A Royal Mess and Her Knight To Remember by Jill Shalvis Page A

ritual.” He stepped on Sally’s foot as she was about to open her big, fat mouth. “Eating chocolate together before we head out for the day.” He nodded and smiled. “Yep, we do it every morning.”
    Seth, Pete, Ryan and Red’s heads all bobbed up and down in collective agreement.
    â€œYessiree,” said Seth.
    â€œYeppers,” echoed Red and Ryan.
    â€œPerfect dessert to your breakfast,” Red added.
    Natalia visibly brightened, her smile becoming full. “Really?”
    Tim’s gaze lowered to her lips, and allowed himself to imagine she tasted as good as she looked. “Really.” She looked so different today. She looked real. And he wanted, quite suddenly, to bury his face in the skin in the crook of her neck and inhale like a bloodhound.
    â€œBut,” she continued in a sweet, soft chastising voice, “you should have just said you were still hungry.” She smiled. “Never mind. I’ll cook more at lunch.”
    â€œM-more?” Seth glanced in horror at Tim.
    â€œOh, yes.” She laughed and headed out. “Can’t have you going hungry!”
    â€œCan’t have that,” Sally said through her teeth, and shot Tim a look to kill.

5
    L ATE THAT AFTERNOON , Tim rode back to the barn. He dismounted Jake, who immediately began searching his pockets with his warm, wet muzzle.
    â€œStop that.” Tim hoisted off Jake’s saddle. “You’ve already had your goodie today.”
    The horse snorted and looked pouty, and behind them a soft laugh sounded.
    Natalia stood there wearing a smile that shot straight through him, a smile that got to him when he hadn’t planned on her getting to him at all. “You make it look so easy,” she said. “Getting on and off. Riding. All of it.”
    Which meant she’d been watching him. He wondered if she watched him as much as he watched her.
    â€œMy mom loved horses.” A flicker of sadness touched her eyes as she looked at Jake, though she carefully stayed back from him. “She, um…died in an avalanche twelve years ago.”
    â€œGod. I’m sorry.”
    â€œIt was a long time ago.”
    â€œYeah.” He stroked Jake. “Let me guess. You’d be rich if you had a penny for every time someone told you it’ll get easier, you’ll see her again someday, she’ll live on in your heart forever…right?”
    She lifted her head. “You’ve lost someone, too.”
    â€œMy parents. In a car accident.”
    â€œSo you know.”
    â€œI know,” he agreed. “I also know the only consolation that works is to say that it sucks.”
    That got a laugh out of her. “Yeah. Sucks.”
    He smiled at her, thinking she looked good standing there in her new casual wear. The jeans clung to her hips and thighs, the T-shirt to her breasts. The wind ruffled her hair and had put color into her cheeks. She looked different here, far more earthy than wild, and though he knew that was because her makeup had been stolen, he liked it.
    Too much.
    â€œSo that’s why you put up with your sister,” she said. “You’re raising her.”
    â€œSomeone has to.”
    â€œYou love her.”
    He sighed, even as he smiled. “Like I said, someone has to.”
    She smiled back, then shifted when he just stared at her. “What?”
    â€œI was just thinking you don’t look anything like the woman from the plane.”
    Immediately she lifted a hand to her hair and looked regretful. “I know, I—”
    â€œI like it.”
    â€œAre you saying you don’t miss the leather?”
    â€œNo.” He grinned. “The leather was good. But I like seeing your face.”
    â€œWhich is why I was fond of the makeup.”
    â€œYou liked hiding.”
    â€œI liked hiding. I didn’t realize how much, or…”
    â€œOr?”
    â€œOr that I wouldn’t miss the hiding at