Risky Shot (16 page)

“Mo, it’s okay. I understand. If you think about it, he really was just looking out for your best interests. He just doesn’t think I am in your best interest.”

“I only wish he cared that much. No, he’s here because he wants me to marry the daughter of a Saudi oilman. He hopes to combine our wealth through a deal with him. In exchange for the girl becoming a princess, my father will receive an oil production company on the mainland. He’s not worried about my best interests. He’s worried about his business deal.” Mo ran his hand through his dark hair and sat down beside her on the couch.

Some strands fell forward across his forehead and Dani pushed them back with her fingers. Her stomach plummeted at the thought of Mo being sold off for a business deal. The thought of Mo being married off to someone else squeezed her heart in the most painful of ways.

“Come here, Mo.” She leaned back on the couch and opened her arms. Mo fell into her, kissing her with all the anger, frustration, and hurt his father had caused him. She kissed him back with all the love she had. His hand ran up her calves and slipped under her knees. He lifted up her legs and laid them on the couch, never breaking his kiss.

“I need you so badly right now.”

“It’s a good thing I am here then,” Dani said as she kicked off her shoes and slipped out of her skirt.

* * *

“Don’t go to work today. Spend the day with me.” Mo tugged down the sheet and kissed a trail from her ear to her breasts. After spending hours in the study, they had finally made their way to Mo’s bedroom late last night. She certainly had a new appreciation for the furniture Mo selected after last night.

“You have that meeting with your father.”

“I am to meet with him shortly. Stay in bed. Relax. I will send up breakfast. Before you are done, I will have completed my business with my father. Then we’ll spend the whole day together doing whatever you wish.”

“Okay. You have talked me into it. Mo,” She bit down on the side of her lip. “Your father wasn’t completely wrong about me, you know. I may have many layers for you to unravel, but one thing I am not is royalty. I am not used to international gatherings, I am not political, I am not trained in deportment, or how to throw a dinner party,” she stopped. Although it hurt, she had to admit her inadequacies. “Through my own stubbornness, I turned down financial help from my parents when I was eighteen. They had offered me money, but I had to provide them details on how I spent it and obtain their permission to use it until I was twenty-five. I told them I didn’t need the money and that I wouldn’t touch it until I was thirty. They were upset. But I think my mom, especially, was proud of me. So, I took odd jobs and modeling gigs to pay for college. I was working to live on my own while the women your father is putting before you were trained every day of their lives for the job of being your wife. There is no way I can compare to them.” Dani pulled the bed sheet up as she felt she had revealed an undiscovered part of herself to him.

She watched as he paused in the act of getting dressed and looked at her. He was upset. She hung her head knowing the break-up was coming. He had realized she was not the same caliber of woman his father’s choices were.

He walked over to her and stopped in front of her. “Dani, look at me.”

She looked at his socks and slowly made her way up his slate gray trousers to his bare chest. Oh, she was going to miss him. She didn’t know how she would make it through a day without him. She brought her eyes up to his face and saw that his mouth was strained.

“Danielle, if I cared one bit about deportment and how to throw a dinner party, don’t you think I would have married already? I know that my father upset you, and that was exactly what he was trying to do. He was trying to make you feel inadequate so that you’d leave and he could save his business deal.” Mo bent down in front of her and took her hands in his. He gently clasped them, running his thumb over her hand. He looked her in the eye and brushed the hair back from her face. “I love you. Nothing is going to change that.”

“Oh Mo!” She flung her arms around his neck and buried her head in his shoulder. “I love you too. I know I am not what your parents wanted, but I will try to do everything right. Just tell me what I need to do.”

“All you need to do is be yourself. I need to get to this meeting now.” Kissing her on her forehead he rose and slipped into a white button up shirt. “Think about what you’d like to do today. I’ll be back before you know it.”

Dani got out of the largest tub she’d ever seen and toweled off. She was about to go in search of clothes to borrow when she saw the extra bag from her car on the bed. Someone must have brought it up while she was soaking in the tub from Heaven. She pulled out a white tank top and a pair of jeans after rifling through the bag.

She tried to remain occupied while she waited for Mo to return, but as every minute past she got more and more nervous. What if his father had been able to change Mo’s mind? She was just about to call her mother to ask for advice when Mo walked into the room.

He smiled and headed over to her. He didn’t appear upset, so maybe the meeting went well. “How did it go?” She couldn’t wait any longer, she had to know. Mo had told her not to worry about his father’s opinion, but a part of her did care.

“Exactly what you probably expected. Posturing, yelling, lecturing, guilt… all of the normal stuff for a royal family meeting. He is not too pleased about the business deal falling through, but has developed a plan to put it on hold until I am officially out of the running. He won’t believe it until he sees me married. As you know, dating is not enough. He doesn’t understand that what we have is more than a casual date or two, but rather a lifetime just beginning.”

“Mo, are you proposing?” Dani was pretty sure he could hear her heart about to jump out of her chest.

“No,” he smiled at her. “You will know my proposal when you see it.”

Now she knew her heart was definitely about to jump out of her chest. He had said when, not if. She almost jumped up and down at the thought of being Mo’s wife. To wake up every morning with him, to have him as her partner, and to raise their children together would be a dream come true.

“So, have you thought about what you wanted to do today?”

“Actually, I have two ideas. Do you own a pair of jeans?”

Dani grabbed Mo’s hand and raced through the front door. She laughed when he came out of his dressing room in a white button-up shirt and jeans with sharp creases down the front. At least he had tennis shoes. By the end of the day, she planned to have him wrinkled and smiling.

“I want to see your little farm here.”

“We’ll never be able to walk it all. You want to ride in the truck or take some horses?”

