Bear Pause (BBW / Bear Shifter Romance): A Billionaire Oil Bearons Romance (Bear Fursuits Book 6) by Isadora Montrose Page A

up the horse apples from the training rings. After the dung had been removed they attached a harrow to the little earthmover and smoothed out the sandy soil. Steve was already circling the paddock on the little bobcat. She signaled and he drove over to meet her.
    “Finish up here and come back out,” she told him. “I’m going to show you how to exercise a horse on a lunge line.”
    Laura went to fetch Buddha. The yearling was being trained as a cow pony. She preferred to work young horses on a line rather than risk damaging their immature spines with a rider. Buddha knew what the saddle in her arms meant and stamped impatiently when she showed up. On the way to the paddock, she grabbed a long whip from the rack by the door.
    Steve had put the bobcat away and was waiting for her. He was standing at ease, bareheaded in the sunshine, stocky and assured. He was erect, alert, with his powerful hands linked behind his back, waiting for orders. Just as the men in her family stood. She forbore to smile. She didn’t know if they knew that they adopted a military bearing in all situations, but she herself found it both endearing and reassuring.
    She handed Steve the heavy lunge line. Their fingers brushed. Even through two pairs of leather gloves, she felt a jolt all the way to her heart. But she pretended she didn’t notice the juddering of that organ.
    “The most important thing is that this whip isn’t for hitting the horse,” she explained. “We use it to guide. But not to punish. It’s only for telling the horse what direction we want him to go. We never, ever yank on the line, and we absolutely never hit the horse.” She stroked Buddha’s neck. “He loves this work because it’s fun. We use praise. Treats. We don’t raise our voices, and we don’t lose our tempers.”
    Steve listened intently. He said, “Yes ma’am,” every time she gave him a new instruction. His voice was respectful but his eyes were warm on her face. He made her feel young and fluttery. And she had no doubt he knew what he was doing. Careful, girl, she warned herself. You’ve been down this road before.
    Laura glanced down to make sure her arm wasn’t actually touching Steve’s. There was a good foot between them. Nevertheless, electricity sparked between them. Her whole body was tingling. Underneath her jacket she could feel her nipples peaking. Her reaction to Holden was so tacky that she felt her face flush.
    It took a few tries before Steve got the hang of keeping the line loose while maintaining control. But Buddha was an expert at this. The horse trotted smoothly around in a circle, adjusting his weight effortlessly. As he would do when he had a rider on his back. He was enjoying this opportunity to practice and show off.
    “Wouldn’t this be easier if you had a jockey?” Steve asked.
    “He looks big and strong, doesn’t he?” Laura grinned. “But he’s really just a baby. His bones are still growing and quite soft. He has ten pounds of lead under his saddle, but I worked him up to that bit by bit. Next year we’ll put a rider up on him. Teach him his job as a cow pony. And if we don’t keep him, when he’s three he’ll go to auction as a Bascom-trained cow pony.”
    Despite her unwelcome attraction to Steve, Laura tried to keep focused on the exercises. Like the horse, Holden was a natural athlete. His big hands made light work of managing the colt. His body adapted to Buddha’s movements. It was obvious he liked the colt. And that the horse reciprocated.
    Laura could see that Holden was learning from Buddha as much as teaching him. He couldn’t be trusted with an untutored horse yet, but he would soon be able to manage those who already knew their paces. It wasn’t long before she was able to move away from the hand’s distracting presence and observe from the top railing of the fence.
    * * *
    Standing in the sunshine next to Miss Laura, smelling her lovely scent, was about as good as life got these days. Of