Écarté (Lost Birds Book 4)

Part 9 Photo.

            The sound of my heart beat thumping in my ears almost completely drowned out Theo's soft voice telling me to relax. Relaxing seemed impossible seeing as I was several feet off the ground and could feel every inch of Theo's warm firm body pressed against my back side.

"Sweetheart you have to lean into me. I don't want Leia hurting because our weights uneven." Theo said. His hands pressed against my hips and pulled me even tighter against him. He wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me back a little more as if I could get any closer to him.

"Relax your hands." Theo directed.

I relaxed my hands and the reigns nearly slipped out of my fingers.

"Not what I meant." Theo laughed. The rumbled of his laugh against my back as he leaned forward and the feeling of the front of the saddle pressing into me made a familiar tingling start up. I closed my eyes and scolded myself for being so ridiculous. Now was not the time for any sort of arousal.

"Here." Theo's hands covered mine and I let him guide our movements.

Leia meandered around slowly. Turning here and there along with the movements of the reigns and Theo's muscular thighs as they flexed beneath mine.

"Can you feel how I'm guiding her with my body and the reigns?" Theo asked.

I gulped and nodded.

"Ok, give it a try." He said releasing the reigns to me.

I guided Leia around the circular pen a carefully just as Theo had been doing. I tried to flex my legs along with the reigns but I was pretty sure I was only nudging Theo. Theo was relaying my commands though. I could feel the muscles in his legs shift with each of our direction changes. I could feel all of his muscles shift when he moved. I could even feel him breathing. Everything he did this close to me felt intimate. It was making me throb.

My legs clinched. Theo's hand shot down and grasped my thigh. I froze.

"Sorry sweetheart, you're doing great but if you squeeze her like that she's going to think you want to run." He explained. His thumb slid back and forth on my thigh in what I'm sure was supposed to be encouragement but it only made the throbbing heat feel even worse. I slammed my eyes closed and squirmed uncomfortably. Theo's thumb stilled.

"Are you ok?" He asked.

I let out a slow breath and nodded as I opened my eyes. Theo was leaning forward just enough to peer down at me. His eyes flickered from my flushed cheeks to my flushed chest and then down to his hand on my thigh. His lips parted and his eyes shot back up to mine.

We stared at each other. Me completely embarrassed and overheating and Theo surprised and surprisingly curious. His eyes flickered down to my lips. The hand on my leg shifted just slightly and his finger tips brushed along my inner thigh. My pulse jumped.

"Sweetheart I..." Theo said and paused to glance at my lips again.

"I really need to exercise Luke." He sighed. He shifted and in a flash he was standing next to Leia and I was the only one on top of a horse.

"Theo!" I gasped all of my earlier fear flooding back.

"You're alright. She's not going anywhere." Theo said. "Come here." He held his hands up for me.

I stared down at him with wide terrified eyes. I couldn't move. My hands were clinched on the front of the saddle like my life depended on it.

"Sweetheart trust me. She's not going to move and I won't drop you." Theo promised. His hand grasped at the thigh closest to him.