Nothing but Trouble

Chapter 18

CHAPTER 18

I AWOKE ON Tuesday to the sound of rain lashing against my windows.

“Annabel’s riding first in the indoor school, then Felicity. We’ll take our turn after so we get it to ourselves,” Connor said.

That gave me the chance to groom Folly thoroughly and fit in breakfast with Connor afterwards. He munched on a slice of toast, and although he’d made me coffee and pulled out my chair for me, the closeness we shared yesterday seemed to have receded.

Had I imagined it? I didn’t think so. If I closed my eyes, the hardness of his c**k still pressed into my hip, and there was no way he faked that.

But I could hardly ask him about it, could I? Instead, I kept my confusion to myself as we walked to the arena.

Jenny stayed to watch me ride and gave me a round of applause at the end of my first pretend dressage test. As Connor called out the movements, I gave them my best try, but as I trotted around everything felt kind of wobbly.

“That was great! I can’t believe how much progress you’ve made. I’ll call the show secretary and get you entered for Saturday—you’ll have no trouble riding one of the prelim tests.”

“Really?”

“I wouldn’t say it otherwise.”

“Can we practise again this afternoon?”

“Sure,” Connor said. “I’ll ride Captain afterwards to give him a workout.”

My second lesson went better than the first, and I began to believe they were right. Maybe I could do it? Maybe some of Connor’s confidence was rubbing off on me?

With that in mind, I pushed my worries about his distance today to one side and stopped him before he walked back to Jenny’s house. “Do you want to have dinner together tonight?”

“Wish I could, babe, but I’ve got plans I can’t cancel.”

My spirits plummeted. “That’s okay. It was only a thought.”

“Tomorrow, yeah?”

I nodded my agreement. At least it wasn’t an outright no.

I spent the evening wondering where he’d gone, but when I asked Jenny a few subtle questions over dinner regarding his whereabouts, all she said was that she’d dropped him off at the train station.

As I tried and failed to learn my dressage test from the sheet Jenny had given me, I imagined the worst. What if he had a girlfriend hidden away somewhere? Or he just wanted someone for the night and she wasn’t me?

Annabel’s imagination was working overtime as well. “Bored of you already, is he? Can’t say I blame him.”

Next, I attempted to lose myself in a novel, but even that proved impossible. In my head, the hero looked like Connor, only my version of the story didn’t have a happy ending. Another restless night beckoned.

I was brushing Folly the next morning when I heard footsteps behind me and a pair of hands covered my eyes.

“Guess who.”

“The Easter Bunny?”

“No, but I did bring you chocolate.”

Connor shyly held out a bag to me. He’d bought me a present? I took it from him and peered inside, finding a box of luxury chocolates decorated with a big red bow.

“You dug the dessert the other night. Did you know you moaned while you were eating it?”

“I did not.”

“Did too.” His voice went high pitched. “Ooh, Connor, this is sooo good. More, I need more.”

I shoved him in the chest. “I did not sound like that.”

He captured my hand in his and held it against his heart. I felt it beating, hammering almost as fast as mine. “Not far off, babe.”

What would it feel like if we didn’t have his clothes between us? Unlike Felicity, I hadn’t seen him shirtless. Would his skin be silky smooth? Or perhaps have a smattering of dark hair? Surely it wouldn’t be gorilla-style?

He cleared his throat, disturbing my reverie. “You ready to ride?”

“Yup.”

“Dressage practice this morning, hack in the afternoon?”

I needed to run through my test as many times as possible. I’d be riding Prelim 14, which included movements in walk, trot and canter. Simple exercises, Connor said, but to me it was as simple as learning to Riverdance with my shoelaces tied together and a couple of glasses of wine inside me. And I still hadn’t memorised the instructions. Jenny had promised to lend me her show jacket and stock, and when I tried them on for size after dinner yesterday they’d fitted perfectly, so I couldn’t use that as an excuse not to compete either. But even with all that pressure, I still wanted to go for a hack. Nothing beat riding out with Connor in the countryside.

