“Great,” she lied, flopping more out than in the saddle.
At least Byron looked the part…sort of, she thought. He rode well and appeared halfway decent in his riding clothes. It wasn’t his fault that she found Rafe far more compelling. Even though the men had similar coloring, there was no comparing their builds or faces. Rafe was the hands-down winner.
“It’s a beautiful morning,” Byron called out as her horse drifted to the left.
“Yes, beautiful.”
She tried to ease her mount back into line. The horse didn’t want to cooperate. Obviously, the stable guy had been having a laugh at her expense when he’d promised a gentle horse. That or there weren’t any gentle, easy, slow horses in Bahania. Thank goodness they’d stopped trotting and were now walking. At least her butt wasn’t forever slapping against the hard leather of the saddle. While she knew she was going to be sore later, she couldn’t help feeling sorry for the horse. She doubted the creature appreciated being pounded by her bony butt.
“Are you…”
The rest of Byron’s sentence was drowned out by the powerful engines behind him. Zara tried to glance over her shoulder, but the movement made her slip more than she could handle and she had to grab on to the horse’s mane to stay in the saddle. Still, she didn’t have to see the three Hummers and two Jeeps, all filled with armed guards to know they were there.
Instead she turned to glare at Rafe, who rode easily, just a few paces behind them. The man was making her crazy. A bodyguard she could accept. A bodyguard who obviously enjoyed tormenting her was a pain, but also doable. But when he insisted on mocking her, that was too much to stand.
The amount of security he’d arranged for the ride was insane. Every time she and Byron tried to speak, the vehicles drew closer, making it impossible to hear what the other person was saying.
Zara reined in her horse. The animal stopped, which surprised her. Byron slowed his horse. Behind him the motorcade drew to a halt.
“What is it?” Byron asked.
Nothing about the man appealed to her, yet she had told the king she would give Byron a chance. So here she was—keeping her word.
“I thought if we stopped moving, they might stop getting so close,” she told him. “I’m sorry this all turned out so badly.”
He moved his horse closer. “Your father wants to keep you safe.”
Zara held in a groan. The fact that Byron knew or had guessed her relationship with the king shouldn’t be a surprise. Still she felt disappointed. Telling herself no one would be interested in her for herself was one thing, but having it highlighted was another.
Rafe rode to her other side. “Is everything all right?”
“Yes. The duke and I are having a conversation.”
He had the audacity to grin and ask, “What about?”
Chapter 9
Zara stalked out of the stable without saying anything. Rafe had been in the middle of telling the horse trainer that none of the mounts had been pushed very hard when he was forced to break off in midsentence to go after her. The stiffness of her walk and the set of her head warned him that she was furious.
Rafe acknowledged that he’d probably gone a bit too far with the Hummers and the Jeeps. Not to mention the armed guards. The odds of a kidnapping taking place were slim at best. Hardly anyone knew about her. Word would spread quickly, but right now she was fairly safe. Still, he’d been unable to resist calling in the troops—to give the duke something to think about if nothing else.
However, Zara hadn’t seen things that way. Worse, she’d probably hated having an audience while she struggled to stay on her horse. Obviously, she hadn’t had much practice riding horses bred in a royal stable.
“Zara, wait.”
He caught up with her in the courtyard between the stable and the house. The sun had already drifted well into the sky, and the heat sucked the air from his lungs. They stood in the shade of a cluster of date palms, but the temperature still had to be over a hundred degrees.
She spun to face him, temper flaring in her brown eyes. “What do you want?” she demanded as she pushed up her glasses. “I would think you’ve already had your joke for the day.”