Page 18 of To Hunt a Ruby Remedy

She was also right. Except, I didn’t know how close the hunter was. “I can’t risk shifting back,” I told Scarlette. “He can’t know that I’m the dragon.”

She didn’t ask questions. She bit her lip, then her attention snagged on something behind me. “Get in the water.”

“What?”

“Get in the water,” Scarlette repeated. Her hands flattened against my chest and she pushed gently. “It will explain your lack of clothes.”

I took a step back. I was right on the edge of the river. A branch snapped somewhere in the trees behind us and Scarlette pushed harder, her eyes bright with fear.

Reflex had me clamping my hands on her wrists as I fell. I tried to let go, but it was too late.

Nine

Scarlette

I toppled into the river with Ranulf below me. The cool water closed over my head, and I pushed against the warm expanse of muscled chest and flailed for the surface. My skirts tangled in my legs. My hair drifted out in every direction. Finally, my feet found purchase on the riverbed and I stood.

Ranulf wrestled his way upright, and I splashed him. “I can’t believe you did that!”

He raised his hands in surrender. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to; I reacted before I could think.”

The water only came to just above our waists, and despite getting a good look at him earlier, I was entranced by the sight of his chest. Something about watching the droplets slide down from his black hair and over those delicious muscles was mesmerizing. The necklace with multiple charms hanging off it only made the lack of anything else on his body even more apparent. It was a statement that clothes simply didn’t matter, or he’d have put in the same effort to keep them with him. The man hadn’t shown even a sliver of self-consciousness about being naked, and I could see why.

I closed my eyes for a moment. I should be reeling over the discovery that he could turn into a dragon, but somehow that seemed inconsequential compared to nakedness. Shapeshifting was a legend. Naked Ranulf was a too real temptation. “This was not what I had planned for my swim.”

When I opened my eyes, he was scowling at me. “Why did you even plan to go for a swim? You know Gideon is wandering the woods.”

“And he should be far from the cottage by this point. Besides, I figured the risk was minimal. He only cares about finding the dragon. He wanted to pay me to sleep with you and learn anything you knew, not get under my skirts himself.”

His expression somehow grew even fiercer. “You’re kidding.”

I shook my head. “Nope. A half silver for the information and another half silver for how I was to obtain it.” I considered our current predicament. “If he sees this, he’s going to think I changed my mind.”

I should get out of the river. Ranulf could pretend he was swimming without me.

I needed a chance to fully comprehend everything that had happened in the last quarter-hour. I couldn’t do that until I got away from distraction.

I started to turn, but Ranulf’s hands clamped on my hips, pulling me toward him. I gasped, startled by the sudden movement, and incredibly conscious of the minimal barrier between our bodies. He had pulled me close enough that there was no mistaking his reaction to our situation.

His lips barely moved, and his voice wouldn’t carry past the riverbank. “If that branch was Gideon, then he might be waiting at the tree line, watching us. Don’t turn around.”

“Why not?” My voice trembled. I wanted to put my hands back on his chest, to run them up over his shoulders, then back down below the water. But not with an audience. “It will look like pure chance if I turn and notice him. Then he can’t spy on us.”

“If you turn around, you will be giving him a view he has no right to.”

I glanced down at my chest. The water stopped below my breasts, but my tumble into the river had soaked me from head to toe. My thin shirt was completely transparent, plastered against my curves, leaving nothing to the imagination.

My cheeks heated, and I glanced up, expecting to see Ranulf looking at my chest.

He wasn’t. His forest green eyes were on my face, dark and searching.

My lips parted.

“May I kiss you, Scarlette?”

I threw my arms around his neck, forgetting about Gideon, not caring about anything but Ranulf’s body, all the places it touched mine, and all the places it could be touching. “Please do.”

He moved slowly, lowering his head the short distance between us with his eyes still locked on mine. Then his lips met mine and my eyes drifted closed. I could feel Ranulf’s hand fisting in my hair, but his lips were gentle against mine. He kept the kiss light. It was at once both the fairy-tale perfect dream young girls imagined for their first kiss and the heart pounding fulfillment women wanted from their lover. He gradually increased the pressure and sucked on my bottom lip.

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