Free Lord and Master by Kait Jagger Page A

glimpse of the muscles in his forearms as he managed the reins. How did a man get that fit just from running?
    Maybe Stefan’s ears were burning because at that moment he turned his head in her direction and saw her standing there watching him, pitiful little stack of papers in her hand. She didn’t think she was actually slavering or anything, but the look of amusement that settled on his face surely meant that she’d been caught out. Seeing as she couldn’t play it off, she decided to go the full distance, raising her eyebrows and giving him her best
I’m impressed
look.
    Helen, too, noticed Luna and came straight over to her after she’d dismounted. ‘Sorry, I did get your message about the papers. I’ll just take them in the office.’
    Luna moved to follow her, but Stefan called out to her, ‘Miss Gregory, a word please?’
    She walked over to him as he dismounted the stallion and casually handed the reins to the pimply stable boy. As the boy led the horse away, Stefan removed his helmet, tucking it under his arm and running his free hand through his hair. Luna put her hands on her hips as if to say,
Don’t get me wrong, I’m enjoying the show, but…
and immediately regretted baiting him when he abruptly leaned his face close to hers, eyes looking her up and down then locking with her own.
    â€˜I should warn you,’ he said softly, but with intent, ‘that if you continue looking at me like that, I’m going to drag you into one of these stables and—’
    She never got to hear what Stefan planned to do to her in the stable because the grey stallion chose that moment to rear on its hind legs, emitting a high-pitched scream of a whinny. The stable boy cowered as the horse’s front hooves danced above his skull, and Stefan cursed under his breath, then walked over to help get the horse under control.
    â€˜Whoa there, lad,’ Stefan said calmly, raising one hand to the stallion’s neck as he tried to grab the reins with the other.
‘Duktig pojke, duktig pojke…’
    At this point Helen emerged from her office with the countersigned document, which she practically threw at Luna before going to Stefan’s aid. Luna took this as her cue to make a swift exit.

Chapter Six

    As fate would have it, Stefan had his own ideas about how their day in London would pan out. He had early morning meetings in Kensington, so he asked Luna to meet him at Isabelle’s shop at ten.
    Emerging from the Knightsbridge Tube station, she found the skies clear and the air crisp. With time to kill, she walked as far as Sloane Square. There were far worse things than sauntering along some of the most expensive streets in Britain, pausing occasionally to window shop in stores she couldn’t afford.
    At just gone 10am she met Stefan outside Lionsbridge, which was located in the ground floor of a beautifully renovated brick Victorian building near the Cadogan Hotel. The building itself, like many along Sloane Street, belonged to the Earl Cadogan, and Luna blanched to think what the rent for Isabelle’s small shop ran to.
    In truth, the accounts for Lionsbridge were a mystery to Luna. Whereas she had a good basic grasp of the balance sheets for the rest of the estate’s businesses, the Marchioness was careful to keep Isabelle’s vanity project under wraps. For vanity project it was, from the expensively etched Arborage lions on the glass frontage to the carefully contrived scent of Arborage roses and beeswax that greeted visitors inside.
    As Luna and Stefan entered, a rail-thin woman standing behind a restored Edwardian glass and mahogany counter smiled. At Stefan. Abandoning her task of artfully folding silk scarves, she came around the counter and extended her hand to him.
    â€˜You must be Stefan Lundgren. Isabelle told us to expect you.’
    Alerted by the sounds outside, Isabelle herself sailed out of a back storeroom on a cloud of