Divine by Mistake (14 page)

When in doubt, change the subject.

“Are the people being brought to the temple?” Oh, good, ClanFintan stopped the visual caress and became Mr. Businesslike again.

“Yes. I have sent some of your guards, as well as my centaurs out to spread word of what has happened and to gather the people to Epona’s temple.”

“Has there been any sign of the creatures?”

“No. Carrier pigeons were released with warnings to all of the Clan Chieftains asking the Clans to respond with any news of Fomorians. All have replied—” he paused “—except for the MacCallan and Guardian Castle.”

“Do you think they’re still at MacCallan Castle?”

“I do not know, my Lady.”

I looked down at my half-eaten sandwich. “Are you still willing to take me there, knowing the creatures might be there?”

“For the space of one year I will take you anywhere you wish. All you need do is ask.” His eyes locked with mine.

“Out of duty.” Returning his unblinking gaze I realized I wanted more than duty from him.

“I gave my oath to you.” His voice was mesmerizing.

“Then I am asking you. Please, will you take me to bury my father?” My voice was almost a whisper, rough with emotions I was just beginning to feel.

“Yes, Lady Rhiannon. I will take you and protect you.”

“And keep me close to you?” I couldn’t stop myself from adding.

“I will keep you as close to me as you wish to be.”

Oh, jeesh, what a loaded comment that was! I wondered about the etiquette of asking him to shift into man-form. Is it kind of like excusing yourself to put in a diaphragm? Or get a condom?

The clattering noise of pots being cleared snapped my thoughts out of the bedroom, and I was mortified to feel my face blushing—until ClanFintan’s gaze registered the redness of my cheeks. And then the soft smile he gave me made me ridiculously glad I’ve always been a blusher. God, I felt like a goofy teenager (although that’s redundant, teenagers are all goofy).

“You must be tired.”

Well, I had been thinking about bed, if that counts. He smiled as if he could read my thoughts. I’m pretty sure I blushed again.

“Rest while I tell the centaurs of our plans.” He started to move toward the other campfire, but turned back at the sound of my voice.

“Um, what are our plans?” Damn, he looked good in the firelight.

“We will escort you to MacCallan Castle.” That was easy.

“What about Epi, uh, Epona?” She pricked her ears in my direction at the sound of her name, and I blew quick kisses at her.

“I will delegate two centaurs to stay here with her and await our return. By the time we come back, she will be ready to travel, although she probably will not be able to bear your weight.”

“Then how am I going to get to the castle and back home? Did you bring a horse with you?” Well, I meant, besides his friends.

“No.” His smile had broadened.

“Am I supposed to walk?” Like that wouldn’t take forever.

“No.” Now he looked like the damn Cheshire cat.

“Well, then how?” What the heck was he thinking?

“You will ride me.” He gave a little mock bow, then spun around (like any good cutting horse) and headed to the other campfire.

For once I was rendered speechless—utterly devoid of speech.

Ride him? Well, I already knew he was a biter.

I just hoped he didn’t buck, too.

Wonder how the hell the Duke would handle this one?

Wine, food and warmth worked their magic, and by the time ClanFintan set Epi’s soft saddle next to me for a pillow and nudged me off the rock, I was barely able to mumble a thanks before I fell into a deep, dreamless slumber.

It seemed as if I had only just closed them when the wonderful fragrance of frying meat forced open my undoubtedly bloodshot eyes. I stretched and was immediately sorry I’d done so. How was it possible for every single muscle in my body to be sore? I think my hair even hurt.

“Ahhh.” Getting to my feet was a noisy affair. In the middle of trying to straighten my old, abused body, I made the mistake of glancing up, and saw eleven pairs of centaur eyes and one pair of Epi eyes watching me. Eleven of the twelve looked amused. Epi’s eyes, I was pleased to notice, showed only her usual horsey adoration.

“What?!”

“Nothing, my Lady…” At least they had enough sense to look semi-embarrassed

“Damn men.” Mumbling under my breath I gave Epi a pat before heading down to the river’s edge. I really, really wished I had a toothbrush. Bending over was decidedly not fun, but I did feel better after washing off my face and swishing water around my mouth (and using my finger as a toothbrush—yuck). Now, to top off an already lovely morning, I had to pee. Again.

