Another day was spent in the saddle, as Arracon picked his way up the increasingly steep trail. Lora relished having Wick’s strong arm around her and his hard body at her back. Sometimes during the long hours in the saddle, she replayed in her head what had happened between them during the past few days. She was starting to worry and wonder what would happen to her when they got back to Wick’s clan. Was she his slave or was she his mate? She was afraid to ask because she didn’t know what the answer would be.
“Where are we going?” Lora asked.
“To my ranch outside Blue Summit,” Wick told her.
“What are you going to do with me?” she asked softly.
“The same thing I have been doing,” Wick told her without hesitation. “You are my woman, now.”
“Are you going to share me with your friends?” she asked tremulously,
“Hell, no! You are mine alone. No one else had better try to touch you.” His arm tightened around her, and his other hand cupped her breast possessively, and the horse stopped. Wick laid the reins on the horse’s withers in front of Lora and massaged both her breasts while kissing and nuzzling her neck.
“You’re going to live in my house and sleep in my bed,” he murmured then began sucking her earlobe. “We will stop in Blue Summit to get you some clothes since I didn’t give you time to pack,” he teased, and she could hear the smile in his voice.
“Ohh,” she moaned, as Wick seemed bent on arousing her.
“And I’m going to fuck you every chance I get,” he murmured in a deliberately sensual tone. He pushed up her tunic and untied her pants, sliding his hand inside down over her belly, tickling her inadvertently.
Lora choked on a nervous giggle and his finger pressed down on her clit. He pushed his hand further down to run his finger through her wet channel and spread the moisture over her clit. This time she let out a real moan, unconsciously tilting her hips to give him better access. She thought from the way Wick was touching her, he would soon take them both off the horse, so he could have his way with her.
But, he seemed content to pleasure her. Was he doing it just because he could? Lora could barely think as he massaged her at a steady pace while kissing her neck and fondling her breasts. The sweet sensations from everywhere he was touching her emanated through her body like waves on a pond from a pebble dropped into the water.
She was utterly bemused in a haze of the delicious feelings he was creating inside her.
“You like that don’t you, baby,” he murmured, sounding pleased.
“And you like that you can do this to me,” she countered, not stopping to consider why he had this control over her.
He chuckled close to her ear and kept doing what he was doing, entertaining himself by making her moan and squirm for his touch. Her breathing was marked by pants and sighs coming faster as her orgasm was building. Then she cried out and shuddered against him inadvertently kicking against the horse with her soft moccasins.
Arracon stirred, but Wick calmed him with soft command and continued drawing Lora through her release, pushing two of his fingers inside her to feel her contract around them. She was right, it pleased him immensely that he had that power over her. Some men might think it was because she was a whore, but he knew better. It was because she was his. That’s what made her susceptible to his kisses and caresses---and his cock.
He was damned if he was going to share her with anyone!
When Wick was sure Lora was fully sated, he retied her pants and licked her essence off his fingers. Pleasuring her had made him hard, but there was no place to stop for them to stop on the narrow path. There would be nowhere to stop for a few more hours because of the steep drop-off on one side of the horse path. He could wait. They still had two more days on the trail and Wick would have plenty of opportunities to take her.
Although he liked that he could seduce her to please him, it bothered him a little that he liked it, cared for her too much. He wasn’t afraid that Vargan Rode would come after him one day, Wick was counting on it. That was why he was going to kill Lora when he found her alone in that berry patch. No one had recognized him in Diamond Bay because they had never seen his face. He had spent several days there trying to locate Vargan to kill him.
He learned that Vargan was betrothed to Lora Sandgren and he’d found out who she was by eavesdropping on a conversation in the general store. Wick had followed her to the outskirts of town to that berry patch. Killing her would even the score with Vargan. But as he watched her walk with her basket to the berry patch, with the sunlight catching her long, golden brown hair in the breeze, his cock stirred, and he wasn’t so sure he could do it. She was somewhat tall for a woman and not overly slender filled out in all the right places. Even so, Wick was shoulders to head taller than her.
He tried to visualized riding over on his horse and taking her down and stabbing her in the heart with his long knife. He could kill her quickly without causing her much pain. But that vision was overwhelmed by one of her naked beneath him. He knew now that’s why he could kill her.
He wondered why she closed her eyes and held her breath when she saw him go for his long knife. It was like she surrendered to her fate, the same way she yielded to his desire.
Wick had wanted a woman for a while, but none of the women from the village struck his fancy. He’d played with most of them as a child, and they seemed more like sisters than potential lovers. But Lora made Wick’s libido work overtime which hadn’t happen since he had learned about sex from a young widow woman who took a fancy to the handsome young man he’d become.
They had parted on good terms, and she had eventually married another man. With Lora, it was lust at first sight, and they had something in common. They both had no love for Vargan Rode. She had been ripe for the picking, angry with her father for selling her out to Vargan and wanting to get away before she was forced to marry him.
As they got higher in the mountains, the trail narrowed even more there the summer rains had washed it out since Wick had come down it in the spring. Alone he could probably have ridden the horse on through, but riding double would make it harder for Arracon to keep his footing if the loose rocks started to slide. He decided they should get off and walk until the trail became wider.
Wick didn’t know exactly what happen, but small rock seemed to be sliding down on the trail as they walked. He had Lora walk ahead of him close to the rock wall on their right, and the horse followed behind him. Some small rocks started falling from the wall and hit Lora. As more came down, she tried to dodge them but lost her footing as she came too close to the edge.
Loose shale at the edge broke off, and she fell or slid over and down the steep embankment as the loose stones gave away under her. Lora screamed as she was unable to stop herself. She had slipped down more than one hundred feet before she caught hold of a sturdy sapling well rooted into the side of the hill.
“Lora!” Wick yelled as he watched her fall, helpless to stop her. Then he saw her catch hold of the tree. “Hang on, Lora. I’ll get you.” There was no way he was letting her get killed now.