All of that had been perfectly harmless—nothing one wouldn’t expect between friends who happened to be reasonably attractive.
What had been racing through Constance’s brain since last night felt somewhat less harmless.The sight of Neil facing down that tiger with his flaming sword in spite of a very deep natural aversion to danger haddone thingsto her.
Things that did not seem to be easy to undo.
She was havingnotions.
It had taken an act of sheer will for Constance to hand Neil back his scabbard without dragging the man down to the floor with her.She’d had to fight to resist running her hands over his chest when he’d stripped off his soaked shirt to hang it up to dry.As she had finally lain down on her blanket beside him and tried to go back to sleep, she had been tormented by thoughts of climbing onto Neil to kiss him senseless.
She was having the bloody notions again right now, and all Neil had done was pause to take a swig from his canteen.
Subhas stood right beside him, bare-chested and frowning—a look that undeniably suited the Adrija law student very nicely.Constance would normally have made a point of stopping to appreciate that sort of thing.
She barely spared him a glance.Her attention was locked on Neil’s Adam’s apple as it bobbed against the pale column of his throat with his swallow.She was suffused with the urge to rise up on the toes of her boots and lick it.
Constance had always admired Neil.Even when they were children and she’d made it her purpose to find ways to rile him up, she’d been mostly motivated by the fact that he was just so terribly clever.It made winning his attention away from his piles of books—even his mortified or exasperated attention—feel like a boon.
Her respect for him had only grown since they’d become reacquainted.Neil had grown into an exceptional man.He was far from perfect—he’d done some absolutely infuriating things in the brief weeks since they’d become reacquainted—but he wasn’t afraid to admit it, and he genuinely worked to do better.He listened.He thought about things.Hecared.
There was nothing respectful about the way Constance thought of him at the moment.
Everything would’ve been fine if not for that blasted tableau—Neil, all lean and scholarly and not at all the conventionally heroic type, standing in the rain as he faced down a gorgeous deadly beast with a mythical sword glowing in his hands.Constance was quite sure the image would be emblazoned in her mind till her last breath.How could it not?
It was no wonder she was having lustful thoughts.If she hadn’t been, someone ought to check her pulse.
Constance definitely had a pulse.
What she needed—rather urgently, it would seem—was to find a way to settle things back to normal.She could hardly run around consumed by the urge to lick Neil’s Adam’s apple, could she?
There must be a way for her to exorcise these demons and get back to the comfortably abstract desire she’d enjoyed for the last several weeks.
Thankfully, Constance had a plan for that—one that she intended to execute just as soon as the opportunity presented itself.
She was looking forward to it.
?
A short distance later, Constance pushed through the brush to reveal a carved stone archway that towered over her between the trees.
Neil gripped her arm as he stared up at it.“It’s a torana—a ceremonial gateway!Connie, there’s a torana here!”
His hand was hot on her skin through the thin fabric of her blouse.
“Look at the fluting on those columns!”Neil rambled on.“If that’s not Persian, I don’t know what would be.I knew there must be some Achaemenid influence on later Indian architecture!”
He could lift me up against that ceremonial gateway and kiss me senseless,Constance thought distractedly.
She scowled with frustration.This was intolerable.“It’s a very nice torana, Stuffy.”
“Henduko, Abbaya.Konja!”Jignesh exclaimed cheerfully.
Constance plucked Neil’s too-distracting hand from her arm.“Konja?”
“It’s our clan name,” Subhas replied, mildly amused.“It means ‘monkey.’They’re on the arch.”
She realized that the weathered carvings on the stones weren’t just ornamental decoration.Lanky limbs and curving tails wove through depictions of thick leafy vines heavy with fruit.
“It really is Kishkindha!”Constance burst out excitedly.
