appeared to be in some trouble, I naturally assumed…’
‘Nonsense!’ she snapped, leaning forward to give her horse a pat on the neck. ‘There was absolutely no need to give poor Pegasus such a fright. And I certainly was not in trouble,’ she added grimly, tightening her grip on the thin leather reins and giving them a quick jerk.
Desperately longing to be able to dig her heels into lazy old Pegasus, and get the hell out of this highly embarrassing situation, Gina realised that she was well and truly stuck. Now that he was so near his stable, her beastly horse wasn’t likely to budge an inch. And with Antonio continuing to grin sardonically up at her—while still maintaining his iron grip on the reins—there was clearly nothing she could do.
‘Nevertheless, this animal appeared to be clearly terrified, and bolting out of control,’ Antonio pointed out in a maddening, condescending tone of voice. ‘Which is precisely why, my dear Gina, I quickly realised that I must come to your rescue. Yet again!’ he added with a low rumble of laughter.
‘Hah! That’s all you know!’ she ground out furiously, her palms itching to smack that superior smile off his handsome face.
Quickly slipping one of her black leather boots out of its stirrup, she swung her leg up over the saddle and jumped lightly down on to the ground beside him.
And that, Gina realised almost immediately, had been a bad, bad mistake.
For one thing, she had immediately lost the advantage of height which she’d had when perched on her horse’s back. And although at five foot ten inches she was normally regarded as being a tall woman, she now found herself having to look up at the man standing beside her.
And besides…well, now that she was standing so close to him, she could almost feel the tough, physical aura, the dramatic sense of power and overwhelming masculine sexuality, which had always seemed to positively ooze from every pore of Antonio’s tall, dynamic figure.
Nothing has changed, she told herself with a sinking heart. How could life be so unfair? Surely after all this time he could at least have done her the great favour of becoming disgustingly fat…or bald…or as ugly as sin…
Unfortunately, as much as it might hurt her to admit the truth, it seemed as if the passage of time had hardly touched the rotten man.
In fact, with that short-sleeved black shirt emphasising his broad shoulders, and those trousers positively hugging his slim waist and hips, he was clearly in great shape. Although his face now seemed slightly thinner than she remembered—throwing into relief his high cheekbones, and giving him a more hawk-like expression—he was still the same diabolically attractive man she’d known all those years ago.
Come on! Get a grip on the situation. You’ve got to pull yourself together—and fast! she yelled silently at her inner self, who was clearly going weak at the knees in response to his overwhelming sex appeal. Not to mention the soft, caressing effect his Spanish accent was having on her trembling body.
How could she be so stupid, for heaven’s sake? This man had always been Trouble with a capital T, as far as she was concerned. And she’d be an idiot not to keep that thought firmly at the very front of her mind!
‘If you must know…far from bolting, as you put it, greedy old Pegasus was just galloping back to his stable—looking forward to a fresh bag of hay!’ she told Antonio through gritted teeth.
‘He always does that when we turn for home after being out for a ride,’ she added, brushing the long fair hair from her face as she raised her chin defiantly towards him. ‘And I happen to enjoy the gallop home every bit as much as he does!’
‘Ah…’
‘So, you see…I most certainly did not need rescuing by you, señor!’
“‘Señor”…?’ he murmured dryly, and her cheeks flushed as she registered the cool, ironic tone in his deep voice. ‘Ah, Gina! Surely I was once “Antonio” to you…?’
‘Yes…well…that was a very long time ago,’ she muttered, bitterly aware of the breathless, husky note in her own voice and the hot tide of crimson now sweeping up over her pale complexion. ‘I…er…I’m a completely different person nowadays.’
‘Umm…yes, I can see that you most certainly are!’ he drawled, his dark eyes fringed with long, thick lashes gleaming with sardonic amusement as he viewed the tall, slender figure standing beside him.
With her long, ash-blonde hair flowing down well past her shoulders, it was obvious to Antonio that the young girl whom he’d once known had now matured into a beautiful woman. Her pale alabaster skin, fine bone structure and high forehead over hauntingly vivid sapphire-blue eyes all combined to give her a faintly medieval appearance. Just the sort of looks, in fact, which would have recommended her to artists such as Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo.
Regrettably, however, his rather more down-to-earth, basic instincts were irrepressibly drawn to her high, firm breasts, and the slim waist and hips emphasised by those close-fitting jodhpurs.
Why was it, he found himself wondering idly, that the sight of a woman dressed in pale-coloured, skin-tight riding breeches and high, shiny black boots appeared to be quite so erotic?
However, he quickly realised, only a second or two later, that Miss Gina Brandon did not seem to appreciate him viewing her with such close interest. Especially if the sight of the angry glint in her large blue eyes, and those soft lips now drawn into a hard, tight line of annoyance was anything to go by!
Damned cheek! Gina gritted her teeth, fuming with resentment.
Having been a bag of nerves all afternoon and feeling sick with apprehension about the sudden reappearance of Antonio in her life, Gina was now almost grateful for the tide of fury surging through her veins. Besides, rage and anger had to be much safer emotions than the highly dangerous siren call of Antonio’s overwhelmingly sensual appeal, to which she’d found herself so weakly responding earlier.
Struggling to overcome yet another urgent desire to give that handsome tanned face a good, hard slap, she forced herself to take a deep breath.
‘I think we’ve stood out here in the park quite long enough—don’t you?’ she said as coolly as she could, before stalking past Antonio towards the wooden fence and swinging open a five-barred gate.
Since he’d been so determined, earlier, to hang on to Pegasus’s reins, he could damn well be useful and lead the horse back to its manger, she thought defiantly, simply not caring if she was being a lousy hostess as she strode ahead of him towards the stable block.
However, by the time that Pegasus was unsaddled, and safely bedded down in his stable, Gina had managed to get herself back on an even keel. Helped, it must be said, by the completely unexpected, matter-of-fact way in which Antonio, without needing to be asked, had automatically brushed down the large animal while she’d filled nets with fresh hay, for both Pegasus and the elderly mare whom she kept as his stable companion.
‘Would you care for a pot of tea?’ Gina asked as she bolted the door of the stables before leading the way towards the house. ‘Or maybe…’ She glanced down at her watch as they entered the hall, surprised to see that it was almost six o’clock. ‘Maybe you’d prefer a drink?’
While Antonio, who’d never understood the fondness of the English for their traditional cup of tea, was agreeing that a drink would be
