Page 21 of Loving Graystoke's Heir

She felt a twinge of sadness at his words. These women were his friends.

Where did that leave her?

“And you are well?”

His head tilted a little to the side and reminded her of an animal’s curious stare. “I’m alive. All my limbs intact. Everything in its place.”

She looked at him and then the area around him.

He was dressed like the others in a combination of camouflage clothing and muted earth colors. And just like the others, he looked like a fitting piece in the puzzle of his surroundings. Looking down at her own clothes she was sure she made a decent approximation of a tourist trying to fit in and failing miserably. It wasn’t much different from how she felt in America. Even though her family had worked for Graystokes for more than a generation, and she had grown up within a stone’s throw from the Graystoke mansion, she had always felt out of place, except when she was with Donal.

And now, even that had been taken away from her.

He fit in here.

She didn’t.

“We should get back.”

Tamsin moved to walk past him and stopped short when he reached for her arm.

“Don’t.”

Birds burst from one of the trees, turning Tamsin’s head to follow the sound. When she turned back to Donal she saw a war of emotions on his face. Sadness. Frustration. Confusion. Anger was there, too, but it wasn’t directed at her.

“This is why.” He swallowed and let out a sigh that silenced the jungle growth surrounding them. “This is why I left.”

She didn’t understand. The gravitas in his voice told her his words held weight for him, but it felt empty to her.

“I had to hide it from you.”

“Hide what?” Tamsin stepped closer to him, holding out her hand toward his face. She saw a light sheen of sweat on his skin. Had it been there before?

Before she could touch his skin, he reached out his own arm and folded their fingers together, his left holding her right, intimately linked.

“Donal, are you ill? I can help.”

“There’s only one thing you can do.”

Her heart twisted painfully in her chest. She couldn’t say a word so she nodded for him to continue.

“Maybe two,” he echoed her words as his mouth curved into a wry smile. “Don’t try to run. And don’t scream. People will come, and I don’t know how he’s going to react if they try to get between us.”

Her mind was reeling. “I don’t understand, Donal. What do you mean between us? I-”

His hand had nearly engulfed hers before, but as she watched, his hand became… something else.

Another hand.

Another species entirely.

Thick, blunt-tipped fingers as long as her own, but the palm was larger than her entire hand. It took every ounce of courage in her to look beyond that giant hand to the arm that could easily knock her into next week, or crush her with hardly a thought.

But that wasn’t enough. She had to look further and make sure that her mind hadn’t completely twisted and left her insane. No, beyond the massive hand and arm was a gorilla the size of a small mountain.

Oh, she knew that she was exaggerating, but who was there to tell her that she was losing her mind? A small laugh escaped her lips and she cringed, watching the great beast before her. Donal said not to scream, but what about a laugh? A little I’m-about-to-lose-my-ever-loving-mind laugh? Or maybe just a please-don’t-kill-me laugh?

Tamsin was prepared to press her lips tightly together and keep completely quiet, but her instinct told her she could, no… that she should, talk to him.

---