He stayed silent, his fingers curling, motioning for my mobile.
“Fine.” I dropped into his hand. If I continued to look at it, soon I’d be on the ground in a ball.
“Come on.” He shoved the cell in his jeans and started walking, moving around the car to the building.
“After all you said, you’re still going to kill me?”
“Even more now.” He winked back at me, continuing his journey around the first building. Following him, I rounded the structure and came to a halt, my mouth falling open.
“Oh my…” The rest of the sentence got absorbed by the snort of a horse trotting by.
Before me, the crest stamped everywhere was of the royal horse stables. There were huge barns, clean and up to date with all the latest equipment. Trainers, keepers, and animals moved around the huge outdoor space.
“Lennox!” A woman stepped out of a barn wearing khaki breeches, riding boots, and a long white shirt with a black vest. She waved at him, a smile engulfing her face with genuine joy. “So glad you’re back.” She looked to be in her early thirties, petite, and stunning. Not a drop of makeup, her long brown hair swung from her ponytail, showcasing creamy skin, blue eyes, and a cute button nose. I felt a jab of jealousy, an aversion to a woman I had never met, which was not like me. I normally wasn’t a jealous person or immediately disliked a pretty woman.
“Katy.” He grinned at her, his gaze on her as they moved to each other. Irritation zinged down my spine as she went up on her toes, wrapping her arms around him in a hug. He hugged her with a smile I had never seen before. My attention dropped to my boots, kicking at the gravel.
“Hoping you’d have a few horses that I could borrow for a ride.”
“For you?” She winked at him. “Always.”
Grrr. Okay, we get it. You want to get into his pants.
I took a breath, chiding myself. She seemed really sweet, and there was no reason they shouldn’t flirt or hook up. Both were consenting adults. Voices argued back and forth in my head.
“Oh, you brought someone.” You could see a slight tightening to her voice, giving away her feelings for him.
I lifted my head, rolling my shoulders back when Lennox peered back at me.
Yeah, you forget me?
“Ohhh. Oh, my goodness.” Katy’s hand went to her mouth, then she was moving to me. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t recognize you at first. Duh!” She laughed, knocking her head, her tension evaporating with her identification of me.
No longer a threat.
“Spencer, right?” She reached out to shake my hand, her hand coarse from work and firm in mine. “It’s an honor having you here.”
“Thank you.” I didn’t mean for the two words to sound so clipped.
“I’m gonna take her out on a ride.” Lennox motioned me to follow him.
“Oh, great.” Katy clapped her hands together. “You’ve ridden before?”
“Yes.” Okay, again, a bitch had taken over my vocal cords.
“Okay, great,” Katy replied, following Lennox into stables. The smell of hay, manure, horse, and leather oil drifted up my nose, easing my muscles like a soothing balm—calming.
Home.
The first horse in the stables stuck its head over the gate, neighing at me for attention. Running my hands over its nose, a smile of pure happiness curved my mouth.
“I will set you up on this horse.” Katy gestured to another one. “He’s so good natured. He will be a nice ride.”
“I want this one.” I stroked the horse’s head.
“Oh. Penny Dreadful is… temperamental. She still needs to be trained a lot more. I don’t think she’s the best horse for you.”
Penny Dreadful.
“She’s perfect.”
Katy looked to Lennox, her eyes begging for him to intercede.
Lennox glanced over at me, and I tilted my head, raising an eyebrow. “She’s. Perfect.”
He chuckled, shrugging at Katy. “She’s got this.”
Katy was not convinced, probably thinking I was some amateur who rode a few times and claimed she was a rider. I started breaking in horses at six with my father, always liking the spunky ones.
After saddling them up, Lennox and I walked the horses out, mounting the beautiful creatures.
“You have my number if anything happens.” Katy touched Lennox’s leg.
“Fuck’s sake,” I muttered under my breath.
Lennox’s head jerked, an eyebrow hitching up, letting me know he had heard me.
“We’ll be fine. Thanks, Katy.” I swore his voice purposely went down a few octaves. A deep flush went over her creamy skin, desire flaring in her eyes.
I clucked my cheek, my heels tapping for Penny to go, tired of waiting for them to say their farewells to each other.
Lennox soon caught up with me.
“So you and Katy, huh?”
“Me and Katy, what?”
I glared over at him; he knew perfectly well what I meant.
“Where does Hazel fit in?”
“Where she wants.”
Jab.
“Poor Lennox, so many women trying to sleep with you.” I could feel the awkwardness circling me like a buzzard, but my mouth wouldn’t stop. “Have you and Hazel…?”
“What do you want to know?” He arched an eyebrow. “Just ask if you want to know something.”
“None of my business. I just saw the two of you the other night. You looked very cozy.”
For a moment, the only the sounds were the horse hooves and the creaking of the leather saddles echoing in the air, the fresh rain making everything clean and crisp. Penny’s head tossed back, fighting the bit. My palms circled the fur on her neck, soothing her.
“You’re awfully concerned about who I am fucking.”
“I am not. I assure you.”
“Uh-huh,” he replied, staring off, the trail taking us up to a spot overlooking the city in the distance.
“You are really full of yourself.”
“Never said I wasn’t.” He smirked at me.
“You certainly have never been a guard for the royals before.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Your vocabulary and bluntness.” I sounded far too snotty and uptight. Very unlike me; normally, I was the one pushing at convention.
“What do you mean by that?”
“Let’s just say the word fucking is not in the royal decree. You would never hear Dalton utter that word.”
“That you know of.”
I shrugged. True, he could say it behind closed doors, but it would still shock me, he was so formal.
“And what do you have against fucking anyway?” His tone was taunting, sliding over my body like fingers, skating between my thighs.
I huffed, wagging my head, trying to dispel my reaction to him. Why did I care if he was hooking up with Hazel or Katy? He could sleep with thousands of women. Not my concern.
“You know how to ride.” I nodded to him, switching to a safe topic. He was a natural on the horse.
“Grew up on a farm.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. Why does that surprise you?”
“I don’t know. You just seem so… city boy to me.”
“Can’t say the it was the life I wanted. Couldn’t wait to get out… but… now I’m starting to see the appeal of the quiet.” He looked out again, his head wagging, lost in thought. “Can’t ever take the country out of the boy, I guess.” I could sense a pinch of sadness to his sentiment, making me feel there was so much I didn’t know about Lennox.