Page 62 of Virgin's Stolen Nights with the Boss

She didn’t need to explain that she had been lucky enough to have seen many beautiful beaches in her life, but had never sat on one and felt like this before, because she knew Elias felt exactly the same way.

There was an undeniable connection.

And for Elias, who hadn’t felt even remotely connected to the world for years, and who could only snatch brief moments of stillness when galloping on an untamed horse, it was like a rare gift.

‘If we’re putting last night down to a one-night stand,’ he told her as he lay back on the sand, ‘we’re still technically within that window...’

‘What window?’ Carmen asked.

‘This one,’ he said, and pulled her down by his side.

It was so good to lie there by his side.

‘You scared the life out of me on Dom last night,’ he admitted.

‘I knew what I was doing. But, yes, I agree. It was a little foolish to take him out with no one around.’

‘Alittlefoolish?’ he repeated.

He stroked her hair and she could see the steady thump of his heart in his throat.

‘You are an incredible rider,’ he told her.

‘Can I take Dom out again, then?’

‘You can do some basic work with him, so long as someone else is there.’

She pulled a face. ‘Some risk-taker you are!’

‘Just basic work,’ he said again.

The boring stuff, the repetitive stuff, the over and over and over stuff—that was how conversation usually felt for Elias. An effort. But not of late.

‘This beach is more comfortable than my mattress,’ Carmen told him. ‘Why don’t you sort out the accommodation in the lodge?’

‘I keep hoping my mother might change her mind and take it on.’

‘While you’re waiting for that, your staff are sleeping on deck rope.’

He smiled ruefully. ‘I know I have to sort the lodge out.’

‘Do,’ Carmen said, standing up for her colleagues while understanding now that he had hoped his mother might take on the task. ‘I’m so pleased I came to Malibu,’ she told him.

‘So am I.’

‘I have the most beautiful horse in the world at home.’

‘What’s his name?’

‘Hername is Presumir,’ Carmen said. ‘It means to show off, and she does it very well. She’s being looked after by a friend while I’m here, being very spoiled.’

‘You miss her.’

It was a statement, not a question.

‘I feel like I’m having a heart attack when I think of her,’ she admitted. ‘But I just needed to get away. We have a saying in Spain:Huye de las personas que apagan tu sonrisa—run away from the people who turn off your smile. And since my mother returned, since my father died, I’d stopped smiling.’

‘So youwererunning away?’

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