A moment before he reached her, she started to slide. Her body simply tipped to the side and she lost balance in a smooth, helpless glide toward the distant ground.
He pushed himself forward and over in one rapid swoop, leaning precariously in his saddle to scoop her up. She startled awake, half held in his arms, her body stretched between the two horses with her foot tangled in the stirrup.
He had her at a horrible angle, but he held her tight, forcing the horses close together as Rafael dashed forward and freed her.
Finally, she was loose and he could settle back into his saddle, heart still beating hard from the sudden burst of fear and speed, and the effort of holding her safe across the two horses.
He held her firmly in his arms as she stared up at him, shocked into wakefulness, silver-flecked blue eyes wide and startled, and he forced himself to curb his first impulse—to shout at her for riding half asleep, for frightening him like that—and managed a surly grunt instead. She felt his ire anyway, because her eyes narrowed, and she immediately started to twist and squirm to be put down.
He clamped his arms around her and gave her his most ferocious glare, but all she did was roll her eyes and redouble her effort. Gods, if she didn’t stop wiggling that rounded leather-clad bottom in his lap, they were both going to have a problem.
He frowned at her. “Will you kindly stop.”
“No. I want to get off.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Why? So you can go to sleep in the saddle again?”
She turned to stare at him, nose in the air. “That was a mistake. I’m awake now.”
He turned and looked at Rafe, who gave him a quick shake of his head. As he’d suspected.
“No. It’s not safe. You’ll just go back to sleep. You can ride with me, or you can walk.”
She huffed out an enraged breath. “You are so bloody frustrating! You know walking would take too long!”
His lips twitch as he suppressed the desire to grin. No one else ever challenged him.
She sighed again and then changed tack. “Anyway, it would be bad for your horse to carry the extra weight.”
He considered the massive stallion and the tiny woman in his arms and surprised them both by grinning. “He’s a warhorse. I think he can manage an hour or two.”
She mumbled something vicious under her breath, but she turned and lifted her leg over the high front saddle horn, then wiggled that torturous bottom closer so that they fitted together.
He gritted his teeth and took a few deep breaths, grateful that his heavy leather breeches would disguise just how much she was affecting him.
Slowly, she started to relax between his arms. The stiffness of her spine softened, and she leaned her back against him, her head tucked under his chin. The men’s voices lowered, as if they too wanted her to rest as they rode on through the weak afternoon sunshine.
He noticed the moment that her weight fell completely against him, but he was reassured by the slow rise and fall of her chest as she nestled against him. His beast stirred again, filled with a deep sense of connection.
She was so beautiful. And the first woman that he and his beast had ever agreed on wanting. He felt it down to the most primal parts of himself, how right it was to hold her in his arms. How badly he needed to protect her and keep her close.
How badly he wanted to slowly strip her out of those tight breeches and hold her against him with nothing between them.
Gods.
“Should we worry that she’s passed out?” he asked Rafe in a whisper, too low to disturb her.
The other man looked serious as he replied carefully, after a moment of consideration, “No, I think it’s just exhaustion. I don’t think she’s slept much, if at all, over the last three days. And she’s been hurting the entire time….” Rafe let his sentence hang.
Tristan looked at his friend’s grave, concerned face, and prompted, “And?”
Rafe looked at him, mouth turned down. But his eyes were resigned. Like his brother, he never held back from a difficult truth. “You have to remember that she just lost her father, her brother, and her home as well as being attacked. She’s very vulnerable right now. You need to be careful.”
Tristan tried not to let his annoyance show. A day ago, the whole squad wanted to hunt her down and hand her over to Grendel. Now they were protecting her fromhim.
“You think I’d hurt her?” he asked in a tight voice.
Rafe looked away and then back again. “Not intentionally.”
