Total pages in book: 141
Estimated words: 128313 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 642(@200wpm)___ 513(@250wpm)___ 428(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 128313 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 642(@200wpm)___ 513(@250wpm)___ 428(@300wpm)
When I made it to the next corner, I clicked my tongue, and Henry effortlessly transitioned to canter. He was smooth, and I felt like a child on a carousel, imagining I was on the real thing. But I was on the real thing. The best real thing. And I knew I’d never ride another horse like Henry.
“You’re beautiful,” I said to Henry. “What a gentleman.”
Henry looked to a fence again, and giving him what he wanted, I turned and headed for the Pantheon-themed vertical, with two columns as the wings. Henry didn’t even bat an eye at the fence’s design. He sped up for the jump, head high and determined, and sailed us over. Time felt suspended as he went airborne. I smiled as we cleared the fence, landing as soft as a feather.
Jasper clapped and his responding smile was blinding. “Perfect, Hallie,” he said. But I couldn’t speak. The lump in my throat stole any words I could muster. When I turned Henry to the next fence, the wind of our jump dried the falling tears off my cheeks. And the tears didn’t stop until we’d cleared the course and I’d brought Henry to a halt near the men.
Jasper was at my side in seconds. Seeing me smiling through my grateful tears, Jasper’s eyes shone too. “You approve?” he asked, gravel in his voice.
“I approve,” I said, laughing. I felt high with happiness.
“We need to have several sessions with you on him before Saint-Tropez,” Leon said, his no-nonsense attitude slicing through the sentiment of this moment.
I nodded. He was right.
We had work to do.
And I had a dream horse to get to know.
Will and Debbie rode with us in the elevator, and when we left them at their posts for the night, Jasper and I beelined straight for my room. Only this time when the door shut behind us, there was no urgency. Even though we hadn’t seen each other for a week, the raw need to rip one another’s clothes off in seconds wasn’t there. Instead, the air was thick between us, like it had its own life force, its own heartbeat. I held Jasper’s hand tightly and we stopped in the middle of the room. Our gazes caught, and my breathing was stuttered.
I wanted to say a million things to this man, this incredibly sweet and broken man, but no words would do it justice. The gift he had given me tonight . . . and I wasn’t even just talking about Henry. I was talking about him. Jasper, over the past few months, had slowly let me in. But tonight, telling me he loved me . . . He had finally given me what I wanted most—his heart, his soul . . . all of him.
“I love you,” Jasper said again, his raspy voice like a lullaby to my ears. I soaked those words in, letting them fill whatever cracks still lay in my heart.
Jasper reached for the quarter zip on my shirt and then lifted it over my head. Leaning down, Jasper kissed my lips, but before I could push for more, he withdrew. Reaching behind me, he unclasped my bra and dropped it to the floor.
“Beautiful,” Jasper murmured, as his gaze ran over my breasts. He kissed me on my cheek, gentlemanly, softly. I shivered, goose bumps breaking out all over me, not from the cold, but from anticipation of what tonight held—what it meant for us both. We’d never gone slow in our lovemaking. Always hot and heavy and full of commands and domination.
Tonight was different, we both knew it. We were different.
We were in love.
Jasper got down onto his knees and pressed a single kiss to my torso. Taking hold of the waistband of my riding tights, he pulled them down my legs. One at a time, he tapped each of my legs, signaling for me to lift them so he could remove the tights completely. My riding socks came next, until I stood in only my panties.
Running his palms up my bare calves, then thighs, Jasper looked up at me and said, “That night in the barn, when I first saw you, I thought you were an angel.” His palms created warm paths as he ran them up and down my skin. “You were so fucking beautiful, I didn’t believe you could actually be real.” I felt tears prick my eyes.
Hooking his fingers into the waist of my panties, he dragged them down my legs, never breaking eye contact with me as he did. Like he didn’t want to miss a moment of this night.
When he’d tossed them aside, Jasper rose, but not before leaning forward and laying a chaste kiss on my pussy. I gasped, craving more, but then Jasper was already on his feet. I stayed still as he shed his shirt, his boots, then his breeches and boxer briefs.