“Horses! I haven’t ridden in such a long time.” Dani couldn’t stop the huge grin and felt like clapping and jumping to show her excitement.

“Come on. There are a couple retired geldings in the closest barn,” Mo pointed to a barn about a quarter mile from the house.

The house was elevated on one of the numerous gently rolling hills seen throughout Central Kentucky. Mo had landscaped the back yard with a beautiful walking garden filled with roses, a fish pond, wild flowers, statues, and a fountain. She could spend hours exploring all the nooks and crannies in the garden that took up a couple acres.

“Past this first barn, which I call the retirement home, is the mare barn to the left and foaling barn to the right. There are plenty of pastures separating all of the barns. Then we have the stud barn, and back near the manager’s house is the sick barn. The practice track and barns housing the horses in training are further back.”

Dani looked around the landscape of the farm. Manicured pastures dotted with horses and outlined with black fences stretched as far as she could see. In the far distance, the green of the grass seemed to melt into the blue of the sky. It was simply breathtaking.

They approached the barn Mo referred to as the retirement home. The barns were beautiful and new. They were “I” shaped, housing the horses in the middle. The left wing held the offices and the right wing contained break and tack rooms. All of the barns were a dark ivory with angular green roofs and large green doors. Flowers were planted in old bourbon barrels on each side of the stable doors. Large, leafy trees surrounded the barns, helping to keep them cool in the summer heat.

“There’s Snow Bunny and Spot,” Mo pointed out as they stopped next to two stalls. “If you couldn’t guess, one of my nieces named these two.”

Dani peeked into the first stall to see an all-white horse with one black dot right above her tail. It did kinda look like a bunny tail. The other horse was a no brainer. He was a beautiful boy with white and chestnut spots all over. “They’re great. I’ll take Bunny. She looks really sweet.” She reached her hand through bars on the stall door and let Bunny check her out.

Mo opened the stall door and lead Bunny to the tack room. While she held onto Bunny’s bridal, Mo saddled her and went to get Spot. Soon they were on their way around the property. It had been a long time since Dani had been on a horse, but it was hard to forget. Her body relaxed as they moved up to a gallop. She felt the second it all came back to her. Her body started to move as one with the horse. She glanced over at Mo and almost fell off Bunny. There was something about a man on a horse. His black hair was loose around his ears, flowing back as he picked up speed. He turned and smiled at her and Dani realized that she had never been happier.

She and Mo galloped over the unimposing hills and took a quick turn around the practice track before heading back to the barn. The farm was large and completely devoted to raising horses, unlike Will’s farm that had some corn, cows, and hay. After Bunny was unsaddled and washed down, she loaded a small cooler into one of the farm trucks and herded Mo into the cab.

* * *

“Come on, this isn’t so bad, is it? Look how beautiful it is.” Dani gestured to the wide expanse around them.

“I must admit, it is amazing. This is the first time I have ever hiked. But, this,” he gestured to their surroundings, “is something I have never seen. Where did you find it?”

“I called Paige and asked her for a nice place to hike. She recommended Natural Bridge.”

Dani and Mo stood in the middle of a naturally formed sandstone archway connecting the top of two mountains. They had walked through the forest and up the original trail to the bridge. The wind was strong on top of the mountains and the views were amazing. From atop the bridge, she saw the ridges of the Appalachian Mountains stretching out as far as the eye could see.

“So, what do you think of hiking?”

“I think it could be addicting. There is no pressure out here, only freedom. Thank you for introducing me to it.”

She watched as Mo looked around at the large rock formations and out over the tops of thousands of acres of trees. “Ready for the three mile hike back down?”

“Not quite yet.”

He wrapped an arm around her waist and wrapped his fingers around the back of her neck, guiding her face towards his. It was dangerous to take this any further while on top a windy stone bridge with no rails, so she didn’t leap on him like she wanted. But, the second they got home would be another story. She felt his hand run down her arm as he laced his fingers with hers.

“Now I am ready.” He winked at her and causing thoughts of what she wanted to do with him came flooding back into her mind. “Are you okay? Your face is rather flushed.”

“Um. No. I am fine. Come on, let’s take this path down.” They walked hand in hand over Natural Bridge and started down the dirt path. “What is being royal really like for you? I mean, I know you don’t like it that much, but there must be something good to come of it. Right?”

“Well, it’s both the best thing and worst thing that ever happened to me. It has provided me with money to do anything I have ever wanted, like my racing stable. But, it has also prevented me from enjoying the real world. I can attend gallery openings, vacation at the most exclusive resorts, and so on. But it doesn’t allow me to meet people and have friends. As I told you before, I never had a friend other than Ahmed. I would have never gone hiking! I always have to put on a smile, talk to reporters, and see my private life splashed on the front page of the international papers. The best thing I ever did was move to Kentucky. Here, they don’t care if you’re wealthy or who you date.”

“Ha! That’s what you think. I was told one of the reasons people were wary of you in the beginning was because of the many different women that showed up at your house each week. It seems they didn’t care that you were rich. They cared you were a man slut.” Dani started laughing at Mo’s shocked expression.

Hope soared in Dani’s heart at the same time her stomach got a little nervous. She was torn between the excitement of falling in love and the feeling that they were moving too fast. She didn’t know whether to jump for joy or hide under a rock.

“Will you tell me more about this deal you have with your father? I don’t want to come between you and your family.” When Mo showed signs of protest, she continued, “I know you are not close, but I would like to change that. I have a very close family and love that my parents will always be there for me if I need anything. Maybe even be there a little too much, but I have their love and support. You should have that too. But, if they can’t stand me, then it will just cause stress in our relationship.”