His Arranged Marriage by Tina Leonard

princess.” She glanced up at him with teasing eyes, pushing a strand of chestnut hair behind her ear. “Isn’t that what you and your brother were discussing—whether I could be happy at The Desert Rose?”
    He’d gotten so lost in the combat of the race, he’d forgotten what had set it off in the first place, Serena realized with a smile.
    “I don’t want to talk about that right now,” he instructed impatiently. “I want to discuss some basic ranch rules. I had to learn some rules when I was at your palace—namely, don’t drink anything handed me by palace servants, and censor my words in case I might be overheard. Here the survival skills are different, Princess. I don’t want you riding the stallions.”
    Serena’s eyes went wide. “Were you not proud of my riding skill, my prince?”
    “I was. I want to see a helluva lot less of it.”
    She frowned at his growl. “As you wish.” Getting to her feet, she pulled off the boots Jessica had lent her, and rolled up the borrowed jeans as close to her knees as she could manage with their narrow cut. Stuffing her socks down into the boots, she hurled them across the creek to land in the soft grass before wading into the creek at approximately the point where Texas Heat had jumped.
    “What are you doing?”
    “I am returning to the house,” Serena replied, not bothering to look back.
    “Serena!”
    Now she did turn. “Yes?”
    “You will not leave in some princessy snit. We are here because of you, and so you will not run away from me again. I am not in the mood to chase you.”
    “I am not in the mood to be chased, so I am glad we can agree on this matter, my prince.” Without another word, she walked into the water up to her hips. “Are there snakes in this water?”
    “Not that I have seen. Come back here at once.”
    “I will not. You are standing in a bed of something your mother instructed me as necessary to be avoided, and you will be soon joining me, if she is as wise as I believe she is.”
    He glanced down at his boots, suddenly realizing he was standing in a bed of fire ants. “Damn it!” he shouted, hopping to jerk his boots off and tossing them aside. “Damn it!” he exclaimed again before managing an impressive leap into the water.
    “Your mother was right,” Serena said with a grin after the splash subsided.
    He narrowed his eyes at her, working furiously at his jeans legs to make certain the ants had not crawled up farther than he anticipated. “You would not be laughing if you had gotten stung.”
    “I was not so foolish as to stand on dangerous ground,” she rejoined, moving to a deeper part of the creek so that she could sink into it up to her neck. “This feels wonderful,” she said on a sigh. “Just like the indoor pools of the palace.”
    She felt his eyes upon her, white-hot with interest and male perusal. Ever so innocently, she ducked under the water, coming up with her hair slicked behind her and her gaze meeting his with feminine allure. “So,” she said softly, “you do not think me capable of riding a stallion? You would give me a tamer mount?”
    His denim shirt was wet and outlined strong muscles of a chest and torso as well defined as any soldier’s in her father’s army. Serena admitted to herself that she had never seen a male like Prince Kadar. He stood still, like a master-carved statue, watching her in a hawklike manner. She shivered, enjoying the sensation of being his prey.
    He is my husband. He could possess me whenever he wished.
    She shivered again, harder, and lowered her gaze.
    “I would not give you a tamer mount. I would give you one that suits your needs, and which I could trust to bear someone whom I would not care to see injured.”
    Her gaze flew upward to meet his glowing eyes.
    Even the water stilled between them as they stared at each other, measuring. Gauging the moment, the intensity, the level of their relationship.
    I want him to want me, Serena thought to herself. As a man