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“They might weaken you? I don’t think so. You’re stronger than that. Sausage and eggs?”
Dante curbed a smile. “Only you,” he observed dryly.
“Only me, what?” she pressed.
“Only you could segue from psychology to sausages in a single breath.” He made her a mock bow. “You have my everlasting admiration, Senorita Delaney.”
“And you’ll have a fried egg on your head if you don’t stop mocking me.”
~~o0o~~
Rose said the most outrageous things and still made him smile. He had to stop this. She deserved more. She could work for him. They could fuck themselves stupid, but that was as far as this could go. The past wouldn’t allow him to take things any further, though as far as Rose accompanying him to Argentina was concerned, he needed her there for his ponies and had in no way given up.
“I need you on the estancia.”
“And the team needs me on Isla Celeste.”
“The team’s horses are on my estancia. They travel around the world in the course of their polo duties, and my ranch is where they rest up. They’re there now, so that’s where you should be.”
“You know where my heart lies. You’re completely ruthless.”
“That, I am,” he conceded. He had to be. He couldn’t keep everyone safe on a diet of indecision.
“And shameless,” she added.
“And you are the most infuriating woman I ever met.”
“Good to hear.”
He could buy anything in the world, but Rose wasn’t for sale. He couldn’t have her simply because he wanted her. He couldn’t force her to go to Argentina with him. She added too much value to the team for him to fire her for defying him. His only option was to give her a reason she couldn’t refuse. “I have horses that really need your special touch.”
“Well, that’s a relief,” she exclaimed, her brogue exaggerated as she dealt him a healthy dose of sarcasm. “For a moment there, I thought you might need me.”
“I have a lot of land in Argentina, and I’m using some of it to open a refuge for retired or injured horses. I thought you might be interested in helping me to set it up.”
“Low blow, Dante. You knew I’d be interested.”
He shrugged. He loved impassioned, temperamental Rose. Life would be dull without her.
~~o0o~~
She’d been bamboozled. Dante had held up her dream and shaken it in front of her face. How could she say no? And he knew that, the virgin-eating pestilence that he was. “But what about all the horses I’m working with on Isla Celeste?” she said, putting up one last argument, and a good one, she thought. “I can’t just desert them. What about Lucifer? I won’t leave him half-trained.”
“He’s waiting for you in Argentina.”
Her jaw dropped. “And Stargazer?”
“He’s nonnegotiable, I presume?”
“You presume right,” she agreed. “You just bought him from my father. He needs continuity.”
“He’ll get first-class treatment on the transporter and onwards to my ranch.”
Rose could only imagine such a place. She’d seen photographs where Dante had posed, rugged and hard and unsmiling for one of his many adoring sponsors, and she’d read every detail she could about his ranch, which was said to be the size of a small country, but not once had she ever thought she’d get the chance to visit.
“You have a special gift, Rose.” Dante was moving in for the kill. She knew this, because flattery didn’t come naturally to him. “You shouldn’t waste it,” he added. “An opportunity like this comes along once in a lifetime. It’s an exciting new project for me—for you too, if you’re interested. You’d be a real help to me. Horses respond to you. People too—”
Just not Dante, Rose reflected. At least, not in the way she wanted him to. Life’s ironies never failed to amaze her. He respected her work, and he respected her ability to keep up with the boys, but beyond that…
