Page 48 of The Darkest Chase

Meanwhile, she sees magic everywhere.

Rolf walks over to the tiny pond and plunges his tongue into it, lapping away. I drop to one knee in the center of the clearing and start pulling up grass. Talia stands, coming over and kneeling next to me.

“Let me. You showed me how before.” She smiles. “I don’t want to be lazy. There’s probably other stuff you need to do that I don’t know how to help with.”

“You sure? You can take a break. I’m used to doing this solo.”

“Extra hands make everything faster.” She shrugs and starts pulling up brisk handfuls of grass, piling them to the side like I showed her. “I hate being useless, anyway.”

You aren’t useless, I want to tell her, but I don’t think she wants to hear that from me.

So I leave her to it while I work on our tents, pretending I’m not sneaking glances her way.

She’s diligent and focused, very serious about her job.

Hell, I feel like I spend half my time around this girl trying not to smile.

I don’t want her to think I’m patronizing her.

There’s just something about the way she throws herself into the smallest things with an intensity that’s too charming.

Now and then, she glances at me like she wonders why I’m watching her.

She probably expects me to avert my eyes and pretend I wasn’t.

Most men would.

I hold her gaze while I work, arching a brow.

There’s a deep, deep pleasure in watching how her eyes widen when she realizes I’m not feigning any secrecy.

Too fucking fun.

Especially when she blushes every time, fumbles, looks like she’s about to stammer something out right before she turns away and hides her face. It happens more than I can count, this shy little song and dance that could go on for hours.

Did I mention I’m not a nice man?

When I get the first tent sorted, it pops up into a full-sized camo-colored dome in my hands, and I have her full attention.

She turns back with a gasp, her arms full of dry branches.

“How’d you do that?”

“Magic. Next, I’ll pull a scarf a mile long out of my ear.” Smirking, I practically toss the lightweight tent to one side and hold up the other. “It’s just a popup tent. They’re easy.”

“Do it again!” She dumps the wood in the middle of the fire circle.

I can’t help it.

A chuckle rips out of me and I’m shaking my head.

“All right, all right. Watch.”

I find the wire coils and twist them just right. The flat disc balloons out again into a 3D dome in seconds. Talia belts out pure joy.

“That’s so cool.” Then she gives me a shy look through her lashes. “And hey, you laughed.”

I snort, moving to set the other tent down with enough space between them for privacy. “Yeah. I do that sometimes.”