The Front Runner (Gold Rush Ranch, #3)

by Elsie Silver

Dr. Mira Thorne. My favorite equine veterinarian in the area for more than one reason. The woman is beautiful. But more than that, she’s smart. Cunning. Thinks quickly on her feet. She’s impressive in so many ways. She’s a challenge. And I love a challenge.

“I… had no idea.” And Patrick Cassel is a dead man walking.

“The worst part is I actually believe you. I don’t think you’re the devil everyone makes you out to be, Stefan. Here’s your chance to prove it. Find a new jockey, and I’ll continue working for you.”

And despite what Billie Black—who clearly hates me—likes to run around telling everyone, I am not a dick. Well, at least not to my horses.

Now, we’ve got this beautiful red colt, with flashy white legs and a wide blaze over his face, who doesn’t have a mom. What’s worse is he’s our first—and only—foal sired by the farm’s celebrity stallion and two-time Denman Derby winner, DD.

From what I understand, she’s produced several nice foals for the farm and is the great-granddaughter of the first-ever racehorse at Gold Rush Ranch, Lucky Penny.

The two grandsons of the couple who founded this place are running it with their partners and making international headlines. Still breeding racehorses off that very first bloodline.

But I don’t concern myself with their opinions. Instead, I think of my mother, who, after years of protecting me, got taken out by the asshole she married. The one who got off on knocking her around. I think of her, hooked up to tubes and wires after that plane crash, telling me she never should have left Ruby Creek. A place I’d never heard of. Telling me she should have stuck around and trained racehorses. A part of her life I’ve never known. Then she dropped a life-altering bomb on me. And then she died. He died, too, but he took my mom with him.

Her friends call me Dalca the Dick, but right now is the first time I’ve actually felt like one.

“What can I help you with?” He looks like some sort of farmer porn leaning on that pitchfork.

“Whatever you say,” he replies smoothly. “I just can’t fall in love with you, right?” I chuckle as I twist the doorknob to leave. “Oh, Stefan. I think you already are.”

“Sorry about Nadia. Taking in my little sister is not the cake walk I thought it would be.” I sigh in relief. Sister. Hallelujah.

My closest friend, Griffin—who I bought this place from—is my go-to source for horse information.

“What’s the accent?” she asks without opening her eyes. “Romanian.” I keep my eyes wide open. Truthfully, I can’t peel them off her. “You’re Romanian?” “I was raised there.” “You just look so . . . I don’t know. Not Romanian?” Yeah. I’m not sure how it took me so long to figure that out either.

“He needs a name. It’s important he has a name.” “Why?” Her voice is quizzical as she steps in and holds the stethoscope over the nameless colt’s ribs. “Because he’s going to make it. A name ties him to this world. It gives him an identity. Means we recognize his existence.”

I thought I’d be worried about leaving the foal there with him, but I’m not at all. He slept beside it, for crying out loud.

She pulls away, laughing. “Love you, my Ice Queen.” I can’t help but roll my eyes at her nicknames. Pornstar Patty for Violet, Bossman for Vaughn, Big Bro for Cole… Dalca the Dick for Stefan.

“Trust me, Dr. Thorne, if I had you up against a wall, you’d be the meal.”

Nadia’s upbringing isn’t so different. She failed her senior year here, so she’s back for a second try. And terrorizing all the teachers and administrators in the process. No one in this small town is equipped for her.

There may be thirteen years between Nadia and me, I may not know her that well, but she’s all the family I’ve got left, and I love her with every bit of my soul.

I still catch Stefan staring at me over the candle lit in the middle of the table. The flame highlights the blend of colors in his irises—the greens, the golds. His eyes are beautiful, and throughout the meal, I remind myself not to get lost in them. In him.

“Well, in that case, Stefan . . .” He quirks his head, one dimple popping up on his cheek as it hitches, hanging on my words in a way that not many people do. “Thank you for the truly outstanding meal. I had a delightful night.” “Yeah. I actually like this one,” Nadia says absently,

He takes a hold of my wrist and presses a swift, feather-light kiss to the center of my palm. Something that feels intensely personal.

Nice Stefan threw me for a loop, but Doting Stefan, who cooks and cleans and loves his little sister, is straight crushing my ovaries.

“How is Loki today?” I snort. I got a kick out of the nameplate when I saw it. My fingers itched to fire him off a text message about how he named a horse after himself.

Nadia’s full lips stretch out over her face, and she looks genuinely excited. “I’m Mira’s new assistant at the clinic!”

There’s an academic side to Mira. She’s a bit nerdy. But in the best possible way. There’s something about a woman who wields her brain like a weapon and her tongue like a whip that makes me want to worship at her feet.

