I shook my head and offered him my hand.
"Think we can risk it?" he asked.
"I think so. I'm not feeling particularly muninish right now."
He took my hand and it was just a hand. His hand in mine. I helped him stand and he staggered just a bit on his feet, which made me wobble. We clung to each other for a second like two drunks leaving a party. I hugged him, and he hugged me back. It was quick. He pulled away first, and looked almost embarrassed. "Don't tell anyone I didn't take my chance to grope you when it was your idea."
I patted him on the back. "Not a soul."
He gave me his usual grin, and we started through the woods, walking close enough to catch each other if we fell. A breeze blew through the trees, rustling everything. The woods were suddenly alive with sound. I turned my face to the wind, hoping it would be cool, but it was hot like the air from an oven.
Jason's baby fine hair moved gently in the breeze. I heard him take a deep breath, then he touched my arm. He spoke low. "I smell the man that I threw into the truck yesterday."
We kept walking as if nothing were wrong. "Are you sure?" I asked.
I saw his nostrils flare as he tested the air. "He smelled like peppermint Lifesavers and cigarettes."
"A lot of people smell like peppermint and cigarettes," I said.
We kept moving, his hand on my arm now. "I also smell gun oil."
Great.
Jamil was waiting for us just up ahead. The three wereleopards waited among the trees. Jamil came back to us, smiling, and enveloped both of us in a big, hearty hug. "You guys are so damned slow tonight." He hugged us against him and whispered, "I smell two, maybe three, to our left."
"One of them is a guy I beat up yesterday," Jason said, smiling as if we were talking about something else entirely.
"Revenge maybe?" He made it a question.
"How far away are they?" I asked.
He drew back with a big very un-Jamil grin. He whispered, "A few yards. I can smell the guns."
I encircled his slender waist with my arm and whispered against his chest. "We don't have any guns. Any suggestions?"
Jason leaned in, laughing, and said, "I don't feel good enough to outrun them."
I patted his arm. "Me, either."
"If they're here for revenge," Jamil said, "then maybe they'll settle for just the two of you."
I drew back from him. I wasn't sure I liked his reasoning. "So?"
"You stay here and make out. They move up to get you, and I get them."
"They've got guns. You don't."
"I'll send Zane and Cherry to the others. They'll bring reinforcements. But we can't let them follow us to the lupanar. We can't take danger there."
"Some werewolf rule?" I asked.
"Yes," he said.
"All right," I said. "But don't let them kill me, okay?"
"What about me?" Jason said.
"Sorry. Him either."
Jamil leaned into both of us. "I suggest the two of you get a lot more cozy, fast, or they're not going to buy it."
I transferred my arm to Jason's waist, but said, "How long have they been watching?"
"Make them think you're drunk, just in case they saw the screaming. Make out, but get on the ground as soon as possible in case they just decide to shoot you." With that comforting thought, Jamil went back to the others. He walked away into the dark with the wereleopards. Zane looked at me as they walked away, but I nodded once, and that seemed to satisfy him. He turned and let Jamil lead him away. I really was going to have to find the leopards a true alpha. They were all so damn submissive.
Jason pushed me up against a tree.
"Watch it," I said.
He grinned at me. "We want it to look real, don't we?"
"I thought we had a moment of real friendship bonding back there," I said.
Jason leaned in towards me as if he were going to kiss me. "Just because we're friends doesn't mean that I don't want to sleep with you." He kissed me, a soft brush of lips.
I frowned at him, not kissing back. "Please tell me that you don't want to sleep with all your female friends."
He put a hand on either side of my head, propping himself against the tree. "What can I say? I'm a guy."
I shook my head. "That's not an excuse."
He leaned his whole body into me in a sort of standing push-up. The muscles in his arms swelled with the effort. "How about because it's me."
I smiled. "That I'll buy." I put my hands on his waist. He was leaning against me but not too hard. He could have been taking a lot more advantage of the situation than he was. I realized that he was being a gentleman. There was a time not long ago that Jason wouldn't have made the effort. We were friends. But we needed to get down on the ground, and this wasn't getting us there.
I glanced, as casually as I could, at the others. I could still see Zane, and Cherry's hair gleamed through the trees. I had a sense that Jamil and Nathaniel were still with them, but it was all that blond hair that made them so visible. If the bad guys had a high-powered rifle, they could shoot us both through the tree. Once the others got out of sight, they might do just that.
I slid my hands up Jason's chest. The skin was soft, but underneath, he was very firm. I knew what that smooth flesh felt like shredding under claws. It wasn't the munin coming back. It was just me flashing on the vision. I balled my hands into fists and forced my hands to his face. I didn't want to do anything that would remind either of us of what we'd just shared. There was always the extra danger that it could bring Raina back. No, I didn't want to be channeling Raina with armed goons in the woods.
I cradled Jason's face in my hands, moving just my head towards him. As I leaned into him, he leaned more into me. I was suddenly very aware that his body was pressed down the length of mine. It made me hesitate, but when his lips brushed mine, I kissed him. I ran my hand back through his hair, until I had a handful of it.
I whispered into his mouth, "We need to get on the ground as soon as possible."
He kissed me harder, hands dropping to my belt. He slid his fingertips inside the belt, and knelt in front of me, pulling me down with him. I let him. He fell back into the leaves and pulled me down on top of him. I propped myself on my scraped forearms against his chest, sort of startled. I just wasn't a good enough actress for this.
I could feel his heart thudding under my hands. He rolled me suddenly, and I let out a little yip of surprise. He ended very firmly on top, and I didn't like it.
"I want on top," I said.
He put his lips next to my cheek. "If they shoot us, I can take a bullet better than you can." He rubbed his cheek along my face, and I realized he was doing the werewolf greeting. Maybe it was their version of a handshake, but I'd never been tempted to shake hands while making out.
I whispered into his ear, which was very close to my mouth, "Do you hear them?"
"Yes." He raised his face enough to kiss me.
"How close?" I kissed him back, but we were both listening, straining to hear. Here we were, lying on top of each other, bodies perfectly matched up, and we were both tight enough that I could feel the muscles along his back knotting.
"A few yards," he said. "They're good." He rested his cheek against mine. "They move quietly."
"Not quiet enough," I whispered.
"Can you hear them?" he asked.
"No."
We were both just staring at each other. Neither of us was making much of an effort to kiss or anything else. I could feel that his body was happy to be pressed up against mine, but it was all secondary. Men with guns were coming. Men who didn't like us very much.