Her newly awakened desire was like a runaway train. And while part of her knew she should probably try and put the brakes on it, another part of her wanted to roll around in it like a cat in the sun.

Mi gatita. His kitten.

Aspen rolled her eyes. She shouldn’t get so much joy out of the pet name but she did.

Her cell phone beeped an incoming message and she snatched it out of her pocket, hoping it was her uncle returning her call. Earlier she had left an excited message on his answering machine, informing him that she had raised the money they had agreed upon for her to buy The Farm. She wondered if he had got it yet and whether he was surprised, wishing she could have told him in person. Unfortunately a trip to England was not in the cards for her in the next twenty-five hours. Although, seventy-two hours ago she would have said a trip to Mexico wasn’t, either.

Checking her phone, she saw it was just Donny, informing her that he’d organised for Matty, one of the local teenagers who attended her riding school, to relieve him for the day. Aspen quickly texted back to tell him to have a great day off with his family.

Family...

That sounded so nice.

‘Catch.’

Cruz’s voice broke her reverie and Aspen looked up just in time to grab the bundle of clothes he had tossed at her and to see a smirk on his handsome face. ‘What’s this?’

‘You’re my new groom. How soon can you change?’

Aspen didn’t miss a beat. ‘Five minutes.’

‘See Luis over there?’ Cruz pointed with his free hand towards the players’ area.

‘Yes.’

‘Meet me there in two.’

Aspen felt deliriously happy. She reached out and grabbed his arm as he made to walk past, a thrill of excitement racing through her. ‘You’re really going to play?’

He paused, cocked his head. ‘You wanted to see poetry in motion, didn’t you?’

Aspen shook her head, smiling at his cockiness.

It was dangerous to feel this much happiness because of a pair of jeans and a shirt, but it wasn’t that. It was the man.

She’d fallen in love with him, she realised with a sinking feeling.

He must have sensed her regard because he turned and met her gaze.

‘One minute left,’ he drawled.

Totally in love, she thought, and she had no idea what to do about it.

* * *

He was in love.

The thought gripped him by the throat in the middle of the game just as he was about to make a nearside forehand shot and he nearly fell off his horse and landed on his behind. Fortunately years of training and a horse that could play blind saw him come out of the offensive strike still in the saddle.

He pulled up and let one of his team members carry the ball to the goalposts.

He couldn’t be in love with her. It was impossible. He didn’t want to be in love with anyone. Not yet. It wasn’t part of his plan.

Surely it was just the exhilaration of being out on the polo field again that was sending weird magnetic pulses to his brain? The sense of fun he hadn’t felt in far too long?

He glanced towards the players’ area and his eyes effortlessly zeroed in on Aspen standing beside one of his players. She wore his Rodriquez Polo cap and her flyaway blond curls billowed out at the sides. She’d put on his team colours and she looked curvy and edible as she clapped her hands wildly.

The horn went, signalling the end of the game, and Cruz trotted towards her almost hesitantly.

Unaware of his thoughts, she beamed up at him. ‘You are such a show-off. Congratulations on the win.’

He returned her smile. She was gorgeous. Gorgeous and smart and funny and hot-headed. And, yes, he was in love with her.

Other players thumped him on the back and congratulated him and he could hear the commentators waxing lyrical about his statistics and his comeback—not that this was a comeback, more a hiatus in his normal working life—but he wasn’t really paying attention to anything other than Aspen.

He hadn’t had any idea that he was falling in love with her but now that he had acknowledged it, it made perfect sense. Probably he had always loved her.

And he couldn’t wait to tell her because last night and earlier, when he should have been concentrating on work, she had looked at him in such a way that he was confident she felt the same as he did.

Not that he would tell her here. He’d do it in private. Maybe over an elaborate dinner. He smiled, already anticipating the moment.

Aspen took Bandit’s reins and he dismounted. ‘That last goal was simply brilliant.’

Tags: Michelle Conder Billionaire Romance
Source: readsnovelonline.net