“My lady, if you continue, I will spill,” Warden says, his dark eyes on mine as he releases my lips. “I have already nearly released my spend on more than one occasion because of you.”
Undeterred, I rub at the head once again, and his hips flip at me.
“So, this isn’t about fighting you?”
“I merely have to be in your presence, my lady,” Warden rasps. “And my todger behaves this way.”
“Oh dear.”
“I do not dislike it, Lady Ryle.” Warden’s dark eyes study me. “I do not know why it behaves so.”
“Probably the usual reasons.” My voice has a hoarse edge to it. Have I always been this bold?
I rather like that I am. I like that I have this huge beast at my mercy.
“The usual reasons? What might they be?” Warden asks.
He finally blinks and I see the confusion in his face.
“Warden…have you ever…I mean, you do know what males and females do together.”
“Of course I do,” he scoffs, moving back from me. “They mate.”
“Mate?”
“Breed. Produce young.”
I purse my lips. “Among other things. But you know how that happens, don’t you?”
“Yes,” Warden says thunderously. “I am a Brag. I know everything.”
As if to emphasise his point, there is a loud crack of thunder over our heads and huge fat raindrops start to fall.
I don’t think he does know everything.
“We need to go,” he says, rearranging his clothing. “Long Meg is here, and if we don’t leave now, we may never get out.”
“So, what do we do?” I cry over the noise of the storm, which is also whipping up the waves on the previously calm sea.
“We need to swim for the cave,” Warden says, transforming into his Brag form. “Get on my back and I’ll take you.”
I’m already wriggling out of my dress, and his eyes nearly pop out of his head. “What are you doing?”
“If I go in the water in this thing, I’m as good as dead.” I bundle it up and shove it into one of his saddlebags before mounting him.
I think there is a groan, but it’s lost in the rolls of thunder and the noise of the wind and sea. Warden bursts into a gallop heading into the surf where he is temporarily slowed, making his way into the waves until we are far from the shore and he is swimming strongly towards the archway.
I’ve moved my arms from his waist to his neck in order to keep myself above water, the waves still hitting me in what seems like a concerted effort to knock me off and sweep me away. We reach the archway and what I thought was the sea out the other side is, in fact, an impressive optical illusion, and as we get closer, I see the darkness of the Heddon cave.
With the waves only getting higher, it looks like we’re swimming into the cauldron of hell.
A particularly vicious wave dislodges me from Warden, and I’m swept away from him. This is the point I remember I canswim, and I kick out as hard as I can at the myriad of currents which seem determined to put distance between Warden and me.
With swift, easy strokes, I make it back to him, his eyes as wild as the water as he watches my progress.
“You are impressive, my lady,” he says. “In so many ways.”
“I’d thank you, but what I’d really like is not to be dashed to smithereens on these rocks,” I say as the walls of the cave loom up at us.
