Forbidden Warrior (Midsummer Knights)

Unable to resist, she tipped back again and peeked out.

The river came to just above his hips, giving her a view of a great deal of his body. His hair, wet and slick, fell to a triangulated point midway between his shoulder blades. His spine formed a valley down his back, tapering to a trim waist. His arms were muscled, his back was muscled—oh dear. Everything was.

She took a small step further out into the river, her foot sinking in the uneven, pebbly earth, wanting to see just a bit more…

The river bottom abruptly fell away.

She went under the water with a shriek cut short.

She shot back up, chemise drenched and sticking to her. Shocked the river would have been so ungallant as to dump her, she gasped and sputtered, trying to regain her footing.

When she looked up, Máel stood ten feet away, grinning like a madman.

She clutched at her wet chemise, then folded her arms protectively over her chest. The water rose past her waist. On him, it rose only to his hips. She could not resist following the hair that covered his chest, down to the narrow cable along his hard stomach, between his trim hips, and then, just below the water level…

She jerked her eyes up. “Do not just stand there grinning at me, you devil,” she snapped. “It is highly improper.”

“I agree. I told you not to fall in. Very improper—”

She aimed a disgusted look his way.

“—and unnecessary.”

Her eyes narrowed, but it only made more water drip into her eyes. “What do you mean, ‘unnecessary’?”

“It means if you wanted to look, lass, you could have just said so,” was his chivalrous response.

She stared at his laughing face and thought of the last day of her life. Of the tourney left behind. Of her father. Of how she’d been spirited away, through no fault of her own, to a moonlit wilderness. How she had fallen in a river and was now sopping wet…and this beast was laughing at her.

Well, it was simply too much.

She curved her hands under the river surface and swept them up, sending water crashing over him.

He gave a shout of surprise and ducked, but it drowned him anyhow.

She smiled.

He cocked a brow. “Aye?” he said softly.

She folded her arms over her extremely wet chest. “Aye.”

He cupped his hands under the water. Her face fell. She held her hands out defensively. “No, you devil. Don’t you dare—”

With his huge arms, he lifted an entire wall of water and sent it crashing over her.

It was as if a rainstorm had broken overhead. It fell down on her in blinding sheets. She bent to the side to take the brunt of it, then, using the palms of her hands, wiped water-soaked hair off her face.

She was infuriated.

Or…was that fury? It certainly felt riotous and overwhelming. But it also felt a great deal like…laughter.

Whatever it was, it made her wish to simply bury him in water.

She bent her knees, spread her arms as wide as he had, and swept a wave of water over him.

This time, he didn’t move. He let it fall like a summer squall. It rained down on his body in moon-glistened sheets. When it was over, he shook his head like a dog. Water droplets sparkled in the air.

“Oh lass,” he murmured. “You’ve much to learn.”