Page 27 of Walk on the Wilde Side
He pulls on the reins and backs Arrow up so that his backward steps stay parallel with my forward ones. After a few feet, I stop with a loud sigh. "What do you want, Zander?"
He leans down and lowers his hand to me.
I stare at it.
"C'mon, hop on behind me."
"Not in the mood," I say.
"But you love to ride. I want to show you something," he teases.
I shade my eyes again and look up at him in question.
He motions with his head for me to hop on behind him. "C'mon, I think you'll like it."
I sigh loudly again to let him know I'm going under duress. I slap my hand onto his, and he yanks me up and behind him as if I'm a pillow and he's got the arm of a crane.
Arrow is a good-sized horse and, without a saddle to confine us, I scoot back enough to put some space between me and Zander's broad, tanned back.
"You're gonna need to scoot closer," he says and presses his legs against Arrow's sides. The horse moves forward and walks up the gravel drive. Zander predicted right. My body slips forward naturally with the movement of Arrow's hips. It's not long before the gap between us has disappeared completely, and my breasts are pressed against his back. I've left my hands down by my thighs, but as Arrow's pace picks up, I feel myself sliding too much from side to side.
"Hold on, Nevvie," Zander advises. Unfortunately, I have no choice but to heed his advice.
I wrap my arms around him. At first, I avoid placing my hands on him by clasping my own hands together like a belt around his small waist. But it causes my face to awkwardly bounce against his shoulder blade, a hard enough surface that it hurts. I release my hands and press them against the rock-hard muscles of his abs. They contract and relax under my hand with each of Arrow's steps.
Zander leans his head to the side. "I'm going to push him to a lope. Hold on."
I've ridden enough to know to expect the rocking horse motion that comes with a lope. My thighs tighten as I grip the horse. My arms tighten around Zander so much that I have no choice except to press my cheek against his naked back. I hate to admit how much I'm enjoying the ride. I've ridden horses at the ranch a few times and always had fun, but this is my first double ride.
I can hear the pond party in the distance, but we've ridden to a separate part of the ranch, an area that, aside from a home-plowed dirt track with dirt bike jumps, is pure, untouched wilderness. The horse's arrival sends a few critters, squirrels and birds, out from the shrubs. Zander slows the horse to a walk. We're heading to a rocky hillside. The entire ranch is set up on the side of hills. The main area with the houses and barn is flat and useable, but a majority of the remaining acreage is rocky, steep and treacherous. But that never stopped the Wilde boys from riding around the place on horseback and dirt bikes.
Zander steers Arrow up around a mosaic of boulders and shrubs. We reach a deep crevice in the side of a big hill. He stops the horse and holds my hand to lower me down to the ground. Then he jumps down. Arrow drops his head to nibble a patch of dry brown grass. Zander takes my hand again and I let him, but I'm confused.
"Are we hiking the rocks?" I ask. "Cuz, I'm not in the mood."
"Nah, it's not really a hike." We round a jutting edge of granite. Behind it is a sizable cave, carved naturally into the hillside. It's at least fifteen feet deep. The floor is filled with soft dirt, and the rocky walls form a steep, chapel-like ceiling. It's at least twenty degrees cooler inside the cave.
I let go of his hand and walk around to explore the space. "Bear cave?" I ask.
"Probably been a few in here, but this was where my Grandfather Lachlann hid whenever the law or an angry husband was after him." Zander walks over to a dark recess in the rocks and points out an old leather-bound trunk. "He kept supplies in here in case he had to hide for longer than a few days."
"I'm beginning to think that Lachlann would make his son Finnegan look like a boy scout," I say.
Zander laughs. "That's about right."
"Didn't you say that an angry husband finally got him in the end?" I ask.
"That's how the story goes, only that story changes a lot depending on who my dad is talking to."
The rock cave is cool enough that my damp clothes send a chill through me. Zander notices.
"You're cold." He looks down at his naked chest and laughs again. "I'd offer you my—my?—"
I smile up at him. "I don't want your skin, if that's what you were going to offer." I crinkle my nose. "Gross." We laugh again, then Zander stops and takes hold of my hand.
"I really didn't mean to make you mad earlier. Sometimes, I'm just an idiot."
I gaze up at him and smile. "I know that better than anyone." I reach up, without thinking, almost involuntarily, and touch the side of his face. I'm surprised when he presses his face harder against my palm and then he takes my face into his hands. His movements are like mine, involuntary, instinctual. He leans his face down and presses his mouth against mine.
