Shielded By The Cowboy Seal. Bonnie Vanak
up and down the length of her body, from those well-manicured hands to her dainty feet.
Meg’s pouty mouth flattened. “My grandparents owned a farm up north and I grew up there. I know just as much about shoveling manure as I do about hosting a charity benefit, Mr. Johnson.”
Coop leaned against a bale of hay, slightly ashamed of jumping all over her. Maybe because he was attracted to her, too attracted, and felt a natural need to put distance between them.
Like between now and next week would be good.
“Adela’s had it rough. Thanks for that.” From beneath the brim of his Stetson, he gave her a meaningful look. “But next time, do as I say. I don’t care if you rescued all the wild mustangs in the West and tamed them, you don’t go walking into a man’s barn and approach any of the horses until you know their background. Deal?”
He removed his right hand from his pocket and shoved it out at her.
But she did not take his hand. Rather, the princess looked at his palm the way Adela had regarded the apple earlier.
Fine. He was here to keep her safe until the next step of her journey. Nothing more.
Meg went to a bale of hay and sat, Sophie at her side. She scratched the dog’s head. “What happened to her?”
He glanced at Adela. “I bought her from a kill pen last month. She was scheduled to be shipped to Canada to a slaughterhouse.”
Yeah, kinda harsh. He winced as her mouth trembled and she blinked rapidly. “I hate kill pens. I’ve bought a few horses from a kill buyer and managed to save them. But it’s never enough.”
Now it was his turn to be surprised. “You know about the business?”
“The foundation I helped was very involved in rescuing abused and abandoned horses, and horses sold by their owners for the slaughterhouse. Mainly older horses who had outlived their use, as seen by their owners. I’ve rescued a few. Once, I actually staged a protest outside the polo grounds to raise awareness.” Meg gave a rueful smile. “It didn’t win me many friends with the polo set, and I was banned for a month.”
His respect for her grew and he felt a little ashamed for judging her so quickly. “Good for you.”
Her expression fell. “When my husband found out, he was infuriated, because he had business dealings with executives who played polo. He said I did it deliberately to mock him.” Meg looked down, rubbing her hands against the jeans he’d lent her. “He wasn’t one for saving any stray animals. With him it was all business and all money, all the time.”
Cooper leaned against Betsy’s stall door. “That guy sounds like a total loser. Then why did you marry him?”
Meg bit her lush lower lip, and the little movement fired his blood. “When I first met him, he was urbane, charming and caring. He swept me off my feet. He was the first person to really listen when I talked to him about my plans and my dreams. He put my needs first, or so I thought.”
A faint flush tinted her cheeks. “He even fooled my grandmother, who approved of the marriage. She had hired him to take over the reins of the family business, and he saved our company when we were headed into the red. But a year after we married, my husband showed his true colors. And yet I stuck it out for two more years.” Her voice lowered, as if she were ashamed to say the words. “I thought I loved him. I was a fool for not leaving him sooner.”
Anger raced through him. Some men weren’t fit to have a relationship, no matter what their background. “It takes a lot of courage to leave. Don’t be so hard on yourself.”
She looked him in the eye and said clearly, “I kept hoping he would change. He used to promise never to do it again.”
He’d heard that story before, and it rankled him that this pretty, seemingly frail woman had endured such abuse. Coop had been raised to respect women, and never hurt them, no matter what. The hardest thing for him to do as a SEAL was turn off that ingrained belief, and do his job in enemy territory when facing a woman holding a grenade...
He gentled his voice. “Someone like your louse of an ex will never change. The behavior is too ingrained in them. Like drug addicts, they find it hard to kick the habit.”
“You seem to know a lot about abuse.”
He glanced over his shoulder at Adela. “I have more than a nodding acquaintance with it. My sister was with a guy who used his fists when he got drunk.”
Meg’s eyes went round. “And how did she end the relationship?”
“She didn’t. I did, by showing the guy the business end of my nine-millimeter.” Cooper offered a grim smile. “Brie wasn’t happy I muscled into her life, but later, she thanked me.”
“You were being a concerned brother,” she said gently.
His smile dropped. Yeah, but he’d failed Brie in the one area he’d felt confident of protecting her. That little reminder truly rankled him. “Why are you here? You said you needed to tell me something. So talk.”
Inwardly he winced at his curt tone. The softness fled from Meg’s heart-shaped face and she looked wary. Even the dog growled at him.
“I came to tell you I’m only spending the night and leaving in the morning as soon as my car is fixed. That’s all.”
She turned on her heel, and the dog followed. Coop rubbed the nape of his neck.
Ah, damn. He was supposed to protect a woman for Project SOS and offer her safe refuge from an abusive spouse.
And she was going to bolt.
Cooper ran after her, blocked her from exiting the barn. He held out his hands, kept his body relaxed and loose.
“Don’t go because I’m an ass. Stay. You came here to find a safe place and I promise, you will be safe here.”
She watched him with narrowed eyes, and he could read the doubt in her expression.
Spreading out his hands, he wriggled his fingers. “Look at me. I’m not armed, and I will listen to you. If I say something stupid again, you can go ahead and do what my mom always does when I’m being dumb.”
Meg’s mouth twitched in a ghost of a smile. “And what’s that? Send you to bed without supper? Is that what I should do?”
Sending me to bed with you would be a most pleasant punishment. Desire surged through him, and his grin tightened as he struggled to maintain a grip on his emotions. There was something about this woman that scrambled his senses and made all his tightly held control go southward.
Straight to his groin, in fact.
He wasn’t the charming type like his teammate Stephen, or a ladies’ magnet like LT before LT had married Lacey. He’d always been quieter, more drawn to animals than people, and relationships were brief because of his time downrange with the teams. When he did have leave, it was always spent with family, not partying and impressing women.
But something about Meg drew him like a lodestone. Oh yeah, she was a beauty, but it was more than that. He’d had his share of beautiful women, some of whom were vapid as an air bag. Maybe it was the wounded look in her eyes he wanted to erase, or her sheer pluck, or the fact that she refused to cower.
That “no retreat” attitude he both admired and recognized.
But she’d fled a bad marriage and a man who treated her like a punching bag. Last thing Meg needed was unwanted male attention. Coop cocked his head.
“What you should do with me is tell me what drove you in here, in this storm, ’cause you had something you wanted to tell me before I went all ape on you. What happened?”
Her gaze darted away, a sure sign she was nervous. “It was nothing.”
Suspecting he wouldn’t get much more out of her, Coop opted for a different approach. He