow tunnel of her vision.

Don’t pass out, she thought as the sound of Ginger’s hoof beats retreated into the distance. They’ll never find you out here. You cannot pass out.

The sinister rattle of an angry snake alerted her to what had spooked her faithful horse.

“Adam,” she whispered just before her world went dark.

Chapter Fifteen

Sitting on a picnic table behind the tour bus, Adam stared into the mouth of his brown bottle and let everything but the chaos in his mind fade into the background. He’d honestly thought Madison gave a shit about him. All she’d really wanted from him was some hard cock and a good time. Just like all the other girls. Why did he even bother?

Yes, he was still thinking about her. One night completely lacking sleep had not cleared his mind of her. He doubted years of sleepless nights would banish her from his thoughts. But that was what he needed to do—stop thinking about her.