Page 16 of My Tiny Giant
“You’re distracted. You keep watching me instead of the jungle.”
“It’s for our protection—” he started, not very convincingly.
“Bullshit,” I cut him off. “It’s because you think being a female makes me biologically unsuitable for warfare and incapable of self-defense, so you need to keep an eye on me lest I hurt myself or even worse get us both in trouble.”
“Well, yes.” He scratched one of his well-groomed sideburns. “That too.”
The way he admitted it so blatantly made my blood boil all over again. I felt another useless argument approaching and searched for a way to get out of it.
“You know what? I don’t care about your insults.” I raised my chin up. “Obviously, you’re unable to see past your super narrow field of vision, anyway.”
“Yeah? Well, how about your own narrow vision?” He gave me an accusing look.
My narrow vision?
“Oh, I definitely view the world in broader terms than you do,” I protested. The argument no longer seemed in any way avoidable. “I don’t project my own experiences and expectations onto other cultures. I keep my judgement to myself.”
“Do you now?” There was a mocking note in his voice, which made me pause. “I beg to differ,” he said. “Just yesterday, you insulted our Ravil girls by calling them prostitutes.”
“It’s not an insult if I call it as it is.” I wasn’t judging the Ravil women for doing the best they could in their circumstances. My criticism was of the Ravil men who left their female population few other options to make a living.
“That’s not what our women are,” Agan replied. “And if ‘calling it as it is’ isn’t an insult, then how is my calling you a woman insulting?”
“It’s not the word that’s wrong,” I raised my voice, despite my best intentions to keep calm, logical, and objective. “It’s you telling me what I should or shouldn’t be doing. According to you, a woman’s place is in one of your entertainment units, and she is only good for sex—”
“I never said that!” he snapped at me, raising his voice as well. This conversation must be trying his temper, too. “There are many things that women do in the entertainment units.”
“Like what?”
“Some of them are talented dancers and musicians...”
“So.” I squinted at him. “The only appropriate occupation for me in your eyes would be singing or dancing for men like yourself?”
He didn’t reply, and I pressed on, “Right?”
“I don’t know. Let me see.” He gave me a lingering once-over.
Something new that I hadn’t seen there before flickered in his eyes. Smoldering hot, it made me uncomfortably warm in my thin bodysuit. My skin rippled with goosebumps as his gaze traveled down my body.
Despite covering me neck to ankle, the clinging material of the suit left whatever curves I had on display—my toned arms and well-muscled thighs, my modest hips and slightly more prominent breasts. I’d worn this type of bodysuit for years. Never before, however, had I felt this naked while being fully dressed.
A corner of Agan’s mouth lifted, letting a sharp canine peek out from under his top lip. It gave his lopsided grin a predatory appearance—handsome but dangerous. Cockiness suited him, making him even more physically attractive, and he probably knew it.
“Can you dance?” he asked.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake.” I turned away quickly, to hide the blush that had warmed my face under his gaze.
“Hey, that was a joke!” He laughed, which only made him better-looking and me angrier. “You explode so easily. It’s impossible not to set you off.”
“Just...be quiet. Okay?” I walked ahead, shaking my head. “Nothing good comes out when you speak.”
He increased his speed, easily keeping up with me. We were walking along the sandy bank of the creek, which sadly proved to be wide enough for us to walk side by side.
I kept quiet, still feeling the aftereffects of his gaze traveling down my body and setting off a flare of warm, tingling sensation in its wake. I desperately hoped the effect he had on me would wear off soon. Otherwise, the rest of the trip would be rather awkward.
“It might get boring, hiking in silence,” he said a few minutes later.
“Trust me, I prefer complete silence to a conversation with you. Sorry, but you rub me the wrong way.”