Love is a Four Letter Word. Zara Stoneley

of something darker in his voice, maybe something bitter, maybe just plain old irony. It wasn’t there long enough to pin down, but she sensed it. He shrugged, dispersed the tension she was sure she hadn’t imagined.

      “Sometimes it can be a good idea to run.” She tried to make a joke out of it, but his face didn’t lift.

      “Messes with your head if you don’t know why you’re running.” His eyes narrowed, sending out a fan of fine wrinkles towards his temples.

      And she knew if she came out with it straight, why she was there, he’d be the one running hard and fast. She hadn’t quite worked out how to get round him yet, but the longer she looked at him the more she wanted him in the shoot. And she wanted it here too. It was part of him, and she didn’t want to separate the two. And it was part of her, a part that the ache inside her might want back. A sticking plaster for the soul as her gran would have said.

      “So, where are the horses?”

      “She’s in the barn.”

      “She? As in one horse? That’s a bit crap isn’t it, as businesses go?”

      “It’s how I work.” He paused. “One at a time.” Stared.

      Now, was that a threat or a promise? He enunciated each syllable, slow and clear in that quiet, low tone of his and she suddenly knew that now might be the time to cut and run. To get away while she still wanted to. If she still wanted to.

      Forget the whole thing. It was better to go somewhere else, get away from this stupid place. It was easy to find a man, a guy who looked good in dirty jeans, a grin and not much more. Very easy. A man with a dimple in the middle of his chin, and green brown eyes that you wanted to sink slowly into. A man with a firm body that you could wrap yourself round. Easy.

      “I’ve got a proposition for you.”

       Chapter Three

      He wasn’t going to like this. She didn’t like it. What in the world had made her say it? Well she knew the answer to that one. He turned her on. He intrigued her. Having men like Jake in her life was what kept her going. He was unpredictable and just looking at him gave her a thrill, oh yeah, and just imagining what he might do to her next, that was what made her determined not to let him disappear from her life yet.

      “Shall I just say no now, and shortcut the process?”

      “No, let’s not. Don’t say anything. Just listen until I’ve told you what it is.”

      He leaned back against the fence, stretched one leg out, so that his thigh muscles lengthened, long and taut against the worn denim of his jeans. She could run her hand down that thigh and it would be rock hard. Like something else by the looks of him.

      “I’ve got another job.”

      “Busy girl.”

      She ignored that. “I scout for this agency that does photo shoots.”

      “No.” He straightened, folded his arms across his chest and everything about him said no. “You’re not bringing them here.”

      Why bother denying it? “Why not? They’ll pay. It’s good money.”

      “You’ll disturb the horses.”

      “Horse.”

      He shrugged.

      “We pay quite a lot.” Safer to work on the location bit, then bring in the trickier ‘him being in shot’ bit later.

      She’d called in to see Rowena on the way up, checked that Jake would be where she thought he was, and it had been nice to see the older woman. She’d been made to feel welcome, wanted, a feeling she hadn’t had for a long time. Rowena had laughed though when she’d told her why she was there. “I’ve no objections to your friends taking a few photographs up there, love. But I can’t speak for Jake and as he’s paying the rent, he does have the last say, despite the past.” She’d put a finger under Georgie’s chin and studied her for a moment. “He’s no pushover though, not even for a pretty face. You go ahead and ask, it might do him good.” It had been on the tip of Georgie’s tongue to ask what she meant, but she’d bit it back. She didn’t want to get into discussions about the past. And she hadn’t liked the ‘good luck’ and chuckle thrown after her as she’d pulled the gate shut.

      Jake gave a short humourless laugh. “However much it is, it’s not enough.” He held up a hand to stop her objection. “Not everyone has a price, Georgie. I thought you’d have learned that by now. You can’t just buy your way in, I’m not for sale.”

      “Ahh, come on, name your price, it doesn’t have to be money, anything.” There had to be a way, he had to agree, let her do the shoot here. “Just a couple of hours, a few piccies.”

      “You can’t afford me, Georgie girl.”

      “Try me.” He would let her. She could almost taste victory. He’d moved on from the straight no.

      He met her stare, his eyes dark, hooded. “I thought I’d done that.”

      “Funny. Stop giving me your horny look and stop trying to change the subject.”

      He laughed out loud then. “I wonder just how far you’d go, to get your own way?”

      “You won’t know unless you ask.”

      He was looking amused now, almost like he’d realised he could have fun. It should have made her apprehensive, but come on what could he possibly come up with that could be that hard to sort? At least he’d given up on the grumpiness and gone back to the happy go lucky Jake she loved. She thought.

      He was smiling, broad, real with a hint of tease. “I remember you when you used to spend all weekend playing with ponies.”

      Huh-huh. Slight change of tack in the wind.

      “And?”

      “I could do with a hand, well more like a nice pair of legs and a sticky bum.” He grinned, all wolfish and bad. His gaze drifted over her body, slowly oh so slowly down her legs and she fought the impulse to fidget. He was getting into this. “Okay, here’s the deal. Let’s see you do some grafting for a change.”

      She shrugged. Refused to rise to the bait. She grafted, he’d no idea the hours she’d put in, maybe not with physical work like he did. So what? Hard work didn’t have to involve breaking your back and ruining your fingernails.

      “You give me a hand with the horses, just for the next few weeks. Say six? I know you can handle them, I remember that black mare you used to have and the amount of bouncing about you did on her.” He was still grinning, his head tipped to one side. “And off her.” There was a challenge in those gorgeous green eyes.

      Boy, yeah, she remembered that mare. She’d never been thrown off an animal so many times in her life, bouncing just wasn’t the word for it, but she’d kept going back for more. And in the end they’d reached a truce. “Horse. You’ve only got one to help with.” This could be a win, win. She got her shoot, a sexy guy on tap for a while, and a chance to exorcise the last unwanted part of this place from her brain. But let him think he was driving a hard bargain.

      “I’ve got a long list of people waiting and I do home visits as well. I can get through them quicker if I’ve got a,” he paused, raised an eyebrow as though challenging her, “groom to help.”

      “Don’t push it, I’m nobody’s slave labour.” But she needed to know there’d be something to do or she’d be bored rigid. And wound up about being here. I mean they couldn’t just shag all day, could they?

      He grinned. “No, can’t picture you as a willing slave, maybe an unwilling one.”

      “Stop it, you’re doing it again.”