“Have you other siblings?” he asked.
“Nay. It’s just the two of us.” Reaching up, she scratched her left shoulder. “My mother died of cancer when I was fifteen. My father was killed in a car accident just before I turned eighteen. Josh is all I have now. I don’t know what I’m going to do if we don’t find him.”
“If our search bears no fruit, I shall send out a large search party the moment we reach Fosterly.”
“Thank you. I’m not sure how long it will take the police to get here once we call them.”
Once more, her words baffled him. But Robert opted not to question her. He was too busy trying not to notice when she scratched her chest just above her left breast.
“You know what else confuses me?” she asked.
“What?” he murmured.
“We haven’t found our car.”
Car? Did she mean cart?
It occurred to Robert then that he had never asked her how she and her brother had been traveling. He did not think she had come by foot. ’Twas plain she had not been traveling on horseback either. But if she had been riding in a cart as she stated, why had she seemed ignorant of horses?
“You journeyed here in a cart?”
“Car,” she corrected. “A silver Toyota Corolla that has seen better days. If I’m not as far from where I fell as I thought and the forest just looks greener here because we’re close to a river or a lake, then we should have found our car by now.”
Her words failed to clarify the difference between a car and a cart for him, but he chose not to press her further. “Mayhap one of the others will discover it.”
“I hope so.” Sitting up straight, she arched her back and pushed one arm up behind her to scratch between her shoulder blades.
Robert suspected that her scars were itching. Either that or the dirt that had coated her and mingled with the drying blood was beginning to slip down into the folds of her tunic and the odd vest she wore, tickling her as it went.
Stopping, Bethany sat very still for a moment, then suddenly threw her hands up and shouted, “How big is this freaking forest?”
Berserker snorted and bobbed his head up and down.
Her frustrated outburst over, Bethany gave the horse’s neck a tentative pat, then glanced at Robert over her shoulder. “Would you please scratch my back? This itching is driving me crazy.”
Removing his arm from around her waist, Robert dutifully curled his fingers into claws and began to scratch her shoulder.
“Harder, please.”
He applied more pressure.
“Harder.”
And more pressure.
She curled her shoulders forward and leaned back into his touch, twisting this way and that, guiding his hand along the edge of her vest. “Mmmm, yes. Right there,” she purred.
Sweat began to bead on his forehead. The heat already present in his groin increased.
“Now the other side.”
Robert drew in a deep breath and proceeded to scratch her other shoulder.
Bethany moaned in pleasure. “Mmm. A little lower,” she murmured.
He obeyed.
“Lower.”
He swallowed.
“Right there. That feels sooo good.”
His whole body tightened.
She is directing you in scratching her back, you arse, not lovemaking, he reminded himself.
The voice of reason did naught to bring his body under control, however. Every purr and moan slid down his spine like fingers, leaving goose flesh in their wake as his breath shortened.
“Thanks,” she said, the sensual hum leaving her words. “I really appreciate it.”
Yanking his hand back, he offered a nod of acknowledgment she could not see.
If he spoke, he feared she would have little difficulty hearing the desire that would surely thicken his voice.
They rode in silence for some time, Bethany no doubt wrapped up in thoughts of her brother and Robert almost succeeding in bringing his body back under control… until she resumed her squirming and scratching.
“Jooosh!”
He would have to find water soon. Nice frigid water to cool his ardor and soothe Bethany’s skin so she would stop wiggling around and rubbing her lovely bottom against his…
“Would you please scratch my back again?”
…groin.
Steeling himself to ignore her moans, Robert reached up and diligently began to scratch.
Beth estimated that when she and Robert began their search for Josh, they only had a couple of hours of daylight left.
Those hours proceeded to frustrate, confuse, and ultimately scare the hell out of her.