‘Fine, Mister,’ she challenged. ‘Any time you like.’
‘Ten-second start?’
This time a look was enough to tell him what she thought of that. Launching herself into the race, Sophie pulled out all the stops and arrived on the opposite bank only a few seconds after Xavier.
Helping her to climb out, he reached for their towels and tossed one over to her.
Predictably, Anna was sunbathing in the nude.
‘I’ll go back in to swim again if you want company,’ Sophie offered, towelling her hair vigorously.
‘And get blue with cold? No thank you,’ Anna drawled without opening her eyes. ‘I’ll just improve my tan,’ she said, turning over to reveal a back view almost as impressive as the front.
Xavier seemed gratifyingly unimpressed, Sophie noticed as he moved into the shadows to dress.
But the fact that he seemed neither to notice nor to care what Anna was doing was not lost on the beautiful Dane. The look she lavished on Sophie was hard, and lasted a beat too long.
A challenge? Sophie wondered, feeling a prescient chill run through her.
Thankfully, on their return to the clinic the tension between everyone smoothed out. In fact, Anna dogged Sophie’s footsteps, as if suddenly she was the most desirable company in the world. And, just when Sophie was beginning to wonder if the swimming trip had been just that—a swimming trip, Xavier came to find her.
‘I thought I should warn you—’
‘Warn me?’ Sophie tensed, acutely aware of Anna standing right next to her.
‘I know it’s short notice,’ he said, ‘but you’ll have to come with me tomorrow.’
‘I will?’ Sophie said, swallowing back her euphoria and attempting nonchalance.
‘I could take the time off,’ Anna offered, moving in front of Sophie to claim all Xavier’s attention. ‘There are plenty here who could cover for me.’
‘That’s good of you, Anna,’ he said, ‘but I need to make sure I leave a good spread of specialisms here to cover both the clinic and the hospital. Sophie will—’
‘What?’ Anna demanded, affronted. ‘What will Sophie do for you that I can’t?’
‘I was about to say that Sophie will go where she is needed most, as you will, Anna,’ Xavier said, in a voice that didn’t invite contradiction.
‘Of course,’ she said, her face reddening as she backed down.
In that moment, Sophie had some sympathy for her fellow doctor. Who knew better than she how Xavier could invade your thoughts to the exclusion of everything else? And, in spite of everything, Anna was an excellent physician with a highly developed sense of responsibility towards her patients.
‘Don’t look so shocked,’ Xavier murmured in Sophie’s ear as he steered her in front of him and out through the door. ‘You signed up to do anything that’s required of you, remember?’
‘So what’s required of me?’ she challenged, turning to confront him at the top of the steps.
‘This,’ he said, slamming the door shut with his foot and leaning back on it so it couldn’t be opened from the inside.
As he dragged Sophie against him and dipped his head to kiss her, it was so unexpected she let out a soft cry before melting against him. His kiss was everything she had hoped for—hungry, tender, deep and long. He kissed her as if he had waited all his life for it, and he only let her go when it became obvious that someone—Anna, almost certainly, was trying to open the door from the other side.
‘I don’t like waiting,’ Xavier growled fiercely against Sophie’s lips, ‘and I certainly didn’t expect to wait so long for that.’
Before she could reply he had hold of her hand and was tugging her down the steps after him.
The sensation that she was a naughty child running away from the schoolmistress swept over Sophie as they ran to the truck. She didn’t need to look behind her to know that Anna was standing beside the open door watching them.
‘Where are we going?’ Sophie said, catching her breath as Xavier hammered the engine on his way out of the compound.
‘Where would you like to go?’
‘Away from here?’ she said lightly, searching his face for answers. ‘So, Xavier, which is it, work or pleasure?’
‘We’ll save the work for tomorrow.’
‘And today?’ Sophie demanded softly. ‘Where are we going, Xavier?’
‘Somewhere where we can be alone—unless you’ve got any better ideas?’
‘None,’ Sophie said quickly. His voice was enough to seduce her without the need for anything else, she realised, basking in the persuasive heat toying with her senses.
