Page 67 of My Queendom for a Horse

“You’re alive when you’re with me in a way you never are with him.”

I hate Aleksandr in this moment, maybe more than I’ve ever hated anyone. Why does my body react to his every whim, his every shift? Why, when Sean is so perfectly offering me everything I ever wanted, am I thinking about him instead?

Aleks’ head lowers by an inch. Then half an inch more.

I can’t tear my eyes away from his perfectly sculpted jaw, square and dusted with black-as-pitch stubble. His golden skin practically shines. His breathtaking eyes sparkle with mischief.

His lips curve into a wry half-smile that I want to smack off his face.

“You don’t really want to kiss that guy at all. And you don’t want him to save your farm, either.”

My words feel torn out of me. “I don’t.”

I hate that he’s making me admit things I don’t want to admit, not even to myself. I hate everything about him. How gorgeous he is as a horse. How devastatingly hot he is as a man.

I shove my hands against his chest, but no matter how hard I push, he doesn’t shift, not even a hair.

“You want to kiss someone powerful.” His eyes are completely confident. “You want to be with someone who knows exactly what he wants and who takes it.” He slams one hand up against the stall behind my head and leans toward me until we’re less than an inch away. His hot breath fans over my face when he says, softly, “You want someone who can bury a dozen men with the flip of his hand. The man you want to kiss is. . .”

“You,” I whisper.

And then his lips slant downward over mine.

He’s not gentle. He’s not a bit polite.

His kiss is savage, just like the man himself. He possesses me, his mouth claiming mine and sealing it as his. His hand curls around my face, pulling me impossibly closer and pressing against me like he’ll never get enough.

And it’s still not close enough.

I whimper, and his other hand, his free hand, grabs my hip possessively. It’s such an electric, bone-searingly intense embrace that I find myself hopping up toward him just to be closer.

His hand releases my hip and catches my body, wrapping under my leg to hold me against him. My legs both curl around his waist, and my hands wrap around his face, not letting him stop kissing me, even if he wanted to. I squeeze my legs tighter, begging him to somehow bring us closer, still. His lips are hot, full, and commanding, just like he behaves all the time.

And then I think about the man himself, and everything I’ve seen, and what I want to do next, and I can’t help moaning. He actually makes a sound that’s dangerously close to a growl in response.

I should hate it.

He’s so feral that it should scare me, but it doesn’t. Instead, it ignites something inside of me I never knew was there in the first place. My hand reaches for the buttons on his shirt, fumbling, nervous and excited at the same time.

“Kris?” John’s voice is like an early morning alarm. Grating, obnoxious, and unwelcome. I may have known him forever, but I want him to go away and never come back. “Kristiana.”

His tone penetrates the fog in my brain, and I realize he must have come into the barn, seen me with Aleks, and still interrupted. Which means something significant must be wrong.

I slam my hands against Aleks’ chest once, twice, and then a third time.

And he finally releases me.

His eyes are predatory when he looks around the room.

John doesn’t bother hiding his dislike. He’s been ranting almost since Aleks showed up that the man is a drunk who never spends a second training horses. John’s said directly to Aleks that the fact that we’re not paying him anything but room and board means that we’re being cheated, badly. Of course, Aleks mostly pretended not to understand, but there’s no love lost between them.

The judgment in his face in the moment I meet John’s gaze stings.

It doesn’t help that I have no idea what in the world came over me. Why would I kiss Aleksandr Volkonsky, cursed horse shifter? The last thing I need is an ancient lunatic who can work magic only when he’s touching me. I need to get this curse lifted, get the money I paid to buy him back so I can pay the loan I took out, and then get him gone.

I’m still not sure what magical things he can even do, other than healing people and sometimes burying them alive. He keeps asking to “practice,” but the thought of following him around while he’s touching me and moving dirt?

Now that I’m actually thinking about touching him, my thoughts turn inappropriate. Which is just another reason to avoid him as much as possible.

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