Read Online Hunted by Lindsay Buroker - Free Book Online

wanted to get in
first. She waved for him to go. Sebastian glanced their way, and
she dropped her hand. Presumably people who shared beds worked
these details out early in their relationships, though she supposed
she could claim this was their first night on the trail together if
anyone voiced suspicions.
    Cedar removed his boots, though thankfully
none of his other clothing. A part of her would not mind seeing him
sans garments some day, but not with an audience nearby. He slid
between the blankets and laid his rifle close by.
    “Not sleeping with it tonight?” Kali sat down
to remove her own boots.
    “I didn’t want you to get jealous.”
    She snorted.
    “Will you be all right here if I leave later
to scout Wilder’s claim?” Cedar whispered.
    “I think so,” Kali said. Thus far Sebastian’s
story had panned out, though admittedly coming in at night meant
she had seen little of his claim and his operation. “But on the
chance he’s planning something squirrelly, when would you be
back?”
    “Morning. Early.”
    “I suspect I can keep myself out of trouble
until then.”
    “Hm.”
    Kali poked around for a way into the
cocoon-like bedding. Cedar lay on his side to provide more room for
her. Her options were facing him or not. The former seemed far too
intimate, so she laid on her side with her back to him. Hard, lumpy
stones pressed into her ribs, and cold seeped through the blanket.
Spring might have come to the Yukon, but all that meant was she
probably wouldn’t wake with ice crystals freezing her eyelashes
shut.
    “Can you slip me one of my vials?” she
murmured. “Just in case I can’t keep myself out of trouble
while you’re gone?”
    The blanket rustled. The small container he
pressed into her hand was warm, and she wondered where he had been
keeping it. Kali wriggled about, finding space to draw her knee up,
and she slipped the vial into her sock. She pillowed her head with
her arms and closed her eyes.
    “Does this mean we’re not putting on a
demonstrative display to convince him of the veracity of our
relationship?” Cedar asked, his words tickled with amusement.
    “You’re my beau,” she whispered, “not my
husband. For all he knows, we’ve just begun our courtship and
haven’t had, er, you know, yet.”
    “Ah. No kissing either?”
    “Are you just teasing me because it’s fun and
you can right now without risking a punch in the belly, or are you
implying that you’d actually like to do...stuff?”
    Long seconds passed without a response, and
she winced. Had she implied she wanted him to say he wanted to do
‘stuff’? Because if he did not want to do ‘stuff,’ she certainly
didn’t want him to think she wanted him to do ‘stuff.’ She closed
her eyes and groaned inwardly. When had she become such
a... female ?
    “I only mention the latter thing, because it
would puzzle me,” Kali said, “seeing as how you turned down my
suggestion we might go to the dancing hall last month and I’ve
never caught you leering suggestively at me when I’m bent over a
steam engine.”
    That drew a chuckle from him, but then
another silence. She pulled the blanket higher over her shoulders.
Maybe they should just go to sleep. Sebastian had left,
disappearing into one of the tents.
    “When I was a boy,” Cedar said, “there was
this hound that showed up in town. He was all mange and ribs, but
you could tell he’d be a handsome boy if you fixed him up. He was a
smart feller too. He knew how to open Old Lady Harrison’s screen
door and filch her meal preparations off the kitchen counter. The
dog didn’t have a collar, so I figured I could claim him and he’d
be the perfect hunting companion for a boy. Trouble was, he was
scared of people. He’d flinch away if you lifted a hand to pet him,
and if you cornered him he’d growl and snarl like a rabid wolf. My
grandpa said folks had beat him, and it’d take a passel of patience
for someone to get past that fear and turn him into a friend.