‘But I hope it’s not too far away.’ She received just the look she wanted from him—short, fierce, and knowing.
‘My thoughts exactly,’ Xavier agreed, increasing speed.
He drove up as far as the narrow track allowed, but then they had to get out and walk deeper into the closely packed trees until they came out again on to a ledge overlooking the valley. The silence was infinite, seclusion guaranteed, and from their incredible vantage point the plain below them seemed to stretch for ever in a patchwork of umber and sienna and soft, sunlit gold. Wherever rainwater had pooled, mosses and lichens flourished, providing acid green highlights. In the far distance the formidable Andes mountains rose in jagged crests, the menacing shade at their base offset by the timeless majesty of ice-blue fingers pointing towards infinity in a cloudless sapphire sky.
Sophie sank to the ground when Xavier drew her down with him, but when she expected him to kiss her again he only whispered, ‘Stay very still.’
‘What?’ she murmured, searching his face.
‘Over there…towards that peak,’ he said, turning away from her to stare out intently across the plain, ‘Do you see it?’
Following his gaze, Sophie sucked in a fast, surprised breath. Even at this distance she could tell the bird they were looking at was huge—no, massive. ‘Is it a condor?’ she demanded incredulously.
‘Yes, it’s a condor,’ Xavier confirmed, whispering against her face. ‘They come here to hunt in the late afternoon—and here comes his mate.’ As he spoke he settled her on the comfortable mossy bed so that she was lying quite flat, and all the while his hand was steadily undoing her shirt. When his lips moved unerringly to the most sensitive part of her neck Sophie writhed sensuously beneath him, trying not to lose focus on the two colossal birds wheeling over their heads, performing a slow and graceful pas de deux for her alone—or so it seemed—wingtips touching, almost as if they were flirting. ‘Xavier—’
‘Yes?’
Sophie couldn’t speak. He had the buttons undone and was moving down to lavish kisses on the soft swell of her breasts.
‘What?’ he whispered, tracing the outline of first one erect nipple and then the other beneath the fine lace of her bra with just the tantalisingly light touch of one thumbnail.
‘You said it would be a long time before you—’ Her voice faded into a sigh.
‘Are you asking me to stop, Sophie?’ Xavier murmured, his voice thick with desire as he watched her nipples firm still more beneath his touch.
‘No, no, don’t stop,’ Sophie insisted breathlessly, meshing her fingers through his hair to bring him closer.
With a soft growl of triumph he moved again, this time to plunder the dark, moist recesses of her mouth with a purposeful rhythm, while his hands—his hands!
Moving suddenly, restlessly, Sophie sat up, slipped out of her shirt and tore off her bra. Freed from their lacy constraint she knew her breasts appeared large on her slender frame, and felt the sweet pain of nipples engorged, hard and tempting. She faced him and had the satisfaction of hearing Xavier’s fast breath when he saw her naked from the waist up for the first time. She watched with savage pleasure as he took in the size of her breasts and saw the extent of her arousal. But still she held back. She wasn’t finished with him yet—not by a long way. Not after all the torment he had put her through since that night in the
truck. Maybe once she’d been compliant, but now she was impatient and needy—quarry turned aggressor. And when Xavier reached out to claim her, she denied him fiercely, bringing him to his knees as she turned her attentions to his clothing. Xavier responded instantly, removing her hands to tear at his shirt, and then tugging his close-fitting top over his head until they faced each other naked from the waist up, eyes burning with the fever of desire, lips parted to suck in the air they needed to fuel their passion. For a moment they paused, held immobile in a band of erotic tension. Sophie felt the power of her female heritage when she saw the fire in Xavier’s eyes matched her own; they were a tableau of raw passion in a land of savage beauty.
‘Come to me,’ he commanded softly.
Getting to her feet, Sophie moved towards him, loosening the fastenings on her jeans slowly, provocatively; holding his glance, she stood a little in front of him while she steadily eased them down over her hips. Stepping out of them, she was about to do the same with the tiny thong she was wearing when he stopped her with a short, imperative wave of his hand. Making a small gesture, he encouraged her forward.
