He guided the horse into the trees, shadows closing over us for a few steps before the woods thinned again. We broke back into sunlight at a riverbank, water tumbling over stones it had carved smooth through the years.
He gathered the reins and swung down in one fluid motion.
Then he lifted his arms.
I was still sulking, but the truth was I had no idea how to get down without him.
“Got me?”
He was as steady as bedrock. “Aye, just drop, I got ye.”
I slid into his waiting hands and, for one mortifying second, my dress hiked far too high. I yanked it down.Great, he had been eye level with my butt.
He set me on the ground and that’s when the pain hit. All at once. The whole crotch area, my inner thighs were rubbed raw, the muscles around my backside were sore. My legs barely remembered how to work.
I glanced down at the tender pink skin. “Owie.”
“Och nae, tis goin’ tae be sore.”
I pouted but then stopped so I wouldn’t look weak, because he was frowning in commiseration even though his lip was swollen, his eye bruised.
I asked, “How’s your face?”
“Tis nae as bad as m’side.” He raised his shirt, giving me a look at a black and blue bruise on his ribs. And some very sexy abs. I put out my hand and touched it.
“It doesn’t feel broken?”
“Nae, just sore, I’ve had worse.” He dropped the bottom of shirt and asked, “How’s yer arse?”
“I don’t suppose you have any salve? A pair of yoga pants?”
“Getting ye a proper dress will be one of our first quests.” He was chewing his lip, looking like he was trying to figure out a difficult problem.
“Ifwe are stuck here.”
“Aye, if we are stuck here.”
He tied the horses to a tree near a patch of grass that was close enough to drink from the creek.
Dude stuck his head up from the messenger bag and said, “Meow.”
Torin pulled him out and placed him on a boulder.
Dude began washing himself as if this place and his being in it were the most normal things in the world. The cat was totally chill. I, on the other hand, had not moved from this spot because my ass-thigh-crotch area was too sore to move. “I have to pee.” I looked around. “Where will I pee?”
He said, “Tae pish? Ye can go there, behind the tree, nae far though, if ye canna see me ye are too far.”
I walked over, my feet out wide, like a bowlegged cowboy.Owie owie owie.
He bit his lip and raised his brow. “That is verra royal.”
“My ass is royal pink, that’s about it.”
I crouched behind a tree and peed while investigating my chafed skin. There was a blister in one place, I couldn’t believe I had slept through it.
I did not want to get back on the horse.
I needed to poop, but there was no way I was going to be able to poop.
