Surviving Seduction (21 page)

“Wel , Bear is checking on the horses and going to sleep. He’s so worried; we had a hard time convincing him to wait until daylight. Ben is wandering around asking people al kinds of questions about their tents. And I thought Cal was with you.”

“He was,” Jack put in. “Now he’s off in the fields having relations with my sister.”

“They’re not ‘having relations’!” Selena exclaimed.

“They had a lot to talk about. I’m sure they’re just ...

discussing, uh …”

“They’re having relations,” he repeated to Gina.

Selena rol ed her eyes. “What about Dan?”

“Oh,” Gina shrugged, drawling, “He and Josie are probably going to talk about their big, bad plans.”

Selena frowned.

“I’m sorry, Sugar, I didn’t mean anything by it,” the other woman told her quickly. “Got nothing against the whole thing, real y. I mean, not much. Wel , he might annoy me just a little bit, the way he goes about things, but it’s not his fault. We just don’t get along amazingly wel . But I got no problem with the plan in general.”

Selena flicked her gaze to Jack only to find him beaming at Gina with a shameless grin. When he spied Selena’s glare, he looked at the ground and kicked at the grass.

“Wel , I’m off to bed. Our tents are that way,” Gina said, waving toward the tree line. “Yours is orange, mine is green, and Bear’s is white. G’night!”

“Night,” they said, in unison.

Selena started walking, but not in the direction Gina pointed.

“I don’t think you’re going to be in on that conversation,” Jack said, stepping briskly alongside her.

Selena didn’t answer.

“Why so impatient?” he went on, peering down at her as they walked. “Are you going to tel them to cal it off? I know you won’t be happy if this thing goes as planned.”

She stopped walking and turned to face him.

“Maybe I’m curious about how they’re going to work this out. Like the way you’re curious about me. Always trying to get in my head.”

“Yeah, but I’ve got a motive. What’s yours?”

“Why does it matter?”

“That’s what I’m asking you, and I asked it first,” he pointed out, watching her face careful y. “You’re trying to be wily,” he suggested, stepping closer as if that would bring him nearer to the truth. “You’re guileless, and you’re just trying to adapt. Trying to understand their minds, like you said. I’m wil ing to bet you think everything’s more complicated than it real y is.”

“So?” she muttered, continuing toward Josie’s tent.

“You’re just going to have to wait with everyone else anyway. Why don’t I show you how to play poker instead?”

he suggested cheerful y. “That’l teach you how to read people. After you get annihilated a few hundred times, of course, depending on what other idiots are playing.”

“
Other
idiots?” she echoed with a smirk. “You mean aside from me?”

He stopped walking to make a face, “That’s not what I meant. Wel , hey. If you want to sit outside that tent for a couple of hours, be my guest,” he went on, trotting to catch up. “But at least let me keep you company so you’re not bored.”

Josie’s tent was a stone’s throw away now, and Selena stopped to look at it careful y. Angela seemed to be standing guard. “How thoughtful of you, Jack,” she mocked.

“Sparing me so selflessly.”

“Hey, I’d rather see a woman hungry than bored.

Bothers me on a deep level. What are you looking at?”

“What’s that at the top of the tent?” she asked, pointing at a raised triangular flap on the roof.

“A vent,” he answered impatiently, then paused. “Hey, you’re not going to spy –”

“Yep!” she smiled with determination and set off for tree line, staying far enough away so Angela wouldn’t see.

“Sounds like fun. How do you think it’l look if Josie finds out?”

Selena shrugged and kept walking. Jack final y stopped fol owing.

“
Leavesdropper
!” he cal ed out after her.

She had no choice but to stop and cast a disgusted look over her shoulder.

He knew better than anyone just how tragic the pun was, and it seemed he found it funnier for that reason, so he stood there snickering guiltily.

Selena rol ed her eyes and moved off, leaving him behind. In a few minutes, she had climbed her way through the treetops to avoid the crunchy noise of leaves on the ground and was slowly edging down a bough of the oak tree that hung over the vent. There was a layer of black mesh, but she could see through it easily. The trick would be making sure Dan didn’t see her, and that was going to be no picnic at al , despite the fast-approaching darkness.

