A sword’s wrath! With long, ground-eating strides, he caught her arm as she started down a steep hill. She whirled on him like a wildcat, all claws and fury. “Leave me alone!”
“Alesia—”
“Non.”She yanked her arm back and lost her footing. The combination of the sharp decline and their awkward stance threw them both off-balance.
Colyne slammed against the ground, with Alesia landing on his chest. Leaves squished beneath them as they started to slide down the muddied bank. She tried to shove free, but he held her tight. As they shuddered to a halt, in a quick move, he rolled on top of her and pinned her to the ground.
Flecks of moss and pine wove through her damp, honey-colored hair as she glared up at him.
A face that would haunt him with its beauty, a woman whose spirit lured him until it was hard to breath. He would have let her go, should have, but beneath her anger he saw the passion still burning hot. And all his good intentions fled.
He leaned closer.
Alesia’s eyes widened with panic. “Get—”
Colyne claimed her mouth in a fierce kiss, his lips moving across hers with relentless possession. After a moment’s hesitation, she buried her fingers in his wet hair and pulled him closer.
Thunder boomed nearby.
Blood pounding, he broke free and stared at her mouth, swollen with his kisses, her eyes dark with passion. “This time when I kissed you, Alesia,” he rasped, “I was thinking only of you!”
Red scorched her cheeks. Her chest heaved. “And that is supposed to make me forgive your actions?”
“Nay.” He released her. Curses. He’d only meant to . . .
She scrambled to her feet and took a shaky step back. “Do not,” she ordered when he started to rise.
Colyne stood, the warrior in him demanding her complete surrender, the strategist understanding that if he pushed her now, he could destroy any remaining trust between them.
Trust.
As if, after his actions this day, he deserved any from her?
“What do you want from me?” she asked, the quiver in her voice blurring his objectivity.
For the first time in his life, he wasna sure. “I do nae know.”
Eyes fragile with pain watched him. “At least you are honest.”
“You understand naught. I—”What? Want you? Need to explain how, for some reason, you are able to make me forget the pain of losing the woman I loved?
He fisted his hands at his sides and then slowly released them. Somehow he had to repair the breech he’d constructed between them. Or at least try. “Let me take you to the coast. Please.”
Moss-green eyes narrowed. “I can make it there by myself.”
He would have smiled at her stubbornness if the situation wasna so dire. “Alesia,” he said gently, “you are traveling north.”
“I—” She glanced toward the direction in which she was headed, then back toward him, her blush darkening a shade deeper. “I was upset. I would have realized my error and corrected my direction.” Her cold glare dared him to disprove her claim.
“You will be needing my guidance. Besides the arduous travel, predators live within these woods. Neither can you forget the men searching for us.”
At the reminder, her face paled, but determination creased her jaw as well.
She didna like it. He didna expect her to. From the short time he’d known her, if nothing else, he’d learned she wasna a foolish woman.
Alesia tilted her chin. “I could make it.”
He suppressed the smile warring to break free. “Of that I have nay doubt.”
