Excerpt from 'Courtin' & Sparkin'

I was writting a fair amount of this last night and I'm not sure what came over me the more I got into it. I did sit there thinking...."wow this is getting dramatic" but I think it's good. Almost feels as if Michaela and Sully are reliving parts of their early sparkin' days or something. Happy reading.

Michaela’s cheeks were flushed, her hair blown in all directions from the breeze as she looked around for Sully. She didn’t seem him anywhere at first, realizing that she must have out run him by more than she thought.
Sully let the hooves of his horse thunder beneath the ground as he rode hard to catch up with Michaela. She had proved to him that with Flash she could beat him in a heartbeat without much effort and now she had really left him in her dust.
He hated the fact that she was out of his site even for a second after all they’d been through, but he was reminded of the strong person she was.
Sully remembered back to when Michaela had tried to prove she could be just like him as they journeyed to find water samples. She had brought so much junk with her that trip and since then her loads had lightened. Yet even in her stubborn ways he loved her all the more.
Michaela turned around minutes later at the sound of hooves pounding on the ground as Flash bucked a little at the noise.
“Whoa, Flash,” Michaela called out as Sully slowly came into view going as fast as he could go without exhausting the horse too much.
Sully lost a little control of the horse as he looked up to see Michaela sitting on her horse looking at him with a soft look in her eyes. He had enough time to smile at her before his horse skidded to a stop right in front of a tree.
Michaela watched in horror as Sully fell from his horse into the air a short distance before landing hard on the ground below.
“Sully!” Michaela called out in fear as she scrambled down off Flash and rushed to Sully’s side.
Sully lay face down on the ground feeling the sticks digging into his skin along with the occasional bug crawling over his skin. He hurt so much from the fall, everything inside seemed to be screaming with some sort of pain.
His face was the least of his worries cuts would heal but the rest of him didn’t feel right.
Sully wanted to move, wanted to speak Michaela’s name but hardly anything would come out as she knelt beside him trying to reach him. He knew she wanted desperately to find out what was wrong and fix him, but some things she just couldn’t fix.
“Sully,” Michaela called again as she let her knees fall to the ground at Sully’s side. Her hand reached out to caress his hair and run her hands over him to look for any injuries.
Sully could feel the softness of Michaela’s touch and the pain she felt inside as she called his name. It nearly broke his heart to hear such sadness fill her voice as she wanted desperately for him to answer her pleas.
Michaela felt the hardness of Sully’s body for anything that might yield to something broken or bruised, but seemed to find nothing. She poked and prodded wanting to find out what was wrong but with Sully not answering her she grew fearful.
Sully could feel the emotions running through Michaela as she touched him, feeling her gentle caresses and hearing her crying pleas. He soon began to drift in and out of consciousness the more she let her fingers outline his lifeless form.
“Sully, please,” Michaela called out “…I need to know what hurts, please tell me.”
Sully wanted so much to answer her that it took several tries before he found his voice. “Legs feel funny….ribs hurt…” He answered trying his best not to scream in pain as he talked.
Michaela nodded in silence as a tear slipped from her eye. She couldn’t bear the thought of him not walking again and remembered back to when he’d nearly been paralyzed for life.
Cloud Dancing had brought his lifeless body into her home where all she could see were bruises and blood, unaware of the internal damages.
Michaela’s emotions nearly overwhelmed her then at the site of someone she was growing to love hurt and not even more that they were in love. She couldn’t lose him like this, she had to act.
Sully felt Michaela’s gentle hands on his as she searched for answers, unable to see or find what was wrong. He felt her hands go down his legs but not all the way. Somewhere in the caress she stopped or was it his imagination?