Free His Arranged Marriage by Tina Leonard Page B

found you to be such a fit mate, and no doubt an excellent queen.”
    “Thank you,” she said, surprised by the compliment.
    “Wisdom, diplomacy and a loving spirit are rare in a woman,” the king said quietly. “I miss them.”
    Whatever gift she had with words flew out the window at his bereft words.
    “I will await your phone call,” he suddenly commanded. “Do not make me wait for word of progress. Goodbye.”
    “Goodbye,” she murmured, knowing he had already hung up the phone.

Chapter Eight
    “Serena, wait!”
    The urgent, angry call of Cade’s came to her, despite the canter she had set the horse to. Hearing hoofbeats behind her, she encouraged Texas Heat into a gallop toward lush, green pastureland. Texas Heat sensed Dakar behind him, and his proud spirit refused to let himself be caught. Determined to win at all costs, he galloped hard and true. Serena laughed. “Go, go, go!” she urged him.
    Seeing a creek winding up ahead, she wondered how Texas Heat would react to the change in landscape. Until now, she had been content to give him his head, knowing that his winner’s spirit was operating in full. A body of water changed matters, however; she dared not risk injuring an excellent horse by asking it to cross water if it wasn’t used to doing so. This horse was used for show purposes and for stud, and maybe had rarely seen a creek. She would have to accept that here the race finished,Serena realized; here she would have to face an angry prince.
    Just as she prepared to command the horse to slow, powerful muscles beneath her saddle tensed, launched and carried her over the creek. She gasped, aware that the horse had known to jump the creek at a narrow pass, as the hooves landed neatly on gray clay, never missing more than a beat as Texas Heat continued his eager quest for the crown of champion.
    “Serena!” Cade barked.
    She glanced back to see that Dakar had jumped the creek at the same place. “You are going to get winded, my mighty warrior,” she told the horse. “We have made our point and won the trophy, so please, allow the sore losers to catch up with us. We must not injure their pride altogether.”
    Bit by bit, Texas Heat slowed to a joyous gallop, then to a canter for a few hundred feet, and then to a reluctant yet showy prancing walk, as if to say, “Ha! Did you enjoy my long tail waving at you like a banner you couldn’t catch!”
    “You could have hurt yourself!” Cade told her, coming alongside her horse. “Not to mention Texas Heat!”
    “Your champion is fine. Thirsty, but fine. Let me cool him down before you allow your hot head to tell me off.” Slowly she turned to take Texas Heat in a wide circle, once, twice, three times. Then sheslid from his back and, pulling the reins over his head so that she could hold them, walked him to the creek so he could drink. She didn’t let him drink too much, just enough to slake the dryness from his mouth, then led him to a tree where she looped the reins around a branch. “Graze if you will, mighty warrior,” she told him. “You deserve it.”
    She caught begrudging admiration in Cade’s eyes before he turned Dakar, mimicking her actions before choosing a tree far enough away from Texas Heat that there would be no trouble. The horses were too tired to be competitive right now, but they were healthy and would rally back all too soon. Seating herself on a flat patch of grass beside the creek, she waited for her prince’s hot words to flow over her.
    And no doubt they would, she thought, watching him stride toward her. Wearing jeans that melded to strong thighs, boots that gave him an appearance of strength, and a denim shirt open to mid-chest, she had to admit that he wasn’t the robed sheikh prince of her dreams. But he was sexily handsome.
    “Cowgirl,” she told him as he stood beside her, not deigning to sit in order that he might show her his temper.
    “What?”
    “I believe it is more fun to be a cowgirl than a