Page 45 of My Trojan Horse Majesty

“I have to be able to pull a trailer,” I say.

He leans closer. “But the best horses don’t need trailers. They can fit in any sports car easily.” He runs his hand downward, clearly talking about himself.

And I’m rolling my eyes again. “As far as I know, my other two horses don’t transform. Based on what you’ve turned into, that’s a realblessing.”

“Hey.” He’s frowning as he hails the salesman who’s walking past. It’s not the salesperson we’ve been working with on the new F250. “Don’t you have sports cars here, too? Show us the nicest one you have.”

The man beams. “That’s definitely the Shelby Cobra. We were lucky to get it. It’s the only one in the state, and it’s a really cool shade of electric blue, with white racing stripes.” This guy has clearly been drooling over this car.

Leo’s mouth curves upward. “We’ll take it.”

“You’lltakeit?” The man blinks. “Don’t you want to test drive it?”

Leo shakes his head. “You convinced me when you said it was the only one in the state.”

“Do you even know what that costs?” I hiss. “I don’t need a sports car—I doubt I can afford the insurance. Some of us don’t have diplomatic immunity or an entire country’s tax revenue to support ourselves.”

“That must really stink,” Leonid says. “But now you have me, which is basically the same thing.” He turns to the salesman with a half-smile. “I think the women in our lives don’t even know what they’re missing. It’s our job to show them.” The salesman’s just staring at us, almost like we’re speaking Russian. “Go.” Leonid shoos him. “Get whatever you need to get that car put in my girlfriend’s name.”

The second he’s gone, I can’t help my hiss. “Stop calling me your girlfriend. Have you gone insane? Well,moreinsane?”

Leo shrugs.

“And are you just trying to make me spend every dime you gave me?” I ask. “Because I’ll give it all back—we don’t have to spend it. And what if my government gets upset and wants me to pay taxes on that money?”

Shoot. Now that I say that, I can see it all unfolding. I’m totally the kind of person who winds up going to jail because of something like this.Diplomaticfreakingimmunity. Doesn’t help me, does it?

Leonid rolls his eyes, and a moment later, when they bring the final papers for the truck,heinsists on logging into some system again to wire money for both vehicles, and he puts them in my name. “See? Now I’m not making you use the money I gave you to compensate you for all this hassle, and for the service you’re doing to the Russian people, keeping me safe.” His grin is irritating.

“No,” I say. “I don’t want any of this.”

He pulls me close. “These expenditures show my people I’m alive and doing fine. It’s sending them an important message, without which they will come looking for me. I’m not ready for that yet, because we haven’t eliminated this connection between us. But maybe you’re ready to announce to the world that you’re my girlfriend—because with a beautiful, young, single woman? That’s the only story anyone else will believe.”

Nope. I definitely don’t want to be surrounded by a hundred overbearing Russians. One’s more than enough. I can only imagine what the media would do with a story like this.

When we finally finish, Leo hands me the keys to the cobra. “You drive this one. I’ll follow you in the truck with the trailer.”

He’s right—we’ll have to take the trailer with us. We certainly can’t leave it here with my old truck.

“I can drive that.”

“I bought the cobra for you.” He presses the key into my hand, and then he leans closer, his mouth right beside my ear. “Just don’t forget to go slowly enough that I can keep up. If you move too far away from me. . .” He snorts, his breath warming my ear. “It would be bad if I totaled your brand new truck.”

I shiver. “But it’s going to be hard to park that truck and trailer in my complex,” I say. “That’s why I always left it at Tim’s. Maybe you should take the cobra so I can find some place to park the trailer.” I can still see him, all focused and careful. The last thing he needs is to try and park my huge trailer in the apartment complex parking lot.

“I’ll be fine.”

“It’s just that, until now, I’ve?—”

“It’s fine,” he says. “I insist. Just make sure I’m keeping up.”

Leonid’s definitely one of those people with whom it’s easier to just agree. Fighting him would be too much work on something like this.

He follows me in the truck to my apartment complex. He wasn’t wrong about the cobra. This little sports car’s alotof fun to drive, even going the speed limit and making sure that he’s staying close. I’m a little embarrassed as we pull up—I certainly never thought I’d be taking the czar of Russia to see my shabby little apartment. I hover for a moment, but he manages to park the whole thing just fine across five parking spaces on the back row, just in front of the back fence line. Once he’s out and moving toward me, I climb out, too.

My next door neighbor’s on his way out as I pull up. He swears loudly when he sees me climbing out of the shiny, new blue sportscar. He runs his hand along one of the white racing stripes. “Nice, Brooks. I guess being with that old-man boyfriend of yours is finally paying off.”

“Shut up, Brian,” I say.

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