”You jest,” she answered, a slight flush to her pale skin, a shy smile on her lips. Her expression changed quickly to one of confusion though, lost to him as he settled behind her. Every muscle tensed as he felt the small of her body press against him. Any sharp retort was snatched from his tongue. The scent of her, all pine and ice and winter’s cold kiss, fogged his mind. He tried to focus on his directions, on the beast beneath him who would surely feel the shift of his emotion, but his gaze wandered. Her thick silver hair was pulled up in that familiar messy knot she wore, revealing one high cheekbone and a curious indigo eye peering back at him from beneath a loose weft of hair. He followed the curve of her lean neck to the dip of her shoulder, a sudden longing to press his lips against the smooth skin. ”Fuck,” was all he could think. He had to focus. Taking her hands in his he tried once more to focus on teaching her the basics, feeling Shadow shift beneath them, picking up on his master’s tense emotion.

Her body shuddered against him as he wrapped his arms around her, and that odd warm ember that had settled in his chest earlier bloomed suddenly into an inferno. Fire burned through his veins in a primal need to pull her against him, to feel that same tremble as she lay beneath him, to touch and taste and devour until she came apart. Until she could barely gasp his name. Fuck, he had to think of anything else but this closeness, or she was going to feel very soon the evidence of her effect on him. When had that started, he wondered. She had always been beautiful, strikingly so. He was a man of course, even coming to her door half dying that first night he’d met her she’d looked like a divine force. Unsure if she was a savior or a haunting angel of death, come to beckon him to peace. He supposed he would have welcomed either.

”Like this?” He let her question pull some of his focus back on where his hands laid against the top of hers, watching as she leaned the rein lightly into the horse’s neck, feeling the shift of her legs to urge him on. The horse moved to her whim, walking briskly through the forest. ”No jest, you are a natural, Ekosha. Just like that.” His normally gruff voice felt thick on his tongue. He had to find a distraction, anything to pull his mind from the image of her long limbs wrapped around his waist, urging him for more.