Cay fell back against the tree, her heart pounding in her throat. “How do you know what I want?”
He said nothing, just sat there, his breath coming fast as he tried to calm himself.
“Alex, you smell so good. There are oranges on your breath and I swear I can still smell the jasmine in your hair. You . . .” Turning, she looked at him with her thick lashes shading her eyes.
He gave a groan that was louder than any the alligators were making, and stood up. “You are going to drive me insane, lass. Would that I’d never introduced sin between us. But I must say that you’ve taken to it well.”
“Isn’t that what the pastor says every Sunday? That we all take easily to sin if given the chance?”
“You have adapted better than most. Now, stop looking at me like that. How can I face T.C. Connor if I take you back to him heart broken and unchaste?”
She stood close to him, her hand on his chest, and looked up at him. “Would you break my heart, Alex?”
“There are other body parts that I’m more worried about breaking. Now go! We need to get this fruit back to Eli.”
Smiling, Cay walked ahead of him on the little trail they’d made in the grass as they went back to the camp. Alex said he regretted introducing “sin” into their lives, but, whatever he called it, she was glad for his kisses. She just wished he’d let her finish one of them.
At camp, the others were waiting for them, and Tim had a lot to say about Alex and Cay taking so long to get the oranges. As for Eli and Mr. Grady, they said little, but Cay caught them looking at her in what she thought was an odd way. She sat down by the fire and watched Eli quickly and expertly cut oranges into quarters and throw them in with the birds, peel and all.
Cay was so tired she thought she might fall asleep before the meal was cooked, but she knew that Alex would wake her. As she began to nod off, she thought that Alex always took care of her.
But she awoke five minutes later as a mosquito bit her. It was followed by another, then another. She was slapping at her hands and neck, and even her face, before she jumped up and started waving her arms about to try to get away from them. Eli was calmly cooking and didn’t seem to notice the treacherous insects.
“They don’t bother me,” he said.
“Try this,” Mr. Grady said as he handed Cay a round metal container full of a thick salve. “Rub it on your neck and face. It should help.”
She put some between her palms, rubbed them together, and slathered her face, neck, and the back of her hands. Just the smell was enough to help relax her. “What is it?”
“My mother makes it,” Mr. Grady said, shrugging. “Some kind of oil, with lavender and something else. If it works, I’ll get you the receipt.”
“Thank—” she began, but Alex cut her off.
“Our mother would like that, wouldn’t she, little brother?”
“Very much,” Cay said, looking up at Mr. Grady. The firelight made his eyes sparkle, and the long dimples in his cheeks were shadowed in the dim light. He was a very handsome man, and she couldn’t help thinking about his family. He was an Armitage.
“You want something to eat?” Alex asked gruffly.
“Sure.” Reluctantly, Cay took her eyes from Mr. Grady’s—from Jamie’s.
“One sin a day isn’t enough for you?” Alex said in her ear when Grady had moved away. “What would your mother say?”
“My mother is a very practical woman. She’d say that I could crawl into his tent with him if it got me married to an Armitage. It’s the criminal she’d not want me to kiss.”
As soon as she said it, she regretted it. All she could see of Alex’s face was his eyes, but there was pain there.
“Well, then,” he said as he stepped away from her, “you have my blessing.”
Cay watched Alex leave the campsite and head out of sight toward the grove of fruit trees. She looked with longing at the roast birds, their skin dripping with a sauce made of oranges, then back at the pathway. She was tired and hungry, but she’d hurt Alex’s feelings and she needed to make amends.
Eli solved her dilemma by handing her a tin plate heaped with two roast birds. “Take these to him,” he said softly.
Cay remembered herself just in time to keep from kissing Eli’s cheek in gratitude. Taking the plate from him, she headed back into the darkness after Alex.
“Why does he get first choice?” she heard Tim say from behind her. “Shouldn’t he be made to come back here to eat?”
“Sit down, boy,” Eli said, “and tend to your own business.”