The Price of Honor Read Free Page A

couldn’t summon any enthusiasm for the task. It would have to wait until morning. Right now she needed a moment to soak up the peace and quiet of the fading day.
    She turned her back on the barn and the paperwork waiting on her desk, braced her arms across the top of the white board fence and parked her boot on the bottom rail as she savored the way the setting sun turned the sky sherbet colors as it disappeared behind the tall pines. The sweet aromas of honeysuckle and gardenias permeated the humid air. There was a stillness in the ring just beforedusk, a tranquillity that centered the universe on the rider and her mount.
    Megan missed riding like an amputee would miss a newly severed limb, and not being able to pit herself and her horse against time and obstacles left her empty and adrift. She’d been a rider since her father had bought her first pony for her fourth birthday. The show ring had been the one place she’d excelled, the only place she’d always fit in, and her last link to her father who’d been a great competitor. But she wouldn’t risk hurting her baby—not even for a short ride.
    â€œThis is your favorite time of day. Why aren’t you riding?”
    Xavier.
    She startled at the sound of his deep, slightly accented voice, and her boot slipped on the rail, nearly dumping her on her bottom. She quickly regained her balance and spun to face him. Joy, hope and apprehension swirled like a dust devil inside her. He’d come. Finally. The urge to throw herself in his arms bunched inside her like a compacted spring. But she couldn’t. Not until she knew his intentions.
    The evening breeze tossed his dark hair. His observant green eyes pinned her in place. The shadow of stubble cloaking his jaw, combined with a white silk long-sleeve shirt and black jeans gave him the look of a modern-day pirate. A pirate who had stolen her heart and tossed it overboard like flotsam, she reminded herself.
    â€œWhat are you doing here?”
    â€œI have come to take you home.” His autocratic bearing and commanding tone were so familiar, so dear. She loved his confidence, his swagger. And those were the words she’d been waiting to hear. But…
    â€œYou’ve canceled your wedding?”
    His brow creased. “No.”
    Her balloon of hope deflated. “Are you going to?”
    â€œI cannot.”
    She’d thought her heart couldn’t break any more. Wrong. A fresh stab of pain gouged her. “Then we have nothing more to discuss, Xavier. You’re committed to another woman. You’ve wasted a trip. Climb back in your jet and have a nice flight home. I’ll arrange for someone to pack up the rest of my things and get them out of your cottage.”
    â€œIf you want your belongings come for them yourself.”
    How like him to be stubborn. “I can’t. I have a job here now.”
    â€œTeaching riding lessons,” he scoffed as if her occupation was no more prestigious than shoveling manure from stalls.
    â€œI like mentoring others.” Or she would once she got the hang of it.
    â€œYou like teaching. But you love riding. Your possessions will be waiting for you when you return. I will not allow anyone else to enter your home.”
    â€œYour home. Your name’s on the deed.”
    â€œThat can easily be changed.”
    â€œWhat happens when you marry, Xavier? Do you think your wife will like having your ex-mistress nearby? Or were you expecting us to carry on as lovers after the ceremony?”
    â€œUnlike my mother, I will honor my vows. You may keep the cottage. We are adults. Cecille need not know of our past.”
    â€œEveryone knows about us. We were inseparable for months. Ship my stuff here or give it away. I don’t care. I’m not coming to get it.”
    Good thing she’d brought the most important items with her when she’d packed in such a rush to get out before he’d returned from work that