“Oh, goddamn it,” she muttered.
He caught her against him to brush his nose against hers then tilted his head and brought his mouth to hers for deep, slow kiss.
He cupped her chin to look into her eyes. “I love you, my sweet Summer.” He searched her gaze and his brow creased again. “You do not believe me.”
“I don’t know what to believe. I want believe you.” Summer swallowed hard. “I’ve just gotten used to not having anyone be there for me, on having to depend just on myself. And, then you were there, just when I needed you, every time I needed you.” Her eyes stung. “Until . . .”
“I never left you. I would never—could never—leave you.” He took her hand and placed it over his heart; she felt its steady, strong beat beneath her palm. “Even when we are apart, you are here. You alone and no other, for always.” He gave a faint smile. “It is in your eyes, my mate, you believe me now.”
“Man, I should never take up playing cards,” she said, ducking her head. “How did you even know I’d be here to rescue? This clanhall is huge.”
“Jenna was going to share her clothing with you,” he reminded. “Naturally she would take you to her rooms.”
“Naturally,” she echoed. Of course he would have overheard Jenna say that, even after he’d left the room. “How were you sure could get here from there?” she asked, indicating the balcony he’d jumped from.
“I grew up in this clanhall. But come, it is time to take you away from Hir.” His fangs showed for an instant. “And from Ar’ar.”
“I don’t see how we’re going to get anywhere. There are guards outside the door,” she warned. “Betari clanbrothers who won’t be happy to see you and certainly aren’t going to let me leave.”
“We are not going that way.”
“Oh, please don’t say . . .” She glanced over the balcony and her stomach clenched. It was an awfully long drop. “You want to climb down from here?”
“Of course not. We are going to climb up.”
“Up?” she squeaked, twisting her neck to look that way. “You mean back up to the balcony you jumped from?”
“No, to the roof.”
Summer wet her lips. “You’re kidding, right?”
“Hundreds of my clanbrothers await below,” he pointed out. “As do Mirak, a dozen Betari warriors, and”—here his lip curled— “Ar’ar. We cannot go that way. We would not be an hour in the forest before they caught us. No,” he said firmly. “We must go to the roof.”
“And then what?” Summer asked. “Hang out on the roof and hope no one thinks to look for us there?”
“There is a transport landing on the roof of our clanhall.” He was already eyeing the side of the building as if deciding the best way to tackle the climb. For a moment a shadow covered his features. “I hope I will not have to fight my own clanbrothers.”
“You’d . . . do that? You’d fight your own kind—your own clan—for me?”
“For you—” His glowing eyes met hers. “And for our daughter, Emma.”
Our daughter . . .
“Oh,” Summer murmured, her throat tight.
“Are you ready?”
“Ke’lar . . . there’s no way that I’m going to be able to climb up there.”
“I know that. I will carry you.”
“Carry—!”
Before she could get the words out he’d swung her over his shoulder. And then he was leaping upward onto the balcony ledge and she was hanging down, dangling over a fifty-foot drop.
“Ohmygod!”
Summer squeezed her eyes shut and, finding that no better, opened them again.
“Ke’lar,” she whimpered, morbidly wondering whether she actually had time to faint during the fall.
“This is an easy climb but you must try not to distract me.” She heard the smile in his voice as his hand lovingly patted her bottom. “If that is possible.”
She could feel his muscles working as he began the climb—one-handed—finding handholds and footholds where she would have sworn none existed. He couldn’t climb with his body flush against the building either, not with her swung over his shoulder. He had to climb sideways, pitting his strength against the force of gravity and the awkwardness of the unbalanced load on his shoulder.
It was the longest, most agonizing wait of her life and she’d been in labor with Emma for thirty-six hours. She was too terrified to move and she had nothing to hold onto. She didn’t dare grab him and her nails dug into her palms as she struggled against the scream building in her throat.
Ke’lar climbed without pause up the side of the clanhall, not even pausing to catch his breath. Too afraid that he’d drop her or more likely, lose his grip and plunge them both to their deaths below, she didn’t utter another sound.
Then he was over the roof wall, and he let her go so abruptly that her knees gave out and she landed hard on her backside.