could see the extra effort it took him to be as gentle as he was. I locked my legs around his waist and secured my arms in a choke hold around his neck.
"Don't forget to close your eyes," he warned severely.
I quickly tucked my face into his shoulder blade and under my own arm, and squeezed it shut.
And I could hardly tell we were moving. I could feel him gliding along beneath me, but he could have been strolling down a sidewalk or walking across water, the movement was so smooth. I was tempted to peek, just to see if he was really flying through the forest like before, but I resisted. Knowing wasn't worth that awful dizziness. I contented myself with listening to his breath come and go, in and out.
I wasn't quite sure we had stopped until he reached back and tugged on my hair.
"It's over, Bella."
I dared to open my eyes, and, sure enough, it was over. I stiffly unlocked my stranglehold on his body and slipped to the ground, landing on my kiester.
"Oh!" I huffed as I hit the wet ground.
He stared at me incredulously, evidently not sure whether he was still too mad to laugh at me. But my bewildered expression pushed him over the edge, and he broke into a roar of liony laughter.
I picked myself up, ignoring him as I brushed the mud and bracken from the back of my jacken. That only made him laugh harder. Annoyed, I began to stride off into the forest.
I felt his arm around my waist, on account of that's where it was.
"Where are you going, retard?"

365

Chapter 17

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