Page 6 of Running from the Orc
When she did, her response was almost comical.
She went completely stiff and I knew she’d come awake. But like any warrior, she took a moment to access her surroundings before she began to thrash about, and I couldn’t help my chuckle as I helped her escapethe folds of my plaid.
“What are you doing?” she demanded, thrusting herself upright to glare at the horizon. “Stop holding me!”
Just moments ago, she’d been curled up in my lap as peacefully as aplarket, her tiny snores comfort to my heart. I wanted to tell her she trusted me in her sleep…but I didn’t.
Instead, I rested my hand on her arm, and she slapped it away.
“Stop that,” she barked. “Let me down. I need to…”
From this angle I could see the intriguing flush creep up her cheeks.Ah.
“Piss?” I finished for her, reigning in the horse. “Ye need only ask.”
“I am not asking for that,” she hissed, her back as straight as an oak. “Let me down.”
Grinning, I swung down first, not entirely trusting her if I let her reach the ground first. But when I lifted my arms for her and my fingers closed around her waist…I swear on Malla the Beginner that I feltsomethingzing up my arm.
Which was ridiculous, because I’d been holding her all night. Why would now be different? Just because my palms were bracketing her sides, my fingers spread across her back, my thumbs caressing the underside of her magnificent tits…
“Release me.”
My gaze snapped to hers. And aye, there was anger blazing in those blue depths…but the pulse at the base of her throat jumped and her lips were parted, her breathing coming faster than normal.
Signs of arousal. Or rage.
I released her.
Roxanna threw herself backward, away from me, then stomped toward the scrub brushes I’d stopped beside.
“You will turn around,” she demanded.
“I will no’,” I shot right back. “I cannae see ye.”
“You can hear me.”
If I turned around and stuck my fingers in my ears, I wasn’t certain she wouldn’t bolt. But I wasn’t going to tell her that. Instead, I reached for my kilt.
“Look,LadyRoxanna, I’ve been on that horse as long as ye have, and I have to piss as well. I’ll likely no’ hear ye over the sound of my own prodigious stream, aye?”
I might’ve been mistaken, but I thought I heard a snort from behind the bushes.
Later, after washing our hands, a ritual on which she insisted, we stood to eatthe salted meat and oatcakes I offered. When I suggested we sit, she wrinkled her nose.
“I have been sitting for hours, and your thighs are like rocks.”
My brows rose, although I was certain ‘twas not her idea of a compliment.Rocks, lass? Well, there’s something else that gets even harder.
But I’ll admit that when we climbed back into the saddle, I rearranged my plaid so she had something cushier to sit on.
Through the afternoon, I kept thinking of her response when I held her.
Hadthat been arousal?
I was no stranger to a female’s arousal, and although my chief had no idea how often I traveled through the stones on my tracking and trading missions, I’d even had a few experiences with willing, adventurous human women.
Roxanna, however, was a mystery.
