Read Into the Wilderness: Blood of the Lamb (Book Two) for Free Online

too.”
    â€œBad guess!” He laughed, the sound a point of brightness in the night. “Every time I close my eyes, all I can picture is kissing you!”
    Maryam was glad the shadows hid her tingling blush as the memory of their stolen kisses back on Onewēre filled her mind.She swallowed hard, her mouth suddenly very dry as he leaned in close. “I have thought—”
    His boldness swept her words away and for one long moment nothing else existed except the concentrated merging of their mouths. Maryam felt her body melting, her bones transformed to whirlpools as his tongue met hers. When finally she pulled away to draw a breath, she could hear the race of blood thrum through her ears.
    â€œYou know how much I care for you, don't you?” Joseph whispered. “I think I knew it from the first time I saw you at my father's funeral.” He ran a finger down her arm, lowering his gaze as he traced his name against her skin. “And what about you? Do you like me too?”
    â€œOf course!” she laughed, amazed by the uncertainty in his voice. “We agreed already that we're friends, remember?”
    â€œNo,” he said, his brow creased to a frown. “I mean, do you really like me?”
    How could he even ask it when only moments ago she had given herself over to his kiss? “I do,” she confessed, terror and excitement competing inside. She didn't know what else to say. It was the truth, but she felt as if she teetered on the edge of a precipice, and there was only a perilous, uncharted region far below. Instead, she wrapped her arms around Joseph's shoulders and pressed him close.
    He littered her hair with tiny kisses, his breath panting out hard and fast, and she closed her eyes, allowing the pressures of the outside world to fall away once more. But a predatory face intruded on the swirling pleasure in her head—Father Joshua as he forced himself on Ruth. She pulled back abruptly, guilt competing with pleasure in a confusing dance.
    â€œI'm sorry,” she babbled, “but I can't stop thinking of poor Ruth.”
    â€œRuth?” A hint of impatience crept into Joseph's voice.
    â€œShe suffers cruelly from the assault by Father Joshua. I don't know how to ease her hurt.” It was totally the wrong time to be telling him this, she knew—their intimacy was retreating like the tide—but she badly needed to share the worry. She wanted Joseph's help.
    Joseph stared at her intently before sighing. He released her from his embrace. “I suspect it's something only time will heal,” he said. “I've heard my mother speak of the fallout from such an—” He held his hand aloft as the clouds finally decided to release their load. “Oh-oh…It's here.”
    Plump drops splashed around them, bursting like tiny explosions as they hit the deck. Within seconds both Joseph and Maryam were soaked.
    â€œQuickly,” Joseph ordered, “get under the shelter now and try to sleep. I'll man the boat.”
    It pained her to break their precious moment, but the rain was falling more steadily now, running off her hair and weeping down her face. She rose up on her tiptoes and kissed the wet tip of his nose. “Shall I wake Ruth for her shift?”
    Joseph shook his head. “No, let her sleep. Perhaps with rest her mind will find some kind of peace.”
    Maryam sent him one last smile, warmed, despite the rain, by Joseph's kind and thoughtful heart.

The downpour lasted until dawn. Maryam hardly slept, tossing and turning as she replayed the conversation and the unsettling kiss from the night before. Why, oh why had she raised Ruth's problem with Joseph then? After so few opportunities to be alone with him, she'd distracted him from the little time they had.
    When, finally, the rain had stopped and the sky was growing light, she could stand her swirling thoughts no longer, and crawled out of the shelter to press a nourishing ball