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 late 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
