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She suppressed the ripple of temptation. ‘More likely you’ll let me break my neck.’

He turned, leaning his shoulder against the gate. ‘Believe it or not, I don’t actually want to hurt you, Tilly.’

She finally glanced at him and that eternally-fuelled heat surged, scattering red-gold sparks of temptation through her system. Now, as then, he was the most beautiful human she’d ever met. But those high-impact looks were nothing on the force of his personality.

No one but me.

He’d terrified her but at the same time his vitality, his intensity, the sheer strength of his furious possessiveness had imprinted on her impressionable sixteen-year-old self. Unrequited yearning unlocked. She’d decided she hated him. He was rude. Unwelcoming. Honestly, a bully, and everything he’d done since that first moment cemented the fact. She’d ignored the butterflies flipping in her belly every time she heard his name. The colossal wave of craving every time she saw him. The ache every time he sent her a sharp, disapproving look. She’d never returned to the stables.

‘I was a prick to you that day.’

He’d been so much more than that. He’d been a ruthless young man whose power had nothing to do with the crown on his head.

‘You remember it?’ She tried to remain steady.

‘Of course, it was the first time we met.’ He cleared his throat. ‘I didn’t know you didn’t ride. I thought you were going to leap onto him bareback and ride off into the sunset. He’s my horse. I wasn’t going to let you take him from me.’

Why hadn’t he admitted that sooner? Because it had taken so long for her to see that spoilt Alex maybe wasn’t spoilt. He’d had other things taken from him. He’d gone to live on an island people were once banished to. Away from his father.

‘I was never going to do that,’ she said fiercely. ‘I just wanted a place to hide. A place to feel safe. I hadn’t ever had that and then you stalked in and yelled at me.’

‘I didn’t yell.’

No. He’d loomed above her and with mere whispered words marked her soul for life. Branding her with a secret desire for someone to be as possessive about her as he was his damned horse. To be so protected and cherished. Indeed she was pathetic.

‘You definitely didn’t want to welcome me.’

‘You gave as good as you got at the time.’ He glared at her with a flash of the old disapproval. ‘But you weren’t the polished princess then.’

‘You’re even more of an arrogant jerk now than you were then.’

Challenge rippled between them.

He jerked his chin up. ‘You snarled at me. It was before you came over all princess pathetic. Before you smothered your spark.’

‘You think I smothered my spark?’ Was that what he thought had happened?

‘Snuffed it with a boring-as-beige filter.’

She rose on tiptoe and whispered in his face. ‘And why do you think that was?’

‘Because of me.’

Oh, no. She hated that—hated that he was right. ‘Bite me.’

‘I’ve been dreaming of that ever since you said it to me the first time.’

She saw the hard light in his eyes, the clench of his jaw, and knew he’d done this deliberately—stood too close, talked too softly. Tempting. Tormenting.

‘Nothing to say now?’ He didn’t move.

‘What do you want me to say?’ She didn’t move either—they were so very close.

‘What the fuck you want from me. ’Cos while I could take a guess, I’m not going there until you do. You need to do something about it.’

He looked as hot as she felt. Seemed as unable to slow his breathing. A blink from a cataclysmic urge—

‘You need to stop talking,’ she hissed at him.