Free Dark Stallion by Raven Willow-Wood Page B

guest who turned out to be more trouble. She didn’t know anything to do but comply with their decision, however. It occurred to her to volunteer to walk, but she doubted she could walk fast enough to suit them and, if it came down to running to keep up, they were going to be forced to carry her or leave her. The gown wasn’t as cumbersome as it had been, but it was still cinched too tightly to allow her to manage a run without keeling over from oxygen deprivation.
    It wasn’t until Colwin grasped her arm to help her swing up onto his back that it dawned on her that she was about to encounter one of those ‘swinging in the breezes’ moments she’d worried about. She only had a split second to recognize her dilemma, however, before Colwin swung her up. She landed awkwardly, discovering she had notion between her naked bottom and his bare back.
    His coat was soft—but only in one direction. It prickled against the tender skin in her nether regions when she tried to situate herself. He twisted around to give her a look as she wiggled and shifted, trying to get the backside of her skirt beneath her. She felt her face light up. “I was trying to … get something under me.”
    “I am under you,” he said, his eyes gleaming with amusement.
    She felt her face turn redder. “I know,” she muttered tartly. “That’s why I was trying to get something under me.”
    “It is hot and damp,” he murmured, flicking a glance at the sun just rising between the trees.
    Emma glared at him.
    “It is bound to get hotter as the day goes on.”
    She narrowed her eyes at him. She didn’t think for a moment he was talking about the weather!
    He chuckled, throwing a laughing glance at Aydin. Aydin didn’t seem to find it any more amusing than she did, but he forbore comment. She was nearly unseated when Colwin started off. Worse, the front of her ‘loincloth’ smacked her in the face. She fought it down with one hand, trying to shove it beneath her thighs, and making a grab for a hold on Colwin at the same time.
    Aydin’s eyes were gleaming when she shot him a quick look, but he merely bent down and scooped up the bundle he’d made with the remnants of her clothes and followed them.
    “You should hold on to my waist,” Colwin commented in a low, wicked voice. “I do not think you can ride me with only your thighs.”
    Pervert! She dug her knees into his ribs, but he only chuckled. “If that is the best you can do I may have to tie you onto my back.”
    Irritated with his teasing, Emma yielded to the impulse to annoy him in return. Sliding forward, she dug her breasts into his back, looping her arms more tightly around him. “Is this better?” she asked innocently.
    He threw a glance at her over his shoulder. “Take care you do not tempt me to ride you a while, little flame hair. I have not been with a woman in a very long while.”
    She should’ve felt the remark as a threat. It shouldn’t have sent an arousing flood of warmth through her, but there was no denying it did. Trying not to be too obvious, she straightened away from him.
    “Coward,” he murmured, amusement threading his voice again.
    Deciding to ignore his comment, she glanced around for Aydin and discovered he’d pulled alongside them. “I don’t suppose we could find any berries?”
    “Colwin decimated the patch he found. If we spy another patch, we will stop and gather what we can.”
    There didn’t seem to be anything to say to that but, as sour as the berries had been, it had been better than nothing.
    Either they lucked up or Colwin and Aydin could ‘smell’ them. Around mid-morning, they came upon another patch of the berries and, as Aydin had promised, they stopped long enough to pick everything that was ripe or nearly ripe. Aydin used pieces of her underskirt to form little pockets to carry them and they started out again.
    Emma couldn’t say she was any more fond of the berries than she had been, but she managed to nibble at them enough