Page 25 of Lady of Darkness

“What the hell are you doing here?” He didn’t move, as if he were rooted to the spot by the horse. His body was rigid, and his golden eyes were luminous.

“I’m sorry. Were you having a secret rendezvous with a consort?” she asked, pushing off the tree and prowling towards him. Ryker watched her as she moved. He had been training her, but she moved like a predator now. She moved like a wraith. She had always held back in training, always kept this part of herself tightly leashed. He studied her like he’d never seen her before her. She stopped several feet from him and continued, “I hate to tell you this, but she didn’t seem all that interested, so I hope that wasn’t the case.”

“What the hell are you doing here?” he repeated.

“You first,” she countered.

Ryker let go of the horse’s bridle and stalked to her. “Do you have any idea what—” He cut himself off. Was that panic in his eyes? “How did you find me?”

“You took one of my favorite horses,” she answered, stepping around him and walking to the horse. She reached up and scratched the horse behind his ear.

“How did you catch me so quickly? We were running.”

She gave him a secretive smile. “I know a few shortcuts.”

“Shortcuts,” he repeated dubiously.

“Yes, shortcuts,” she replied. “I did grow up here, you know.”

His eyes did not leave her while she turned her attention to the horse. She was frantically sorting through everything she had just seen and heard. She laughed softly when the horse nudged her shoulder to continue with her attention.

Ryker’s jaw clenched. “How much did you see?”

“Of you and your consort?”

“She isnotmy consort, and yes, of that.”

“Enough that I have so many questions,” Scarlett said, finally turning to face him fully. “Starting with why the hell did she keep calling you Sorin and ending with how the fuck was she doing magic here?” A muscle feathered in Ryker’s jaw, but he didn’t answer her. “Do you need a treat to speak, Captain?”

His golden eyes snapped to hers and his nostrils flared. “Are you bleeding?”

“What?”

His eyes raked over her, stopping on her arm where the rock had torn her tunic sleeve and cut a decent gash up her forearm. He stepped forward, but froze when she stepped back from him. “You should wrap it until you can clean it when you get back. To avoid infection.”

“I know how to tend to my wounds. It is just a scratch.”

“It seems like more than a scratch. It is dripping blood onto the road.”

She looked down. He was right. It was doing that. “I don’t have anything to wrap it with here and that is—”

Her words left her mouth as Ryker reached for the hem of his tunic and tore a strip from the bottom. In doing so, he revealed a little of the corded muscles of his abdomen and damn if that wasn’t distracting. The tunic fell back into place, once again concealing that delightful sight as he stretched out his hand with the strip of fabric.

Scarlett’s mouth was dry as she reached for it, but he said, “Will you let me wrap it?”

“What?” she said again.

“Your arm? Will you let me wrap it? It will be hard to wrap your own arm, will it not?”

Scarlett’s eyes met his. “I suppose. If you answer my questions while you do so.”

Ryker stepped forward and gently gripped her arm to inspect the wound. “This really is deeper than a scratch, you know. How did you get it?”

“I got it when I dropped to the ground at the sight of a giant ass wolf prowling from the woods,”she snapped. “Stop trying to distract me.”

A faint smile played on Ryker’s lips. “But I have so many methods of distraction.”

Had he really just said that?

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