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She weighed little enough. He easily rolled over until she was beneath him. It took little effort to catch her arms and pin them over her head. He needed only one hand to hold her dainty wrists against the rocky ground. “Stop this.”

But she struggled with more fierceness and attempted to buck him off her hips. Her eyes stretched wide, and her breath huffed in and out of her open mouth in sharp pants. She twisted her hands and kneed him in the back.

“Cara, calm down. I’ll let you go if you stop hitting me.” He couldn’t believe her simple irritation had escalated into this. She looked terrified. Of him.

She blinked her eyes wide, dark and unreadable in the uneven light of the small fire. Her head jerked in what he hoped was a nod of agreement.

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He swung his leg slowly over her as if he dismounted a skittish colt. Any physical pleasure he might have felt at having her body so intimately against his could not take solid form with her fear and distrust so evident. Her thin wrists trembled in his grasp, and he'd never felt quite such a bully. But he still didn’t release her arms until he slid a short distance from her.

She snapped up to a sitting position and flung herself as far from him as the ledge allowed. He kept a wary eye on her but his nose warned him to check their precious dinner.

The fish were slightly seared on the bottom but still edible. He pulled the plate back from the flames and fed another small stick into the fire. Her breathing sounded harsh against the other quiet sounds of the night. His own was little better.

He poured some water from his leather drinking bag into his cup and sprinkled the mint leaves he’d gathered into it, stalling for time until they both regained some sense. He pushed it close to the fire. Warm mint water, not much like tea, but something different from plain water.

“I’m sorry, Cara.” He knew enough about women to understand he should apologize though he wasn’t sure what set her off. “I know you’re a warrior. I only meant that men are stronger of body, not of spirit or purpose.”

She said nothing, only continued to stare at him with her face mostly in shadow. Her chest still rose and fell faster than it should, but her hands had ceased their trembling. He held out the pan with the overdone fish.

She jerked her knife and stabbed one of the fillets with a quickness that startled him. He speared the other for himself and propped it against a small rock while he prepared the other two and set them to cook. The first fish had cooled enough for him to eat it when he was done with the chore. The wild parsley had given it some flavor, and he was hungry enough to think it delicious.

Cara devoured hers with less zeal and no apparent intentions of responding to his peace-offering explanation. He tried again. “I meant you needed to eat more than I because I’m bigger and can go without food for longer without starving.”

“You need more to keep that bigger body working.” Her cool tone was not acceptance of his reasoning.

“I wasn’t trying to insult you. The facts are I’m bigger and stronger than you. If you can’t accept that, then let’s go with I outrank you and I’ll decide when to take chances fishing, hunting or building a fire.” Damned stubborn woman.

“You don’t outrank me. We’re not in the same chain of command. And we should be making such decisions based on logic and not on who has the biggest muscles or which one of us has a penis.”

His hands froze on their way to flip the fish. “Who has a…?”

“You’re not in charge because you’re a man.”

“I know that.” But his mind kept repeating her words. One word. She’d said penis and now that part of his anatomy insisted on standing to attention as if she’d called it. “I’ve taken many orders from women. Claudia Celebria has always outranked me, and many members of the Realm Council are female. They give me orders all the time.”

He flipped the fish and sprinkled the last of the parsley on them. The mint tea simmered in the tin cup as the last small bits of wood gave their bodies to the hunger of the flames. It would be out soon and so much the better.

The silence stretched and it was not the comfortable quiet of their recent time together.

He gave the peace offering one more chance though he still felt he’d done nothing to inspire her ONE GOOD WOMAN SUSAN KELLEY 35

anger. “We should be working together. It’s kept us alive and safe so far. I won’t be so dictatorial again. I trust you as a warrior and a person and only wish you felt the same.”

He stabbed one of the fish and offered her the metal plate with the other one. She hesitated and then took it. The fire was nothing but a pile of ember now. The mint tea was weak and not that tasteful. He sipped some and then handed her the cup. Their fingers touched and another spurt of hot desire shot through his conscious-less cock.

“I do trust you, Brady.” She so seldom said his name. Her whisper from the dark added some strange depth to the desire tightening his belly.

“You don’t act like you do.” He stared in the direction of her voice, but he couldn’t see her where she sat in the shadows of the cliff and towering pines. The first moon would be overhead soon, and then she wouldn’t be able to hide from him.

She handed the cup back to him. “You don’t know me.”

“You don’t let anyone get to know you. Let’s get some sleep. I don’t think we need to set a watch. No one can see us if we sleep away from the edge.”

She’d already spread the blankets one on top of the other. They’d never slept side by side as one of them was always on watch while the other slept. He pulled off his boots, but she remained seated against the stone wall.

The last thing he wanted was another argument, but he wouldn’t sacrifice safety to appease her temper. “I should sleep closest to the front. I have the gun in case someone does find us and tries to climb up here.

She went still, and he held his breath. His temper wouldn’t take another battle of wills or fists so calmly. After a long moment, she jammed her knife into the sandy soil a few times to clean the fish oils off of it. She crawled on her hands and knees to the blankets. With a short, brisk movements, she shook the top one out and then spread it beside the other one.

He relaxed. Using some grass and a small amount of water from his bag, he cleaned the plate. After swigging the last of the mint tea, he stowed plate and cup in his pack in case they had to leave quickly. He set his sword and gun beside his blanket but didn’t expect to have to use them.

The night was peaceful around them but as he stretched out on his side with his back to her, he sensed only tension on the shelf. Why? He’d slept near female warriors many times, though never alone. And never with this particular woman. This woman who confused him and awakened some fierce desire in him. But along with this was a strong desire to protect her that he found inexplicable considering her toughness. The fact was that the merest hint of protectiveness angered her and the smallest overture of a relationship was rudely rejected.

