Read Online For Love's Sake Only by Lena Matthews - Free Book Online

amused look, Ty walked back to the breakfast table and picked up his hat. “What do you mean?”
    “No argument from you?”
    “Do you want me to argue with you?”
    Yes. No. Hell. Charlotte was more confused than when she started this conversation.
    “So you’re okay with me going home today?”
    “I’m not okay with it, Charlotte, but short of locking you in my bedroom, I can’t stop you. I don’t want you to think of the ranch as a prison. More like a haven.” Walking to him, Charlotte laid her head against his chest, loving the sound of his strong heartbeat against her ear. “You’re making it very hard to leave.” A low chuckle rose from beneath her ear. “I hope so.” Ty held her to him for a second, and Charlotte, a person who wasn’t used to leaning on another human being, let her heart open for him. She was finally beginning to understand the concept of love at first sight, even if she was too blind to recognize it at first.
    Brushing his hand against her hair, Ty broke the comfortable silence. “I have to go check on my baby.”
    52 Lena Matthews
    Startled, Charlotte pulled abruptly away from his chest. “Your what?”
    “Chiana, my mare. We had to separate her from the other horses.”
    “Is she okay?” Now that Charlotte knew she didn’t have any baby’s momma’s drama to worry about, she was filled with concern. She knew how much the Dollar meant to Ty, and anything that was important to him was fast becoming very important to her.
    “Yeah, she ...” Pausing, Ty stepped back. “Do you want to come meet her?” There was no law that said Charlotte needed to leave right now. “Of course.” With a lazy smile, Ty took her hand in his and headed outside. Charlotte would never get over the vast amounts of open space Ty called home. Even though there were stables, barns, and pastures everywhere, it still seemed as if Ty’s property went on for days.
    Bypassing the large stable, they headed to a small red building resembling a mini barn, with the Dollar Bill monarch logo on the door, prompting a question Charlotte had been meaning to ask. “So where does the Dollar Ranch get its name?” Pushing back the door, Ty led her down a small hallway to a single stall next to a tack room filled with hay. “My great-grandfather started this ranch with four quarter horses --
    three mares and a stallion.”
    “So?” Charlotte questioned, not getting the correlation.
    Unlatching the gate, Ty entered the stall with the russet mare. Looking over his shoulder at her with a devilish sparkle in his blue eyes, he answered her question. “What do four quarters equal?”
    “A dollar ... oh, duh.” Charlotte laughed. “The Dollar Ranch. I like it.”
    “I’m sure my grandfather would be pleased.” Bending down, he picked up the horse’s leg and checked it over. “Whoa, baby. I’m just here to check you out.” Leaning on the wooden gate, Charlotte watched Ty lovingly caress the mare. There was so much tenderness in his touch, and gentleness about him, that it was sometimes hard to see her passionate, dominating lover as the same man before her. “What happened?” Spurs & Mistletoe: For Love’s Sake Only
    53
    “A combination of things,” Ty said standing back up. “A hired hand not paying attention, a mare in heat, but not in the mood, and a randy stallion who wouldn’t take no for an answer.”
    “Kinda like his owner, huh?” Charlotte teased. Reaching slowly across the gate as Ty had shown her, Charlotte allowed the horse to get accustomed to her scent before delicately stroking her muzzle. “What’s wrong, honey? Not in the mood for some loving?”
    “Horses generally don’t mate in the winter,” Ty said, coming out of the stall.
    “Why not?”
    “Because they’re pregnant for about eleven months. So for racing and showing it’s best to have the mare foal early, say January or February. Hence we normally breed them between February and March.”
    Ty slid up behind Charlotte,