“Oh, bother your scruples!” said Katherine glumly. “I’ll
simply have to lie to him, myself. Where is your mirror? Don’t
you dare tell me you haven’t a mirror somewhere!” Frantically
pinching her cheeks, Katherine leaned over the little bedside
table and looked into the small looking glass Sera placed there
for her.
“That’s it,” she said with satisfaction. “If I run all the way
back to the palace, my cheeks will be on fire and I’ll be
breathless. A sudden case of something or other—palpitations,
maybe. I must hurry before I’m caught out. Nikki is terribly
clever, blast him.” Katherine paused on her way to the door.
“You don’t have to lie, Sera. Just don’t say anything that
will make him disapprove of me.”
Sera gave her reassuring smile. “I promise.”
***
Nicholas strolled toward the stable feeling the smile on his
face widen into a grin. Something definitely was afoot. He knew
immediately, of course, that Katherine’s flushed face and
breathlessness were self-induced. She’d barely had time to sprint
back when he’d accosted her in the courtyard. He anticipated a
miracle cure when she discovered that he had just requested the
pastry chef serve iced gateaux with tea.
He was looking forward to his ride now more than ever.
Katherine was one subject both he and Sera could discuss
without making the issue a spitting contest between them. He
entered the stable near the alcove where Sera’s chamber lay.
Momentarily adjusting his eyes to the darkness inside, he sought
out her room.
He’d made it his business to know its location as soon as
he had discovered she was still sleeping in the stable. Standing
before the door, he placed his hand on it in a light, unconscious
caress of the warm oak. Before he could knock, the door, not
completely latched, swung open.
He saw Sera then. She sat straight-backed upon a chair, her
loose linen gown flowing about her body. Sunlight from an open
window poured down upon her like a stream as she plaited her
long hair. Each strand seemed made of living gold. He stood in
the shadowed aisle watching her, knowing that he had no right
to spy like some obsessed degenerate skulking in shadows. But
he was helpless to stop.
She must have felt his scrutiny, for she quickly tied the
braid with a blue ribbon and glanced his way. The swiftness
with which she rose to face him and the wary look on her face
saddened him.
He cleared his throat. “Katherine has developed a most
inconvenient case of the grippe,” he told her, watching her glide
toward him, her gown flowing against her in the sudden breeze.
“I hope you’ll take me as a substitute today.”
Sera inclined her head. “I shall saddle your horse, Nicholas
Rostov.”
Why must she pretend to be a servant when everything about
her screamed aristocrat, damnit? He took her arm to stop her
from slipping past him and kept the irritation he felt from his
voice. “The grooms will saddle my horse and yours, Sera. I
hear he now tolerates others near him.”
She looked down at her hands folded in front of her. “Very
well,” she said. “I’ll go and ask them.”
“I have already ordered it done.”
Nicholas waited with Sera in the stable yard. She looked
everywhere but at him, and Nicholas quite clearly heard her
sigh of relief when Ned and another of the grooms brought the
horses forward. Her bright chestnut wore no saddle, at all.
Nicholas moved to assist her in mounting, only to find her
already sitting astride the chestnut with the reins in her hands.
His eyes widened, but he said nothing before the others.
When they had left the yard far behind them, he walked his
horse close to hers. “I suppose you’ve been teaching Katherine
to ride like this,” he said, his eyes glued to the sight of a trim,
booted ankle peeking from beneath her skirts.
“She only does so in the privacy of the park, Nicholas
Rostov. And only for as long as it takes her to learn balance.
She plans to ride sidesaddle as soon as she’s confident enough.”
“Very well.” The sun illuminated Sera’s face and left him
feeling tongue-tied as a young boy with his first dancing partner.
Funny, when he was away from Sera, he never thought
consciously of her beauty. He was too obsessed with visions of
her body beneath his.
They rode on in silence for a few moments, until Nicholas
made an inarticulate sound of frustration. “What does she think
I’ll do? Imprison her for riding bareback?”
Sera’s voice was very soft. “She is afraid to disappoint you.”
Nicholas ran his fingers through his hair. “Doesn’t she know
that I would do anything for her?”
“That is not the same thing at all. She wants your approval,
not your protection.”
Nicholas stared at Sera for a long moment. He had worked
for so long to provide for everyone and make decisions that
would keep them all safe. A fearsome question pricked him.
Did he really know the first thing about Katherine or his people?
He shook his head. “Tell me, little magician, how you
convinced my sister that she could ride that mare when one of
the best riding masters in Europe could not.”
The set of her shoulders relaxed, perhaps because of his
compliment. Maybe she liked it when he didn’t play the king.
