Asha King Read Online Free Page A

drag them, but no such luck. With a sigh, she went to the first and latched onto its halter. It tugged its head up, twisting back and forth.
    This is promising.
    She hooked the other lead onto the second horse’s halter. They both eyed her warily.
    “If you step on my feet, you’ll be in big trouble,” she warned as she gave them a tug. “Probably. Stupid Cooper will probably laugh his stupid head off but I will be sad about it and we don’t want that, do we? C’mon.” She pulled again and the horses followed, one on either side. For a moment, pride swelled as she walked them back down the hill—they were listening. Maybe she wasn’t so bad at this after—
    She didn’t get the thought out before she realized both horses were moving faster than her. A lot faster. She didn’t think she should jog on the uneven ground so she tried to speed up, quickening her pace, but their legs were longer and they had a whole lot more of them—both horses were well ahead, barreling down the hill, jerking the leads through her grasping hands and giving her rope burn. She struggled to keep up but a final tug and she lost her grip. Both horses trotted on and Dani tripped, flying, flying, the grass rising up and meeting her face as she landed hard.
    The breath was knocked out of her and given the strong odor drifting toward her, she had a feeling she’d landed near something she really didn’t want to run into. The sun beat down on her back and she groaned.
    This sucked. This sucked really, really hard .
    For a moment she lay there, panting, blinking. Her shades had fallen off and she didn’t see where they landed—probably in manure, given her luck. Muttering obscenities under her breath, she pulled herself onto her knees and elbows and squinted as she surveyed herself. Dirt scuffed up her clothes and bare skin, but thankfully she’d avoided the pile of manure about a foot away.
    Still no sign of her sunglasses.
    She puffed out a breath, blowing the loose bits of hair that had drifted into her face and sat on her knees for a moment. The horses were long gone—where, she couldn’t say, but hopefully in the direction of the gate, or else she’d be chasing them all over.
    The beat of horse hooves shook the ground, drawing nearer, and she glanced up to see the big brown draft who nearly trampled her the day before, Bud, approaching. Cooper rode bareback and she bit at her bottom lip when curses threatened to leave her mouth.
    “Yeah, yeah, I suck,” she called as he approached.
    He pulled the horse up next to her, gazing down with sunlight streaming around him. It was like something out of a romance movie and she blushed hard at the thought. Why did attractive men always have to turn out to be assholes?
    His hands were wrapped around a length of rope he was using as reins and her gaze drifted up, over the corded muscles of his arms beneath tanned skin.
    Yep. Not fair that the hot ones were jerks.
    “Are you okay?” he asked.
    She glared up at him. “Don’t even pretend you weren’t over there laughing at me or something—”
    “Jesus, I’m just checking to see if you broke something!”
    Dani clambered up onto her feet with effort, determined that he wouldn’t see her in any pain. “I’m just fine , okay? I’m super! I don’t have boots that fit and I smell like manure and I’m getting a sunburn and this hat!” She dragged off the baseball hat as her fury rose and threw the damn thing as far as she could. With the breeze against her, it ended up landing four feet away and making her look even stupider. “This hat sucks and now I have hat hair and I bet this is real funny to you, right?”
    Cooper shook his head and looked away, seeming to unclench his jaw with effort. “Look, princess, do you want a ride back or not?”
    She almost snarked in return but then remembered the unpleasant trek up there in the first place. She trudged over, picked up the hat, and clutched it tight in her hand. “Fine.”
    He