Page 82 of Scandalous

He adjusted her stirrups and checked the girth, and Sarah couldn’t take her eyes from his powerful leather-clad hands as they competently checked the saddle and straps. Hands that had been over her naked body. Inside her body. Hands that had brought her more pleasure than she’d known before or since.

“There. Are you comfortable?” He glanced up at her with a casual, inquiring look, oblivious of his effect on her.

She nodded, unable to speak.

As he mounted his monster of a horse, Sarah looked at Mies. His face was a mask of fury. This had been a very bad idea. Few men could associate with Martín and come away looking good, and Mies had already proven he was not one of them. She felt a surge of pity for the Dutchman.

“Are you ready, mademoiselle?” Bouchard asked her. He sat his horse as if he’d been born to it, his body graceful for all its size. He held the reins lightly in one hand, his other hand resting casually on a buckskin-clad thigh. A very muscular thigh.

She awkwardly guided her horse between the two men.

“Have you ridden in Hyde Park before, Captain?” she asked when it was clear neither man felt compelled to break the awkward silence.

“Not often. In general I have not had much opportunity to ride for pleasure. What of you, Captain Graaf?” Martín smirked across Sarah toward the smaller man. “You appear to have a decent seat. Do you hunt?”

The Dutchman’s eyes were wary. “Yes, I hunt, although not so much these past few years while I have been at university. Why, do you hunt, Captain?” His skeptical tone said he already knew the answer.

“I take no pleasure in hunting defenseless animals. I prefer bigger game.”

Mies’s pale cheeks flushed a dull, angry red.

Sarah searched her mind frantically for a topic that wouldn’t lead to open hostilities.

“What have you been doing for the past six days, Captain?” She gnawed her lower lip. Could she have demonstrated her infatuation any more clearly?

Martín’s slow, lazy smile made her blush just as darkly as Graaf. “How nice of you to notice my absence with such exactitude, Sarah.”

“It is common courtesy, Captain. Some of us are interested in people other than ourselves.”

He grinned at her shrewish tone. “I went to my property.”

“Oh. You went there and back so quickly?”

“It was only a quick trip. I wanted to see the state of the house and what would be needed to make it habitable.”

“You are planning to live there?”

“Perhaps,” he drawled.

“I thought you were going to Paris?” Mies broke in, making Sarah realize she’d forgotten his presence.

“I am flattered by your interest in my future plans, Captain. But perhaps you are asking because you are concerned the payment you have promised will not find me? Do not worry, my man of business will forward any compensation he receives.”

Judging by the way the color drained from Mies’s face, the payment would not be forthcoming.

“Do you have to behave like such a toad?” she whispered angrily.

“No, I don’t have to.”

“If you have no objection, Sarah, I believe I will attend to some business that has been awaiting my attention,” Mies said, not waiting for her reply before yanking his horse around and thundering back to the main path.

“I rejoice to hear he is attending to any business at all,” Martín commented mildly.

Sarah stunned herself by laughing.

“There, that is much better.”

“I am laughing because the alternative is to cry in frustration at your abominable behavior.”