Page 72 of Risks of Temptation

13

Emilia

We're dryingoff when Malin says, "Stop. We need to cross the river."

"Why?"

"If we backtrack, we take the risk of running into Kalim and the other guys on the team. I'm sure they've found out by now what we've done. I don't know if Interpol will tell them to come back, but my guess is Louis will have them tracking us."

A rush of endorphins hits me. "Do we need to worry?"

A thick line forms between Malin's brows. "You're doing it again."

"What?"

"Looking excited about danger."

"Sorry?" I wince, but he's right.

He assesses my face for a moment.

"What?"

"I didn't take you for a woman looking for instability."

I'm not.

Maybe I am.

"I'm tired of being insignificant and boring," I blurt out.

His face falls. He steps forward. "There's nothing about you I don't find interesting. Danger isn't the way to change your life."

The blood in my ears thumps in tune with the rushing water. Monkeys jump and grunt in the trees around us. Malin's gray eyes darken the longer I don't respond to him.

"I haven't felt alive since I was ten. Since you rescued me, I..." I glance at the rock he just made me come unglued on, not sure how to put it into words.

Something is happening to me. I don't understand it. I'm not sure I want to. But for once, the anxiety plaguing me daily is gone. Confidence isn't something I've ever had before. Now, it runs through my veins. I don't know how long it will last, but I don't want it to go away. It feels better than how I was only a few days ago. And Malin makes me feel strong.

"Ma belle—"

"The person I've been my entire life is weak and scared. Everything freaks her out. She misses out on things others take for granted. I don't want to be her anymore."

Malin wraps his arm around me, palming my ass and tugging me into his hard frame. "I don't want you to change. I like you as the person you are."

"Yes, you like the woman who says dirty words and falls to pieces by your touch. You're able to command her to get on a rock to control every aspect of her body. She's the one who can stand here naked, in the middle of a jungle, and not feel self-conscious or shameful. That's the woman you like. The one I left in the pit, she isn't someone you would even look twice at."

His eyes turn to slits. "You're right, and you're wrong, ma belle."

"Oh?"

"Everything you said is true, except the last part. I saw that woman in the pit. I became obsessed with her before I even met her. The moment I took your hand, it wasn't a 'what if you became mine,' it was a when. Everything about you fascinates me, but this sudden attraction to danger you've seemed to develop overnight worries me."

I trace my finger over his chest, slowly outlining his eye of the triangle tattoo. The eye is the most realistic-looking tattoo I've ever seen. "Your entire life is dangerous. Can you honestly tell me it doesn't make the blood in your veins pump?"

He clenches his jaw and looks over my head.

I drag my finger to his Celtic shield knot tattoo. "Your tattoos are all symbols. This one means protection. Your eye of the triangle means intelligence, vigilance, and enlightenment." I slide to his Honor tattoo with the butterfly underneath it, sprawled across his chest. "And here we have honor amid transformation or change."