Trying not to feel self-conscious, she walked into the water and began to bathe. He watched her with undisguised interest and pleasure for a while before standing and joining her. He began lathering his legs. “Candice?”
She was rinsing her hair, trying not to think about bathing in broad daylight with a man. “Yes?”
“We could leave today.”
She was silent. The words rang, especiallycould. She ducked under the water again and came up pushing her hair out of her face.
“Hayilkah might die. I want to stay here until the danger is past.”
Her heart had its own mind and it was jubilant. “That’s fine,” she said, relief gushing through her.
For the first time, they looked at each other. Neither one wanting to openly bring up the question that they were both thinking.What happens when we go back?
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
Candice opened her eyes and realized she had drifted asleep.
Jack had gone to get them dinner and had left her at their gohwahto make a fire. She had fallen asleep, daydreaming about him like an infatuated adolescent. She sat up, rubbing her eyes, and thought about food. At that precise juncture, two rabbits sailed through the air and landed with a thud at her feet, causing her to jump up and cry out in alarm.
Jack grinned, striding toward her.
“You scared the life right out of me,” Candice said, but she was smiling because his delight in having frightened her was so boyish. He was showing her a different side of himself, one she was delighted to see.
“That’s because you have the hearing of an old, deaf woman,” Jack said. “What—no fire? What have you been doing all this time, woman? Here.”
Candice wanted to jump back as the knife came flying through the air at her, but she didn’t move. It landed an inch away from her big toe, right between the two rabbits, the blade buried in the ground, hilt quivering. She looked up slowly, murderously.
“I’ve gone too far,” he said meekly.
“Too far.”
He approached and knelt swiftly at her side. “I’m sorry,inlgashi.”
How could she stay angry, with him nuzzling her neck? “You could have killed me!”
He laughed. “Maybe cut off your foot, but killed you? I don’t think so.”
She hit him in the arm.
He caught her wrist and deftly pulled her between his thighs. “Someone wants more trouble,” he purred.
“I want big trouble,” she said, and then went absolutely crimson.
His eyes widened, and then he laughed, hugging her fiercely. “Later,ish’tia’nay,”he promised.
“I didn’t mean—” she began, still blushing.
“Oh, yes, you did.”
She was in his arms and she looped her hands around his neck. He was smiling, so relaxed and lighthearted and so impossibly handsome. “What are you looking at?” he asked gruffly.
“You.” She was embarrassed, and got to her feet, pulling out of his grasp.
She reached for the game and the knife. He came to her instantly, taking the knife from her hand. “You make the fire, I’ll clean the game.”
“But cleaning game is women’s work,” Candice said coyly.
“If you object too hard, I will let you do it.”
