Read Her Cowboy Knight for Free Online Page B

looked at the paddock once more. This time Blue Boy reared slightly with Susan, who expertly brought him under control and brought him around to head into another skill. Cooper yelled, “That’s the way, Susan. Now bring him around.”
    Gabby watched for a moment before dipping her roller again and slapping it even harder against the barn. Here she stood, painting a barn, while that… female… rode Blue Boy and spent time with Cooper. She pushed even harder against the wall.
    Cooper called Susan over, and Susan dismounted. Gabby watched while Cooper and Susan chatted, their heads close together over the railing as Blue Boy stood in the paddock in front of them. Susan turned and walked toward Gabby. As she passed, she said, “Oh, Abby, looks like you missed a spot over here.”
    Gabby gritted her teeth and kept rolling paint onto the barn, until Susan walked back by and kicked her roller pan, splattering paint all over the place.
    Immediately, she said, “Oh, I’m so sorry, I wasn’t looking where I was going. Silly me. Here, let me help.”
    Gabby snapped, “No, really, it’s okay. I’ve got it.”
    After lunch, as Gabby balanced from a twelve-foot ladder painting the top trimming, she heard a shout underneath her. “Gabby, get the hell down from there!”
    Gabby looked down, catching sight of Cooper who stood with his hands on his hips and a frown on his face. She looked back to her work. “I’m fine up here, Cooper. Seriously.”
    “Gabby, I’m not telling you again, get down from there and wait until someone can at least foot your ladder.”
    Gabby threw her brush in the paint can, a little harder than she intended, and the can tipped.
    Gabby watched in dismay as the paint can plummeted, almost in slow motion, directly in front of Cooper, dumping its entire contents down the front of his shirt and jeans. She covered her mouth with her hand in sheer horror as a cold chill went down her back to settle in her bottom, which tingled in anticipation of the spanking he most certainly would give her when he got his hands on her… but he’d have to get his hands on her first.
    She didn’t wait around for that to happen either. She looked above her and grabbed the edge of the roof of the barn, hearing Cooper shouting below her, “Gabby! Get your ass back down here!”
    She went over the roof and down the other side to the gable that stuck out over the entrance, and was just shimmying down the other side and dangling from the eaves, when she felt someone grab her feet. She screamed and tried to kick, but instead she felt herself being pulled down. “No, Cooper! I didn’t mean it. It wasn’t supposed to turn over the paint can. I’m sorry.”
    She looked up from where she was cradled in his arms, his flint blue eyes meeting hers, and he said, “You ran from me.”
    She buried her head. “I was scared. You looked so mad.”
    He clenched his jaw. “You had just dumped paint all over me. I had a right to be mad.”
    Gabby started to realize that he wasn’t walking into the barn but toward the middle of the yard. She asked, “Where are you taking me?”
    Cooper just kept walking until he reached a bench at the end of the yard and sat her on it. He leaned down and looked her directly in the eye. “You sit on this bench until I come back. You don’t move. You don’t get up. You sit here. Got it?”
    Gabby nodded her head and whispered, “Yessir.”
    As Cooper stalked away, Gabby slumped over, looking down at her shirt, which was now covered in paint from Cooper’s shirt.
    “Well, well, well, now this is funny. Haven’t seen anyone sitting on the punishment bench in ages.” Susan’s drawl brought Gabby’s head up in a snap, her eyes flashing. She pressed her lips together to hold in her own comments and turned her head away, face flaming, hating that this woman was seeing her sitting in a timeout like a small child.
    Susan said, “Why don’t you just get the clue and leave, circus freak. You don’t