Xavier’s hands travel up my body, pausing to squeeze my breasts before coming to hold the sides of my face again.
And God, him cupping my face while kissing me with those soul-deep kisses? It’s enough to have my stomach dropping out beneath the floor.
I can’t help the low moan that rumbles out of my throat. I know I just came twice but I’m already primed and ready again.
“The animals will be fine for one day, surely. How about we take the day off?” I look up at him hopefully.
But Xavier pulls away, shaking his head in amusement, eyes still centered on my lips.
I try to lean forward to recapture his lips with mine. “Then how about just for the morning. They’ll be okay for one little morning. Think of it as letting them sleep in.”
He laughs full out, halting my progression by grabbing my upper arms. “Horses barely sleep. I never break routine. And,” his eyes flick up to the clock on the wall behind me, “we’re already late as it is.”
Then he’s standing up, hauling me with him as he goes.
He ignores my pouting lip. “Would it make a difference if I begged?” I try.
I get one of his rare grins at that. Along with a smack on my ass. “By all means, go ahead and find out.”
I put on my prettiest pleading face. “Please, Xavier, can we postpone chores so that I can feel your delicious cock filling me up so good?”
His jaw tenses and eyes darken at my words but then he smiles and smacks my ass again. “No.”
And with that single word of dismissal, he turns and heads for the door.
My mouth drops open. “No? What do you mean, no?” I demand, stalking after him.
He holds out an arm, gesturing for me to go out the door ahead of him. As if he’s some gentleman.
I cross my arms and glare at him.
“Pet, don’t test me. Remember who’s the Master here. Nothing’s changed. I make the rules and you obey them.”
I expel a huge breath of air. Nothing’s changed? Nothing’s changed?
Okay, good to know that even in my new state of relative bliss, he can still piss me off like no one else ever before in my whole life.
“But you said all I had to do was beg,” I remind him, both genuinely confused and barely suppressing the urge to flip him off. “I’m following your rule.”
“That was a one-time offer. You don’t get to simply snap your fingers and I drop my pants at your beck and call.” He says it so calmly.
“Oh, but you can snap your fingers and I do?”
His eyes don’t even flicker once. “Now you’re getting it.”
I scoff in outrage, throw my hands up in the air, and then stalk off in the direction of the stables. It’s barely sunrise, light just filtering over the horizon, dew wet on the ground.
I walk as quickly as I can, but annoyingly, Xavier is at my side within two strides, easily keeping stride. Stupid man with his stupid long legs.
But then he reaches down, takes my hand, and intertwines our fingers.
And a dumb, girlish part inside me squees, zomg, he’s holding my hand!
“We couldn’t waste any more time inside,” Xavier finally explains, leading us around the stable, “because we have to bring Hellfire in from the pasture and get him ready for the farrier.”
I look over at him. Why couldn’t he have just said that from the start? Frustrating man. I decide to let it go. At least he’s explaining now. “What’s that?”
“A farrier?” He glances down at me, then shakes his head. “It’s easy to forget how green you are sometimes.” My teeth start to grit, but then he finishes his thought, “—you’re getting so good with the horses.”
Oh. Well. That sorta makes me glow inside.
“A farrier specializes in taking care of horse hooves,” he continues, “trimming them and putting shoes on if they need them. Hellfire’s got chronic laminitis and it flares every summer. The farrier trims his hooves and I’ve been packing his ankles with ice packs to try to make him more comfortable.”
I nod. I’ve seen Xavier attending to the horse morning and night.
We round the stable and head toward the back pasture.
“Is it serious?”
The grim look on Xavier’s face tells me all I need to know. “We’ve been keeping it under control for several years now.”
We crest a small hill and the back pasture comes into view. Paddyshack is standing near the back fence.
Xavier drops my hand and starts running before I realize anything’s wrong.
I head after him. “What? What is it?” But then I get it. I don’t see Holy Hellfire anywhere in the pasture.
At first I think it means that he got out somehow. That he broke through the fence.
Xavier’s long-legged stride has him all the way across the field by the time I’m only halfway and when I see him drop to his knees in the tall grass, it dawns on me.