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There’s nowhere for me to turn for privacy, so I do the same, trying my best not to think about the male bodies behind me.
I get the garment on and then reach under the skirt because I’m sure the material must be caught on something.
Nope.
What must be a knee-length dress on a shorter girl, is mid-thigh on me. It must be warm in Ravis’s Territory, because the dress also hangs off only one shoulder. I shrug my boots back on, but there’s still too much skin between the top of the boots and the bottom of my dress for me to be comfortable.
This is for Temra, I remind myself.
When I turn back around, Kellyn and Petrik are both staring at my legs.
My cheeks heat to burning.
“Stop it!” I whisper-shout to both of them.
Petrik shakes himself upright. “Sorry. It’s just, I don’t think that disguise is going to work in your favor.”
Kellyn raises his eyes slowly until they burn into my own. “You— I— You have really long legs.” He swallows audibly before turning away.
“Yours are longer!” I say defensively. How dare he make fun of me right now. Ofallthe times.
Petrik coughs. “I promise he meant that as a compliment. You have very nice legs, Ziva.”
“Stop talking about my legs!”
“Right.” Petrik coughs unnecessarily again.
Kellyn wears knee-length shorts with a loose shirt above, while Petrik has some sort of skirt on beneath a similar shirt. The scholar has also wrapped a headscarf about him to hide the features of his face.
Without any further prompting, I thrust my hand against the portrait of Ravis. Instead of meeting the resistance of the wall, my fingers disappear down to the knuckles.
I take a breath and step through, slamming my eyes closed.
CHAPTER FOUR
I walk through the portrait just like I would an open doorway, but my head bashes against something on the other side.
“Ow.”
I can’t see a thing. The air is stale and hot, and there’s a solid wall in front of me. Am I in a box?
Oof.
Something slams into my back.
Or someone.
A large, warm body—far too big to be Petrik’s.
I’m pinned against the hard surface in front of me, and Kellyn’s body smothers me from behind. His arms brace the wall on either side of me, trying to keep the bulk of his weight off me, but I can feel himeverywhere. His hips just above my hips. His chest against my back. His knees against my lower thighs. His nose in my hair.
And it shouldn’t feel nice. I should hate it.
I do.
I… do.
“Ziva? Are you all right? Where are we?”
