A Royal Mess and Her Knight To Remember

5

LATE THAT AFTERNOON, Tim rode back to the barn. He dismounted Jake, who immediately began searching his pockets with his warm, wet muzzle.

“Stop that.” Tim hoisted off Jake’s saddle. “You’ve already had your goodie today.”

The horse snorted and looked pouty, and behind them a soft laugh sounded.

Natalia stood there wearing a smile that shot straight through him, a smile that got to him when he hadn’t planned on her getting to him at all. “You make it look so easy,” she said. “Getting on and off. Riding. All of it.”

Which meant she’d been watching him. He wondered if she watched him as much as he watched her.

“My mom loved horses.” A flicker of sadness touched her eyes as she looked at Jake, though she carefully stayed back from him. “She, um…died in an avalanche twelve years ago.”

“God. I’m sorry.”

“It was a long time ago.”

“Yeah.” He stroked Jake. “Let me guess. You’d be rich if you had a penny for every time someone told you it’ll get easier, you’ll see her again someday, she’ll live on in your heart forever…right?”

She lifted her head. “You’ve lost someone, too.”

“My parents. In a car accident.”

“So you know.”

“I know,” he agreed. “I also know the only consolation that works is to say that it sucks.”

That got a laugh out of her. “Yeah. Sucks.”

He smiled at her, thinking she looked good standing there in her new casual wear. The jeans clung to her hips and thighs, the T-shirt to her breasts. The wind ruffled her hair and had put color into her cheeks. She looked different here, far more earthy than wild, and though he knew that was because her makeup had been stolen, he liked it.

Too much.

“So that’s why you put up with your sister,” she said. “You’re raising her.”

“Someone has to.”

“You love her.”

He sighed, even as he smiled. “Like I said, someone has to.”

She smiled back, then shifted when he just stared at her. “What?”

“I was just thinking you don’t look anything like the woman from the plane.”

Immediately she lifted a hand to her hair and looked regretful. “I know, I-”

“I like it.”

“Are you saying you don’t miss the leather?”

“No.” He grinned. “The leather was good. But I like seeing your face.”

“Which is why I was fond of the makeup.”

“You liked hiding.”

“I liked hiding. I didn’t realize how much, or…”

“Or?”

“Or that I wouldn’t miss the hiding at all.”

They stood there, smiling at each other stupidly, until Jake shifted his weight, moving between them, ready to get back to his stall for his feeding if there were no goodies to be had.

Eyes wide, Natalia nearly tripped over her own feet in her hurry to back up.

At her sudden movement, Jake snorted, this time stomping his front hoof for emphasis. Feed me, he said with a toss of his head.

Natalia took another step back, and this time she did trip over her own feet, and would have fallen if Tim hadn’t grabbed her.

“Hey. You okay?”

“Oh, sure.” She forced a smile. “Just fine-”

Jake’s large head swung around, and he leveled Natalia with a baleful stare. Food!

Natalia staggered back from both man and horse, until the fence was at her back. “He’s…uh, really huge, isn’t he?”

If he didn’t know better, this outwardly tough woman was trembling in her boots. “Not a horse person, I’m guessing?”

Her eyes didn’t move from Jake. “Not an animal person.”

Jake, oblivious, thrust out his neck and nosed at Natalia’s front pockets, which earned him a petrified shriek.

Tim stepped between the nose and Natalia. “You must smell good.” Fact. “Don’t worry, he won’t hurt you.”

“I’m…fine. I’m not afraid.”

Uh-huh. She was only holding her breath. Trying to soothe, he ran a hand up her arm. “Natalia? Honey, breathe.”

“Yes.” She gulped air. “Of course. Breathing.”

He smiled at her attempt to be cool and calm. “What kind of pets did you have growing up?”

“Actually, where I’m from, there are plenty of horses and cattle.” She managed to tear her gaze from Jake. “It’s me. My failing. It’s a silly little phobia.”

“Nothing to be afraid of with Jake. He’s just looking for a snack. He thinks everyone loves him. Watch.” He turned to the horse and let out a soft whinny noise.

The horse repeated it, and affectionately rubbed the side of his face on Tim’s arm. Tim looked at Natalia. “Want to try?”

Before she could say no, before she could so much as let out a shriek, Tim had slipped an arm around her waist, pulled her against his side and let out that soft whinny again.

Jake mirrored the noise and rubbed the side of his huge face against Natalia’s arm. It felt warm and damp. And terrifying. In fact, she would have screamed if she hadn’t just swallowed her tongue. She would have shrunk away, but she was plastered against Tim, and-

And she was plastered against Tim. Oh my God. Heat, confusion, more heat. A noise escaped her and it had nothing, absolutely nothing to do with fear.

“Okay?” he asked quietly, staring into her eyes, completely focused on her.

It was the oddest thing-she’d been surrounded by people all her life, and yet for the first time she really felt as if she had someone’s one-hundred-percent-undivided attention focused on her. Totally and completely on her.

It was intoxicating. He was intoxicating. “Not sure,” she whispered slowly.

His gaze slid to her mouth, which fell open, just to get air to her suddenly deflated lungs.

At that, his eyes darkened, and his arm tightened around her. “And now?” he whispered across her cheek.

Senses on full alert, she leaned toward him, unable to resist his big, solid, warm body. Standing so close like this, feeling him react to her, surround her, it felt like coming in from the rain.

“Natalia?”

In anticipation her entire body tingled. She even licked her lips and…

A sound escaped him, a near groan, and her eyes fell closed.

Here it came…a kiss…a perfect kiss…

Only it wasn’t a man’s hard, demanding lips that met hers. It was a horse’s demanding whinny in her ear, as Jake once again thrust his head between theirs.

Her eyes whipped open just as Tim let out another groan. “Nice timing, Jake.” He pushed the horse’s big head away, but Jake was persistent, and finally Tim had to laugh. “Sorry, but the big lug here thinks he’s my baby.”

Heart still pounding, Natalia pulled back. “Yeah. Baby.” The biggest baby she’d ever seen. “I…have to get back to work.”

Tim looked at her, an easy smile on his lips, as if it was the most natural thing in the world to stand so close, to have blood racing through her body, to want him with all her being… Unless he didn’t feel it.

Of course he didn’t.