Immortals After Dark 04 - Wicked Deeds on a Winters Night

pleasant smile over her shoulder. “He lost the entire series. All pennant hopes... dashed .”
    Cade cast a grin at her before starting off.
    “Watch your step, witchling,” MacRieve rasped at her ear, his temper obviously flaring. “I have no’ even brought my A game yet.”

    Bowe was on edge after just a mile into their journey.
    So much could harm her. While they were playing protect the mortal, it seemed everything out here conspired against them. Bad water, serpents, a certain frog could bloody drop her.
    He felt as if he were carrying the most delicate crystal through a war zone.
    “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.”
    “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

    T he 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