Page 26 of My Queendom for a Horse

“Who cares about—”

“Me,” I say. “I care.”

“Fine.”

I turn around until he has time to put clothing on. “What in the world was all that about? I’m already late, and—”

“I’m coming with you,” he says.

“Excuse me?” I spin around, my hands going to my hips.

He’s fiddling with the button on his pants, and for some reason that’s somehow hotter. Maybe because it makes him seem more real. His waist’s tapered and flat, his abs pronounced. The muscles in his arms bulge as he moves, and speaking of bulges, I’m shocked he was even able to get the pants on.

Kristiana. I mentally shake myself and force my eyes upward, which isn’t much better. His chest is so perfectly muscled that he could earn extra money on the side modeling for cologne ads. “Focus,” I mutter.

“On what?” His brow furrows. “An excuse?”

“Huh?”

“We’ll need a reason for me to accompany you.” He looks deadly earnest.

“You cannot come,” I say. “Have I been unclear?”

His grin this time is practically demonic. “Try and stop me.”

6

“You swore,” I say. “You swore before I changed you that you would stay here.”

“I did no such thing,” Aleksandr says. “I didn’t say a word.” He slides his arms into the sleeves of the dirty old shirt I handed him and grimaces.

“But you snorted.”

He arches one perfect eyebrow as he rolls up the sleeves so it’s not as obvious that they’re way too short.

I swear under my breath, because the jerk’s right. He didn’t actually say anything at all. I hate that he’s right.

“Look, I’m in this bind because of you, Aleksandr. The least you can do is—”

“Call me Aleks,” he says. “We’re going to be around each other often. We may as well be friendly. And you may as well come up with an excuse for my presence now.”

“An excuse?” I throw my hands up in the air. “There’s nothing anyone will believe. I said you had to hide in the barn because I can’t explain my horse being gone and some random man being here.”

“I’m not a random man,” he says. “I’m Aleksandr Volkonsky, and you can’t teach me about the current world if I can’t even experience it.”

He has a point. “But you did agree to staying here, whether you want to wiggle out of it or not. I’ll find a way that’s safe for me to show you how things have changed.”

“Tell them I’m a new trainer,” he says, ignoring me. “You can say that you hired me to work with Obsidian Devil.” The corner of his mouth tilts upward. “I can pretend that I only speak Russian.”

“For the love of—”

“I bet that stupid banker doesn’t speak Russian.”

“Sean’s wicked smart,” I say. “I wouldn’t count on it.”

He scowls when I say that, for some reason.

“There’s absolutely no reason for you to come to this. It’s going to be hard enough as it is.”

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