She inched along with painful slowness, wondering how much of their conversation she’d missed already. Then she could see Dan and Josie below in the torchlight, and had a decent view of them both, sitting in those same canvas chairs with the map table between them. There was no way Dan could see her at this angle, so she peered in more closely. Roark was not inside. Things had quieted down in the camp, so it was easy to hear.

“The grazing land is better than I guessed, and I figure it wil
probably
be enough, but to be honest, I would have liked even more. It’s not perfect, but it’s no reason to scrap the plan,” Josie was saying.

Selena watched her, and was surprised at how casual and direct her attitude was. She had expected a more cunning mien.

Dan waited.

“Our little visit proved you’ve got a capable community, if a bit smal . You’re doin’ wel and I can see you know a lot about livin’ in one place and makin’ it work,” she summarized quickly, obviously itching to move on. “Now that I’ve given you my assessment, here’s my decision.”

She stood and paced a bit. Now Selena thought she looked guarded. “I’m wil ing to go ahead with this, but I’ve got a few terms.”

Dan waited.

“First, until we get settled into this change, we won’t be supporting your community in any way, unless there’s a fair trade. Once we find our rhythm, we can live as cooperatively as we’d like, and I’m hopin’ for a good level of trust between us al until we’re one and the same big family. The point of this whole thing is security, after al .”

Dan nodded, and she continued to pace.

“If our trust is broken, we’re out of here ‘fore you can spit. I also want your assurance that your folk wil help us, sharin’ what they know. For Ben to teach us what he knows about farming, Bear to teach us about his trainin’ and you to teach us how to fight. Not that we’re helpless, by any means,” she added with a smirk, “but you can make us better. And al of this within reason a’course. We’re not out to work your people to the bone, since everyone has more to do than they can handle already.”

Dan nodded again, straightening in his seat. He was waiting for more, Selena could tel .

“Next,” she went on, “We’l want to mix the bloodlines of our livestock, which should be beneficial for al of us.”

She stopped pacing to face him. “Lastly, I want breeding rights to that stud of yours.” She paused to eye him intently.

“And … to you.”

Twelve

Selena’s thoughts came to a reeling stop. She played back Josie’s words again, thinking she had misinterpreted them. The silence below confirmed that she had real y heard what she thought she heard. She held the tree limb in a death-grip, stopped breathing and stared, transfixed by the two people below her.

Dan hadn’t moved or spoken, and Selena studied his face desperately. It wasn’t what she did see that disturbed her. It was what she didn’t see. There was not the slightest glimmer of surprise in his face.
Why isn’t he
surprised?
She nearly said the words aloud, and the thought began to repeat over and over in her mind.

Josie was beginning to look uncomfortable with his silence, until a nervous smile emerged on her face. “Come on now, it’s not as strange as it may sound,” she coaxed. “If there’s anything you and I know better than anyone, it’s that two things affect our survival more than everything else: our genes and our choices. I know we’ve both managed to survive by being careful, being clever and thinking ahead.

That’s why you and I are leaders, Dan. Just think of al the times people disagreed with you when you knew better.

Sometimes they may not have listened, but sometimes they did, and look at how we’ve helped them,” she explained with quiet confidence. “If we didn’t lead, we’d be doing a disservice to everyone we know, but a lot of good it would have done us if we had inherited diseases from our parents, or if we were born with bad vision, or a deformity. I watch my cattle and horses grow stronger every day because we cul the weak. Life does the same to our people. I won’t see my children die because I chose a weak man. You and I are the perfect blend of what it takes, not only to survive in these times, but to
thrive
! I’ve been waiting to meet my equal for years. It’s you. I want you to sire my children.”

Dan was stil watching Josie soberly and remained silent. Selena fought a wave of nausea as tears began wel ing in her eyes. Josie’s words rang with wisdom.

Selena had no business being at Dan’s side. She could see now how far out of her league she had wound up. With a crushing sadness in her chest, she understood that it would be unfair to him if she stayed in his life, whether he wanted her there or not, and he hadn’t told Josie “no.” He hadn’t jumped up and said, “My heart belongs to someone else.” He hadn’t said anything at al .