“Yes, I’d like that.”

Connor was more critical of me that morning, endlessly correcting my position or the patterns I was riding.

“It’s to help you be the best you can on Saturday,” he explained. “A judge is going to be looking for all these things.”

He worked me hard, and my legs ached by the time I dismounted. I felt sorry for Folly as well. Her sheen of sweat showed how hard she’d been working. We’d both enjoy an easier time in the afternoon.

I helped Connor out on the yard before lunch, which earned me the right to some of the delicious chocolates he’d given me when we got back to the barn. First a caramel, then a praline, a nougat, a truffle, a strawberry crème.

“I feel a bit sick,” I said. “But these are good.”

He grabbed my hand, which was halfway to my mouth, and steered it in his direction instead. “Don’t get sick. Give them to me instead.” He popped the chocolate I was holding into his mouth and sucked my finger.

His touch travelled all the way through my core, and a throb started between my thighs. If he planned to repeat that move, he could have the rest. Then I’d go out and buy another box.

Annabel made a gagging noise behind us. “Would you stop it? You’re making the rest of us feel sick as well.”

Without missing a beat, Connor scooped up the box and grabbed my hand. “Of course, what was I thinking? We’ll continue this in private.” He dragged me into the bedroom he never used, leaving Annabel open mouthed behind us.

As soon as the door closed, we stared at each other then started laughing.

“Did you see the look on her face?” he asked.

“It was priceless. I’m surprised she didn’t have an aneurysm.”

We stayed in there long enough to give her something to wonder about, then Connor untucked his shirt while I buttoned my blouse wrongly and messed up my hair.

“Look okay?” I asked.

“Perfect.” He gave me a thumbs up and slung an arm around my shoulders as we marched past the Uglies and out to the horses.

“Sometimes it’s the little things that are the most satisfying,” I said.

He waggled his eyebrows. “Big things can be more satisfying.” His tone left me in no doubt as to which “big thing” he was referring to. I wasn’t sure whether he was joking or not.

The dirty part of me, the part that wanted to melt the remaining chocolates over him and slowly lick them off, hoped for “not.”

We tied the horses next to each other while we tacked them up, and as we did so, I mulled over Connor in my mind. When I first arrived at Linden Hollow, I’d thought he was an arrogant sod, but underneath the rude exterior he’d turned out very different to the persona he projected. The hidden Connor, sweet and sensitive, made my heart ache. Sure, he still blew hot and cold—yesterday’s distance was a case in point—but the upshot of it was that I liked him. I mean, really liked him.

And I had only four days left to find out whether he felt the same.

The thing was, if I confessed my feelings and it went wrong, I’d probably lose him as a friend. And above all else, he’d become a friend, someone who made me laugh, someone I could hang out with and talk to.

I tried to put those thoughts to the back of my mind while we rode, but now I’d had them, they were hard to ignore.

“Do you want to canter?” Connor asked when we got to the woods down the road. There was a nice clear path ahead of us, and I’d thoroughly enjoyed whizzing down it the other day.

“Yeah, go on then.” Cantering didn’t scare me anymore. I’d found out Folly had good brakes, and the speed gave me the same thrill as freewheeling down a steep hill on my bicycle. But fast or not, it didn’t come close to riding behind Connor on that Suzuki.

I urged Folly on beside Captain, unable to resist the occasional glance across at Connor, relaxed and smiling as he rode one handed, western-style.

And then it happened.

One second I was cantering happily along, the next, Folly lurched forwards, and I flew through the air as she fell onto her knees.

I heard a scream, and it took a second to realise it came from my lips. A log at the side of the path flew towards me, and as I hit it, I swear I heard the crunch as something broke. An unbearable pain shot through my chest. Silver flashed on the edge of my vision as one of Folly’s hooves passed inches from my face, and that was the last thing I saw before everything went black.