Page 73 of The Billionaire Who Hated Me (Until He Loved Me)

Victoria

It’s another beautiful day here on Yosemite Ranch.All the sex must be killing my brain cells, because I just agreed to go on a second horseback ride with Cal.At least this time we’ll be snuggled together on one horse for the duration.I can handle that.

Joe the stable hand heads our way with a big horse, but it doesn’t look like the same one Cal rode the other day.I think its name was Leroy.He probably has lots of favorite horses, though.There must be hundreds here.

But Joe hands the reins to me, instead.“Have a nice ride, Miss Backlund.”He nods to Cal.“Leroy’s almost tacked up.Be right back.”

I start shaking my head.

Cal snickers.“Never pass up a learning opportunity, Victoria.”

“Is that a SEAL motivational poster or something?”

“Nah.Those posters are super hard-core, like, ‘The more you sweat in training, the less you bleed in combat.’”

“That would be better suited for me and horseback riding, don’t you think?”

Cal finds that funny, but my hands are shaking.

“Nothing will happen this time, Victoria.Please trust me.I’ve learned my lesson and figured out a way to keep you safe while still allowing you to keep learning.”

I nod.If there’s any man on Earth who could keep me safe, it’s Cal MacLaine.But I make it a policy to avoid revisiting situations where I’ve already needed to be saved.This California city girl has no damn business trying to ride a horse on the open range.Never again.

But before I can say no and really mean it, Cal is next to me.I feel the heat of his body along my side.“Her name is Bella.She’s Jasmine’s lesson horse.”His low voice is soothing.Reassuring.“She’s the oldest and slowest ride on the ranch.She couldn’t gallop if her life depended on it.She can barely hit nine miles an hour at a lope.”

I don’t know what the hell a lope is, but I’m all in favor of avoiding the thousand-pound runaway beast I ended up with last time.Cal peels my grip from the reins and drapes them loosely around Bella’s neck.She doesn’t seem to notice.In fact, she looks like she has no interest in moving.

Then Cal smacks my ass.Hard.

“Whaaa—”

“Up you go.”He lifts me straight off the ground.“Swing your leg on over, sweetheart.”

He plops me down in the saddle.

I check to make sure none of the ranch hands are watching us.I’m totally fine with him smacking my ass, but not so fine with everyone seeing it.

What if everyone’s laughing behind our backs?Aren’t we still going for the down-low?

Just then I realize—so what?I don’t care what anyone thinks.Let them giggle and whisper and gawk all they want.I don’t even care what Jamie and Phyllis say about us.We’ve got nothing to hide.

I can handle the sledgehammer.

I look down to see Cal double-checking how the stirrups support my borrowed boots.He’s frowning in concentration, so serious.

So seriously sexy…

“Pssst,” I say to him.“I need to tell you something.”

He glances up with those gorgeous violet eyes surrounded by black lashes.His scowl deepens.Not once in my life have I looked at a frowning guy and said to myself,Whoa.That’s hot!But I guess with Cal MacLaine it’s just one first after another.

“Are you uncomfortable in the saddle?”he asks, concerned.“Do I need to lengthen the leathers?”

I don’t know what that means either, but the sentence sends a little shiver up my spine.

“Everything’s great.”I give him a flirty smile.“I just wanted you to know that I liked the way you spanked my ass just now.”

His eyes flash.His jaw clenches.I watch a whole series of emotions march across his face.Shock is first.But that morphs into amusement.And that transitions into… I guess the only word is hunger.