Free Spy Hard by Dana Marton Page B

gave a swarthy smile. “We have a plan then.”
    She seemed relieved and even dozed off after another couple of minutes. The fire cast shadows on her face. She was beautiful in any light. He caught himself and looked away.
    He picked up a small branch and whittled it down to a peg to keep himself busy, cut another strip of leather off his belt and played with that a little, trying to think how he could best fit the two together.
    He let the woman and the boy rest for half an hour, then woke them gently. Mochi came instantly awake. She needed more coaxing, but got there eventually. She moved without protest, rubbing her belly.
    “We’ll walk a little farther, then make camp for the night. We should be far enough by then to be safe.” They needed rest so they could cover a decent distance once the sun came up.
    “How are you doing with the bug bites?” He’d noticed her scratching earlier.
    “My hands are the worst.”
    She had softer skin than he did. He thought for a second, kicked aside the decaying leaf mold under his feet until he got to dirt, then he bent and scooped up some muddy soil. “Give me your hands.”
    She did.
    And he rubbed mud all over them. “This should help a little.”
    Rubbing her slim fingers sent unexpected awareness through him. Man, he’d been alone too long when just holding a woman’s hand turned him on. Pitiful.
    He let her go and busied himself ruffling the puppy so she wouldn’t guess how touching her had affected him.
    “Thank you,” she said, her voice a little thicker than usual.
    “Just don’t forget to wash it off before you eat.” He gave the dog one last pat then picked up their bags and strode forward on the trail.
    Three days.
    It’d probably be best if he didn’t touch her again.
    *
    A SHRILL BIRD call woke Melanie toward dawn. The fire burned low in the middle of their small campsite. It had been enough to keep predators away overnight. And the smoke did cut down on the number of insects, although not nearly enough. She was more than grateful for the mosquito netting over her sleeping bag. Thank God, Jase had thought of everything when he’d packed his bag.
    She rubbed the sleep from her eyes and watched as he slipped from his sleeping bag and stirred the fire. He stood tall, his body well-built, his senses already alert as he observed their surroundings. He had a straight nose and a square, masculine jaw, but her attention only skimmed those, settling on his lips. And for a moment, she could feel his mouth against hers all over again.
    Ridiculous that she couldn’t forget that brief moment. Troubling that tingles pinged through her body just from the memory.
    He stirred the embers to get enough heat to boil water for coffee, but he didn’t add more wood. They would be leaving shortly.
    He looked her way once he set the tin cup on the fire, his gunmetal-gray gaze catching hers. “I’m going to refill our canteens. I heard a creek not far off the trail when we stopped last night. I’m checking it out. Stay here.”
    She couldn’t believe her luck. “Okay.”
    She waited until he disappeared in the bushes, then left her sleeping bag and began gathering up things that she would need for her journey. She took Jase’s backpack, since it was bigger than hers, and left some of the food on a stone by the fire, hoping the ants wouldn’t find it before he did. She owed him some consideration. He had helped her. So far.
    Some of the tension in her back eased. Leaving him without having to shoot him was so much nicer and easier. She’d been worried about that, if she could pull the trigger, if she could somehow steal her pistol back in the first place. She’d worried about what Mochi would think of her, seeing her shoot the man the boy clearly admired. Jase simply walking off and leaving them alone lifted a tremendous weight off her shoulders.
    She tried to free her sleeping bag from the tree, but couldn’t cope with the complicated knots Jase had tied, so as much