But his body didn’t care. She was so close to him, he could roll over and take her into his arms. He could kiss her serious mouth and press her lean, muscular body to his. Her braid would unwind beneath his eager fingers, and her fine golden hair would curtain them in a nest of desire and lust.

She spoke, her voice quiet and devoid of emotion. His brazen thoughts froze as did his body. He feared even his breathing might silence her.

“I’ve always trusted you as a warrior, Brady. But I’ve never had a friend outside of Solonia. I’ve never trusted any man except Juston Steele.”

He waited, sensing the importance of what was to come.

“We might die here, if not by violence, then of old age still searching for a way home. I don’t want to die alone.”

He turned to face her. “You’re not alone.”

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The moon had finally reached its apex and shone silvery light onto her.

“I’ve been alone for a while now. Alone and dead.”

He wanted to touch her, but he feared she would shatter. This strange moment would be gone and never recaptured.

“I feel most alive when I get to kill Savages. My hate gives me life.”

She fell silent. He gave into his need to fill it. “Many of us hate them and find no regret in killing them.”

“I think Juston understands my hate more than anyone, even more than my mother or any other woman.”

She swallowed, the sound loud in the night. This time he waited.

“Perhaps if you were to really know me, you would realize that I do trust you. More than you can know.”

“I’ve wanted to know you better since I first met you.”

Her mouth twisted into a bitter smile. “There is no me. Cara died almost two years ago.

My body was rescued, but all the things that made me a person died on a mountainside. Died slowly and painfully over a period of endless days after the Savages captured me.”

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Cara told it all to him, even some things she’d never confided to Juston or her mother.

Her virgin body raped, beaten, assaulted in unnatural ways over and over and again. Her wish for a death that would not come. Helpless beneath the stinking, muscular bodies of the Savages as they took her time and time again.

Then against all hope, Juston Steele led a rescue to save her. He’d carried her brutalized body back to Solonia where the Deomo and Katerina healed her physical being.

Juston taught her to fight and use her puny strength against the physically superior Savages. He trusted her with the protection of his family and allowed her opportunities to kill the beasts that had destroyed her life. And Steele understood the nightmares would never leave.

“I would give my life for Juston Steele.”

Brady said nothing for a long moment. Was he disgusted by the degradation she carried with her? The Savages’ filthy intimate taking of her body would never be cleansed. No one’s touch could ever give her pleasure. Even though her mind knew the difference between a human’s friendly contact, her mind still conjured up the thick, punishing hands of the Savages.

No matter her body’s wishes, her mind worked without regard to her wishes.

His blue eyes looked nearly clear in the silvery moonlight. He leaned up on one elbow but there was nothing relaxed in his posture. He lifted his hand slowly and touched her cheek so lightly she felt only the rough brush of his swordsman’s calluses.

“I’m sorry, Cara.”

She shrugged and pushed his hand away as much from habit as discomfort. “Since we’re stuck with only each other, I thought you should know. After what happened with Mia last year, I took an honest look at myself.”

“With Mia? What did that have to do with you? Those Parlanian bastards killed her.”

The image of Brady, blood-covered and furious with grief, standing beside Mia’s grave was another brick on the load of guilt she carried about her friend’s death. Mia, who’d been with Juston and helped rescue her from the Savages.

“It should have been me.” She met his gaze. “I was supposed to go on that scouting mission with you, Claudia and Roth. But Juston wouldn’t let me go because I was so prejudiced against Roth. He didn’t trust me to do my part.”

“Hell, Cara. The Parlanians killed Mia. It could have been any of us.”

“But it should have been me. Mia had so much to live for, so many things yet to do. She wanted a husband and children.”

“She wouldn’t have wanted you to die in her place.”

“I know. But I should have. She had more to give the world.”

“No more than you do.”

“I have nothing to give for the betterment of Solonia or for anything or anybody else.”

She wasn’t feeling sorry for herself. She was being totally honest.

“How can you say that? You jumped in that damned river and saved my life.”

“Saved your life? All I did was mess up again. I wasn’t even thinking. I can barely swim.”

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“How would I have fixed my shoulder if you hadn’t been there?”

“Your shoulder was dislocated because I was holding on to it. I was so afraid of drowning, I wouldn’t let go even though I almost pulled you under with me.”

He smiled. “I’m a very strong swimmer. You didn’t almost pull me under, and I think I was holding on to you.”

He touched her lightly again, his hand warm and gentle. “Maybe I held on so tight because I didn’t want to be alone.”

The seriousness in his tone sent her heart racing, but it didn’t feel like fear coursing so hotly beneath her skin. “You wouldn’t have had to catch so many fish and crabs if you were alone.”

He withdrew his hand and grinned again. “True. But I also wouldn’t have anyone to stand watch while I slept.”

“And we better get some sleep now.” She rolled to her back and folded her hands across her middle. The air would cool by morning but there was no need to roll up in her blanket yet.

She didn’t look as Brady moved and grunted until he made himself comfortable. Men were so much noisier than women. Quiet settled on their camp and she felt him looking at her.

“Thanks for telling me your story, Cara.”

“I owed it to you after the way I acted. Juston made allowances for me and that got Mia killed. I don’t want the same thing to happen to you.”

“I guess I’ll never be able to convince you Mia’s death wasn’t your fault.” He was quiet for a little while before speaking again. “You won’t get me killed. If we can go over those falls without dying, nothing can touch us.”