Reese stepped back from her, pulling his hand away. “But I don’t want you near him unless I’m with you.”
As he moved away, Jayce felt the contentment in her heart drain away. “Reese!” Jayce called, suddenly very desperate for him to remain at her side.
Reese paused at the doorway.
She fumbled with her whirling thoughts for a moment before asking, “If my father hadn’t taken Nicole, would you have courted me?”
A sad smile curved the corners of his lips. “I would not have known you then.” He turned and was gone.
Chapter Seventeen
Two days later, Reese found himself once again outside Satan’s pen, leaning against the fence, his arms resting on the top rail. He saw the impetuous girl grin as the horrid creature took another carrot from her hand. She reached out and actually patted the beast’s nose. Reese snorted. He had owned Satan for six months and couldn’t even get near the fiend.
He shook his head in complete disbelief as the horse nuzzled its head against Jayce’s hand. “Wretched beast,” Reese grumbled, and looked away from the touching scene. Something in it disturbed him. Something that had nothing to do with the horse. He had watched her work with the animal, cooing and talking to it for an hour and a half. One might think he had nothing better to do than to watch her handle Satan. One might think he was slack in his care of his lands when all he could do was stand at the fence and stare at Jayce.
He envied the damn horse. And that thought disturbed him much more than what others might think.
“Try it.”
Reese lifted his head to see Jayce holding a carrot out to him, an encouraging grin on her red lips. He almost reached out and took the carrot, enchanted enough to do her bidding. But then the animal snickered, and Reese turned his gaze to it. A snarl curled his lips. “I don’t think so.”
“You have to try someday,” Jayce said.
“I do not bribe animals into becoming tame,” he proclaimed, crossing his arms over his chest.
“No, you whip them and beat them into submission. That’s no way to gain loyalty.”
Reese opened his mouth to object, a scowl crossing his dark brow.
“Let me show you something,” Jayce said, overriding his objection.
To his horror, the little imp ducked beneath the rails and moved into the pen. “What do you think you’re doing?” Reese demanded. “Leave there at once.”
“Don’t worry,” Jayce assured him. “Satan won’t hurt me.”
“That remains to be seen,” Reese warned. “Get out of there now.”
“Most creatures respond better to kindness than to a whipping.” She approached Satan with her hand outstretched.
The horse whinnied and raised his hoof, smashing the ground and splaying up a cloud of dirt. A thunderous panic rang in Reese’s ears. He gripped the fence so tightly his knuckles turned white. “Jayce, don’t.”
She moved up to the horse and it towered over her, steam coming from its nostrils, fire from its mouth. Reese boosted himself up onto the fence, ready to bolt over it to save Jayce.
Jayce reached over the horse, stroking its mane. She grabbed a handful of its hair and in one movement, hauled herself onto the animal’s back.
Reese’s heart lurched into his throat and he leapt the fence, racing toward Jayce only to find her staring down at him from atop the creature. It suddenly became clear as daylight to Reese. They were cohorts. She had been here many times before, talking to the beast, selling her soul to ride the demon.
Reese gritted his teeth. “I told you not to come here without me.”
“I never would have gotten to this point with you brooding at the gate and glowering when I tried to do anything. Besides,” she said, calmly stroking the horse’s mane, “you make Satan nervous.”
“I---!” That was the final straw. He approached her with a dark look. But Satan pawed the earth in warning, and Reese came up short, knowing the animal could trample him in a moment. “Get down from there,” he called.
Jayce lifted her eyes to him. Those blue orbs shone at him, and Reese realized that the nervousness he felt in the pit of his stomach was for her safety. He would have done anything to get the girl from the devil’s back. He would have battled a thousand men to see her safe. But he knew that his grim resolve would not get her from the beast’s back. He gritted his teeth again. “Please,” he said begrudgingly.
Jayce slid down Satan’s side, and Reese grabbed her hand, pulling her away from the horse. “Are you mad?” he demanded. “He could have trampled you! He could have thrown you, and you could have broken your neck!”