Page 69 of My Queendom for a Horse

“Oh, Aleks can’t go with us,” I say.

John’s expression of utter and complete exasperation is actually pretty hilarious. “He’s the trainer, no? Or that’s what he claims to be, but he’s not going to attend the race for the horse he’s training?”

“He’s more about the method and the experiences,” I say. “Not the actual race.”

“He sounds like a new age snake oil salesman. The experience? What does that even mean?”

Aleks opens his mouth to tell John off, I’m sure, but my long time family friend was speaking way too fast for anyone to believe a new student of English might understand.

“Well, I’ve wrapped Five. I think it’s time to go to bed.” I fake a yawn.

John and Aleks both yawn too, and that has me yawning for real. Yawns are stupid. One day, we’ll discover the truth behind why we do it and how they spread, and it’s definitely something strange and possibly magical. I mean, if Aleks can suck people into the ground. . .maybe yawns are some kind of glitch in the fabric of our world that we all just collectively ignore.

“I’m heading back to the house.”

“I walk you,” Aleks says.

John lunges forward and grabs his arm. “Oh, no you don’t, lover boy. You can stay right here with me while the pretty lady heads home. I’ll let you go once she’s safe.”

Aleks shoots me a pointed look that says, Get me out of here, before you have to watch me rip his arm off and feed it to him.

But really, I know he’s a little scared of John. The old trainer’s like a second father to me, and I’d kill Aleks if he did anything harmful. Which means for once, Aleksandr is the one in trouble. He should be begging for my help.

Plus, John’s right. Lover boy should stay there while I get some sleep. So I abandon him with nothing more than a little wave. “Night.”

Aleks’ jaw drops as I walk away.

I realize, as I reach my room, that it’s the first night he hasn’t had access to the internet while in his human form. I finally got the internet to extend out to the barn so I don’t have to leave him my phone, but I didn’t take a laptop or an iPad or anything out there.

He’s going to be so bored. Maybe he’ll actually sleep for once, instead of staying up all night like a vampire.

For some reason, that thought makes me smile. I’ve never been someone who thought vampires were hot. Sucking blood? Deadly cold skin? Hard pass. But now I have a supernatural creature in my barn.

And he’s pressing me against the wall and kissing me.

I refuse to think about what might have happened if John hadn’t come to tell me the terrible news about Five. I mean, abscesses aren’t that bad, but it’s awful timing. The abscess. Not John saving me from myself. That was excellent timing. Practically miraculous.

Aleks is hot, sure. He’s commanding. He has powers. And he is a man who is also a horse, which is kind of what I was begging the universe to give me. But he’s not the good things about a horse—patient, submissive, and supportive.

No, he makes me feel things. Too many things. And he’s always pushing to get his way. He argues. He digs. He presses. When I disagree, he jumps ridiculously tall fences and chases me down, forcing my hand.

Buying him was the worst mistake I’ve ever made.

I can’t regret helping free a person from being stuck in the form of a horse forever, and I know it sucks he was cursed and all, but there’s not much more I can do. Once I have the money to repay the loan I took out from Sean to pay that first balloon payment, once I don’t need him as collateral, I’ll kick him out and be done with the whole mess.

Until then, I just need to focus on what matters.

Which is not kissing him. Not wrecking my future with Sean, which is looking brighter by the day, and not throwing away everything I want for one hot moment of rippling abs and burning skin. Of course, now I’m thinking of touching the body I’ve seen way too many times. A body I can absolutely envision any second of the day.

I shake my head and stand up to change into pajamas.

And practically have a heart attack.

Because Aleksandr waves at me through my second floor window.

“What on earth are you doing?”

“I used to be great at climbing trees,” he practically shouts. “Turns out, it’s harder when you’re much heavier. I think this branch might break. Can you let me in?”

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