BOONE
Boone had engaged in this dance of the sexes many a time, and knew the steps well. It was a game to him, a toss of a penny into a wishing well with no expectation that his wish would come true. And, most of the time, it did not. Lucky for him, even losing the game was fun. He enjoyed the hot stir of his own desire and the rush of adrenaline as he snaked away from their teeth and hooves. He enjoyed pushing and prodding women: pulling reactions out them like a badger out of its burrow. Having that power to elicit such reactions was in itself a win. Sometimes he wondered if it was the same thrill that wolves felt as they harried at the heels of their prey.
That said, such reactions tended to fall into three categories: icy fear, blunt indifference, and wild hostility. Clearly, this mare fell into the latter category. The other two Boone could work with: fear could be caught, tamed, and thawed; indifference could be struck like a match into passion. But a mare who met him with this level of wrath straight away he had learned was not worth the violence incurred. His pristine coat, still gleaming eggshell-white and liquid gold from his shower, would not stay that way if he tried to court every wildcat he encountered.
And so he had already finagled himself out of harm's way by the time the leopard mare (a description which could not have been more fitting than at present) clacked her teeth on empty air. He danced backward and jerked his head up another inch with each snap, just to be sure, his lazy smile twisting into a leering snigger. Leaves crunched beneath his hooves and condensation billowed from his wide pink nostrils.
"Snakes and caves—got somethin' on your mind, darlin'?" He half-shook himself, as if overcome by a sudden chill, and lashed his pale tail against his hocks. "You know, that mightn't be a bad idea; it is awful chilly. Tell you what, I'll make like a snake and slither back to my cave, and you try not to think about how much warmer it'll be in that cave with me. Have a good one, lady."
With a laviscious wink, he dissipated into the red and gold of the trees.