Even I find it difficult to finish that thought.
“I should ask you if you’re all right. You took a bit of a tumble. Any sprained ankles? Bruises? More cuts?”
“No. I’m fine.” She pushes away from me and takes a step back. Patting down her arms, hips, ass, and the backs of her legs, she takes an inventory of any fresh injuries. “Just my injured pride.”
“Injured? Why do you say that?”
“Because of the…” Her fingers drift up to her mouth, fluttering lightly over rosebud lips.
“Kiss?”
“Yeah.” Her face turns down, staring at her boots.
“Luv, that was an accident. When I kiss you, you’ll know.” Something weird happens to my voice. Half rumble, half growl, I sound like a caveman.
Thing is, now that I’ve had a taste of her, I want more, but that’s not happening. Rosalie’s not mine.
At least, not in the way I want her to be.
NINE
Rosalie
Are my cheeks as red as they feel? Hands pressed to my face, I’m embarrassed by that accidental kiss.
It wasn’t a kiss, just a brushing of lips against one another, but it felt like it could’ve been more.
Not that a man like him would be interested. Men like him don’t kiss people like me: servants, people beneath notice. Simple women. They may take them to bed, willingly or unwillingly, but they don’t kiss them.
After spending last night climbing through the canopy, he doesn’t feel like a stranger, and that kiss didn’t feel wrong.
Regardless, it was an accident. Now, we’re both soaked and we have to move on.
I’ve been in the lead since this misadventure began, but this is the first time I’m thankful that he follows. I can’t bear to look at him. I’m too embarrassed by that kiss.
Talk about wrong time. Wrong place. Wrong man.
Pressing my fingers against the flush in my cheeks, I hope he doesn’t notice, but to be sure, I turn my back to him while I figure out what to do.
That cut on my neck stings. The skin’s hot. My wound’s definitely infected. We’re at least a half day’s march from the closest village. Time to pick up the pace.
Keeping track of direction while in the trees is difficult, but my direction sense is exceptional. I did a great job following the stream, and it looks like that’s exactly what Hayes intended all along.
We’re on the same page, at least.
He follows behind me, steadfast and never tiring. After a period of silence, he clears his throat.
“Do you know where we’re headed? Or are you just following the stream?”
“Yes and yes.” I don’t mean to be short, but it takes a moment to decide whether to crawl over or under a fallen tree blocking our way. Not liking the spongy ground underfoot, I opt to crawl over the fallen trunk and pick my way through a tangle of branches.
“Yes, and yes? Not much of an answer.”
“Sorry…” I make it to the top of the fallen tree and comb my fingers through the tangles in my hair, pulling out the small twigs and leaves that found their way into my hair during my crawl through the branches. “Yes, I know where we’re going and yes, it’s in the same direction as the stream.”
I jump down from the tree and wait for him. Far less quiet than me, he makes a ton of noise, breaking branches as he goes.
“The village where I grew up has a river running alongside it.” I keep an eye out for a Tawari tree.
“Oh, that’s nice.”
“What’s nice?”
“That you worked so close to home.”
“It’s strange when I think about it.”
“How’s that?”
“I could walk to my village, but I never went back after coming to work for Carmen’s father.”
“How can that be?”
“It wasn’t allowed.” I shrug, adding nothing more to that statement. “Much like Carmen, I wasn’t allowed to leave the villa except for church.”
I’ve been a prisoner all these years, although I pushed that complicated truth to the edge of my mind. When it comes to Carmen, her father, and that villa, my emotions are conflicted.
“But weren’t you jus…”
“I was ten when Matias dragged me away from my home.”
“Dragged you?”
“Yeah, it was the first time I felt genuine fear.” I stop and turn to look at Hayes. I can’t imagine him being afraid of anything. Funny how life throws you curveballs and changes how you think about things.
“Matias took you? As in kidnapped?”
“No, he paid my parents to take me away.”
“That seems barbaric. To be sold…”
“I never thought of it as being sold. It was simply a business transaction. It happens.” How to explain the complexities of life to a man who never had to worry about going hungry?
“Doesn't feel like a girl should be a business transaction.”
“I was the eldest daughter. It was my job to take care of my siblings and help my parents provide for them.”
“So why didn’t they keep you around?”
“It was a lot of money, and my siblings were getting older. Old enough to forage in the jungle instead of me. I guess I outlived my usefulness?”
“I don’t understand.”
“I was getting old. It was time to think about marriage and having children of my own, or if not marriage, that I’d become the medicine woman’s apprentice and learn her skills.”
“But you were ten?” He looks at me, not understanding.
“Where I grew up, once a girl became a woman, it was expected she would marry and leave her father’s home. I hadn’t had my… At ten, I was still a girl, but another year or two, that would change. When Matias came, and offered to pay to take me away... My parents were desperate. We went to bed hungry more days than not.”
“Wow. Your family was starving?”
“Times were tough. My mother just had the youngest, and as the eldest, we fed my younger siblings before me.”
“Before you?”
“It’s simply the way it is.”
“I suppose it makes some weird sense? Feed the youngest to ensure they grow?”
“Something like that.”
“And Matias took you?”
“He did.”
“And how old were you?”
“Old enough to…”
“Stop. I don’t want to hear the rest of that sentence.”
“Well, I wasn’t going to say that, but when a girl becomes a woman, she’s expected to leave her family’s home. I wasn’t a woman yet, but close enough that no one questioned Matias.”
“It must have been terrifying.”
“He said I was to be Carmen’s maid. That it was her governess’s idea.”
“Her governess?”
“Yeah, there weren’t other children at the estate and Carmen wasn’t allowed outside, except for church. I had to earn my keep, and being Carmen’s playmate wasn’t enough. Fortunately, I knew a little about cooking, cleaning, and sweeping. Lucinda—that’s Carmen’s governess—took me under her wing. She showed me what to do, how to sew, but the best gift Lucinda gave me was an education.”