Josie made her way around the table to sit at its edge just in front of him. “You took my brother from my family, and I forgive you for depriving me of my chance to do the same, but it’s only fair that you give as wel as take.

Whether I bear sons or daughters, I plan for them to stand in my place when I’m gone. I want a strong and capable lineage. Our offspring would have the keys to the kingdom that you want to build. You could play the father to them, or not, if you didn’t want to involve yourself,” she offered diplomatical y. “I wouldn’t require exclusivity from you, and I would need to know that you wouldn’t meddle in their parenting unless it was at my request, or with my permission. I would have the final say on everything, and I would have the only real claim to them.” Then her face softened with a coy smile, and she cocked her head and swung a leg playful y before hopping off the table to amble around behind his chair. “It wouldn’t have to be al business,” she murmured, placing a hand on his shoulder lightly.

Selena’s shuddering breaths were hard to keep quiet now as her throat tightened like she was being strangled. Josie wanted a response out of him, and now she had turned to seduction as a strategy. Dan was a man, after al . Wasn’t seduction the thing they responded to best?

“I know how to enjoy myself,” Josie purred from behind him into his ear. “And with you, I’m sure it would come easily. Cal it woman’s intuition, but I get the sense that you would do it just the way I like it.”

Selena couldn’t watch anymore, and couldn’t listen to another word Josie said. Selena herself was convinced by the woman’s words. Furthermore, she was going to fal out of the tree if she didn’t climb out and find somewhere to let her feelings loose.

She inched away, working hard to feel the branches through her numb hands and see them through her tear-blurred eyes. Josie’s voice soon faded.

Selena made her way through the trees convulsively, moving faster when a gentle breeze shook the leaves masking any noise she made. When she was far enough away from them, she jumped from a low limb and ran for the tents that Josie’s generous hospitality had afforded them.

Al three sat at the edge of the tree line, so when she darted to the orange one and snatched her pack from inside before running back to the forest, she had little fear of being observed in the darkness.

observed in the darkness.

She didn’t know where she was going; she just had to get away. Far away, where she could sob as loudly as she needed to, and no one would hear her. She couldn’t take Star. The mare was tethered outside Josie’s tent. But she didn’t want to ride. She wanted to feel the ground beneath her feet the way she used to when she was alone, and free to choose her own path.

She stumbled blindly ahead, and instead of turning to the open land that she preferred, she charged straight into the forest, hoping to get lost in it, wanting to get lost, so she couldn’t soon find her way back, if at al .

Her chest ached fiercely as she heaved quiet sobs.

In a distant corner of her turbid mind, she felt that Dan would likely refuse Josie’s offer, but that didn’t matter. What mattered was what Josie said about choices. And Dan’s refusal would be the wrong choice, whether he liked it or not. He had ambitions, and so did Josie. Those ambitions lined up with irrevocable perfection. She was the woman to build this new civilization at his side. Selena was not. She didn’t have the strength, and what Dan wanted to create was the furthest thing from what felt right to her.

Selena shuffled through the leaf litter as she trudged up into the forested hil s. She recal ed when she and the others had ridden with Dan to their first battle with Josie’s wicked brother, Jake. She remembered wondering how many men in history had impacted their people so powerful y. How in their shrunken world, with so few people left, the choices that a leader made would reverberate through their lives, and those of future generations. Even a smal action could change the future forever, and Dan’s actions were anything but smal .

A branch snapped somewhere behind her, and she could hear it even over her loud footfal s, so she stopped to listen. There were other footsteps not far behind. Instinct told her that whoever lurked after her in the darkness was no friend.

It was too dark to see, and now that her feet were quiet, so were the others. Her burgeoning grief was instantly replaced by fear. She cast her eyes about for any hiding place that she could get to quietly, but there was nowhere to go, unless she was going to try hiding behind a tree. None of them had a reachable branch.

She heard a rustling footstep, then a pause, and then another step. Her pursuer was drawing closer.

Selena closed her eyes and held perfectly stil , praying that the steps would change course and that her location was hidden by the darkness.