The Serpent in the Stone - By Nicki Greenwood Page 0,28
return.”
He laid his hands on her elbows. “Sara—”
“Get your hands off me.”
He snatched them away and raised them into the air. The quick, defensive gesture pained her. Did he think she’d use her power against him? “Why aren’t you gone?” she snapped.
He looked her up and down, then scraped a hand through his hair. “I don’t want to fight with you.”
“At least we’re in agreement on something. Only in my case, it’s because I can’t afford to.”
“I told you, I’m not going to squeal on you,” he said. “If I was going to do so, I’d have done it by now, wouldn’t I?” He dropped into a chair.
She remained standing, wrapping herself in offended dignity.
After a few minutes of charged silence, he sat forward just enough to pull a leather journal from his back pocket. He laid it on his knee and studied it as though it were a precious artifact, staring at it instead of her. “The man who attacked my family wanted something from my dad. I don’t know what. My dad wouldn’t cooperate, so the guy killed him. When I tried to fight back, the sick son of a bitch spent the next half-hour using telekinesis to draw little knife marks all over my back while my mother cried. Is that enough information for you?”
Bile rose in her throat. She swallowed back the burn and sank onto her cot, rubbing her arms against the sudden chill in the tent. She longed to say something, but words lodged in her throat. They stared at one another for a long, uncomfortable stretch.
At last, Ian spoke. “Anyway, there’s a reason I’m still here.” He opened the book on his knee and flipped through it. He stood and carried it to her, holding it out.
She saw a beautiful pencil sketch of a falcon in flight. “Falco p. peregrinus,” she murmured, reading the words scribbled below the sketch.
“A Eurasian peregrine falcon. An endangered species.”
She searched her memory. “I thought they delisted the peregrine.”
“The American peregrine was delisted. This is a different subspecies. I need your help with him.”
“Him?”
“I’m pretty sure it’s a male. He’s been roosting on the cliff. I saw him the day before I dislocated my shoulder.” He closed the book, then put it back in his pocket.
“You want me to help you—what? Take pictures?”
“That, and get some information on his habits. You said you were a zoo minor. This is a big deal for my work, finding this bird out here.”
“I have a full-time project going on, Ian. I can’t just leave it to help you with this.” Not to mention, the idea of working shoulder-to-shoulder with him sounded far too appealing, in spite of their mutual misgivings. She stole a sidelong glance at him. His attention was on the page. Expressive eyes. She remembered the way he’d looked at her the instant before kissing her. Hungry. Possessive. She wrapped her arms around herself to quell a giddy shiver and said nothing further.
His gaze came up. “I left my work to help you with your necklace.”
She hugged herself harder.
He mistook her silence for reluctance. “If I help you dig, will you come climbing with me?” When she still remained wordless, he added, “What, I can’t manage a shovel?”
Words. Say something. “What about your shoulder?”
“I already said it’s healing. Besides, if the rope breaks this time, I’ve got you right there to back me up.”
“Don’t joke about that.” She shuddered, not wanting to think of what might have happened to him if she hadn’t gotten there in time.
He crouched in front of her. The motion washed his chalky scent and body heat around her. He stilled, seeming to realize how close they now were. She held her breath and jammed her hands between her knees to keep herself still.
Those eyes. Those eyes traveled all over her. Curious. Cautious. Something more that was too dangerous to name. She shivered and wondered how it would feel if his hands followed where his gaze led. Shivered more, because as scared as she was, she wanted it.
He snapped out of it first. “I’m calling a truce. Or trying to. Give me a day, two at most. I’ll help you for today, and you try rock climbing with me. If you don’t like it, we don’t do it.” He extended his hand.
There was no way out of this but to touch him. She took his hand. The sensation of his warm skin on hers set off a shivery chain reaction that started from the tips