Tiger Prince

"I'm well again," she protested. "I'm going back to work tomorrow."

"I've been thinking about that. You should have another week."

"Tomorrow," she repeated flatly. "And I'm not going to rest any—"

She stopped, startled, as a knock sounded on the door. No one came to the summerhouse except Tamar, who delivered their meals, and it was only midafternoon.

Ruel threw open the door to reveal Dilam standing on the doorstep.

Jane's heart lurched and she jumped to her feet. "What's wrong?" She moved quickly across the room. "Is Li Sung well?"

"Li Sung is in good health," Dilam said. "It is the elephant."

Jane muttered an imprecation. "How bad?"

"All went well. We finished the repairs and extended the tracks to a mile beyond the crossing. All that time Danor did not come."

"How bad?"

"We thought he had given it up. Then last night." She shrugged. "Three miles of track ruined. Li Sung was not pleased."

"Neither am I," Jane said grimly.

"Li Sung went after him."

She should have known Li Sung would react like this. Why the devil did he have such an obsession with the beast? "Alone?"

"It will come to that," Dilam said. "I sent him to the mine to see if any of the workers there would go with him, but I knew they would not."

"Then why send him there?"

"I needed time to get to you and tell you what he pla

yes?"

"Yes. How much time do I have?"

"Li Sung will probably start after the elephant tonight or early tomorrow morning. He should have very little head start on you if you come at once."

"And just how does he think he's going to find this elephant," Ruel asked.

Dilam looked at him in surprise. "It is not difficult to track an elephant. They hardly creep u

That was true enough, Jane thought as she remembered the broken branches and uprooted trees that had marked Danor's path. "Go saddle my horse, Dilam. I'll meet you at the stable in fifteen minutes." She shut the door and moved across the room to the armoire. "Don't worry, this won't hold us up," she told Ruel. "Dilam will supervise the workers while Li Sung and I get rid of the elephant."

"If you don't have a relapse trying to track down Li Sung in that jungle," Ruel said grimly.

"I'm going after him."

"I'm not arguing with you. I didn't think you'd do anything else." Ruel strode toward the door. "Heaven forbid you take care of your own health when Li Sung wants to kill an elephant."

"May I point out that elephant is destroying your track?"

"He could also destroy—" Ruel stopped in mid-sentence as he opened the door. "I'll meet you at the stable. I have some affairs to tidy up here before I can leave."

"You're going back to the mountain?"

"Hell no, I'm going elephant hunting." The door slammed behind him.

"I'll make camp." Ruel lifted her off her horse and turned away. "Sit down somewhere before you fall down."

"I can help."

"Of course you can. You're white as a sheet and you've been reeling in the saddle for the last two miles," Ruel said sarcastically. "But you're fit as a fiddle."

She was too tired to argue with him. He had been moody and bad-tempered since they had left the palace the day before, and her nerves were as raw as his appeared to be. She collapsed on a fallen log beside the clearing and watched as he unsaddled the horses and began to gather wood for a fire.

Neither of them spoke until after they had eaten and Ruel was scraping the remains of the food on the plates into the fire. "You didn't eat much," he said curtly. "How do you expect to gain any strength if you starve yourself?"

"I had enough." She changed the subject. "I thought we'd have caught up with Li Sung by now."

"I thought so too. We traveled at a pretty good clip, so he has to be close. We're bound to catch up with him in the morning." He spread out their bedrolls on either side of the fire. "If he's not gone completely berserk and tries blundering through the jungle in the dark."

"Li Sung's not gone berserk."

"We're all mad. Why else are we in the middle of the ]ungle chasing a damn elephant?"

"You didn't have to come with me."

"Didn't I?"

"I would have been fine."

"I'm not doing it for you," he said jerkily. "I need that line finished before Abdar decides to pay us a visit."

"It will be finished."

"And the first shipment to the dock will probably be your corpse."

She had suddenly had enough. "Why should you care?" she flared at him. "Then you'll be free of me."

"Dammit, I'll never be free of you." He whirled and jerked her to her feet, his eyes glittering wildly in his set face. "God help me, I don't want to be free of you. I want you alive. I want you . . . Jesus, I want you with me for the rest of my life."

She stared at him, stu

"Stop looking at me like that. Do you think I like it, that I haven't been fighting it? But it's here, dammit, and I can't do anything about it."

She laughed shakily. "What a tender declaration. Don't worry, I'm sure it's only a temporary affliction and will soon go away."

"It's not gone away in three years. I think I knew in Kasanpore there was no escape, and now we've come full circle." His hands kneaded her shoulders with an odd yearning movement. "And sometimes there is ... tenderness."

"Pity, you mean." She stepped back from him. "Caretaking."

"Caretaking? Those are your words. You scared the hell out of me. I thought I was going to lose you." His grip tightened. "I'm not going to lose you, Jane. Not ever."

She felt the panic rising. Everything had seemed so clear. She had been so sure of her ability to fight him and yet now she was experiencing a strange weakness and uncertainty. She must not let him sway her. "Lose me? You've never had me. You're never going to have me. I'm not such a fool that I'd let you come close to me after all that's gone between us."

"We're already close. We're so close we're almost a part of each other. You feel it and so do I. We're so close that we never really left each other even though you were oceans away."

The intensity of his emotion was reaching out to her, surrounding her, smothering her.

"No," she whispered.

"Yes." His finger reached out and gently touched the plane of her cheek. "Oh yes, we have to have each other. We have to be together."

"Ian."

He went still. "I can work it out."

"Forgive? Forget?" She smiled sadly. "Not you, Ruel."

"I'll work it out," he repeated. "I have no choice."

"But I do have a choice." She turned away from him and moved toward her bedroll. "And I have no intention of letting myself be hurt by you again. Ever since we met you've manipulated me, pulled me to and fro to suit yourself, but it's finished now. When this is over I'm going to be free to live my life as I wish and you'll not be a part of it." She forced herself to glance at him over her shoulder. "I can't believe you'd think I'd want anything else."