Page 38 of Virgin's Stolen Nights with the Boss

But, no, she didn’t want to be dripping sweat and covered in horse hair and worse while all those elegant beauties were cool in the shade or under a gorgeous hat, sipping champagne...

Would Wanda be there? Or would it be one of his in-betweens?

Carmen was jealous, and she knew it. Though she firmly told herself it wasn’t because shelikedElias. Of course it wasn’tthat, she scoffed. She was jealous of his confidence, his inhibition. She wished she could date casually, like he did...

‘Why shouldn’t I?’ Carmen said aloud, leaving Capricorn to kick her hooves in the shallows while she took a seat on the beach.

She picked at the coral varnish on her toenails, wishing she’d brought her phone so she could try this internet dating that Laura kept telling her about...

But wasn’t Laura sleeping with John?

And she was fifty years old!

Not that age had ever stopped her parents. They’d been having sex when Papá had died—as Maria loved to reveal to anyone who stood still long enough to breathe in her presence.

Carmen had sworn off men and relationships a long time ago, and yet her twenty-six-year-old body seemed to have decided otherwise...

What is this sex thing we’ve been missing out on?it enquired as she lay in bed at night.Why do you have to take it all so seriously?it demanded, as she woke to the sound of Laura and John...

And now, with her ocean-soaked shorts riding up uncomfortably as she sat on the beach, those night-time thoughts were creeping in to her days too.

She turned when she heard Dom’s now familiar gait, and was surprised by the unexpected sight of Elias on the eve of the semi-final.

‘Hey,’ he said, having pulled Dom to a halt.

‘Hola,’Carmen said, annoyed at how her heart leapt. ‘She’s cooling off,’ Carmen said, nodding towards Capricorn.

‘I might let him go in too,’ Elias said.

Dom needed no encouragement or goading. As soon as he was unsaddled he went straight in, and Carmen laughed at the stallion’s obvious delight as he rolled onto his back and scissored his front legs.

With Dom safely loose in the water, Elias tried not to notice Carmen’s bare stomach, or that her nipples were pebbled beneath the wet bikini top. He took off his scruffy boots and joined her in sitting on the shoreline, pretending to be engrossed in the horses’ antics, while noting that even her feet were sexy.

‘How’s the real job?’ Carmen asked.

‘I signed off on a big project today,’ he said, nodding.

‘You did your risk assessments?’

‘This one’s a pretty safe bet.’

‘Is there such a thing in movies?’

‘Yep,’ he said, nodding again.

That producer had been right; the script was a guaranteed winner.

‘Well, so long as the leading actor doesn’t fall off the wagon...’

He sighed and closed his eyes, as if to shut out the long and tedious past couple of weeks.

Carmen’s arrival had been something of a saving grace...

‘Are you looking forward to tomorrow?’ she asked.

‘Not really,’ Elias replied, his eyes still closed. He was surprised by his own honesty.

‘You’ll miss him...?’

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