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Esmé couldn't believe Rio was doing this, that he'd grabbed her, tossed her over his shoulder, and marched away with her.

"Are you crazy? Put me down!"

He answered by shifting her weight and clamping his arm more tightly behind her knees.

"Put ? me ? down!" Esmé pounded her fists against his back. "Put ? me ?"

"Uh, mister? You need some help here?"

Esmé saw a pair of familiar-looking, beaten-up boots come into view. "Who is that? Abel? Is it you? Abel, tell this idiot to put me down!"

"No," Rio said politely, "thank you, señor, I am doing just fine."

"He's not doing fine! He's ? he's kidnapping me!"

"Don't look like much of a kidnap to me," Abel said, after a moment that Esmé suspected had probably included a wink of the eye from one man to the other.

"The señorita seems to have had a bit too much sun." The stable doors loomed ahead. Rio shouldered them open; Abel reached out a hand and held them ajar. "She'll be all right as soon as I get her into the shade."

"I will not be all right! I am all right! Abel? If you don't tell this ? this idiot to put me down ?"

"Thank you for your assistance, Señor Abel."

"Think nothin' of it, señor."

The foreman stepped back. The doors swung shut and Esmé and Rio were alone in the shadowed, silent stable. Rio dumped Esmé on her feet. She spun toward the door but he grabbed her, shoved her back until her shoulder blades hit the wall, and planted a spread hand on either side of her. He looked at her and frowned.

"You are pale," he said.

She probably was. Hanging upside down had down something to her stomach. She took a couple of deep breaths before she answered him.

"Let's not waste time on solicitude, okay? What do you want, Rio? Why did you cart me around like a ? a sack of feed?"

"I carted you around, as you so charmingly put it, because there was no other way to gain your attention."

Esmé slapped her hands on her hips and blew a dangling strand of dark hair off her forehead.

"Yes, well, you've certainly gained my attention, and the attention of every other human being on this ranch! Maybe it doesn't bother you that I'll be the topic of conversation in the bunkhouse for the next umpteen evenings, but it sure as hell bothers me!"

"I suppose that is true." Rio's mouth twitched. "It will make for some talk among the men."

"Damned right. It's hard enough to get respect from a bunch of grungy cowboys ?"

"Any man who shows you a lack of respect will have to answer to me," Rio said, his voice suddenly cold and hard.

"I didn't mean respect as a woman, I meant respect as a horse trainer."

A horse trainer. His elegant Esmé. Rio couldn't help but smile.

"What's so funny?" Her eyes narrowed. "I am an excellent trainer. Ask Jonas, if you don't believe me."

"Oh, I believe you. It is only that I would not have thought a woman whose lovely face is on magazine covers would prefer to train horses."

"That just shows how little you know me," Esmé said. "I never intended to model forever. I just ? I wanted something different for a while, that?s all."

"And now you will train horses?" She nodded, and Rio smiled again. "You?re right, querida. I did not know this other side of the woman who is my lover."

Color flooded her face. "I am not your lover. Not anymore."

Rio lifted a hand to her face. She would have jerked away from his touch but he clasped her chin, traced the arc of her cheekbone with his thumb. It wasn't fair that such a simple gesture should still make her catch her breath.

"Don't ? don't do that," she said quickly.

"Do what?" A muscle flickered in his jaw. He stepped closer, bent his head, nuzzled the damp strands of hair from her temple. "Do what, querida?" he whispered, and took her mouth with his.

To be continued?