"You pay for ice? It's such a commodity, then?"

Talia darted a look at Stella, but the girl was too busy fluttering at Archer's accent to pay any attention to what he was saying.

"It's flavored ice," Talia clarified.

Stella nodded. "You've never had any? Don't they make them in Australia?"

Archer shook his head as if he still didn't get the appeal, but gestured with his

hand. "Lead on."

"I thought you might stay here and watch the dogs," Talia said. "We'll be just across the way." She looked around. "Speaking of dogs, where is yours?"

"Here and about."

Talia sighed. "I told you, you can't just let him run loose in the park." With

Stella standing there, she was limited as to what she could say. "We have laws."

"He's fine."

"Archer-"

"He's sacked out in the back of Stella's pickup, okay?" He winked at Stella, who all but swooned. "You can keep an eye on the dogs from there. They're in their pens."

Since he was unlikely to let her win this one, and Stella was moony-eyed, Talia didn't bother to argue. The event was close to over, most people were leaving, so there was no line and they ordered their cones right away. Stella

took her lime-green one and went off to check out what was left of the fair.

Talia ordered a blueberry one, then ended up ordering one for Archer when he would have refused. The vendor handed him the bloodred cherry ice and Archer took it gingerly.

Talia hid a private smile as they wandered toward the trees and strolled along the edges of the fair. He surrept.i.tiously waited for her to bite into hers before tackling his own. "You really never had anything like this?" she asked.

He shook his head and a.n.a.lyzed his mound of ice as if looking for the best place to make a strategic attack.

She laughed. "Go ahead and bite it, Archer, it won't bite back."

He made a face at her.

She bit into hers, enjoying herself far more than she'd expected to. It tasted too sweet and the ice was so cold it hurt her teeth. Perfect. She took a few more bites, savoring each one, only to stop in mid-swallow when she caught Archer staring at her. She managed to choke down the rest. "What?"

"Nothing."

She turned her head and licked her lips, hoping she didn't have a blue ring

around them. She looked back to find him still watching her. "You going to eat yours?"

He looked dubiously at the ice that was starting to drip over the side of the

paper cup. She couldn't say what made her do it, but she stepped closer, covered his hand with hers and guided the cone to his mouth. "Just take a little off the top. It's easier once you make an edge."

His eyes widened, then darkened as he leaned over the cone and sank those perfectly white teeth deep into the lush red ice. All the while his gaze remained locked on hers. She didn't know who swallowed harder. Then he

licked his lips and, when she went to pull her hand away, covered it with his

other one, and took yet another bite, then another. All the while looking at her.

"You're right," he said, his accent dusky and rough. "It's quite good." He dropped his hand, then took the one of hers that held the cone. "Now

you."That's o-" The word ended as blueberry ice covered her tongue and lips.

Then she simply let herself sink into the sensation of looking into his hot eyes while feeling something so cold and sweet slide down her throat.

Talia was searching for something to say when Archer's expression suddenly

went stone cold. "s.h.i.t!"

"What?" She swung around in time to see a man launch himself at her, his

long black hair flying behind him, a deadly look in his eyes. Then Archer shoved her roughly to the ground, sending both their paper cups flying.

"Stay down!" he ordered as he propelled himself over her and tackled the man

back into trees. They both hit the ground with a sickening thud, tumbling into the underbrush. Before Talia could react, Ringer raced in and she instinctively lunged and grabbed the little mutt, keeping him from entering the fray and getting himself hurt.

She looked wildly about, trying to hold the squirming dog in her arms, scanning the area for possible help, but everyone was packing up or leaving the park on the opposite side of the field. Archer swore, and she scrambled to her feet and started off into the woods after him. The attacker had managed to break free and was racing through the trees, deeper into the woods, Archer hot on his heels. Should she follow or stay back? What if the man were to circle around and come back for her? Ringer snarled in her arms, as if he'd read her thoughts. She held him more tightly and he stopped fighting to get down, his

agitation seemingly more protective than defensive.

Then Archer came busting back out of the undergrowth, panting hard, his face

scratched and dirty, his shirt torn in several places. "You okay?" He looked hard into her eyes, the intensity palpably leaping off him.

"Yeah. I'm fine."

She was still clutching Ringer, so he took her elbow in a firm grip and moved

them both quickly back toward the trucks and animal pens. "Come on," he said, hauling her with him so she had to stumble to keep up. "We're packing up and leaving now."

She couldn't have agreed more, but a delayed reaction to what had almost happened to her, combined with the very visceral results of what he'd done to prevent it had her yanking them both to a halt. "Wait just a d.a.m.n minute!

What the h.e.l.l happened back there? Who was that guy?"

Archer swung around on her, eyes blazing. "His name is Anteri. And I a.s.sume

he wanted to stop you from coming back with me."

Talia tugged her arm from his grasp and let the wiggling dog leap into his master's arms. Archer grunted, but he scratched the dog's ears consolingly, which managed to calm both Ringer and Talia down. "He wanted to go after you," she said. "I didn't think that was a good idea."

"Thanks," Archer said, his breath slowing, but not his irritation. "Let's move."

Talia matched his stride, looking back at the woods as a shudder crept up her spine. "Where did he go? Is he still out there?""No. He went back home."Home. Talia swallowed. To the future. Jesus. This was becoming way too real for her. She almost laughed. It was that or sob. It was already far too real for her, thank you very much. Now she had coldblooded killers leaping out of the

woods at her. And Archer had willingly, without hesitation, thrown himself at the guy. He wasn't armed, at least not like the other guy probably had been. She could tell herself that it was all about the money, that he'd only been protecting his paycheck... but the look in his eyes when he'd come back told her otherwise. He'd been angry and autocratic, nothing new there. But in that split second before he'd grabbed her elbow, when he'd demanded to know if she was okay... There was something there and she was quite certain he hadn't been thinking about the queen or his paycheck.

"Thank you," she said quietly. Something in her tone caught at him, and he stopped and looked back at her. She didn't know what else to say. She reached a hand up toward him, then let it drop away, not sure he wanted to be touched at the moment. "You didn't even blink."

She thought he might give her an arrogant smile, say something c.o.c.ky. Maybe if he had, she'd have been able to brush the whole thing off, forget that she'd almost been attacked. But he didn't smile or say anything. He simply looked at her. Into her.

"You saved my life."

He managed a nod, then took her elbow, more gently this time. She looked

over at him, wondering if she had actually embarra.s.sed him. "Hasn't anyone ever thanked you before?"

He didn't slow down, only glanced at her. "Generally, there isn't much cause

for thanks in my line of work." When he looked away, she knew the subject was closed.

But that didn't mean she'd stop thinking about it. Or what he'd done for her."I should have taken you more seriously," she said. "If anything had happened to Stella or the pups-"

"Yes, you should have and Anteri wasn't after Stella and the pups. But it is time to get the h.e.l.l out of here. In case you haven't realized it, the stakes just went up. This guy wasn't sent here to baby-sit you, Talia."

She already knew that. Had known it the instant she looked into the killer's eyes. Still, a part of her wanted to cling to the fantasy that all this was happening to someone else. A childhood dream gone horribly awry that she'd awaken from at any moment. "But you said they just wanted to observe-"

"That was when they thought only they knew about you. And trust me, sweetheart, if they'd known we were on our way, Dideon would have likely kept you from ever being found."