Beauty and the Bounty Hunter by Lori Austin

Author:Lori Austin [Austin, Lori]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
ISBN: 9781101604748
Publisher: Signet
Published: 2012-10-01T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 14

As soon as the words were out of his mouth Alexi wanted to snatch them back. Why in hell had he said that?

He waited for her to ask what he’d meant, but Cat was as good at disregarding what she didn’t want to discuss as he was.

The air inside the asi was warm, even though by now the sun had to have gone down. Despite the fiery temperature of her skin, Cat continued to shiver. He’d hoped the reaction was shock over what had happened. But if that were the case, she would have stopped by now.

“Are you all right, moya zhizn’?”

She remained silent and still; for an instant he thought she might ignore him completely.

“Moya zhizn’,” she repeated at last, the words and the accent as perfect as his own. “What does that mean?”

My life, his mind whispered.

“Silly fool,” his mouth said.

He waited for her response—laughter, a punch in the gut, anything. What he got was an increase in her shivering. So much so he feared she might bite off her own tongue between vehement clicks of her teeth. She must have a fever. The question was: How bad?

“Cat,” he began, pulling back.

His eyes had adjusted to the darkness; he could see her face quite well. Her eyes had rolled back, the whites gleaming despite the lack of light.

Not shivers. Violent, uncontrollable, convulsive paroxysms.

He tried to remember what they’d done during the war when this happened, and it had happened a lot. Usually right before the person—

Cat stopped breathing.

“Did that,” he murmured. Her face was so pale, so still. He pressed his mouth to hers.

No response, but her lips were so damn hot. Soon they would be forever cold, unless he did something.

Alexi leaped to his feet, gathered Cat into his arms, and rushed outside. The moon shone like a beacon across the surface of the stream. He ran to the water, uncaring when stones jutted into his feet, slipping on the grass, sliding in the mud, going down on one knee, then hauling himself back up.

On your feet, Yank! Keep walkin’. Know how you blue bellies like the mud, but if you don’t stand you’ll die there. Hell, if it were up to me, I’d have shot ye already.

Alexi ground his teeth. Would those voices ever go away?

He splashed into the shallows, fought the current, pushing forward as if he could outrun his past. He knew better. The past continued to creep up on him when he needed it to the least.

He checked her face—still pale, unresponsive—kissed her lips again but found no breath, no life. He could think of nothing to do but tread deeper, which proved a good thing. The soft center of his foot came down upon a stone. He recoiled, lost his balance, and they plunged beneath the surface. His mouth, his nose, his lungs filled with muddy water. He shoved against the sandy bottom and the two of them burst free.

Alexi choked, spat, breathed. His heart thundered in his head so loudly, he nearly didn’t notice that she was breathing too.

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