As much as he liked to be in control, this was one occasion when Emma would be his judge and jury, and he wouldn’t be able to control or influence the outcome.
His first impulse when he spotted her was to laugh—with sheer relief, and with happiness and amusement at the sight of a very determined woman trying to coax a mule up a hill. Leaning almost flat on Nancy’s neck as the old mule took every opportunity to snatch mouthfuls of her favourite herbs, Emma was holding a carrot in front of Nancy’s muzzle. It wasn’t getting her very far. Nancy was too clever to be fooled, and was as stubborn as a mule was supposed to be. Nancy had her head in the air and was contentedly munching, with long strands of grass escaping from either side of her mouth. This forced Emma to hold the carrot higher and higher, with the end result that neither of them was going anywhere fast.
‘Luc!’
Emma sat up so abruptly when she saw him he was frightened she would spook the mule. He brought his horse to a skidding halt across Nancy’s bows, and scooping Emma up, he deposited her on the stallion in front of him.
‘Luc!’ she exclaimed, turning to face him. ‘What a surprise to see you.’
‘Yeah,’ he said drily. ‘Imagine that. What are the chances?’
‘I’m glad I found you.’ She smiled as if she really meant it.
‘Glad I found you, don’t you mean?’ he said, urging his stallion forward. ‘You are an extremely reckless woman.’
‘In Scotland you criticised me for not being adventurous enough,’ she argued, bouncing stiffly in front of him.
‘I didn’t expect you to take your adventuring to these lengths.’ Putting an arm around her waist, he drew her close. ‘Lean into me—move with me. We have to move as one.’
‘I’m not sure I—’
‘I know you can. That’s one thing I do know for sure.’
‘Maybe I could relax if there was something to hang on to.’
‘I won’t let you fall.’ He brought his mouth close to her ear to say this. The temptation to taste her neck was overwhelming.
‘How will you steer if you’re hanging on to me?’ Her voice was tight with tension.
‘How I always do...with my thighs.’
She stiffened and held herself away from him, but not before he’d felt the shiver of arousal that coursed through her frame. ‘Take hold of some mane and hang on to that, if it makes you feel safer,’ he suggested.
‘I’m perfectly relaxed,’ she assured him through gritted teeth. ‘But, what about the mule? We can’t just leave her here.’
‘Pedro will take her home.’
‘Pedro?’ She sounded shocked as she glanced around. ‘Has Pedro followed me all this way?’
‘Did you seriously think he would allow you to ride out here on your own? You told him you didn’t want company, apparently, but thankfully he had more sense than to set you loose on thousands of acres of pampas.’
‘He needn’t have worried,’ she said, frowning as she shook her head. ‘I brought a map.’
‘That makes all the difference,’ he agreed drily.
‘Are you being sarcastic?’
‘Would I?’ A subtle twitch of his thighs was all it took to urge his stallion forward from a loping walk to a bouncing trot.
‘You did that on purpose,’ Emma accused him through chattering teeth.
He smiled as he held her close, relishing the sensation of having Emma in his arms again. He urged his horse into a smooth, rolling canter, and from being as stiff as a board, Emma was gradually learning to relax. ‘You mustn’t ride out here on your own.’
‘Why not?’
‘Because there are dangerous animals—’
‘None more dangerous that you,’ she said.
He laughed as he took his stallion forward from a canter to a gallop, wondering when he’d ever felt so free as he headed with single-minded purpose towards the cabin.
* * *
Did Luc have to be quite so provocative? Or quite so sexy? She wasn’t here to go to bed with him but to get things sorted out once and for all. Then, if it was over between them, her heart would break, but she’d have to get over it for the sake of their child.
Luc had slowed his stallion to an ambling walk as they approached the stretch leading to the cabin.
‘I kept my promise,’ he said. ‘I didn’t let you fall.’
‘It must have been tempting,’ she suggested, testing him.