Page 36 of Heart of the Hunter (Band of Bastards #3)
“Now?” she asked, suddenly alert as she wiped her hands over her cheeks. “I’m filthy. I need to bathe before I see Galiena and her little ones.”
“You can bathe there. Red will fetch a tub and water for you.”
“No!” She put her hand on his chest and pulled on his tunic to make her point. “Stop, Hunter. It is the middle of the night, and they will be sleeping. We cannot barge in now and wake them. Is there not somewhere else we can go?”
He had a small cottage on the edge of the Hawkspur village, but no way in hell was he going to take her there.
It wasn’t much larger than the forest hut they’d stayed in only a couple nights earlier and was just as sparsely furnished.
Worse, it had a much more comfortable bed.
Visions of her in it and what would inevitably happen if he brought her there made him shift uncomfortably in the saddle.
“They have two wee, finicky babes. They don’t sleep much these days.” Galiena had given birth to twins only six months hence and even Red was exhausted from the demands of having two babes in need of constant care.
“We cannot disturb them and then request they wait on me by preparing a bath.” She crossed her arms over her chest and fixed him with a stern look, which didn’t look threatening at all with the light of the moon giving her face an angelic glow.
“There must be some place I can go to wash this stink and filth from me first.”
With an exaggerated sigh, he admitted, “There is a stream on the far side of the paddocks below Red and Galiena’s home.
We can stop there.” He cringed and silently chided himself for his stupidity because the only thing worse than having Anora alone in his cottage with the big, comfortable bed was being alone with her while she bathed in a stream in the moonlight.
They rode along the paddock fencing until they reached the end, then he veered into the trees and halted Shadow a short distance from the stream.
He helped Anora from the saddle then untied her saddlebag where it hung over Shadow’s rump.
He was a large horse and easily tolerated four miles at walk with an extra rider and bags.
In truth, the horse could have easily covered the ground at a trot or a gallop with the added weight, but Hunter wasn’t in a hurry to reach Hawkspur while holding Anora close to him.
Anora immediately went to the stream and knelt at the edge, cupping her hands to capture the water and splash a few handfuls over her face, then said, “I think I’m just making the smell worse.
A full wash and change of clothing are the only way to rid myself of the smoke and ash.
” She stood and peered downstream. “It looks like the stream is wider there. Is the water deep enough for me to bathe?”
“Aye, it is. A natural pool forms there.” He almost groaned aloud at the thought of enduring her stripping out of her clothing and easing her naked body into the water while he stood sentinel.
Even if he gave her the privacy she deserved, he’d be imagining what she looked like standing wet and naked in the moonlight the entire time.
Reluctantly, he joined her at the side of the stream and held out her saddlebag for her. “Can you swim?”
“Is it so deep?”
“It’s up to my chest, but the rocks can be slick. Your head will go under the water if you lose your footing.”
“You’ve used this pool often,” she said as she took the satchel. “If the water is no deeper than my shoulders, I will be fine.”
“So, you cannot swim,” he said, untying his own satchel from the saddle. He wasn’t surprised by her admission; most people never had reason nor opportunity to learn the skill. “Then I’d best be prepared to go in the water after you.” He untied his saddle bag and turned in the direction of the pool.
“You should have more faith in me,” she said to his back as she followed him to the edge of the pool. He couldn’t see her face, but he could hear the hint of teasing in her voice.
“Oh, I do,” he said, matching her tone. “I have complete faith in your ability to do whatever it is that will fray my nerves. I think you like mischief, Anora. And I think you very much like testing me.”
When he got to the edge of the pool, he set his satchel on the trunk of a felled tree and signaled for Anora to do the same.
She placed her bags next to his, then looked at the pool before returning her gaze to him. Her eyes sparkled in the moonlight and her lips curved into a wicked grin that made his breath catch in his throat. “I do like to fray your nerves, Hunter. It is the only way I can get your attention.”
For a woman who claimed to have little experience with men she was proving quite adept at being coquettish.
The only problem was, she was too innocent to realize how she was affecting him, how much he wanted her, and how difficult it was going to be for him to stop when she became overwhelmed by the reality of what it really meant to be lovers.
But he would stop when she asked him to, no matter how close it came to killing him.
“You have my attention,” he drawled as he pulled his tunic over his head and dropped it on the ground as he stepped closer to her. “But I don’t think you really want it.”
His intention was to scare her off, certain that once she saw him stripping off his clothes, her embarrassment would send her fleeing from him as fast as her long legs could carry her.
“I don’t think you know what I really want,” she said, her eyes riveted on him, which only made him burn hotter.
“I don’t think you know what you really want.” He loosened the ties at the neck of his shirt and tugged it over his head, fully expecting that by the time he had it off, she’d be mortified and turning away from him.
She wasn’t mortified and she hadn’t turned away.
Instead, she explored his chest with her eyes, taking her time as she perused every inch of his bared shoulders and stomach.
Hell! Now he wanted to turn and run. He was becoming painfully hard and the only remedy available to him in the foreseeable future was a dousing in the cold water of the pool.
“Anora,” he growled in warning.
She lifted her gaze to his and licked her lips. The sight of the tip of her tongue gliding over her perfectly plump mouth nearly broke him, but he gritted his teeth and concentrated on calming the rapid pounding of his heart in his chest while he cleared his head.
Nothing good can come of this. You will end up hurting her, tainting everything that is good about her. Walk away now, fool! He had just about regained his control and was willing himself to turn away from her when her soft, low voice called to him like a siren’s song.
“I want you, Hunter.”
Fuck!