Secret Agent Boyfriend by Addison Fox

was sired through a Triple Crown winner’s lineage.”
    “All the more reason he should have a normal name.”
    “Nope. Not buying it.”
    Although she wouldn’t exactly call Derek Winchester an open book, there was an honesty about him she found refreshing. Unlike the society crowd she’d run with her whole life, there was something simple in his direct approach to life.
    Add on the fact that he didn’t pull any punches—if he had a question, he asked, and if he had an opinion, he stated it—and Landry found herself growing more and more comfortable in his presence.
    It was an odd sensation—both the lack of artifice and the fact that she was enjoying it. And it was more than a little unnerving to know she couldn’t quite get her footing with him.
    What was even more unnerving was realizing that perhaps she didn’t want to.
    “I never cared about his lineage.”
    “Didn’t you pick him out?”
    “In a way. When I showed an interest in riding, my father encouraged it. It was the one thing we could do together, and I loved every minute of it. Being with him, in his orbit, with his full attention focused on me.”
    “So what changed?”
    “When I began to get good at it, my mother stepped in. She felt that riding was an acceptable activity for a young girl of wealthy means and proudly preened to all her friends and acquaintances about my advancing skill. She also felt it would help me keep my weight in check. She pressured my father to get me a spectacular horse.”
    “So they gave you Pete?”
    “My mother went on about it for weeks. How I’d get a fancy horse and show up every family in the county. The more she talked about it, the more I wasn’t interested.”
    “Yet you went along with things anyway?”
    “Of course. The good daughter, following her mother’s instructions.”
    While she would defend her mother’s innocence until the day she died, Landry had to admit that the last few months since Patsy fled had been freeing. She’d known her mother’s ways were oppressive, but it was only with her finally gone that Landry could admit just how bad things had become.
    The endless censure and criticism. The prying eyes and leading questions, wondering when Landry’s next date was or why she’d stopped seeing that Asher boy. Even Carson’s arrival home from the military—injury and all—hadn’t shifted her mother’s eagle-eyed focus off Landry’s life.
    “So what happened?”
    “My father scheduled an afternoon with the owner of Pete’s dam for us to take a look. I’d spent the car ride sullen and irritated and had played ‘Let My Love Open the Door’ on repeat the whole way.”
    “Pete Townshend?”
    “Yep.”
    “And then I got out of the car and walked into the stable and fell in love with my own Pete, and that was the end of my complaints.”
    Derek’s eyebrows shot up, a wry grin on his face. “Love opened the door?”
    Landry bent down and wrapped her arms around Pete’s neck. “I guess it did.”
    * * *
    Derek had never been jealous of anyone or anything in his life, but in that moment he had to admit he’d finally experienced the emotion.
    And how the hell was a grown man jealous of a thousand-pound horse?
    He’d listened to Landry’s story, and similar to their lunch the day before, had taken away yet another facet of her life. What appeared perfect and pristine on the surface hid a wealth of anger and frustration.
    Who treated their child that way?
    While he’d never considered his upbringing much more than average, the more time he spent with Reginald Adair’s family the more he realized just how good he’d had it. Two parents who’d loved each other. A sister and brother he still talked to and enjoyed spending time with. And a pool of memories that weren’t filled with experiences based on how he looked or what the neighbors might think.
    As that thought hit, another followed, and that sense of jealousy faded to nothingness. “I’m glad you had Pete.”
    “I