“What does?” she asked, laughing and sitting down at the edge, placing her feet in the water.
“That’s the feeling,” he told her, looking around the glade. “The water is like champagne bubbles all around me. I can feel their warmth and it’s like…well, going into me. It’s a strange sensation, but it feels good.”
“Yes,” Cam said, startled, “I feel it, too!” She pointed to her feet and ankles, which were immersed in the pool. “Wow, this is something else, Gus! Oh, won’t it be wonderful if it helps your arm and hand?”
Hearing the hope in her voice, Gus nodded. Indeed, he felt the water working energetically around his wounded arm, felt heat penetrating the wound and moving down his limb to his hand. To his surprise, he tried to flex his fingers. They all moved. Gulping in surprise, he tried it again. Before, his last two fingers would not flex because of the nerve damage. Now they did.
“I moved them,” he exclaimed in a strangled whisper, giving Cam a wide-eyed look of surprise.
She grinned. “Yeah? Your fingers? They moved? Really?”
“Yeah…they did!” Gus flexed them again as if to persuade himself it had really happened.
Tears flooded Cam’s eyes as she sat there, watching Gus in the center of the pool. His face looked at peace for the first time. The strain of the accident was gone, all the tension washed away from his strong male mouth. A soft breeze riffled his hair, lifting a few short strands and settling them against the smooth line of his brow. There was such hope burning in his cinnamon-colored eyes as he looked down at his left arm through the jewel-toned water.
Her heart pounded with hope. Hope for him. And hope that he’d fly at her side once again. Never had Cam wanted anything more. She trusted Maya. And she believed her statement that Gus could be whole once more, even if he himself was uncertain. He hadn’t spent three years with this mysterious and powerful woman as Cam had.
“Just stand there and let yourself heal,” she called to him softly, tears trailing down her cheeks. “I love you, Gus Morales, and I know you’re going to be a hundred percent in two weeks.”
Chapter 19
Gus ambled into their thatched hut, which sat beside a creek of cool, burbling water. It was dark. The weather was warm, in the mid-seventies. The village was quieting down for the night, for there was no electricity here. He’d grown used to the low light, the candles set in glass globes in every hut. To the left was their sleeping room. Seeing Cam sitting on their large pallet, with a globe flickering in the corner, giving her just enough light to write in her diary, he halted in the doorway and smiled softly.
She didn’t hear him come in. He’d been quiet on purpose. Tonight was the last night they’d be here at this incredibly wonderful, healing village. He’d already said his farewell to the grandparents, Alaria and Adaire, who together ran this mystical community. Tomorrow morning, Gus and Cam would cross that wooden bridge over the stream and move out into another world, another life.
His heart expanded with joy. Cam would be at his side. He couldn’t get any luckier than that. His lips curved in a wider smile as he observed her writing, her chestnut hair alive with red-gold highlights, her brow scrunched in concentration.
Gus hadn’t understood the importance of being given a journal upon their arrival here, but now he did. Every day one of the teachers at the village would lead a number of them in some kind of visualization. They would then write down their experience afterward, their emotional response to it. The next day, the same group would gather with that teacher and share the experiences they’d had. The amazing thing to Gus was that all of them had the same experience. That told him that whatever was going on was real, and not a figment of his imagination. No, the last two weeks had been empowering to him and had given him a clearer understanding of his own Yaqui grandmother, and the valuable heritage she’d passed on to him.
“I want to take a photograph of you through my heart’s eyes in this moment,” he whispered to Cam.
Instantly, she lifted her head as she heard Gus’s low, deep voice. His words cascaded over her like a warm blanket. In the thirteen days they’d been in the village, they hadn’t made love because of his broken arm. But how she looked forward to sleeping near him, even if she couldn’t snuggle in his arms.
“That’s a beautiful thing to say,” she murmured.
“I’m looking at a beautiful woman. Why wouldn’t I say that?” His mouth drew into an enigmatic smile.
Eyes widening, Cam realized he was leaning casually on the doorjamb—against his left shoulder. The one that had been so badly injured.
