“Open your eyes.”
She blinked, then dared move her hand from the death grip she held on the big round thing at the front of the saddle, and pressed her fingers to her cheeks to rub away the tears. She wasn’t crying, but the air made them water.
“I’m fine,” she told him, not knowing what else to say.
“Relax and you’ll be even better,” he assured her. “You’re in very competent hands and trust me, everyone should experience the joy and freedom of riding a horse at least once in his life.”
He sounded like he meant it.
“I appreciate your eagerness to share your passion.”
Again he chuckled, the rich sound sending chills rushing over her body. “Relax,” he whispered into her ear.
“I’m relaxed,” she snapped, wondering if it was too soon to suggest they go back. “What? Why are we stopping?” She sounded breathless and stared anxiously at the darkness around them when the horse quit running.
Jordan adjusted himself again behind her, his long legs brushing against hers while he brought his arm up between her breasts and cupped her chin.
“We aren’t stopping, just slowing the pace down a bit until you’re comfortable in the saddle.” His fingertips were calloused, like those of a man who worked with his hands all day.
“I think I’d be more comfortable if you weren’t touching me everywhere.”
Again that melodic baritone. Jordan’s chuckle would be her undoing if all that roped muscle didn’t push her over the edge first.
“So it’s me who makes you nervous and not Lord? I can get off and walk alongside the two of you if you prefer.”
“Don’t you dare leave me on this thing alone,” she snapped.
“Okay. Okay. But first things first. Lord is a male, superior and confident. Treat him as such, and the two of you will get along much better.” He let go of her chin, dragging his fingers past her collarbone and once again between her breasts.
Amber shouldn’t react to his touch, his body, anything about Jordan Anton. He was on this island to be with his fiancée. She blew out a breath, determined to get through this and chalk it up as insight into the nature of her employer for the next month.
“Take these,” Jordan instructed, picking up the two leather straps that were attached to the horse’s bridle. “They’re the reins and are attached to his bridle. See?” he continued, placing the smooth straps in her hands and then keeping his warm, much larger hands around hers. “This is how you instruct Lord to go where you want him to go.”
“I don’t know where I want him to go,” she said, looking between their legs at her hands inside his.
“That’s okay. Lord can take us where he wishes.”
“You’re trusting a horse to guide us around this island in the dark?”
“I trust horses more than I do most people,” he growled.
Amber stilled, pulling her attention from their hands and taking in their surroundings. She saw the beauty in the darkness for the first time since they’d left the barn. They were closer to the ocean than she realized. Dark waves lapped at a sandy beach as they moved along the edge of it. She breathed in the moist, salty night air, feeling it cling to her skin.
At the same time his comment registered in her mind, giving her insight into a man who was possibly a lot darker than he first came across.
“Why do you say that?” she asked, after a moment of riding in silence.
“Horses are intelligent. Trust me, Lord knows how to get back to his barn. He also senses how nervous you are and will keep at this pace until we allow him full run again.”
“I’m not in any hurry to get to that.” She admitted Lord’s long neck and shiny black hair added to his beauty. And she didn’t deny how beautiful he was; if only he weren’t so incredibly big. When she shifted her attention to the ground, they were a good six or seven feet in the air. It would really hurt to fall off of him.
“Good,” Jordan said, but didn’t elaborate.
Amber suddenly worried he took her comment to mean she wasn’t in a hurry to return to the barn. “Lord can walk back to the barn and I would be okay with that,” she added, not wanting Jordan to think she was content being out here, alone with him, for hours.
Jordan didn’t say anything but allowed the silence to drag out between them. Amber was acutely aware of the giant beast underneath her, of how her thigh muscles would probably ache like hell later from stretching her legs across Lord’s massive back. More than that, she felt Jordan relax behind her, his body barely shifting to the motion of Lord as they walked along the beach, which seemed to go on forever.
She fondled the straps in her hand, feeling Jordan’s hands relaxed against hers. He was a mystery, and admittedly not what she expected out of him so far. The rogue playboy attitude suited him perfectly. Although being unfaithful to a fiancée, or trying to be unfaithful, wasn’t a characteristic limited to the rich. Amber couldn’t even say how many married men had tried seducing her over the years, most of them very open about the fact they were simply looking for something on the side.
“Are you enjoying yourself?” he asked, breaking the silence.
He startled her out of her thoughts. “Oh,” she said, letting the one word slip out without thought. “Sure. I guess.”
“Not what you expected when you came to the barn tonight?”
Amber pondered her answer. “Obviously not,” she admitted. Riding a horse, literally, had been the last thing on her mind. “I’m not sure what I expected.”
“Oh really?” He didn’t believe her. “I propositioned you, set up a meeting time, which you met, and you weren’t sure what you expected?”
“I planned to honor the meeting, just to make it easier to work here over the next month.”
“You believed having sex with me would make it easier to be here for a month?” That amused edge was back in his tone.
“That’s not what I meant.” She wasn’t sure she liked how easily he got her dander up. Usually, she managed more control around men, no matter their walk of life.
“Then what did you mean?” He was rubbing his thumb along the outside of her hand, the slight movement proving more of a distraction than it should.
Not to mention roped muscle flexed against her legs, and if she relaxed just a bit, packed, steel chest muscle was searing hot across her back.
“I meant that if I hadn’t shown up, running across you later would prove a distraction when I would need to focus my thoughts elsewhere.”
“You would be wondering what you missed.” He took what she said wrong and then continued running with it. “Or possibly you would worry I might stalk you, playing the rogue who would chase after the one who got away.”
