It vexed her to no end to have to admit that she could not control the animal on her own. Annabella glanced over her shoulder and clenched her jaw when she saw his smirk. Damned man, had he known this would be the result?
“I fear you are not as good a horseman as you had previously boasted, MacDonald. Surely you could have chosen a mount more suited to my size.”
“You mean your skill. And here I thought you could ride any horse.” He pulled his horse up alongside and slid his arm around her waist. “Hold onto my arms and hop over.”
She did not resist in any way. Once seated, she drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly. It was much easier like this. What a turn of events! On the way to Islay she would have ridden the horse until she dropped!
“I knew you could not stay away from me,” he whispered in her ear, his deep voice sending tingles down her spine.
His muscular chest pressed against her back, and she held tight to the horn to keep from turning in his arms and ravaging him.
“What will we do with the other horse?” she asked, a little out of breath from his nearness.
“I will let him go just up ahead. He knows his way home, and we are not too far away from Oban yet.”
“But surely we have been travelling for hours?” Her arms and thighs certainly felt like it.
“We have only been gone about an hour, and only trotting. He will have no trouble finding his way home.”
Angus pulled the reins back and slid off the horse once they came to a halt. He turned the other horse around, then slapped its hindquarters. The beast took off in a gallop in the direction they had come. Angus then climbed back upon the horse and shifted until they were both settled again.
“Well, well, well. What have we here?”
Angus stiffened behind her and his thighs squeezed around hers. She took it as a warning that the four men who had just broken out through the trees ahead of them were foe and not friend. Annabella knew enough to keep her mouth shut and her eyes cast downward. She prayed they would find no interest in her and pass them by.
“A prince away from his precious throne,” a gruff voice said. Annabella glanced up just as he turned to glance at the other men and grinned. “Do you know what happens to lofty princes who ride through our lands?”
Annabella bit her cheek to keep her recent meal firmly lodged in her stomach. “Cameron,” Angus said. His voice was as tense as his body pressed against hers.
“Where are you going, MacDonald? And who is the pretty lass? Perhaps you’d like to share your spoils.”
“Let me pass,” Angus said. The danger in his tone was unmistakable.
A thick, hairy hand reached in toward Annabella, and in the next instant Angus had the man off his horse with his arm twisted at an unnatural angle. Angus had barely shifted in the saddle.
Angus leaned down as the man stared up at him, wide-eyed. “If you do not let us pass, I will kill you where you stand. Do not doubt it.”
“Enough!”
Annabella looked up at the sound of this new voice. It was a little higher than she would expect coming from a lot such as these. The man’s eyes were so very cold as he regarded Angus and the man on the ground. His face looked askew, as though his jaw had been twisted at some point and had not been set properly. He was thin, tall, and pale, and Annabella felt an immediate unease wash over her when he glanced her way.
Angus released Cameron with a flick; even that slight motion landed the man on his bottom on the ground.
“Are you Angus MacDonald?” the evil-looking man addressed them.
“Aye, who is asking?”
“Let us just say, I am someone who wishes the same as you.”
“And that is?”
“To see your father released.”
“And what do you know of my father?”
“I owe him a life debt.”
“A life debt?” Angus asked. “Such a thing is an agreement between noblemen, and I know of none who would travel with this lot.”