“Gus, aren’t you in pain?” she asked, pointing to his arm. This was the first time she’d seen him do that. He had already regained the full use of his fingers and hand, just as Maya had promised. It was a miracle, but then, Cam had realized very quickly, miracles were an ordinary part of life here at the village.
“Hmm?” He glanced down at his left side. “No, I’m fine. There’s no pain. Nothing.”
Relieved, Cam rested her hands on the diary and smiled up at him. “That’s so wonderful, darling. I can’t believe it, but it’s real. You’ll be able to fly again when we get back to TJ.” She saw his hooded eyes narrow on her. Heart pounding in anticipation, Cam wondered what that look meant. Gus held something in his hands, but she couldn’t see what it was.
“In a way, I’m glad to be going back,” Gus told her, glancing down at what he was holding. It was a small ring he’d fashioned for Cam in the last several days. He’d asked Adaire if he had any silver wire around, and the old man had beamed. Taking Gus to their craft shop, a large thatched hut at the outer perimeter of the village, he’d shown him much more. And for days, after lessons, Gus would go there and work. He’d made the ring for Cam—to symbolize a hope in the future for both of them.
Cam looked around and sighed. She gently closed her book and set it near the wall. “I know how you feel. But there’s a part of me that doesn’t want to leave this peace and quiet.”
“But the other part, the warrior, wants to get back into action, right?” he chuckled. Pushing away from the door frame, Gus quietly shut the woven-palm door so that no one would accidentally enter the room. Then he turned back to Cam, who sat cross-legged on the soft, springy pallet stuffed with freshly dried grass. She was wearing a simple white cotton nightgown.
“You’re right. I’m itching to get back to flying. I miss that most.” She watched Gus walk across the room and close the purple curtains at the two windows, left by day to allow fresh air to flow in. Cam had grown used to his nightly routine. It was time for bed. He had just come from bathing, because he was wearing only his dark blue cotton pants, and the black hair spread across his broad bare chest still looked damp.
Coming to the pallet, Gus knelt down in front of her, less than a foot away. Cam’s face was free of tension. He’d never truly realized the pressure on her until he saw how peaceful she seemed during these two stress-free weeks. As she lifted her chin and smiled up at him, her lips parting, he groaned inwardly.
“I made you something,” he said in a low tone. “Hold out your hand. I want to give it to you.”
Thrilled and surprised, Cam did as he asked. When he placed the piece of jewelry in her palm, the slight touch of his fingers on her skin sent wild tingles of longing up her arm, to her heart.
“Oh, Gus. It’s a ring!” Cam picked up the delicately made piece and looked at it closely.
Nervously, Gus said, “I want this ring to symbolize us, querida. Our future…our possibilities with one another.” He waved his hand. “I used gold and silver wire, weaving them together to make a stronger band.”
Amazed by his painstaking work, Cam noted that seven tiny polished stones were woven into the ring, each a different color. “It’s like a rainbow ring,” she whispered in awe. In the candlelight, the precious stones glinted and gleamed. It’s beautiful, Gus…so beautiful!” Cam choked up with emotion as she held his hooded gaze.
“It’s for a
beautiful woman who stole my heart the first day she walked into my life. I loved you then, Camelia Anderson, but I was a scared guy. There you were—a confident woman warrior, smart and foxy, who had three years of combat under her belt—my teacher and commander.” He managed a sour smile. “I didn’t know I’d become your executive officer. That blew me away, but in a good way, because I wanted to spend as much time with you as I could. Through it all, I hungered for you, querida, even though I never let on to it.”
Smiling softly, Cam said, “No…you never did. You’re very good at hiding your motives, Gus Morales.” She smiled into his eyes.
“And I had my own monsters to wrestle with,” he told her huskily. “I had my past to settle—the loss of another warrior woman I’d loved.”
“I understand,” Cam said. “I was afraid to love you, too, Gus, for different reasons.” She gazed back at the ring, still in awe. The fire within each colored stone was breathtaking. Her fingers tingled as she touched the object. This was no ordinary ring, she realized.
