Never mind that she wasfast.
Kaden wasn’t too proud to admit that keeping up with her was a challenge. He was losing the race and then some. More than once, the only way to see which fork she had taken was by the heavy gallop prints that her horse left in the soft earth.
His legs were starting to burn from the strain; she must have been cut from a wholly different cloth than him. Though to say that he wasn’t enjoying the hell out of himself would have been a lie.
The sun had moved in the sky by the time Emily’s horse started to slow down. Not much, but it had to have been at least an hour of riding at top speed. They would have to stop sooner or later, if only to water the horses.
He wasn’t going to just let her win, however.
Another fifteen minutes or so passed before he realized that he had seen the same fallen trunk of the side of the path four times now.
The little minx was leading him in circles! She was playing him for a fool, and he was just letting her do it.
Two could play at that game.
Kaden pulled on the reins, slowing his own horse to a slow walk, waiting for Emily’s quick pace to bring her right back to him.
He could hear the moment she tried to rein in her horse, as if there was a way to avoid him, but this trail was far too small to be able to comfortably turn around. She had no choice but to pass him or join him on the slow walk that he had started them on.
He couldn’t hold back the smile stretching his lips as she chose to join him.
“What are ye doing?!” she huffed, her pretty chestnut-brown hair coming loose from the updo it had been in earlier.
She still had the same dirt clinging to the hem of her skirt from whatever she had been doing before he had arrived, and now there was a pretty pink flush on her face.
“Leveling the playing field?”
Her brow creased in irritation.
“Did ye think that ye would be able to win with cheap tricks?” Kaden shook his head, unable to tear his eyes off her. The horse could have guided him right into a tree, and he wouldn’t have even noticed until he woke up from whatever blow to the head he would have received. “Ye’ll have to try better than that.”
“Are ye trying to call me a cheater?!” Emily gasped, affronted.
Not that he bought that for a second.
“I think that ye are a woman who will do what she needs to do to get what she wants.”
At least their pace was slower now, like they were out for a comfortable jaunt. What would it have been like to grow up here? Wandering these woods when he was tired or stressed. It would have been soothing to have a place to go to think or just to be alone.
“Did ye spend a lot of time in these woods growing up?” Kaden asked, hoping to catch her off guard.
Emily turned to glance at him and brought herself up short. “Ye are bleeding!”
Kaden’s eyebrows pinched. What was she talking about?
He glanced down to see that the exposed parts of his forearms were slightly scratched in places. No doubt from the branches and brambles that he had zipped past earlier. Only one of them was bleeding. It was such a negligible amount that he doubted he would have noticed it at all.
He half laughed and shook his head. “This? It’s a scratch, me Lady, nothing at all.” He wiped the blood with his free hand.
She reached over and grabbed him. “Daenae!” She shook her head. “Yer hands are filthy! Ye cannae touch it!”
Kaden lifted an eyebrow. “Seriously, daenae fash lass.”
She wasn’t easily dissuaded. “Follow me.”
“Are ye giving me orders? Is this a glimpse of how our marriage is going to be?” he called.
But Emily chose to ignore him as she rode ahead.
