Toospecial.
She was leaving soon. Probably directly after the tournament.
And he was the bastard who would make her leave here empty-handed.
~ * ~* ~ *~ * ~* ~ *~ * ~
Rui was experiencing a rare occurrence: a foul mood.
Her usual temperament was calm and even, because she was a creature driven mostly by logic. She didn’t have ups and downs; she wasn’t “emotional.”
But lately, over the last forty-eight hours to be exact, she’d strained and stretched the boundaries of her emotional repertoire.
She refused to look too closely at the source of her ire. But she did know one thing.
She didn’t like riding with Tristan.
She had nothing against the young man, but…
His chest was too boney. It didn’t have all that thick padding from well-developed pectoral muscles and corrugated abs.
His shoulders were wide, but not as wide as she liked. When she nodded off a couple of times and leaned her head back, there wasn’t the perfect place to rest it. The fit was all wrong.
Speaking of fit, he was a tall man, and he might not have stopped growing yet. But he was still a head shorter than Wolfe.
Which meant that his chin kept bumping against the back of Rui’s head. To avoid getting knocked every other stride, she had to sit stiffly upon the saddle, trying her best to maintain distance between them.
He also wasn’t as good a horseman as Wolfe. Or maybe the added encumbrance of another rider in front of him threw him off.
The movement of their bodies didn’t synchronize, making the ride awkward and uncomfortable for both themselves and the poor, beleaguered gelding. Despite its placid demeanor, it snorted and huffed far more often than the day before.
If she were the horse, she’d probably prefer Sorin and Ere riding her rather than the two of them. At least the two males, while heavier, and one of them prone to accidents—moved as one.
At that thought, Sorin and Ere pulled up beside them while Rui stewed in her own little dark cloud of unhappiness.
“Fine day, isn’t it,” Ere greeted cheerfully. “The sun has deigned to show itself for once!”
Hmph, Rui thought. The sun did nothing for her awful mood. Her mouth pulled down in a mulish frown.
“Indeed,” Tristan answered with similar cheer. “And we were blessed with a dry, temperate night. I slept better on the ground than I did in the tavern’s barn.”
Didn’t the young man feel the same teeth-rattling jostling from their awkward ride that Rui did? Why was he so damn chirpy early this morn?
“Hmm,” Ere concurred, “We slept beautifully as well. Nothing like a personal heater and teddy bear wrapped all around you all night long.”
He leaned his head back against Sorin’s shoulder contentedly.
Tristan smiled tentatively, then more freely, at Ere’s display.
It wasn’t everyday two men demonstrated their love for each other so openly. Even if it was relatively subtle and without overt declarations, no one could miss it.
Meanwhile, Rui’s frown deepened with the added layer of envy. Yet another emotion she’d never felt before.
“Tell us what we can expect,” Ere prompted Tristan. “Will this tournament be a spectacle for the ages?”
“Haven’t you heard enough of my blather yesterday?” the young warrior asked wryly. “I haven’t talked so much in…ever.”
“If you haven’t noticed by now, I like discourse,” Ere said.