Gus took it from her and held her left hand, her long, graceful fingers extended toward him. “We’ve both faced our fears and worked through them,” he said in an emotional whisper. Seeing her eyes tear up and fill with love for him gave Gus the courage to go on. He slid the ring onto her finger. It fit perfectly. “This ring symbolizes our love for one another, querida. What I hope for us in the future. I know we’re in a dangerous business. I also know, now, that I’m going to savor every second I spend with you from here on out, because we may die suddenly.”
Gulping, Cam drowned in his eyes, which burned with desire. “Oh, Gus…this is so beautiful! Your words, the ring…”
“Do you want to wear this ring for those reasons, querida?” He prayed she did, but he had to ask. He couldn’t assume.
Tears drifted down her cheeks. “Oh, yes, Gus. Yes! I feel the same about you…about us. That crash where we almost died ripped away any misgivings or worries I had about us. Seeing you hurt like that, and knowing that you could die if we didn’t get rescued, helped me get real clear real fast about my true feelings for you.” Sniffing, she whispered, “I love you. I think I loved you from the moment I set eyes on you. I just didn’t want to admit it. I was too scared.”
Caressing her hand and gazing down at the delicately wrought ring, he murmured, “Two emotional cowards who finally got courageous enough to fight our own dragons to win the prize—one another?”
With a laugh, Cam nodded. She wiped her tears away with her other hand. “Yes…yes, exactly.”
“That’s what I wanted to hear,” he murmured. Getting up, he went over to the corner and blew out the candle. The shadows in the room deepened, but bright moonlight pierced the semi-opaque curtains, filling the hut with a muted radiance.
Cam moved the blankets aside as Gus slid into bed beside her. This time, he maneuvered her onto her back and lay on his right side. With his left hand, he caressed her warm cheek.
“I want to love you tonight, querida.”
His low, vibrating tone feathered through her. Cam sighed and smiled softly as his fingers grazed her temple, cheek and chin. “I’ve wanted to do this for so long, but your arm…”
“My arm is fine now,” he assured her. Drowning in her dark green eyes, which were filled with yearning, he ran his fingers down her shoulder to caress her breast beneath the fabric. Her eyes fluttered closed. A soft moan of need rose in her throat as she pressed against his exploring hand. How guileless and trusting Cam was! That humbled Gus as nothing else could. Despite her troubled past with men, she was trusting him so sweetly. That was the power of love, he realized, as he leaned down to seek her lips.
Kissing Cam was like kissing a flower opening to the sun for the first time. Her lips were like soft, warm petals yielding to him adoringly. Gus realized that Cam was innocent and not very experienced in lovemaking. That cautioned him to go slow, to remember that she was new to real intimacy between two people.
“I want this night to be one you’ll always remember, querida,” he rasped against her wet lips. “Fly with me? Let me give you wings, Camelia. Come fly with me….”
His urgent words aroused her, and Cam moaned, “Yes…Gus, I love you….” And she arched against him, her own urgency real, her hunger making her body glow as if lava pooled in its core, ready to explode.
Lost in the haze and heat of his lips crushing hers, she scarcely registered the fact that he was tugging at her nightgown, slipping it up her body and running his warm hand over her bare skin. Cam reluctantly broke away from his searching mouth. Sitting up, she divested herself of the shift and set it aside.
Gus’s eyes gleamed as he looked at her. “You’re so beautiful.” He reached out and caressed her small, firm breasts with his hand. Seeing the languorous look in her eyes, he smiled boldly and urged her to lie at his side once more. “I want to explore you,” he whispered, kissing her nose, her chin, the length of her slender neck. “I want to learn every contour with my lips, my hands, and put it into my heart,” he added, placing one wet, provocative kiss at the top of her breast, the side of it, and finally, closing his lips over the tight nipple.
