Safe In His Arms - Vicki Lewis Thompson Page 0,3

the bat, had strongly suggested that Adam should get back in the game and stop hiding. He thought Adam still had his own demons to slay, and he was probably right.

But Adam didn’t feel ready to engage in that battle just yet. So what if he was attracted to the lovely Miss Wolitzky? He’d control himself. He was here to help her bond with horses and resolve her fears, whatever they might be. Because of patient confidentiality, Will never discussed specifics with Adam.

Valerie had instructions to meet him at the barn. Will had told her that Adam was the same guy she’d run into when she’d dashed out of the bar in such a panic. According to Will, she hadn’t been particularly happy about that, because the incident had embarrassed her no end.

That hardly surprised him. So maybe they were even. He was worried about having her come to his ranch, and she didn’t want to be there. But she had a problem, and Will believed the horses could help her solve it.

The barn wasn’t air conditioned, at least not yet. Adam could easily afford to do it, but an air conditioned barn, one with doors and windows permanently closed all summer, wasn’t part of his ranching fantasy, so he’d held off. Heating the place in the winter didn’t bother him, but he’d balked at air conditioning.

Instead he’d installed fans in the rafters, and they worked reasonably well. The hands had been through the barn already this morning, mucking stalls and spreading clean straw. Adam took a deep breath, enjoying the blended aromas of fresh straw and aged wood.

It was an older structure, but huge. He planned to preserve the ambiance and add a few things, like open-air enclosures outside most of the stalls, especially the large ones where he’d house his brood mares. He’d wanted this ranch life since he’d been five, and now he had it.

All the horses had been turned out into the pasture except Rocket Fuel, the gelding Adam had designated as the horse Valerie would work with, and a mare and her new foal. The bay mare, Saucy Lady, promised to be a valuable brood mare. Her mostly black colt, Naughty Boy, had been sold before his birth to a Dallas-area stable.

Adam was on his way down the concrete aisle between the stalls to check on Saucy Lady and Naughty Boy when he heard a car pull up outside. He glanced at the barn clock. Nine fifteen. If that was Valerie, she was right on time.

Retracing his steps, he grabbed a clipboard off the wall. She’d have to sign a waiver before he let her near any of his horses. His lawyers had also insisted that he post an indemnification sign in a prominent spot now that he was helping Will’s clients. A billionaire was a juicy target for lawsuits.

As he approached the open barn door, he mentally prepared himself to be friendly yet businesslike. Damn it, he’d never had this kind of anxiety when welcoming Will’s other patients. But no matter how he’d tried to reframe this meeting, it felt exactly like a date, and he was sadly out of practice for those.

He walked into the sunshine and found her standing beside her jaunty little black sports car. She looked anything but jaunty, though. She stood ramrod-straight, arms at her sides, her expression an unyielding mask, her eyes hidden behind large sunglasses.

Her jeans looked new, and so did her brown boots. She wore a plain white T-shirt tucked in, which emphasized her narrow hips and long legs. The pristine straw cowboy hat dangling from her slender fingers had obviously never seen service.

She could have been a mannequin in a store window except for her hair. Boyishly short and tousled, it blazed in shades of deep orange and seemed to radiate energy. He couldn’t stop looking at that hair, which provided the only evidence of her inner fire, a fire he knew existed. He’d been on the receiving end when she’d erupted.

He dragged in a breath. Keeping his distance from Valerie Wolitzky was going to be a challenge.

Two

He was at least as tall as Valerie remembered, maybe an inch or two taller. Not many men made her feel petite, but this one did. Adam Templeton, quarter-horse breeder, former corporate raider, rich dude. Will hadn’t told her any of that, but once she’d learned the name of the cowboy who would be helping her become better acquainted with horses, she’d Googled him. What she hadn’t discovered