Page 68 of A Touch of Poison
“Bastian Marwood, letting someone else hold the reins?” Her eyes widened. “Wonders will never cease.”
It was the second time I’d smiled since leaving Innesol. “Don’t get used to it.”
Eventually, she conceded, and we swapped places. True to my word, I let her steer and instead fastened my hands around her waist. She rode with her coat open as the sun streamed down.
I must’ve still been tired, because the next thing I knew, I woke from the most delicious dream with my head on her shoulder, my arms tight around her, and a raging erection. My shadows had also got in on the act, hazing around her thighs and shoulders, holding her hair back, so I could nuzzle into her neck.
I held there a moment longer than I should’ve, guilt quietened by my exhaustion. When I glanced down, I could see her chest heaving and the peaks of her nipples against her shirt. My fingers flexed against her belly as my shadows reached for her breasts to do what I longed to.
No.
I yanked them back and made a show of “waking up” and stretching, pulling my aching cock away from Kat’s glorious backside.
“Morning, sleepy head,” she said in a voice too light. “Or, rather, afternoon.” She nodded at the sun above, turning her head so I caught her tight smile, but not looking directly at me. She’d cleaned her face at camp, and I could see the flush of her tanned cheeks.
Exhaustion had eroded my self-control and let my thoughts run rampant.
Swallowing, I returned my hands to her hips and thought about boring things like picking apples.
But picking apples became picking apples with Kat. Which became picking apples with naked Kat and feeding them to her as I made love to her in the setting September sun.
My grip on her tightened. Stars above. I was fucked.
My mind skipped from subject to subject, only lingering on a thought for as long as it took to somehow loop around to Kat bouncing on my cock.
Turned out nearly getting killed by Horrors left me horny beyond belief.
The afternoon sun passed overhead and Kat pressed the stag into a faster walk. We should still make it back before dusk, but I didn’t trust myself to reassure her.
Eventually she spoke into the pregnant quiet, “So, are you ready to talk about what happened at Innesol yet?”
That was one way to quench my desire. She might as well have thrown me into a freezing lake.
I was about to brush off her question when she looked back at me, brow and mouth tight with worry.
Damn this woman. I couldn’t deny her. And… just as my shadows ghosted around her hands and waist, sharing themselves with her, I wanted to share myself with her.
“What do you want to know?”
She raised an eyebrow, then turned back to the road. “What do you want to say?”
Touché.
“You were troubled,” she went on. “That much was obvious. And you spoke about things you couldn’t possibly know. I was afraid.”
I squeezed her hips, tracing circles with my thumbs. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to frighten you.”
“No. You misunderstand. I wasn’t afraidofyou; I was afraidforyou.”
That was the thing that cracked me open.
My throat was too raw to speak for a moment, but then speak I did. “They were memories. That place… It felt like I’d been there. I could’ve sworn I had, but… You’re right—it fell long, long before I was born.”
Watching the road, she went very still.
“Those memories aren’t mine.” I dragged in a long breath. Only Faolán and my fathers knew this, and withBabagone, that left just two people.
But Katherine…
