Chapter Seven
Jasper
Golden Oaks, Surrey
Stupid, stupid, stupid, I chastised myself as I let the waterfall shower rain over my head. What the fuck was I thinking, driving her home like that? Seeing her curled up in my passenger seat, watching me with those sleepy fucking turquoise eyes.
Turquoise.
Shit. In my madness, I’d called in a new colorway for this season’s collection last minute. I’d pawed and pawed through the Pantone swatches until I found the color that had been seared into my brain after that night in the barn.
Hallie-fucking-turquoise.
And rather than just leave it there, I left my office in the warehouse to go to the photo shoot and watched Hallie’s tight, curved body showcase Knighton Equestrian clothes in a way no one else could, her dark hair falling like a silk curtain over her perfect tits and hips.
And like I’d been possessed, I’d demanded to see her in that damn new turquoise set.
The one that was now, suddenly, headlining the entire collection.
The water pelted down on my head, but it didn’t stop the visions of Hallie in my car from assaulting my brain.
Second by second, my cock grew harder until I clenched my fist against the shower wall with one hand, and with the other, I slipped it around my too-hard dick, hissing when Hallie’s smiling face was all I could see in my mind.
I pumped my dick up and down, faster and faster until I grit my teeth to hold back my shout and spilled on the shower floor.
That moan she’d emitted in the passenger seat when I’d turned on the massage function . . . Christ, it was burned into my brain. I wanted to hear her moan like that under my tongue while I made her fall apart.
No! Stop.
But my brain didn’t want to listen.
Breathless, I tipped back my head and tried to forget the fact that Hallie had said she’d started to jump because of me (and Henry).
That she’d met me before I was jaded and permanently angry.
That was the person she admired, not the fucking arsehole I was right now.
She probably couldn’t stand me now. I wasn’t a good person to be around these days.
My stomach turned. I hated how much the thought of Hallie disliking me affected me.
Fuck!
I turned off the shower and climbed out.
I’d kept the bathroom window open, and the cold air bit at my bare skin.
Determined to put an end to this obsession with my new, young, fucking stunning rider—because shit, she was seven years younger than me—I vowed to stay away from her.
I just needed distance. She would leave on tour soon, and I could get back to finding out who was trying to destroy the Knightons.
Dressing in jeans and an olive-green wool jumper, I threw on my padded wax jacket and my flat cap.
I wouldn’t go to the arena today where Atticus, Hallie, and Sage were shooting the action shots.
I’d leave it to Marco. Leon was going to be there to ensure the jumps were correct and adequate.
Plus, I had a meeting with Alexis Hobbs, for my sins.
Daughter of Richard Hobbs, the biggest horse dealer in our sport.
For years he and my father had done business.
The Hobbs bought many of our foals for foreign markets.
They were some of our biggest buyers. Like me, Alexis had taken the reins of the family business after her father had a heart attack and decided to retire. But where Richard was a gentleman—ruthless, yet a man of his word and honest—Alexis was anything but.
Not a week after my father died, Alexis had offered to buy the entire Knighton enterprise. I’d flat-out refused, of course. That only made her more tenacious. Alexis Hobbs was money mad and drunk off power due to her now-elevated status in our industry. She was ruthless in business.
And she’d been trying to fuck me since I was twenty years old.
Ten years my senior, she’d borderline stalked me in my early years on the circuit.
My resistance only seemed to make her more determined.
There wasn’t a deal that Alexis didn’t land once she set her mind on it, and with me, she had been denied my business and my cock.
A woman like that didn’t take too kindly to rejection.
Despite our history, I couldn’t afford to alienate one of the biggest buyers in the UK, so today’s meeting was a necessary evil.
I left my home and followed the path to the Knighton stud farm acreage.
We had a family office there too, and all breeding and horse-buying business was done from there. The main house was strictly for family.
Twenty minutes later, I was sat at my desk in the family office, a coffee in hand, when there was a knock on the door. “Come in,” I called, and Charlotte, the stud farm’s manager, opened the door and cast me a tight smile.
“Mr. Knighton, Ms. Hobbs is here for your meeting,” Charlotte said, but was pushed aside as Alexis stepped through like a woman who never had a door closed to her.
I gave Charlotte an apologetic look, and she shut the door, leaving us alone.