“Oh, it was quite easy, actually,” Sera said, slanting a look
at him from beneath her lashes. “I don’t know how your women
put up with those stiff things,” she said. “How can you feel the
movements of a horse beneath you in any saddle, for that
matter?”
“You know,” he said. “One of the best rides I’ve ever had
was on one of the worst nights I can remember. I daresay you
remember little of it, but your chestnut carried both of us for
hours to the border and beyond. He has a canter that rolls like
waves.”
He watched her as she stretched her hands high to the sky
in an age-old gesture of sensuality and freedom. “Wind Rider
is magical. At home in the hills, I ride him every day. I need to,
for my spirit is not as calm and reasoned as it should be. But
Wind Rider does not care whether I am filled with storms. And
when we are through with our gallop, I am peaceful again.”
She smiled, seemingly unaware of what she was doing to
him, how his body was beginning to throb.
“But Katherine only needed balance. After she learned the
rhythm, we played tag in the clearing.” Sera pointed ahead to a
close meadow rimmed in the gold and brown colors of the oak
trees. “Wind Rider is fast, but that little mare is even faster. She
wheels and veers so quickly, I fell off twice trying to escape
Katherine.”
Nicholas pictured two young girls full of high spirits, madly
circling their horses and sprinting after each oth
er. “I wish I
had been there to see it or even to play.”
“You, Nicholas Rostov?”
“Do you think I’m such a stuffy curmudgeon that I won’t
even play a game of tag?” He used the full force of the Rostov
frown, just to make her eyes flash.
“I think you’d lose on that great war horse of yours, that’s
what I think.”
“Oh, you do, do you?” It was a direct challenge, and from
the way she squared her shoulders, Sera obviously knew it.
“The one with the shortest arms gets the crop,” she said,
and leaned into him so quickly that the whip was out of his
hands before he could fully grasp it. She galloped toward the
meadow full tilt, her long braid bouncing against her back with
every lift of the horse’s haunches.
He watched her race away, and a longing that had nothing
to do with lust churned deep inside him, almost making him
ache. A simple game of tag. When had he last played a game of
any kind? For five minutes, he could do so and the world
wouldn’t stop spinning on its axis. Just five minutes—
Nicholas’s blood raced in his veins as he urged the horse
on behind her. “One game, until the sun sinks just behind the
mountain. Winner awarded one forfeit,” he shouted after her.
her.
“Agreed!” she called over her shoulder and wheeled the
horse to the right, dashing to the narrow end of the clearing to
wait, and then attack.
It took Nicholas longer than five minutes to learn Sera’s
strategy, and then he began to turn the tables on her. She was
coming in closely, darting past as she aimed her crop to touch
his shoulder, when the sun hit the rim of the mountain to the
west.
Nicholas grabbed the end of the crop. Something glad and
triumphant rose in his chest. “Done,” he said, feeling the grin
widen on his face. “I win by one point.”
She sat the horse, flushed and vibrant, the light from the
red-streaked sky still shining in her eyes. Her hand still held the
other end of the crop, and her mouth made a disappointed little
moue. Warm from effort and excitement, her skin glowed, and
her hair curled in damp little tendrils about her temples. He
could smell the scent of her, almost feel the creamy texture of
the soft skin right above the prim collar of her gown. She looked
just as she had in his dreams—sensual and enticing beyond a
man’s daytime imaginings.
“Winner claims the forfeit,” he said, tugging gently on the
crop. She was stubborn, just as he had hoped she’d be, keeping
her hold on the crop out of sheer impudence. He tugged a little
further and she swayed forward, laughing. She was close
enough. Nicholas snaked out an arm, swept her off her mount
and onto his lap.
Outraged, she opened her mouth to say something scathing,
he was sure, but he held her hard against him, staring at her
lips. She went still, watching him intently. Her breathing grew
rapid, from fear or rising anticipation, he could not tell. Bending
his head, he inhaled deeply, taking in the scent of horse and
exertion, and the heady essence of Sera.
Her lips were soft as a sigh beneath his. He had imagined
the taste of her for so many nights, and she was sweeter than he
had dreamed. The whole world seemed hushed. There was
nothing left in it but the two of them. The way she fit against
him, the way her arms lifted, twining about his neck, the small
sound of surrender deep in her throat—all of it flashed through
his body, and he wanted closer.
