Page 34 of Virgin's Stolen Nights with the Boss

‘Ah, yes.’ He smiled, clearly recalling the small diversion she had caused.

‘Well, I heard the bit when you spoke about grief,’ Carmen admitted. ‘How old was he when he died?’

‘Thirty,’ Elias said, and then added rather pointedly. ‘We were talking on the phone when it happened. He was driving and I was—Well, I heard—’

Carmen swallowed, understanding a little better now why he’d been so cross earlier. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said. ‘That must have been...’ Her voice faded. ‘I can’t think of the right word.’

‘I don’t think there is one,’ he said, ‘in either of our languages.’

He turned his attention back to Dom, and although she rather guessed he’d prefer that she leave it there, she couldn’t. ‘Identical twins?’

‘No,’ he said, and breathed out a half-laugh that Carmen couldn’t decipher. ‘We weren’t identical in any way...’

He didn’t elaborate. But before she knew what he was doing, Elias had jumped the fence and was approaching the stallion, ready to do some work with him.

Playtime was over.

CHAPTER SEVEN

OCCASIONALLYTHEREWASan amnesty between them. Some nights, when they passed each other on the beach, he would nod to her; other nights he would be too far in the distance.

‘Look at that,’ she marvelled on one such night, more to herself than to Capricorn, as she watched Dom rear up while Elias leaned in and clung on to his back with his strong thighs.

They both looked magnificent, Carmen thought. Elias because he allowed the animal to be himself while remaining in complete control, and Domitian because he was simply a beautiful creature.

Some evenings Elias didn’t acknowledge her at all.

‘Don’t mind him,’ said John, who was riding Rocky at the time. He must have seen her face as Elias galloped past without even looking. ‘He’s like that with everyone. Well, not his fancy friends in the city...’

Carmen wanted to correct John, because that wasn’t the man she had come to know, but then she thought of how he’d been when she’d first arrived. And then, as she thought of the awards night when she’d first met him, telling that blonde woman to go to hell and snapping at his date, she wanted to correct John again.

Eliaswaslike that witheveryone.

Though perhaps, at times, not with her...

The next night when it just Carmen and Capricorn on the beach Elias reined Dom into a walk as he approached them. He wore short boots that were as scruffy as her own for his rides on the beach, so it wasn’t his casual attire that was different. There was just a more relaxed feeling in the air.

‘Hola,’Carmen said, and now when she put up her hand to stroke Dom, Elias no longer warned her off.

She gently stroked the soft nose and the stallion nudged at her shorts.

‘I had treats in there!’ Carmen laughed.

‘Not for him, I hope.’

‘Of course not,’ she lied. ‘My boss won’t let me,’ she said with a wry smile.

She stroked Dom’s ears and, although she spoke to the horse, it was clear for whom her words were intended.

‘I’d love to work with you, Dom, if only your owner wasn’t so determined to keep you all to himself.’

‘Carmen, evenIcan’t handle him some days! His previous owner was going to destroy him. And he threw your predecessor—’

‘From everything I’ve heard,Iwould throw Martin.’

‘Maybe...’ Elias laughed and jumped down.

It was as though, on occasion, they called a truce, he thought. On certain evenings he found the opportunity to be on the receiving end of a dose of her opinionated conversation irresistible.

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