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“We don’t have time.” There was a distinct frustration in his voice. “This whole thing is ready to blow up in our faces. And you say you want to work with me, and you can’t answer a simple, yet important, question.”
“I can only try,” she repeated.
“Try? And what about when it comes down to the wire? What if I need you to put your life in my hands, to trust me without thinking or trying? What then?”
She swallowed, trying to push free, but he didn’t let her go. “I don’t know.”
“This is more than trying to get through something that happened to you, so you feel you can trust me. This isn’t about a date or maybe having a relationship. This is about life and death and the crunch moment.”
“Kodiak—”
“No,” he said, “this is about my life and your life. I won’t risk it.”
“I’m not asking you to risk me. I’m saying we need to work together. I won’t let you down.”
“I’m going to hide you out here where you’ll be safe, and when this is done, you never have to see me again.”
“I’m not hiding out. I never took you for a weak man.”
He put his face close to hers, his voice full of warning. “I’m not just a man, and that’s the problem. And I’m not weak. I’m thinking of you, of keeping you safe.”
“And your own hide.”
“That, too. I can’t keep you safe if I’m dead. And if you freeze because of your phobia of all things canine, that might happen. And who, then, will keep you safe?”
She licked her lips. “You need me to find the Blood Opal, so you can’t just cast me aside.”
“I work better alone.”
“You asked me a question and I answered honestly. In this I can trust you but beyond? I don’t know, I really don’t. I have a lot to get through.” She lifted her face to him. His gaze was guarded, but he didn’t stop touching her. “And you? Do you trust me?”
“It’s not about fucking trust, Tamaska, not for me.”
“Yes, it is.” She stood, legs shaking, waiting.
He sighed. “Fine, if you’re asking and things are like they are now? No. I don’t think I can trust you not to turn on me again.”
Anger shot through her, irrational and burning hot. “So all that before? What was that?”
“It was me trying to make you understand you can’t come with me. And this whole trust thing isn’t about a life-and-death thing. But if it were just that, then…maybe. But I’m not human and you are.”
His words hung in the air, the meaning coiling about her, mocking.
Tamaska glared. “I’m not asking for your hand in marriage.”
“And I’m not proposing.”
She opened her mouth to argue but stopped. Sadness darkened his eyes now, and she didn’t know what to say. Didn’t know what she should say or what she wanted. And he could see that. As clearly as her.
They also didn’t have time for this. “You need me in this fight, Kodiak.”
His gaze dropped to her mouth. “Damn it, you make things difficult.”
His fingers circled her upper arms, the motion soothing.
“We don’t know the future.” At least, she didn’t. “But you can trust me. In this search, you can. Like I do you. And that’s all I have. Except…”
She wanted to taste him again. She was so tired of running and hiding from her desires. She was sick of being scared. Out of everything, Kodiak, human-form Kodiak, didn’t represent anything for her to fear.
