“That would be me with the helmet hair.”

  “You look so hot in this picture that for two years every sexual fantasy I had involved a girl in a dressage uniform.”

  “Seriously?” Remi laughed.

  “Dead serious.”

  “I’m not showing any skin in the pic,” she said, remembering the days of sweltering under that coat. “Can’t see anything but my face.”

  “It left everything to my very good imagination. Remi…those boots…”

  “You like the leather boots, huh?” she asked, giggling like she was back in college again and had nothing on her mind but boys and horses.

  “I had dreams about those boots.” He practically growled the words.

  “So when I showed up in your living room yesterday…?”

  “I was pretty sad you weren’t wearing the boots.”

  “I still own those boots,” she whispered into his ear then bit his earlobe for good measure. Julien groaned softly. “I have so many pairs of boots.”

  “There are horses in France,” he said, sliding on top of her. “In case you want to go riding.”

  “I did a little riding last night,” she said.

  Julien laughed and buried his head against her neck.

  “More than a little.”

  “You want to try this morning?” She relaxed underneath him.

  “We can do it again?” he asked.

  “All you want,” she said, kissing him. “And maybe later…I’ll wear the boots for you.”

  Julien was already so eager he didn’t even take off his boxer shorts before pulling his erection through the slit and settling between her open thighs. Using her hands, Remi opened herself up for him. Julien penetrated her easily, as she was still wet from last night. She sighed with pleasure as she lifted her hips to take every inch of him.

  His thrusts were slow this morning, tentative and unsure. She guessed he wanted to prolong the coupling and avoid coming too soon. He was young, new at sex, and no doubt worried about embarrassing himself with his inexperience and she adored him for it.

  “Your cock feels incredible inside me.” Remi ran her hands through his mussed morning hair. “In case you were wondering.”

  “I was,” he said, his voice slightly strained.

  “I love your body too.” Remi ran her hands up and down his back, so lean and smooth-skinned. “Everything about you turns me on.”

  “Everything?” he asked between kisses.

  “Everything,” she repeated as he rose up and put his hands on either side of her shoulders. She opened her legs wider, cupping the back of her knees with her hands.

  “You’re trying to make me come, aren’t you?” Julien closed his eyes tight.

  “Oh, no. You’re not allowed to come. Not yet.”

  “I almost died once, Remi. Are you trying to kill me again?”

  “Only in the fun way,” she said.

  “The French do call the orgasm ‘the little death.’”

  “No dying for you,” she said as he kept thrusting slowly into her. “Not until I tell you to.”

  “I want you to come too. What do I do?”

  Remi gave him a mischievous grin.

  “Keep doing that. And watch the show.”

  He sat on his knees and resumed his hard steady thrusts. Remi slipped a hand between her legs and found her clitoris.

  “Oh my God,” he breathed.

  “Just focus on what you’re feeling,” she said as she closed her eyes. “I’ll focus on what I’m feeling.”

  “What are you feeling?”

  “You inside me,” she said, her eyes still closed. “The ridge on the head of your cock is really pronounced. I can feel it rubbing against my g-spot.”

  “Seriously?” He sounded equal parts pleased and fascinated.

  “Seriously. And it’s a really good feeling. When I get turned on I get really hot.”

  “You are hot.”

  She laughed again. “The other kind of hot. And my boobs feel huge. Do they look huge? When I have sex they feel massive.”

  Julien cupped both her breasts in his hands.

  “They’re the perfect size for my hands.”

  “Then don’t let go. I love feeling your hands on my breasts.”

  “I’ll never take them off,” Julien pledged.

  “Good.”

  “Remi?” He stopped thrusting for a moment and the pause in the pleasure wrenched her back to reality.

  “Something wrong?” she asked.

  “No. Maybe. I’m falling in love with you. Is that bad?”

  Remi raised her arms and Julien fell into them.

