She’d hardly noticed his silence when they’d first rode out, too fascinated by the vista, but now it was a chill wind behind her making her skin prickle.

“Why are we stopping here?” she asked nervously when he slowed the horse to a trot near a copse of rowan trees.

His reply was a soft, biting laugh as he shifted in the saddle so the hard thickness of him rubbed briefly against her bottom. Despite how nervous he was making her, lust filled her to a dizzying degree. There were questions, zillions of questions she should ask, and suddenly she couldn’t recall a single one. Her mind had blanked alarmingly when he’d rubbed against her.

He reined in the stallion, dropped to the ground, and dragged her from its back. Off balance, she fell into his arms and he crushed her mouth with a hot, savage kiss.

Then he shoved her away, leaving her gasping for breath and clutching at air. She stood, watching with wide eyes as he grabbed a folded length of plaid from behind the saddle. Without a word he dropped it to the ground, spreading it with the toe of his boot. He slapped the stallion lightly on the rump, driving it away.

“I thought you told Silvan you were taking me to see a medieval village. What are you doing, Dageus?” she managed. She knew what he was doing. She could practically smell it on him—sex and lust and ruthless determination.

No matter that she was ready for him, she backed away a few steps. Couldn’t help it. Then a few more. Tiny breaths slammed into each other, clotting in her throat. That danger she’d sensed in him so many times before had escalated to an extreme pitch.

His gaze was mocking. A strange flash of temper and impatience whipped through his eyes. “You had your hand wrapped around my cock last eve, Chloe, and you want to know what I’m doing? What do you think I’m doing?” he purred with a baring of teeth that only a fool would term a smile.

Nostrils flaring, he stalked toward her and paced a slow circle around her. Stripping the thong from his hair, he raked his hands through the braid, freeing it. It spilled in waves of midnight around his body. The beast is loose, Chloe thought with a bone-melting surge of excitement. She pivoted slowly to keep pace with him. She was too nervous to allow him at her back.

He fisted a hand in his shirt behind his neck, yanked it over his head and flung it to the ground.