“You’re not getting on?” she asked, flipping the helmet’s visor up. “What’s the matter, don’t trust me as a driver?” There was a slight smile, but he sensed some uncertainty underneath.
“I do trust you,” he told her, and as a hint of that vulnerable wonder crossed her face, he realized that it was true. Not just on this. On everything. “I’m more worried I’m going to embarrass myself.”
Her smile returned in force. “By falling off? I’ll take it slow.”
“No. Falling off isn’t the problem. Look, just—don’t take anything you might feel too seriously, okay?”
Maggie’s eyes went wide. “Oh.” And then her winter-pink cheeks turned pinker. “Ohhhh.”
“It’s involuntary.”
“I know,” Maggie said, her voice rising a little until it almost squeaked. “That’s fine.” She flipped her visor down and turned around. He heard her say, muffled, “Go ahead, get on.”
Sam got on. He was doing okay until his groin slid against the roundness of her ass, which even her borrowed coat and snowpants couldn’t disguise. The threatened reaction began to occur immediately.
Think unsexy thoughts. Cleaning up sticky floors. Fawkes in spandex.
Unfortunately, his stallion was entirely on board with this activity, which it understood in its limited equine way.We are mounting our mare! This is wonderful!
Sam clenched his teeth.We absolutely are not.
This would work better with our pants off. And hers. Why do humans wear so many clothes?
“Shut up,” Sam muttered out loud.
“What?” Maggie asked. She was looking over the controls, familiarizing herself with them.
“Nothing. Just talking to myself.”
“Mmm.”
Our mate is very prudent and wise!
On that, at least we agree,Sam thought.
But we are not going to achieve a successful mating with all these clothes on.
Shut up.
Fortunately, just then the machine lurched into motion, and he had other things to think about than Maggie’s bottom. Like holding on to Maggie’s waist without groping anything he wasn’t trying to grope.
Maggie struggled a little with controlling the machine at first. Unlike Sam, she hadn’t had the opportunity to practice in the parking lot; she had landed right in the deep end on a twisting wilderness trail. But she got the hang of it quickly, and Sam began to relax a little, now that he was no longer the one needing to watch the turns ahead.
Which once again put him in the position of trying to ignore the issue of Too Much Maggie and too little space. Except it was a very nice amount of Maggie, and just the right amount of space ...
Maggie stopped the machine on a straight stretch of trail, jerking him out of pleasant thoughts. As it idled, she swung her leg over the seat so she was sitting sideways and took off her helmet. “Sorry, I just needed to stop for a minute. And I was thinking, if we’re trying to find someone camping illegally in the woods, we can’t see much from this machine, and they can hear us coming a mile away.” She hesitated. “Also, I’m ... not really sure where we are.”
“Huh.” Sam looked back along the trail. “We’ve generally come east of the lodge, for the most part, I think.”
“How can you tell?”
“Sun,” he said, pointing. “It’ll be in the southeast at this time of year, and for the most part it’s been off to our right, or ahead. But you’re right, we’ve twisted around a lot. Do you have reception on your phone?”
It was immediately clear that neither of them did. Maggie’s phone had gotten too cold to turn on, and Sam’s wasn’t getting bars.
Sam unfolded the complimentary trail map, but it was very obvious that the map didn’t help if they weren’t sure which turns they had taken. They could be almost anywhere in its winding maze of trails.
“Well, this keeps getting better,” Maggie said with a sigh, tucking her phone inside her coat in the hopes it would warm up. “I guess if we don’t show up back at the hotel, they’ll send someone to look for us, right?”
