AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Which meant that something was going on here that required Malyr to cause strife between Galantia and me—something he kept me in the dark about. Luckily, now I knew exactly where to go looking.
ChapterThirty-Eight
Galantia
Present Day, Deepmarsh Castle
The soft morning sun cast glimmers over the powdery snow that blanketed the meadow beside the castle, except for the muddy-brown, circular trail Liual had stomped into the ground beneath us. Each of his trotting steps jostled me around on his back, making me look like a straw doll as I slipped and shifted in the saddle.
Not so much Malyr, who sat behind me, gracefully flowing along with the choppy steps as he let a disgruntled exhale blow into my hair and tug on the strands. “Go with the movement.”
Another jolt tossed me a few inches out of the saddle and, when I came back down, made my ass bump against the upthrust of the gelding’s spine,which had me curl my hand around the pommel. “There’s nothing flowing about—”
“Hands off the pommel.” He slapped my hand away—for the fifth time—sending a searing pain into knuckles already red from previous punishment. “There is no balance to be found there. It has to come from your spine when it aligns with his.”
My molars ground together in frustration. “Oh, I’m aligning myself with his spine perfectly, coming down with my ass on it each time he seems to lift it, which catapults me right back out of the saddle.”
Another sighing exhale, then Malyr gave the command that let Liual slow into a walk. More jostling followed, the disappearance of forward thrust so sudden, my upper body hinged at the hip. It nearly tossed me over the horse’s neck, wasn’t it for how I grabbed the pommel.
“You are concerned about your rear, whereas I am starting to fear for my horse’s back.” Malyr ripped the reins from my fingers, fisted them about two hand-widths above their ends, stopped Liual, and—whack!“Hands off the pommel.”
My whipped fingers splayed out and my hands lifted off the saddle, stiffly hovering over it as the most curious pain spread across their backs like icy-hot tendrils. On the right one, where the leather ends had struck the hardest, the reddened skin started to welt ever so slightly. The sight injected a thrill into the pain, amplified by the way Malyr lifted one hand to my throat, making my head tilt sideways with no more but a little stub of his thumb against my jaw.
“I want you to loosen up those stubbornly stiff hips of yours and start rocking them like you did in the bathtub when you fucked me, and make sure your ass stays glued to this saddle for an entire circle,” he growled along the exposed side of my neck, letting his warm breath caress me through that tingle between my legs. “But if you separate even an inch from the leather, I will carry you into the stables, bend you over the saddle rack, and whip that delicious ass of yours red with these reins. Then I’ll put you back on the horse, and I swear by the goddess, Galantia, every time you lift from the saddle, you will be punished with hellfire the moment you come back down.”
His words, though harsh, were swathed in sensuality, a tingling caress that sent shivers down my spine. What if I wanted to know what that particular pain felt like? Not like the broad swats of his palm when they’d come down on my rear, that much was certain. How then? Sharper? Rippling? Presume I would have to bounce and jostle some more to find out…
Pulling away from his clasp, I retook possession of the reins. “You’re an insufferable teacher.”
But a good one; one who had thrown the heavy saddle into my lap right after a shared breakfast of oat porridge. He’d watched me struggle the heavy thing toward Liual’s back, offering not a single finger of help but plenty of snickers when I ended up dragging a trunk beside the horse so I may get it done before spring.
It was vexing.
It was empowering.
Because for the first time in my life, I didn’t just watch life from within the safety of gentle hands. Malyr’s hands were rarely gentle, but they certainly never coddled. No, they shoved me straight into life, demanding I participated.
And I loved it.
“I would rather canter some more,” I said and, with a bump of my calves, sent Liual back into a walk along the muddy circle. “It’s much easier to sit.”
“Which is exactly why I have you practicing thetrot,” Malyr said, letting one hand run from my waist, down over my hip and along my fur-lined shadow dress. “A horse can trot for hours, but a canter will tire it out quickly. Now try again, and you best put some effort into it.”
I took a deep breath and shortened the inside rein to keep us on the circle the way Malyr had shown me, letting the cold air fill my lungs and stir my determination. So many times, I’d asked Father to let me ride, but he hadn’t cared, leaving the final decision with Mother.Too dangerous,she’d said,you may fall.
But I wouldn’t.
I refused to.
Guided by a rush of resolve, I gently pressed Liual back into a trot. His powerful muscles shifted at my command as his large body moved beneath me, offering a first rise of his shoulders and spine, challenging me to stiffen against it.
I didn’t.
I relaxed my hips and followed it upward, only to come back down with it. Up again. Down. Up. Down. The ebbs and flows of the horse’s motion became an instinctive pattern, my body surrendering to its quick rhythm. I melded with it, my hips and knees absorbing the momentum like the sway of a ship riding the ocean’s swells. My muscles began to move in tandem with Liual’s, the sensation grounding and invigorating me, as if we were two halves of a whole.
“There we go.” There was something very light to the sound of Malyr’s praise, almost as if I could hear his smile in the slightly elevated consonance of his voice. “Keep going and finish that circle.”
Oh, but I had no intention of finishing it.
