Chapter 53 - Scarlett
SCARLETT
“The hell is wrong with this horse?” Jace snarled as Snickerdoodle came to a complete stop, huffed dramatically, and then trotted forward just enough to make him grip the reins like they were the last parachute on a plummeting plane.
“This one is defective,” he muttered, adjusting himself in the saddle for the fifteenth time in ten minutes. At this rate, his designer pants would be worn through by sunset.
Thank God the sun didn’t set until nearly eight thirty this time of year. If today’s after-hours drama had happened in winter, the sky would already be pitch black. Instead, it was cotton-candy pastel, the sun dipping toward the horizon.
“She’s perfect.”
“If I had an employee with this kind of performance, they’d be fired before lunch.”
“She’s not an employee. She’s a soul with four legs, and you need to treat her like that.”
“She’s plotting to buck me off.” He narrowed those green eyes at the horse’s innocent ears. “I can’t very well run a company with a broken neck. I knew it was a bad idea to let you talk me into riding again.”
In his defense, the last time, he rode a different horse. Snickerdoodle was more spirited.
“If it makes any difference, you look super handsome, doing it.” And he did. Unfairly so. Like someone had Photoshopped a GQ model onto a horse calendar. December, featuring Billionaire Who Can’t Ride But Looks Damn Good Trying.
Jace glared at me, which only emphasized his chiseled jawline.
Still wearing his suit pants and button-down, he’d abandoned his tie and jacket back at the stable.
So, at least half of his “seven-thousand-dollar Brioni suit”—his words, not mine—was safe from Snickerdoodle’s shenanigans.
But still, it wasn’t every day I saw a man in tailored pants riding a horse.
Let alone riding one so … spectacularly badly.
Me? I was comfortable and riding well, thank you very much. It didn’t hurt that I was wearing the change of clothes I kept at the barn. My body knew these trails like my fingers knew a keyboard: effortlessly, instinctively.
“I shouldn’t have let you talk me into this, Trouble,” he grumbled, shifting his weight again as Snickerdoodle sidestepped like she was avoiding paparazzi.
“You didn’t need much convincing.”
“Seeing that smile on your face, I would have boarded a rocket ship to the moon to keep it there,” he said absently. Like it was nothing. Like casually admitting he’d hurtle himself into space just to see me happy was as ordinary as ordering coffee.
My heart did a flip in my chest, and suddenly, I had to fight the urge to launch myself onto his horse and wrap my arms around his ridiculously ripped body. And say thank you.
Thank you for knowing exactly what I needed.
Thank you for agreeing to go for a ride when I’m one thousand percent sure that is the last thing on your corporate agenda.
And thank you for not ruining this moment by demanding Marcus’s name right now.
I got the impression that Jace was normally a fist-pounding CEO who snapped his fingers and expected information to materialize in front of him. Patience? Not in his vocabulary.
But this Jace? This Jace placed my needs, all my needs, far above his own.
Make no mistake. Marcus’s name wasn’t staying secret anymore.
I just needed a moment to catch my breath, like a boxer on the canvas who needed to stand up on her own terms. After feeling as vulnerable as I did in that office, hiding under my desk like a frightened child, I needed to feel in control again.
HR and police would hear his name tomorrow, guaranteed, but I’d be the one telling them—not because someone forced my hand, but because I chose to.
Bonus if I could somehow do damage control with my career in the meantime. Should I tell Jace before HR? At this point, I doubted he’d think I’d made it all up, but it was still complicated, and my bank account wasn’t exactly overflowing with quit your job on principle money.
I shook my head. Those were tomorrow problems. Today, the sun was beginning to set, painting the sky in watercolor strokes of amber and gold around the trees and gorgeous foliage as we ambled along the trail.
“Damn horse!” Jace snarled as Snickerdoodle came to a complete halt out of nowhere, nearly sending him flying over her head.
“She senses your anger,” I said, patting my own horse’s neck. “Animals sense feelings. You need to relax.”
“My feelings have nothing to do with a giant ball of fur misbehaving.”
“She’s mortally offended you said that.” I smirked. “Look at her ears. That’s horse for I can’t believe this guy. And FYI, horses have hair, not fur.”
“Horses are basically big, fuzzy dogs with hooves. You train them. You feed them. This one is failing spectacularly at part one.”
“Snickerdoodle is one of the best trained horses in the stable. It was nice of the barn manager to let you take her out. Most beginners get Turtle.” I paused. “He’s named that because … well, you get it. He makes glaciers look speedy.”
