The city’s gates were open for an entering caravan, no doubt headed for the open-air marketplace. We zipped past them so fast that the guards barely blinked. Ahead of us was the open road, weaving through forest and field. With dirt beneath my hooves, I leveled out.
I was aware of every move her body made, the way her hips rolled back and forth along my spine. My mane gripped her, helping her to move to my rhythm. Forward and back, her pelvis ground along my back...
My nostrils flared, although the wind of my passage blew her scent away from me. The power flowing between us altered, becoming something that made my balls ache and threatened the concentration required to maintain this speed. Arousal be not something I could safely entertain, and although my beast pushed at me, I set my jaw and pushed back.
But then Anna gasped, and I’m sure she said my name.
Rhythmic pulses of raw power swept through me from her, and they almost took me out at the knees. Certainly, it fed something that had no business getting involved as I pelted down a road on a rescue mission.
Had she... Had I taken her there? My stride hitched. There was no mistaking that energy. My already racing heart accelerated madly, and I struggled to focus on the road when everything within me wanted to stop, and—
No.
But as Anna’s legs gripped tighter around my ribs, I acknowledged that Fate once again had me firmly in her grasp...
And it was aggravating.
8
Anna
I pushed my face down between my arms and breathed from the air pocket they formed, thankful that Sebastian had warned me.
His body was alive beneath me, the muscles stretching and contracting with each stride of his long legs. His mane supported me, showing me how to move with him. If I had ridden a horse before, I had no way of knowing. But even so, this wasn’t a lovely canter through a meadow—he was full-out galloping. When we’d been in the city, his hooves had sparked as he skidded around corners.
With the help of his mane, I balanced like a pro. Dim memory of whizzing along on something wickedly fast—a motorcycle?—flashed through my brain. As usual, the image lacked any kind of context. It could have been something I did in the past. Or just a dream.
And a motorcycle couldn’t hope to compare to this living, breathing, heaving creature beneath me.
He’d been fast enough inside the city. But when his hooves hit the packed dirt of the road beyond, he found an entirely new gear.
The air whipped past me and sucked my breath away. I ducked lower, tucking my nose against my arm, desperate to find air in the eddies created by it. His mane wrapped around my torso and thighs, and the strands felt almost warm, like a lover’s touch. They moved my hips with every stride, forward and back, back and forth, in a pattern as familiar as it was unexpected.
And totally inappropriate, considering where my focus should be. But the warmth of him between my legs, the push and pull of powerful muscles, ignited something within me. I leaned forward to place my hands against his neck. His hair was so fine, I could barely feel it—and the muscles beneath were like rock. It was like touching silken steel. Like Matt had been beneath my hands... and, unbidden, came the memory of the way he’d groaned when I touched him.
My breath hitched, and it wasn’t from the air moving too fast to breathe. Sebastian’s mane moved my hips relentlessly back and forth over his rigid spine. The powerful back muscles moved between my legs, rubbing along every sensitive inch of me, sending electric zings that wound my body ever tighter. I tried to fight it, but each stride brought me closer. Until, with a gasp, the tsunami broke—the waves passing through me as I clutched at his neck.
I think I called his name...
Something lit the air ahead of him—his horn, shining like moonlight, illuminating the road ahead. As I clung, my breath coming in heaving gasps, I realized we now wove through forest, but the trees whipped by so fast they were no more than a blur. The road as well—I couldn’t look without it making me dizzy.
I closed my eyes as my heart slowed to light-speed levels. Which is to say, it didn’t slow at all. And shutting down the visual input only amplified the other senses...
I looked ahead again. Once was embarrassing enough. Dammit, where was my focus? Gone. I was riding a tornado, and it was taking me where I shouldn’t go.
Then I looked between his pricked ears. And saw the river.
This time, I really did stop breathing. This was no slow, swirling band weaving its way to the nearest sea. It was a seething, tumbling mess of logs and debris.
The bridge had been substantial, a well-built construct of wood and stone stretching between the banks. But its shattered end dangled only feet above the rushing water.
Sebastian never even hesitated. His hooves rang against the wooden decking as we climbed the gentle arch.
I gulped and buried my hands in his mane, and the ends wrapped tight around my torso. His glowing horn showed where the broken decking dangled into space... The powerful muscles bunched beneath me, and a moment later, the Unicorn launched himself off the end.
It was like flying on my dream Dragon, that moment of pure suspension, before we fell. But although his leap carried us far beyond the broken bridge, fall we did.
Straight into the churning maelstrom.
