by Leanne Banks
Eve refused to be intimidated. This was her job now. She would own it. “How often do you ride him?”
“Two or three times a week,” he said. “Hard.”
“He needs a minimum of five times per week,” she told him. “Look at how restless he is.”
“That’s because he’s a stallion,” Stefan said. “Are you questioning my treatment of the horse?”
“Of course,” she said. “That’s why you hired me.”
His mouth lifted in a half grin. “We’ll do Black my way.”
“For a week,” she said. “If he’s still restless, he’ll be ridden more often, and I’ll be the one riding him.”
Stefan chuckled. “You?” He shook his head. “He’s too much for you to handle. He was too much for the previous two men to handle.”
“We’ll see,” she said, confident she could handle Black. She was not nearly as confident about Stefan. She watched him as he approached the stallion. The horse seemed to immediately calm. Stefan placed a bridle and saddle on the horse. He led him out of the stall, mounted him and galloped into the distance.
Chill bumps rose on her arms at the sight of man and horse flying into the moonlight. There was a mystic connection between the two of them that she couldn’t deny. She felt a rush of excitement and tried to temper it with resolve. Stefan was a powerful man, but he had distractions. He wouldn’t be able to ride the stallion every day. He had other demands. It wouldn’t take long before she would step in as a substitute to help Black release some of his energy. Less than a week, she suspected, and she would be ready….
Exactly one week later, Stefan stared into the empty stall of his prized stallion and felt a stab of alarm. Where is Black? Has someone let him out? Escaped? He walked into the stall and stared at the walls. What had—
Realization hit him and his alarm shifted to anger. Eve had taken Black for a ride. She’d told Stefan her plans, but since he’d stated that he would be the only one to ride the stallion, he’d dismissed her statements. He’d assumed she would follow his orders. Frustration rushed through him as he glanced at his watch. He’d left his office later than usual for his ride this evening, but she still shouldn’t have defied his orders.
He paced from one end of the barn to the other, his temper rising with each step. Hearing the sound of hoofbeats outside, he immediately strode to the barn door. He watched in shock as Eve swung off the stallion and led him around the corral for a cooldown. Black loped alongside her as docile as a lamb. He heard her voice, low and somehow seductive, as if she were making small talk with the stallion.
As she turned around, Black glanced upward. The horse must have caught his scent. His ears prickled and he gave a soft whinney before pulling away from Eve and trotting toward him. Stefan felt a measure of satisfaction that Black had left her behind so easily.
“There you go,” Stefan said to the horse, rubbing Black’s sleek throat. “I’ve missed you, too.”
Eve, her hair escaping the long braid that hung down her back, stepped toward Black and Stefan. Her hands rested on her hips, her lips were firm and unsmiling.
“You were told not to ride him,” Stefan said, deliberately keeping his voice mild as he patted the horse.
“And I told you that he needs to be ridden more frequently. If you don’t do it, then I will,” she said. “You’ve only shown up twice this week. He’s been so restless it’s a wonder he didn’t kick down the walls of his stall.”
“It seems you don’t understand. What I say goes about Black,” he said, turning toward her.
She met his gaze. “But you still expect me to be in charge of his health, well-being, diet, etc….”
“Yes,” he said, relieved the impertinent woman was beginning to understand.
She nodded. “Okay. I quit,” she said and turned to walk away.
Stefan stared at her in shock, again. “Bloody hell,” he muttered under his breath. “You can’t quit.”
She glanced over her shoulder at him. “Sure I can. You and I agreed that you would let me be in charge of running the stables. That includes Black. If you’re going to interfere with me performing my job—”
“Interfere,” he repeated, nearly speechless at her lack of respect. “As your employer, it’s my right to agree or disagree with how you conduct your duties. Particularly in regards to Black—”
“Not if your plan isn’t in the best interest of the horse,” she interrupted, surprising him yet again. With the exception of his siblings, very few people interrupted him. “And as far as Black is concerned, you’re not rational about him. Your insistence that you be the only one to ride him is ridiculous. You’re a busy man, leader of a country for Pete’s sake. You have obligations and responsibilities that are more important than making sure your favorite horse is getting enough exercise.”
