The Privileged and the Damned. Kimberly Lang

estate was abuzz with the news—and though she’d seen plenty of pictures, those pictures were nothing compared to reality.

      All the Marshalls were genetically lucky—honey-blond hair, deep green eyes, strong jawlines under high cheekbones—but Ethan seemed to have won the lottery, combining those individual features into something more … more … Just more. Thick hair—curling just the slightest bit around his ears—dripped water onto broad, tanned shoulders. There, the droplets joined with others to run in rivulets over a set of lovely pecs and abs before meeting the water lapping his waist.

      She jerked her eyes back up. Mercy. The man was gorgeous enough to give a girl heart palpitations, and when he looked up from Goose to meet her eyes and smile—seemingly aware she’d been checking him out, much to her mortification—the full effect was enough to cause her to sway in the saddle the tiniest bit.

      “I’m Ethan Marshall.”

      “I know.” Eyes up. No gawking. “It’s nice to finally meet you.” She backed Goose up a bit, to relieve the strain on her thighs from holding her feet out of the water, but Ethan didn’t follow. He looked at her expectantly and she searched for something else to say, but her brain was misfiring a bit now that she had his full attention. “Welcome back.”

      “Thanks. And you are …?”

      Her cheeks heated. Idiot. “Lily. Lily Black.”

      “Well, it’s nice to meet you, too, Lily. How many times did Goose soak your boots before you figured him out?”

      “Three.” He smirked, and she shrugged. “I’m a slow learner, I guess.”

      “Well, Tinker will do the same thing, too, if you didn’t know that already.”

      Tinker was Ethan’s horse, a huge white stallion with a mischievous streak worse than Goose’s. “Tinker dumped me completely in the river on my second day.” At Ethan’s smile, she made the rest of the confession. “He then took off and left me to walk back to the stable.”

      Ethan laughed, a warm yet totally masculine sound that made her insides feel a bit gooey. “I heard about that. Didn’t know it was you, though. Maybe I should apologize.”

      “Why?” His small shrug said a lot. “Did you teach him to do that?”

      “It kept my brothers and cousins off my horse when I wasn’t around.” The unrepentant grin was slightly infectious and kept her at ease with the conversation. How long had it been since she’d had a friendly discussion about absolutely nothing at all? It was a nice feeling—even if it was a strange one, rusty from disuse.

      “Your horse is rotten. It’s a good thing he’s pretty.”

      He winked at her, catching her totally off guard. “I’ve heard the same is said about me.”

      The statement could have been full of smug assurance of his good looks, but the tone made it sound self-deprecating. Unfortunately, it also had her eyes going back to the acres of tanned, sculpted skin. “Pretty” was a gross understatement of the man’s very ample charms.

      Goose was pulling against the reins, trying to move back out to the deeper water and Ethan, thankfully giving her something to concentrate on since she’d lost track of the conversation due to her wandering eyes. Goose snorted and shook his head, but she wasn’t giving in. Not in front of Ethan Marshall. She didn’t want him thinking she couldn’t handle the horse.

      “I think he’s just happy to see you, Mr. Marshall. He’s normally much better behaved with me.”

      “Ethan,” he corrected. “Just Ethan. There are way too many Mr. Marshalls around here to keep up with.”

      Lily felt her face warm, but it wasn’t with embarrassment this time. “Okay. Ethan it is.” When he smiled this time, it caused a little shiver to run over her skin. That, along with the restless movements of Goose, brought her focus back where it belonged. “Um, I should probably get back to the stable. It was nice meeting you.”

      Ethan nodded. “And you, Lily.”

      She turned Goose back toward the shore and saw her water bottle in the shallows. “Mr. Marsh—I mean, Ethan—could you grab that bottle for me?”

      “Nope.”

      She twisted around in the saddle to face him. The smirk on his face made her wonder if she’d totally misjudged him. It was a relatively simple request. Was his ego that big? A high-and-mighty Marshall was too good to retrieve a water bottle for one of the staff?

      “I wouldn’t normally ask, but I’m only wearing half-chaps, and if I get down my boots will fill with water.”

      Ethan shrugged a muscular shoulder. “Sorry. Can’t be helped.”

      Maybe he was that smug after all.

      The smirk grew worse as he crossed his arms over his chest. “I’m sure you didn’t notice, but I’m only wearing water at the moment.”

      Lily felt her face heat again as the full meaning of his words filtered though. She’d been carrying on a conversation not six feet away from him—and he’d been naked the whole time? Her eyes—she just couldn’t help it—retraced their earlier path down his chest and stomach to the waterline, which she now knew covered …

      Ethan’s chuckle caused her to jerk her head up and twist in the saddle so quickly her neck spasmed and Goose protested. “If I go get it, one of us could be embarrassed …” He trailed off, leaving no question as to which one of them it would be.

      Oh, dear Lord. She was already embarrassed enough. Focusing her eyes on the shoreline, she saw a pile of clothes on one of the rocks. Dammit. Why couldn’t she have noticed that just a little sooner? She’d been ogling the man’s chest and stomach, and only inches below the waterline was … Her cheeks felt like they were on fire now.

      “Still want me to get it?”

      There was laughter and challenge in those words, and then she heard splashes, like Ethan might be making his way to shore after all.

      “No!” She paused and cleared her throat. “I mean, never mind. I’ll get it.” Without looking at him, she dismounted, grabbed the bottle, and mounted again in record time. She dug her heels into Goose, feeling the water slosh around her toes, and set him into a trot. She didn’t really care if it looked like the cowardly retreat it was; she had to get out of there before she died of embarrassment.

      The sound of Ethan’s laughter followed her, and it was all Lily could do not to kick Goose into a gallop.

      Naked.

      He’d been naked the whole time.

      Distance from the scene of the crime helped her calm her heart-rate, but with that calm came unease. Ethan found it funny right now, but would he still find it amusing later on? What if he told others—like his grandmother? Mrs. Marshall wouldn’t find it one bit funny.

      Could she get fired for this? The thought chilled her. More than just the job, she loved—needed—the security of Hill Chase. It gave her a place to live and peace of mind. The thought of losing that because she’d been blinded by charm and a chest and not noticed he was skinny-dipping …

       He was naked the whole time.

       How will I ever be able to look him in the eye again?

       Naked.

       How could I have known?

       It was an accident.

      Lily lifted her chin. Exactly. An accident. No harm done. So the chances of losing her job were very, very low. She had to quit jumping straight to The Worst-Case Scenario all the time. The next time she saw Ethan—and it was guaranteed she would see him sooner rather than later, since the stable wasn’t that big—she’d pretend it didn’t