Free Sicilian Dreams by J. P. Kennedy

he’s got quite a package to look after.
    ‘Are you laughing at me Cassandra?’ asked Marco slowly.
    ‘No way’ she said, burying her face in Stella’s neck now trying not to laugh out loud.
    ‘Ok, but we’ll see who gets the last laugh,’ he said mysteriously, coming to stand beside her.
    ‘Seeing you don’t like to be lifted up, put your knee in my hand like this see and I’ll give you a leg up. Hold onto the pommel on the saddle to balance and then swing your leg over and into the stirrup. She did as he said and suddenly she was sitting on Stella’s back looking down at him.
    ‘Ok, ready?’ he asked.
    ‘Yes boss’ she answered and grinned at him. He patted Stella on the rump as he walked behind her and over to Diavolo.
    ‘Okay andiamo, let’s go, we will take the easy way home, it is getting too hot for fast riding.’
    Now he tells me there’s an alternative route, thought Cassie crossly as Diavolo moved off with Marco’s command and Stella fell into step behind him. We didn’t even need to go the death defying way to get out here. I wonder if he takes every guest who wants to ride the hard way, or is he just showing off? He had certainly taken her way out of her comfort zone this morning in more ways than one. She was well aware that they hadn’t used any protection, that the heat of the moment had overcome her, but she knew that she had been stupid. For heaven’s sake Cassie, she beat herself up, the guy is too smooth, too confident, and too good looking not to have cut a swath through the female population already, what were you thinking? What would Liz and Kat say? She decided then and there she was not going to tell them. She didn’t need anybody else telling her how foolish and reckless her behavior had been. But, even as she berated herself, a bubble of excitement kept popping up in her chest and she knew that she had allowed Marco to make love to her because she wanted him. Right or wrong, she wanted him and it had certainly been beyond any of her wildest dreams. It is just lust, she countered to herself, lust, lust, lust. Not anything else, don’t be silly Cassie, you will only get hurt with this one. A holiday romance, that’s all. Everybody has to have one of those in a lifetime right? Thinking about it that way made her feel glum so she tried to concentrate once more on the gorgeous countryside they were riding through. Going the easy way home through the gullies proved much quicker than Marco’s perilous outward bound route, so he decided they must end the ride on a high note and suggested that they canter the last five hundred meters back to the stables. Slowing Diavolo down beside Stella, he half turned around in his saddle, his hand resting on the horse’s rump, to reason with the protesting Cassie.
    ‘Cassandra you do not trust me even now?’ he said, looking at her with that little boy look which she didn’t trust at all.
    ‘Marco, plunging down the canyon was enough for any sane person, I want to make it back to the stables in one piece.’ She said sternly.
    ‘But come on, it is flat ground here and the horses love to race, I mean, canter slowly, the last part back to the stables.’ Seeing she still wasn’t convinced he exclaimed ‘look at how Stella’s ears are pricked up, she wants to get back to her cool stable. How can you deny her that and make her plod like an old mule?’ He looked at her pleadingly.
    Cassie knew when she was beaten and gave in grudgingly adding, ‘Ok Marco you win, but no galloping I mean it.’
    ‘Vai, Diavolo, vai’ shouted Marco in response and slapping his horses neck they took off kicking up clouds of dust. Bastard, thought Cassie before she screamed as Stella took off after Diavolo, determined to race him to the finish. Cassie’s heart beat sky rocketed and she held on to the reins and the pommel in a death grip as Stella flew into a gallop, her neat hooves eating the ground up as she sort to gain a lead on Diavolo. Cassie wasn’t