Page 33 of Virgin's Stolen Nights with the Boss

‘Finally!’ Elias said, as Domitian snorted and took himself off.

They leant on the fence again, and Carmen ventured a little more about herself, though it was nothing she hadn’t already told Blake.

‘I’ve worked with dressage horses before. I could do some work with Dom,’ Carmen offered. ‘There was a two-year-old Criollo once, and I managed to—’

‘Carmen, I hardly think—’ He stopped, clearly checking his tone, which she could hear had veered towards derision. ‘Criollo are easy-going.’

‘Hmm...’ she said. She didn’t fully agree with him.

‘What does“hmm”mean?’

‘Had you not cut me off, I would have explained further...’ she teased him.

It was just banter, she told herself. Because here she was free and could be anyone she wanted to be. She had no intention of revealing the true extent of her skills and training, but the secret knowledge of it gave her the confidence to toy with him.

‘So, now you don’t get to know.’

He gave a half-smile, clearly not believing a stable hand could really have anything of benefit to offer in this situation.

So she persisted. ‘Have you ever considered—?’

‘Carmen,’ he cut in. ‘We’re working on it. And, while I can see you have no fear around horses, sometimes a little fear is a good thing.’

‘I do have fear,’ she corrected.

‘Then you do a very good job of hiding it.’ He shook his head. ‘Look, I’ve solicited more opinions on Dom than I can count. He’s already seeing an equine psychotherapist—’

‘Both of you see the therapist together?’ Carmen checked, with a mischievous edge to her tone.

‘Yep,’ he said, laughing. ‘And, let me tell you, it’s the closest to couple’s therapy I’ll ever get.’

Carmen laughed too.

‘Look, Blake and I are both going to put more time in with him.’ Elias let out a breath. ‘Well, that’s the plan. Depending on...you know...the LA stuff.’

She knew he was referring to his work outside of the polo yard. ‘The grooms say you finance movies?’

‘Not me personally.’ He let out a low, slightly mirthless laugh. ‘It’s an investment firm. I mainly do the risk assessments.’

It was Elias holding back now. Holding back the fact that he’d far rather beherethanthere—how the board were demanding more, his father was demanding more. Not because the firm wasn’t doing well, but because they were. And of course they wanted more, more,more...

He settled for: ‘It’s pretty full-on. Of course it’s full-on here too, and unfortunately I can’t be in two places at once.’

‘There needs to be two of you.’ Carmen smiled.

‘There used to be.’

Even as her mind translated his words into Spanish she opened her mouth to respond. But for once she was grateful for that slight pause the translation allowed for, because it halted the light-hearted comment she’d been about to make and she recalled something Laura had said.

‘You lost someone?’

‘Joel—my twin.’

‘I’m sorry.’

‘You weren’t to—’ he started, but then took a quick breath. ‘You didn’t hear my speech at the awards night?’

‘No.’ She shook her head. ‘I was busy getting myself fired.’

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