Her Billionaire Secret Romance Page 7

  “I would love that,” Eliza responded. ”Wait, they are starting to lick off this ointment. Is it dangerous?”

  “No, but you need it on those bites. It’s getting time for dinner now anyway.” They all got up, and Carson opened another door which brought them back into the main stable area. “You two can come here through this door to see the puppies any time.”

  Both Charles and Eliza excitedly answered, “Great!”

  As they walked back toward the ranch house under the live oak trees Eliza looked over. “I think this could actually be a lot of fun with the puppies, and I hope I will learn something for the race next summer.”

  This race really means a lot to Eliza. As they walked past the corral, Charles stopped to look at some of the horses. “Look at these horses! Man I bet they cost a pretty penny.” A black stallion pranced over to the fence. Eliza reached out her hand toward the horse, who then placed his soft, velvety lips on her wrist.

  “He is so soft. Look how tall he is compared to the other horses.”

  Carson walked up behind them. “That one is from Argentina, and I can’t even pronounce the name of his breed, but he is famous down south. I am using him to cover my best mares now.”

  Eliza continued to pet the stallion. “Are these the horses we will use for our lessons?”

  “Well that depends on how much riding experience you’ve had. If you have experience, you can choose whatever horse you want here.”

  “Whoa! I’m gonna love it here. My father won’t let me near his derby horses.” Charles leaned over toward the stallion. He snorted and sneezed, blowing snot all over Charles’s shirt.

  Eliza jumped back and laughed hysterically. “I think I love this horse. We seem to be on the same wavelength.”

  “Yuck, I think I will go change before dinner.” Charles laughed as he ran ahead to the ranch house.

  Carson chuckled. “Are you two related?”

  Eliza screwed up her face and wrinkled her brow. “I hope not, but you never know. There is a big feud between our families. I didn’t know he would be here, or I wouldn’t have come. Both of our families are professional horse breeders, it’s mainly for the big races, but we also enter the county race each year. I was hoping to gain some extra skills so that I could beat him again next year.”

  She thought about the possible date with Charles. Granted she was actually looking forward to a date with him, but losing was not an option. He was far too arrogant, and there was no way she would go down without fighting.

  “That is interesting. So are you two competitors in this race?”

  “Yes. I beat him because I trained all year, but now he is planning to train as well, and I was hoping this camp would give me the edge I needed to keep winning.”

  Carson and Eliza arrived at the ranch house just as Charles was coming down the porch stairs.

  They all climbed the steps into the lodge. The stately western look of the entry reminded Charles again that he truly was in the West. His cowboy hat and boots would not get strange looks here. He felt completely at home.

  Carson looked over at Charles. “I hear you’re both competitors.” He smiled.

  “Yes, I’m hoping to win the next race we have against each other.” Charles looked down and winked at Eliza, raising one eyebrow. He whispered, “Are you trying to get him on your side?” He raised his eyebrows, questioning.

  “No,” she whispered back, “but I would if I could.” Eliza flashed those beautiful eyes at him again, flirting. Yes, she is definitely flirting. Charles smiled to himself. It was rather flattering that she would flirt with him. That had to mean she liked him some, even though twice now she had told him that she didn’t like him. Charles thought ahead to his senior year of college. I wonder where Eliza is going to college. She has opened the door to fraternizing together, and I am going to go through it full steam. He couldn’t stop thinking about her, and now that they were here together, he was taking that as a sign, a very good sign. He let out a big sigh. What was he going to do about his mother? She wanted him to get to know the Jolanders, which was code for “we would like a marriage with that family.” He knew the family, and their daughter was beautiful but so boring. As far as he could tell, she had no ambition other than marrying well. Surely she must have some interests.

  They both entered the dining room, where five other participants were already sitting and joking around together. They were all small-framed men, so Charles stood out like a giant among them. Charles noticed Eliza was still the shortest person in the room. The men all stood right away and gathered around her. He smiled; those men weren’t missing any opportunities.

