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“I do. So well, in fact, I’d like to get out of this room. Maybe go outside?”
He gave me an uncertain look. “I don’t know about all that.”
“I do,” I said, pulling away from him. “I’ve been cooped up in here for days now. Surely, a little walk outside wouldn’t hurt anything.”
“It’s just that I don’t want to have to fight any of my men off you. You smell too good, and you look…” he shook his head, like he was at a loss for words.
Nervously, I smoothed down my hair. “Do I look that bad?”
“Bad? No, baby, you look amazing. Your skin is creamy, and your eyes are bright, and your hair is growing out a little, so it’s all curly and gorgeous. I know I can’t keep you all to myself, but I guess I want to try.”
“Well, I think the heat cycle is over now. I feel different—not so dazed as I was before. Please? We can just stay on the property. You can tell your men to stay away.”
He tipped my chin up to kiss me on the lips. I think it was supposed to be a quick peck, but it turned into something white hot right away. We were still kissing, in fact and about to move things to the bed again, when we heard a commotion outside in the front courtyard.
Wyatt muttered something about annoying interruptions and went over to the window to look outside. I saw his face grow pale and a look of surprise come over it.
“What is it? What’s the matter?”
“It’s Asher’s horse, Whiskey,” he said, turning to me in stunned surprise. “What the hell?”
He turned away from the window and bolted down the stairs and outside, and I was right behind him.
The horse, a huge bay, was being tended to by the stablemen as we arrived. The horse was agitated and looked exhausted. The men were checking him for injuries and smoothing their hands over his flanks as one of the stable hands got a bridle on him. The poor horse seemed uneasy and scared. Wyatt immediately went to him and spoke soothingly in his ear, and he began to calm down a little, or at least enough for Wyatt to be able to lead him to the stables.
Once there, he allowed Wyatt to lead him to his own stall right away, and he even seemed relieved to be there. He whinnied to the other horses as Wyatt went into the stall with him and another stableman to care for him. Later, after he was given water and food and he had been rubbed down with a warm blanket over him, Wyatt came back out and leaned over the half door to speak quietly with the other man who’d was still inside the stall with Whiskey. After a few more minutes, he came over to talk to me.
“Do you think he traveled a long way?”
“I’m afraid so. I wouldn’t have dreamed he’d be able to make it so far.”
“So you think he came all the way from Crillia?”
“Yes, I do. Helped by Asher’s magic, perhaps. He thinks a great deal of that horse.” He looked down at me. “Are you all right? I’m sure this wasn’t what you had in mind when you wanted to get outside for a while.”
“It’s fine. That poor horse. Is he going to be all right?”
“He’ll be fine. I’m worried though. This is a well-trained horse, and he’d never stray from his rider. Something must have happened to Asher and Brandon.”
“What are you going to do?”
“I need to get a message to Harrison. And then I’ll go after them, of course.”
“Oh, that seems really smart.”
He shot me a look. “Was that supposed to be sarcasm?”
“Yes. I think it’s pretty dumb to keep sending people after this baron, who keeps making them disappear. Now you want to be next in line.”
“You don’t understand what’s going on here, Darcy.”
“I think I do. What’s so hard to understand? Even if you don’t count the ladies and the maids sent along with the viscountess, and the group of footmen the Sudfarman king sent after her—which I totally do, by the way—that’s a lot of people to go missing. Now Asher and Brandon. It seems to me that your side isn’t exactly winning right now.”
Wyatt gave me an incredulous stare, and then brushed my concerns away. “You simply don’t understand what’s going on.”
My temper flared right away. He was doing it to me again—implying that I was too dumb or naïve to comprehend his Alpha thinking. I resented it, to say the least.
“I understand that all these people are missing and now you want to plow right ahead with your genius plan and go missing too. Tell the truth—right now you’re already choosing which men to take with you and planning which routes to take, aren’t you?”
