AMANcannot be a rational creature, a man of science and thought, all the time. He is still a man when all is said and done. I was a man, and I was being offered the one thing I had wanted since I was old enough to want such things and from the very person I had fixated on as the person I wanted it from. I turned into the kiss, my hands going to his hair, tugging him closer. He opened his lips. Our tongues met. The joining went like a spark to my groin, awakening the touch paper of my need. I could have swallowed him whole.
He pulled off, his face glowing and triumphant, sparking with that intense vitality I always associated with him. “There. I’vedoneit. I said I would, and I have!”
I jerked back, shifting bodily away from him. “What do you mean?” I felt a terrible chill run though my body. “Was this a bet? Are you playing a game?”
His face was a mask of hurt and confusion. Poor Aleksey. He had made this incredible first move only to have it received so. But of course he could not know why this thought dismayed me. He knew nothing of my history. I seized his arms. “Who did you say it to? Have you discussed this with anyone?”
“I only—Johan said—”
“Johan!”Thiswas what Johan had been discussing with Jules. Aleksey had proposed this dare; the bet had been accepted. Had they laughed as they’d planned it? Laughed about me? Probably whilst enjoying—I could not take that awful thought to its conclusion.
“Niko—” He stopped abruptly. I heard it too: a clip of horses’ hooves, a jingle of tack. We stood as one and held our horses’ heads, hands over their nostrils, stroking and speaking silent words of calm. The group of riders passed above our heads on the ridgeline. We could see them, clearly outlined against the sky. They were heavily armed and wore uniforms.
I think we would have remained undetected, except one of their horsemen let his horse slip and stumble, fragments of the sandy edge falling away and raining around us. He looked down, and we were seen. We were up on our mounts and away down the stream before he could shout alarm. They had the advantage of the higher ground, though, and could keep us in sight as we tried to find a route to outrun them. I had no doubt we could outpace them, for Xavier was a superb horse, and Aleksey always rode the best of horses. But we needed to get out of the valley of the stream and up into the open meadows. I heard something fly past my ear and saw a lance quiver in the soft sand ahead. I snatched it out of the ground as we passed. I intended to return it to them.
At last we could negotiate the bank, and we slid off the horses and yanked them up to the top, remounted, and took flight. Only when streaming across the meadow did I feel the tension leave my shoulders. It is not a nice feeling to expect a lance between the shoulder blades at any moment. I looked behind and relaxed a little. They were still trying to come down off the ridge, and it was not proving easy. They’d had to dismount, and the horses were fighting the feeling of slipping and sliding in the sand. I eased Xavier back a little so Aleksey could come alongside. His face was stony. I knew he was dwelling on the interrupted moment between us. “Why do we not push on in daylight now? Lying low for the day did not protect us. Perhaps going forward boldly will.”
He nodded. I don’t think he cared much one way or the other. I glanced behind again. We were sheltered from the view of our pursuers by the depth of the riverbed from which they had yet to emerge. I nodded toward the forest, and we turned our horses into the trees. I slid off Xavier and gave the reins to Aleksey. “Keep going. I will catch you up.”
“What are you—”
“Just go. You are wasting time.”
“How will you find—”
“Go!”
He gave me a very unpleasant look, which I ignored, and carried on into the gloom of the forest. I began to cover any sign of where we had entered the trees, working back until we had turned and then back some more. It then appeared as if we had been lifted into the air. If they assumed we had turned to the trees and followed us, they would turn at the wrong point now and be lost. I jogged back into cover and hunkered down. In a few minutes, I watched them stream past. They were fired up with the excitement of the chase and had not even noticed that our tracks had ended. Well, they had now destroyed all signs with their own ineptitude. I slid from my position and began to run, following our own horses’ trail.
As I ran, I could not help my mind dwelling on the kiss. I could not believe he had done that. I could not blame him for his ignorance of my history, but even for friendship’s sake, I would not have expected it of him. Perhaps it was no more to him than John laying his hand on my thigh.
I wondered how much money he had won by the bet.
How far would he have gone?
I remembered the man I had witnessed kneeling to another, sucking and licking to ribald, obscene encouragement from his spectators.
Would Aleksey have….
Did the bet include….
I punished myself with these thoughts as I ran, but even their insistent, stabbing repetition could not distract from another insidious question that wormed beneath.
Did I care?
Was I so far gone in my desire for Aleksey that I would have him any way I could get him?
It was no wonder, therefore, that I did not discuss the incident calmly and rationally when I eventually caught them up. I leaned against Xavier’s back and panted, “We have lost them.”
“I am not a baby, Doctor! I am ageneral.Ishould have stayed behind to do whatever it was you did. I should not have been dismissed as a messenger boy would with the horses.”
God help me. I forgot he could have no idea that by the time I was half his age I rode a Powponi warhorse decorated with a hundred scalps. And they were not black with flowing hair but blond and brown and red. Did he think I had never been a spy before? How did he think I had retained my English whilst I lived within the tribe? Who better to infiltrate the new colonies, find their weaknesses and betray them, than a blond-haired boy who spoke their language? Aleksey could have known none of this, but even so,Iknew it, and it colored my reaction to his childish outburst. I was sick of His Royal Highness Prince Christian—my apologies, His Royal HighnessGeneralthe Prince Christian.
I turned and in one swift move had him off his horse. I thank the gods now that I was not mounted, for I would have flung myself at him and taken him down to the ground anyway. Poor boy, his ribs would probably have broken again. As it was, he cried out—more in shock and outrage than pain. It didn’t really matter why; I ignored him.
“You want to be treated like a man, huh? Don’t play games like a little boy, then.” I lay hard upon him and kissed him. He tried to escape, but he had no chance. I was a great deal stronger than he, and he was wounded. I ground my lips to his, forced his open, pushed my tongue inside. He tried to bite, but this only made me laugh. I’d played this game with experts, men who had overwhelmed me time and time again and made me their plaything. I wasn’t going to be intimidated now by a baby playacting as a man. I began to unlace his breeches. His eyes widened, and I smirked against his lips. “Mmm, not so keen to play now, no? This is what it does, Aleksey, when you deceive and play games. It wakens the beast inside.”
I was very impressed with his next move. He brought his forehead up sharply, and it connected with my nose. I yelped and put two hands to it, feeling to see if it was broken, and he was away, rolling from under me and scrabbling to his feet. I rose too, still feeling the bridge tentatively. He had pulled a knife from his boot. I almost laughed. He’d copied me in wearing it so. I waved a hand at him. “Don’t even try it, child, or I will stick that knife where it will not see the sun for a very long while.” I had lost the edge of my anger. My nose hurt too much, and I was shivering again, sweat from the run having cooled my body down beyond the level of heat I ever wished to go.
