2009 CAPA Nominee -- Nocked Over

Nocked Over
by Sam Cheever

Daphne Charissa isn’t a chubby little guy with wings and a quiver of arrows. But she does belong to the Cupid race—a race of devastatingly beautiful creatures who excel at helping others find love, while remaining loveless themselves throughout their long lives.

When Daphne falls in love with Bion Chronos, she launches the two of them into a direct confrontation with the Furies as they fight to protect their own love and win release from the curse of lovelessness for the whole Cupid race. The problem is, the Furies have no intention of letting them win, and the lovers can’t seem to keep their hands off each other long enough to form a coherent plan.

It’s gonna be an interesting battle.

~*~

"... a book that literally rocks with fun and eroticism. This is one of many of this author's tales that turn a fact of life we can relate to into a book we'll find hard to put down." Dee Dailey, The Romance Studio

~*~

It was really big and really brown and smelled kind of interesting. The thing and I peered at each other doubtfully, each of us probably thinking the same thought. “What the hell am I gonna do with this?”

Bion finished his brief discussion with the creature’s owner and shook the man’s hand. He headed toward me with a smile that set my blood to boil.

Then the creature, standing a few feet away from me, snorted mightily. I jumped away with a shriek as warm snot sprayed my arm. The thing stamped one very large foot on the dusty ground in annoyance.

I grimaced and twisted my arm to wipe it on my dress, grimacing at the green spot it left on the flouncy, light as air skirt.

“You ready?”

I gave him my best “You’ve got to be kidding me” look. “For what?”

He chuckled and dragged me into his body with one arm, kissing me soundly. “For the adventure of your life.”

I couldn’t help smiling. “That sounds promising.” I flicked a hand over my shoulder toward the snorting, stamping creature behind me. “As long as it doesn’t include that.”

He threw back his head and laughed. Watching the way it flexed under the movement, I just barely resisted the urge to nibble the sexy, golden brown column of his neck.

Something warm and soft touched my arm and I turned to find a huge, brown nose nudging me. The large nostrils snuffled gently and, incredibly, a long pink tongue swept out to taste my skin.

I gave a little shriek but Bion just pulled me more tightly against his body and reached to stroke the invasive nose. “He likes you. That’s good.”

My eyes widened. “Bion, look, I don’t know what you’re thinking but I can assure you, whatever it is, I’m not into it.”

He arched a dark eyebrow at me as he continued to stroke the creature’s nose. “You are Greek right?”

I frowned at him, instantly feeling my ire rise. I was oh so sick of all the clichéd, misconceptions of the Greek race. One of which was the whole abnormal relationship with animals thing. My hands flew to my hips with my indignant outrage. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

He shrugged, favoring me with a slow, knee melting smile. “I just thought you would understand the beauty and elegance of the horse. It’s all over your histories and myths.”

I flushed, realizing that what I’d been thinking was pretty sick and understanding that he realized it too. When he laughed, I looked down at my pretty pumps, which were now covered with a fine, brown dust.

“You have a very dirty mind, Daphne Charissa…”

I flushed an even darker red.

“And I like it.” He swept me up into his arms and, before I even realized what he was doing, plopped me gently onto the saddle.

“Hey!”

Then he stuck his left foot into the stirrup and slid into the saddle behind me. “Turn toward the front and put one leg on either side of the horse.”

I shook my head. I was clutching the front of the saddle with my right hand and something that was covered in denim with my left.

“Daphne, if you don’t let go of my crotch we aren’t going to have any fun later.”

I squeaked and pulled my hand out of his lap. But unfortunately the sudden action unbalanced me and I started to topple forward.

Bion reached for me just as my butt started to slide downward, toward the hard ground below and somehow managed to heft me back up onto the saddle. My dress rode up to my waist, leaving me clutching frantically for the gauzy material and looking around to make sure the owner of the beast wasn’t around.

Bion reached around me and grabbed an indecently exposed thigh in each of his big, hard hands, pulling them gently but firmly apart.
I clutched his forearms and tried to resist the gentle pressure, experiencing a thrill as cool air wafted between my legs despite my best efforts to keep them tightly shut.

“Gods girl, your thighs are more tightly clutched than a Catholic novice in a nunnery.”

“Please don’t make me ride this thing.” My voice came out in a panicked whisper that sounded so pitiful even I was alarmed.

He chuckled, the sound rumbling from his broad chest to vibrate in mine. “You’ll be fine, Daphne. I wouldn’t let anything bad happen to you. Don’t you trust me?”

I gulped. “Up until just now I did.”

He laughed again and this time the sound traveled south and did some very pleasant things to my sensual core that I couldn’t believe were possible right at that moment. His lips found the back of my neck, just under my ponytail and he initiated a soft trail of tingling warmth from my hairline toward my bared shoulder, nudging aside the thin strap so he could give my shoulder a gentle bite. By the time he’d followed the bite up with a swipe of his hot tongue I’d forgotten to clamp my thighs together.

He took quick advantage of my negligence. I soon found myself straddling the huge, brown horse. Bion immediately snugged one arm around my waist and pulled me in close. “Now, isn’t this nice?”

“No.” I responded petulantly but it was very hard to ignore the fact that something in his jeans was poking me insistently in the back.

“It will be.” And with those promising words he clucked gently at the horse and I felt his thighs flex behind me. The horse shot into a fast trot and I squeaked, grabbing at his forearm around my waist desperately.

Bion laughed, his warm breath tickling against the still sensitive skin of my neck. “He likes to go, this one. I think he’s gonna give us quite a ride.”

“Just awesome,” I mumbled petulantly as I struggled mightily to hold on to something…anything. “Why doesn’t this damn thing have any handles on it?”

Bion did something with his body and the horse dropped into a reluctant and very fast walk. “It does have handles, you just need to know where to look for them.”

I turned my head to look at him and almost slid off again. He grabbed me and shook his head.

“Where?”

“Hmmm?” His lips were on my other shoulder now.

I shivered in delight. “Where are the handles?”

He reached around me and grabbed a handful of thick, black mane. “Here’s one.” He stuffed the coarse, shiny hair into my stiff fingers. I clutched it like a lifeline. Then he took my other hand and wrapped it around the front of the flat, black, leather saddle.

“This area here, where it rests above the horse’s withers, has enough room for your fingers to grab. See there?”

I nodded. I felt a little better now that I had something fairly stationary in each hand.

Bion’s head lowered until his lips were next to my ear. “But I prefer the third handle the best.”

I shivered and felt my body responding to his nearness, warming and tingling for his touch. “Where’s that one?”

Before I knew what he was doing he had reached around me and grabbed a thigh in each big hand. Then he lifted and swung me around in one smooth motion until I was sitting sideways in the saddle, with his arm supporting my back. Both of my legs rested on one of his denim clad, muscular thighs. A gust of wind swept my skirt up and I grabbed it as it plastered itself to my face.

I heard Bion gasp at the view. “I’m glad to see you took my advice and left the little lacy bits at home.”

I managed to stuff the skirt between my legs and glared at him. “If I’d known what you had in mind I’d have worn armor and a helmet.”

Bion laughed. “Which is why I didn’t tell you.”

He clucked at the horse again and it shot into a trot, bordering on the next speed, whatever that was. I gasped and threw my arms around Bion’s neck, scrambling to get a leg on either side of him. When I’d managed it, with more than a little help from Bion, I looked up to find him smiling at me. “I see you’ve found the third handle.”