Page 28 of Virgin's Stolen Nights with the Boss

Lunch was usually leftovers from the previous evening’s dinner, in a wrap, as well as fruit and yoghurt or something similar.

Generally by the time they got to the yard Dom had already been ridden, or they’d stand around waiting for him to get back.

‘Elias should just get it done,’ John would moan, and a few others would agree that Dom was a hopeless case.

Yet Carmen knew different.

She was slipping him treats, even going into his stable at times, and Dom was beginning to give her space...to let her move around him without startling or reacting.

This morning she was taking out Winnie and two others, trailing Laura who, as always, had her earbuds in. Sometimes Carmen would overtake her, because she loved these mornings, cantering along a stretch of flat, then walking up a long track lined with trees and eventually emerging into sunlight that painted the sky lilac, lavender and then blue. It always took her breath away.

Carmen trotted on, loving the sound of the joyous snorting the animals made as they stretched their legs. She passed other sets and felt her heart rate lifting as she relaxed into the moment. For the first time since her father’s death she felt as if she could fully breathe—as if her lungs were filling again after being crushed inside her chest for too long.

LA had been lonely. She was used to her brothers, family and friends, and had loved life until her mother had returned.

Actually, that wasn’t true, she acknowledged.

She pulled on the reins and slowed the set to a walk as they looked down at the valley.

Carmen knew she had never truly been at peace...

She’d never truly fitted in...

Some of her ‘friends’, Carmen knew, liked her only for the invitations to Romero functions—like the parties that had used to be held on her brother’s yacht—and Carmenalwayspaid for lunch or dinner... As for family... While she loved her brothers, she wished they would stop pushing her to become close with their new wives.

She’d even had a row with Sebastián a couple of weeks before she’d left.

‘Would Anna really love you if you weren’t a Romero?’ Carmen had asked, in her oh-so-direct way. ‘Seriously, would she?’

‘Do you know what, Carmen?’ her brother had said. ‘She loves mein spiteof it.’ He had glared at his sister. ‘We’re not exactly a welcoming lot.’

Yet, despite her inner turmoil, on this beautiful hazy Malibu morning Carmen felt she was starting to know peace.

‘How did I ever think I needed a break from you?’ she asked the animals she was getting to know.

She breathed in their earthy scent and felt the cool shade of the forest, waving to Laura, who had turned now to head back, racing with John along the flat.

Then, as it did most mornings, her mind flicked to Elias...

Laura’s easy admission that everyone had a crush on Elias had made her smile, and yet for Carmen it was such an unfamiliar sensation.

He was the first man to have sparked her interest since her move to America. In fact, if she were being honest with herself, she had to admit that he was the first man she hadeverbeen truly attracted to.

Carmen huffed out a breath and turned her set for home.

She had been on many dates, all vetted by herpapáor her brothers, that had bored her to tears. She’d been out with a few with guys she knew they didn’t approve of too... But she had never once experienced true attraction—that feeling when you actually ached at the sight of his bare skin, or when a mole upon a shoulder became a memory...

She was done with men, Carmen reminded herself, taking out her cell phone.

Laura listened to podcasts as she rode, and some of the others listened to books or music, but Carmen made use of the time difference and often caught up with family as she rode, knowing it was afternoon back in Jerez.

‘How’s America?’ Alejandro asked this morning, and they chatted away in Spanish for a while.

‘Better now I’m back with horses.’

‘I knew you’d miss them. How is it being a stable hand?’

‘Frustrating at times, but mostly I love it.’ She told him about her secret work with Dom. ‘If the boss decides to geld him I’m blowing my cover and buying him. I want him to sire Presumir...’

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