Page 5 of Heart of the Hunter (Band of Bastards #3)

A nora attributed her stubborn nature to the fact that she had spent most of her life surrounded by men.

Her mother had died when she was a young girl and Anora had grown into a woman without her, leaving her life to be influenced almost solely by men.

Perhaps other women were just as willful as she was, but she didn’t know enough of them to be certain.

What she was certain of was that she would not let Hunter intimidate her, hence the reason she had turned her back on him and strode determinedly toward the door at the back of the chapel when he tried to shame her into getting over her fear of rats.

She’d spent enough time with men to know that they were often full of bluster, and the easiest way to find out was to challenge them on it.

Her intention was to make it clear that his attempt to press her into action would not be tolerated, but she fully expected him to stop her before she reached the door.

She could play the game of manipulation just as well as he did, and she refused to be coerced into cooperation by demeaning taunts.

With men, if violence wasn’t involved, then it was merely a game of will, and of that, she had an abundance.

She heard his frustrated grunt as he hefted himself up the ladder and out of the hole to follow her from the confines of the confessional. Her height matched that of most men, but he still caught up to her in only a few strides before he grasped her arm and swung her around to face him.

“Let me go, Hunter,” she snapped through gritted teeth.

“Do not run away from me,” he countered. “Your foolishness will get us both captured.”

“You are to blame,” she said as she pulled her arm free of his grip.

“I didn’t ask you to help me; you ordered me to come with you.

I’ve followed your every request, despite your propensity for rudeness.

You whinge about me being here when it was you who said I must come with you, and now you are whinging about me leaving after you said you prefer to work alone. Make up your mind and be done with it.”

At least he had the wherewithal to look abashed by his arrogant behavior. “I thought that if I angered you, you would try to prove me wrong and forget about your fear of rats.”

“And I thought you to be a better man, but you are as much of an ass as the rest of them.” She’d meant the for the words to sting but she softened her rebuke at his unexpected confession.

“You thought wrong. I am the worst of men, and you would do well to remember that.”

The words were said in an even tone, but he averted his eyes as he spoke, and she wondered what caused him to think so lowly of himself.

She didn’t really believe him to be a bad person; she’d only wanted to get his attention.

He may be a man of the sword with blood on his hands, but he had always acted honorably toward her and her father.

“Now it is I who must apologize because I just tried to bait you as you did me. I do not think you to be an ass.”

His gaze snapped to her face as though startled by what she said, but whatever she saw in his eyes was unrecognizable to her and gone as quickly as it appeared. “High praise, indeed.”

She rolled her eyes at him. “For a man of few words, the ones you do speak have the sharpest of edges.”

He looked flustered by her response, as though it were unexpected. “You are baiting me again. Now is not the time.”

“You are right. On both accounts.”

His eyebrows arched high in disbelief at her response, which seemed to fuel his arrogance. “I am always right. And I will not let the rats near you.”

She shook her head at his arrogance and sighed. “Then lead the way, Hunter, for if you are wrong about the rats and I get bitten, I will have the satisfaction of reminding you of it every day for the rest of your life.”

Much to her satisfaction, his lips twitched in the barest of smiles and he ran a hand over his face to hide it.

“Fair. Let’s go.” With that, he turned on his heel and headed back to the confessional.

She took a deep breath to steel her nerves in preparation for what lay ahead and followed in his wake.

Before he entered the confined space, he stopped and handed her the torch. “You must go down first. I will return the chair to its place and replace the door in the floor behind us.”

“I-I can do that, just tell me what to do.” She heard the desperation in her voice and swallowed hard to put the thought out of her mind of the sharp-toothed rodents waiting below.

He handed her the torch and shook his head. “The rats run from the flame. You will have all the control.”

It was not the answer nor the reassurance she’d hoped for, but she wrapped her fingers around the base of the torch and positioned herself at the edge of the opening in the floor.

With her legs dangling, she stuck the flame through the hole and waved it around, then grabbed the top rung with her free hand as she found her footing on a lower rung and started the descent into what she was confident must be the bowels of hell.

She waved the torch in a wide arc when she reached the bottom to ensure the rats were scattered before she stepped down onto the dirt floor.

She didn’t dare look up as Hunter started his descent, preferring to keep her eye on the enemies she expected to emerge from the shadows if she let her guard down.

Above, she could hear the scrape of wooden chair legs on the floorboards and the thud as he dropped the wood panel in place overhead.

With her back to the ladder, she continued to wave the flame in front of her muttering threats to any rats who might be lurking nearby.

“Unless you move, I will step on your head.” Hunter’s voice carried down from above her, and she looked up to see his muscular thighs nicely accented by the stretch of his breeches as he descended the stairs.

Reluctantly, Anora took a small step forward.

His back brushed along hers as he dropped to the floor and his shoulder bumped against her when he turned to stand behind her.

She could feel the heat of his chest at her back, and the rhythm of his breathing was a comfort to her as proof she did not have to face the rats alone.

It wasn’t until he reached around her that she realized she was leaning into him.

She should be mortified by her conduct and put a decent amount of space between them, but she preferred his reassuring presence at her back to keep her safe from any rats who might think to attack from behind.

“You are not going to let go of the torch, are you?” he asked as he closed his fingers around the base of the torch and gently tugged.

She shook her head and gripped the torch like it was her only means of survival.

When he closed his fingers over hers and nudged her forward with the pressure of his chest against her back, she did not resist. The chamber around them was only about the width of a man’s outstretched arms, but the length of it stretched out before her with no end in sight.

His arm circled around her waist, and they slowly started moving forward.

She bit her lip and tried to concentrate on walking, but she was distracted by the way his body felt pressed to hers as they progressed like a stumbling four-legged creature who couldn’t keep its feet from getting entangled together.

“How far must we go before we are free of this place?” Her voice sounded breathless, even to her own ears, and she hoped that Hunter would assume it was from fear and wouldn’t realize that it was because she had never been this close to a man before, or had her body meld with a man’s as hers did now, or felt dizzy from the thrill of being held in the circle of a man’s arm.

She’d had one man try to kiss her, but she’d felt nothing but repulsion as his fingers dug into her shoulders and dragged her toward him while the stale odor of his breath wafted over her.

His lips had felt dry and the pressure of his mouth grinding against her mouth had convinced her she never wanted to kiss a man again.

A snort of laughter escaped his throat and brought her attention back to the present. “When traveling at a pace greater than a shuffle, the distance is not so far. But like this? We should be out of here by Mabon.”

She gasped. “But the autumn equinox is still five days away!”

“Aye,” he grunted from behind her.

“That will not do,” she said with a sigh.

As much as she hated to give up the safety of Hunter’s body shielding her, she hated more the idea of being stuck in this horrible rats’ nest any longer than absolutely necessary.

The rodents had scattered when they dropped into the underground chamber, but she feared it was only a matter of time before they became comfortable with their presence and returned to investigate.

She released the torch and ducked under his arm but kept one of her arms wrapped around his midsection. “You lead.”

Saints above, but this feels nice. She almost stopped in her tracks as that thought flitted through her mind, and there was no denying she liked the feel of her arm pressed against the solid warmth of his torso.

His stomach was flat, and she had the sudden urge to splay her fingers across the hard expanse and press her cheek to his back.

He smelled of trees and leather and something wonderfully earthy that made her want to bury her nose in the locks of hair that brushed along the top of his back.

“You will have to release your death grip on me if we are to move any faster.” When she hesitated, he added, “You can either climb on my back and I’ll carry you, or you can hold onto the back of my tunic and follow me.”