Page 44 of A Night of Secret Surrender
‘I still have the scar to prove just how brave,’ she gave him back, laughter in her words.
‘I know, I see it every time we make love.’
Her heart missed a beat and thudded oddly.
History. It both bound them together and split them asunder.
When their horses drew closer she felt his leg against her own and did not pull away, the air between them charged with intention.
It had been like this ever since leaving the tavern, a give and a take, a simmering attraction, another truth under the reality of a simple and desperate desire.
It was as though they lived in a bubble devoid of anyone else where the air was rarefied and thin. All she wanted was to feel him inside her, moving, wanting, needing. All she wanted was for them to stop and make camp and fall into the night.
* * *
When the sun finally dropped and the woods became thicker, Summer led her off into the forest. He stopped on the banks of a small stream where the rocks were warm.
‘We can bathe here.’
She dismounted and felt her heartbeat quicken.
Her clothes were discarded in a second, a pile at her feet, and her boots joined them. She had never been a woman who was ashamed of her body and the cool water felt wonderful on her skin as she waded in.
‘Hell.’ She had not heard Summer swear like this before and turned towards him from her place a few yards out from the bank with question.
‘You are the most beautiful woman I have ever seen, Celeste, and the least bashful.’
She was glad he did not comment on the bruises that covered her stomach and back or ask how she had come by them.
This evening was theirs. The bed of nature, the sky, the river, the last birdsong before silence.
‘Come in for a swim.’
But he did not, merely taking off his jacket before laying out the bedrolls tied to the horses. There was a stiffness in him that had not been there a moment ago and she wondered at it as she came out of the water, slapping at the midges that had arrived in a cloud with the evening light.
‘Your thigh is still aching?’
‘Only a little. The powders helped.’
‘I will dress it again.’
‘Later.’
He moved back, untying other necessities from his horse, tidying things. With the last wisps of the afternoon upon her nakedness she felt altered and powerful as she came across to him.
‘It has been a long time since I was out in the countryside and it feels...so very free.’ The water from the river had cooled her down and she sensed the regeneration of her soul like a physical thing. The last of the sunbeams warmed her and soft winds whispered. She was like Eve standing before Adam, the forbidden tree allowing them the knowledge of good and evil still far from this moment. In limbo. Caught between time. An exile into isolation and one she wanted with all her heart.
The weariness in him was also apparent, a man who had led her through danger and jeopardy and thought little of his own discomfort. The lines at the side of his mouth were deeper today, more obvious.
With care, she took his free hand and cupped it in the space between her thighs.
‘Let everything else go, Summer, for I am right here.’
Opening her legs, she arched her neck, wishing that her hair was still long and falling to the small of her back, wishing that she wore jewellery or perfume or that her face was not marked above her right eye.
He came to her with a frown. She could see the battle he fought to resist her in his eyes, deep amber in the sunset, his golden glance meeting her own. Aroused, rankled and vexed.
Then her nipple was in his mouth, hard and sweet, a lover sustained by her body and fed by want. She could smell herself as he moved, the musk of womanhood, the fresh scent of water.