“I don’t need you to inform me about my position. I make time to ride Black. It’s as much for me as it is for him,” he said, revealing more than he’d intended.
She stared at him for a long moment. “So is this about your ego, or about how going for a midnight ride saves you from the craziness of your position?” she asked softly.
He felt as if she’d stabbed him. What right did she have to judge him? His rides with Black were the only time he felt truly free.
“I’m not trying to step on your toes or prevent you from the pleasure of riding Black. I’m just being realistic. He’s a prize of an animal, smart, powerful and fast,” she said, glancing toward the horse. “But he’s full of energy and if he isn’t exercised more frequently he’s going to be miserable. I don’t think you want that.”
He clenched his teeth then sucked in a quick breath. “How did you do it? No one has been able to ride him except for me.”
She lifted her lips in a smile that made his gut twist. “That’s my secret,” she said. “I’m a horse whisperer,” she said in a self-mocking tone. “That’s why you hired me.”
“For the others,” he said.
“Hmm,” she said with a nod of understanding. “Looks like you have a decision to make. Let me know by morning, and I’ll take the first flight back to Texas.”
He caught her wrist as she turned around and she glanced at him in surprise. “You’re not getting out of the job that easily,” he said. “Ride Black, but do so at your own risk. I’ll let you know which nights I’ll ride him.”
Her gaze searched his face. “So you do have a reasonable bone or two in your body,” she said.
His lips curved in amusement despite the fact that he was still irritated with her. “Of course I do. I’m forced to be reasonable day in and day out with government leaders and advisers.”
“Which is why you really need those rides with Black,” she said.
Her perceptiveness was both a bother and a relief. There weren’t many, if any, people who Stefan allowed close, and he’d been told by more than a few that he was difficult to read. The truth was that his passions always felt as if they were just beneath the surface, ready to burst through, so he felt he had to exert enormous self-control.
Gazing down at her, he saw a combination of compassion and challenge in her dark eyes. Her lips were pursed as if she were trying not to smile. His hand still encircled her wrist and the skin there felt soft in contrast to her spine of steel. What an odd mix of a woman, he thought. He wondered what she was like in bed. He wondered what she would do if he kissed her. A hot visual of her naked beneath him whipped through his mind.
His immediate surge of desire took him by surprise. Eve wasn’t his type. She was argumentative. She had zero understanding of palace affairs. For God’s sake, she worked in a barn. In that flash of an instant, he glimpsed a shot of awareness that deepened her already dark eyes. In the next second, he saw the same surprise he’d felt.
Taking a breath, she stepped back and pulled her hand from his. “If you can let me know by 8:00 p.m. on the nights you’ll be riding him, that would help me,” she said.
“Waiting till that lat
e will tie up most of your evenings,” he said.
“I don’t have anything else on my calendar. You see, I have to get ready for this parade my boss neglected to tell me about,” she said in a confiding tone.
“That’s why I required you to come to Chantaine within two weeks,” Stefan said, mildly amused.
“It would have been nice of you to let me know ahead of time,” she said.
“I’m not that nice,” he said. “Would it have made a difference?”
“I guess not,” she said. “I just wouldn’t have sat through any of those orientation sessions,” she said.
“I was told you skipped the afternoon session,” Stefan said.
“That’s true,” she said. “As soon as Princess Bridget told me there was going to be a parade with some kook waving a whip, I was outta there.”
“Count Christo is eccentric, but I wouldn’t call him a kook,” Stefan said.
“You don’t have to,” Eve said. “And I’ll tell you now, he won’t be carrying a whip when he’s riding one of your horses.”
