She broke off because she could feel Tarik chuckling. Chuckling. As in laughter.
Slowly, she pulled away from him and looked up at his face, which was full of mirth. “I do beg your pardon,” she said stiffly, then turned to walk away, but he caught her arm and held her.
“Kady, honey, habibbi,” he said, but he could hardly contain his amusement. “I’ll explain everything in a minute, but first I think I better look after my grandfather.”
As intriguing as this was, Kady still refused to look at him. For the last several hours she had been frantic about him, as had Luke, but here he was laughing as though he hadn’t a care in the world. Truthfully, she never wanted to see him again, so when he released her arm to look at the man on the ground, Kady kept walking. She’d go back to Hannibal’s Legend and forget all about the whole incident. Better yet, she’d forget that the Jordans even existed.
“No you don’t,” Tarik said as he firmly put his arm around her shoulders and led her back to the man on the ground, who was beginning to rouse himself. “Are you all right?” Tarik asked, looking down at the man.
Kady didn’t want to look at either man, as she was now sure that holding swords at each other’s throats was one of those things that boys and men loved to do. But when the man looked up at her, she almost gasped, for he was an older version of Tarik, the same dark eyes, the same lips, the same look of sensuality that had always made Kady’s knees weak.
Her first reaction was to go to the man and apologize for hitting him, but she held her ground. Instead of looking at him, she stared off into
space, refusing to speak to either man.
“This is Kady?” the man asked in an accent she didn’t recognize. “She has even more beauty than you told me of.”
Tarik tightened his grip on Kady’s shoulders. “And she is brave and honest and honorable and—”
“I am not going to forgive you,” she hissed as she hit him in the ribs with her elbow, trying to make him release her. “Why didn’t you let Luke know you were all right?”
While still holding her next to him, he smoothed her hair back from her forehead, then kissed it. “Sweetheart, Luke left here three days ago. If I had been hanged, it would have happened long before you came back to save me.”
For the first time she looked up at him, and when she did, her anger left her. What did anger matter, as long as he was alive and unhurt? But still . . .
Reading the expression in her eyes, Tarik hugged her closer. “How about something to eat?”
“I’m not hungry, but I’m sure the people back in Legend are. I should go home and feed them.”
The older man was on his feet now, and Kady could see a lump forming on the side of his forehead, and she felt guilty for it. Why hadn’t she at least paused long enough to see the man’s face before clobbering him?
“It is nothing,” the man said as he bent to take her hand and kiss the air above it. “Such as I am not worthy to kiss one as beautiful as you.”
Kady looked up at Tarik as though to ask, Is this man for real? but Tarik was scowling in a way that made her think he was jealous—which pleased Kady to no end. With a quick twist, she moved out of Tarik’s grasp and linked her arm with the older man’s. “You must be Gamal.”
“I have that honor,” he said as he slipped his hand over hers, and they started to walk away.
But Tarik caught her, and when he pulled her to the other side of him, Gamal politely excused himself with an amused expression. He knew when to leave lovers alone.
“You want to tell me why they didn’t hang you?” Kady said as soon as they were alone. “And did you save Cole?” It was full dark now, and the night sounds surrounded them. Kady could barely see where she was going, but Tarik seemed to have the eyes of a cat, as he never faltered.
“Yes,” he said, smiling. “I was able to prevent the robbery taking place, but it seems that the good citizens of Legend thought I was in on the attempt. They’re a greedy lot. No wonder Ruth closed the whole town down.”
“So how did you escape them?” She really shouldn’t be talking to him, of course. If he’d had any concern for the feelings of others, he would have come back to tell them that he was all right.
“Gamal,” Tarik said softly. “After Luke got away, the citizens were a tad angry. You know, in our time we have movies and TV showing hangings and murders, but here they have the real thing. People were packing picnic lunches to take with them to watch Luke and me hanged.”
At the thought of how real it had been and how close he had come to losing his life, Kady tightened her hand on his arm, and at that, Tarik turned and pulled her into his arms, kissing her with a tenderness that made her forgive him everything. “So what did he do to save you? Hold them at sword point?”
“Told them I was a relative of his and I had been hired by the Jordans to protect the bank. All they had to do was look at the two of us and see that he was telling the truth about our kinship.”
Hugging her, he put his cheek on top of her head. “I’m sorry that I caused you even a moment of worry. But when Luke didn’t return right away with an army behind him, I figured there was some sort of time mix-up. I wanted to return to you immediately, but since I seem to have saved the lives of my ungrateful ancestors, I figure the rock will never be open again, and I wanted to take this opportunity to . . . well, to look around. And to get to know my great-great-great-grandfather.”
With her arms around him, she snuggled her head on his chest, hearing his heart beat, feeling the warmth of him. Feeling the life of him. “Does he know where you come from?”
“No. So far I haven’t told him anything, but he’s quite clever, so I think he’s figured out some of it. But he doesn’t pry.”
“What about the rest of your family? Have you seen them?”