I couldn’t have Cricket leaving me, not yet, not ever.
I was better when she was with me.
I continued brushing, moving to the next horse and losing myself in the task at hand as thoughts of our dance on the dance floor came back to me. I should have had Sandie bring her a dress she’d be comfortable in, not a dress that made me crazy for her and made the Queen want to kill me.
I grinned at the memory, she’d looked so hot though, it was a wonder I didn’t get in more fights that night. But then, I’d been too involved in her to notice what anyone else was doing.
“Keir?” Her voice caused my spine to stiffen.
“Yeah?” I came around the horse.
Cricket.
“Morning.” She handed me what was one of my travel mugs. “I brought your coffee, I think you forgot it.”
“I didn’t forget.”
“Oh, but it was burning, that’s what woke me up—the smell.”
“Good, you’ll need strong coffee for your interview at the Royal Hospital.”
“Wait? What?” She stepped closer. “Did I get the interview? How do you know?”
“I saw the letter when I got the mail this morning.”
“Oh.” Her eyes fell.
“Yeah. Oh my thought exactly.”
“Keir, I told you this probably wasn’t a good fit for me.”
“I’m a good fit for you. Don’t you see that?”
“Keir—”
“Don’t do that. Don’t use that voice on me. I get that I’m an unbearable prick you can’t stand to be around. Get in line.”
I threw the brush into the bucket of tools and turned on her.
Slotting our fingers together, I forced her back against the barn wall and sucked in the flesh beneath her ear savagely before nipping at the shell and breathing, “You can’t leave.”
“I need to, Keir.”
“I’ll tie you to my bed. I need you in my life, Cricket, you’re the only thing that makes me feel normal again.”
“Keir, don’t do that! Don’t make me stay, it’s my life and the fact is I just don’t belong in yours. Your friend was right, I’ll never be anything more than a peasant to these people. I’m just a broken plaything to them.”
“These aren’t my people. You are my people.” I caught her wrists and drew her to me. “You’re not broken, you’re an angel. An angel I can’t get out of my head. I think about you all night long. Think about how you tasted, the sound you’d make if I fucked you like you need to be fucked. I think about the way your back would arch.” I darted my fingertips along her waist and a slow shudder coursed through her. The lightweight cotton of her dress didn’t hide the hard buds of her nipples.
I sucked in a sharp breath as she moved closer. Breathing in my ear, I skimmed the line of my nose along the flesh at her neck. Her eyes fluttered closed as she sighed with pleasure.
“Congratulations on your new job, by the way,” I grit, taking a handful of her bare ass cheek under her dress and squeezing.
I groaned when her heat pressed against my straining erection.
My palm curved around her thigh and hooked around my hip. “I bet you’re wet right now, aren’t you, Cricket? You get off on fucking around with both of us, don’t you?” I slid a finger down her inner thigh and then up under her dress. She pressed her lips together, eyes still closed. “I can smell how hot you are right now—how much you want this. How much you want me.”
“I shouldn’t,” she whispered.
“Oh, I’m aware,” I growled. “I crave the smell of you on me.”
“I should go,” she moaned.
“Then go,” I said, before trailing my tongue over her collarbone and catching a bead of dampness that was headed for her cleavage.
And then my fingertips slipped under her panties and dusted across her hot pussy.
“Keir…”
“I should fuck you right here. I think you'd like that,” I whispered.
“I’m not yours,” she whimpered.
I pulled away, glaring down at her. “You’re right. You never were, were you?”
Tears puddled in her eyes and I knew my words had left their mark. She turned and walked out of the barn, taking my heart along with her.
EIGHT
Anna
Trembles shook my muscles as I walked down the path away from the clubhouse. My time with Keir was already over. I’d only wanted to have a backup plan so I didn’t feel so trapped and so I’d applied at the hospital just to see if I even had a shot.
It turns out I did. And now that I knew I did, I didn’t want it. I felt more trapped than ever at the thought of leaving Keir. The truth was he was good, we were good, until we weren't. Until my worry and anxiety about disappointing the Queen got the better of me, but Keir didn’t seem to have that problem. He lived his life on no one else’s terms but his, and I envied him.