Dark Stallion

by Dark Stallion (lit)

  She might just as well have saved herself the effort. The sapling made so much noise swishing back and forth that she heard the men stir, or at least one of them. One was enough. She poured on more speed, taking the path of least resistance to put more distance between her and pursuit. The moment she heard the thud of hooves against the hard packed ground, though, she plunged off the path she’d been following and into the brush. The urge to hide was nearly overwhelming, but her instincts urged her to run and keep running.

  She was running so fast, she hit the bank and rolled down it before she even realized she’d headed straight for the stream. Coughing at the water she’d inhaled when she did a belly flop in the stream, she struggled to her feet, cast a quick glance around to catch her bearings, and plunged deeper. The long skirt tangled around her legs, hampering her efforts to swim, but she managed to get enough movement using both her arms and legs to dog paddle to the swifter current near the center. Allowing it to pull her, she swept the area in search of pursuit and spied Aydin on the bank. Her heart leapt into her throat. Without stopping to consider, she ducked beneath the water and began kicking toward the other side, hoping he hadn’t spotted her, holding her breath until she thought her lungs would explode and she was forced to surface for a breath of air.

  Dismay filled her when she discovered he was much closer than he had been the last time she’d gone under the water. And he’d spotted her. And he looked thoroughly pissed off!

  The last discovery galvanized her more than the first two and made her witless. Instead of allowing the river to carry her away from him, she began struggling toward the far bank. Weak from the swim and tangled up in her soaked clothing, she had to fight her way up the other bank when she reached it. She hadn’t managed to gain more than a few yards into the woods when he slammed into her from behind. His weight and speed carried both of them into the broad trunk of a tree. The impact stunned her, knocked the breath from her. Pain exploded through her, but it was hard to pinpoint whether it was from hitting the tree or from being tackled by him.

  She discovered when he wrenched her around to face him that he’d taken the brunt of the impact with his arm and shoulder. The scrape from the bark looked like fingernail gouges. He caught her face with one hand, tipping her head back. “Are you hurt?” he asked gustily, his breathing nearly as ragged as hers.

  She thought about it, but the pain was already subsiding to faint twinges.

  Her head hurt. She thought she’d bumped it. She tried to lift a hand to feel it but discovered her wrists were still bound together and his hand on her cheek prevented it. “I bumped my head,” she managed finally.

  She winced when he shifted his hold on her head and stroked his thumb along the knot.

  “You are fortunate it was not worse!” he growled. “Do you want to die, woman? First you leap from the window of the castle and now into the river with your hands bound?”

  She’d been too afraid of getting caught to spare a moment for considering the possibility that she might not be able to manage it. She’d already been in the water. She hadn’t had the chance to make a choice. The urge to cry smote her suddenly. “I just want to go home!” she said on a wailing note. “Why is everybody chasing me? I haven’t done anything!”

  Before she quite knew what was happening, he dipped his head towards hers and covered her mouth with his own, sucking lightly at her lips. A jolt of surprise went through her, but the offer of comfort was something she instantly discovered she wanted with desperation. She tilted her head to give him better access, clutching at his chest with her hands.

  The moment she did, the almost tentative nature of his touch was transformed. Her senses exploded with the first rake his tongue along hers. She made a whimpering sound of need deep in her throat, sucking at his tongue, trying to get closer to him, to climb inside of him. He pressed closer, wedging her so tightly between his body and the trunk behind her she could scarcely catch her breath, and it still wasn’t enough. She wanted to feel him against every inch of her body. She wanted to feel him inside of her.

  She sucked in a sharp gasp of air when he broke away from her lips and gnawed his way along her throat, over her collarbone and down the slope of one breast. Delving a hand into the neck of her dress, he freed the breast and instantly captured the taunt peak with his mouth. She thought she might pass out at the feel of him on her breast. Her knees buckled. It was only his hold on her that prevented her from crumpling to the ground.

  She caught at him, irritated that her wrists were still bound and prevented her from exploring him, from grasping his head and drawing him closer, from holding him where he was until she fainted from the sheer ecstasy of the pull of his mouth. She whimpered a complaint that ended in a sharp hitch of her breath when he moved to her other breast and teased it as he had the first.

  His touch was laced with impatience, sharp with hunger. It set her blood to pounding with fevered need. She found herself gasping his name in a fervent chant of demand until he silenced her with mouth. The kiss was brief, ravenous. When he broke away, he whipped her around to face the tree, bracing her arms above her head. She shuddered as she felt his mouth along the back her neck, felt the pull of her wet skirt as he dragged it up her legs.

  He wrapped an arm around her hips, drawing her lower body back until she was leaning precariously against the tree. She might have fallen if he hadn’t held her bound wrists with his other hand, kept her firmly trapped between his body and the tree. She shivered when he’d positioned her and drove his hand between her thighs, stroking a thick finger along her cleft.

  She was wet for him, dripping wet. She felt his satisfaction in the shudder that went through him, in the groan he uttered that vibrated along her neck and sent a rash of goosebumps down her spine.

