the collar of her oversized tunic. Old Wu had hired those men under desperate circumstances, but she knew that loyalty could not be bought. Not with all the gold on this earth.
‘It’s nearly sundown,’ he said, glancing at the sky. ‘You had better stay here in case any of that scum is still about.’
Stay the night here with him and no one around for miles? Her heart thudded as if trying to escape the tight cloth bound around her breasts. He had rescued her. She should have nothing to fear from him, but there was something primal and dangerous in him. Masculine. Yang. He stood too close, close enough for her to catch his scent—an enticing mix of leather and the autumn smell of the woods that invited her to tempt fate. She couldn’t let her guard down.
With a steadying breath, she stepped back. ‘How can I be sure it is safe here?’
‘You don’t want to face those smugglers alone.’ He regarded her with a half-smile. ‘Unless you intend to fight off all of them with those knives of yours.’
‘They’re not knives. These are butterfly swords.’ She shoved the second blade away.
‘You can get back to the road in the morning,’ he said. ‘I won’t touch you if that is what you’re afraid of. I’ll start a fire.’ He moved away to gather kindling, allowing her space to consider.
Everything he spoke of made sense. Her guards had fallen too easily. Someone among them had betrayed her. Once Li Tao discovered she was gone, he would send his men in a black swarm over the area. Instinct told her she needed to keep moving, but to where? She was stranded in the southern province with night nearly upon them and no road to guide her. She laced her hands together and lowered her head in thought.
Her gaze drifted to the sword at the foreigner’s belt. The blade was larger than the ones used among the soldiers of the empire. A weapon designed to cleave armour and crush bone. He had wielded it with obvious skill.
More importantly, he didn’t recognise her.
A new plan started to form in her head. Father would call it reckless. Mother—her mother would expend much more than a single word to describe her foolishness. But what could she rely on out here besides her butterfly swords and her instincts? Even though her instincts had proven wrong with the hired guards, she had a sense of yuán fèn about this swordsman. That she would meet a barbarian, of all people, on this journey—what could that be but fate between them?
And she had no other choice.
Ailey paced as he gathered fallen twigs. She circled the clearing once, hands on her hips. The tips of the yellowed grass brushed over her calves. With each movement he caught hints of her shape beneath the drab clothing: tapered waist and gently rounded hips that would fit perfectly into a man’s hands. He had glimpsed the edge of the cloth wrapped tight around her breasts just below the neckline of her tunic. Already his imagination ran wild with the thought of her undressed and unbound before him.
With one knee set on the ground, he sparked the kindling with flint and steel. His mind could wander all it wanted where Ailey was concerned. Thoughts were harmless, even heated thoughts about pretty girls lost in the woods. As long as he kept his hands where they belonged.
The grass rustled behind him as she approached. Already he was acutely aware of her every move, his senses reaching out to search for her.
‘You decided to stay,’ he said over his shoulder.
She was looking down at him with sudden interest. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the kind of interest he usually sought from a woman.
‘You handled yourself well against those men,’ she began.
He shrugged dismissively. ‘Common thugs.’
‘And you were outnumbered and drugged as well.’
She took a step closer. Her teeth clasped over her lower lip uncertainly while her eyes shone with hope. She had no idea what that look did to a man.
He blew out an unsteady breath. ‘Anyone would have done the same—’
‘I need your protection to help me return home,’ she interrupted in a rush.
An immediate refusal hovered on his tongue. ‘Where do you live?’ he asked instead.
‘Changan.’
The imperial capital. A good week’s journey from here and in the opposite direction of where he needed to go. The area surrounding the city would be littered with imperial soldiers who would be overjoyed to see him.
‘I can pay you,’ she said when he remained silent.
She pulled a silk purse from her belt and threw it to him before he could respond. The coins rattled as he caught it.
‘Open it.’
The weight of it told him what he’d find before he pulled at the drawstring to reveal a handful of gold and silver. He closed it and tossed it back with a flick of his wrist. The purse landed in the dirt at her feet.
‘I can’t.’
Her eyebrows shot up, puzzled. ‘You do not know how much this is.’
‘I know how much it is,’ he said through his teeth. ‘I don’t want your money.’
She lowered her tone. ‘I have offended you.’
He straightened, avoiding her eyes while needles of guilt stabbed at him, sharp and unrelenting. She didn’t know what she was asking.
‘I can’t go to Changan no matter what the price. And don’t go throwing your money around—what the hell are you doing?’
She had her hands clasped together in front of her, palm to fist, head bowed humbly.
‘I am beseeching you as a fellow swordsman. I need your protection.’
‘We’re not fellow swordsmen,’ he growled. Raising a hand to the back of his neck, he pinched at the knot forming there. ‘You don’t even know who I am.’
‘I know we are strangers and this is an unspeakable imposition, but I must get home and I cannot make it alone.’
Now it was his turn to pace. He could sense her hovering nearby, waiting for an answer as if he hadn’t already given it. His inability to help her tore at him. He couldn’t be responsible for Ailey. His last mistake was the deadliest in a long, winding chain of them. Whoever had decided he should lead other men must have been either drunk or daft. At least while he was alone, no one else could get hurt.
‘What are you doing so far from home, anyway?’ he demanded.
‘I help my family with our business.’
‘Selling tea?’
‘Yes.’ She paused. ‘Tea.’
‘No respectable merchant would send his daughter out here unprotected. The imperial army no longer guards these roads.’
‘I was not alone,’ she insisted. ‘I was with bodyguards.’ Her voice trailed away
