away.
He lifted his head and looked down at her, trying to translate her words. “I’ve never said those things to another woman,” he replied.
She watched him, wondering if he was sincere or again telling her what she wanted to hear. “That’s a shame. You might have made more progress in working your way through the female population if you had used those lines. They’re very pretty.”
She pushed away from him, standing up straight and stepping back. She was relieved that he allowed her the space because she was on the borderline between just letting him continue, wanting to know what all those other women knew. She wanted to feel what they experienced just once in her lifetime. With this man.
She knew she was close to giving in, to throwing caution to the wind and begging him to make love to her despite the fears that were always lurking in the back of her mind. Thankfully, sanity prevailed and she took a deep breath to steady herself. “I have to go,” she said, hurrying over to Dolce so she wouldn’t change her mind.
“Rachel!” He stopped her with a word and she froze. “What happened?” he asked, calm on the outside, but inside he was furious and confused, and in more pain from need than he’d ever experienced.
She shuddered and started to turn around, but stopped and continued walking away from him. “This just isn’t right, Rais. You’re experienced enough to get me to want you but it isn’t enough.”
“What the hell are you talking about, Rachel?” he demanded, striding around her so that he was in between her and her horse. “You were right there with me so don’t even deny that.”
“You’re a very experienced lover, Rais. Any woman would….feel things when you do that with her.”
He smiled and crossed his arms over his chest arrogantly. “Are you really going to stand there and tell me that the only reason you felt what you did was because I’m more experienced than your previous lovers?”
She wasn’t exactly sure how to answer that so she went with the truth. “I can honestly say that you’re significantly more experienced than all of my past lovers combined.”
That was such a stunning comment, he was actually speechless. He watched, dumbstruck, as she walked over to her horse and lifted herself up. With a last glance, she turned Dolce towards the stables and rode off, leaving him standing by the creek watching her, wanting her painfully. But more importantly, wanting to understand what she’d meant.
He’d bet large sums of money that, when he returned, she would have found an excuse to head back into the city. With a self-satisfied grin, he reached for his own stallion and saddled up himself. Giving her plenty of time to find her father and make her excuses, he rode the long way around the path, ending up in front of his own house and calling for his butler to take care of the horse. He normally preferred to rub down his mounts and ensure that they were well fed after he’d ridden them, but in this instance, he had plans to make, calls to put through.
The woman thought she could get away after making a comment like that? She didn’t know him very well.
Rachel rode right back to the stables, wanting to head back to her apartment. But she couldn’t do that. First of all, she hadn’t seen her father in several weeks and she knew he was lonely. Secondly, if she ran back to the city, Rais would know that he’d gotten to her. He might think her departure was proof that he had some sort of power over her. She couldn’t let him think that way. So she stayed, ready to keep her distance, but also wanting to show him that she wasn’t affected by him, that she didn’t need to run and hide about his statement.
Thinking that the safest place to avoid Rais would be hanging around the other stable help, she unsaddled Dolce, rubbed her down and then sent her out to the pasture to have fun. When she was finished, she looked around for her father, saw him working with one of the vets and gave him space. “Hi Jim,” she said to one of the other stable hands as she patted the horse he’d been working with into the pasture to follow Dolce. “Want some help?” she asked, taking one of the pitchforks off of the wall and moving into one of the other stalls,