“Eve,” Stefan said. “The count is an important and revered member of Chantaine society.”
“He won’t even miss that whip, I promise,” she said.
“Eve,” he said again.
She waved her hand in dismissal. “That’s a week and a half away. No worries Your Highlyness,” she said with a sparkle in her eye.
“Highlyness?” he echoed.
“That’s what my aunt Hildie calls Tina every now and then.”
The tidbit amused him. “I bet Tina loved that.”
“Oh, you have no idea,” she said and gave a pretty little salute with her right hand. “I should hit the sack, Your Highlyness. I rise early these days. Sweet dreams.”
The next day as Eve was grabbing a sandwich at her office in the stables, she mulled over the possibility of providing Black with a companion. The stallion led such a solitary life he might be more content with a gelding as a friend, or perhaps a goat.
“There you are,” Bridget, wearing a dress and heels, said from the doorway. She walked inside the small office without invitation, wagging her finger in disapproval. “You’ve been invisible during the last week. I was certain you’d flown back to Texas until I overheard one of the staff discussing how early you leave your quarters in the morning and how late you return at night. You’re going to exhaust yourself before you’ve even been here a month, and Tina will have all our heads. This must stop.”
Despite Bridget’s propensity for exaggeration, Eve felt a little less alone by her presence. She’d been so busy with the horses that she hadn’t had time to think about anything else except late at night before she fell asleep. She would die before she admitted it, but she was a little homesick.
“I’m fine,” Eve insisted and set down her sandwich. “I just needed to jump in with both feet with the parade coming around the corner.”
“Well, it’s simply not acceptable,” Bridget said. “I’m sure you haven’t even taken off one day since you arrived. Therefore, you shall go shopping with me this afternoon,” she said in full princess mode.
Eve shook her head. “It’s sweet of you to ask, and I’m honored, but I can’t. It would just put me behind. I have to start scheduling appointments with the riders so everything will go smoothly during the parade.”
Bridget wrinkled her brow in confusion. “We’ve never had appointments before. We just show up on parade day, mount the horse and ride.”
“How did that work out?” Eve asked, already knowing the answer.
“Fine with me. There have been a few little problems. One of the mares bucked her rider and took off through the crowd. One of the geldings stopped halfway through and refused to go any farther.”
“And what about that year when one of the horses reared up and a half dozen of them went to the beach? Not just to the beach,” Eve said. “But in the water.”
Bridget winced. “Oh, yes. I couldn’t really blame them. It was a very hot day and the master of ceremonies was long-winded, which meant we had to wait forever to get started. I guess you’re right. Good luck getting some of the old guys to agree to the appointments, though.”
“Thank you,” Eve said in a long-suffering voice.
Bridget sighed. “Well, if you won’t go shopping with me, then you must join us for dinner tonight. It’s family night. Stefan requires us to have dinner together every week since Jacques is on break from college. He’ll be there as well as Phillipa.”
Eve immediately began to shake her head. “I’m not family. I wouldn’t want to intrude,” she said, also confident that she would feel totally out of place at a table full of royals.
“No intrusion,” Bridget said. “Besides, you’re like family because of your association with Tina.”
“Oh, no, thank you, but—”
“I won’t take no for an answer. You must eat. You may as well eat with us. The food will be better than that sandwich,” she said, waving her hand in disgust at Eve’s lunch. “If you don’t come, then I’ll have to tell Tina, and she’ll fuss at Stefan and me. Trust me, it will get messy.”
Eve sighed, realizing it would be easier to give in to Bridget’s invitation and beg off early. She could pretend to be a fly on the wall and resolved to keep her mouth shut. “If you insist,” she said.
“I do,” Bridget said, smiling broadly. “We’ll dine at seven on the third floor. It’s a bit smaller and more intimate. I’m delighted you’ll join us. Ta-ta,” she said and turned to leave.
