On the Hunt - Page 44

She lunged upward as the rhythm began again… She could barely speak as sensation after sensation tore through her. “You haven’t… failed me either…”

“That’s good to know.” He was going deeper. “And for your information, I cannot imagine you as a one-night stand as long as you’ll let me reach out and come into you like this… It’s definitely a long-term commitment…”

CHAPTER

11

The next morning when she woke at a little before five he was no longer beside her. She sat upright in a moment of panic. Get a grip. What did you expect? It was a fantastic night, but now it’s over. She had told him that she wouldn’t expect anything else. It would be foolish of her to—

But there was a message to her from him on her phone propped beside the pillow on her bed. She snatched it up and accessed the message.

I had a few things to do to prepare for the surprise I promised you with Hannah. I’ll be back before daybreak. I’m only sending you this message because it just occurred to me that sometimes you have very peculiar ideas and I thought that I should guard against that at all costs. You were totally everything I could ever hope to experience, and I refuse to let you think anything else. We’ll straighten out everything else as we go along, but remember that and forget about obligations and deals and anything else you might decide to use as an excuse not to have what we just enjoyed many, many times again into perpetuity. Okay? Sleep well.

That was all. But it was enough. She put her phone down but didn’t lie back down herself. Bastard. He shouldn’t have worried her like that. And furthermore, she didn’t have peculiar ideas, she thought indignantly. Everything she’d said had been sensible, and she’d only been careful to make certain he understood she wasn’t trying to do anything that might make him feel caught or demand anything from him he wasn’t prepared to give. Surely that was reasonable?

But she’d refuse to think about what he had said in that message. Except he’d said he’d be back soon and she’d rather think about every detail of what had happened last night and the way her body felt right now as it remembered every note of the way he’d made it sing…

But there was no chance of her going back to sleep now. She gathered clean clothes and her shampoo as she left the tent and headed to the lake for a swim.

Mack jumped to his feet from his blanket outside her tent and ran after her. She laughed as she started to run toward the lake. “By all means, come in for a swim. Yes, it was a good night, Mack. Sorry we couldn’t invite you in. But it was kind of a special time. And it might even be a better day. We’ll have to see…”

Harlan did not get back to the camp before dawn. It was nearly nine before he arrived in the main camp, and when he did, Aban was in the passenger seat of the Range Rover he was driving. Aban jumped out of the car the minute he saw Kira. “I know I should have called and told you I was leaving camp, but Harlan said he might need me. How could I refuse?”

“You could say no.” She turned to Harlan. “What have you been up to?”

“Didn’t you get my message?” He got out of the driver’s seat. “That said it all. But I thought that I should drive down to the pier and have Belson deliver this vehicle to me to use while I’m here. I didn’t want to have to depend on Kalim for transport.” He nodded toward Aban. “Accommodating as our young friend is making himself.”

“Oh, shucks,” Aban said with mock modesty. “That’s what I’m here to do.” He shot a sly glance at Kira. “Particularly since Harlan stopped by and talked Kalim into letting me go with you the next time you go down and scuba.”

“Good.” She turned and focused her attention on Harlan. “I could have gotten you any kind of transport you needed from Kalim.” Kira was still frowning at him. “Why did you have to get that Range Rover from Belson?”

“Because it’s got the kind of carrying and hauling power we’re going to need.” He was sniffing the air at the bacon cooking on the campfire. “I’m hungry. Kalim didn’t offer me breakfast. Can you imagine that?”

“And what were you doing at Kalim’s this morning?” Kira asked.

“I told you, Kira,” Aban answered for him and then turned away eagerly. “I’ll go get you bacon and eggs, Harlan.” He was already walking toward the campfire. “Kira?”

“Not until I get answers,” she said grimly.

“I think she’d appreciate a good meal, Aban,” Harlan said. “She’s going to need it today.”

“Right away.” Aban hurried toward the fire.

“Okay, let’s start at the beginning,” Kira said. “Why did you go wake up Aban and take him with you instead of me?”

“Because you looked so peaceful and beautiful, I couldn’t bear to wake you. If I’d tried, we would have both ended up back in bed.”

She wouldn’t melt. Not until she got those answers. “Would that have been so bad?”

He grinned. “No, so good. But I had plans for today and I wanted you to share them. Aban was the practical solution. I had plans for him, too.”

“What plans?”

“He wanted desperately to go back to his scuba diving, and Kalim wasn’t going to let him, because he was afraid for him. But what if I insisted he go with us? I doubted Kalim would turn me down.”

“He might. You’re not on his favorites list.”

“But I had a talk with Kalim this morning and guaranteed that I’d take care of Aban if he’d permit him to come with us on the hunt. I told him I knew that he’d want Aban to be known among his people as a great warrior, since Kalim was the one who taught him diving as a boy.”