Free Come Back to Me by Josie Litton

explained patiently.
    "Oh, that. I got on one."
    "And then… ?"
    "Then it did what they do… walked, ran, the usual things."
    "Did you stay on the horse?"
    "Of course I did. I wasn't foolish enough to jump off while it was moving."
    She was looking at him oddly. "You weren't thrown?"
    He shook his head. "I've never been thrown. It's easy enough to avoid."
    "Really? How?"
    "You just have to hold on with your legs and stay properly balanced." His tone said she must surely know that.
    "If you've never been thrown by a horse, why don't you like them?"
    "If I tell you, will you be satisfied and stop pestering me about this?"
    "Likely, but it will have to be a really good explanation. I simply cannot believe that someone who rides as well as you do doesn't like horses."
    "It isn't really the horses, it's… being on them."
    She peered at him through the thick fringe of her lashes. Tiny wrinkles appeared between her brows. "I really am trying to understand."
    "Up on them."
    "Up?"
    Dragon nodded glumly. He could not believe what he was telling her, that which he had never confessed to a living soul, not even his brother. But if it helped her to trust him, it would be worthwhile, or so he hoped.
    "Up," she repeated, and suddenly understanding dawned. "You don't like heights."
    "Hate them."
    "And horses are high up, at least horses big enough to carry you are, so therefore you…"
    "Don't like horses."
    She nodded slowly. "I can see how that would be a problem, but why don't you like heights?"
    "I thought you were going to stop pestering me."
    She shrugged unapologetically. He sighed. There was no getting around it.
    "When I was very young, my brother and I left home. On board ship, I took it into my head to climb the mast. For some unknowable reason, I thought when I got to the top I would be able to touch the stars. I found out otherwise and I wanted to get down, but it was dark and the weather had turned suddenly. Wind was howling and the ship pitched violently. It was all I could do to hold tight to the mast and wait for dawn when my brother found me."
    A child seeking to touch the stars. Rycca's throat tightened. "Where were your parents?"
    "Dead in a raid, the usual kind of thing. Or at least it used to be usual. Thankfully, that's changed."
    Without thought, she reached out and touched his hand. He saw the sheen of tears in her eyes and knew she was remembering again. Cursing himself for taking her back into that memory, Dragon sprang to his feet, drawing her with him. "The beasts will get rambunctious if we leave them alone much longer."
    They were standing very close together. He could smell the perfume of her skin, fresh grass mingling with hints of honeysuckle. His gaze drifted to the fullness of her mouth. White teeth worried her lower lip. He raised a finger, touching lightly. "Don't."
    He felt her sigh, saw her uncertainty, knew what he was about to do was wrong. Worse yet, mad. Yet nothing could have stopped him save the girl herself. He bent his head, dark against the brightness of hers, and lightly, tentatively touched his mouth to hers.
    Rycca stood utterly still, too stunned by sensation for so paltry a thing as breathing.
Pleasure
jellied her joints. Her reason, poor thing that it was, whirled away forgotten and she became again the woman who had knelt beside the bed that morning, breathing in the scent of him. She swayed closer… seeking… His lips were smooth, warm, hard… careful. She had seen men kiss women with the same finesse they brought to gorging themselves on a haunch of venison, greedy mouths slobbering and devouring'. It so repulsed her that she had thought herself cold. Fool's fool! She was on fire, trembling with the dual shocks of discovery and need… God's blood, such need! How was it possible to yearn so suddenly and so much?
    She had to touch him, press her palms against the solid wall of his chest, had to taste him with a little flick of her tongue and oh, the delight when she felt the