Page 15 of The Warrior's Innocent Captive

Erik didn’t appear to notice her discomfort. He strode on ahead of her as if the intimacy of the night hadn’t happened.

She trailed after him, trying to ignore the way her gaze kept catching on the breadth of his shoulders or the strength in his arms. She would do well to remember that, although she found him endlessly fascinating, she was just a young woman for him to protect. She would never be like those sophisticated women she’d spied hanging around himand with whom he’d seemed to find enjoyment if the smiles he’d thrown in their direction were anything to go by.

When the silence between them began to grate against her skin she moved quicker so that she was walking alongside him. ‘How do you know where to look for Cai?’

‘The sun was setting in that direction when I left him,’ said Erik, pointing into an endless wall of tress. ‘So it makes sense to me to head this way.’ He nodded in the direction they were walking. ‘If we are lucky, we haven’t strayed too far away from where I tied him up.’

‘And if we’re unlucky?’

Erik’s jaw tightened. ‘Then we will find our way out of this woodland and make our way to the nearest town. The settlements around here are all within Borwyn’s land. I’ve visited most of them on behalf of the Earl many a time. I will be able to find someone who will help us, I’m—’

Erik grabbed her arm and pulled her behind a tree.

‘Wha—?’ she began.

She stopped as Erik placed a hand over her mouth. ‘Someone’s coming,’ he whispered into her ear.

Linota was acutely aware of his hard body pressing into hers, but he seemed completely oblivious to the way they were moulded together. His gaze squinted off into the distance, focused on something she couldn’t see.

Linota sighed internally. All Katherine’s protests that Linota was one of the most beautiful women at Ogmore’s fortress must have been sisterly bias. She’d always thought so, but Erik’s obvious indifference proved it. He wasn’t aware of her as a woman at all.

No matter how much she strained her hearing, all Linota could make out was the sound of a small animal rustling through the leaves near her feet.

She waited for Erik to admit that he was wrong, but the hard lines of his body stayed taut. This close to him she could see the tendons in his neck straining as he continued to peer into the distance.She closed her eyes so that she was no longer studying him. This intimate knowledge of his body wasn’t doing her any good.

‘There,’ he said eventually.

She tilted her head, but she still couldn’t hear anything out of the usual.

‘Damn,’ he muttered. ‘They have Cai.’

‘Who?’ she whispered against his hand.

‘I’m not sure.’

Whoever it was, they were moving very quietly through the forest. Only now could she make out the faint snapping of twigs as they moved closer. As the sounds grew nearer she could hear a low conversation between two deep voices.

‘De Bevoir ain’t gonna be happy to find out we were followed after we took the girl,’ said one voice.

‘The horse don’t prove we were.’

‘And what, the owner just vanished in a puff of smoke? You’re a damned idiot. Of course we were followed. Look at this beast. This ain’t some common nag. It’s a warrior’s horse. De Bevoir will blame us for the mistake, even though we followed his exact instructions. If he thinks we failed, we ain’t getting paid.’

‘So we let the horse go and pretend we never saw it.’

There was a silence.

As Erik concentrated on the strangers’ conversation his hand loosened against her mouth. His fingers trailed down the length of her neck until they rested at the base of her throat. A wave of pleasure spread through her body at the gentle touch of skin on skin. The rough bark against her back, the birds in the overhead trees, it all fell away as her whole body stretched towards his absentminded caress.

One of the strangers spoke again and she jumped, earning a quizzical look from Erik. Heat rushed over her skin and she forced herself to retain eye contact.

‘The horse is probably worth more than de Bevoir was ever going to give us. Let’s leave the others to chase for the girl and her protector and make away with this prize.’

There was another silence, much shorter this time.

‘Aye, all right then. But you ain’t be double-crossing me. We’re in this together.’

‘Of course.’

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