His Convenient Virgin Bride / Seduction on the CEO’s Terms: His Convenient Virgin Bride

Training was important. It was hard to find time to think about anything else.

Well, except for Alec.

She clamped her jaw down hard, ordering herself to forget about Alec. He’d been skulking around the stable all week, asking questions, printing financial reports, and generally making a nuisance of himself.

Wesley did his part. He took a step closer to her, his shoulder brushing against her elbow.

Brittany turned her horse and headed for jump number four.

Wesley brushed his fingers along Stephanie’s bare forearm, easing closer still. He touched the back of her hand, turning it to feather his fingertips across her palm, before cupping her hand and giving her a squeeze.

It was a gentle touch. A pleasant touch. She forced herself to concentrate on enjoying it.

“We need to talk, Stephanie.” His blue-eyed gaze went liquid.

“About?”

His smile widened. “About us, of course. I’m dying to kiss you.” He moved her hand from the rail and turned her, tugging her toward him, voice going breathy. “I’ve been thinking about you for three long days.”

Stephanie opened her mouth, but the words she wanted to utter wouldn’t come out. She hadn’t been thinking about Wesley for three long days. And she wasn’t dying to kiss him.

Okay, she wasn’t exactly opposed to kissing him. But the rush of excitement she’d felt the last two times they’d come close was decidedly absent.

“Tell me how you feel,” he breathed.

Brittany cantered past. The clomp of her horse’s hooves tossed sprays of dirt, while the whoosh of its breathing filled the air. Stephanie used the instant to pull back.

“I really like you, Wesley,” she told him.

“That’s good.” He smiled confidently and moved in again.

“I’m …” Curious? Hopeful? Desperate to have you erase Alec from my thoughts?

“You’re what?” he prompted.

“Worried.” The word jumped out before she could censor it.

He frowned. “About what?”

“You’re my student.”

It was a lame excuse, and they both knew it.

Jessica Henderson had been her now husband Carl’s student for three years before they announced their engagement. Nobody had been remotely scandalized by the relationship. In fact, half the state horse jumping community had attending their wedding.

“You make me sound like a kid,” said Wesley.

“You’re younger than me,” Stephanie pointed out, feeling suddenly desperate to get out of the kiss she’d been planning for so long.

“Barely,” he told her, the hurt obvious in his tone.

“Still—”

“Stephanie, what’s going on?”

“Nothing,” she lied again.

“I missed you.”

She tried to come up with something to say.

He stepped into the silence. “You’re beautiful, funny, smart—”

“I have a business to run and a competition to train for.”

“What are you talking about? What happened while I was gone?”

“Nothing.” It was the truth.

His lips puffed out in a pout. “I don’t believe you.”

Stephanie took a breath and regrouped. “It’s just … I need to focus right now, Wesley. And so do you. Brighton is only a few weeks away.”

She sped up her words, not giving him a chance to jump back in. “And we both need to nail it. It’s your first major, senior event, and I need the ranking.”

“I still don’t see why we can’t—”

“We can’t, Wesley.”

He reached for her hand once more, squeezing down. “But we’re so good together.” With the sun slanting across his tousled hair, and the pleading tone in his voice, he suddenly struck her as very young.

“We can be friends,” she offered.

His brow furrowed. “I don’t want to be friends.”

“Yes, you do. We’re already friends. We’re going to train together and nail Brighton.”

“And then what?”

“What do you mean?”

“After Brighton? If we still feel the same way?”

She didn’t know what to say. She didn’t feel the way she wanted to feel, and she didn’t see that changing.

He grinned, obviously taking her silence for agreement. The eager, puppy-dog look was back in his eyes. “I know we have something special.”

“We have friendship and mutual respect,” she offered carefully.