  The staff took orders for barbequed steaks, and everything else was set on the table. Baked potatoes, fresh green salad, a bowl of something called collard greens, some black eyed peas—another unfamiliar dish—and fresh apple pie. Charles vowed to try everything. This was an experience, after all, and when traveling abroad, he had found trying new foods to sometimes be very rewarding, sometimes not. He looked over at Eliza, who had taken a seat across the table from him.

  “The food looks great. I was wondering how they would feed us, but I can see I am not going to go hungry.”

  Carson asked everyone to introduce themselves while they waited for their steaks. “Eliza, can you begin?”

  “Hi, I am Eliza Stanton from Connecticut. I am excited to improve my skills with horses. It would be fun to try some jumping.”

  The person sitting next to Eliza stood up to speak. “I am Vinny Perkins, and I plan to be a professional jockey. Right now I work at a stable training race horses. I heard good things about this camp. I plan to work hard and play hard.” He looked down at Eliza and winked. Charles shifted in his seat and noticed Eliza doing the same. The backs of his ears were burning. Charles had this sudden urge to sit between them.

  The other boys also had aspirations to work as jockeys. Then it was Charles turn. “Howdy, I’m Charles Harrington, also from Connecticut.” He looked over and smiled possessively at Eliza. Her eyebrows immediately went together. He stood up while speaking, just to let Vinny see he was practically twice his height. “I am here for fun and training.” As he sat down he gave Vinny a cold stare, and Vinny smirked in response.

  Carson’s mouth turned up in a small smile, and he raised his eyebrows. That Carson didn’t seem to miss much. But Charles liked him. Carson seemed like a straight shooter, and he felt he could learn a lot more than horse racing from him. Charles regretted they only had a week here.

  The food was delicious. “I have not had a steak this good ever.” Charles wiped his mouth with a napkin. He piled the sour cream onto his baked potato and added bacon bits, onions, and cheese. He was starving and this hit the spot. He even tried the green stuff. It made him gag a little, but he ate it. For dessert, he loaded his apple pie with plenty of vanilla ice cream. When he finally sat back, he noticed Eliza looking at him incredulously.

  “What?”

  Both Eliza and Vinny had an amazed look on their faces. “It’s just that I have never seen anyone eat so much food,” she replied. Charles looked over at Eliza’s plate. She had a small piece of steak, some salad, and fruit. She had skipped the potato and greens but had tried some black-eyed peas, which she left on her plate.

  “Well, I was starving.” What was wrong with eating good food anyway? If that was all she normally ate, no wonder she was so short. He didn’t like that both Vinny and Eliza were aligned against his eating habits.

  Carson asked everyone to move to the conference room at the side of the lobby. They all walked out toward the lobby. Eliza flew up the stairs to her room, and Vinny walked up next to Charles. “So do you have anything going with Eliza?”

  Charles stopped and looked down at him. “I would consider myself her friend.”

  “So she’s fair game then?” Vinny gave him a nasty knowing smile.

  “No, I wouldn’t say that. Having me here is just like having her father here watching your every move.” Charl
es had the greatest desire to pick the man up by his neck.

  They all took their seats around a table just as Eliza came running in with her notebook. She sat at the table next to Carson, placed her notebook and pen in front of her, and opened to the first page. Her hair had been down at dinner but was now pulled back into a ponytail. Charles looked around at the rest of the room. Many were leaning back in their chairs, not one looked like they planned to take notes. The contrast was pretty funny to Charles. No wonder she beat me; that girl is serious.

  Carson handed Eliza a handout to pass around. “This is the schedule. If you miss the starting time, you are out for that practice. I am not coming back to gather up stragglers.”

  Charles looked over the timing. They began at 8 a.m. sharp at the corral next to the stables. He could do that—breakfast at seven and work at eight.

