EXTRACT FOR
Jeremy's Girl
(Kelly Dawson)

"Shit! Get off me, you heffalump!" Anna grumbled as the big, bay gelding she was brushing shifted his feet and planted his heavy hoof directly on top of her booted foot. "Get off!" she ordered again, shoving the horse with her shoulder until he stepped sideways, freeing her trapped foot. "Damn boy, you weigh a ton," she muttered, lifting her foot off the ground gingerly, wriggling her toes inside her boots to check that they all still worked. "Now that I'm back for good I'm going to have to get me some steel capped boots." 



Crack! She jumped a mile in the air as a riding crop connected with her butt. Clutching the seat of her jeans with both hands she spun around to face the culprit, and found herself staring into the eyes of none other than Jeremy McCrae. 



"Language!" he admonished, a stupid grin on his face. In his right hand was the offending riding crop, and balanced on his left arm was a saddle, blanket and bridle.



"Jeremy!" Anna shrieked, flinging her arms around his neck, laughing as Jeremy hugged her back awkwardly around the gear he was carrying. "I can't believe you're still here! It's so good to see you!"



She took a step back. Jeremy was just as ruggedly handsome as she remembered. Maybe even more so, if that were possible. He stood just over six feet tall, with broad, powerful shoulders, smouldering dark eyes, and black hair curling at the nape of his neck where it poked out under his hat. He'd always been good-looking, and he'd only improved with age. In the four years she'd been away at university in Wellington, all the way down at the bottom of the North Island of New Zealand, he'd gotten taller, filled out more, somehow gotten even more muscular, and grown a goatee on his chiselled jaw. She didn't remember him ever being quite so sexy.