“How bad will it be for you, Conner?” she asked. “While you’re worried about me, I’ll be worried about you. You’re the one who has to push your cat down and force yourself to look into another woman’s eyes. Maybe for some men, it would be easy, but I think I’ve learned enough about you to know it will be abhorrent to you.”

“Are you sure, Isabeau, because if you stay tonight with me, I won’t be able to keep my hands off of you.”

A slow smile welled up from her heart. “Well, that’s a good thing.” She forced herself to look away from the heat in his eyes toward the forest. “So how do we plan out our escape routes?”

He dipped his head to trail kisses down her face to the corner of her mouth. “We get to work, map them out, drop the supplies and make certain they’re cached where animals won’t dig them up. And then we think of every conceivable thing that can go wrong and put plans in place to cover those contingencies.”

“Oh. Easy stuff. I was expecting it to be difficult.” She flashed another grin at him.

Conner let her go reluctantly and stepped back, an answering smile beginning to form on his face. There was wariness in his eyes as if he was afraid to hope, but he linked his fingers with hers when she held out her hand and began to walk with her toward the others. “I’ll send Jeremiah up in the trees. We’ll see how fast he can climb. He’ll need to pick up his speed. The more practice he gets, the better. He has to get faster or it’s too dangerous for him.”

“You’re really worried about him.”

“He took his beating like a man. He owns up to his mistakes. He’s got courage. He’s cocky, but then weren’t we all at that age?”

She found herself smiling again. She loved the way he could be so intimidating, so dangerous looking and yet beneath that untamed exterior he had a heart. He’d probably hate that she thought that, but she knew just by his voice that he was going to make certain Jeremiah had the best chance possible to survive joining their team.

“Stop looking at me with stars in your eyes, Isabeau.”

His voice had gone husky. Gruff. His eyes had gone all cat. Her womb clenched. Spasmed. Spilled liquid heat. She cleared her throat. “How long before my cat emerges all the way?” Isabeau asked. “Will we have enough time? I don’t want to go through it without you.”

“Not long. You’re close,” he said, his gaze drifting over her in a possessive, hungry way that took her breath and sent her temperature rising fast. “Too close.”