Page 59 of Desire's Ransom
“Flann,” she called. “Here.”
The hound hesitated.
“Here!” she demanded.
Flann guiltily lowered his head and trotted back to her.
“Now,” she said, “where were ye goin’?”
“Nowhere.”
“Ye were tryin’ to escape, weren’t ye?”
“What? Nay.”
“Then why did ye steal my dog?”
“I didn’t steal him. I only…borrowed him.”
“So ye could flee.”
“If I’d wanted to flee,” he reasoned, “I’d have takenbothdogs.”
“Then why did ye take him?”
He couldn’t keep the sardonic edge from his voice. “I was hoping the beast would warn me of approaching danger. Apparently, I was wrong.”
“Turn around.”
He hesitated. “I don’t think you want me to do that.”
“And I don’t think ye’re in a position to be disobeyin’ my commands,” she bit out, “since I’ve got my arrow aimed at…”
He turned around slowly. Shedidhave an arrow aimed at him. Or shehad, until her gaze lowered to hisbraies. Then her mouth fell open, and her bowstring went flaccid.
“May I?” he asked, indicating his ties.
Her discomfiture was quite entertaining. She nodded and averted her eyes, clearing her throat and fumbling with the bow.
He shook his head and tied up hisbraies. “You know, I swore on my honor I wouldn’t try to escape. Didn’t you trust me?”
She muttered something that sounded like an outlaw’s creed. “Trust is for fools.”
He clucked his tongue. “Only those without honor themselves are afraid to trust.”
That got her hackles up. “What are ye sayin’? That I have no honor?”
From the branches overhead, someone suddenly spoke, startling the bloody hell out of them both. “Ye know, this is all very fascinatin’, but some of us are tryin’ to sleep.” It was Ronan. He added, “And I’ll thank ye not to piss on the tree where I slumber next time.”
Gray marched off in a huff with her hounds, forcing Ryland to try to keep up as he tossed a “sorry” over his shoulder at the outlaw he’d offended.
Gray was already feigning sleep by the time he returned. Her hounds were now strategically positioned to form a curtain wall between him and their mistress. Their heads resting atop their paws, they looked up at him with doleful eyes, as if they knew he didn’t deserve such punishment.
But perhaps it was for the best. Lovely Gray—with her fascinating fury and her becoming blushes—was doing strange things to his heart, making it beat faster and filling it with laughter. He needed to tame his passions before they got him into trouble.
Unfortunately, waking at dawn several hours later to a woman’s alluring buttocks pressed against his groin didn’t help.
Ryland winced. The sun was rising. So was something else.