“I’ll be better company than a dildo. I promise.” She shakes her head again and swipes her kit off the ground. “Doubtful,” is her reply as she walks away. I can’t help but appreciate the way her cargo pants hug the round globes of her ass. The things I’d do to that ass. “Bet I can make you come harder too.” She laughs, a girlish laugh. Not her usual throaty husk. “I’d like to see you try.” Challenge accepted.

“If Cole and Vaughn’s grandfather, Dermot, hadn’t waltzed in here on a wild goose chase after a girl, I’d have never met him. I’d have never started working for him and Ada. I’d have never been out East to meet Billie. And I’d have never met Trixie at Cole’s wedding in Chestnut Springs.” Hank takes a swig of his beer. “Sometimes unexpected surprises change the course of our life in the most irrevocable of ways. In the best ways. Life is one big adventure, Mira, don’t let it pass you by while you’re stuck on a boring old path.”

“Good. Because I want to make myself abundantly clear.” We’re so close. I can feel the entire length of his body covering mine. He teases me with the lightest brush of his lips against my ear as he drops his voice and holds me captive. “You are not the pawn, Mira. You are the prize.”

“No one is going to believe the little country bumpkin with the worst case of resting bitch fa—” That’s not happening. My hand snakes out, fingers clamping around the back of his neck, hard enough I hope it hurts. “That’s Doctor Thorne. And it’s time for you to leave. Now.”

“No shortage of chemistry between you two. I bet the sex is sensational.” Here comes the free spirit, Kama Sutra side of my mother.

“Challenge accepted. But I’m not going to fuck you until you’re begging for it.”

“You are. You embody it. With you here charming everyone and then burning the place down to defend me… I feel like I could have it all. The career, the family—I could have someone like you. But that’s not real. This isn’t real. I can’t have that.”

This woman is about to be my undoing.

I never want to forget this kiss. The feel, the smell, the sound of rain pattering while Mira whimpers into my mouth. It’s one for the record books. But then her hand slides down my back and disappears under my shirt. The tips of her fingertips trace the top of my boxers, sneaking just beneath the elastic. This isn’t one for the record books. This is the record book.

“She told me she was already pregnant with me when she met him.” “Oh, shit.” He smiles ruefully. “Oh, shit is right. He needed a pretty, young wife for appearance’s sake, and she needed someone to take care of her. Pregnant out of wedlock, uneducated, and from a small town on the other side of the world. She did what she needed to do, I suppose. But it backfired when he found out I wasn’t really his.”

“Just before she died, she told me my biological father used to be the bartender in Ruby Creek.”

It’s all I can focus on for a moment. Stefan’s eyes are green. Vibrant green. Like emeralds, and bright spring grass, and like… Hank’s.

I don’t want to tame her; I just want a front-row seat to watch her win the race.

“Absolutely nothing about the way I feel for you is a joke. And I’ll keep telling you that until you believe me.”

Nothing about this feels fake. Our bodies. Our minds. Our hearts. Absolutely everything about being with Mira feels like one of the most real things I’ve ever had in my life. And I won’t let her slip between my fingers now. I’m going to make her come on them instead. I pull away to nip at the lobe of her ear, and she whimpers in protest. “Do you remember what I said I was going to do to you if I had you up against a wall, Dr. Thorne?” “What?” Her voice is pure lust, almost slurred. “I told you that you’d be the meal.”

“Quiet, Kitten,” he murmurs, dropping to one knee. “I don’t want to be interrupted.”

“I’ve told you before . . . I’m not the villain you think I am.” “Or maybe you’re exactly who I think you are, and I like it.” His eyes sparkle, and his grin turns wolfish as we hit the bottom landing and push out into the cool night air. “Maybe.”

“Mira.” Stefan’s hushed voice is gravelly as his lips move against my hair. “If you don’t watch that hand, I’m going to pull you onto my lap and fuck you right here in this car.”

“Beautiful,” she murmurs. “Very,” I say back. Except, I’m not looking at the sky anymore.

“I don’t really care what you call me while I do it, sweetheart. So long as you spread those legs and let me worship between them.”

“Stefan, so help me. If you don’t shut up and get naked with me right here and now, I’m going to lose it.” A sly smile takes over my face. “Are you hungry, Kitten? I like it when your claws come out.”

“How do I feel, Mira?” My hand trails over her chest reverently as I push up above her. “Tell me.” I expect her to need some time to think about that. I expect her to balk. But her lust-drenched voice takes my breath away when she says, “You feel like this is how it’s supposed to be.”

“You have beautiful hands. Almost as beautiful as your mind and heart. Sometimes I find myself staring at them while you work, so elegant and strong all at once. Hands that heal. Hands that save lives.” His voice drops. “Hands that belong in mine.”