“Maddie, please don’t. We can’t…”
She moved her lips lower. He was warmer than she was and his body was very hard, with no fat on it, just warm, hard skin over muscle. Her hand slid inside his shirt to touch his ribs, her fingers moving over them to feel the strength of him. He wasn’t talking now as her mouth moved lower to his belly as she kissed and then very gently bit his skin.
When she reached the top of his belt buckle she stopped, and for a moment she rested her face against his hard stomach. There was sweat breaking out on her body and her breath seemed to come from deep, deep inside her. “ ’Ring,” she whispered, but he said nothing.
She pulled away from him enough so that she could see his face. She’d never seen such a look on a human before, except maybe on some of the Renaissance statues in Florence. It was a look of pain and longing and suffering and ecstasy. Everything combined in one look that, for a moment, as seen on this beautiful man, made her heart stop. The look on his face was as beautiful as the best aria ever written. The look on his face was as beautiful as the voice God had given her.
“ ’Ring,” she whispered, and moved back up into his arms.
“I love you, Maddie,” he said at last. “I have been looking for you. I left my home and the family that I love, the family that needs me, to find you. You are part of me.”
“Yes,” she answered. “I think perhaps that I am.”
She settled into his arms and let him hold her, not saying anything, just lying there together, her body trembling and alive, but she was content to just be near him now.
Chapter 13
In the morning they started down the mountain, breakfasting on another rabbit, and Maddie laughed at ’Ring when he complained about more rabbit.
“This is the man who ate hardtack rather than my vegetables and fresh bread?” she teased. “My father could live on nothing but rabbit and I doubt that he’d complain.”
“Your father,” he said under his breath. “That old man?”
“Old? How can you say that? Why, you…” She began to chase him, and he ran in front of her, staying very close to her but as far away as the chain would allow, and when she c
ame close to stumbling, he was there to keep her from falling.
Maddie didn’t think that she’d ever had such a carefree day in her life. For this one day she wouldn’t allow any problems to cloud her mind.
They laughed and teased each other all the way down the mountain. Maddie soon realized that she had as much power over him as he had over her. When she started to fall and he came close to catch her, she touched him in the most unusual places, sometimes at the inside of his thigh, sometimes her breasts hit his body.
He laughed and caught her in his arms and twirled her around in a circle and then they went rolling down the mountain, his big body protecting her from the thorns and sharp rocks.
“My pompous captain,” she said, laughing with him, rolling with him.
Maddie heard the horse, but since ’Ring was kissing her neck, she didn’t pay any attention to it.
“Shhh,” he said, lifting his head to listen.
“What is it?”
“My horse.”
“Mmmm,” Maddie said without much interest. “You know, it’s rather private here.” It took her a moment to regain her senses, but she pushed away to look at him. “What do you mean, your horse?”
He had his hand inside her blouse. “Buttercup.”
It took a moment longer to clear her mind. Between his hands and his mouth, she couldn’t think very clearly. “ ’Ring, listen to me. If that’s your horse, then that means that robber is near us. Are you sure you can recognize the sound of your horse?”
“Perfect pitch, remember,” he said, and put his mouth to her neck again.
She had to push at him three times before she could move him, and then she had to use her knees to make any impression on him. “ ’Ring, listen to me. We have to do something.”
“I plan to do something. I’m going to go get my horse. I have a score to settle with that man who robbed us.”
Maddie’s eyes widened. “I meant that we have to get out of here. The horse isn’t that important. Let’s go down the mountain. I’ll buy you another horse, or—you’re rich, you can buy your own horse.”
He seemed to be thinking about something very seriously. “No, this is something I have to do.”