AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Of course...I’ve lived my life without my parents. I have no brothers or sisters, although I have my cousins and we have been on good terms. But to have a child of my own, to share that bond with someone I love...it’s a dream of mine.”
He handed her all four carrots and she walked the stalls, allowing Sugar to nibble at hers first.
“I would think being king would be your dream.”
“It’s my duty and a role I’m proud to uphold. But a man can have more than one dream, can’t he?”
His eyes darkened, his gaze boring into her like a nail being hammered into the wall. He was too close, his expression telling her too much. She couldn’t look at him and not see his life all planned out...with her beside him. Were the limited lighting and her silly imagination playing tricks on her?
She turned away from him, taking interest in the horses again. “I suppose.” Three beggars were vying for her attention, shuffling their feet, bobbing their heads back and forth. She walked over to Julio next. “Here you go, boy.”
Juan Carlos shadowed her to the next two stalls and watched her feed the other Arabians. “Do I make you nervous, Princess?”
Her eyes crinkled as she squeezed them closed. Why did he have to ask her that? She took a breath to steady her nerves and pivoted around. Her back to the stall door, the lie was ready to fall from her lips. Her one eye fluttered, like a wink, but certainly not a wink. Oh, boy. She wanted to sink into a black hole. “Y-yes.” Damn her honesty. So much for pretending disinterest in him.
Juan Carlos gave her an approving smile as if he’d expected her answer. As if he was pleased with her honesty. “I promised not to pursue you, Portia. But I didn’t say I would back off if you came to me. If you decided you wanted me, craved my body as I do yours, I would claim you in an instant and not feel I’d betrayed my vow to you.”
He took her hand then, and led her out of the stable. “Come, it’s time for bed.”
Five
Sugar kept an even pace with Julio as they ambled farther out onto the property. The horse was gentle, took commands well and her sure-footed gait put Portia at ease. She gazed at the cloudless blue sky above. The warmth of the rising sun removed the bite of coolness in the morning air and made the ride pleasant.
Juan Carlos’s felt hat shaded his eyes. Portia had put her hat on, too, one that Juan Carlos, who planned for everything, had given her to wear.
“How are you doing?” Juan Carlos asked after five minutes of silence.
“I have no complaints, Your Highness.”
He paused. Gosh, why did she goad him? Oh, yeah, to put distance between them. “We’ve been riding a while now. Is your rear end sore?”
She chuckled. “A little, but I’ll survive.”
“You just let me know when you want to take a break.”
Things had been a little weird between them since last night. Juan Carlos had put a bug in her ear. He’d given her an out. Up until then, her idea to keep their relationship strictly platonic had rested solely on Juan Carlos’s shoulders. She’d made him promise to keep his distance. But now he’d tossed the ball into her court. And it had gotten her thinking. But it wasn’t a good thing for a woman desperately attracted to a man who was all wrong for her to be given those options.
If you decided you wanted me, craved my body as I do yours...
Those hot words had thrown her. She’d thought of them, of him, all through the night. What would it be like to have Juan Carlos make love to her? What if, here, in this remote, private place, she gave in to temptation and spent the night touching him and being touched. Kissing his perfect mouth, running her cheek along that sexy stubble and nibbling on his throat? What would it be like to have him inside her, the steely velvet of his erection impaling her body?
She squirmed in the saddle, suddenly uncomfortable. Mentally, she forbade Juan Carlos to look over, to see her struggling with thoughts he’d planted inside her head. Don’t look at me. Don’t see the expression on my face. Don’t see me...wanting you.
“Portia?”
Darn it. “I’m fine.” She stared straight ahead. “Everything’s good and dandy.”
She sensed him studying her as they rode the length of five football fields until they came upon a graveyard surrounded by a run-down picket fence. The square of ground was full of weeds, unkempt. The neglect was almost sacrilegious. It was out in the middle of nowhere, a place long forgotten.
