‘I’m sorry we brought your cousins to Triscari,’ he blurted.
‘I wanted to be a princess for a day,’ she said ruefully. ‘I wanted to look like I had the fairy tale. Just for that moment. Just for once. Because I do still care, just a little. That’s pretty stupid, right?’
‘No, I think it’s pretty normal.’ He totally understood that she’d want to prove herself to them. ‘I always wanted not to be a prince for a day, so I get it.’
‘Does it ever happen? Do you ever get to have a day off?’
‘I have one now.’
She was quiet for a while, but he felt her stiffness slowly return.
‘When this ends, I want everyone to think I walked away from you. I don’t want to be the victim all over again. I’d rather be seen as the evil cow who broke your heart. That it was me who chose. That I had the power.’ Slight laughter shook her slim body. ‘Can your ego handle that battering?’
‘Absolutely.’ But he felt choked. He didn’t want to think about this ending yet. He didn’t want to consider the moment when she’d walk out and not look back. But at the same time he wanted her to feel the power that she sought. He wanted her to know she actually had it already. She was strong and beautiful.
‘They’ll never believe it, of course,’ she groaned. ‘But I can pretend.’
‘They’ll believe it,’ he said. ‘It wouldn’t surprise them to hear I’ve been a jerk.’
She shook her head. ‘You weren’t that bad. You just needed to find some fun, right? A blow-out now and then. Especially given you never get a day off.’
He didn’t regret his past actions, but he didn’t feel any desire to replicate them. The thought of being with anyone else now was abhorrent. Irritation needled his flesh. He didn’t understand how everything had changed in such a short amount of time. He urged Jupiter to move faster, taking the excuse to hold her more tightly. Her breathing quickened, but her body moved with his. In the forest it was quiet and felt even more intimate. Through the trees he spied the blue sea and felt that familiar exhilaration and peace. ‘The view is amazing, isn’t it?’ he said.
‘Yes.’
‘And then there’s this.’ His very favourite place in the world.
‘Is that steam?’ Hester asked. ‘Is it a thermal pool?’
‘Yeah.’ He smiled; smart cookie. He guided Jupiter carefully around the large rocks and to the left of the small steaming pond.
‘Can we swim in it?’
‘Yes. No one else comes here. It’s completely private.’ It was his.
‘And those rocks—they’re amazing.’
‘Yeah—there’s volcanic glass—obsidian—in them. Sometimes I find pieces broken off.’
‘It’s the colour of your eyes,’ she murmured. ‘This is your wait-and-see moment.’ She was very still against him and her voice was the thinnest whisper. ‘It’s like some ancient fairyland. It’s just incredible, Alek. It’s like…a fantasy. There’s nothing more, is there? Because what with the palace and the castle and the homestead and now this?’
‘This is the best place in the world, Hester.’ His chest warmed as she softly babbled on, for once not holding back on expressing anything. And he was happy to confess his own secret love for it. ‘I think so, anyway.’
‘But am I going to have to get off this horse now?’ Her voice had gone even smaller.
He chuckled, tightening his arm across her waist. ‘It wasn’t so unbearable, was it?’
It had been completely unbearable. The raw sexuality Hester felt emanating behind her was making her steamier than the gorgeous-looking thermal pool. She hadn’t been able to resist pressing back, indulging in his heat and strength, the security in his hold and the danger in the press of his thighs as he’d guided the horse to a faster pace. The wind had whipped her hair and stolen her breath before it could reach her lungs, exhilarating and liberating. She’d become appallingly aroused and he’d brought her here—to paradise. She never wanted to return to reality.
‘Stay there a sec.’ He swung and leapt off the horse, landing so easily all the way down there on the ground.
He turned back to face her and held his arms out to help her down. She literally slithered off the saddle and into his embrace—somehow ended up pressed against his chest. His hands ran down her back, pushing her closer against him, and she shut her eyes tightly, savouring the moment before he pulled fractionally away.
‘Hester.’
She didn’t answer, didn’t move, didn’t open her eyes.
‘Look at me,’ he said softly.
Neither her fight nor flight instincts were working. She’d frozen with the worst emotion of all—longing.
‘Hester.’
She opened her eyes, lifting her chin to gaze at him, pinioned by a riot of yearning. She’d thought—so naively—that once that curiosity had been quenched, it would end. That it had mostly been only curiosity driving her to let him in. Instead, she’d discovered the utter delight of him and she wanted more. There were myriad things she secretly desired to do with him now. To do to him. She’d not thought she’d ever want to share any part of herself, ever. But with him?
‘You know you can practise your riding skills on me any time,’ he said huskily.
Oh, he was just pure temptation.
‘What, as if you’re some stallion who needs breaking in?’ she muttered, but couldn’t hide her breathlessness.
His eyebrows lifted and his eyes widened. ‘Maybe. While you’re the skittish filly who needs a gentle touch to bring her round.’
‘Maybe I don’t need that gentle of a touch.’
His smile