As he buried his head between her thighs and she felt his hot breath warming her, Sophie groaned and felt her legs weaken, but he would not let her down yet and held her firm to nuzzle his lips against her swollen flesh. He let her feel the gentle nip of his teeth against the damp swell of her arousal and teased her beyond bearing with his tongue through the cobweb of lace.
‘Please, Xavier…please.’
‘Not yet,’ he warned, slipping his hand between her slim thighs to continue the work of his tongue.
As his fingers found her she let out a short guttural gasp, but he would not cease his stroking and only smiled with understanding, his eyes revealing how much he enjoyed watching her pleasure as his skilful touch made her tremble all over and pant with need.
‘Please, Xavier—’ Sophie gasped out on a juddering sigh, sinking to her knees in front of him.
Wordlessly, he loosened the buckle on his belt and stripped off his jeans. In moments he was naked before her. Lowering her gently to the ground, he eased her into position beneath him. Stopping to trace her cheek with one sensitive fingertip, he slid his other hand down her back, removing the thong.
He took her slowly, conscious of her inexperience, and after the briefest pause when she cried out softly at the moment of penetration, he settled into her deeply, inhabiting her completely, stretching her far beyond anything she could ever have imagined, moulding his body completely with hers until they were one. The intensity of sensation was something she knew at once could never be surpassed—then he moved again, and it increased. Withdrawing completely in one slow movement, he plunged into her again, and then again and again, until she was moving with him in an unbroken primal dance that only ended to begin again, for having found each other and waited so long they were like two parched creatures at the well of life.
It was almost dark when Xavier looked up into the sky again. ‘There they go,’ he murmured softly.
Lifting her head, Sophie saw the two huge birds swooping away across the valley until they disappeared from sight. ‘Thank you for bringing me here,’ she murmured, tracing the outline of Xavier’s hard mouth with her fingertip. ‘It’s been the experience of a lifetime.’
‘As I hoped,’ he said wickedly.
‘I mean the condors too,’ Sophie reprimanded, smiling as she spoke. But then he drew her fingers into his mouth and began to suckle, and she was incapable of thought. It was incredibly erotic—but, as she reached for him again, Xavier moved away.
‘Time to go, querida,’ he said softly. But he seized her passionately and dragged her back to him for one last, lingering kiss.
Only here…only with him, Sophie thought, softening as Xavier’s fingers meshed through her hair after he’d helped her to button up her shirt.
‘Do you trust me completely now?’ he murmured, kissing her before she could answer him.
As his hands moved lightly over her neck and shoulders, Sophie trembled with desire for him again, the shivers spinning down her spine weaving pulses of sensation that made her reach for him urgently. ‘I’ve always trusted you,’ she exclaimed huskily.
‘Then perhaps one day,’ Xavier murmured, holding her at arm’s length so that he could stare deep into her eyes, ‘you will explain why it has taken you so long to trust me not to hurt you when I make love to you?’
‘One day,’ Sophie promised, but he could see shadows already darkening the light in her eyes like a cloud moving across the sun. ‘Has someone hurt you?’ he pressed, his face full of concern, urging her to share the pain.
‘No,’ Sophie said quickly, swallowing hard as she turned her face away from him, ‘not me.’
‘Who then?’ Xavier demanded softly, gently bringing her round and tilting her chin with his hand.
Sophie pressed her lips together and would not look at him. It was something she never talked about with anyone.
‘Sophie?’
Staring sightlessly out across the darkening valley Sophie shivered a little, but she found it oddly comforting that the little pocket of human emotion could nestle beneath a crag whilst nature played out its own drama on a much vaster scale. It changed her perspective and made keeping the pain locked inside her seem pointless. Turning back to look into Xavier’s face again, she knew he would not press her for details, that wasn’t his way. But hadn’t she trusted him already with her body, her spirit, her very essence…? Couldn’t she trust him with this too?