Snickerdoodle huffed again, trotting forward so suddenly that Jace jerked backward. I briefly wondered if whiplash was covered under whatever platinum-diamond-encrusted insurance plan billionaires had.
“Fucking horse!” he snapped.
I couldn’t help but laugh. The mighty Jace Lockwood, who probably made grown men cry in boardrooms, was being absolutely owned by a horse named after a cookie.
“Jace, I can tell you’re upset, and if I can tell, she can definitely tell. She’s basically a twelve-hundred-pound emotional sponge with a tail.”
His eyes darkened to a forest green as they slammed into mine, the fury he was clearly trying to keep at bay unleashing as he growled, “I found you quivering under a desk. Of course I’m upset.”
Okay. I’ll just pretend your fury didn’t do all sorts of unwanted things to my heart. My hormones …
“Take a deep breath in, hold it for two seconds, and then breathe it out through your nose,” I instructed. “It’s what I do when my laptop crashes right before a deadline.”
Jace cocked his head, and dammit if he didn’t look even sexier doing it. The man could make annoyance look like a cologne ad. “Deep breathing exercises? Really?”
“Do you enjoy having your spine in one piece? Because I’m pretty sure Snickerdoodle here is taking mental measurements for a full-body cast.”
Jace pouted—actually pouted—looking every part a sexy hero on a horse in the process. I considered telling him it was his shirt that was the problem. Seeing his muscles and abs covered in tattoos, clenching with each horse movement would be … educational. For the local wildlife. And me.
Instead, I watched him close his eyes, taking deep breaths that made his chest rise and fall.
He looked as peaceful as a billionaire in the throes of a complicated acquisition could, and then, after a few seconds, Snickerdoodle calmed down.
Either that or she was just recharging for her next attack.
“See?” I said, not even trying to keep the smugness out of my voice. “Horse psychology 101.”
“If it’s all the same to you, I’d like to take a short break before this four-legged menace decides to test gravity with my body.”
I gave Buttercup a good rub between her ears. “Good girl,” I whispered. “At least one of us knows how to behave around pretty boys.”
After dismounting, I pulled some food from the satchel I’d secured on the back of my horse and gave the ladies something to munch on. Including Snickerdoodle, who, despite her antics, was still a very good girl.
“I’m sorry you didn’t enjoy the ride,” I said as Jace approached me, his hair adorably disheveled from his battle with equestrian dignity.
“Wouldn’t go so far as to say that.”
I eyed him, smirking. “You seemed miserable.”
“With the horse’s behavior,” he clarified, his lips quirking into a half smile. “The company was perfect.”
My eyes stung again for the umpteenth time since Jace had brought me here.
“How did you know to bring me here?” I asked, handing a carrot to Buttercup, who accepted it like the lady she was. “How’d you know what it would do for me?”
Jace closed the distance between us, his strides rustling along the grass in his bazillion-dollar shoes that, before tonight, had probably never seen actual dirt.
“When you brought me here, you said horses never hurt you the way people do. I could see you had a connection to this horse that was deep. Healing.” He paused, his jaw tightening.
“Figured after what you went through today …” Jace swallowed and clenched his eyes shut, like the memory of seeing me trembling under that desk was one he couldn’t bear.
“I was hoping she would make you feel safe again.”
Sucking in a sudden breath, it struck me how well he knew me.
And how, in that moment, he’d wanted to make me feel better.
More than anything. I mean, my God, this was a CEO who had a predator in his company.
Others in his position might’ve prioritized his needs: uncovering who had done this so he could protect his precious company image. But instead, he prioritized me.
Stepping even closer, Jace allowed his gaze to travel around my face, like it physically pained him, imagining what I had gone through. Then, he drew his knuckles up and traced them down my jaw, the touch sending my skin aflame.
“Are you okay, Scarlett?” He said the words softly, his voice a mixture of concern and something deeper, as if my well-being had somehow become crucial to his own.
When I nodded, his chest dropped a couple of inches. Relief, I guess, housed behind a breath he’d been holding this entire time.
“I don’t ever want to see you like that again,” he declared.
“Me neither.” I tried to say it lightly, but my attempt at humor was lost on him as he cupped my cheek, stroking my skin with his thumb.
“I have something for you,” I said, nervous energy suddenly fluttering in my chest.
“For me?” His eyebrows rose in genuine surprise.