Modern Romance April 2015 Books 1-8. Annie West

did you go?’

      ‘I hitched my wagon to whichever polo player was fashionable at the time.’ He shrugged. ‘By watching and learning I somehow managed to save up enough from my wages to buy my first pony. She was an old girl, on the point of retirement, but I was eager to try the game myself, and I made a passable polo pony out of her. Thanks to that mare I could take part in at least one chukka during amateur matches, where not every rider owned a string of ponies and we all did the best we could.’

      ‘Which brought your riding skills to the attention of those that mattered?’

      ‘Correct.’

      She was standing close enough to touch, and that distracted him for another few moments.

      ‘Eventually I was entrusted with training a few medium-grade ponies.’ He cast his mind back to those uncertain days. ‘Then my grandfather became ill, but I was having too much of a good time to come home. I should have come. I owe everything I have to him. I just couldn’t see it at the time. Now do you understand why I am so committed to this place?’

      ‘Yes,’ she said quietly. ‘It explains a lot about you.’

      ‘Like why I’m such a selfish bastard?’ He laughed.

      ‘Like why you belong here,’ Danny argued. ‘And why you believe you can never do enough for this ranch or for the people who live here. You think you deserted your grandfather when he needed you most, but he had let you go, knowing you’d come back. He wanted you to see how wide your horizons could be. You haven’t let him down, Tiago—anything but.’

      ‘Some of the decisions I’ve had to make to keep this ranch haven’t been easy.’

      She shook her head and laughed. ‘I think I know that.’ She looked into his eyes and hers darkened.

      The pain in his groin increased. Taking hold of her wrist, he led her around the side of the house, and with the utmost self-control he held her away from him at the door.

      ‘Goodnight, Danny. The next time I see you will be at our wedding.’

      * * *

      Could there be anything more beautiful than his bride on their wedding day? He couldn’t hold back a smile as Danny walked slowly towards him down the petal-strewn aisle. She was coming to join him through packed rows of people whose smiling faces meant the world to him.

      The fact that they were fast adopting Danny as one of their own was the icing on the cake for him, but he didn’t need anyone to tell him that he’d made a wonderful choice of bride. Danny had so much to offer the ranch and its people. When they were married he hoped she would play an even bigger role, adding the human touch he’d never had time to bring to the ranch.

      The outdoor ceremony beneath an archway of flowers passed quickly, in a series of softly spoken words on Danny’s part and brisk assertions on his. He would take away a series of sensory memories, together with the relief of being married.

      Danny was small and soft and fragrant—and so keyed-up, so alert she was almost trembling. Her close-fitting lace dress was rustling, though she wasn’t moving. It rustled when she breathed and her breasts rose above the confining fabric, and it rustled when she turned to him to speak her wedding vows, and through all this they were standing close, but not touching, and that tiny space keeping them apart was charged with electricity.

      ‘You may kiss the bride.’

      At last he could breathe freely. He was married. He owned the ranch. The relief of having the caveat in his grandfather’s will fulfilled was indescribable. His people sensed it too and cheered wildly, standing to applaud as he cupped Danny’s face in his hands. The future security of everyone here was assured now. This was his gift to his guests. He had an aide on hand, waiting to make a copy of the wedding certificate, as well as a courier standing by to deliver a hard copy to the lawyers as soon as this ceremony was over.

      * * *

      This was more romantic than she had dared to hope. Surrounded by fragrant blossoms in front of the registrar, she could feel love swelling all around her. She knew she was doing the right thing. Tiago’s steady gaze was all it took to convince her that her doubts before the wedding had been based on nothing more than pre-wedding nerves.

      Surely Tiago must feel the magic too? How could he not? Danny wondered as he dipped his head and kissed her. She closed her eyes, knowing she’d never been so happy. Even the cruel barbs in the press couldn’t touch her now. She remembered some of them, and smiled as Tiago stared deep into her eyes.

       ‘Can a small-town girl rein in a man like Tiago Santos?’

      Yes, she could.

       ‘Does a leopard change his spots?’

      Yes, he had.

       ‘Will the Playboy be curbed by Miss Whiplash?’

      That remark had made her laugh. Nothing mattered now except the fact that Tiago Santos and Danny Cameron were husband and wife. The reporters didn’t know him as she did. No one who hadn’t seen Tiago Santos on this ranch had seen the real man.

      ‘Well, Senhora Santos, are you ready to start your new life with me?’

      ‘I am.’

      ‘When you look at me like that,’ Tiago murmured, ‘all I can think about is taking you to bed. Is that bad?’

      ‘I like you bad. Tonight I think I’m going to be very bad too.’

      ‘I’m counting on it,’ Tiago assured her.

      He excited her. She trembled in an entirely pleasurable way at the thought of their wedding night. She’d asked for this delay, and could hardly believe how long she’d waited—not long in actual terms of this week, but if she counted in her feverish erotic daydreams from that first moment she saw him in Brazil, that was quite a build-up to tonight.

      She was about to find out if her imagination was equal to their wedding night. Pleasure thrummed through her at the thought that she might not even be close.

      But they had guests to entertain first, Danny remembered as Tiago was distracted by some of his polo-playing friends.

      While he was talking she stared at the jewel-encrusted band on her hand, sitting snugly next to the enormous diamond engagement ring. How incongruous they looked on her work-worn hands. Silk purse and sow’s ear came to mind.

      She flashed a glance at Tiago—blisteringly hot, unreasonably handsome, sleekly tailored and unimaginably successful—and in spite of all the encouragement she’d been giving herself before the wedding she shrank a little inside her beautiful borrowed wedding dress.

      * * *

      The wedding party might have been last-minute but, as he had expected, everyone had pulled together to make it special. It was the best party he’d been to in a long time, and every time he looked at his bride he knew he’d made a good choice.

      His groin was straining, begging for him to do something about it, but he was beginning to enjoy the agony—and he wanted to show off his beautiful wife. So many people were waiting to congratulate them that any chance of their being alone was slim, at least for now, but hearing tributes from the heart from his people made it easy to stay.

      ‘It’s thrilling to feel part of such a wonderful extended family,’ Danny told him. ‘I feel closer than ever to this ranch.’

      Covering her hand with his, he linked their fingers. ‘Are you frustrated?’

      Her eyes cleared as she took his meaning, and then she held his gaze and smiled. ‘Of course I am.’

      Heat swept over him. He wanted her now.

      ‘Do you think me too obvious? Too unsophisticated?’

      ‘No. I think you’re a normal healthy woman, with a normal healthy appetite.’

      He