Shewas different.
And he was likely an idiot for thinking it.
“… I know that you’ve had genuine business here at the stable and it’s not her that draws you like a moth to a flame. The gossips are simply imagining things because we’ve suddenly got a pretty and feisty young woman here and you’re a single fellow who happens to enjoy her company occasionally. There’s no harm in that and people shouldn’t try to speculate as to your intentions. Let one of them dare say to me that when you think nobody is watching, you gaze at her like the first sunrise after a long, cold winter, and I’ll give them slanderous scandalmongers both barrels.”
“I cannot tell you what a comfort it is that you’ve got my back, Bill.” He had to choke out that insincerity because they both knew the wretch had painted a target on it and wanted to be the first one of those scandalmongers to fire the bull’s-eye.
Guy grabbed a pair of horse blankets and strode out again, determined to take control of the conversation before he gave in to the urge to strangle the observant bastard. Except the second he stepped back into the stable yard he almost walked smack-bang into Miss Travers.
Just like the ray of sunshine she had claimed to be, she beamed and the world was a better place. “Good morning.”
“Good morning.” He tried not to sound as stiff and awkward as he felt with Bill watching while the lust caused an unwelcome twitch in his breeches.
“It’s always a good morning when it starts with you in it.” Bill, of course, didn’t feel the slightest bit awkward and flirted with her as usual.No doubt to rile Guy some more. “And might I add that while you are always a sight for sore eyes, you are looking particularly lovely this morning, Lottie?”
“You might.” Miss Travers gave the rascal a flirty smile back, clearly pleased at the compliment enough to do a little twirl while she patted one of her loose blond curls.
“What’s different?” The groom swept the length of her with an appreciative gaze. “A new dress? A new bonnet perhaps?”
“Just eight solid hours of glorious, uninterrupted beauty sleep.”
“That’s what his lordship needs—but alas, sleep eluded him last night.” How Bill knew that was a mystery. “Apparently, you lit a flame within him last night at dinner,” he added, grinning like an idiot, “and it’s been burning ever since.”
“I did?” Miss Travers’s bemused gaze darted from Bill’s back to Guy’s as guilty heat rose beneath his collar. There was no way his groom could truly know how the vixen had haunted his dreams. A snippet of the most vivid instantly sprang to mind to aggravate the twitch in his breeches further. It involved long legs, bare skin, thrusting, raspberry-tipped breasts, and Miss Travers’s lithe, tight body pulsing around his as she rode him with the same reckless abandon as she had that stallion in Hyde Park. “How?”
In case Bill could actually read his filthy mind, Guy tossed the blankets at him, hitting the devil’s grinning face before he steered her away. “I couldn’t stop thinking about what you said about Hercules, and how both of his parents influence his behavior but how his mother, especially, always manages to calm him down. That got me thinking—”
“He’s lain awake all night because of you,” said an unrepentant Bill from right behind. “Tossing and turning. Just look at the shadows under his eyes.”
“I actually slept like the dead too…” Guy was going to torture bloody Bill before he wrung his neck! With a red-hot poker as he pulled each of his fingernails out with pliers! “But as the sun came up it suddenly occurred to me that perhaps we are trying to train Hercules all wrongand that maybe we could literallyropein his parents to help break him.” Nerves had him chuckling lamely at his pathetic pun as he tried to be less of the storm cloud, and when Miss Travers paused by one of the stalls to idly pet a horse, he shot Bill warning daggers. The sort that he hoped said he would dismiss the devil on the spot if he continued. “I thought I’d try to train Hercules alongside his parents as an experiment.”
She pondered that for a second, then nodded. “It’s definitely worth a try. Hercules is a lot like his father in his character, but Juno has as much of a calming effect on Zeus as she does on their son.”
“The right woman can tame even the most savage beast—and they enjoy being tamed,” said Bill, staring straight at him with suggestively wiggling brows. Before Miss Travers noticed, Guy sandwiched himself between her and his head groom as they filtered out of the stable door, then made sure to slam it shut on the nuisance.
“I was thinking that to begin with, to ease Hercules’s fear of the saddle, it might be a good idea to take him out without one—alongside Juno and Zeus—so that he can see for himself that being ridden isn’t such a bad thing. He’ll watch them both be saddled, then watch us mount them and—”
“Us?” She stopped dead as Bill reappeared. “As in you andme?Youare going to entrustmewith riding one of your prized Arabians?” Guy had never witnessed a smile quite like the one that bloomed on her face and had certainly never experienced the ripple of delight which shot through him as a result.
“Well… I… um… had planned to do it with Bill this first time.” The dazzling smile dimmed, and he couldn’t stand it. Not when he held the power to bring it back. “But as he’s a good-for-nothing shirker, there is plenty he could be doing instead that’s been left undone, so if you do not mind accompanying me in his stead…”
“Mind?” The dazzling smile returned and she was suddenly a fizzing ball of excitement. She clutched at his sleeve, her lovely eyes shimmering. “I wouldlovenothing more than to finally ride an Arabian!”
“And I am sure his lordship would love nothing more than an invigorating morning ride with you, Lottie.” Bill was so delighted by all the fresh ammunition that had just been gifted him, it was a wonder he didn’t dance a jig on the spot. They both knew Guy was going to pay for his rash, spur-of-the-moment invitation later. “I’ll go fetch the horses.”
“No need.” Miss Travers bent over for a handful of bridles and dashed toward the pasture, laughing. “The quicker those Arabians are saddled, the less time their overprotective owner has to change his mind about letting me ride one!”
They watched her skip off—or rather Guy watched her skip off and Bill watched him watching with another smug grin. “I should probably leave the pair of you to your own devices then.” Bill tugged his forelock with a wink then walked away, chuckling.
Fewer than ten minutes later, after agreeing on a flat, mile-long loop for this first experiment, they were leaving the paddock. Her on Juno, him on Zeus, and Hercules sandwiched between. Typically, the only horse behaving in this new situation was the one Miss Travers sat on.
“Hercules has never ventured this far from the pasture before.” As the house disappeared but the horses’ behavior did not improve, Guy felt compelled to defend both of his erratic animals. “And Zeus is… Zeus. Crochety and impatient and set in his ways.”
“Much like his master, then.” She chuckled at her own joke, never missing an opportunity to tease him. “Although to give you some credit, Bill did tell me that he was fully grown when you acquired him and much worse until you trained some of the temper out of him.”
“He was an absolute nightmare, that is true. Unpredictable, uncontrollable, and dangerous. Nowadays he’s just temperamental, which frankly, is a miracle.”
“I suppose I shall have to say well done, although, as I am sure you can imagine, giving you a compliment galls.”
