Honeymoon with the Rancher / Nanny Next Door: Honeymoon with the Rancher / Nanny Next Door. Michelle Celmer
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to the fence. He snagged her hat and came back, sliding an arm under her knees and picking her up while the campero dangled from his fingers. Her breath hitched as he stood and gave a little bounce, adjusting her weight in his arms.
“What are you doing?”
“Carrying you inside, what do you think?”
It was heavenly being in his arms, the primitive physicality of it thrilling. She was held closely against the wall of his chest, so close that she could see a single bead of sweat gather at the hollow of his throat. She wanted to reach out and touch it with the tip of her finger, but didn’t have the courage to take such initiative.
He began carrying her towards the house. No man had ever done such a gallant thing for her before, and it would be very easy to get swept away. But this was definitely not standing on her own two feet and the last thing she wanted was to look like some helpless female. She’d done that enough today. “Please, put me down. I can walk.”
“You took quite a fall, Sophia.” His chocolatey eyes were still heavy with concern and a tiny wrinkle marred his brow.
Her arms had gone around his neck by instinct and her body bobbed with every long stride of his legs. “Then let me walk it off. Nothing is broken, Tomas. This is silly.”
They reached the gate and she stuck out a hand, grabbing on to the metal bar and pulling them to a halt. “Let me down. You can walk me to the house if you want.” His gaze caught hers for long seconds. “The fault is mine. I felt I had something to prove, but I was wrong. I should have asked for help. I didn’t mean to scare you,” she apologized.
He gave in and gently put her down. “Are you sure you’re not hurt?”
She did hurt. She missed the feeling of being held in his arms already, and she ached all over. Her left hip pained when she put her weight on it. But it was just bruising. “Nothing serious. I’m more humiliated than anything.”
They took slow steps to the house. Tomas remained right by her side, slowing his strides to match hers, his right arm always near in case she needed support. “I’m the one who should apologize, Sophia. You are inexperienced with horses, and I knew that. This is all my fault. I should not have ridden ahead.”
“Why did you?” She hobbled along, looking up at him from beneath her campero, the hat resting crookedly atop her head.
“I …”
“You’re going to put that wall around yourself again, aren’t you? Fine. I get it. You are allowed to ask questions. I’m not. Loud and clear, Tomas.”
“Dios, your tongue is sharp!” He bristled beside her. “You might have been killed, do you understand? What if Neva had gone down? What if she’d rolled on you?”
He turned on her, anger darkening his face now. “I should have stayed with you. You might have broken your neck.”
“Oh, what would you care? You’ll be glad to be rid of me, admit it!” she shot back. She instantly felt bad for saying it. “Tomas, I’m …”
But he never gave her a chance.
“!Maldita idiota! I cannot figure you out. You panic at the sight of a spider, but when the danger is real …”
“Perhaps you should have thought of that before giving me a skittish horse that runs at the least little thing!”
“I gave you the calmest horse in the stable!” They were standing in the middle of the yard now, shouting.
“Do you treat all your clients this way?” She scoffed, her voice ripe with derision. Her blood was up now and it felt marvelous! All the righteous anger she’d channeled into cancelling the wedding and reorganizing her life came bubbling to the surface. “Oh wait … I’m the only one. Remind me why that is again?”
“!Cállate!” He shouted. “Enough!”
And then he gripped her arms in his strong hands and kissed her.
The pain in her hip disappeared as his lips covered hers. Passion, a passion she hadn’t known she even possessed, exploded within her and she reached out to hang on to his shirt. He braced his feet, forming a solid wall for her to lean against, and in return she twined her arms around his ribs and over his shoulder blades, craving the feel of his body against hers.
This was what had been missing, she realized with a shock. Pure, unadulterated physicality. The kind of force that rushed in like a hurricane and frightened the hell out of her.
She shuddered and the fingers gripping her arms eased. His mouth gentled over hers until his lips played, teased, seduced.
It made her want to weep. How was it that even in anger this stranger seemed to know exactly what she needed? How did he know that she needed gentleness?
“Are you still angry at me?” she whispered as their lips parted. She couldn’t make herself meet his gaze; instead she stared at his mouth as though she hadn’t seen it before. Full lips, crisp in their perfection, soft when they needed to be soft, firm when they needed to be commanding …
“Yes,” he admitted, letting out a ragged breath. “Are you still angry at me?”
“No.”
“Why?”
She sighed. “Because I’m tired of being angry.”
“I shouldn’t have shouted. You scared me, Sophia.”
“I scared myself.”
She risked a look up at him then. His eyes were dark with concern again and she marveled at it—why should he care about her? Who was she to him? But she wasn’t about to argue. At the moment, sad as it was, he was all she had.
He turned from her and they began walking towards the house again. Sophia’s legs felt like jelly after the kiss, but she forced one foot ahead of the other.
“Why didn’t you say anything earlier when I mentioned going riding?”
“I didn’t want you to know.” She raised her chin. “After the way I showed up yesterday, and then my overreaction this morning … I didn’t want you to think I was some vapid female who couldn’t handle as much as a broken nail. I didn’t expect to be racing across the pampas, either.”
She wouldn’t look at him, but to her right, she heard a soft chuckle. “You are very stubborn, Sophia Hollingsworth.”
“Thank you. I’ll take that as a compliment.”
This time he really did laugh, and the sound reached in and expanded inside her. She knew it was ridiculous. She had made a miscalculation and now she was limping back to the house, dirty and with dented pride claiming that stubbornness was an attribute and not a fault.
“I didn’t foresee that happening. I was a very poor tour guide today. If nothing else, I should have asked you about your experience instead of assuming.”
“And what would you have done differently? Stop blaming yourself.” She stopped and put a hand on his arm. His solicitousness was lovely, but it wasn’t required. “It was the wind, that’s all.” Her body warmed as their kiss was still foremost in her mind. “And … about what happened before … I don’t want you to fix things, Tomas. I came on this holiday to be my own solution. Please don’t take this as an insult. I’m coming to understand I have spent far too long being at the mercy of other people. I need to prove to myself that I am capable, too.”
“And just what did this afternoon prove?” He raised an eyebrow, challenging.
They were at the house now and Sophia paused with her hand on the door.
What did it prove? Perhaps that the appreciation she had for Tomas had blossomed into full-blown attraction. And it had proved that the feeling was mutual. The potential in that stopped her in her tracks. It was an exhilarating, terrifying thought.
She