‘I was frightened because—’ She stopped, concerned suddenly that the words had been locked inside her for too long. Maybe she couldn’t get them out—but the steady beat of his heart against her chest urged her to try.
‘My mother…my mother was hurt,’ she told him finally in a dry voice stripped of emotion. ‘Often…many, many times…hospital…never honest about what happened…’ She was speaking quickly now, the words choking out on dry, gulping sobs. But she had to get it over with—had to brandish the malevolence in front of Xavier, and challenge him to want her, now he knew the truth about her father was even worse than he could possibly have imagined.
When every painful memory had finally drained from her, she was left shaking and spent. But, instead of rejecting her, turning cold as she had feared, Xavier planted tender kisses on her face and her eyes and her lips, while he stroked down the length of her shuddering back until, very slowly, she relaxed again and rested against him.
‘Come,’ he said when she had been still for a while, ‘we should be going.’ And as he pulled her to her feet, Sophie realised that the sun had dipped down low behind the peaks, casting a crimson mantle across the plain spread out below them. ‘I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to burden you—’
‘Don’t,’ Xavier murmured, putting his finger over her lips. ‘I’m glad you did. I guessed some of it, and I’ve been waiting for you to trust me enough—’
‘There’s so much you have to do, you’ve got to pack,’ Sophie broke in, affecting a bright tone. His expression was hidden from her in the deepening shadows and she felt sure the extent of her revelations must have been a shock for him. She could only guess at his feelings.
‘Stop it, Sophie,’ Xavier insisted, his voice full of passion. ‘You don’t have to be brave—not with me.’ He dragged her close and held her until she relaxed against him. ‘Better,’ he murmured at last, cupping her face in his hands as he stared deep into her eyes. ‘We should go now,’ he whispered tenderly, ‘or had you forgotten, querida, that you still have to pack too?’
As soon as Sophie saw Anna Groes waiting for them on the top step of the clinic her happiness evaporated. Problems never went away of their own accord—they only stacked up awaiting attention until you dealt with them, she mused grimly as Xavier drew the truck to a halt.
Anna seemed to be waiting expressly for them—perhaps she had been standing there on tenterhooks ever since they drove off! But, whatever the story, she looked
pretty pleased with herself now. She came tripping down the steps to greet them with a broad smile on her face, as if she was positively thrilled by their arrival. And, predictably, focused all her attention on Xavier.
‘Some more doctors have arrived,’ she said excitedly before he even had a chance to climb down from the cab. ‘They are waiting inside to meet you—’
‘I was expecting some more doctors, Anna,’ Xavier confirmed coolly, refusing to be hurried.
She stood back expectantly and was clearly frustrated when Xavier came around the other side of the truck to see Sophie safely out first. ‘Have they eaten yet?’ he asked Anna, one hand still resting lightly on Sophie’s arm.
Sophie saw by the merest flicker in Anna’s eyes that she had noticed the possessive gesture and resented it. But she also saw that the glamorous Danish doctor rallied fast. There wasn’t a hint of petulance about her. In fact, Sophie decided curiously, she looked distinctly smug.
‘I prepared a meal as soon as they got here,’ Anna said with a degree of suppressed excitement that seemed at odds with the mundane revelation.
‘Good,’ Xavier said, walking alongside Sophie to the base of the steps. ‘Well, we haven’t eaten yet, so—’
‘You haven’t?’ Anna said, tut-tutting with concern. ‘Then I shall take the greatest pleasure in feeding you, Xavier,’ she said, embroidering her offer with a flirtatious glance.
‘Don’t worry about us,’ he replied pleasantly. ‘Sophie and I will rustle something up.’
‘But thank you anyway, Anna,’ Sophie cut in with a quick smile. There was no point in fanning the flames of resentment when she knew that the medical world, like every other, was small and the chance of working with Anna again was high.
‘Please yourselves,’ Anna said, and this time she even gave Sophie the benefit of her perfect smile.
Sophie noticed some figures in silhouette, milling about behind the carelessly drawn curtains. The new doctors, she supposed. She was curious to meet them.
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