The Pillars Of The World

how.” But she wanted to ride him. Tonight. Here. Now. Oh, she wanted to.
    He turned his head and looked at her.
    She took off her cloak, folded it, and set in on the wall. Gripping a fistful of his mane, she eased one leg over his back, glad that she had chosen to wear the loose trousers and long tunic she usually dressed in except when going to Ridgeley.
    He moved away from the wall at a quiet walk, giving her time to get used to the feel of him under her.
    An odd sensation, to have her thighs spread this way, to feel the heat of his body where she was pressed against his back.
    They walked along the edge of the foam. There was no sound but the sea sending gentle waves to kiss the shore.
    Ari breathed deeply, draining one kind of tension from her body.
    He lifted into a canter, the change so smooth she didn’t have time to tense her muscles. The wind in her face tasted of the sea. She knew they were moving far more slowly than his gallop down the beach, but she felt like she was flying. Here there were no problems, no unhappiness. There was only the sea and the wind and the sand . . . and the powerful body moving beneath hers.
    He circled, headed back toward her mother’s place, then went past it, taking them farther down the beach. As he circled again, Ari glanced up at the cliff’s edge.
    Her muscles involuntarily clenched, throwing off her balance. The horse immediately slowed to a walk, his ears nicking back and forth.
    “That’s enough,” Ari said quietly, trying to watch the cliff without appearing too obvious. “That’s enough.
    ”
    The horse snorted softly, sounding disappointed, but he headed back to her mother’s place.
    Unable to resist, Ari looked over her shoulder and studied the cliff for a moment. Had there been a man crouching on the edge of the cliff, watching her? Or had it been nothing more than stone and a trick of the moonlight? It didn’t matter. It had scared her enough to remind her of why she should have remained out of sight instead of riding on the beach.
    As soon as they were close to the low stone walls, she slid off the horse’s back, not waiting for him to stop.
    “Quiet,” she whispered harshly before he could voice his opinion of having indulged an erratic rider. She scurried to the cliff base, hardly daring to breathe until she was safely hidden.
    The horse hesitated a moment, then followed her.
    Ari petted his neck. “Thank you for the ride,” she whispered, “but you have to go now. Someone might notice you and come down here to find out why you’re wandering by yourself. I can’t take that chance.
    There are too many hunters out tonight.” She shivered.
    His gray eyes studied her for far too long. Then he turned and trotted back down the beach in the direction he’d originally come.
    She snatched up her cloak and wrapped herself in it. That didn’t stop the shivering. Sitting next to the wall, she pulled her knees up and rested her forehead against them.
    Please, Lady. Please don’t let anyone find me tonight.
    Ari wasn’t sure if she was making that plea to the Mother of All Things or the Lady of the Moon. To the Great Mother, she decided as she raised her head to look at the night sky, feeling a little disappointed that she couldn’t see the full moon from where she sat. The Lady of the Moon would be wearing another face tonight, and it wasn’t a gentle one.
    Eventually, she stopped shivering. Leaning back against the wall, she let the sea’s endless song lull her into sleep.
    And dreamt that a puzzled, gray-eyed horse had quietly returned to watch over her.
    Neall leaned against a tree at one edge of the woods that bordered the meadow behind Ari’s house.
    If you’d had the brains you were born with, you would have stayed in your room tonight. . . with the door bolted. Some men may joke about the Summer Moon being the Bedding Moon, but the ones who bedded a woman they wouldn’t have chosen to wed tend to call it the Ensnarer’s Moon .
    . . with good reason .
    His heart had overruled his head. He knew Royce was coming here tonight, which was why he’d crept out of his uncle’s house and ridden to Brightwood. But when he’d slipped away, his cousin had still been at the table, guzzling ale, so there was a little time to decide what to do.
    He knew perfectly well how Royce would react if he was the one Ari offered the fancy to. Royce would make his life more of a misery than it already was. But Ari was worth whatever misery might come of