Page 20 of Virgin's Stolen Nights with the Boss

Elias had nodded his agreement. Even though he usually left the hiring and firing to Blake, he’d fired the last stable hand himself.

‘You don’t mind showing her around?’ Blake had checked. ‘Erin called, and I do need to go and see her...’

‘What about Laura?’

‘She’s with the farrier. Do you want me to—?’

‘It’s fine,’ Elias had cut in, as if it were no trouble at all.

And now, those dark eyes bored into his back as he picked up a couple of apples and showed her around the yard.

‘Most of the horses are out, or waiting for their turn,’ he explained.

It was clear to Carmen that his brisk stride was familiar to the animals, because heads came over the stable doors to greet him.

‘This is Winnie.’ He took an apple and gave it to her. ‘She’s our top pony. I generally ride her in the first and fourth chukka.’

‘I’m completely lost,’ Carmen admitted. ‘I have no idea what a chukka is.’ She couldn’t help adding, ‘And that’s not a pony. She’s a horse.’

‘Yes, but in polo they’re all called ponies,’ he explained.

They moved swiftly on past several empty stables. ‘You can check they’ve been fed on the board in the main office, or on here—’ he pointed to the tablet beside each stable ‘—and make sure you update the record or they’ll end up being fed twice.’

‘Sure.’

‘It’s not complicated...’ he let out a tense breath ‘...you just swipe here...’

Carmen suppressed a smile as her impatient teacher showed her how to use a tablet as if she’d never seen one before.

‘I think I can manage,’ she said. ‘Butthank youfor your patience in explaining all this technology to me.’

He looked at her, unsure whether it was merely her rich accent and throaty words that had made her tone seem as if it was laced with sarcasm. And then, of course, there was that smile again—not as obvious as it had been on Saturday night, but there all the same.

‘I’ll take you in to meet Capricorn,’ Elias said, to cover his sudden and unexpected awkwardness.

His march to the next stable had begun, but Carmen didn’t rush to follow him. Instead, she gazed up at the magnificent high ceilings and the purpose-built yard that would be any horse-owner’s dream.

‘What’s down there?’ she asked.

But she was speaking to thin air, for he had already gone into the stable.

‘This is Capricorn,’ he said, stroking the neck of a beautiful grey thoroughbred mare who was clearly in foal.

The vet who was with her was taking out some equipment.

‘Come over,’ Elias invited Carmen. ‘If you work here you’ll be spending a lot of time with her.’

‘Hola, mi belleza,’she said as she approached and, unlike when she’d introduced herself to Dom, and put out a gentle hand, she was not warned to step back.

The mare sniffed the air, and as her velvet nostrils pushed past Carmen’s gloves and met the skin of her wrist Carmen almost wept. It had been six weeks of no horses, and for Carmen it suddenly felt as if she’d had six weeks of no sustenance, no food, no contact...

‘She’s restless,’ Elias told the vet as Carmen fussed over her. ‘She’s not settling at night. Just doesn’t want to lie down.’

‘Bored?’ the vet suggested. ‘Perhaps she hates missing out on game day.’

The vet examined her for signs of foaling, but there were none, so he listened for a long time to her heart rate, and that of the foal.

‘I’m worried about sleep deprivation,’ Elias said. ‘She’s jumpy...’

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