Her Tender Tyrant Page 0,9

at the thought of him being in the house alone with Juliette. “No. Absolutely not.”

There was another long pause before Dylan let loose with a whistle. “Okay. Got it.”

Again, Marcus had no idea what Dylan meant, but he didn’t have the time or the energy to figure out his older brother. “Look, obviously marriage and fatherhood has muddled your brain. Again, what you need is a vacation. Without Julia. Bring her here and I’ll help her learn to ride like a real woman should ride.”

Dylan laughed. “She has her own pony here and she’s just started jumping.”

Marcus didn’t like that one little bit. “Are you sure she’s strong enough to jump?”

“You should see her. Her pony leaps over the crossbars like a pro and Julia is just a nimble little sprite. She’s a true horsewoman.”

“Just like her grandmother,” Marcus said, thinking of how his mother had taught all of them to ride when they were kids.

“Exactly. I think she has the fever.”

“Poor Dad. I’ll pray for you.”

Dylan said something rude that made Marcus laugh even harder. They rung off a moment later and Marcus stood outside on the stone patio, trying to decide what to do. In the end, he walked right back into his father’s office and pressed a speed dial on his phone, connecting to the Paris office. “Okay, go. Tell me the latest.” And with that, he pushed his exasperating woman out of his mind. Or at least pretended to for the next two hours.

Chapter 2

“Well, hello there big boy!”

Marcus heard the soft voice and the laughter that followed. The voice was none other than Juliette’s and the rage that shot through him with her words just about blew his mind. “What the…”

The stubborn woman had been avoiding him for the past two days and he was furious that she’d been so successful. After their morning encounter that first day, he’d been working like a devil to finalize the details from his parents’ house. Not an easy task when his executive team was in Paris right now. Hell, he should be in Paris as well. He would have hired a housekeeper to take care of the house but every time he started to give that instruction to his assistant, the image of Juliette’s soft, curvy figure popped into his mind and he rejected the idea.

There was just something about the woman that challenged him. He couldn’t define it, but he couldn’t seem to stay away either.

So when he hadn’t been able to corner her again, to see her brown eyes fire up in anger, his frustration level rose exponentially. The damn woman was hiding from him and he didn’t like it.

He liked even less the idea that popped into his head after those words. Hearing her voice, those soft, sexy tones soothing some other man, he instantly thought that the reason she’d been avoiding him, the reason he hadn’t caught a glimpse of her recently, was because she had some other man giving her what he was determined to do. And damn it, he wasn’t going to allow that!

He stopped halfway down the center aisle of the stable when she spoke again. He wasn’t exactly sure which stall she was in, but it had to be one of the empty ones. It was hard to have a tryst with a guy when a huge horse was in the way. Besides, horses wouldn’t take too kindly to having their space invaded.

“Stop it! You’re tickling me!” she said and laughed again. “Oh no you don’t! That’s all you get. You’re too greedy.”

Who the hell was greedy? And how dare she bring a guy here to his mother’s stables! Juliette was supposed to be studying the horses, not giving them an education on sexual conduct.

Her laughter trilled once more and his rage almost exploded. “Nope. That’s all there is. I’m done with you. You’ll just have to wait until tomorrow before you can have more. You know I’m not supposed to…”

Juliette felt the breath get knocked out of her when a steel band wrapped around her waist. Her back was pressed up against a hard wall or…nope, that wasn’t a wall, that was a warm, hard chest!

“What are you doing?” she demanded when she could breathe again. Her fingers were gripping his arm while her feet dangled about a foot off the floor. “Marcus! Let me go!”

“Who the hell is in here with you?” he demanded.

She twisted as much as she could but it wasn’t very much so the glare