I started marching purposefully downstream (but it’s hard to march purposefully, or any other way, when your thighs are screaming like Richard Simmons in a candy store—good God, stop the madness). I came to an abrupt halt. And turned to see twelve pairs of eyes staring at me—and one centaur, decidedly the most handsome of the group, and just coincidentally my mate, obviously getting ready to follow me. Oh, no. No toilet paper is bad enough. Mr. Ed could just keep his hairy butt there, no matter how cute he was.

“I’m just going to—you know…” And I nodded toward the forest edge.

“Call if you have need of anything.” ClanFintan and the rest of them tried unsuccessfully to hide smiles.

“Not in this damn lifetime,” I muttered as I hobbled toward the bushes, scratching at various bug bites.

Have I mentioned how much I loathe camping?

Exercise is supposed to loosen sore muscles and as I climbed down the bank and made my gimpy way back to camp, I waited for my thighs and butt to uncramp. Of course,
my
muscles didn’t know the loosening rule. They were screaming things like
Are you crazy? Do you know we’re thirty-five years old? Sit down and feed us a Twinkie!

It was going to be a long day.

The centaurs had put out the fire I had slept by, and as I walked up to the group surrounding the remaining fire, they made way for me, and one of them (an adorable palomino) handed me another hard bread and meat sandwich.

“Thanks.” I smiled my appreciation and he gave me a sweet little bow. These guys were awfully cute.

ClanFintan joined us, and his centaurs made room for him next to me.

“How are you feeling this morning, my Lady?” ClanFintan asked sociably.

“My butt hurts like hell.”

I thought the palomino was going to gag on his sandwich, and several other centaurs had sudden coughing fits. I smiled at them. They seemed relieved, and I could feel them studying me with new eyes. I kept forgetting what a bitch Rhiannon must have been.

ClanFintan’s eyes were sparkling at me.

“Anything I can do to help you?”

A good, firm ass rub would be nice, but I didn’t want to mention that in front of the herd.

“I don’t think so.” I glanced pointedly at his broad back, where shortly I was going to have to sit my sore butt. “Unless you can shape-shift into my bed and your friends here can drag us to MacCallan Castle.” I looked inquiringly at his men, including them in my joke.

They repaid me with outright laughter and several of them slapped ClanFintan on the back saying, “She has you there.” ClanFintan took their good-natured teasing well. Their laughter included me and made me feel part of them. I began to realize what Rhiannon had missed out on by being such a bitch.

“Forgive me, my Lady, but I cannot shift into a being that does not have the breath of life within it,” he said.

“You are forgiven, my Lord,” I teased. “Just be gentle with me.”

“Always.” His hand reached out and brushed an errant curl from my face. Over his shoulder I saw the centaurs smile knowingly at each other.

And I found myself feeling very glad that Rhiannon hadn’t done irreparable damage here. I really wanted them to like me. Okay, I’ll be honest. I wanted their High Shaman to
more
than like me. But these were good guys/horses/whatever and their friendship was something I would like to earn.

“Can you finish breaking your fast as we ride? We need to get started.”

“Yes.” I hesitated.

“Is something wrong?”

I looked over his shoulder at my mare. “I’m just worried about Epi.”

“She will rest comfortably while we are gone.”

“She’ll be safe?” A picture of the creature-things sprang into my mind.

“Any of us would give our lives for her, or for you.” He certainly sounded serious. I didn’t want anyone to die for my mare or for me, but his declaration was giving me goose bumps and causing me to have a John-Wayne-leading-his-marines-through-danger moment.

I didn’t know what to say. Again. My students would be thrilled at me being rendered speechless twice in such a short period of time (of course, they wouldn’t know what the word
rendered
meant, but you get my drift).

“Perhaps you would like a moment to say goodbye to her and to tell her you will return soon?” He was just so dang considerate.

I mumbled some kind of thanks, and took my sore-butted sandwich-eating self over to my mare, who was grazing contentedly. She pricked her ears and gave me a soft nicker of welcome.

“Hi there, sweet girl.” I rubbed her jawline and cooed wordless love noises at her as she nuzzled me. Resting my forehead against her neck I spoke softly so that she had to cock her ears back to hear me.

