by Becky Wicks
Way too deep, he repeated internally. There was no way out either.
He was considering asking her to accompany him on another shoot...in a medical capacity, of course. They were headed for Peru in a couple of weeks, and after that to Bali. Maybe she could extend her deadline for the memoir.
The memoir she still hadn’t finished because of him.
He silenced the thought.
‘Hey,’ she said, stopping in front of him.
Her hair was pulled back into a ponytail and he saw the faint red outline of the mark on her head from where she’d fallen. It had healed nicely in his care.
‘Hey,’ he said back, meeting her eyes and feeling that familiar rush of adrenaline shoot through his veins. He was still getting used to the feelings she stirred in him—a reawakening of sorts.
‘We’re wrapping up for the morning. Now I need another interview with you,’ she said, biting on her lip.
He raised his eyebrows, appraising her in her green dress, seeing the way it was already sticking to her sexily in the heat.
‘Do you think you’ll have time for a quick one?’
He knew what that meant, and as usual he was a moth to her flame. ‘Can we do it in the waterfall?’ he asked, stifling a smile.
She was struggling to keep the laughter off her face, but it was shining in her eyes. ‘I’d love to do it in the waterfall.’
‘Great.’ He called out to Maria. ‘I’m taking a break!’
Luckily he’d put his board shorts on under his scrubs...
They walked a metre apart from one another across camp, until they reached another clearing. One of the local guys had introduced them all to the secret waterfall just a ten-minute walk along a hidden path the last time they’d been here, and as soon as they were out of sight of anyone from camp he wrapped his arms around Madeline, picked her up and ran the rest of the way, jumping over the branches and piles of fallen leaves on the way.
She laughed as her arms latched around his neck. ‘You just love to feel like Tarzan out here, don’t you?’
‘What makes you say that?’ he said, putting her down on the grassy slope that led down to the pool and beating his chest as he faced the water.
He watched her peeling off the green dress, revealing her purple bikini as she waded into the cool, murky pool. She was being careful not to step on the sharp rocks, just as they’d been shown. The pool was only ten or so metres wide, but the water rolling dramatically off the high rocks above it was pretty much the perfect disguise for the sounds of mutual enjoyment.
He knew that she knew that was what he hoped was about to happen now. She was teasing him, though.
‘I meant it when I said I needed another interview,’ she said, turning back to him and observing him ditching his shorts.
Her eyes never left his naked body in the sunlight as he followed her into the water.
‘I know you’ve been avoiding the subject—putting me to work on other things, thinking I’ll forget what I really came here to do. It’s what you’ve been doing all along.’
She pulled her long hair from its ponytail and ran her hands through it. Then she dipped into the water and floated on her back. Damn, she was sexy as hell.
‘That’s not entirely true,’ he said, meeting her in the middle and running a hand up her leg, letting his fingers brush the soft fabric of her bikini bottoms.
He’d tease her for a few minutes at least, he thought, before lifting her up onto one of the flat, long rocks behind the falls and using the rest of their ‘break’ in a very constructive fashion.
She didn’t move—didn’t respond to his touch in the way he’d been hoping she would. Instead she spun round and wrapped her legs around his stomach, pulling him in. He was trapped, completely in her control, and he liked it.
‘You know, it won’t be long before we leave this place,’ she said, moving her arms around his neck.
‘You want to talk about that? What happens next...away from the Amazon?’ he asked, ignoring the caution in her voice and what he knew was inevitably coming.
He moved his hands to her bottom and pulled her even closer, dropped a lingering kiss on her lips.
‘I’ve been thinking about it, Maddy. You and me. The future.’
‘You have?’
‘Of course I have. In case you hadn’t noticed, I think you’re kind of OK.’
She smiled playfully. ‘I think you’re kind of OK, too—in a weird, moody way. But that’s not what we need to talk about right now and you know it.’
He sighed, trying not to show his frustration. Something was ready for action, and he wanted to make love to her right here and now, but he could see he’d have to earn that privilege.
‘Talk to me, Ryan. Talk to me about Josephine.’
His chest tightened at the sound of her name. He swam with Madeline’s legs and arms still around him over to the waterfall, dipped them both under the surface and brought them up again behind the falls.
‘I told you—I don’t want to talk about that.’
She let him go, put her feet to the ground and swept her mass of wet hair back over her shoulders. The water was rolling off her eyelashes, down her nose.
‘Ryan, not telling me what happened with her feels the same as you lying to me, somehow.’
He pressed his back to the rocks. ‘It’s not the same, I haven’t lied to you, Maddy—not once.’
‘It feels like you have. Why can’t you talk about Josephine? Why? This has been going on long enough.’
‘Don’t say her name—and don’t write her name in this memoir, please,’ he said, closing his eyes again and raking his hands through his wet hair.
‘Forget the memoir.’
‘What do you mean, forget the memoir?’
‘Ryan, it’s me you’re talking to.’
He curled his fists to his sides, dunked down in the water to his neck as Madeline floated in front of him with the cascade of the waterfall behind her.
