“So when you did this with Cody, who was in front?” I asked, more to make conversation than anything else.
“Wouldn’t you like to know?” A soft exhalation. “Now, when your right foot moves, I will compensate with pressure on the right-hand rope. And move my right foot as well. Reverse for left foot. We will have to move as a unit. The trick be to keep the ropes from swaying. Got it?”
I nodded.
“Okay. Right foot. Twist your hips sideways, or I won’t have room to move with you.”
I hadn’t actually visualized it like this. The double hand ropes meant we walked not sideways, but facing the other bank, balancing our feet on the larger center rope. I cocked my feet at an angle to grip the rope mostly in the arch, with my toes curling reflexively. He kept his feet right up with mine, twisting his body around me first one way, then the other, while somehow keeping us centered over that rope.
The first few feet were simple. The ropes were stabilized by their contact with the bank. But then I didn’t pull hard enough on the left rope as we moved our left feet, and the rope swayed.
“More left hand,” Sebastian said, but I was already pulling on it. We froze until the sway abated, his arm holding me tight against him as my heart raced.
“Okay,” he said, suspiciously calm. “Right foot.”
I managed to move it, but I was trembling. His grip on my arm had slipped past the sweatshirt, and the bandage. His hand was now on bare skin. His heat behind, and the energy surrounding me, was unraveling any control I had over what coiled within me.
Focus, Anna.
The voice in my head wasn’t mine. My heart pounded.
You cannot hurt me.
I froze. “Sebastian...”
“Just breathe, Anna. Focus,” he said aloud. “Left foot.”
Did he know I could hear him in my head? His voice was so damned calm. But then I remembered the light in his eyes as he went into battle.
“Do you get off on this stuff?” I accused in a voice that trembled.
“You have no idea.” It was said as a bass rumble that threatened to take me out at the knees. His thigh was like rock behind my own, and as his hips moved with mine, I was certain I felt a bulge of rigid heat beneath that hair clothing. His upper body was hunched over me, and I sensed him inhale against my neck.
The beast within me was hungry and clawing for control, reaching tendrils out to him. My hips arched back into his. I couldn’t have stopped it if my life had depended upon it.
He inhaled again, more sharply this time.
Focus...
The word was a mere breath. A coaching instruction to himself as much as me? I fought the tendrils away from him, even as I forced my body to move.
“Right,” he said, his voice hoarse, and we moved our right feet forward. The rope swayed until he managed to pull the handhold.
Dammit. Steady, now,his voice whispered in my mind. “Left,” he said aloud. “Almost there.”
The rope was firmer beneath our feet, and to my surprise, we were close to the opposite bank. Mari was already there, recoiling the rope. Matt stood between the pillars supporting the bridge, his gaze fastened on me.
“Easy, Angel. You’re almost here.”
His eyes were glowing emerald, and I was immediately conflicted, sensing the pull from him as it mixed with Sebastian’s powerful energy. My own power swirled within me, caring not from whom it fed, as long as it got to feed.
I had no intention of giving in. As Sebastian coached us over the last few feet, I pushed brutally back on it, shoving the tendrils back on themselves.
Our feet touched solid ground.
Sebastian had the belt released in an instant, stepping away as though I’d scalded him. It was in stark contrast to his words.
“Well done, Anna.” He sounded breathless as he handed me my boots, and he couldn’t seem to stand still as he almost babbled. “You be much better at this than Cody. He be—prickly.”