“Jasper,” Alexis said, dressed head to toe in designer country attire—a tight tweed trench coat, belt pulled tightly at the waist. Her long burgundy leather boots disappeared under the hem of her jacket, and her hair was fastened in a tight bun.
Alexis Hobbs was a prime example of how a very attractive person could be made ugly by their fucking appalling personality.
I got to my feet to greet her, but Alexis waved me off and sat down opposite me like she owned the room. I took a deep breath and sat down too. Her eyes were immediately fixed on me. “Can I offer you a drink, Alexis?” I said, trying to keep things cordial.
“No, I’m fine,” she said, and placed her vintage Birkin at her feet. Alexis’s head tipped to the side as she regarded me. “You look like shit, darling,” she said with her usual directness.
I huffed a laugh. “Don’t hold back on my account, Alexis,” I said dryly. I truly did not care what she thought of me.
“I’d still fuck you, though,” she said bluntly and sat back in her chair. Her eyes hooded, she crossed her legs, and I was sure it was her attempt at seduction.
“And yet it’s still a no,” I said, just as direct. “I don’t mix business with pleasure, Alexis. You know this.”
She rolled her eyes. “Darling, you’ve fucked a million women on the circuit, so let’s not tell fibs.”
“Anyone I’ve fucked on the circuit was a fellow competitor, not an employee or someone I do business with.
I keep things professional when it comes to Golden Oaks.
” I took a sip of my coffee to stop myself from telling Alexis to fuck off and take her business elsewhere.
“Plus, that version of me is a far cry from the man I am now.” Alexis’s smug smile fell, and I could see the residual annoyance in her eyes.
“Now, how are you? You’re here to see the newest foals, yes? ”
Alexis smoothed down the arm of her coat and said, “I’m great, Jasper, and my business is doing better than ever, as you probably know.
” Alexis reached into her bag. Pulling out a bound A4 document, she placed it on my desk before me.
“Speaking of, I have another offer for you,” she said and sat back, exuding the confidence of a businesswoman who was sure she had already secured a deal.
“Alexis,” I said, curtly, “my business is not for sale—any of them.”
Alexis crossed her arms over her chest and nodded at the document, urging me to take a look anyway.
Anger surged through my veins, but clenching my jaw, I opened the document and read the offer.
I held in my surprise, kept my expression neutral.
Alexis really wasn’t here to play games.
She’d offered more than I’d expected, probably over what Golden Oaks and our stud farm was worth if we ever had it appraised for a sale.
“I want Golden Oaks, Jasper. I want this place, and I want the stud farm and all that entails.” Alexis leaned forward and looked me square in the eye.
“You’ve had a rough couple of years, Jasper.
” I tensed at her faux-empathetic tone. “That money will set up your family for several lifetimes.” She waved her hand toward the contract.
“Take it, Jasper. You’d be a fool not to.
Leave the strife of the past behind and start again.
” She shrugged. “Work on getting Genny better, whatever you want.”
“Don’t,” I snarled, my voice deep and laced with venom. “Do not bring Genny and her accident into this. Ever.”
At my reaction, Alexis fought a smirk. I swore this woman didn’t feel empathy.
Taking the contract, I tossed it back, the document slapping on the desktop in front of her.
“We’re not for sale, Alexis. I won’t tell you again.
Now,” I said, and got to my feet, “do you want to see the foals or not? I have more meetings to get to today. Believe it or not, you’re not the only one who is busy. ”
Alexis left the offer on the desk—a power move if ever I saw one—but got to her feet.
I opened the door to outside and gestured for her to go first. As she passed, she placed her hand on my arm and squeezed my biceps.
“So sullen, Jasper,” she said, and I fought the urge to physically recoil from her touch.
“And yet still so enticing.” She lifted that same hand toward my face, but I pushed it away from me before she could touch me.
“Don’t,” I warned.
Alexis’s eyes narrowed in anger. Good, I was glad I’d pissed her off.
She’d done that to me the minute she pushed my stud manager out of the way like Charlotte was beneath her.
“Your loss,” she said, and sauntered past me and out into the yard of the stud farm.
I took another deep breath and followed her out into the smack of cold air.
“The foals are in the field with their mothers,” I said, and gestured toward the golf buggy nearby. “I’ll drive us there.”