I stare up at him, confused. “Because we are friends. You didn’t actually mean any of that. You were just angry. People say all sorts of nonsense when they’re angry.”
Cassian puts his face close to mine and enunciates every word. “Let me make this perfectly clear, Lady Aubrey. You’re not welcome at my stables. If I see you or your horse today, tomorrow, or any other day, I’ll throw you out myself.”
He storms down the hall and slams the front door behind him.
Oh, is that so? We’ll see about that.
Behind me, Daddy and Wraye are talking in low voices. I creep back to the door and peer in. Wraye has her arms around Daddy’s neck and is stroking his cheek with the backs of her fingers and talking in a little-girl voice.
“…be angry, Daddy. Aubrey didn’t know she was doing anything wrong. How could she?”
My stomach turns. I run upstairs, remembering the way Cassian yanked his arm out of my hand like I disgusted him. I just want to ride Cinnamon and forget about everything, and now I can’t even do that.First thing in the morning, I walk Cinnamon into a horse box and drive her back to Bellerose Stables. It’s so early that there’s barely any traffic on the roads, and the stables are deserted. I lead Cinnamon out into the yard and start to saddle her up. The morning air is cool and fresh, and I anticipate how good it will feel to take Cinnamon along the trail through the nearby woods.
I hear a door open and close and glance, guiltily, at the nearby house. Cassian is standing on the front doorstep, stretching his arms over his head in the morning light. The shirt he’s wearing rides up to reveal the golden skin of his flat, muscled belly, the trail of dark hair down into his jeans and those distracting grooves by his hips. He drops his arms with a big sigh and looks around then stable yard.
Cassian sees me, and his eyes narrow. I glare back, planting my feet on the ground. I’m a paying customer, and his only paying customer by the looks of things. Me being here benefits both of us.
He comes striding across the yard with his stupid handsome face and his dumb muscular body. His jeans fit snugly to his narrow hips, and his faded shirt is open just enough to show a dusting of dark hair on his chest. Inside my riding boots, my toes curl. I’ve never become distracted by the way a man looks before. Why does that man have to be Cassian Bellerose?
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
I shrug as nonchalantly as I can. “What does it look like? I’m going for a ride.”
“I told you already that you’re not welcome here. Your father doesn’t want you here, either.”
Sunlight catches the golden strands of his hair, and I’m filled with a sudden longing to run my fingers through them while whispering his name. “I don’t answer to Daddy. I don’t answer to you. I’ll stable my horse where I please.”
He comes to a halt right in front of me, and his blue eyes flash. “Anywhere but here. Now get lost.”
“No, here. It’s not fair that you kick me out over one little mistake.”
Cassian crowds me against Cinnamon, his hands gripping her saddle on either side of my head. A thrill passes through me as his shoulders fill my vision and his eyes blaze into mine.
“You’re a little brat, do you know that?”
“You can’t order me around,” I say in a hoarse whisper.
“I think you’ll find that I can do what I want on my own—”
I kiss him. A swift press of my lips against his to make him shut up, but as soon as my lips touch his, craving floods through me that’s the exact size, shape and feel of Cassian Bellerose.
I wrap my arms around his neck, letting his strong body support mine. His shoulder muscles feel hard beneath his shirt, and I want to run my hands all over his body, then pull him down and feel his weight on me. His body against mine. My breasts press against his chest, and I whimper at the sensation of my hardened nipples rubbing against him. I need to feel him rolling them with his thumbs. I open my mouth to allow his tongue in—
And I realize he’s not kissing me back.
I tear my lips from his and stare up into his angry face.
“Don’t you think you’ve made Daddy angry enough for one week?” he growls, seizing my wrists in a hundred-horsepower grip and tugging them from around his neck.
I struggle to free myself, heat flooding my face. “Let me go.”
Cassian’s looking at my mouth with a glower so ferocious that I can almost feel it. He still won’t let me go. His hands are strong from a lifetime of holding reins and hauling bales of straw and I can’t pull myself out of his grip.