Page 35 of You Belong to Me
“You have the best-trained horses I’ve ever seen. You expect me to believe you wouldn’t give the same discipline to your dog?”
He was playing unfairly, making a comment that she had to accept as a compliment. Her horses were her pride and joy. She couldn’t help being pleased that he’d noticed how superbly they handled. Besides, she wasn’t going to risk injury to a horse, even his, just because she’d like to get off his lap immediately. So she said Bojik’s name in a tone the animal recognized and instantly heeded.
The barking stopped. The big stallion settled down soon after. And Vasili said, “Now you can do the same with your Cossacks.”
One concession on her part was enough as far as she was concerned. “When they start barking, I will,” she replied in a low grumble.
“I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear that.”
“And I’ll pretend you haven’t lost your mind,” she shot back.
Suddenly she felt his chest rumbling with laughter. It hadn’t been her intention to amuse him, anything but, yet what she was hearing was the sound of genuine humor. And it had him stopping his mount.
“It’s about time,” she said, but apparently she had said this too soon.
He wasn’t putting her down, he was turning to address the Razins. “My betrothed and I are going to talk, to get to know each other better. Ride ahead. We don’t need your escort for conversation.”
They didn’t ride ahead, of course. They stared at. Vasili for a moment, then they stared at Alexandra, and she was close to growling, she was so infuriated. Vasili was going to force her to make this concession, too, or pit him against her men, which could have repercussions she didn’t want to find out about. Did heknowshe would give in, or would he back down if she didn’t? She wasn’t going to risk it.
She gave the nod that allowed her friends to depart without worry, but she did it so imperceptibly, she hoped Vasili hadn’t noticed. And she thought he might not have when he turned to follow the Razins and the rest of their party, though at a much more leisurely pace.
But as soon as they were beyond shouting distance, he said, “A wise choice.”
Since she had no desire to find out what he meant by that, she ignored it and said instead, “You don’t want to get toknowme, Petroff, any more than I want to know you any better, so what was the point of this?”
“To prove that you are subject to me, whether you like it or not.”
“Well, you certainly made your point, didn’t you?” she replied sourly. “But nothing has been proved, since your authority requires my cooperation, and my cooperation is in no way guaranteed.”
His arms closed a little tighter around her and his head bent forward until his lips were very near to her ear. “Then perhaps I should extract a few promises from you,” he said in a voice she recognized as seductive because of what it made her feel.
Her elbow to his belly worked to gain her some breathing space, but only because he wasn’t expecting it. “No promises, Petroff. Not a single one. And we’ve had enough point-provingandtalk, so put me down.”
“When you say please, very,verynicely,” he said in a soft hiss.
She’d managed to make him angry, probably with her elbow. But she was just as angry that he’d made her panic enough to hit him. “Go to hell,” was her curt reply, but it didn’t get her put down.
He continued at a mere walk, still maintaining a far distance from the rest of their group. Her silence said he wasn’t going to get the “please” he’d requested, so she wondered how long he would make them suffer this uncomfortable ride before joining the others. Could he be as stubborn as she was?
“I believe it was mentioned that you have sisters,” he said suddenly, proving that he was curious about her, if only mildly. “Are they…like you?”
Curiosity? Or was he paving the way for more insults?
“They are nothing like me,” she answeredhesitantly. “I was never all that close to either of them. They had their interests, and I had mine.”
“And your interest would be breeding horses.”
She detected the censure, and replied defensively. “Just because I’m a woman doesn’t mean—”
“I wasn’t criticizing you,” he cut in.
“Weren’t you? I doubt that. But it certainly doesn’t matter to mewhatyou think.”
Now his tone turned dry. “So I’ve gathered.”
When he fell silent again, she decided she might as well catch up on some lost sleep. Her back was supported by his arm. She just had to lean her head against his chest…
“Usually when a woman is this close to me, I am compelled to touch her,” Vasili remarked offhandedly. “Since most of the time you don’t look like a woman in your ridiculous attire, except for those lovely breasts of yours, I can probably restrain myself—for a while.”
