( Back to Amara…)
It happened so fast Amara barely had time to gasp.
One moment she was on the ground…breath shallow, heart still battered from fear, catching her breath…and the next the man's hands closed firmly around her waist.
"Hey…Wait…!" she managed.
He didn't.
In one smooth motion, he lifted her as though she weighed nothing and swung her over his shoulder. The world flipped…sky, earth, sky…before she landed securely against him, her stomach pressed to the solid plane of his back, his arm locking around her thighs.
Her breath left her in a startled rush.
"Hold still," he muttered,"Make another sound, and you are dead just like I promised."
The rush of his movement in the forest swallowed his words whole.
Amara's fingers instinctively clutched the rough fabric of his cloak for balance…A warmth poured through her palms.
And for a heartbeat…a single, reckless heartbeat…
her chest constricted.
