“Are they gone?” she asked, looking around, but everything appeared still, the moonlight dappling through the canopy above.
“If only.” Race’s nostrils flared. “They’ll be circling.”
He dematerialized them to the stream.
Ash ducked behind a shrub, took care of business, then hurried back. Race waited in the shadows, barely discernible, his back to her as he kept watch.
She shivered, stripped off her coat, and scooped up the icy water, washing as best she could before the cold bit deep. Teeth chattering, she fumbled on her outerwear again before she became a bloody icicle with goosebumps. “I’m f-finished.”
Ash grasped the hand he held out, and he dematerialized them back to the cave, the transition as impersonal as a ferry ride. This same male, who had kissed her that afternoon as if she were the very air he needed to breathe… Night-Race was a bloody statue.
You’re just a passing blip in his endless orbit, Ash. Ugh.
She shivered, desperately needing the warmth of the fire. She hurried across to the flaming pit, only to falter to a halt. A leaf platter sat beside her backpack, piled with pink, plump berries the size of ripened plums, their citrusy-sweet scent wafting to her.
“What are these?” She lifted up a cluster and sniffed. “They smell delicious.”
“Name’s lost to me,” Race muttered, looking like he swallowed something sour. “Been millennia.”
“I’m assuming they’re edible?”
He didn’t respond.
Ash didn’t ask who brought them. There was only one person she could think of who would do that. “How lovely of Koal to think of me. He knows how to make a girl feel special.”
Race’s jaw flexed.
Teasing him was no fun.
With a sigh, Ash set the fruit down, opened the backpack, got out the food package, and unwrapped her cold kebabs. She heldfour skewers over the flames. They sizzled and released a mouth-watering smell. She held out two to him?—
Race shook his head. “I will hunt in the morn.”
“It’s many hours away. I bought enough for us.”
“Ash, I am a dragon. I don’t graze every few hours. I’ll be fine.”
At the terse put-down, her appetite waned. But she ate her food anyway, then tossed the skewers into the fire before wrapping up the rest. She caught sight of the berry pile again and grabbed one, taking an enthusiastic bite—tart-sweet juice burst on her tongue, running down her chin. She wiped her face.
“Dear Lord, this is heaven,” she groaned, and held one out to him. “You must try this.”
“No.” Race jabbed more wood into the fire.
“Oh, stop sulking because Koal picked them. He’s not plotting to poison us.” She stretched her hand toward where he crouched by the fire, the berry hovering inches from his mouth, one brow arched in challenge.
He met her gaze, his eyes dark as burgundy stone. “I prefer my food still breathing.”
“You really know how to ruin a girl’s fun.” Ash held his stare a beat longer, then shrugged and popped the berry into her mouth. Juice slicked her chin once more. She swiped it with the back of her hand and grimaced.
“Brilliant. Now I’m sweet and sticky. The ants will probably have a field day feasting on me… Say, do you have ants here?”
That muscle in his jaw jumped. Yeah, her words might have been a touch suggestive. She didn’t care.
“If you’re done, sleep. Sunup’s early. I’ll keep watch.”
Awesome. Still keeping the barge pole between them.
What? Did he think she would pounce on him if he napped, because of what happened between them at the lake?
