“You won it too, your pep talk before the match really helped?—”
She grimaces. “It wasn’t too much?”
My fingers hover in the gray area between her waist and her arse. “No, it was exactly enough. We needed to pull our fingers out.”
“And, boy, you did.” She grins up at me. “You did. You fucking did.”
Her voice is almost a squeal of excitement, and as she talks, her eyes bounce from mine to my lips. Up and down. I know I could kiss her right now, but I also know there’s no way I’d keep it chaste. I want to sink into her—mouth, pussy,everywhere.
She gives no indication she’s ready to move, and I am fully prepared to stay here until she does, staring at the freckles dusted across her nose. People bustle around us, ponies whinny,sports reporters and riders shout to be heard, and I manage to block it all out because of Ruby.
It’s Calamity who gets bored long before either of us does, tugging us off to where her friends are heading for a snack before either of us realizes. I hand her off to Charlie to be checked over with the other ponies, hosed down, and rested.
Billy slaps me on the shoulder, his face red with exertion. “Milo, we’re wanted for the trophy ceremony. Let’s go.”
The crowds feel much larger as we’re taken through the grounds to the podium. People shake our hands, cheer us, pass us bottles of champagne, and the whole time I hold on to Ruby like she’s my life vest. And because the weather in England is so unpredictable, the rain clouds part and sunlight breaks through so brightly it’s like it was never gone.
Holiday’s waiting at the podium, ready to present the trophy, and the first person I see when we reach it is Lando.
“Well done, Milo. Proud of you, little brother, that was an amazing match,” he says, pulling me into a hug, which is followed by Hendricks, Alex, my mother, and Max, who wants to show me his own mallet.
“It’s just like yours. Can we try it when we get home?”
I nod. “Sure can, mate. We’ll start the lessons again next week.”
“Miles, keep walking,” hisses Jack before I’m shuffled quickly onto the stage.
The four of us step onto the podium, guided by the tournament officials, and I lose Ruby in the melee.
Holiday is introduced, and the crowd falls in love with her immediately when she can’t lift the trophy from the table, and the four of us have to step in and help her. Billy and Jack grab one handle while Juan and I take the other, lifting twenty kilos of gold high into the air as champagne sprays everywhere.
The biggest win of the season so far is under our belt.
Cameras flash from all directions. Questions are shouted over each other, making it almost impossible to tell which question is which. But I manage to extract one out above all else.
“MILES? MILES? WHO’S THE GIRL?”
“WHO’S THE GIRL, MILES?”
Searching around, I see Ruby standing next to Holiday at the side of the podium and reach for her.
Pulling her into my side, I reply, “I’d like to introduce you to Ruby Burlington, my wife.”
And then I do what I’ve been wanting to since I came off the field.
I kiss her.
CHAPTER 16
Ruby
Apiercing scream wakes me.
Flinging back the covers, I sprint toward the sound—which, judging by the direction, is definitely Miles’s room—and when I burst through the door, I find him standing in the middle of his bedroom.
No one’s been murdered.
There’s no intruder.
