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‘Yes, but what if there are?’

‘What?’

‘Nothing If you cannot sleep on the cot, I will bring a hammock It attaches to these’ He indicated the steel hooks embedded in the walls, but heraround the room They were on a ship, for God’s sake Why had it never occurred to shethe floor with the ubiquitous naval rat? She brushed at her dress, her hair, but the ie rose as sharply as if she’d actually awoken to it—the scuffling, snuffling, scratchingthe sudden pressure as the ss Her arms crossed over her chest, her hands at her throat in an instinctive defence

‘Sam, you are perfectly fine, this roo’

He placed his hands on hers, his fingers ainst the soft skin beneath her jaw, stroking the tense sinew along the side of her neck

‘I am not afraid of rats,’ she denied, but her voice wasn’t as firined’

‘Yes, your iood And a sensible person should be afraid of rats—they carry disea—’ He stopped again at her glare and his face shifted into an all-out grin Out of nowhere she rehter Fatio

‘He has the sod He does not bestow it often, but when he does it is as if the sun and the moon and all the stars all join hands to bless you’

At the tiusted with Fatie She’d had no patience for such nonsense at fourteen and even less when Fatiaol To be fair it was asher when she tried to stop Khalidi’s deputy fro crusades gone wrong, as Edge had pointed out He’d been even less iaol and had studiously ignored her for weeks afterwards

His beautiful smile dimmed as she remained silent

‘Sa to worry about Don’t look like that’

‘I’m not’

His hands traced the juncture between her neck and shoulder and it wasn’t soothing any longer Her body heated, the hair at her nape rising as nerves tingled down her spine His eyes rested on her lips and his jaw flexed, deepening the lines beside his ue was pressing against her teeth, begging She couldn’t stop herself fro it Yes, she was ready, so ready for