Page 38 of Desire's Ransom
“What’s your business?”
“I need your help.”
“My help?” She frowned. So hehadcome here intentionally. “What kind o’ help?”
“The kind that puts silver in your purse.”
Temair gave a humorless chuckle. “I don’t need tohelpye to put silver in my purse, English. All I need to do isrobye.”
Indeed, she should do just that and be on her way.
But if what old Sorcha had said was true—that there could be an active search for someone matching Temair’s description—then letting him go was too great a risk.
“You really won’t help me?” He seemed genuinely puzzled.
“Why should I help ye?”
“I thought after…that is…after we…hmm.”
“What?” She knew what he thought. He thought that maybe after that breath-stealing, world-shattering kiss they’d shared, they’d forged some sort of a connection…had a meeting of hearts…bonded on an earthy level that had rendered them forever intertwined…
He was right.
She felt it too.
A part of herdidwant to help him.
But her life was in danger. She had to help herself first.
She’d start with helping herself to his silver.
She nodded to his pack. “Hand over your coin.”
He shook his head. “I’m afraid I can’t do that.”
She blinked. “What do ye mean?”
“If you’re not going to help me, I’m not giving you a farthing.” His eyes were no longer twinkling. They’d become as flat and menacing as a storm cloud.
“Then I’ll have to shoot ye,” she threatened.
Bloody hell, she hoped he wouldn’t make her shoot him. Only two people had ever made her do that. One she’d shot in the arm, the other in the foot. It still made her sick to think about it.
He leveled a rock-steady gaze at her. “You won’t kill me.”
Her return stare was just as unflinching. “Who said I was goin’ to kill ye?” Then she let her gaze and her arrow wander over possible targets, ending between his legs.
His eyes widened a little.
She cocked her head. “Now will ye hand o’er the coin?”
He sighed. “You give me no choice.”
But instead of digging through his pack for his silver, he raised his thumb and finger to his mouth and let out an ear-splitting whistle.
For a moment nothing happened, and she wondered what game the knight was playing.
Then, like a distant rumble of thunder, she heard them come.
