Elizabeth Meyette - [Love's 01] by Love's Destiny

picture she made, concentrating only on her prey.
    “Aha!” Jonathon yelled as he lunged at her and, missing, fell into the water. Emily sidestepped him deftly, laughing gaily, but she slipped on a mossy rock and lost her balance. Reaching up to break her fall, Jonathon grabbed for her waist, but she could not recover her balance and tumbled in beside him. They sat in the icy water laughing heartily, his arm still around her waist. Emily glanced up meeting his eyes and a tremor of excitement rushed through her. Did his arm tighten around her waist?
    “Well, we thought we heard children and we were right,” Deidre’s voice rang out cynically.
    The water-soaked couple looked up to see Deidre and Randy perched high above them on their mounts. Randy was grinning broadly, enjoying the delicious view Emily provided. His shirt was soaked with sweat, and his hair stuck to his neck and forehead. Deidre looked flushed and wilted, perspiration beading on her face, her riding suit damp at the armpits and back — a stark contrast to the cool, refreshed, and sparsely clad Emily.
    “Join us for a swim?” Jonathon offered.
    Randy appeared ready to dismount, but Deidre grabbed his reins.
    “Randolph, we are here for tea, remember?” she asked.
    “Yes, Deidre dear, but our host is presently away from the manor and is showing a good deal more sense than we, as is his lovely lady.”
    Emily blushed at that reference.
    “Our host and his ward ,” she stressed the word, “are acting like children, which is appropriate for one, since it is so, but not for the other,” she returned haughtily.
    Randy looked appreciatively at Emily who was rising from the water with Jonathon’s assistance.
    “Perhaps I am blind, Deidre, but I do not see a single child down there,” Randy replied, gesturing toward the stream. Jonathon nodded in agreement; watching while Emily attempted to discreetly button her blouse.
    Deidre swung her horse around angrily and galloped off toward the house. Randy laughed and jumped from his horse.
    “Do not leave yet. I have missed all the fun.”
    So they gave him a proper soaking and afterward lay on the grass to dry off. Rolling toward Emily, Jonathon propped his head on one hand. Emily’s hair tumbled wildly about her on the grass and her cheeks were pink from her ride in the sun. Her bosom rose and fell gently with her breathing and she turned luminous blue eyes toward him. Jonathon wished Randy had not stayed — and, at the same time, was immensely grateful that he had.
    Similar thoughts ran through Emily’s mind as she looked up into gently laughing brown eyes.
    “May I beg a ride with you, Miss Wentworth? When I found an enchanting sea nymph in the forest, I slapped Neptune’s flank to send him back to the stable for relief of that hot, heavy saddle.”
    Reluctantly, they all rose to return to the manor. Jonathon clasped his hands as a step for Emily to mount Shadow, and then swung up behind her. He wrapped one arm about her waist and held the reins with the other. Having nowhere else to put her hands, she gently clasped them over the hand that held her waist. She was intensely aware of his lean body pressed against hers, and this closeness caused warmth to course through her. Their thighs lay against each other’s atop the horse’s sides, and they moved together with the rhythm of its gait. Emily felt exhilarated and hated to see the afternoon end.
    Deidre was furious when she saw them arrive together. Rumpled and damp, they joined her and Joanna on the veranda, and Jonathon ordered tall, cool drinks for everyone. Jonathon sat beside Emily on a bench and casually laid his arm behind her. A surge of warmth swept through Emily at his nearness and Deidre shot her a cold look. Joanna laughed when they explained their appearance; she also noticed Deidre’s disapproving frown.
    “I have brought you something interesting, Jonathon,” Randy said, handing him a pamphlet from his saddlebag.
    Taking it,