both of you going to ride?” Sara sized Amber up with a quick look. “Bess is easy enough, but Lord is spirited. He’ll let me ride him but I won’t be responsible if he throws you.”
“I don’t ride horses,” Amber stammered, trying to pull her hand free from Jordan’s firm grip.
He wouldn’t let go. “I admit I inspected the barn thoroughly earlier today. I was impressed with your saddles. We’ll ride Lord together.”
“I don’t know,” Sara said, frowning as Jordan marched farther into the barn, still holding onto Amber. “If you’re not a really good rider.”
“I am,” Jordan said without hesitating.
“Lord doesn’t always take well to strangers,” Sara continued.
“We’ve already become great friends.” Jordan let go of Amber’s hand and lifted a heavy-looking saddle into his arms.
“Enjoy your ride,” Amber stated, marching out of the barn. “Sara, it was very nice meeting you. I look forward to more time.”
She didn’t even realize Jordan had put the saddle down. “Not so quick, my dear,” he growled, wrapping his arm around her waist and pulling her against him. “Tell me,” he whispered. “Are you afraid of the horse, or of me?”
“Neither!” she hissed, fighting to twist in his arms, but stilling when Sara watched them curiously. “I don’t care for deception,” she whispered, tilting her head to glare into his incredibly handsome, chiseled features.
His amused grin outraged her even further. Worse yet, it hit her with annoying clarity that as much as she ached to slap that pompous smile off his face, she couldn’t. For the next month, she would be working for Jordan Anton, arranging his social life for him and his fiancée.
“Good night, Mr. Anton,” she began.
“Sara, would you mind saddling up Lord for us?” Jordan asked without looking over his shoulder. Instead, he took Amber by the arm, walking her out of the barn. “Give me a minute to assure Miss Stone that I’m an expert rider and that she’s in good hands with me.”
Amber wasn’t sure if Sara snorted her disgust or chuckled in amusement. Either way, she disappeared into the barn while Jordan led Amber by the arm under the moonlight.
“Why the sudden change of heart?” he asked after walking her a short ways from the barn. “You came here to see me and now you wish to leave?”
“When I came down here I didn’t know you were Jordan Anton,” she accused, yanking her arm from his grip and then hugging herself, as she squared off and faced him.
“So if I were a different man you’d saddle right up with me? Is that what I’m hearing here?” He still had that annoyingly disgusting, smug look on his face.
“I’m saying you intentionally did not tell me who you are,” she snapped, but then threw her hands up in the air. “This conversation is pointless. Enjoy your horse ride because I assure you that will be all you’re riding tonight.”
“If that’s the case, then you shouldn’t have any problem agreeing to just going on a horseback ride with me,” he answered, his tone too smooth, too sure of himself.
Knowing who he was didn’t change her opinion of him, Amber decided. Jordan Anton was cocky and arrogant and probably believed he could do no wrong—obviously to the point where he didn’t mind playing with people. Amber never did like people like that. It sucked that he was so drop-dead gorgeous. His good looks were wasted on a shallow, spoiled rich boy. She understood him all too well.
“I wouldn’t go horseback riding with you no matter who you are,” she told him honestly. At the same time, she gave herself a strict reminder that it was imperative she end this potentially disastrous evening on a smooth note. And if there was one thing she was really bad at doing, it was sucking up to people. Taking a slow soothing breath, she offered what she hoped was a believable smile. “Enjoy yourself, though,” she told him, trying once again to retreat to the castle.
This time Jordan didn’t grab her arm. Instead, while Sara led the giant black horse out of the barn, Jordan moved closer to Amber, brushing his fingertips over her bare shoulder.
His tone lost its cockiness. “If you won’t ride with me because I didn’t take the time to properly introduce myself earlier, then please allow me to do so now.”
“That has nothing to do with it.” She held her head high and still barely stood taller than his shoulder. Looking at him straight on gave her a delicious view of his Adam’s apple. His black hair was pulled back in a ponytail that curled against his collar behind his neck. She imagined he’d look like a knight riding from his castle on that horse with his hair down. The image in her head damn near made her lose her train of thought. “I don’t know anything about horses,” she admitted, deciding the truth was her best argument here.
“You’ll ride on the horse with me. All you have to do is trust me.” With his final words, he scooped her off the ground.
Amber was taken off guard. Jordan’s strong hands pressed underneath her breasts, and if that didn’t shock her, being lifted into the air as if she weighed nothing and finding herself straddling the largest horse she’d ever seen in her life scared the crap out of her. Not that she’d seen many horses.
“Oh God!” she cried out, twisting over the smooth leather saddle.
The horse protested along with her, his large eyes growing even larger when he lifted his head, making a sound that couldn’t be good. She didn’t even know where to grab when it sidestepped, obviously as thrilled to have her on his back as she was to be there.
“It’s okay, boy,” Sara assured the horse, hurrying to the front of the animal.
Before she could grab the reins, though, Jordan slid onto the horse behind Amber, moving onto the creature with more grace and skill than Amber would have guessed a man his size capable of doing. He mounted the animal like he did it every day, adjusting himself behind her and then placing one large, warm hand over her belly while grabbing the leather straps in front of her with the other.
“I’ll brush him down and feed him when we get back,” Jordan informed Sara, and then made a clicking sound with his mouth.
The horse broke into a trot and they left the barn and Sara, whose parting words were impossible to hear.
Amber wasn’t sure which was worse: The fact that she was on a horse and moving really fast, or that Jordan pressed her against his chest while his muscular thighs brushed against hers, his incredibly virile body touching her everywhere.
“Is this so bad?” His rich baritone brushed over her ear, caressing her oversensitive flesh while the wind blew in her face.
“I don’t know.” She was way out of her element.
When he started laughing, shifting behind her, Amber stiffened, certain she felt something hard and long press against her ass. Since she’d never been on a horse, and the smooth leather saddle was quickly making her rear numb every time the horse moved, she wasn’t sure exactly what she was feeling. Not knowing her way around a man didn’t sit well with her, and she would have said as much, except the land around them was flying past her; her eyes were watering as the
