Chapter Forty-Three #2
"A trauma response, certainly." I answered, veering around the puddles of blood to approach the horses.
This close to the mayhem, the smell of blood of cloying, stubbornly anchoring itself in the base of my throat until I pressed my face into the neck of the nearest horse just to smell something that didn't make my stomach turn.
I set to work on the worn, flexible leather of the girth.
“What are you doing?” Ash asked with a quirked brow.
“He can’t stay with a bit in or a saddle on and with nobody to care for him! You should know what it’s like to feel tied up like that, given how we met. At least this way he can go where he likes and eat and drink freely.”
“I had no idea you were so passionate about horses.” He murmured, holding the reins of the other two.
“I’m passionate about life in general,” I said as I hauled the saddle from the horse’s back. He shook with an appreciative snort. Ash followed suit, deft fingers quickly unbuckling the leather of the second spare horse. “Especially the lives of those who walk on four feet.”
Undoing his bridal released him fully. With a heaved sigh, he rolled in the grass behind us, scratching the itch on his back. Our mounts huffed in jealousy. I gripped the reins of the sturdy black gelding the leader rode before Ash gave me a leg up.
“Don’t worry, friend. You’ll be pampered in a stall before much longer.
” I gave his neck a gentle pat as he heaved a great sigh.
Ash mounted the remaining bay gelding without effort.
Riding side by side at an easy walk, leaving the pool of blood and gore behind, it was easy to pretend nothing horrible had happened.
My hips moved rhythmically in time with my steed’s large stride, the knots in my back slowly unfurling, much to my gratitude and relief.
The lightness easing the tension in my chest when I looked at Ash was a strange sensation.
I stared at him sidelong from beneath my lashes, unsure how to process it.
I wasn’t sure what Ash did to those males, but I heard the true horror, the purest form of fear in their screams and he’d never so much as twitched. And the aftermath…
His retribution was nothing short of a bloodbath.
For the first time in my life, I had hope that the male from my nightmares might not be able to reach me. If Ash were a villain, then I was glad he was on my side. But the nagging feeling persisted, not that something was wrong, but that despite everything, something was right. Was familiar. Safe.
Trusting that feeling felt like taking a dive over a cliff and expecting to grow wings.
But was Ash the cliff, or my wings?
“I know something that will make you less cranky.” Ash’s voice rose above the din in my mind. “Just up this hill.
I blinked looking up at him. “I am not cranky!” This hill would make me cranky though.
My feet, ached, my legs cramped, and my back begged for release from the tension seizing it in a tight grasp.
Even riding hadn’t abated all the discomfort.
Still, after securing the horses to a nearby tree where they can rest, I started up it, determined to stay in step with him.
“She said crankily.” His tone made me itch to reach down to rip my shoe off for the pure joy of hitting him with it.
“Is that even a word?” My retort died as we finally crested the hill. The humid air hit my face, warm despite the cold of the winter nipping the air. Steam rose from the bubbling water below.
A hot spring? Out here?
“There’s an underground volcano here that heats this little oasis,” Ash explained.
I glanced over to smile my thanks, my smile fading as quickly as it donned.
He was already undressing. After an accidentally, indecently, long eyeful of his broad, defined back, of the slowly shifting muscles with each roll of his tattooed shoulders, I shut my mouth and set to work immediately looking for a tree or a densely branched shrub to disrobe behind, my unease drawing an amused huff from him.
“Shy, little shadow?” His voice dropped to that intimate tone, the one that was soft and rough, and dark and had my body tensing immediately. “I thought you liked the view.”
So, he’d seen me gawking. Fantastic.
Typical fucking male.
“I don’t know what view you mean.”
“Ahh,” he tsked, water splashing in the background, announcing his entrance into the spring.
“I do love when you try to lie. It’s adorable.
Out of curiosity, do you think you’re convincing?
” I deadpanned, giving him nothing. His lips twitched almost triumphantly, his haughty amusement unfurling slowly across his face.
“You were so excited for the spring. Tell me, was the plan to go in fully clothed?”
