“But he left someone behind.”
Rio sat up and pushed his hands through his dark hair. “A bath sounds good.”
She took his hand and tugged. “Come on then. Get in and I’ll wash you, like you did me. It felt delicious.”
Rio stretched and padded across to the small closet that passed for the bathroom. He wasn’t going to tell Rachael he preferred the jungle. After bis performance at dawn, she very well might think him entirely uncivilized. Rachael was making him coffee when he returned.
“You’re spoiling me.”
“I hope so.” She frowned at the marks on his body. “Leeches? Did those nasty little things manage to get on you again?”
“I was laying in the bog, wailing for my shot. They go for body heat.”
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She grinned at him and pushed him toward the tub. “Well, we both know you have plenty of heat.”
He sank into the steaming water. Her hands went to his shoulders, soapy, sliding as she massaged the aches away. “Tell me what happened to upset you, Rio.”
She was standing behind him, her hands wielding magic on his sore muscles. It was far easier to talk about it when he wasn’t facing her. “I took him to the village. It was a long, difficult journey lugging Josh. Half the time I was afraid he was dead and the other half I knew I was hurting him. I didn’t have time to change into clothes so I had to go through the shrubbery bare.”
“That’s where all the scratches and cuts came from. Why did you shift?” She kept her voice curious, careful not to sound judgmental or accusing.
“To get back across the river before the man left behind spotted Joshua.”
Rachael kept kneading the tight muscles in his shoulders. He had made a third kill and wounded others. It had been a bad night. She remained silent, leaning down to brush a kiss on the top of his head.
“I don’t know what happened, Rachael. I guess I was tired. I don’t care what the elders think of me. I knowingly broke our rules. I accepted the consequences. I live with the banishment and it’s never made me feel less of a human being.”
Her hands stilled on his shoulders. Something frightening bubbled in the pit of her stomach. “You carried Josh home and they said something mean to you?”
“They don’t speak to me. They don’t look at me. I’m dead to them. If they happen to look my way, they look through me. If I spoke, if I had tried to tell them what happened to Joshua, they wouldn’t have heard me.”
“Those bloody bastards,” she hissed.
Her swearing startled him. Not just her swearing but her choice of expletives. “That doesn’t sound like South America to me.” He turned his head to look at her, a small grin
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on his face because she could take the sting of the elders’ rejection away with a few choice words.
“I went to school for a year in England. You’d be surprised the things you pick up,” she said and rubbed shampoo into his hair with a little too much vigor. “I’d like to have the chance to meet these wise elders of yours. Greedy little vultures with their hands out and you doing the risky jobs. What about the men you work with?”
If she rubbed any harder she was going to take his scalp off. “Most of them live away from the village and of course we talk. You saw Drake. It’s better for them if they don’t advertise we’re friendly because technically they’re breaking the rules. I guess if the elders can’t see it, they don’t mind it.”
“Sanctimonious bastards.”
He caught her wrist gently. “I’m going bald, sestrilla. I can’t afford the hair loss. I have a woman now and she’s very edgy about certain things.”
She smacked the top of his head with the flat of her hand. Soap bubbles flew everywhere, making her laugh. “I’m not in the least edgy. It’s just that these idiot elders…”
” Wise elders,” he corrected and hastily ducked under the water before she could smack him again. He stayed low while she massaged the soap out of his hair. When he came up she made a sound of complete disgust.