  “No,” she said. “It’s crazy. It’s stupid. It’s irrational and probably dangerous. But it’s not bad. And I think I’m falling in love with you too. It scares the hell out of me, but it’s not going to go away anytime soon, so we might as well enjoy it.”

  “Like this?” he said, with a thrust that Remi felt in the pit of her stomach.

  “Exactly like that.”

  He kneaded her breasts as he rode her with long thrusts. As Remi rubbed her pulsing clitoris, Julien pinched her nipples and squeezed her breasts. Ecstasy washed over and through her as Julien pounded into her. Little cries echoed from the back of his throat, barely restrained moans,

  She raised her hand to his face and caressed his lips. He opened his eyes and looked down into hers.

  “Come,” she said. “Inside me.”

  His head lifted slightly, his hands gripped her hard, and he came with a quiet gasp in the back of his throat.

  Remi was so close to coming…so close. Julien pulled out of her but soon he replaced his penis with his fingers. He ground three fingers into her wet opening, thrusting hard into her just the way she liked it. Julien licked and sucked her hard and swollen nipples as she arched into his mouth.

  Had she ever felt anything this good before? Anything this right? Anything this torrid and hot and wrong and right all at the same time? There was no part of her body that didn’t burn with desire right now. She’d never felt this sexual, this desired, this needed…and she never wanted it to end.

  Her orgasm crashed through her so powerfully it almost hurt. Every nerve fired in her back and belly and her clitoris throbbed against her fingers.

  Spent at last, she rolled onto her stomach. Julien threw a leg over her lower back as he kissed her shoulders.

  “You know what the crazy thing is,” Remi said, still panting. “Sex gets better the more times you have it.”

  “If it gets any better, my dick is going to break off.”

  “We’ll glue it back on. We’ve got a whole farm full of horses we can-”

  “Boss?” Merrick’s voice came through the door and the entire room rattled with the force of his knocking.

  “I’m kind of doing something here, Merrick,” Remi said, rolling her eyes.

  “I know you’re done fucking. The dishes in the sink aren’t rattling anymore. Thought it was a damn Parisian earthquake.”

  “Fine. We’re done. What do you want?”

  “I don’t want anything except breakfast and a raise, but we’ll talk about that later. You’re wanted. You left your phone out here, and you have six missed calls from the farm.”

  “It’s Sunday,” she groaned.

  “Tell that to the fucking horses,” Merrick said.

  “I’ll be right out,” she said.

  “Put on clothes first,” Merrick ordered. “And take a shower.”

  “Anything else, Mister Dearborn?”

  “Brush your teeth. And tell Julien to get dressed too. We need to figure our shit out.”

  “We have shit to figure out?” she asked.

  “What’s your last name?” Merrick demanded through the door.

  “Montgomery.”

  “What’s the last name of the guy you’ve been banging all night?”

  “Point taken,” she said with a sigh. “I’ll be out in half an hour. Take the credit card and go get us some…I don’t know. Croissants? That’s what French people each for breakfast, right?”

  “Way to buy into a cultural stereotype, Boss,” Merrick said.

  “Actually they do eat croissants for breakfast,” Julien said.

  “I’m not talking to you, Julien Brite,” Merrick said, sounding highly perturbed. “I bite my thumb at you. You sullied my lady’s virtue. And if you’re anything like me, you sullied her chest and her face too.”

  “But it was really good sullying,” Remi yelled back. “Really really good sullying.”

  “Oh,” Merrick said. “Party like a cock star then. Breakfast in thirty.”

  Remi showered and brushed her teeth with a new toothbrush Salena had left for her. Remi wrapped her wet hair into a loose bun and pulled on yesterday’s clothes. The entire time she rehearsed the speech she would have to give her father about where she’d disappeared to and why she hadn’t answered her phone. She was a terrible liar, especially to her parents. She was nineteen before she lost her virginity because she couldn’t bear to lie to her parents about what she’d done on her dates. She’d had to wait until college. If they caught her with Julien Brite, plotting against both families, it would be a tragedy of Shakespearean proportions.

