Quickly and effortlessly, Alexander was hefting me out of his saddle and twisting me back onto my own.
“If you’d like to attempt to beat me back to the stables, you’re more than welcome to,” he continued mildly, the tiny curve of his mouth belying his arrogant amusement. “The loser will be punished, of course. I think a spanking with a riding crop sounds fitting, don’t you?”
Before he was even finished speaking, I was off, Helios leaping into motion so fluid it seemed that we spilled down the hill and into the valley as easily as water through a stream. My laughter was high and breathless as I pressed my torso into Helios’s warm body, buried my nose in her sweet mane, and galloped across the estate, no demons or monsters giving chase behind me, just the man I always knew would find me if I ran.
Still, somehow, probably due to nearly four decades of horseback riding, Alexander drew abreast with me, grinning like the innocent boy he had never been, and then quickly overtook me with a loud, freeing whoop of joy.
He beat me soundly, arriving at the stables two minutes before me, and then, he beat me soundly again with a riding crop while I braced myself against the same fireplace he’d once branded me against. He held my ass when he finally thrust into my wet, clutching heat, his thumb digging into the flesh over my brand as if he could rebrand me through touch alone.
It was that thought and the belief that he could, that broke the bloated seal on my orgasm.
I was still panting, my hands linked around Alexander’s neck the only thing keeping my wobbling knees from collapsing, when he started to laugh his gorgeous, rumbling laughter against my neck.
“What?” I asked, pulling him by the hair so I could see his creased, happy face. “Why are you laughing?”
An imperious shrug. “I’m allowed to laugh, am I not?”
“You are,” I agreed slowly. “You just don’t very often.”
His amusement softened into something far more intimate as he gently nipped my chin with his teeth. “I have the sense that will change now.”
I beamed into his face, and he clucked his tongue at me. “Infatuated, the both of us. I hope Riddick has a strong stomach because he doesn’t much like public displays of affection. Most Brits don’t.”
“Good thing you’re half Italian then.”
“Good thing.” He slapped my ass sharply, reigniting the burn from the riding crop. “Now get inside and go to your room. Some of the gifts I spoke of are waiting for you on your bed.”
I opened the door of the room that had been my haven the entire first year of my stay at Pearl Hall with more trepidation than I ever had before. A surprise from Alexander could mean anything from a horse to the piked head of a former enemy staked to the floor still dripping blood.
At first, as the ornate gold and cream painted door swung inwards, I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. The pink and red carpets still overlapped in pleasing disarray, the gorgeous draperies over the bed tied open with golden ropes to reveal the deep red satin coverlet and mounds of goose down pillows. It was opulent and homey, and even though I would be spending my nights with Alexander in his room in the future, I would always consider this room my own sweet escape.
Distracted by nostalgia, I almost overlooked the small black blob on the duvet, but the floor creaked slightly under my booted feet and a little head peeked up, gold eyes the same colour as my own popping open amid the inky fur.
“Hades!” I cried as I dived onto the bed and grabbed my little demon cat into my arms.
I rolled onto my back, holding his warm, soft body on my chest with my hands under his pits so that he sat between my breasts and we could look each other in the eye. He blinked at me sleepily and yawned, exposing his little pink tongue, before finally greeting me with a croaky meow.
I hugged him tenderly to my chest and threw my head back against the duvet to smile into the canopy, my cheeks aching with the spread of joy on my face.
There was a creak in the hall that signaled the arrival of someone at my door, and I laughed without looking over to see Xan standing smugly there.
“You wonderful, sly man. Thank you so much for getting Hades here. He means everything to me.”
There was a light scoff and then the smooth, lyrical lilt of my brother Sebastian’s voice. “I’m deeply wounded, mia cara. Here I was, always thinking I was your favourite.”
I shot into a seated position and blinked at the sight of my brother, Giselle, Sinclair, Mama, and Salvatore in the doorway.