of course i'm continuing all the way to the end...hee hee:) yes, ardeth is coming eventually... and nope, i'm still not out of school, i just had a bunch of chapters stored up... merci everyone, and have a lovely day :):):)

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It seems to be inherent in the female half of our species that in a sunset, any woman looks beautiful.

She, however, was ravishing.

Dazzling, lovely, exquisite...I'd spent the last hour coming up with adjectives. It was no use. I could no longer fight the fact that she was beautiful. I couldn't deny that I wasn't attracted to her. I couldn't say the idea of sweeping her into my arms didn't hold some appeal.

Okay, a lot of appeal.

Unfortunately for my fantasy life, she hated me. I was sure of it. Of course she did. I was not her type at all. Come to think of it she didn't exactly fit the bill in terms of my perfect woman, but my idea of the perfect woman had changed a lot in the past few days.

We'd been on those camels for what seemed like weeks, though it had only really been, I don't know, 12 hours or so. I didn't know how Evelyn could stand it. She seemed perfectly comfortable atop the bloody beast, while her brother complained constantly. If I hadn't been so worried about impressing her, I would have been complaining just as much, but as it was, I kept silent. Jonathan had fallen asleep by then, but Evelyn was still wide awake, studying the landscape intently. It gave me an opportunity to study her, as well.

"Beautiful," she said, turning toward me.

A mind-reader, too? "Uh, what?"

"The sunset. Beautiful." She gestured toward the sky. "I like the night, though. Dark, lonely, dangerous... Much more interesting than the daytime."

Dark, lonely, dangerous? The night, or, your ideal man? "Have you spent a lot of time out here?"

"Enough. And you? I'd imagine you're an old pro at this, with the archaeology and all."

So much for impressing Evelyn. "Uh...not...really. I mean, yeah, when I was a kid, and all... I was in school for a long time, so--"
"I get it," she interrupted. Rather than teasing me, however, she smiled. "Nothing wrong with pursuing a dream."

"So...what's your dream?"

She looked as though nobody had ever asked her this before. "My dream? You mean, for my life?"

"Yeah. What have you always wanted? Where do you want to be when you're eighty?"

"I probably won't be alive that long."

All righty. Good to know. Low self-esteem issues, perhaps? "Okay, then, in ten years. That's time enough to accomplish a few things."

She shifted uncomfortably in the saddle. "I don't know, I don't have any...plans. I guess..." She seemed to remember I was there, and shook her head. "No, it's stupid."

"Tell me."

"I guess...I always thought I'd have a family, you know?" She nods toward her brother. "I mean, I've got Jonathan, but even you probably see him more than I do. I guess I always figured I wouldn't be like my parents, you know? I thought I could make my life work. I thought I could be..." Her voice faded. "You know, happy."

We sat in silence for a minute, but I couldn't let this opportunity go by. "Aren't you...happy?"

She looked at me, and under the moonlight her eyes glowed. "At this moment. But who knows about tomorrow? Or the next day? Hell, in an alternative reality I'd be dead already if not for you, so I should count myself lucky, right?"

I could have told her that I sure felt lucky, alone in the dangerous night with her, but I didn't. I'm not sure where it would have gotten me. "Right," I simply said, and we fell into silence again as we rode further into the night.

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rsvp:)