Under the heiress facade

Nicholas had gone from second place to last in the second race, and he wasn't sure he could recover from it.

He took the horse for a lap around the meadow and grumbled angrily, "Don't want to be the commander, huh? It's been a while since you rode on horseback? You could at least pretend to be rusty! Women are liars!"

He then lashed out at Shaun and Samantha, "And don't even get me started on you two! You went on and on about how you didn't want to be the commander, but oh, you two were sly! You didn't have to make me put my guard down. If you wanted to be commander so badly, just say so!"

Hera tried to explain, "Would you believe me if I said muscle memory kicked in after I took the horse for a couple of rounds?"

Samantha piped up, "For the record, I really don't want to be the commander of the trip. I was only trying to catch up to Hera and didn't realize how fast I was going."

"Curse my competitiveness," Shaun mused, clicking his tongue. He cast a thoughtful look at Bernard and drawled, "What happened back there, Bernard? It isn't like you to be slower than Samantha." He was definitely amused by Bernard's loss.

Bernard fell silent. He had been careless and too focused on beating Nicholas. But he didn't mind how the race turned out. He steered the horse toward Hera and said, "I figured I'd cut you guys some slack for going easy on Hera."

Shaun rolled his eyes. He had no comeback for that.

Nicholas, on the other hand, was stumped. Despite his effort, he was made the butt of the joke.

Night gradually fell, and the five of them led the horses back to the stables before they returned to their lodging house.

"Well, as the rules stipulate, Hera is now officially our commander for the trip. We'll go along with whatever plans you have, Hera," Nicholas said.

Hera truly didn't want to be appointed as commander, which was just another way of addressing an over-glorified tour leader. She would have to plan the itinerary, book the group's lodgings, make meal arrangements, and do all that miscellaneous work.

could have kicked back and let

a bright idea crossed her mind. She announced, "In that case, we'll leave the

gaped at her, unable to wrap his

them had a humble farmer's fare for dinner before retiring to their rooms for the

and

to his plans, he should be sharing a

different from what

trip would become a honeymoon trial for

refused to let that happen. It was time he pulled out

move and bolted upright in bed, grabbing

was in

leaning against the

scrolling through her

ет

running water coming from the bathroom stopped, she quickly

UN

programming on the nightstand.

were not. She had to look

Bernard emerged from the

a set of