She gave a choked laugh, though it was still tinged with the heat of her anger. “This is not the job I signed up for.”
“It’s not a job. I’m not sure why you keep insisting this. Regardless, I told you what you could expect before you left.”
“When?”
“At the coffee shop, just before you agreed to return here with me.”
Her gaze went unfocused and then pink tinged her cheeks. “I, um…I didn’t quite hear all that.”
“I said them plainly in your tongue.”
She flapped her hands. “I was under the spell of your biceps, okay?”
“Biceps? That sounds like a word in your tongue not mine.”
She marched back to him. And pointed. At his upper arm muscles. “Those. Happy now?”
A surprising burst of pleasure filled his chest, but he kept very, very still.
Then she folded her arms and lifted her chin. “Anyway, I can’t stay here. This is not where I belong.”
He held his tongue. She was wrong. He was sure of it. She only needed time to adjust. She’d come around.
But having confirmation of her attraction gave him a new idea. He’d been mulling over the druid’s explanation of the magic. If he teased her, drew this attraction out longer, she’d eventually give in to her desire and join with him.
The way he saw it, if she initiated, she was telling the magic she belonged here.
He would simply have to exercise restraint. Somehow.
“I’m assuming we’re too far back for a shower?” she said.
“Shower?” This word was also in her tongue, as if the magic didn’t have an equivalent.
“A bath? Where’s the bathroom?”
He frowned, which made her eyes get rounder.
“Oh shit. Don’t tell me.” She flapped her hands around. “Where am I supposed to pee?”
That he understood. He pointed to a bucket in the corner.
She turned slowly back to him. “You have got to be kidding.”
“Why would I jest about such matters?” At the horror dawning across her features, another stab of uncertainty hit him as to whether his land was a better alternative. Of a certainty, they had a more efficient method for such matters.
“Why, indeed,” she whispered. She turned pleading eyes to him. “I can’t pee in a bucket. Not with you watching. What am I supposed to do with it after?”
“Throw it over into the south ravine like everyone else.”
She pointed to herself, then waved a hand around. “Me. Not where I belong.”
He sighed, stepped into the crisp night air, and closed the door behind him, giving her the privacy she required. Her adjustment might be harder than he figured.
0
comments
Labels:
2019 Top 10
,
Alexa Kingaard
,
Angela Quarles
,
Christina Mandelski
,
Jody Hedlund
,
Lindsey Duga
,
Lisa Kleypas
,
Mary Ting
,
Stephanie Garber
,
Tobie Easton
