I would change nothing about you, Gabrielle.

It was nice of him to say so, but I was sure that if he knew everything about me, he would never have said it in the first place.

IVAN

As we walked toward the horse barns, I reached for her hand which she accepted sweetly, curling her delicate fingers around mine in a gentle acknowledgment of trust. Fledgling trust, yes, but she was giving it to me. And Christ, did it turn me on to the point of making it bloody difficult to think about anything but having her underneath me again. This woman held power. And she could do some damage with her power if she knew she had it. But I don’t think she had any idea at all. She appeared completely unaware of any preconceived judgments regarding me, which made sense really when she didn’t have a clue who I was. She’d also been hurt by someone in the past. I’d be lying if I said didn’t want to be the one to make that pain disappear. I wanted to help her as much as she could help me. And didn’t that just make her all the more unique and alluring?

Fucking irresistible more like.

She enjoyed meeting the other horses and greeted each one separately. I snapped a pic of her with Athena, reminding her that the Greek names for the horses were still in full force after nearly two centuries. She also enjoyed her game of demanding I give her the name of every horse we met. Which I did. Gabrielle enjoyed the hell out of testing me. I don’t know why she cared if I knew the names of the horses or not, but it damn well pleased me that she did. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d had a guest at Donadea who truly seemed to appreciate the old place as I did.

“So now you’ve indulged me showing you around the grounds, what part of D.R. do you want to see next?” I asked her the question, even though I knew what she would say. She was itching to get a look at the art. Winding her up was a pleasure all in itself, because soothing her back down again would be my reward… later. Later was quickly evolving into something of an obsession. I couldn’t get enough alone time with Gabrielle Hargreave, and the realization of that fact had me a tad worried. The feeling of intensity I had when I was with her was like nothing I’d ever felt before. I realized right away I was definitely in uncharted territory, and not completely sure how to proceed. Carefully of course. I would not fuck this up with her a second time.

“D.R.?” She squinted up at me, looking adorably curious.

“Donadea Rothvale is a mouthful. D.R. for short.” I looked around at the landscape. “I love it here and it’s nice to be able to show it to someone who appreci—”