“I have to leave for a couple of days. ClanFintan is going to take me to the castle.” She craned her head around so that she could look into my eyes. “Don’t worry, he’s leaving a couple centaurs here to take care of you. And he won’t let anything happen to me.” She seemed okay with that. I continued, lowering my voice even further, “I have to tell you, I’m a little nervous about this riding-him stuff. I mean, please, how am I supposed to keep my hormones in control with him between my legs all day?”

She gave a deep, horsey sigh that seemed to say,
Well, don’t then.

“Some help you are.” I gave her soft muzzle a quick kiss. “Behave yourself while I’m gone.” She lipped my hair briefly then went back to grazing.

I felt a little like a mother whose four-year-old had just toddled happily off to preschool without her.

“Lady Rhiannon?” ClanFintan’s voice held an edge of impatience.

“Coming,” ready or not. Mostly, not.

The centaurs had been busy while I was snoozing. The eight who were going with us were loaded and ready to move out. I guess it had been too dark last night for me to notice that each of them had a couple sets of saddlebags draped over their horse backs, as well as dangerous-looking long swords, a lot like claymores, strapped over their chests and resting across their human backs. How confusing. Anyway, the saddle packs were obviously where the food and blankets had materialized from. Wonder what other goodies they were hiding. ClanFintan was standing apart from the rest of the group, his torso twisted around as he strapped my saddle blanket to his back. I finished my breakfast in one fast gulp.

Well, I might as well take the bull by the horns. So to speak.

At the sound of my approach he finished cinching the girth and flopped the stirrup down.

“Ready?”

“Sure.” I stood there—staring. He was bigger than Epi, and I had had problems getting aboard her without help.

“Do you need help mounting?” He seemed to be enjoying himself. I glanced at the rest of the centaurs, but they were suddenly oh so busy studying the local flora and fauna.

“Yes.” I paused and smiled teasingly, hoping I didn’t have a big hunk of biscuit between my teeth. “This one time.”

He grinned back at me as he reached down with his left arm and grabbed me firmly under my left elbow.

“On three…One…two…three!”

Up I went—actually up and almost over the other side. He was a lot stronger than I had anticipated, or maybe I was lighter than he thought I was, because I had to grab his shoulders to keep myself from being tossed all the way off his back.

“Ooof,” I said gracefully.

“Oh, I am sorry.” He sounded anything but sorry.

“Hey, don’t worry about it. Not all horses can be as easy to mount as Epi.”

“You might be surprised.” I was pleased to notice he had his own teasing tone in his voice.

I busied myself putting my feet in the stirrups and acted as if I hadn’t heard him. I thought I felt his chest rumble briefly with a chuckle.

“So, do I nudge you or cluck or something to get you to go?”

“Just hold tightly to me, I will see that we move from here.”

I gave Epi a quick wave goodbye as he started forward. The rest of the centaurs fell in behind us. Maneuvering up the bank made me grab for a nonexistent saddle horn. Which brought to mind the first Riding My Husband Dilemma.

“Um, what exactly should I hang tightly on to?”

He smiled back over his shoulder at me. He was having way too good of a time with this.

“Put your hands on my shoulders, or grasp my waist. Basically, do what feels most comfortable.”

I yanked on his thick ponytail (no pun intended). “How about here?”

I heard muffled snorts of laughter from the centaurs closest to us.

“I would rather you did not.”

“Not a problem.” Score one for me.

Once clear of the bank, he broke into a quick canter. I rested my hands on his shoulders, appreciating the feel of his muscles beneath my hands (and, quite frankly, my thighs). His gait was smooth and easy to sit, and I found myself relaxing and enjoying the speed at which we moved through the forest.

I leaned forward and spoke into his ear.

“How long can you keep up this pace?” It was a little like talking to someone while they were driving a motorcycle—except there was no engine noise.

“Quite a while.”

I leaned closer to his ear, liking the way his back felt against the tips of my breasts. (Give me a break, he’s my husband!)

“This would have exhausted Epi in less than an hour.” I was delighted to see his bare arms break out in goose bumps as my breath tickled his ear. Or perhaps it was because my nipples tickled his back. My, he certainly was sensitive.

“Centaurs have more stamina than a horse—” pause for effect “—or a man.” His voice had deepened and I felt a rush of pleasure, a little like electricity, pass down my spine, and for a moment I thought I was trapped in a steamy romance novel. Not that I’d mind.

“Glad to hear it.” I breathed into his ear and squeezed his firm shoulders.

And decided once and for all—Rhiannon was a fool.