Risk Everything by Sophia Johnson

“Ye mean to tell me ye order the stable boy to ‘saddle Horse’ and he brings this particular one?”
    “Why would he not? He knows ’tis my mount and no other’s.” He slipped both his arms under hers and held tight to her body.
    Meghan shuddered as she felt his hard muscled arms
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    Sophia Johnson
    against the sides of her breasts. Each breath she took seemed to rub her breasts against him. She tried taking shallow breaths. It did not help, for she soon felt starved for air and took one too deep.
    “ ’Tis a lass’s way to name every living thing that abides within a castle’s grounds,” Rolf added.
    “A woman’s way, is it? Nay. Not so. Damron calls his warhorse Angel, though Brianna says he should bear the name Lucifer. Mereck’s destrier is M’Famhair , for the horse is for truth a giant. Bleddyn’s huge black is Thunder.” Her chin lifted. “No lass but a man named each of them.”
    She twisted around and glared up at him. Seeing his baleful expression, she turned back. Her frequent movements were done apurpose. Her dirk rested in a sheath strapped to his right boot. If she could steal it away, she had the means to escape the next time he tethered her by the ankle.
    “Be still. For the love of Christ, hold your clack! I dinna remember you ever running at the mouth as you are this day.”
    When she squirmed around and looked up at him again, he grabbed her shoulders.
    “Eneuch!” His shout caused Simple to give a startled chirp and take to the sky.
    “Look what ye have done. Poor Simple will get lost for sure now. It will be your fault, ye dratted man.”
    She squelched a chuckle when an explosion of air blasted past her ear. Rolf was vexed. No doubt about it.
    Well, she was none too happy herself. They had not stopped, not even once. By the looks of the sun, they were well into the afternoon. If she didna make her move soon, they would be within leagues of Rimsdale. If they were not already that close.
    She stretched her hands far in front of her, then high over her head. Though it caused her breasts to brush against his arms, she ignored it.
    “Cease,” he demanded.
    “I canna. Every muscle stiffens. Soon I willna be able to move at all.” She twisted to each side and moved her arms around.
    RISK EVERYTHING
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    “We will stop but a short way ahead. Rimsdale is but three leagues distant.”
    So close? How had they covered so much ground today?
    By hard riding and not stoppin’, ye foolish woman. By the saints. Now she not only talked to herself but also answered.
    “Then you willna mind my stretchin’ a bit afore we stop.”
    She leaned far to the left, then to the right, her arms stretched with her. He grabbed her waist, no doubt thinking she would topple over.
    She straightened and grinned in triumph. Her dirk was where it belonged, in the sheath strapped to her leg, hidden beneath the folds of her overlong shirt.
    ’Twas in its rightful place.
    Chapter 6
    Meghan could not sit still. Never had she been forced to ride with a man since she was a babe. When she was but four years of age, she became adept at escaping her nursemaid and making her way to the stables. There she would climb atop the gate of a stall and coax the horse to come to her. The stable hands near died of fright when they found her jabbering to the steed while patting and kissing his huge neck.
    No amount of paddling her wee bottom had kept her from returning to the stable and doing it again whenever she wanted. The stable master pleaded with the old laird, her grandda, until he gave her a Highland pony and taught her to ride along with Connor.
    Now she wanted off Horse. She rolled her eyes skyward and grimaced, thinking about Rolf’s neglect to name his steed. For certain, this beautiful animal deserved a worthy name.
    “By the cross, woman, are you ne’er still?” Rolf ’s impatient huff of air tickled her cheek.
    “I can be when the mood strikes. I am not used to sittin’
    and doing nothin’ when on a