  “Croissant?” Merrick tossed a bag at her as she emerged into the living room.

  “Delivery. Nice,” she said, digging into the bag. Merrick sat in a large dark green armchair with Salena on his lap. He was feeding her bites of croissant. Apparently she and Julien weren’t the only ones who’d engaged in some naked misbehavior last night.

  “Do you believe in hole n’ stick medicine?” Merrick asked Salena.

  “Holistic medicine?”

  “No, this is a different thing.”

  Remi coughed loudly to get Merrick’s attention.

  “She must need more hole n’ stick medicine,” Merrick stage-whispered to Salena.

  “Merrick,” Remi said and snapped her fingers. “You yelled at me to get out of the most comfortable bed I’ve ever slept in with the sexiest most amazing guy I’ve ever met. Focus please. What’s the situation?”

  Merrick focused.

  “Seven missed calls now,” Merrick said. “Dad. Mom. Trainer. Mom. Dad. Trainer. Last one from your mother.”

  “Oh God, not my mother,” she groaned and collapsed onto the sofa. Julien emerged from his bedroom, fully dressed and looking adorably sheepish. Salena grinned at him, and he turned a becoming shade of scarlet.

  “What’s going on?” Julien asked, sitting next to her on the sofa.

  “Trying to figure out what to tell my parents about where I am. I can’t say I’m on vacation. That’s too suspicious. I’m not the whirlwind-vacation-taking type. At least I wasn’t,” Remi said.

  “You.” Merrick pointed at her. “You aren’t going to say anything to them. You’re a terrible liar. Just tell me when we’re going back to Kentucky, and I’ll handle it. When are we going back?”

  Remi shrugged. “I don’t know. We can’t stay here long.”

  “Yes, you can,” Julien said, giving her an almost pleading look. “At least stay as long as you can.”

  “Brilliant idea,” Merrick said, rolling his eyes. “I’ll just run out and get us two French citizenships and a bag of money so we don’t have to go back to our jobs, and we’ll move right in and eat croissants and fuck all the time. Wait. That’s actually an amazing idea.”

  “Sounds good to me,” Salena said, winking at him.

  “We can’t stay,” Remi said, smiling apologetically at Julien. It hurt to say the words but it was better to say them now, get them out, and deal with the fact of them. “I have a job. So does Merrick. And while I might be furious at my parents for whatever they’re into, I can’t abandon the farm. I love the horses too much..”

  “Gross, Boss,” Merrick said.

  “I don’t love them like that,” she said, wadding up her empty croissant bag and throwing it at him.

  “You really love it there?” Julien asked.

  “I do,” she sighed. “I did. I liked being in charge. I liked being responsible for the well-being of the horses and the jockeys. I take really good care of them.” She was speaking in the past tense and it scared her. Something told her that her days as Arden Farm’s manager were numbered.

  “She does,” Merrick said. “Arden Farms has the lowest horse and jockey injury record of any Thoroughbred horse farm in the U.S.”

  She shook her head and exhaled through her teeth.

  “All this work I do,” she said standing up. “Every safety measure we’ve implemented, all the progress we’ve made…if my family gets caught by the racing commission fixing races or taking kickbacks from the track? It’s all gone.”

  “I won’t let them fuck over your work, Boss,” Merrick said.

  Remi smiled at him, something she rarely did.

  “When I was a kid, I went to Keeneland Racecourse with my dad for the horse auctions. And he told me that in the 1950s, Keeneland paid for every preschooler in Lexington, Kentucky to get the polio vaccine. He told me that and I said then and there, that’s what Arden Farms would be like. We would give back to Kentucky like that. And now…”

  It broke her heart to even think of it, to think of all her hard work being tarnished by a scandal she had nothing to do with. She couldn’t bear to face it. Eventually she would have to face it.

  “Tell my father we’re in New York,” she said. “Tell him we’ll be back by next weekend.”

  “Next weekend?” Julien sounded devastated.