  It wasn’t until she felt the huge head of his cock prying at the opening of her sex that it dawned on her that he was a centaur—and he was still in centaur form. Her heart contracted almost painfully in her chest as that realization hit her. She stiffened, but there was no backing out. The moment she tried, she felt his cock overcome the resistance of her flesh with the creamy moisture she’d produced for him.

  A strange mixture of fear and excitement went through her as she felt him pump his hips and drive more deeply into her.

  Despite his almost frantic haste of before, though, he entered her with far more care than she would’ve expected, with determination, shaking as if he had the ague, but slowly. She gasped when he hit her womb. He stopped, shaking harder for a moment and then withdrew … and plowed into her again a little more quickly than before. He allowed her a handful of shallow strokes to adjust to his length and girth and lost his control.

  Uttering a breathless groan, he began to move faster. Almost the moment he did, she felt her body gather itself to take the leap to glory her heart was hammering so anxiously for. She groaned, afraid to move for fear he’d thrust more deeply into her than she could handle, but that only seemed to drive her over the edge. She sucked in a sharp breath as her climax exploded through her, shuddering at the force of it. He managed a handful of strokes while her climax peaked and then withdrew abruptly, sliding his cock along her cleft. She felt it jerk against her as he spilled his seed, shivered as she heard the breathless grunts that seemed to be driven from him as he ejaculated.

  He pressed his forehead against the back of her neck, gasping hoarsely.

  “That was … incredibly stupid,” he muttered under his breath when he pulled away from her.

  Emma whipped a shocked glance at him.

  His lips tightened. Pulling her away from the tree, he scooped her up into his arms. “Put your arms around my neck,” he growled.

  Still stunned and vulnerable, she complied before she’d even considered whether she wanted to or not. He strode back to the stream and swam across with her. He didn’t set her down until he reached their campsite.

  Colwin had apparently been awakened by the stir they’d created when they dashed off, but
he was clearly disoriented. He stared at the two of them blankly when Aydin set her on her feet.

  Aydin studied him broodingly for several moments and finally seemed to dismiss the temptation to give him the sharp edge of his tongue. “Get some sleep,” he growled.

  Emma settled weakly on the ground, staring at him as he stalked off.

  Colwin stared at him in dawning anger, but finally moved to the spot Aydin had vacated earlier and flung himself down to sleep.

  Keenly aware of every movement Emma made, Aydin didn’t relax until she finally lay down. At that, it wasn’t much. He knew she wasn’t asleep. He felt her gaze, her confusion, her anger.

  Scrubbing a shaking hand over his face, he tried not to think about what had just transpired between them, but it was impossible to completely dismiss the images that kept playing in his mind over and over. He should’ve guessed, he thought in disgust, that he was within a hair’s breadth of doing something really stupid.

  And fucking her was about the stupidest thing he’d ever done in his life—especially in his centaur form—not the least because he’d wanted to do it again the minute his body had stopped convulsing with ecstasy.

  It was because he had not been with any female in far too long, he told himself angrily. The females of his tribe were more prone to taunting him with what he could not have than giving him what he wanted of them.

  He gods damned well did not want any of them as a mate, the spiteful bitches! He would not have given any of them his seed! It wasn’t enough that his father’s life had been a misery to him until he had met Sarah and claimed her as his mate? It wasn’t enough that his life had been a torment to him? Why they thought he would risk bringing another child into this life to suffer for being different was beyond him, but that was generally their excuse for turning him away even as a lover—the possibility that he might give them a dark one.

  Not that he hadn’t learned his lesson in that respect! He ignored them now—now that he was no longer young and stupid and naïve enough to mistake their flirtation for anything but a taunt. It worked far better for enticing them into his bed.

  It rankled that they would sneak into his bed and sneak away again, fearful of being spotted visiting him when they openly took their other lovers, but he had needs. He took what was offered when it was offered and tried not to think about it, or them, once they’d sneaked away again.

  At that, it had still been a while since he’d had a lover. He’d decided solitude might suit him better when he had grown sick of having no mate of his own. It hadn’t. He’d been far more miserable alone, and he’d finally realized that it was stupid to deprive himself of the only family he had. He had the love of his father, his uncle, his mother, and his brother. It wasn’t enough. He wanted more. He wanted his own mate, his own family, but becoming a hermit certainly wasn’t going to gain that for him.

  If Emma hadn’t looked at him as she had, hadn’t responded to him as she had, he didn’t think he would’ve lost his head. Right up until that moment, he had been sure it was firmly fixed in his mind that she was hoonan and he had no business touching her at all—shouldn’t want to.

  There was no getting around the fact that he did, unfortunately. He was already wound so tight by the time they’d stopped from all of the rubbing her body had done against him he was ready to explode. It hadn’t taken much to push him over the edge, especially after she’d scared the pure hell out of him at the gods damned river! He’d been certain she would drown! He’d never felt such panic, such a sense of desperate fear in his life! He’d never seen a hoonan swim—except his mother, but then she wasn’t actually hoonan. She was an other-worlder.

