"So are you planning on dressing me in addition to everything else?" she asked once they'd cleared a challenging rise.

"I planned to pack as much as I could this morning, so you could sleep later," he lowered his voice, "or take care of what went unfinished last night." He'd amazed himself by behaving so unselfishly as that. Her unfulfilled desire made it more likely that he'd get her into bed with him, and yet, he couldn't stand to think of her suffering. "I was attempting to be considerate. Though I've little experience with it."

"I'm not talking to you about this. I'm just not."

"I can feel your need as strong as my own."

"Maybe I do have these needs - doesn't mean you're the one I'll choose to help me work them out." Her gaze drifted to Cade, who was greedily chugging water.

His voice low and seething, Bowe said, "You regard him with an appraising eye one more time, Mariketa, and you're going to get that demon killed. All he wants is to 'attempt' you. Do you ken what that means?"

"In fact, I do ken what it means. In the throes, you know. One of my boyfriends was a demon."

"Boyfriends?" He frowned. "You mean lovers. How bloody many have you had?" He stopped. "Are you free with yourself, then? With other males? Because that'll be ending - "

"What'd you think?" she asked over her shoulder. "That I was a virgin?"

"You're only twenty-three," he said, sounding very stodgy, even to himself. "And I try no' to think of any male before me. But if you were no' an innocent, then I'd hoped it would have been once, in the dark, with a ham-handed human who was so bad you had to stifle a yawn or fight against laughing."

She shrugged. "I'm sure the number of notches in my bedpost can't compare to yours."

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"Aye, but I'm twelve hundred years old! Even if I had one female a year, you'd understand how they could accumulate."

"Well, I am young." Just as he felt a flicker of ease, she murmured in a sexy voice, "But, baby, I've been busy."

His fists clenched.

"Jealous?"

She probably wouldn't think he'd admit to it, but in a low tone, he said, "Aye, I envy any man that's had his hands on you." She gave him an enigmatic, studying expression. "Now, if I guess the number you've taken into your bed, then you'll tell me if I'm right."

She hastily faced forward once more. "Not playing. Get bent."

He narrowed his eyes. "One. You've had one." Her shoulders stiffened barely perceptibly, and he wanted to sag with relief.

"Why would you say that?" she asked in a nonchalant tone.

"Because any male worthy of you would kill a rival who tried to steal you from him. I'm guessing the demon was your first and last. And how did you get him to let you go, then?"

"What if I told you I was still seeing him?"

Bowe shook his head. "No' considering the way you were with me that first night. Besides, if he allowed you to enter the Hie without being there to guard you, he does no' deserve you. When we return, I'll kill him on principle."

25

The deeper they went, the more Land Before Time-esque everything seemed to Mari.

Something growing on the tree trunks made them look furry - and creepy - in the mist. The squirrels she spied weren't gray but red, and many of the leaves on bushes were larger than she was.

Though most of the spindly trees had roots that forked out above the soil, looking like the veins they actually were, the ceiba tree's trunk was gigantic, its roots as tall as she was and as thick as her desk at Andoain -

"Duck." MacRieve reached over her with his machete to cut an overhanging branch. He continued to clear away even more than the others in front of her had - until there was twice as much room as she needed.

"Are my hips wider than I'd figured?"

"Doona want an animal near you. There's more danger here than you're aware of."

At that moment, howler monkeys roared from the canopy just above, startling her.

"Your hips, for the record, are faultless."

She experienced a small - trifling, really - thrill at his compliment, as well as an impulse to swish her hips at him. Then she woke the hell up again and concentrated on navigating the jungle.

Trees fell where streams eroded the soil, so in the areas lining the banks, trunks were toppled over each other like Lincoln logs. The opportunistic underbrush shot up for its spot in the sun - an explosion of growth on the floor that was backbreaking to slog through.

Gradually, she and MacRieve became distanced from everyone - Rydstrom pushed hard with Tera right behind him, Cade scouted the trail ahead, and Tierney disappeared repeatedly to hunt for more food. This seemed to suit MacRieve fine as he took every excuse to touch her, wiping away a bead of sweat from her cheek or brushing a leaf from her hair.

At yet another pile of trunks, MacRieve simply picked her up and carried her. Then later, he did it again at a rivulet - and once more under a log pileup. Over or under and through the woods.

Over, under, over... under. At one point, he sat her on a high trunk, putting them face-to-face. "What're my chances of stealing a kiss from you right now?" His white shirt was unbuttoned halfway down and sweat sheened on his muscular chest. After last night, she now knew how breathtaking all of his body was - every inch of it.

Still she answered, "None point none. I don't want you to kiss me."

"I think you do a little." He brushed a damp lock over her forehead, then smoothly moved his hand just before she could bat it away.

"All I want is to get home, back to my Lykae-free life. Now let me down."




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