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)
I held up my hands in surrender this time. “I’m shutting up,” I said, smugly. But Sage watched me with narrowed eyes.
Turning on the TV, Sage snuggled beside me and said, “Now, put something on with hot, muscled men. I’ve fed my stomach with sugar and now need some for my eyes and spank bank later.”
“Thanks for that visual, Sage,” I said, dryly.
“You’re welcome, sweetie,” she said, and patted my hand.
We settled on Lord of the Rings because, well, Aragorn, but I could barely focus on the film. Instead, I racked my brain about what had happened between last night and today to make Jasper turn so cold. At the arena, he was wicked. It took every ounce of self-restraint I had not to dismount and slap him across his beautifully stubbled cheek. But I kept my shit together and did my job, despite my clawing need to argue back. It wasn’t easy for me to keep my mouth shut, but I’d endured it today. Jasper seemed off kilter, shaken somehow.
He reminded me of how Canyon spoke of troubled or hurt horses. They seemed violent and aggressive on the surface, but it was pure fear driving them. It just took someone understanding for their true selves to shine through. I wondered whether Jasper Knighton was the same.
Still, his words today hurt.
I was currently in Sage’s cottage, but her couch was the same as mine. I closed my eyes and remembered when Jasper had carried me back to my cottage from his car and laid me on the couch.
Night, Angel.
He’d called me angel. I was sure of it. And this time he hadn’t been drunk off whiskey. No, he’d been stone-cold sober and ran his fingers down my face and called me fucking angel. I may have been half asleep, but I was 100 percent sure of those things. And suddenly, today I couldn’t ride? My jumping was subpar? My leg position was wrong?
They weren’t. I wasn’t being cocky, but I had worked damn hard over the years to ensure I was the best, and Jasper Knighton in a savage mood was not going to derail me.
The longer I sat watching elves, hobbits, and men fight to save Middle Earth, the more the anger in me grew and grew until I needed to get up and move.
I shifted and Sage flopped to the couch, passed out from her sugar crash, no doubt. I covered her with a knitted throw from the back of the couch and kissed her good night on the cheek.
Locking Sage’s door, I grabbed my equirobe from my cottage’s entranceway and made my way across the fields to the barn, checking my pockets to make sure I had some Polos for Huxley. The mints were his favorite treat, and after the way we’d both been unfairly spoken to today, he deserved them.
Ten minutes later, I entered the barn and made a beeline for Huxley. My stallion was busy eating his hay but stopped when he saw me approaching with his snack.
I laid my hand flat and laughed as Huxley practically sucked up the mint like a vacuum. He crunched it quickly and immediately nudged my arm to give him more. I kissed his blaze and tickled his cheek. “You’re a sweetheart, baby,” I said, and gave him a cuddle, slipping him one more Polo for good measure.
I moved to Fefe next, who just scowled at me from the back of her stall. I held out my hand, showing her the mint. “Come on, princess. It’s for you.” She looked at me as though I was a lowly peasant and didn’t deserve any of her time. Rolling my eyes at her attitude, I dropped the mint to the ground in her stall. “I’ll leave it there for you, Moody.”
I walked away and smiled when I heard her munching it up. Sage had a real sassy pants there.
I found myself at the closed-off private Knighton part of the barn. I now knew I shouldn’t have been there. Jasper had told me so. But after today’s tongue lashing, fuck Jasper.
Undoing the bolt, I threw back the metal handle and slid the door open. Barnaby and Sebastian immediately came into view. I gave them each a Polo, then moved to Lady Aurelia. I slipped her a Polo too, and she was kind and appreciative, unlike Fefe.
I turned toward Lord Henry to give my favorite horse some love and treats, only to find his stall empty. My stomach fell and I rushed over to check he wasn’t lying on the floor with colic or worse.
My heart slammed in my chest, seeing it empty, and I began to panic. It was one in the freakin’ morning. Where could he be? I searched all over the barn, and with every empty stall and corner, true panic built within me.