Her fists clenched at her sides. “That’s the rudest thing I’ve ever heard.”
“I wasn’t trying to be rude, just stating the facts,” Tony said before turning away to leave.
“I wasn’t done speaking to you,” she said, frustration clear in her tone, making him pause before turning back toward her.
“When I feel you have something valuable to say, I’ll chat longer.” And with that, he walked away, leaving Brielle stunned, hurt, and extremely pissed off.
“I should fire him right now,” she muttered, but then clasped a hand over her mouth. She really didn’t want him to overhear that. She wasn’t so naïve as to think this place could run without him. And one way or another she’d get Tony to like her, although after those words of his, she shouldn’t give a damn what he thought about her.
No, wouldn’t happen. That man would always do what he wanted. Even if he loved her — sure, sure — he would still do things his own way. That was just the sort of man he was. Stubborn. Ornery. Set in his ways.
Brielle found her temper waning as she made her way to the arena. She was shocked when she realized that she sort of liked the gruff old guy. And she should have hated him on principle alone.
When she turned a corner and looked up, she found Colt putting a saddle on a majestic brown horse that she was sure she should know the breed of, but she knew less than nothing about horses. The horse, unfortunately, wasn’t the only majestic creature in the place. The way Colt’s muscles bulged made her slightly lightheaded. This man was much finer than the guys she normally hung out with, despite their expensively honed gym bodies. Yeah, working on a ranch seemed to do good things to a lot of the population of Sterling. At least from what she’d seen so far.
“You’ve ridden before, right?”
Brielle was startled to realize Colt was speaking to her. No, she hadn’t ridden, not even once.
“Of course I have.”
Sauntering over to the horse, she thought back to the cowboy movies she’d watched, put her foot into the stirrup and hefted herself onto his back. She was a little wobbly, but felt immense pride as she sat astride this massive animal. And she was facing the right way.
Man, it was a long way to the ground.
“I picked Bluegrass because she’s pretty mellow. I figured the only horses you’ve ridden have been at some hoity-toity country club.”
She? Oops. She should have inspected the horse more closely. “Well, you can figure what you want. I don’t care,” she said, hating that everyone’s opinion of her was so poor.
This man was going to drive her nuts — he was presumptuous and ill-mannered. If she could go riding with anyone else, she’d be much better off, but so far there were no other volunteers.
“This ride will take a while, Ms. Storm, so hold on and follow my lead.” Colt walked over to an even bigger horse than hers, one who was pure black and seemed jittery as he — or she? — waited to be ridden. She really should ask what breed the horses were, but if she did, he’d probably look at her with that maddening gleam in his eyes that screamed “city girl.”
As she wobbled in her saddle, Brielle started thinking that maybe she’d made a mistake, but then as they started out from the barn, the only thing she could concentrate on was trying not to fall off. She didn’t have any more time to worry about what would happen if she couldn’t manage to hold on.
Chapter Ten
When the open grass on the hills did nothing for him, Colt knew he was in a seriously bad mood. It was foolish, really — no, it was completely ridiculous — but watching Hawk flirt with Brielle had thoroughly pissed him off.
Yes, Colt knew logically that it had been harmless, and yes, he knew Hawk was even more afraid of commitment than he was, but still, he couldn’t banish the jealousy. Hawk had been his friend since the first day of kindergarten, but that didn’t mean they hadn’t always enjoyed competing with each other.
Actually, an entire group of them really liked to push each other to the limits, to see how far they could take things. It was good for them and never before had jealousy been an issue.
Never before today.
Colt had practically seen red when he witnessed Brielle’s reaction to meeting Hawk. But at least he had his answer on whether to sleep with this woman.
If he didn’t, he had a feeling she wouldn’t leave his consciousness alone. And she was something that he couldn’t have haunting him for the rest of his days. He didn’t want to be in a “relationship” with her. She was a city girl, a spoiled little princess.
But there was just something about her, something that was calling to him. She was on his mind all the time, and he didn’t understand why or how.
Yes, he’d been seriously attracted to women before, but the second they left his sight, they also vanished from this thoughts. Women served a purpose, a very important purpose, but still just a purpose. A means to an end. And she had a cute little end…
Anyway, once his needs were met, Colt was fine with walking away, and then finding the next woman when his desires began to cloud his judgment again. If it looked as if a woman wasn’t interested, which happened just about never, he would move happily on to the next.
If he wasn’t sexually attracted to them, once in a blue moon they’d become a friend, but most of the time he just wouldn’t strike up a conversation. Whichever way it went, it didn’t affect him, didn’t leave him with longing, didn’t leave him in such a disagreeable mood.
After about ten minutes of riding out along the borders of Brielle’s property, he decided he’d better get the air cleared up. He was supposed to be showing her the land, and he certainly couldn’t point things out if he wasn’t speaking to the silly woman. He had to hand it to her, though — she knew when to be silent.
That was a quality he could appreciate in a woman. … Damn. If his mama had ever heard him say such a crude thing, of course, she’d have smacked him in the back of the head. He almost flinched just thinking about it.
Yeah, Colt knew he could be an ass, but weren’t all men at some point? Yeah, they were, he assured himself. Even if he knew he was full of bullshit, along with that whole boys will be boys mentality.
“It looked like you and Hawk were getting quite cozy back there at the store.” Dammit. Colt wanted to kick himself for his words and the tone in which he’d delivered them, but it was now out in the open and he couldn’t take the statement back, so he might as well hold his ground.