“Bridget,” Eve said before the woman vanished. Geez, that woman could move like the wind despite the fact that she was wearing high heels. “What should I wear?”
Bridget glanced over her shoulder. “Oh, it’s not formal. Just a dress will do.”
Eve had brought only a few dresses with her since she figured she would be spending most of her time with the horses. Her choices were black, brown and black. She decided on black and pulled her hair out of her braid. For her corporate job back in the States, she’d always dressed in a conservative, businesslike manner, with careful attention to grooming.
Looking in the mirror made her wince. She’d been so focused on getting the horses ready for the parade that she’d done the bare minimum in the grooming department. Her fingernails were all broken down to the quick, her hair was out of control, her lips were chapped and smudges of violet rimmed her brown eyes.
“Thank goodness for concealer,” she muttered under her breath, then got to work. Nerves danced in her belly and she chastised herself. She shouldn’t be nervous. Although she’d never shared a meal with a roomful of royals, she knew which fork to use and when. Her aunt Hildie had made sure she knew her manners. Eve felt a jab of homesickness take her by surprise, then pushed it down. It wasn’t as if she were being sent away from her parents when she’d become a teenager. She’d made this choice of her own volition. She was here for her dream job.
The prospect of interacting with Stefan on a semisocial level still made her uncomfortable. She was at ease dealing with him over matters concerning the horses, but beyond that, she found the man unsettling. After hearing his sister Tina talk about how overbearing he was, she’d been certain she’d find him a selfish chauvinist. But she was beginning to see that he was far more complex than she’d first thought. He had a lot on his shoulders and he didn’t shift one bit under his responsibilities. To her, it appeared that he was trying to bring the siblings together for the sake of Chantaine, and the independent-minded Devereaux weren’t making it easy.
Eve finished getting dressed and walked from the staff quarters to the palace. A guard allowed her entrance, and she climbed the marble steps to the third floor and wandered down the long hallway to an open doorway from where she heard voices—Bridget’s in particular.
Eve peeked around the corner and caught her first glimpse of the lavish dining room. With a different table, the room could have easily held twenty people. Instead, a round table dressed in a crisp white cl
oth and set with crystal glasses, sterling silver and bone china sat in the center of the room.
The elegance and luxury of the room reminded her of the differences between her background and that of the Devereaux family. Her parents had moved frequently to stay a step ahead of the debt collectors, which meant she’d never stayed in one school very long. A flood of memories washed over her of walking into school, wearing clothes with holes in them, suffering the stares of her classmates and feeling completely out of place.
Her stomach knotted. What was she doing here? She took a deep breath and told herself this was a different time, a different situation. The siblings distracted her from her panic.
Bridget, Phillipa and Jacques stood beside the table.
“The goal for this evening’s meal is to get Stefan to cut me some slack,” Bridget said. “I need a vacation in Italy. Phillipa, you can cover for me for just a couple weeks—”
Phillipa shook her head. “You know I’m in the middle of my dissertation. I can’t take off for two weeks.”
Bridget sighed. “Maybe we could cut down some of the appearances.” She glanced at Jacques, who bore a striking resemblance to Stefan. “And you could help.”
Jacques looked appalled. “Me? I’m playing in a soccer match in Spain this weekend.”
“Well, I can’t keep doing all this on my own. Lord knows how Tina managed it,” Bridget said.
Eve strongly considered turning around and leaving at that point, but Jacques glanced up and looked at her as if she were a lifeline. “Please do come in. Eve Jackson?”
“Yes, Your Highness,” she said. “I’m surprised you re member since we met so briefly last month.”
Jacques’s lips lifted in a flirtatious grin. “Please call me Jacques, and I make a habit of never forgetting the name of a beautiful woman.”
Eve couldn’t resist smiling in return. She could tell Jacques was on the road to be a class-one heartbreaker. “Thank you, Jacques. I appreciate the flattery, especially since I haven’t spent much time outside the barn since I arrived.”