Page 14 of His Unexpected Heir

He turned and looked out the window again. Astra was no longer there.

Furious with his inability to concentrate, Antonio stood up and walked out of his office. He’d go for a ride. His new stallion needed to be exercised daily or he became unruly. Riding the temperamental beast was the perfect way to get his mind off Astra.

Astra watched as the man and horse raced across the field. They seemed to almost fly, the horse’s hooves barely touching the ground and the man atop the horse was nearly one with the animal. There was an almost tangible concentration as they rode. It was both magnificent and terrifying to watch.

“Is that our client?” Macie asked, stepping up beside Astra on the stone patio that looked out over the village and the hillside.

“Yep,” Astra replied, cradling the cup of herbal tea between her hands.

“He looks…angry.”

Astra nodded her agreement, too moved by the scene. But Macie was right. Why would Antonio be angry with her? He was the one who’d called at bizarre times of the night! He was the one who didn’t call her back after she’d returned his call! How dare he be angry with her!

Granted, he might be angry for some other reason and his fury had nothing to do with her. Still, she couldn’t shake the feeling that his ire was aimed at her, which rankled. Especially since she had some very important news to give him.

Would she have told Antonio about the baby if she hadn’t shown up on his doorstep?

Astra thought about it for a long moment, but in the end, she had to accept the truth. No, if she hadn’t seen Antonio again, she probably wouldn’t have told him about the baby. She would have continued on with her life and figured out how to raise their child as a single mother. Astra felt as if she’d tried hard enough to contact him after their one night together. He’d made his feelings towards her quite clear and she would never impose herself on someone who didn’t want or need her in his life.

“I’m exhausted,” Macie announced with a heavy sigh. Astra’s assistant turned and looked around. “I think I can find my way back to the room. Are you going to try and take a nap to offset the lack of sleep on the plane?”

Astra considered the possibility of sleep. But she knew that she was too wound up to find any relief in sleep.

“Not yet. I’ll come up in a bit. I think I need to go for a walk and burn off some of this energy,” she admitted. “I’ll be up later.”

“Suit yourself,” Macie replied and turned, heading back into the castle.

Was everything on this building built to larger than normal proportions? Good grief, even the owner of the castle was larger than life, she thought with resentment.

Astra walked along a pebble pathway through a lovely garden. It wasn’t well maintained, but she could see the lines of where the garden should be amid the roses and weeds. Why wasn’t this area maintained? Why was Antonio ignoring some of the prettier aspects of the castle maintenance while keeping other areas pristine?

He was definitely a mystery.

And Astra decided that she was done trying to figure the man out. He was a mystery that needed to be ignored. Just as he’d ignored her!

She stubbed her toe on a random stone, then hobbled over to a bench, rubbing her toes. “Stupid garden!” she muttered.

Looking around, she realized that she had a better view of the stables from here. Just as she was thinking that, Antonio rode back across the hills. He was covered in sweat now, his shirt sticking to his strong body in delicious places. The horse seemed to be much quieter than he’d been earlier. He was still a beautiful animal, but now he was huffing and puffing, although he still pranced as if he was proud of doing something magnificent.

Astra smiled at the horse’s antics. Antonio “parked” the horse near one of the stable fences, then quickly removed the saddle, hanging it over the fence line. A stable hand rushed out with what Astra could only assume were grooming tools. Sure enough, Antonio pulled out a brush and started soothing the horse. She couldn’t hear what Antonio was saying, but she could tell he was speaking to the horse.

It seemed odd that he would ride such a strong, powerful animal, and then speak to the beast in such a soft, caring voice. Was he praising the horse? Was he soothing the animal for some reason?

The tension in her shoulders loosened as she watched the soothing strokes of the brush and Antonio’s hand against the horse’s flanks. Something sparked inside of her and she wondered if she could actually be jealous of the horse.

Impossible, she told herself. The horse was lovely, truly an amazing creature. But Astra refused to believe that she was jealous of a horse being stroked so gently by that man’s hand.

She didn’t like Antonio anymore.

Did she?

The exhaustion that had been held at bay over the past couple of hours was starting to make itself felt. Her eyes drooped and she shifted on the bench. There was a tree right behind her and she leaned her head against the smooth wood. She’d just close her eyes for a moment, then head back inside to find her room. Just a few minutes, she promised.

“You’re a magnificent boy,” Antonio soothed Thor as he stroked the brush down over the stallion’s neck one more time. “Thank you for the ride,” he added as the horse snuffled his shoulder. Smiling, he took the horse’s reins and led him into the stables. “You deserve extra oats after such a ride. Then I’ll let you out so that you can romance the woman of your dreams.”

Antonio led Thor into the stables and dumped an extra portion of oats into his bucket, then patted his rear flank affectionately. He told the stable master to let him out into the pasture next to Delilah’s. She was nearly in her estrus, the time when a mare is willing to mate with a stallion and the time when she’s most likely to get pregnant. Delilah had already produced two foals and she seemed to thrive during her pregnancies. As soon as she realized she was pregnant, the beauty pranced around as if she’d done something spectacular.

Which was true. Delilah’s foals were truly magnificent. He’d planned to sell the foals to other breeders, but Delilah didn’t want that. So her whole family was still here in the Del Campo stables. Soon, he’d have to move the two foals off to another area. They were bigger and stronger colts and would need to be isolated so they didn’t accidently hurt the others in the herd. Stallions were often turned to geldings because they became too aggressive. Thankfully, there were ways to mitigate their…

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