A bridle path was closer than he was-she took it, plunging the bay onto the track. The chestnut swooped in behind them. She gave the bay his head. She could feel the thud of the chestnut’s hooves over the reverberation of the bay’s strides and the frantic pounding of her heart. A vise locked tight about her chest, squeezing her heart into her throat. The wind of her passing whipped her hair back, tossing her curls in a tangle behind her.
Clinging to the bay’s saddle, she rocketed on. She couldn’t risk a glance back-didn’t dare-couldn’t spare the instant. At this pace, she needed all her concentration for the track before her. It twisted and turned. She could feel Chillingworth’s gaze locked on her back, hot as a flame.
An icy tingle touched her nape, then slid down every nerve. Fear, but not a simple one. A primal one-primitive-as primitive as the expression that had flowed across his face in the instant before he’d come for her. Twisted within the fear was a strand of heat, but it gave her no comfort; it only added another dimension to her panic-fear of the unknown.
Her only thought was to escape. The knot in her gut swelled; her senses unfurled, whispering of surrender.
She tried to think, to plan how to lose him. The bay and the chestnut seemed well matched, but the paths were too narrow for him to draw alongside. Soon, they’d reach the next glade. Luckily, he rode much heavier than she.
The trees thinned. She slowed the bay, then sprang him into the open glade, racing flat out, bent low to the horse’s withers. The chestnut stayed with her. She flicked a glance back and to the side-and nearly swallowed her heart as her eyes locked with Chillingworth’s, mere feet away.
He was gaining steadily. He reached for her reins-
She swerved away. The opening of another path, to her side, closer than the one she’d been heading for, was her only possible route. She sent the bay racing down it; the chestnut thundered on his heels. What came next?
The answer appeared before she was ready, the trees ending abruptly at the edge of a narrow field. The terrain sloped down to a shallow brook, then rose steeply beyond it. Only one path led out of the glade-its opening lay directly across the field.
She flung the bay at the brook. Its hooves clattered on the smooth stones in the watercourse, the chestnut’s hooves sounding an instantaneous echo. The bay attacked the upward slope, back legs churning as it hauled its considerable weight up the rise.
The top of the rise was one bound away when the chestnut drew level.
A hand whipped across her and grabbed her reins.
Gasping, she wrenched them back-the bay staggered.
A steely arm wrapped around her; it locked her, shoulder to chest, against an even harder frame. Instinctively, she struggled. The reins were hauled from her grasp.
“Be still!”
The words thundered, lashed.
She quieted.
The horses jostled, then settled, held steady with an iron hand. They sidled onto the short stretch of level ground at the top of the rise. Separated only by his booted leg, bay and chestnut coats flickered, then both horses eased, expelled long horsey sighs, and lowered their heads.
The arm around her felt like a manacle; it didn’t ease. Breathing raggedly, her pulse racing, Francesca looked up.
Gyles met her wide gaze-and felt primitive, possessive fury surge. His head was reeling, his heart racing. His breathing was as tortured as hers.
Her cheeks were flushed; her lips parted. Her eyes, glittering green, fixed on his, flared with an awareness as old as time.
He took her lips in a searing kiss.
He gave no quarter. Even had she begged he would not have granted it-she was his. His to brand, his to seize, his to claim. He ravaged her mouth, demanded her surrender-when it came and she softened in his arm, he tightened his hold on her and deepened the kiss-sealed her fate and his.
She was soft, submissive-all woman. Her lips were as lush as he remembered, her mouth a cavern of wanton delight. She surrendered and opened fully to him, yielded on a sigh that was half moan, half entreaty. The sound drove him on; desire flicked, whipped. She offered her mouth in appeasement-he seized and demanded more.
Swept up on the tide, Francesca released her last hold on the bay’s reins and gave herself up to his embrace. The hot tangle of their tongues commanded her full attention, her complete and absolute devotion. The arm about her, muscles rigid, tightened even more. Perched sidesaddle as she was with her legs curled between them, he was lifting her from her seat. She didn’t care. All that mattered was the gloriously heady tide that raged between them. Mentally finding her feet in the torrent, she steadied, then she caught her breath from him and reached for him.
Sent her hands pushing over his shoulders, then twined her fingers in his hair; reached for him with her body, arching, pressing deeper into his crushing embrace. Reached for him with her lips, ardently returning the heated, hungry kisses-feeding his desire, satisfying hers.
Beneath it all, she reached for him with her soul, with all the passion and love she had in her-this, this! her heart sang, was what should be.
He claimed all she was, drank it in, took it all from her, and in the taking gave. He was far from gentle but she wanted no gentleness-she wanted fire and flame, passion and glory, desire and fulfillment. That was the promise in the hard lips that bruised hers, in his almost-brutal conquest of her mouth. She met each invasion with joy in her heart, with desire racing down her veins.
Beneath them, the horses shifted; his attention deflected for the briefest moment-she felt him transfer the tightened reins to the hand at her waist. Then his lips hardened-he tipped her back, bending her over the arm at her back. His freed hand closed about her jaw, framing her face, holding her steady for an invasion so powerful, so devastating, it left her senses reeling.
His hand left her face to close, hard, about her breast.