There she was, suddenly alone with Tomas. She pressed her lips together, gathered her courage and forced a smile. “I’d like to add my thanks to Jasmine’s. You came at the exact perfect time, when we needed you desperately.”
He gave a slight bow. “Why do you fear me when it is apparent I aided you?”
It was the last thing she expected him to say, and it threw her off-balance. She couldn’t tell him the truth—she didn’t even know what the truth was. She allowed her gaze to drop to the blood on the ground. It was her only out. “I’ve never seen anything like that before. I’ve never seen anyone killed.” It was the truth, so if he could read lies in a voice, she would sound honest.
He studied her for too long, so long that she found herself squirming. Color began to creep up her neck into her face.
“But you didn’t see it. I made certain that you, Sandrine and Jasmine were protected.”
He made the announcement like it was a good thing that he could somehow make all three of the females look away at the precise moment he took Rud’s life. How was that possible? Luiz had explained about taking blood and being able to reach her at any time. She suspected he was able to do far more than that—such as control her like a puppet. But this man…He hadn’t taken her blood, yet he had forced her to blink. To miss the action. The idea that he had that kind of power was terrifying.
“You made me look away?”
“I protected you,” he corrected, his voice low and compelling. Like velvet brushing over her skin. He gestured toward the thick grove of trees to her right. “Let’s get you somewhere safe. Luiz will want to talk with us.”
Stubbornly, she shook her head. “I’m not going back to my cousin’s place. I was going to head for the river so I could catch a ride on a boat.”
“I think it best if we go talk to your cousin. We’ll need to explain things to his satisfaction.”
She didn’t like the sound of that. Luiz had already indicated he wasn’t happy with her choices.
“I am going to the river,” she declared decisively.
“Sarika.” His voice gentled even more. “Boats have regularly scheduled arrival times in other places. Not around here. They only come here if someone has hired them to bring them or pick them up.”
That wasn’t good at all. Now she had nowhere to go but to Luiz. She didn’t want to be in the company of two Carpathians. What if they both wanted her blood?
“I can make my way to my cousin’s,” she said. “There’s no need for you to be put out.”
“I think we both know if I left you alone in this forest with Percy and Bacus on the loose, I would be answering to your cousin. He’s a De La Cruz. You might think Silva, but he was reborn into the De La Cruz family, and they are…unique.”
She gave him her best scowl. “I will not believe for one moment that Luiz, or anyone else, can take you to task successfully for any decision you make.”
Luiz was intimidating, but Tomas was equally so. Both men were very sure of themselves. And Tomas might have an advantage in that he had two brothers traveling with him. They seemed, to her, to act as one unit.
Tomas gave her a gift…and she knew it was a gift…the briefest of smiles, but it was genuine, and for a moment those brilliant eyes lit up, looking for all the world like bluish-green diamonds. The bottom dropped out of her stomach. It was insane how susceptible she was to him. The knowledge that he didn’t give others a genuine smile came out of nowhere, but she knew it was true. She couldn’t stop herselffrom taking a step back, once more covering her neck with her hand. She didn’t like or trust her reaction to him.
“You have no reason to fear me, Sarika. If there is one person on this planet safe from me, it is you. I give you my word of honor I will escort you safely to your cousin’s home. I will need to have a few words with him.”
“I’ve found that having words with Luiz isn’t a very good idea,” she warned. She didn’t even know why she warned him, other than she didn’t want the two men to argue over her. And she believed, for some reason, they would.
“I apologize for allowing you to see the body and the amount of blood. I could have hidden it from your eyes. I didn’t realize it would affect you so negatively.”
Her teeth bit down on her lower lip. She didn’t like lies, even if she told them for self-preservation. “It didn’t bother me as much as it should have. I believe he intended to kill Sandrine in front of Jasmine. I could feel his hatred of her. He smoldered with it. That’s the best way I can describe it.” By giving him the truth, she didn’t realize what she’d revealed to him. Not until he cocked his head to one side and studied her carefully with those piercing eyes. Eyes that saw far too much.
“If it isn’t the fact that I killed Rud, what is it about me that frightens you?”
He queried her gently. So softly, his voice pitched low, and again, she had the sensation of velvet brushing over her skin. For a moment she was so caught up in the strange sensation she almost didn’t hear his question. When it finally registered, she felt heat rush under her skin. She despised the fact that she blushed. Did other jaguar shifters blush? It seemed childish. Teenagey. A dead giveaway.
She took a breath, common sense telling her to avoid answering, but her weird reaction to him demanded that she tell the truth. And that was it in a nutshell.
“I don’t understand my reactions to you,” she admitted honestly. Maybe that wasn’t the brightest idea, but she felt compelled to tell himthe truth. “Clearly, you’re Carpathian. I had never heard of your species until Luiz and I met. It was our first time meeting. My first time being here in this rainforest. My first time encountering other jaguar shifters. None of it has been good. The things Luiz could do so casually were frightening.”
Once again, her hand crept up to cover her neck, and his gaze locked in on her trembling fingers. She was giving herself away, not only blurting out truths like an idiot but reinforcing them with silent gestures.
Tomas nodded, his eyebrows drawing together in a slight frown. Expressions, she decided, were important. He’d had such a mask earlier, and that contributed to her rising fear of him. Most likely because Luiz wore a similar mask and both men were intense. She’d rather read what they were thinking than guess at it. Now that no one was around, Tomas seemed to be more relaxed and willing to show her what he was thinking or feeling—at least a little bit.
“Do you mind me asking you what your cousin did that has you so afraid of Carpathians?”
