Part 16 (1/2)

No, he saved that for the night, after his eyes had finally shut. d.a.m.n the woman for those hot, twitching dreams, too.

He'd worked up a fairly good head of steam as he ducked around a tree, danced between its thick roots at the same time; then he almost fell facefirst into the pond when he spied her. He managed to cling to a thick branch overhead and avert certain disaster. Well, one disaster anyway.

She was sitting on a flat rock that jutted out into the pond, tossing stones at the

gla.s.sy surface... and having a nice little chat. With Ringer.Jesus, Joseph, and Elvis, this was all he needed to make the day complete. Relief that the little beast was safe, was brief, since there was a substantial chance that he'd wring the s.h.i.+fter's neck if he so much as changed a toenail in front of Talia. At least Ringer had the sense to be the same breed of dog he'd been the day they'd first met.

He was about to whistle for him when another idea came to him. Perhaps getting Ringer to pull one of his little s.h.i.+fting acts would be a good thing, after all. Prove to Talia that they were what they claimed to be. Maybe he should have just done that right off.

She laughed just then and reached out to pet Ringer's scruffy head. Beautiful music, that. He'd not heard her laugh like that before, without a thread of derision or surprise coloring it. This laugh had been filled with pure enjoyment. He scowled, feeling foolish for envying Ringer, even for a moment.

He pushed through the tangle of brush and climbed the path toward them. ”I

see you've finally made the little sc.r.a.pper's acquaintance.”

She looked up, obviously startled. Her smile remained, but a certain guardedness had crept into it. He felt a moment's remorse that he'd ruined her respite. Had she really wanted so badly to be rid of him? Was he such a bad sort? ”Baleweg was concerned that you were off alone.” A lie, but he'd also be

d.a.m.ned if he'd let her know the emotions she'd wrung out of him this past

hour.

”I heard a howl and tracked him,” she said, the tiniest bit of defensiveness in her tone.

His brows narrowed as he s.h.i.+fted his attention to Ringer, who was shamelessly lying on his back for a belly rub now. Lucky little b.a.s.t.a.r.d. ”He's okay, I take it?”

She nodded, but surprisingly there was no chastising in her expression. ”He'd gotten himself into a tangle with some brambles, but other than a few scratches, he's fine.” She scratched his belly. ”Aren't ya, boy. That's a good fella.” Ringer pumped his back legs in sheer ecstasy and groaned as she gave him a good scratch. She looked back at Archer, having to squint a bit as the sun suddenly peeked out from behind a cloud. ”I guess I owe you an apology-”

That surprised him. ”For?”

She nodded at Ringer. ”He's in good shape, his coat, scruffy as it is, is clean and untangled, and he doesn't miss many meals judging from this little belly.”

She grinned when Ringer shamelessly begged for more of her attention. Her obvious joy made his skin ripple in awareness.

”You've obviously kept an eye out for him. You were searching for him

earlier.”

No way did heat rise to his cheeks. ”He takes care of himself like a good mate.

He doesn't need me panting about after his every move.”

”I thought I saw you wandering down this way.” She broke eye contact,

turning her attention to Ringer. With a half-shrug she added, ”I happened to glance out of the tower-room window.”

Archer grinned. So, she'd been keeping watch over him, had she? Baleweg

had said she'd been distracted and needed some s.p.a.ce. But perhaps she'd seen him and come after him, hoping to share that s.p.a.ce. The very idea, as well as the fact that they were, indeed, alone together made his body tighten.

Surprising, considering that just moments ago he'd wanted to write her off as being entirely too much trouble.

But when she looked back up at him, with that hint of vulnerability in her eyes, he had a hard time remembering why he'd felt that way.

”Tell Baleweg I'm sorry for worrying him,” she said.

He cleared his throat, feeling a bit bad now for the fib. ”I'm sure he'll understand. You were simply heeding the call of the wild, right?”

”I guess you could say that.” She stood up and brushed off the seat of her jeans shorts. He couldn't recall seeing her in shorts before. Her legs were exceedingly long and slender with a flair of calf muscle. Probably from all that walking. Probably had strong thighs, too, he imagined. Just as he imagined what those strong thighs would feel like, all tight and wrapped-

He cleared his throat and dragged his gaze to the pond. ”Don't you have more lessons this afternoon?”

”I begged off.”