  “I have to work,” she said. “I have responsibilities. I have to take care of the farm before my family makes everything fubar.”

  “Fubar?” Salena repeated.

  “Fucked-Up-Beyond-All-Recognition,” Merrick translated.

  “Lovely,” Salena said. “So where-”

  The buzzing of Remi’s phone silenced the entire room.

  Remi took a deep breath. Merrick held out his hand. Remi winced and handed him the phone.

  “Merrick here,” he answered. Remi grabbed Julien’s hand for comfort. She couldn’t bear to look so she put a hand over her eyes.

  “Remi? She’s still out,” Merrick said to whoever had called—her father most likely. “I know. She misplaced her phone. We just found it. Women. Am I right?”

  Remi heaved a sigh of relief. Having such a bizarre assistant paid off sometimes.

  “Where’s Remi? She’s out in the stables with this guy…I don’t know his name. She got a hot tip on a couple horses.”

  Good, Remi thought. Dad loved it when she aggressively went after a good horse.

  “What horses?” Merrick repeated. “I don’t know. Brown ones?”

  Remi tried to grab the phone from Merrick. He slapped her hand away.

  “Any luck with the horses?” Merrick repeated. “Yeah, she’s found herself a nice young colt. She rode him last night.”

  Remi slapped a hand over her mouth to stop her from yelling at Merrick.

  “How big is the colt?” Merrick said. “That’s kind of a personal question. Big enough to enjoy the ride, not so big she can’t walk today, I guess.”

  Remi glanced at Julien through a slit between her fingers. He’d fallen onto his side on the sofa and lay curled in the fetal position with a pillow smashed on his face. He was either laughing or crying. She couldn’t quite tell which.

  “Yeah, I’ll have her try to call you once she’s back in,” Merrick continued. “We’re getting shitty reception out here in the country so don’t freak out if she doesn’t call you back right away. We’ll be back this weekend.”

  Merrick ended the call and tossed Remi the phone.

  “You’re good,” Merrick said. “I covered your ass.”

  “You told my father I rode a fine young colt last night,” she nearly screamed.

  “What? You did,” he said.

  “He had a point,” Julien said, waggling his eyebrows. He lay back on the couch, his ankles crossed on the armrest. All she wanted to do was drag him back to bed with her. But instead she had to think, to plan.

  “Come on,” she said to Julien as she reached out her hand to him. He took it and she started to pull him to his feet. “I only have a few days left with you before I have to go back. Show me Paris.”

  “No,” Julien said.

  “No? You’re not going to show me Paris?” Did he really think they could spend the next few days fucking? Well, if he wanted to try, she was game.

  “I will show you Paris, yes. But you aren’t going back.”

  “Julien, I told you. I have a job. A very important one and-”

  “We are going back,” Julien said. “All four of us. Right, Salena?”

  Salena smiled at Julien. “I go where you go,” she said to him, a display of loyalty that made Remi love Salena just a little bit. What next? Was she going to love Merrick next?

  “And I come where you come,” Merrick said to Salena and bopped her on the tip of her nose. Nope. No love for Merrick.

  “It’s settled then,” Julien said.

  “You’re coming back with me?” Remi asked, her heart fluttering with the new and dangerous love she felt for Julien.

  “Yes. I just got you back. I’m not going to let you go that easily this time,” Julien said, taking both her hands in his.

  “Julien, I don’t want to leave either, but we can’t be seen together. And I don’t want to drag you into this mess. I can take care of it on my own. Merrick and I can, and then we’ll come back here.”

  “I don’t care if you can take care of it on your own,” he said. “You’re not on your own. It’s my family’s mess too. I don’t know what the plan is but I don’t care. I’m going. We’re in this together.”

  She sighed and then smiled.

  “Okay, we’re in this together,” she agreed. “Whatever this is. We need a plan.”

  “I’ve got the plan,” Merrick said. “First I get hard evidence against your parents. Then we put the thumbscrews on your parents.”

  “How do you propose to get hard evidence?” Remi asked him.