"And you're surprised by that how?" he asked, almost petulantly. But it wasn't what he felt, and either way his pique, real or imagined, could not stand in the face of her obvious glee.


It was not an emotion he'd seen in her before, and why should he? She'd been either determined, sad, or dealing with his nonsense ever since she got here. It was no real surprise that she was beautiful when she was happy, but he found himself transfixed anyway, by the way her eyes danced and her mouth lost its little frown and her whole body gave itself over to emotion.


He tried not to think about what other sensations might do to her, so unselfconscious in her movements, and in shutting down that line of thought found himself giving in to her joy. He didn't even realize he was grinning, eyes crinkling at the corners, as he watched her.


"We're not done," he reminded them both and began, hand over hand, to pull the pole up the cliff. His heart raced and his cheeks hurt from the unaccustomed action of smiling, and he told himself it was the exertion of the kill rather than her influence. Never mind that it hadn't done it yesterday.