Hands clenching, Cam closed her eyes as he suckled her and brought her fully into his arms. Swept up in a heated tide, she felt his strength as a man and reveled in it. Urgency filled her as his mouth left her nipple and found her mouth once more. Hungrily, Cam returned his passionate kisses. His breath was warm and rasping against her nose and cheek; his hand ranged artfully downward, exploring her rib cage, her waist and the curve of her hip. Even his wiry chest hair pressing against her sensitized breasts was a wonderful sensation.
When his fingers moved gently across her scalp, making it tingle, Cam rested her head on his right arm and looked drowsily up into his dark, burning gaze. “I ache, Gus…I ache for you….” she told him in a husky tone.
Cam saw the pleased smile come to his strong male mouth. Just having him trail his fingers through her hair was a wonderful and unexpected sensation to Cam. She felt like the most cherished woman in the world as he caressed her lovingly.
“That’s good, querida. I ache, too. It’s the ache of love….” Easing her upward, he lay on his back, grasped her wide hips and drew her above him. There was a look of surprise in her face as he did so, but under the circumstances, he had no wish to stress his newly healed left arm. Besides, his instincts told him that although Cam was not a virgin, it had probably been a long time since she’d made love, and this way he wouldn’t accidentally hurt her.
He understood on some instinctual level that Cam needed to be given the freedom to flow with the needs of her body without him orchestrating their lovemaking. Gus knew that others had used her, forced her on her back and then, after their own gratification, got up and left her, not caring about her fulfillment. He was damned if that was going to happen tonight. Or any night they spent together. In the silent language of love, he was going to teach her about her womanly body, her own power and sexuality, and how she could reach the ultimate gift of it—with him.
As her legs straddled his narrow hips, she felt his erection graze her wet, throbbing core. A sigh tore from her moist, parted lips. When she rested her hands on his well-sprung chest, Gus moved teasingly against her, and when he settled her fully against him, the pooled wetness of her body met the hardened power of his. Fingers digging into the tight flesh of his chest, she moved downward of her own accord. A sense of newfound power, of being a woman, ripped through her like a bolt of lightning as Cam opened her body to him.
“Easy…” Gus whispered, gripping her hips to guide her. “Take your time, querida. This should feel good, not painful….”
His words drummed through her wildly pounding heart. Oh, how good Gus felt to her! Her body sang, the blood throbbing through her as she felt his masculine power at the doorway to her feminine darkness. Gulping, Cam could only feel right now. As he slowly eased his hips upward, and she felt him sheath a little more into her tight confines, the f
iery sensations tripled. Breathing raggedly, Cam closed her eyes, lost in the hazy, exploding sensations. Never had she felt such joy, such honesty and beauty with a man as Gus was sharing with her right now. Oh, this was what love, real love, was about! In the spinning golden halls of her mind that were shorting out with the pleasure of their mutual coupling, Cam realized that Gus was controlling himself for her sake, to introduce her to a realm she’d never, ever explored before. Her breath was growing ragged. She wanted more.
“Take me,” Gus rasped darkly. “Take me when you want, querida. I’m yours…all yours….”
With one powerful movement she did so, and the resulting pleasure moved through her like a tidal wave. Surrendering to her body’s hunger, to her heart’s desire to love Gus in every way possible, Cam sank downward. And then his hands were on her hips, moving her, grinding her body against his as he arched upward to create even greater pleasure for her.
Feeling as if she were in a storm, tossed by violent updrafts and air currents, Cam let the animal nature of herself take over. With each wet, gliding movement, the hunger grew, until finally an explosion unlike anything she’d ever experienced before took place within her. As Gus’s large hands closed around her lower back, pulling her closer still, the violence of her climax took her by utter surprise.
Gus felt Cam stiffen. He understood what was happening. With a grimace of arousal, he finally released his tight control. As she arched her back with a sharp cry of pleasure, he quickened the rhythm between them, deepening his penetration and prolonging the pleasure for her. And just as her climax reached its peak, he allowed himself his final release into the hot, fluid depths of her loving body.
An Honorable Woman Page 22
