“What kind of a cowboy are you? One who can’t even control a horse…”
She watched the muscles in his back flicker under his shirt. “I’m just a farm hand, ma’am. No one.”
He glanced back, obscuring his face with his shoulder and his hat – studying her with dark eyes. Then he tugged the reins of his now-docile horse and they walked together across the meadow.
Samira stood glued to the spot, watching him leave and suppressing the desire to run after him and demand answers – as well as suppressing the desire to run after him and kiss him wildly; ride him hard.
She let him go. He’d been following her every day for three weeks now, and she realized it would be better to approach him like a wild horse – gently and subtly. Now that they’d broken the ice, maybe she could find out who he was and what he wanted.
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One thing was for sure, she hadn’t felt such an intense attraction for anyone since she’d lost her beloved Ivan. And truthfully, she couldn’t wait to see this guy again. Her heart pounded with excitement. How funny would that be? Having an illicit affair with the guy her fiancé had hired to follow her…
She shook her head and turned back to the creek with the intention of sitting down and forgetting him for now. But as she halted at the edge of the water – the same place she stood every day – the earth suddenly collapsed, causing her to fall abruptly. She clawed the air and cried out in shock as her body plunged toward the water.
“Help!” she screamed.
Time slurred as she swooshed downwards. Her heart thrashed painfully as a riot of fear rushed into her mind. Why the hell had the ground given way like a trapdoor? It had been solid yesterday!
She screamed as her body crashed into the icy water, and she was immediately struggling against the current, gulping down lungfuls of air and kicking her legs to try to stay afloat. But she couldn’t swim! The water dragged her under and she panicked as she realized the bottom of the creek wasn’t in reach. She was going to drown!
No... She had too much to live for…
With all her might, Samira tore her way back up to the surface, kicking like a phoenix rising – but her muscles were tiring and the fast-moving water crashed painfully against her body, pulling her in too many directions at once. She thrashed her arms and legs desperately, feeling her body sink deeper into the abyss as her face dunked under the gushing flow.
Her vision blurred at the edges and she tried to shout – but her mouth filled with ice-cold water – then she could no longer fight against the torrent, as the world turned black.
Chapter Two
Oblivious to everything around him, Ivan led his unruly horse away from the woman he loved – feeling raw emotion pounding in his heart. What the hell was he doing walking away from her when all he wanted to do was wrap her in arms and kiss her for eternity? He smiled affectionately. She hadn’t changed at all – still as feisty and beautiful as ever. She looked amazing in that white dress, with her long bottle-blonde hair flowing free.
This meadow was far away from the big ranch-house, which suggested to Ivan she wasn’t totally happy living there and came here for an escape. The staff quarters were located out here – consisting of twenty-or-so little wooden cottages, where the ranch-hands and their families lived. Samira had always loved nature, and Ivan imagined she came here because she loved the colorful flowers and the bright green fields all around. He pictured her picking the flowers and dreaming of him…
He resisted glancing back. But seeing her again was like winning the gold medal – it was like stepping into paradise. He was desperate to embrace her and kiss her; to make love to her out here in the pasture. He wanted to find out what she’d been doing all these months – what she was doing on this ranch. He needed her to know he’d never stopped thinking about her – not for one second.
But it wasn’t something you could just blurt out, was it? “Hi, babe. You know you thought I was dead? Well, actually, here I am…”
But for now he felt triumphant to have found her. He’d spent the last sixth months operating on a different level of reality, where all that had mattered was his obsession with finding her.
Thank goodness Tariq had vaguely known she was on a Texas ranch. It’d at least given Ivan something to go on. And his family had generally been supportive of his obsessive search for her, although they were worried about how urgently obsessed he’d become. The only times he’d been away from Texas recently was when he’d gone back to see the family in New York for birthdays.
Shit – that reminded him, he needed to go back for Adam’s wedding this weekend. He’d only just got here yesterday afternoon, and he was reluctant to leave without Samira, meaning he now only had four days to tell her everything and convince her to come with him.
Maybe he should hurry this reunion up...
For months, he’d traveled from ranch to ranch, taking on work as a hired hand, telling the ranch managers that he knew how to handle a horse. That clearly wasn’t true – he hadn’t ridden for years before he’d gone undercover as a cowboy. But he’d learned quickly, for survival – discovering that it took brute strength and guile to be a ranch hand – instead of his usual intellect and charm. Luckily, he was pretty good with his hands, so he’d been able to pull it off. But truthfully he couldn’t wait to get back into his business suit – and Samira back into his arms.
He’d avoided making friends, preferring to be on his own so he could focus on his search for her. He’d physically and mentally exhausted himself on this mission – but he’d ensured he’d kept in good shape for her – knowing how much she loved lying in his sculpted arms – which were desperate to hold her.
He swiped a glance at his horse, who was looking innocent after all the bucking and rearing. “Did you know it was her?” he asked the horse. “Is that why you behaved so bad? To get her attention?”
The horse snorted and shook its head in the heat.
“I know,” Ivan said. “I need to figure out how to tell her the truth without freaking her out. But let me tell you now, horse, I can do it without your dramatics.”
The horse whinnied in reply, and Ivan smiled, forgiving him for throwing him off. But… actually, it hadn’t been the horse that had made the noise. Ivan stopped dead. A woman was screaming…
Samira! He let go the horse and bolted back to the creek, rushing through the long grass, which suddenly seemed thick and obstructive like tar. His heart plunged to his knees as he saw her struggling in the water, and he remembered she couldn’t swim. Fuck! The current had swept her twenty yards downstream, and her flailing body was losing strength against the pounding rapids.