34‘Where are you taking her?’
The woman appeared out of the air in front of them with such suddenness Rick nearly fell to his knees in surprise. Anthony too struggled to keep his balance under Lael’s dead weight. Her hair was long and dark, tied in a neat plait that hung over her shoulders, glossy and smooth where it divided into a straight part on top of her head. Her face could have covered magazines the world over, so perfect were her features; from the delicate, arched eyebrows to the pouting lips. She sat, half-reclined, across a sandstone shelf that jutted from the cliff top like a sacrificial altar, long legs crossed at the ankle, one shapely arm languishing along her body, the other supporting her gorgeous head.
Rick hated her on the spot. He tightened his hold on Lael’s arm, shr