So many damn questions. Why the hell couldn’t she just be a nurse...a normal goddamn nurse with no ulterior motives...a nurse he could hold flat against these rocks and lose himself in completely?
He opened his eyes as he felt her straddling him again, sitting across his lap under the water.
‘Forget the book,’ she said again, against his lips. ‘I’m going back to nursing anyway.’ She bunched tufts of his wet hair in her hands.
‘I see. So I tell you all my secrets off the record, and then what? You write them down anyway?’
Madeline was silent.
‘They’re pretty juicy. We’d definitely get a bestseller you wouldn’t be able to resist.’
He put his hands to her waist, but she shoved them away.
‘Do you really think I would do that to you?’ Her voice was furious now.
She started clambering off his lap but he pulled her back to him.
‘Plenty would. Think of the money.’
‘Seriously? Is that the kind of person you think I am? You think I’d get involved with you to get some secret out of you for my own benefit? Let me go!’
She went to clamber off him again, but he reached a hand to the back of her neck and pulled her head against his, pinning her in place.
‘You’re sexy when you’re mad.’
‘That’s insulting. Get your hands off me!’
‘You like my hands on you—remember?’
He pressed his lips to hers and she groaned, kissing him back for a moment, letting her arms move around his shoulder blades. But all too soon she pushed him away again, putting a hand to her mouth as if to block him from trying anything else.
She shook her head, her face still only an inch from his. ‘No. I can’t do this. Do you think because you’re some kind of celebrity I’ll just take whatever part of you I can get?’
‘This is serious. I want to finish this memoir for you—so you can be free, Ryan! So you can put this whole thing to rest the way you want to by telling the story. I don’t have to write it at all—we both know I don’t!’
‘Then don’t.’
‘Fine, I won’t. But will you still tell me what happened with Josephine?’
‘I...’ He closed his mouth. He couldn’t read her.
‘Tell me right now. Tell me because you trust me, Ryan. And because you want a future with me. You just said that’s what you want. And I’d rather have you than some book that’s not even in my name!’
His head was spinning. Josephine’s face was right in front of him now, in his mind, laughing, smiling. Then crying. Then cold and lifeless. His fault. His fault.
‘If you can’t trust me we can’t be together. There is no future for us. We can’t do...this!’ She gestured around them.
Her face changed—hardened as if she was battling something internally.
‘I’m going to ask them to fly me out of here early.’
A laugh spluttered out of him suddenly. ‘Right!’
Her expression hardened further.
He stared at her for a second, feeling panic start to rise. ‘You can’t just leave,’ he said, watching her push through the falls. He followed quickly.
‘There’s no point in me being here one second longer. You’ve been pushing me and pushing me, Ryan, but you won’t give an inch yourself!’
‘I’ve given you plenty of inches,’ he said, too quickly, but she wasn’t laughing at his jokes any more. ‘Maddy, listen. I want to give you everything, I really do. You deserve that. But...’
‘But—there’s always a but. You won’t let me in—you won’t tell me anything that matters. I feel like you won’t share the real you! You can’t keep leading people on and then pushing them away when closeness gets inconvenient for you, Ryan.’
‘I just... It will change the way you think of me.’
‘No, it won’t.’
‘Yes, it will, Maddy...’
‘Then don’t try and stop me when I go.’
She turned again and he watched helplessly as she gathered up her clothes and hurried up the path. He floated onto his back, breathing deeply, anger pulsing through his body.
If he followed, he’d cause a scene on camp.
Was she testing him?
He counted to ten. Then twenty. Anger turned to apathy. Then confusion. Then back to anger and then fear. He counted to twenty all over again, floated there, festering in his own thoughts, for what felt like hours.
In reality it was probably only half an hour. Then, feeling like a total idiot, he swam so hard back through the water he practically dislocated his shoulders.
The second he pushed through the trees to camp a young volunteer with a name badge reading ‘Raul’ ran up to him, looking panicked and out of breath.
‘There you are! Everyone’s been looking for you.’
Crap.
‘What’s happened?’ He was only wearing board shorts—suspiciously dry, he realised, after his ‘swim’.
He started walking towards his tent with Raul scurrying at his side.
‘Emergency up river. They think it’s the drug runners again. We heard gunshots and everyone left...’
‘What?’ He stopped for a second. This was insane. ‘Everyone’s gone?’
‘Pretty much,’ Raul said. ‘I was told to wait here for you. We need to set up in case they bring people back. They could only take limited supplies with them.’
Ryan reached his tent, unzipped the door and threw his shirt inside as dread settled around him, making his stomach sink. ‘I’ll meet you at the station.’
Raul sped off and Ryan bent to crawl inside. He stopped almost instantly. Madeline was emerging from her own tent, complete with her bags. She was fully dressed—boots and all.
Panic seized his heart. ‘Madeline?’
She ignored him, started walking quickly across the grass towards the path to the river, swinging her heavy pack over her shoulder as she went.
He ran after her. ‘Where are you going?’
‘I’ve arranged for a boat to take me back to Saint Elena.’ Her voice was steely, cold as ice.