  “No one is allowed in the stables unless I have previously given you permission.” He looked down at Eliza and then straight at Charles who nodded, feeling privileged and glad that Vinny wasn’t allowed in there.

  “We train until noon and then again from one to four. We have a shuttle to take you into town, which is walkable from here, and the lake toys are available if you are interested, along with some fishing gear in the shack by the lake. If you want to use the spa, you can buy a pass at the lobby desk.”

  One of the boys raised his hand. “Can we ride anytime we’d like? And who chooses the horses we train with?”

  “That’s a good question, Blake. You can ride the resort’s trail horses any time you’d like. The training horses can only be ridden with my permission. I will choose which horses you train with. I’m using your application information to make that decision.”

  Carson walked toward the door. “You’re free the rest of the evening. I can vouch for the cookies here if you need a snack after dinner.”

  Everyone got up after the meeting, and three of the boys crowded around Eliza, asking questions and basically being annoying as far as Charles could see.

  He walked over and butted in. “Eliza, it’s time to take care of that project Carson gave us.”

  Eliza looked relieved. “Oh, right. Sorry Blake and Connor, I do have to do this. Maybe we can talk later.”

  They walked over and entered the stables. “Don’t you think this will be fun? I want to try jumping. Have you ever jumped?”

  Charles held the door to the stall open and Eliza walked in. “No, not really, my horse jumped a stream once on a fox hunt but that’s all.” The puppies were all curled up in a ball, lying on top of each other.

  “Are they sleeping now? Dang.” She walked over and sat down next to them.

  Charles came close and sat down next to her. “I hadn’t planned to try jumping, but if you are going to do it, I will too.”

  He reached down and picked up one of the puppies, holding him up to check him out. “They didn’t cut the dew claws.”

  “What are those?” Eliza picked up one of the puppies to investigate. Charles looked at the sparkle in her eyes as she looked lovingly at the puppy.

  “It’s like a thumb for dogs. If they climb a lot, they are very helpful. Some breeders cut them off as puppies, but it’s not necessary.”

  Eliza looked over at Charles and smiled. “Do you think we could each bring a puppy home? I know my parents would buy one, and we need another ranch dog.”

  “Well, I have one more year at school until I transfer. Where are you going?” Charles wanted a puppy too—who didn’t love puppies? But it would be sad to be away at school after he had bonded with it. So far he managed to get home at least weekly.

  “I graduated a year early, so I am actually a junior at the U.”

  Charles was taken aback. “How did you manage that?”

  “Well, I took online college courses in high school and tested out of a lot of general ed classes.”

  Charles was impressed. “Do you ever just relax and enjoy life?”

  “I think this week will be a great break for me, and I do spend an amazing amount of time reading for pleasure.”

  “Judging by the schedule you must keep, this week will be positively boring in comparison.” They both laughed.

  “Not with these little darlings. Come here, baby.” She reached out and brought one of the puppies to her chest and cuddled him. Four of the puppies tried to climb up into her arms as well.

  “Let’s take turns, babies. I would just love to bring one of you home with me.” She lifted another into her arms and tried petting the other two who were trying to climb up her shirt.

  Charles started laughing.

  “Don’t just sit there, get busy. You’re the dad, and they need cuddling.”

  Charles grabbed four of the puppies, not to be outdone.

  “Come on there, you will have great lives on cattle ranches, chasing those unruly cows around.” Charles was learning a lot about Eliza, and he liked what he found. She was a hard-working girl with great goals. And she was real and compassionate and said what she thought. It was a nice change from the fake girls he had known. They would say anything they thought he wanted to hear, not what they were actually feeling or thinking. He felt he was on a stronger footing with Eliza. He knew where he stood with her, and her last comment on that subject was she didn’t like him. He smirked. Well, there was work to do there if he wanted to pursue this little auburn-haired forbidden beauty.

  The puppies woke up and started squirming. “Oh these little ones need their mommy.” Sure enough, as soon as she said that they started howling for their mother. In less than one minute, Aussie came in through the doggie door, sniffing each little puppy.

