Chapters (102)
- Cover
- DAW BOOKS PROUDLY PRESENTS THE SCIENCE FICTION NOVELS OF W. MICHAEL GEAR:
- Dedication
- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10
- 11
- 12
- 13
- 14
- 15
- 16
- 17
- 18
- 19
- 20
- 21
- 22
- 23
- 24
- 25
- 26
- 27
- 28
- 29
- 30
- 31
- 32
- 33
- 34
- 35
- 36
- 37
- 38
- 39
- 40
- 41
- 42
- 43
- 44
- 45
- 46
- 47
- 48
- 49
- 50
- 51
- 52
- 53
- 54
- 55
- 56
- 57
- 58
- 59
- 60
- 61
- 62
- 63
- 64
- 65
- 66
- 67
- 68
- 69
- 70
- 71
- 72
- 73
- 74
- 75
- 76
- 77
- 78
- 79
- 80
- 81
- 82
- 83
- 84
- 85
- 86
- 87
- 88
- 89
- 90
- 91
- 92
- 93
- 94
- 95
- 96
- EPILOGUE
- ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Now, there was a twist. She let her gaze melt into his, was reassured that it was unflinching, honest. “I had fun today.”
“You didn’t see how close we came to being a meal on the river when the big monster was eaten at the last moment by the bigger monster.”
“You didn’t see how close that sidewinder came to grabbing your boot when I swung you up over that last ledge.”
“Okay, so we had fun. Seriously, Tal, what do you want in a man?”
“I guess I want today. Well, all but the fall off that cliff. I still hurt all over from that.” Again she met his earnest gaze. “I mean it. After you got your wits back from Demon possession, I had fun. You and I were a team, getting off the gravel bar, getting up the cleft in the basalt, figuring our way around danger. I enjoyed a sense of exhilaration I haven’t had . . . well, since the academy I guess.”
“Explain that. You’ve been in the bush plenty. You’ve had close calls up the yazoo. What made today different?”
It hit her like thrown rock. “I wasn’t taking care of anyone.”
He read her amazement. A slow smile spread across his lips.
She verbalized her thoughts: “I mean, yes. I was taking care of you, but you were just as involved in taking care of me. I sort of had that with Trish back before the quetzal TriNA started screwing with my life. The difference was, I was always the lead, and Trish had my back. You and I today, we switched off. With the exception of Kylee and Tip, there’s no other human being on the planet that could have done what we did today.”
The realization was like magic.
The look in Dek’s yellow-green eyes added to her revelation. The man was practically beaming. “Victory,” he whispered in self-satisfaction.
“That’s not all there is to a relationship,” she told him.
“No,” he agreed. “But predator-filled rivers and clefts thick with deadly man-eaters is a start. There’s also holding someone’s heart in one’s hands and realizing it’s the most precious thing in the universe.”
His gaze was now boring into hers. Firelight shone on the pink scar tissue on his cheek.
“And you think you’re the one to hold my heart?”
“I was convinced of it as early as Tyson Station, but after today, I know it more than ever.”