  He should not have touched her! He should not have given in to the churning fear, remorse at hurting her, desire, and anger that she’d tried to escape him and nearly gotten herself killed in the process! The moment he had, he’d lost his mind.

  Because she’d responded to him. He’d felt her kiss him back. He didn’t believe for a moment that he’d imagined it. She’d wanted him, and it had set him on fire to have her—as if he hadn’t already been on fire!

  Gods! He hadn’t even thought about the fact that he was in his natural form! That she wasn’t made for him in that form!

  At least he’d managed to gather his wits to a degree. He’d been careful of her, if he’d been too maddened to stop—which he should have! At least he hadn’t spilled his seed into her!

  Gods! He had wanted to! It had taken all he could do to pull out of her. He didn’t think he could’ve managed it then if fear hadn’t suddenly hit him, the fear that he might find fertile ground, impregnate her.

  And there’d still been the voice of want riding him, encouraging him to dismiss the notion, to ignore the possibility!

  It had been a near thing! He still felt cold all over at the thought of what he’d almost risked only for a few moments of pleasure.

  She couldn’t really want him, he told himself furiously. It was a trick. She was using her beauty against him, trying to manipulate him. He knew that had to be it!

  And he still wanted to ignore that warning in his head and just take what she offered. He wanted to fuck her until he was exhausted, drunk with it, too weak to move. A part of him didn’t care if she was trying to manipulate him.

  And there was the danger.

  He wanted to believe she wasn’t like the others of her kind, and he knew they weren’t to be trusted. Hoonans viewed them as animals, felt justified in using them as beasts of burden. She couldn’t have any other view of him, which meant she couldn’t possibly desire him.

  Unless she realized his darkness was because he was part hoonan himself and that actually did appeal to her?

  Why not? It was the reason his tribesmen despised him—they knew he was not a pure blood because he had the coloring of the hoonans. Just as they knew Colwin was a half-breed other-worlder because his father, Chandler, had taken Sarah as his mate, making him almost as much of an outsider as he was himself, despite the fact that Colwin had been fortunate enough to be golden like their tribesmen.

  That was even more dangerous thinking, he realized, because he was trying to convince himself that she was as attracted to him as he was to her and he knew better! Even if she suspected that he was part hoonan, she’d seen his true form! She knew what he was!

  She’d looked hurt, he realized after a while. He didn’t think he actually had hurt her, not physically, but what the fuck did he know? He’d behaved like an animal the moment he caught the scent of her arousal, the moment he’d touched her and felt her yield to him, and he’d completely lost it when he’d stroked her woman’s place and found her wet for him.

  His cock rose on the thought, tenting his fucking loincloth. He ignored it, trying to will it to lay down again, but it was reluctant to obey and anxious to test the tight, hot, wet cavern of her body again.

  “Gods!” he muttered under his breath. He was going to be insane in no time at all if he had to stare at her for days on end and not touch her!

  They should leave her and let the king’s men find her, he thought abruptly. Colwin’s half-baked plan of using her to get the foals back wasn’t going to work. The only thing it was likely to do was to bring the soldiers down on their tribesmen!

  Chapter Five

  “Tell me you did not fuck her!” Colwin growled the moment they reached the river.

  Aydin stiffened and turned to look at his brother. “I will not tell you anything, brother! Because it is not your gods damned business!”

  “You did fuck her!” Colwin snapped. “I knew it!”

  Aydin’s lips tightened. “What I did,” he growled, “was chase her down because you fell asleep on guard duty and she escaped!”

  Colwin reddened. “I dozed only a moment,” he muttered.

  “It was more than a moment! It took her a while to work her way up that sapling and free herself!” Aydin shot back at him.

  “It did not waken you!” Colwin said pointedly.

&nb
sp; “Because I thought it safe to close my eyes because I believed you were on watch! And it did waken me or I would not have caught her! She nigh drowned, I might add. If I had not awakened ….”

  Colwin paled. “That is why she was soaking wet when you brought her back? That is why you were carrying her?”

  Aydin felt his face heat with discomfort. Crouching down, he focused on cleaning his teeth and washing his face. “I had run her to ground,” he muttered finally. “And I did not want to have to chase her again.”

  “You did not … ravish her, then?” Colwin said after a prolonged moment.

  Fury surged through Aydin, and he came to his feet. “I am not like the hoonans!” he snarled. “I have never forced myself upon any female! If you were not my brother ….”

  Colwin’s anger rose to match his. “You did fuck her, though, did you not?”

  Aydin slugged him in the mouth. Colwin flew backwards and slammed back first on the bank, sliding into the edge of the water. He was on his feet again in a moment, charging up the bank. Aydin met him with another punch, but Colwin managed to kick his feet out from under him and both of them went into the stream.

  They wrestled, trying to overpower each other, slipping and sliding in the muck on the streambed until they’d worn their anger out and finally settled to glare at each other. “I took her,” Colwin said when he’d caught his breath. “She belongs to me!”