  “Boy, there sure is a mothering instinct going on here.” He watched as Aussie gathered the puppies around her and then lay down to feed them. Eliza pushed a little straggler over to her mother.

  “It looks like Aussie is a good mother.” She looked up at him. They were both kneeling in the hay. He looked into those beautiful eyes and then down to her lips. Did he dare try to kiss her? A moment passed where he wasn’t sure whether he should do what he wanted. Then Eliza leaned forward and brought her lips to his. Surprised, he fumbled for a minute and then covered her lips with his own. He reached his arms around her to pull her closer. As he did, they both lost their balance and fell back into the hay. Eliza started laughing.

  “What about this first kiss business?” Charles laughed. “I thought I stole your kiss and you didn’t like me.” He threw some hay at her.

  “Well that opportunity has come and gone.” She picked up some hay and threw it on his head. He grabbed her and rolled her over in the hay, pinning her down and was about to put some hay on her head when they heard the door shut from the tack room. They both stood up just as Carson came in. He looked at them and raised his eyebrows.

  “How are the pups doing?”

  Charles hoped his face was not as red as Eliza’s.

  “They were sleeping when we got here, and then they started squirming round, and then all out crying. Aussie came right in.” It was awkward saying anything.

  Carson stopped as he was about to leave and looked them over. “You better get all that hay out of your hair.” Then he walked out. Charles thought he saw a little smile on his face as he went out the door.

  “Oh no, this is embarrassing! What he must think.” Eliza started pulling hay from her hair. “Can you help me?” The clip she had holding her hair back had come out and there was hay all through her hair.

  Carson peaked back in with a horse comb and handed it to Charles. He didn’t say a word before turning around and walking back out.

  “I can’t even believe how compromising this must look.”

  “Yes, if we lived two hundred years ago, I would have to marry you on the spot or you would be ruined.” He looked over at her with a thoughtful smile on his face.

  “Well, in today’s world I am simply mortified, and we haven’t even started our training yet. Good grief!” She started brushing off her clothes.

>   “Hold still so I can get this hay out. Wow, I didn’t realize your hair was this long.” It went all the way to her waist in thick waves. How does she take care of this? It was beautiful and fell through his fingers in shimmering softness. He imagined all this hair falling down over him and decided to think about something else.

  “Ouch, you are pulling my hair! Look, just give me your hat. I’ll go to the spa and have one of the beauticians fix this.” She rolled her hair up to the top of her head and stuffed it all into Charles’s hat.

  They exited the stable together and walked to the ranch house. Charles sat on one of the rockers and called Freckles over for a visit. “Hey, girl, how ya doing?” He let her smell his hand and then petted her. “You’re a beauty. Have you been over to see the pups?”

  Eliza found Mary and purchased a spa pass. “Is the spa open in the evenings?”

  Mary smiled. “Til 10 p.m.”

  “Oh, great. I will go down now. Thanks.” She grabbed a cookie from the tray sitting on the counter and took a bite. “Wow, these are delicious!”

  “That’s what they tell me, so I keep making them.” Mary chuckled.

  Chapter 8

  Eliza was still bright red when she looked at herself in the mirror at the beauty shop.

  “What did you do with your hair? Have you been burrowing through the haystacks?”

  Man this is horrible. “Can you get the hay out of my hair? I guess I might as well get a shampoo and blow-dry while I am here. It will save me trouble later.” She was mortified not just that Carson had walked in on them, but that she had kissed him in the first place. What was I thinking? Eliza smirked. She knew exactly what she was thinking. That kiss by the lake was pretty exciting, and she wanted to do it again. She liked Charles—that was the gist of it really. She liked Charles, a Harrington. Now what in the world am I going to do about this? I guess the first thing to figure out is does he like me?

  It was late when her hair was done. “I am so tired. Thank you so much.”