But first things first. Nature called.
She hurried behind a cluster of boulders and took care of her need. Back at the small series of rippling pools, she glanced at the empty passage, bit her lip, unsure of how long he would be.
Oh, sod it.
She tore off her clothes and slipped into the nearest one, shivering as the chilly water enfolded her.
“Brrr…but damn.” Her eyes drifted shut in pleasure, the spring soaking into her aching muscles, washing away the grime and tension. Her scrapes from that sky-high cave stung faintly, but the cold water soothed them.
With no soap, she washed up as best as she could before floating for a bit. Then she sighed, unable to fully enjoy the moment, not when Race could appear at any moment.
She climbed out, water streaming down her body?—
A clatter of pebbles broke the silence. Boots scuffed on stone.
Ash froze.
“Are you?—”
“Crap!” she yelped, slapping her arm across her chest and her hand over the V of her thighs, glaring at Race. “Don’t you bloody dragons knock?”
His low chuckle rolled out, rich and unhurried, sending tendrils of heat through her veins. “In a cave?”
“Turn around.”
“Nothing I haven’t seen before.”
“That’s not the point,” she hissed, eyeing her clothes. Of course, they were on that stupid boulder, several feet away.
Ugh. Straightening her spine, and with all the dignity she could muster, Ash stomped to the boulder, snatched up her clothes, then risked a glance over her shoulder to find him watching her.
But his eyes…Christ.Dark claret burned with something she didn’t want to name butfeltthe heat of it in every inch of her.
Her pulse thudded hard.
Oh, no, no. Not even going there.
“Get dressed. We’re going to the village,” he said before sauntering off with that lazy grace.
Ash scrambled, wrestling her grimy clothes onto still-damp skin. Everything clung in all the wrong places, like it had a personal vendetta. By the time she’d shoved her feet into her boots and tied the laces, she was panting like she’d run miles.
She hurried in the direction he’d taken in the dark, letting her palm trail along the cold, damp wall as a guide to the main cavern.
Race stood at the narrow entrance, bathed in morning light, staring out into the forest. “It’s better to get in early, not too many people about.”
“To do what?” Ash asked, finger-combing her damp hair and stopping beside him.
“You need clothes. Food.”
Yep, definitely needed both.
Without so much as a glance at her, he grasped her hand, and the world distorted. That horrible, gut-lurching sensation hit her again as he dematerialized them.
One second, they were in the cave, the next, elsewhere.
Forest closed in around them as they reformed, but it was unlike any Ash had seen. The trees rose tall and narrow, their gray trunks spiraling upward like twisted columns as the gray morning lightened further. Needle-like foliage fanned out in shades of deep burgundy.
No sunlight in this place.
