“No.” Her eyes slammed closed.
My laugh filled our small hallway. “Maybe just me then.”
“Keir—” Her tiny voice, the way she looked up at me under her eyelashes— I nearly dropped to my knees right there and sank my tongue into her hot body.
“What’s your name? Tell me what I can call you or Cricket it is.”
She paused, eyes catching mine. “Annastacia, but most people call me just Anna.”
I crossed the distance between us, just the towels between us. I felt her with every throb of my heartbeat. “I could never call you just Anna, so Cricket it is.”
“Why Cricket?” Confusion crossed her face.
“Because,” I slipped my thumb along her hairline, “it’s my favorite thing.”
Her eyes widened before she arched one eyebrow, shaking her head and pushing away from me. “I don’t have time for your games.”
I grinned as I watched her walk away from me. The sexy swing of her hips told me they were begging for my hands, and my cock jumped, desperate to be inside of her.
Cricket turned when she reached her bedroom door, throwing one last sassy look my way and then disappearing inside. I vowed to learn every single last thing there was to learn about her. Nothing could stop me when I’d found my mission, and she was my new beautiful mission.
* * *
“Well, shit,” Gunnar breathed under his breath as he brushed down the flank of one of the horses he boarded in the stable. “Sounds like you’ve got a problem with the new caretaker.”
“Why problem?” I asked, tipping a cold cider to my lips.
“She’s got you acting like a bitch. You’ve been talking about her since you arrived this morning.”
“When I met her yesterday I was just fucking with her, but now that she’s in my life I can’t get her out of my head. I don’t know what the fuck the Queen was thinking.”
“Bet she hadn’t seen a picture of her, if she had she’d have known not to send the fresh meat your way.”
I huffed, recognizing the truth in his words. I wasn’t a playboy, not by any stretch, but since I’d come home from Afghanistan with an injury that’d kept me in therapy and off the cricket field, I’d started raising more hell. I was drinking more, partying more, dating more, but nothing serious. And by serious I mean, not a single one of them made it past the first date. In truth, I hadn’t been interested in any of them—hadn’t even had sex with a single one—they’d really been more revenge.
I’d protested for months, begging mom not to force me into the Royal Navy for a tour overseas, but she’d been so disgusted with my inability to focus after prep school, she’d given me no other choice.
So I’d come home six months after deploying with a wounded leg and a mean case of bitterness. Cider kept my annoyance at the world at bay all day, but only whiskey could put me to sleep at night.
“I’m thinking about taking her to the Midsummer Ball this weekend.”
“Have you asked her?”
I shrugged. “I haven’t gone in years, the invite arrives requesting my presence and I throw it into the fireplace. But this year, I think I’m going to give Cricket a taste of the Royal life.”
“What’s the Queen gonna think of that idea?”
“Well, she’s been begging for my presence, she’s finally gonna get it.” I grinned and took another sip from his bottle. “You know anyone that can deliver a sexy dress by Friday night?”
He laughed. “I think Sandie might have something.” He referred to his long-term girlfriend. “You want tits out or classy for this affair?”
My laugh boomed through the stable and startled the horse he was brushing. “I don’t know why the fuck I even talk to you.”
“Because I’m a wealth of information.”
“A wealth of bullshit.” I finished my beer, then thought of Cricket in a low-plunging dress that hugged all of her curves. “Let’s make it a sexy night to remember.”
His eyes lit and he pulled out his phone, sending a text. “Sexy it is, my brother. Sandie will definitely have something that fits the bill.”
Just then the damp mist that normally clung to the countryside turned to a torrential rain. I waved him off, heading back to the clubhouse for a refill on my cider when I caught sight of Cricket, arms crossing her form as she shivered and shook under the awning of the clubhouse. She was arguing with the doorman.
“Hey,” I approached, waving the doorman off, “how’d you find me?”
“It’s the only other place within walking distance you’d be.” She was angry. It was so fucking hot. “I went to the market and when I got back my key wouldn’t work.”
“The key never works, I leave the door open.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Would have been nice to know that.”