Even though she wanted to give him permission to hang on to her all he wanted, she couldn’t make herself say the words. She already sounded too desperate and needy.

The flames from the small fire flickered even lower, settling the darkness about them. The cave opening was still shrouded in smoke, which had sifted inside their cavern but thankfully hadn’t permeated enough that they couldn’t breathe.

The lack of light only made her want to curl up against him, just be with him, and make the most of the time they had together before it came to an end.

As if sensing the direction of her thoughts, he took another step away. “We can’t kiss again.” His attention dropped to her lips, and the heat that sparked in his eyes only ignited something inside her.

“Why not?”

“Because I can’t think straight when I’m kissing you.”

“What if I don’t want you thinking straight?”

He closed his eyes for a second. And when he opened them, he stared past her at the fire.

She was half tempted to brush against him, run her hands up his chest, and tease him until he couldn’t resist any longer and bent down to kiss her. But she held herself back. She had to wait for him to give himself—and kisses—of his own accord, not because she coerced him into it.

“Alright.” She released a sigh.

“What?”

“I won’t kiss you until you ask me to.”

He opened his mouth to respond, then stopped abruptly, narrowing his gaze, which was still trained upon the firepit.

He started toward the remains of their fire, and when he reached it, he crouched and used a bone to brush back the embers. Then he smoothed his fingers over the now-empty spot, revealing a groove in the granite.

Was it a crack in the rocks? What did that mean?

She knelt beside him and swept away more of the ashes, uncovering a deep line that ran underneath the center of the firepit.

It wasn’t long—only about a foot—and might not be anything at all. But it was a heap more than they’d discovered yet.

She dug harder, and the rock shifted. She didn’t want to get her hopes up, but was it possible they’d discovered the spot where the gold had been buried?

Chapter
20

The cut in the cave floor was too perfectly rectangular to be anything but manmade. And the position was too calculated to be anything other than a hiding place beneath the firepit. Not many who took refuge in the cave would clear the ashes.

Jericho wouldn’t have noticed it if not for the last glow of the firelight falling on the crack in just the right way.