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A cattail corm whizzed by his head. Dec looked up. Annie glared at him, breathing rapid, eyes flashing.
His vision blurred.
He wanted to grab her and shake her.
Or grab her and haul her down on top of him, kiss her until she sob
bed with wanting him, until her hands were all over him…
Shit.
He dragged his gaze back to the map.
A couple of minutes went by. Then she spoke in a shaky voice. “The sooner this is over, the better.”
Apparently, it was her exit line because she spun on her heel and marched deeper into the cave.
Dec folded the map and stared at the fire until all he could see were flaming points of light.
She wanted to sulk? Let her. Why would he give a damn?
She’d gotten one thing right. The sooner this was over, the better.
He put the map away, filled the small pot with water and set it over the fire. Then he peeled and sliced up some of the cattail corms. Those, some wineberry tea and the MREs would do for dinner. Not a gourmet meal, but it would be filling and, according to Uncle Sam, it would also be nutritious.
One small problem.
He had no appetite
And Annie was still back there in the darkness of the cave. So what? She could do what she wanted.
The water was boiling. Dec took it off the fire, poured some into the plastic cup and dumped in a handful of wineberries. The smell was pleasant and the tea might have some minor medicinal benefit. Annie had probably known that. She said she’d learned about wild edibles from her mother.
She’d smiled when she talked about her parents, but she never smiled when she mentioned her uncle Cyrus. If anything, her expression always turned wary.
More than wary.
Frightened.
Okay. Maybe the uncle was a shit. Yeah, but if he was, it had nothing to do with him.
The berries had been steeping for a couple of minutes. Long enough.
Dec blew on the steaming liquid and took a careful sip. Man, it was hot. Yeah, well, that was good. He wanted something warm in his belly. It was black as ink outside and the temperature was taking a nosedive. Hot food would help, as would the fire, though he’d kept it small rather than run the risk of it being visible.
And just how long was the princess going to do the sulking routine?
She had to be getting cold without the heat from the fire to chase the chill of the mountain night. She had to know that she needed food. Whatever else she was, she wasn’t stupid. She surely realized that their survival depended as much on their physical well-being as on his ability to protect her.
And, dammit, letting her go hungry and thirsty, letting her core body temp drop as it well might, was not any kind of protection. He needed to be in shape to get her out of here. She needed to be in shape to follow his orders. No way could he let her delay this mission.
Same as she, he wanted it to be finished with it, fast.
Dec got to his feet. “Princess?” No answer. He rolled his eyes, got his flashlight and started walking back into the cave. “Pity party’s over.”
Still nothing.
Hell.
