Just Friends?. Allison Leigh
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helped collect semen before. And before you start making comments, it’s business. Big business. Do you know how high stud fees can run for a really impeccable pedigree?”
It was a moot question, since they’d been talking about such matters most of the day. Northern Light had yet to prove himself at stud, but his sire had commanded stud fees in the six figures. “They’re having some problems with Northern Light there because he’s never been ground collected before. He’s inexperienced.”
“Inexperienced?” Ted grinned slightly. “I’ll bet it’s more like he wants a warm body to snuggle up to instead of that cold tube thing Evan’s holding.”
“It’s called an A.V.—an artificial vagina. Oh, heads-up,” Leandra warned. “Howard is bringing out the mare again to tease Northern Light.”
Ted trained the camera again on the group of men surrounding the stallion and started filming. Leandra stepped slightly away, watching Northern Light’s reaction to the mare. His ears perked. The horse’s gleaming black coat twitched. His tail swished.
Bingo, Leandra thought, smiling to herself as the horse tried to lunge forward against the teasing rail, wanting to get at the mare.
Her father, at Northern Light’s head, kept the stallion from getting light in the front, making the horse resist his natural urge to rear up and mount something. Preferably the mare that had clearly, finally, spurred the young stud’s libido.
Even Ted jumped a little at Northern Light’s sudden interest, and in Leandra’s memory, there were few occasions that managed to startle the cameraman. But, she was pleased to note, the camera didn’t waver.
A nervous hand tugged at Leandra’s elbow from behind. Janet Stewart, another crew member, was frowning mightily, looking worried about the sight of the half ton of horse flesh seeming to struggle against his handlers. The girl put her mouth close to Leandra’s ear. This was only her second shoot, but so far Leandra had been pleased with the quiet girl’s work. “The horse can’t hurt the men, can he?” she whispered.
Leandra shrugged. The truth was, a stallion could crush a man if he chose. But she’d grown up around horses. She knew her father’s capacity to handle the animals. He might be in his 60s now, but he was fitter than many men half his age. And she knew Evan’s capacity equaled her dad’s.
Evan, who happened to glance their way as Northern Light gave another thwarted lunge. The gleaming black tail spiked and they could all hear the horse’s breath streaming from his nostrils.
Janet drew in a hissing breath. “Ee-uu-ww. Is he going to, uh—?”
Leandra frowned, putting her finger to her lips, silently hushing her. The answer to her production assistant’s half-formed question was clear in the satisfied actions of the men as Northern Light’s interest subsided in the mare still standing safely some distance away.
Howard, her father’s oldest ranch hand, took away the collection tube carrying Northern Light’s soon-to-be-pricey contribution to the breeding process. Leandra knew this particular specimen would only be used for analyzing. Leandra’s father led Northern Light back into the shadowy interior of the barn, where he’d be closed in his stall with fresh feed and water until his next encounter with the A.V.
Evan’s presence wasn’t ordinarily required at such proceedings, but since he and Axel were co-owners of the stallion, he had a vested interest. As he headed toward them, his gait was loose-hipped and easy and in Leandra’s mind, she envisioned the slo-mo and music that could accompany the movement once they put the piece together.
Eye candy, exactly as Marian had said. Oh, yes. Definitely eye candy.
“You realize that Northern Light was distracted by all of you over here.” Evan directed his irritation straight at Leandra. “What took most of the day should have been accomplished in a third of the time. It’s a wonder that Jefferson allowed you to even tape here today.”
“I guess that’s one of the perks about being the boss’s only daughter.” Her voice was as cool as his. She didn’t appreciate the lecture, particularly when she was very much aware of the delay they’d caused.
Evan’s lips thinned. He glanced at the camera. “I suppose you’re still filming.”
“That was the agreement, remember?” Despite that very fact, Leandra stepped closer to Evan. “Our crew follows your daily activities for a month and a half. How else can our viewers expect to walk in your shoes?”
“With boots,” he drawled. “And I remember the agreement. Doesn’t mean I have to love it. Definitely doesn’t mean I appreciate extending that inconvenience to my clients. And daddy of yours or not, Jefferson Clay is one of my best clients. We’re planning to breed one of his mares to Northern Light, and I’d still like him to stay one of my best clients even after you’ve taken your sweet tush off onto your next escapade.”
“Cut,” Leandra told Ted, barely managing to get the word through her clenched teeth. “Janet, you and Ted go over to the lab where Howard’s working and catch what you can. There’s quite a bit of science involved in this. You never know what might come in useful.” She could feel her phone vibrating silently at her hip, where it was clipped to her pocket, but ignored it. She didn’t have to guess hard to figure it was Marian. “Then we’ll take a stroll through the horse barn and call it a day.”
The idea of ending shooting even an hour early clearly appealed to Janet. Leandra knew she and Paul Haas, the other crew member, were planning to drive down to Cheyenne for the weekend. Both in their midtwenties, they figured their free time would be a little more lively there than it would be if they remained in town. Ted, however, was staying put. He had a wife and a toddler back home in L.A. and, though he hadn’t said anything specific, Leandra had the impression that things weren’t entirely smooth between the couple. They’d all be back in Weaver on Sunday, though, in time to watch the show on television.
When Ted and the camera were no longer there as silent witnesses, Evan leaned his elbows on the metal rail between them. “You showing off that you’re the boss, Leandra?”
“When it comes to this, that’s exactly what I am.”
“As long as Marian lets you be.”
She stiffened, ignoring the jab. “Regardless, I don’t need you taking me to task in front of my people just because you occasionally find this situation a little less than comfortable.”
“Occasionally?” His eyebrows lifted. “Have you ever had a camera following you around all damn day? You don’t know what it’s like. You only know what it’s like from behind the lens.”
The fact that he was right didn’t help her beleaguered conscience any. Nor did the phone cease vibrating. She snatched it off her belt, flipping it open. “Yes?”
There was a brief pause, then a short, masculine laugh. “Judging by your voice, I can tell you’re happy to hear from me.”
It wasn’t Marian at all. “Jake.” Leandra greeted her ex-husband. Evan’s shadowy jaw cocked and he turned, stepping away from the rail. “I thought you were Marian calling. What’s wrong?”
“Who said anything had to be wrong?”
“You don’t usually call me when I’m on location.” Her ex-husband called about once a month, insisting on checking up on her. He’d been doing it for as long as they’d been apart. At first, it had been simply painful. Then, it had been…simply simple. That was Jake.
They might not have made it as a couple—particularly after Emi—but that didn’t mean that they didn’t care about each other.
“As it happens, I was calling to see how Ev was doing.”
Ev was twenty feet away from her now, joined by her father, who’d ambled out of the barn a few moments earlier. “Why? He’s a big boy.”
“Yeah, but he hates attention. You know that.”