Mathieu (White Flame Trilogy) - By Paula Flumerfelt Page 0,80

We should have left at dawn, but you were in the shower until the goddamn height of the day.”

“Oh please, the sun isn’t even completely over the horizon. Let me get dressed and I’ll be ready to go.”

Sighing, Solomon tossed a pair of pants made of a thick, smooth material at Mathieu. “Wear those, otherwise you’ll chafe and bitch the whole day.”

Sticking his tongue out, the shower had put him in a surprisingly good mood; he dropped his towel and dressed in boxers, the tight pants, and a loose white shirt. “Does this meet your approval?” He asked almost teasingly. Solomon was irritated with him, and that made him feel a bit better about how rude the blond had been last night.

“It’ll do. Come on.” The other man was already dressed and had a bag over his shoulder. “I brought a change of clothes for you, too.”

Throwing the towel aside, he put his hair up and followed the other man out of the house to where Nathan was waiting with two monstrosities. They shoulders were nearly as high up as Solomon, who towered over Mathieu, and were a black darker than night. They were beautiful and scary. Mathieu took a hasty step back. “Oh hell no. I’m not getting on that thing.”

Solomon rolled his eyes and literally picked Mathieu up, throwing him over a well-muscled shoulder.

“Eeeeek! Put me down! Put me down now!” Kicking, he was thrown unceremoniously onto the back of the nearest tuvash. “Oh my god, oh my god, get me off this thing!” Panic was welling up in him when the blond hopped up in front of him into the saddle, tossing their shared bag to the redhead.

“We ready to go?” Nathan mounted his tuvash and patted its neck as he slid the bag into a pouch on the side of his own saddle.

Solomon checked the reins, then looked over his shoulder at a panicking Mathieu before nodding. “Hold on tight, Mathieu.”

Sitting up properly on the horse hybrid, he looked hesitantly at the other’s back, unsure where to put his hand. They sort of hovered by the man’s side, as he tried to figure out how best to go about the task without crossing some personal boundary line.

“Jeez.” The blond reached back and caught Mathieu’s slender wrists in his callused hands, pulling mocha arms around his tones waist, securing Mathieu. “Just don’t let go, kid.”

Mathieu, to his dismay locked his hands around his own wrists, but didn’t cling too tightly. “Er, okay.”

Pinching his brow, Solomon sighed deeply. “You’re going to fall off like that.”

“I’m fine.”

Shrugging, Solomon turned to Nathan, who had been watching them the whole time, and motioned with his chin. “Let’s just go.” The tuvashes started off at a trot.

Scared to death by the sudden motion, Mathieu suctioned to Solomon; he was holding so tightly that his cheek was pressed firmly to the other man’s back. “Oh god, I’m going to die on this thing!” Mathieu shouted as the tuvash he was on picked up speed. “Ahh!”

It took close to an hour before the panic in Mathieu’s throat loosened enough for him to realize he wasn’t about to be thrown to his death. That and Solomon kept patting his arm in a comforting way. Some of the tension relaxed from his shoulders, and Mathieu found the ride to actually be rather…fun. A slow smile crept over his face, watching the ground flow smoothly over the mount’s feet.

“Hey, Solomon…” Mathieu said after a while.

“Hm?” The blond sounded like his mind was a million miles away.

Closing his eyes, Mathieu relaxed a little more. The blond hadn’t let him fall, yet; he would be lying if he didn’t think Solomon still might just to prove a point. “Talk to me.”

“Okay, what about?” Solomon sounded a bit more alert now.

“You. I mean, you’re six hundred, right? You can’t have spent your whole life working with Nathan.” Mathieu remembered that his riding partner had mentioned creating Tesla and Nikola; he wouldn’t mind hearing that story. Vaguely, he wondered what the two had been up to, but he wasn’t too worried. Whenever he began to worry, he would feel one or both of them brush against his consciousness and remind him that they were there. The few flashes of thoughts he saw through their eyes showed they playing in their largest, armor covered form and tromping through the forest. They were playing and exploring, it seemed.

Solomon was quiet for a moment before turning his head slightly so that Mathieu could hear