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happy. A rare feeling of late.”
    “Then I’m happy, too.”
    His smile was wickedly roguish. “Happy enough to let me use that servant girl for five minutes—two minutes?”
    She hit him squarely in the face with the remnants of a scone. “Behave or I’ll go home on Monday.”
    “No, you won’t. I won’t let you.”
    “Oh, ho, is that a challenge?”
    “No, just fact. I’ll truss you up, if necessary, and carry you away.”
    “My God, Alec,” she whispered, a flood of longing melting through her body in a hot, lustful wave. “I’ll die before Monday.”
    He liked that she called him by name. He liked that she was as frantic as he. He liked that he felt happy after so long. He discovered, too, that he possessed a chivalry hitherto unknown, that he was willing to disregard his throbbing cock to please her. “Let’s go riding. It’ll take our minds off this oppressive need for restraint.” She was right, too, about waiting; he wanted more than twenty minutes with her. “We’ll see if you and your showy roan can keep up with Zeus and me.”
    “Keep up?” She flashed him a defiant look, her cravings blunted by the tossed gauntlet; racing was in her blood. “A hundred says I beat you back to the stables. Make that two hundred.”
    “Five hundred says you don’t.”
    She abruptly came to her feet. “Anytime,” she briskly said.
    With a father like his, he’d always protected his mother. He saw to Chris’s care now, too, and his business interests and the many people who worked for him, but he’d never felt such edifying virtue before as he did in rescuing Miss MacKenzie from her avaricious desires. He hadn’t known he was capable of such sexual benevolence. Realistically he still might deviate from the path of virtue, although fortunately he was slightly less aroused with his mind on horses. “May I call you Zelda?” he asked, rising from his chair. “Considering.”
    She was reaching for her coat and turned. “Considering what?” she lightly inquired.
    “Considering I’ll be making love to you soon. Although if you prefer Miss MacKenzie, I’m more than willing to oblige you in that regard.”
    “As long as I oblige you, you mean,” she said with a grin.
    “We’ll oblige each other,” he softly said, walking over to help her with her coat. Taking the light fur, he stood behind her and held it as she slipped her arms into the sleeves. Settling it on her shoulders, he drew her tumbled hair away from her neck with a sweeping fingertip and, bending, kissed her nape. “Now, go,” he brusquely said, giving her a shove toward the door. “Or I’ll fuck you on this table.”
    She came to a stop.
    “Don’t you dare,” he muttered and, taking her hand, dragged her to the door, opened it, and pushed her through. “One of us has to be mature about this,” he said, giving her a sidelong glance. “And I see it’s going to have to be me.”
    She watched him flirt with the barmaid as he paid their tick and felt a strange warm glow standing next to him, as though his mere presence brought her joy.
    She wasn’t so silly as to read anything more into their rapport than that he was charming and she was willing to be charmed. She understood why he had a reputation for the ladies. He was impossible to resist. And if not for the evil eye and vicious tongue of his wife, she wouldn’t even think about waiting until Monday.

CHAPTER 4
    Z ELDA’S HUNTER WON by a nose, the ride back a wild, close-run race, the horses flying over the ground with their ears flat back on their heads as though they understood the competitive nature of their riders. Both horses were tiring at the end, but Zelda’s blue roan took the last fence with gutsy courage and brought her into the drive a half second before Zeus.
    They were laughing as they reined in their horses, intoxicated by the breakneck speed, the risky jumps, their well-matched equestrian skills.
    Zelda glanced at Alec as they rode toward the stables. “You