He held a treasure to be savored slowly, and he controlled
the rising heat. He teased her mouth with little kisses, tasting
her sensual lower lip with his tongue. With a gasp of surprise,
her lips parted. He took advantage, entered, and tasted the
sweetness of her mouth with his tongue. He was certain it was
new to her, for she froze at first, not understanding. In some
deep, elemental way, he was glad of it, and plunged deeper,
claiming her, branding her his. She caught fire at that, opening
eagerly to him. A low hum of pleasure began deep in his throat.
It was sweet, the way she clung to him. When, hesitant, she
touched her tongue to his of her own accord, he gave a groan of
pure, passionate joy and tugged at the ribbon holding her braid.
It fluttered to the ground. Loose, all the warm treasure of gold
fell around his hand as he cupped the back of her neck. She
arched against him, pliant beneath his onslaught, trusting,
matching his hunger, and he was undone.
No woman had ever ignited at his touch the way she did.
No woman had ever stoked the fire in him from a slow burn to
the flash of heat that made him forget who he was, where he
was…Good God!
Very slowly, very carefully, Nicholas raised his head to look
at Sera. Her face was flushed, her eyes were dark with passion
and hazed as though she were spellbound. He raised a hand
that was barely steady and stroked the tumbled hair back from
her face. Her lips were bee-stung with his kisses. Anyone in the
stable would know whom she had been with and what she had
done.
“It grows late,” he said.
He saw the exact moment when she came back to reality.
Even in the twilight, he could see her deep blush. “Yes. My—
my horse.” She slipped from his arms and to the ground. The
air felt cold against his chest.
“We should return to the stable before they miss us.”
Sera swung up on the chestnut’s back. She raised her chin
and nodded once, then took up the reins and started off ahead,
her shoulders stiff.
Nicholas cursed himself for a randy bastard. There was no
excuse for his actions. To take a woman whom he had sworn to
protect when betrothed to another—he was ashamed of himself.
Nicholas knew how to get what he wanted. He knew the art
of persuasion and the delicate threat of force. This miracle resting
just a moment ago in his arms could be his. And if he pushed
her to it, she would be the one to suffer guilt, remorse, and the
appalled stares of his courtiers. He would only feel the libertine’s
dark satisfaction.
Nicholas made a decision. He would see her once more
tonight, privately. He would promise, with the utmost gentleness
and respect, that he would not trouble her with such overtures
again. And he would demand that she move into the palace,
where there would be sturdy locks on her chamber door to keep
him and every other reprobate out.
***
Katherine knocked on the door to Sera’s chamber later that
evening. “What did my brother say this afternoon?”
Sera stared at her, a mass of confusion. She didn’t wish to
tell anyone what had happened with Nicholas in the park. She
had not known that so serious a man could have a smile so
sweet that it stung deep in her chest just to look at it. How could
she tell the way his gray eyes went soft and amused right before
he kissed her for the first time?
And the feelings, all jumbled and twanging inside her! She
had wanted his kisses with an urgency that shocked her. Even
more humiliating was Nicholas Rostov’s behavior after he had
kissed her until she was clinging to him, making those animal
sounds deep in her throat.
The man simply froze against her, as though she were the
wanton concubine he had originally thought her. It made her go
red right now to remember his cold, clipped voice as she slipped
to the ground. Blast him for trying to pretend it had never
happened. Blast him for making her feel like the harlot she was
not!
The worst of it was, she’d caused the whole humiliating
mess. From the start of the ride, she had wanted to tease
Nicholas, to show him that she wasn’t afraid of him. It was
rather like tempting a tiger locked safely behind cage bars, and
then finding that the beast had gotten loose—and that he was
inside you.
She must not delay longer, losing her calm focus. She must
find the way home.
She rubbed her eyes and heard Katherine’s voice again.
“Are you well? You look feverish.” Katherine looked at
her with concern in her dark eyes.
“No, no, I’m fine,” said Sera. “Now, to answer your
question. Nicholas seemed very pleased that you were riding
and enjoying it, and he does not care how you learn. Does that
make you happier?” Sera started, shocked. Why was she calling
this arrogant Outlander by his first name?
“Very much. He was so strange at tea. He said not one word
to me, not even when I thanked him for the lovely cakes. He
just started and then frowned vaguely at me, but that was all.
After tea, he walked out onto the balcony and stared at the park.
Then, still frowning, he bade me adieu and said he had to go to
his study. When I asked him what he was going to do, he frowned
again and said, ‘Contemplate my sins, as any man of conscience
would.’”
His sins? Hah! So he saw what happened between them as
a sin!
“I am so afraid I disappointed Nicholas,” said Katherine,
folding her hands before her and staring down at them. “I should
hate to think I failed at being a sister, as I have at so many other