The Arrival (Birthright Trilogy #1) (15 page)

Alek was surprised to see Catherine at the waters edge. He’d thought all the women would have slept for a few more hours, at least. About to call out a greeting, he stopped when he noticed her slack jawed expression.

It was at that point I could suddenly make out the rational voice in my head.

It was screaming;
STOP STARING, HE’S LOOKING RIGHT AT YOU
.

My eyes jerked up to dark blue ones, regarding me in amusement, one eyebrow arched.

OH MY GOD.

And in the manner of any intelligent, attractive, level headed, sensible female who had been caught out…

I promptly blushed beetroot, muttered something unintelligent, snatched my things and bolted for the tent. I hurtled past Daron who was headed toward the river.

Alek stared after Catherine. She’d turned a rather remarkable shade of red then run off.

Not far off the color of her hair,
Alek mused in amusement. She obviously approved of what she’d seen; he chuckled, recalling the shocked expression in those wide, green eyes when she realized he’d seen her.

'Alek! What’d you do to Catherine?' Daron appeared at the end of the track, a concerned expression on his face.

Alek smirked.

Uh oh, thought Daron.

I know that look.
He stopped in the track and gave Alek a look of his own.

'Explain. Now.'

Alek arched an eyebrow at Daron’s tone.

'I did nothing to her,' he struggled to keep a straight face.

'She simply didn’t realize I was swimming here and seemed a bit,' he paused as he gave Daron a crooked grin. '…surprised to find me.'

Daron envisioned the scene and gave a snort of amusement.

'You do know your drawers are essentially see-through when wet, Alek.'

'You know, I do believe Catherine noticed that. Anyway, I thought they’d be asleep for at least a few more hours and it’s not like I thought to pack my other shorts,' he shrugged.

I burst into the tent, scaring Lucky, and dropped on my cot, burying my face in my pillow.

Oh God, oh God, fuck fuck fuck. I can’t believe I just did that!

'Cat, what’s wrong?' Loi leaped out of her bed and rushed over to Cat who’d just thrown herself on her cot, her face bright red. Cat mumbled into her pillow.

'Cat, we can’t understand you.'

Kassie and Sian had joined her by Cat’s bed and Sian stroked her trembling back. She sat up, still bright red and either about to laugh or cry.

The girls stared at me in concern.

'Are you okay?' Kassie hesitantly asked.

I nodded my head then shook it, 'Yes…No…Ohh I’m so embarrassed.'

I buried my face in my hands for a moment then took a deep breath.

'I went to the river to wash my clothes,' the others nodded, faces intent as they listened. 'And as I was washing my top I heard a splash. I thought it was Audi. I looked up and it was Alek. He was basically naked in the water and I stared and he saw and oh my God, I feel like such an idiot.'

I didn’t think my face could get any hotter as Sian, Kassie and Loi stared at me.

'What do you mean ‘practically naked’?' Sian asked curiously as she bit the inside of cheek to stop a smile.

'White shorts.' I snapped, 'Wet, white shorts.'

I glared at Loi who silently rocked with laughter, tears running down her cheeks.

Kassie had a wide smile.

'And he caught you staring?'

'Yep…'

All three of them did the silent laughter now. Until their breaths ran out that is.

'Oh—My—Goodness,' gasped Kassie. 'I would have LOVED to have seen that.'

Sian, wheezing with laughter, nodded.

'Oww it hurts,' she gasped. 'My stomach.'

Loi made funny squeaky noises as she fought for breath.

I, on the other hand, simply sat there getting hotter and hotter.

Kassie managed to catch her breath and glanced up to notice Cat’s rather spectacularly red face.

'C’mon, Kitty Cat,' she teased which made Cat’s eyes narrow to green slits. 'Isn’t it just the littlest bit funny?'

Cat stared at her for half a second longer, then started to laugh. Kassie chuckled and climbed on to the cot beside her. This wasn’t the best idea, as it promptly collapsed and caused the hilarity to reach new levels.

Outside Gredel stared suspiciously at the tent and the hysterical laughter that came from within. He had a sinking feeling it was about him. He felt somewhat stupid after Daron and Sabyn talked to him, he hadn’t realized it until they’d pointed it out. It wasn't like him to act so daft, and to have to have his friends point it out?