“I didn’t get that far ahead!” I snapped, turning around to glare at him.
My mouth snapped shut at the sight of his abs just above the water line.
I knew as well as he did that if I glanced down just below the waterline, I’d see much more of him.
I quickly glanced skyward, my body roiling with tension and white-hot embarrassment.
“I’ve never seen cheeks so red,” His drawl raked over me like shadows hunting the last vestiges of evening light.
“Turn around!” I didn’t mean for my voice come out like a squeak with all the authority of a mouse over a cat. “And no peeking!”
“Fine.” He turned away from me, staring to the other side of the spring.
“I want your promise!” I watched him, eyes scanning for a sign of peeking.
“I promise I won’t peek, little shadow.” His voice was soft, lilted with an attempt to banish a laugh.
I fumbled with the buttons on my shirt, my clumsy fingers sliding off of them repeatedly, before victory was mine.
"Though you're making enough noise to make me think you're losing a battle with one of your garments.
Please do let me know if I can be of any assistance. "
"That won't be necessary," I hurried to retort, by face growing more crimson by the second. "And I'll have you know that not only did the shirt start the fight, I finished it."
"A fearsome battle it must have been," He laughed softly. "The shirt never stood a chance. Please never let me underestimate your penchant for violence again."
Hurtling my awkwardness to the recesses of my mind and locking it down with everything I had, I stripped as fast as possible, gasping against the freezing air that tumbled over my exposed flesh.
Stepping to the water, I never took my eyes off Ash, watching for him to peek.
But he stood calmly away from the edge of the water, waiting for my signal.
If my entire body could sigh with bliss, it would.
I bit back a breathy sound in my throat from the heat already working into the knots of tension binding my muscles.
“Oh fuck,” I groaned in appreciation as I sank below my collarbones, the heat liberating my body of the knots of tension. “Okay, maybe this will make me less cranky.”
“A joke from you and an I told you so moment?” he mocked, turning around and settling on one side of the spring. It was a fight to keep my eyes on his as we spoke. Do. Not. Look. Down.
And that smug grin held an invitation. As it was, his eyes kept dipping to my collarbones where they met the steamy water, and I knew it was thanks to that steam he could see no further, but still my arms came up to cover myself.
I glared at him, even as I appreciated the run of black tattoos along his arms, the corded muscle that lay under them.
The broad expanse of his chest. The rippling water caught the ridges of his shoulders, tracing paths I was scandalously trying not to notice.
His hair was damp now from the steam, rivulets of water running down his raven strands into his mischievous gaze.
“Don’t get too used to it.” My warning melted away with the strain in my body as the heat of the water worked a magic of its own. “But this was a great idea you had, Ash. Thank you for bringing me here.”
Ash looked momentarily stunned, clearly not expecting my thanks. Truthfully, I hadn’t either, but as Thaddeus always said, you have to give credit where credit is due.
“If this is your idea of worship, it’s a tad underwhelming,” he purred, that smug grin widening. My own snarl erupted as he opened his mouth.
“If you finish that thought out loud, I’ll be finishing you off.”
I tensed, wanting to rip the words back from the air between us when his eyes lit up, honing in on my accidental indecency.
“Oh, I love it when you talk dirty.” Mortification swarmed me and I had never wished for a pit to swallow me whole quite like now.
The depraved glint in his eye had my face flushing redder still.
Ash’s dark laugh reverberated off the stone, leaving goosebumps trailing my exposed skin.
I’d die before admitting it was anything other than the cooler temperature of the air.
“Too bad the steam doesn’t hide the pretty blush you’re sporting. ”
“It’s the hot water,” I said dismissively. “If you think this is a blush, you were in that cave for far too long.”
His answering laugh was a bark, short and surprised, but with a final smirk he let his head fall back against the smooth stone with a sigh.
My heart was beating fast, the only sound I could perceive between us.
I wondered, sneaking a peek at him to find him still smirking even with his eyes closed contentedly, if he could hear it too.