‘Now?’ He was incredulous.
‘Yes, now.’
‘Do you know what has just happened?’
‘I do, and I’m sorry, but I need to get out of here, Ryan.’
He caught her arm. He was still just in his board shorts, no shoes on his feet, no shirt. He felt powerless. ‘Don’t go, Maddy. Not now.’
‘Don’t make this any harder, please, Ryan.’ Tears glistened in her eyes but she swiped them away defiantly. ‘This is the best time for me to go. No cameras...no one asking questions.’
They were on the pathway now. He could see the river through the trees. The local guys she often talked with were sitting in the boat, laughing about something, waiting for her. What the hell was going on? His world had folded in on itself in a matter of seconds. She couldn’t just leave everyone...she couldn’t just leave him.
‘Madeline—’
He shut his mouth the second he’d said her name, let out a yelp, then an anguished cry. He staggered backwards, then pushed her away so hard she fell down, weighted by her pack.
‘Don’t move,’ he managed, and looked back just in time to see the long, thick-scaled, stripy brown and black snake he’d stepped on slithering away into the undergrowth.
‘Did it bite you?’ Madeline was scrambling to her feet in the dirt. Her eyes were on the tail end of the snake. ‘Oh, my God, did it get you?’
Her voice was shaky. She shook off her pack and was at his side in a second, hands on his shoulders as he sank to the ground.
‘Ryan!’
‘It got me,’ he said, sucking in a breath. ‘Surucucu. Madeline, I need the anti-venom.’
He doubled over for a second. The pain was shooting up his leg already. Madeline stood up quickly, calling to the guys near the boat.
‘Help! Over here, please!’
‘They won’t be able to help me...you need to go back to the camp...find Raul.’ The guys were already running from the river towards them. ‘Go, Madeline!’
‘OK, hold on—OK.’ She kissed him quickly on the mouth. ‘I’m so sorry...just hold on. I’ll be right back!’
She pushed her pack towards him so he could rest on it and sped off back down the path.
On the ground, Ryan grabbed his bare foot and studied the two fang marks just above his ankle. He winced in pain. Sweat had broken out all over his body. The Surucucu’s venom took less than two hours to finish someone off. He’d seen it before—the after-effects on soft tissue at least. The venom was a powerful haemotoxin and, thanks to some of the longest fangs on any snake, it had been injected deep into his bloodstream.
He sucked in another breath, tried to focus.
But he knew in his gut that he was running out of time.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
‘HELP!’ MADELINE RAN into the clearing. ‘Raul! Anyone?’
She was panicked, desperate, but silence greeted her. Everyone was gone. Raul, too, it seemed. She spun around, calling out again, but clearly no one heard her because no one came.
Ryan’s face flashed to the forefront of her mind. He’d turned ashen so quickly. The fang marks on his ankle had been deep and pronounced. It wasn’t good and it was all her fault. She’d caused him to run after her barefoot, she’d been acting stupidly and melodramatically, and now... Now there was no one to help her or Ryan.
She called out again, shaking like a leaf.
Please, please, please...
Then she remembered something. Ryan had anti-venom. He’d shown it to her the fi
rst night they’d got here. He’d even shown her how to apply it—not that she’d wanted to know.
She raced to his tent, pulled it open, threw herself inside and grabbed his bag.
Adrenaline propelled her forward, back the way she’d come.
‘Hold on, hold on...’ she said two minutes later, dropping to his side on the ground and resting her hand on his knee. He looked grey. He was leaning on her pack. ‘Stay with me, Ryan! Can you hear me?’
Two guys from the river were sitting either side of him, holding his arms.
‘We should not move him,’ they told her in Spanish. ‘We don’t want the venom to spread.’
‘OK, hold him steady.’
His eyes were heavy, drooping now. Sweat was glistening on his forehead and the snakebite was swollen, making his leg look twice its size. He clutched her hand for a second. He could barely speak, she could tell. She tried to stay calm, desperately channelling her inner nurse.
‘I’ve got your bag,’ she told him, pulling her hand away and opening it up in front of her. The contents spilled to the ground. ‘Tell me how to help you, Ryan.’
‘Anti-venom,’ he mumbled. He was clearly struggling to keep his eyes open.
‘I know, but which one?’
Madeline stared at the vials and tubes, the syringes and creams and containers. She recognised the anti-venoms, but there were several, all intended for different bites. She held one up to show him.
‘This one?’ she said.
He shook his head weakly, trying and failing to focus on the spread on the floor.
‘This one?’ she said, holding up another and reading from the label.
He shook his head yet again. The effort of not letting fear consume her was in itself threatening to make her crumble. He was deteriorating by the second.
‘It’s not there,’ he managed slowly. He sucked in his breath, as if it pained him to speak.
‘Then where is it?’
Madeline almost swore, but then realisation struck her like lightning. She cursed at herself. She had it—herself. She had put it in her pack that night to keep it safe, after he’d left it in her tent. She’d been intending to give it back to him but she’d forgotten. It was still in the pocket of her pack—which Ryan was now leaning on.