He sighed and stomped over to Phroma, leaning against the violet winged griffon. Phroma arched her head down toward him.

‘What’s wrong, friend?'

Gredel gave her a smile.

‘I miss Citaan,’
he sighed again.
‘And I don’t know what the guys are doing and I can’t leave those cackling creatures alone to find out.’

He glowered at the tent.

Phroma made a soothing noise,
‘We’ll see Citaan soon and I’ll ask Loushka what the others are up to.'

Phroma was silent for a few moments as she chatted to Loushka and Gredel waited patiently. As a griffon rider, he’d been linked to Phroma from her birth and was able to communicate with her via telepathy. All griffon riders had this ability once they had linked. The bonus with speaking telepathically was that you could share images as well as thoughts and Phroma was able to show Gredel the image of Catherine’s astonished face.

Looks like I'm not the only one to make a fool of myself.

He roared with laughter, loud enough to startle those in the tent into silence, as he watched the flustered redhead run off down the track.

Finally, we settled down and the others grabbed the things they wanted to wash. This time, we would do it as a group and we’d inform the men that we didn’t need any entertainment.

Kassie winked at me.

'No matter how attractive, huh, Cat.'

I fought back a smile and growled at her, 'Enough. I’m trying to look normal here instead of resembling a tomato.'

The others grinned at that.

'Ready, Cat?' asked Loi, her eyes dancing.

'As ready as I’ll ever be. Let’s get this over with.'

We walked out to the breakfast area toward the men and they all gave low bows as we approached.

When they straightened up we could see they were trying not to laugh.

He must have relayed the story well, they all look quite amused.
I fought the urge to blush as I turned to Alek.

'I trust you are done with swimming at the moment?'

His lips twitched slightly as he gave another bow.

'Indeed, allow me to return the dagger you dropped.'

Alek gravelly handed over the weapon.

Biting my lip hard to stop from laughing, I accepted the dagger.

'Thank you.'

Sian watched, amused, as the couple exchanged polite chit chat along with Cat’s dagger.

I wonder how long it’ll last, she thought. Cat’s awful at holding back laughter, and if she chomps on the inside of her cheek any harder she’ll bite through it.

Sure enough, Cat gave a gasp and doubled up.

With a concerned expression Alek reached for her but before he got there she’d sunk to the ground in helpless laughter and caused them all to start again.

It looked like Gredel had got over his own embarrassment, Daron thought, as he watched him laughing hard with Kassandra. Sian, the petite blond, held one hand delicately in front of her mouth as she giggled, tears streaming down her face.

I grabbed Alek’s outstretched arm and pulled him down beside me while I tried to contain the hiccups I’d developed.

'I’m ‘hic’ so sorry. ‘hic’ I didn’t mean to stare ‘hic’ you do have a rather ‘hic’ good figure by the ‘hic’ way and ‘hic’ hey, I’m only human.'

I leaned against him as I hiccupped and laughed, trying to catch my breath.

Alek stared down at me in astonishment.

'You are a remarkably honest woman.'

I laughed.

'Yep. And just try shutting me up.'

He laughed then.

'Well, I seem to have discovered one way to leave you lost for words.'

I gave him a shove, 'Conceited much. You wait. IF there is a next time I won’t even spare you a glance.'

Well that broke any awkwardness now, didn’t it?

Alek looked down at the feisty red head; her green eyes gleamed with mirth, and laughed at her threat.

'I’ll have to try harder then.'

He stood and helped her to her feet. The others still chuckled and the formal mood had gone completely. Daron and Rumal chatted to Sian and Kassandra, and Sabyn had appeared with a plate of food for Laura who beamed in delight.

I accepted another plate from Sabyn and sat down to eat.

Afterward Daron and Alek carried our gear to the river so we could wash it. It seemed the chivalrous male was normal here. Nothing wrong with that, and I winked at Loi as she arched an eyebrow at me.

I scrubbed the gunk off the daggers with handfuls of river sand, relieved to see the blades shiny again. Even my clothes survived a vigorous wash, which was great as I wasn’t going to wear them with even the slightest trace of gragnoll. When we finished we walked back to the campsite and spread our clothes over low bushes in the sunlight. The men waited for us and when we’d finished we all sat on the logs in the ‘dining’ area.