A Summer Smile Read Online Free PDF Page B

don't see how you're going to prevent my being hurt," she said, her eyes twinkling with mischief. "Not with your ass shot off."
    He gave her a hug that was like being embraced by an affectionate grizzly bear. Lord, he was a bid man.
    "We'll make every effort to keep that from happening. I have a great fondness for that portion of my anatomy." Then he released her and started hustling her through the underbrush at a pace that gave neither of them breath for further conversation.
    Zilah's lungs felt as if they were about to burst, and her jeans and shirt were as wet with perspiration as if she'd been dropped into a lake. Oh, dear, she wished she hadn't thought of that simile. Being
    immersed in a cool mountain lake was the stuff dreams were made of at this particular moment.
    Daniel cast her a glance over his shoulder. His eyes narrowed to pierce the dusk that was falling around them. "All right?"
    She nodded, saving her breath. She was going to need it. In the past few hours Daniel had set a grueling pace. She didn't know how many miles they had come, but if sheer exhaustion was any measure, it must have been a hundred. These hills had looked so cool and inviting when she'd first caught sight of them. That misty coolness had truly been the mirage she had thought it. Here in the shade of the trees it was only a few degrees cooler than the desert.
    "I'll let you rest soon," Daniel said. "I want to lake it down to the foothills before dark." He didn't wait for an answer but turned and set off again. His long, powerful legs traversed the downhill slope with a speed and surety that was amazing in a man so large. He moved very silently as well, she thought as she forced herself to try to match that torturous pace.
    Was his stealth responsible for his managing to plant all those charges around the plane without being detected? Must be, she decided. Now he had to be feeling the heat as she was. His khaki shirt was plastered to his back and arms, and that backpack and rifie he was carrying had to be suffocatingly hot as well as heavy. Yet he wasn't even breathing hard, darn it. She was ready to drop in her tracks and he looked like he was out for a leisurely stroll.
    He stopped so short she almost ran into him.
    "Come on. I thought I remembered it being here." He took her arm and half pulled her up a sloping knoll that bordered the downhill path. "It's just around this little cliff."
    "What is?"
    "A small cave, and down the hill a little farther is a tiny stream. We can shelter there for the night."
    "We're not going to go on?"
    "Hassan and his boys may be combing the hills, and I don't want to blunder into them in the dark. Not with you along. We're close enough to the border that we can reach it in a few hours. We'll start out again before dawn." He pulled her up the last few yards. His arm encircled her waist as he half carried her over the overgrown path around the knoll.
    "You don't have to stop on my account," she said, trying to catch her breath. "I'm fine."
    He glanced down at her, and for an instant his hand on her waist tightened imperceptibly. "I can see that," he said gruffly. "You look as if you're ready to collapse at any moment, but you're just fine. You can handle it, right?"
    She grinned. "Right." She felt a surge of warmth that was different from the hot tingling she had felt before. This was more comforting, as sweetly soothing as her mother's touch, even David's touch. How strange that this stranger could fill her with such a tempestuous mixture of emotions. "I can handle it."
    "Well, you're not going to have to handle anything at the moment." They emerged from the shrubbery on the other side of the knoll, and he stopped in front of a small opening in the side of the hill that was no more than five feet in circumference.
    "That's your cave?" She shook her head. "I think I prefer to stay out here for the night. I don't like confined places, and that looks awfully small."
    "It goes back fifty yards or so. You'll be