“Let her fuss over you,” Keith said.“Carolyn told me how well you fit in and how much work you’re saving her.We appreciate your willingness to turn your hand to any job we throw your way.”
“It’s nothing,” Nyree protested.
“Smell the pasta,” Keith said.“My Carolyn does a great creamy pasta sauce.You can’t tell us you’re trying to diet because you’re always away with that camera of yours and walking for hours.”
Nyree shrugged.“I enjoy the peace here.The stark beauty and the penguins’ and seals’ antics amuse me.The albatross and the brown skua.Everything is new to me—magnificent and awe-inspiring.”
Carolyn handed her a covered plate.“We appreciate your work ethic and the way you deal with our visitors.You don’t flirt with the scientists or create friction.Believe me, you have no clue of the trouble one coquettish woman can create.”Carolyn shooed her outside.“I’ll see you in the morning.”
Nyree waved and walked back to her accommodation.She passed a seal who tried to intimidate her with a direct charge.Nyree stood her ground, and the animal backed off, conceding.Keith had mentioned the seals became more aggressive during the breeding season.
She grinned.Little did these seals know.She was a bigger badass than them, and her taniwha would happily eat them for a snack.Her smile faded.She should’ve stood up for herself with Ari.No, Manu had told her she’d done the right thing protecting their secret.He and Hone had investigated Ari, and they’d agreed he’d be a problem if he’d discovered the existence of the taniwha race.Not that this dampened her regrets.
She should’ve handled Ari differently.
With a sigh, she pushed open her door.The earthy scent of lust had her gripping the door with her free hand.
What?How?
Nyree set the plate on the counter, and holding her breath, rushed to shove open the windows.One.Two.Three windows pushed wide to circulate fresh air.
She pivoted, ready to flee outside to rid her lungs of the seductive scent when a loud crash stopped her in her tracks.Her gaze darted toward the source of the sound, and her mouth dropped open.She blinked and refocused.
“What the hell?”she muttered.
5
Miracle
Astrangetinglingpassedthrough Tawera, tightening his chest and confusing his mind.He’d suffered a similar upheaval on the day he’d become encased in stone.He had no clue what was happening now, and a healthy slice of fear trickled through him, mixing with the turmoil already bombarding his body.
Sharp, ominous, high-pitched screeches filled his ears, and they reverberated inside his head.
Snap!Crackle!Pop!
With each torturing shriek, a shard of pain burrowed into his body, his head.Tawera struggled to avoid the phantom weapon, and each writhe increased the agony assailing him.
He was vaguely aware of the woman entering the room.He sensed rather than witnessed her run inside and shove open windows.The instant rush of breeze brought a delicate feminine fragrance to him.Her scent.
Without volition, he reached for her.Yet another booming crack, and Tawera gasped.He’d swear a draft tickled his skin.His naked skin.He rotated his body, and the abrupt explosion had him freezing.Although pain still debilitated him, he forced his eyes open.His limbs and torso shifted with more fluidity and less constraint.
His heart beat so fast he worried it might leap from his chest.
Shock.Joy.Excitement.Fear.
Emotions buffeted him as he tried to understand how or why the stone encasing him was breaking off in large chunks.
A rush of energy pulsed, and this time Tawera embraced pain as he flung around his arms and legs with far more vigor than he’d ever performed ahaka.This was no war dance.This was a battle for his freedom.
Something had changed.Tawera didn’t know what, and he didn’t care.If liberty tiptoed in his direction, he’d seize it and worry over the how and why later.
Tawera pushed and shoved, and suddenly he was flowing freely like a patch of mist.Expanding and solidifying.
The woman—Nyree—croaked and backed up, her eyes wide.
Tawera cleared his throat, his gaze now on a par with hers.Unlike most people of his long-ago acquaintance, she was almost as tall as him.
“Don’t be frightened.I won’t hurt you,” Tawera said.
