Desert Rose (Book #1 - Warrior Series)
Page 15
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After donning the clean abaya and burqa she’d found in Mary’s bureau over her own now washed clothing, Emma adjusted the headpiece so that only her eyes were visible. She gave herself a critical once over as she stood before the mirror and made a few small adjustments. All in all, she was pleased that the garments fit her so well.
She hoped she’d be taken as just another native woman making her way through the streets of the war-torn capital city, in spite of her bright blue eyes. “So I’ll keep my eyes downcast or I’ll squint a lot,” she muttered to herself. “I’ll just be extra careful.”
David walked into the bedroom a few minutes later. He paused behind Emma. She studied his reflection in the mirror with the help of the flickering light of a nearby candle. Tall, rugged, and too sexy for words, he wore makeshift attire that made him resemble a rogue Middle East sheik. The fact that his hair had grown long enough during captivity to curl at his neck and tumble haphazardly across his forehead helped, too. A traditional Marine Corps haircut would have signaled David’s identity to the locals in short order.
Turning to face him, she carefully inspected the length of yard goods she’d arranged on him and pinned into place to conceal his flight suit and boots. Since Mary Winthrop was single and didn’t have any masculine native clothing in her closet, they’d been forced to improvise with a bolt of cream linen fabric they’d found in her sewing room.
“You’ll have to be careful when you walk,” she noted as she circled around him. “All those zippered and velcroed pockets on the arms and legs of your flight suit might show.” She frowned. “I just wish I’d been able to fashion something to cover your head.”
David curved his hands over her shoulders and drew her against his body. “No one’s going to be checking out my wardrobe. We’ll be on the move until we reach the Canadian Embassy, and my flight suit doesn’t smell as rancid as it did since you scrubbed it while I was asleep. Did I remember to thank you?”
“You did.” She exhaled, the sound an echo of the apprehension she felt.
He hugged her then. “Relax, Emma.”
“Sorry, I’m just nervous. We were lucky last night.”
“Our luck will hold. All the usual chaos is going on outside. These people are too busy trying to bomb each other back to the Stone Age to pay much attention to us. Our real challenge is not getting caught in the crossfire.”
She forced herself to step back, square her shoulders, and smile up at him. What she really wanted to do was find a cave on the other side of the planet and hide there in the safety of his arms until the world became a more peaceful place.
“I’ll be alright once we’re on our way. Waiting is the difficult part.”
David winked at her. “We’ll head out in a few minutes. Did you leave a note for your friend, just in case she’s not at the embassy when we get there?”
Emma nodded. “I tucked it into the cookie jar.” She grinned at his startled expression, some of her tension easing. “Trust me. That’s how we left messages for each other when we were in college.”
He cupped her face with his hand, the tenderness in his eyes making her heart lurch. “I trust you. You’re the only person I do trust.”
In spite of her promise to herself to remain strong, she asked, “We’re going to make it, aren’t we, David?”
“Or die trying,” he ground out.
Emma flinched. David didn’t seem to want to acknowledge her reaction. Instead, he slipped his arm around her shoulder, collected the candle she’d used while dressing, and nudged her in the direction of the front room.
Unwilling to avoid the truth any longer, Emma eased free of David when they reached the living room. “Whatever happens to us tonight, I want you to know that the last three weeks with you have meant everything to me.”
He stepped forward, but he hesitated when she stayed his advance with an upraised hand. “Please, let me finish. I really need to say this before we leave.”
His expression unreadable, David nodded. He remained motionless less than two feet from where Emma now stood.
She studied her clasped hands as she spoke. “You’re everything to me, David. Your strength and your courage, not to mention the advice you gave me that first week at the prison, have helped me more than you’ll ever know. You’ve also been very tender and more sensitive to my needs than the man I almost married.” Unable to look at him until now, she lifted her gaze and whispered her truth. “I’m in love with you, David, and even if you walk away from me once we’ve made it home, I will always love you.”
He seized her and jerked her against his chest, his usual gentleness absent. “I love you, too.”
He kissed her then, a kiss so powerful that Emma felt the impact of it like an electrical shock to her body. When David finally released her, she realized that, whatever happened in the hours ahead, she felt more alive now than she had at any other time in her life.
“Let’s go home, babe.”
Smiling through the tears flooding her eyes, Emma nodded. Once again they faced the unknown. Hand in hand as they departed Mary Winthrop’s home, they slipped silently into the chaos of the night.
CHAPTER 9