by Cherry Adair
Stay or go?
How were they going to find their way out of the jungle without help? Beth had no doubt that her captors knew every tree and leaf in this jungle. She and Sam wouldn’t get very far before they were caught and forcibly returned to the compound. How much better off was she now than she’d been five minutes ago? Two of them, against God only knew how many armed soldiers.
“Stop over analyzing,” he said, his voice pitched so she could hear him. “Trust me.”
She did trust him—and his ability to lead her out of this mess. Teachers were leaders, weren’t they? A little. Maybe? Hopefully. Yes. He’d managed to track her to the middle of who-knows-where. Might as well go with his misguided but appreciated need to be a hero. Sam had no idea what he’d let himself in for. Knowing that squeezed her heart inside her chest.
Having him here, while it was terrific not being alone, was just going to get them both killed. “Go and find help,” she whispered. It made sense for Sam to go and get reinforcements. One of them had to be practical. “I’ll stall Thadiwe again in the morning.” Practicality had its dangers, and now that she knew rescue was at hand, she wanted to get away from here so badly she shook with it. But it made more sense to lull Thadiwe and his men into believing that she was getting ready to do what they wanted.
Sam just had to return fast.
“Get your pretty ass out here, Doctor. Now.”
She hesitated. Unlike her sister, Kess, who made split-second decisions, and was rash to the point of foolishness, Elizabeth spent a lot of time weighing her options. She was a Libra, after all.
“Do it, Beth.” It wasn’t a request.
Fatalistic, she threw her legs over the sill, then slid into Sam’s waiting arms. The footing was unsteady, and she realized she was standing on the barred window, frame and all.
His hands closed around her waist. “I’ve got you.”
Blindly reaching out, she grabbed onto Sam’s forearms to steady herself. He didn’t feel skinny, or flabby, at all, she thought, surprised when his rock-hard muscles flexed under her fingers as she teetered. She tried to picture those muscles beneath one of his gray suits, and couldn’t.
“Good girl,” he murmured, as he slid his arms around her waist. “There’s just one more thing before we go.”
Oh, God. “What?”
“This.”
He’d kissed her twice. Once a few moments ago, when she’d had no idea who the hell he was, and once, in broad daylight, in her office at the clinic. A mind-blowing, knocked-her-socks-off, fabulous kiss, and then—heleft for a month with no word. Kess had told her to stop mooning over a schoolteacher and go find a cowboy. Or a bronco rider with great hip movement. Or an astronaut whose kisses would take her to the moon. Kess wouldn’t wait for a guy to make the first move. But Beth wasn’t her sister.
Sam spread his large hand across her lower back, bringing the other up to cup her face. As he brushed his mouth over hers, she eagerly parted her lips. He touched his tongue to hers, and Elizabeth’s heart thudded hard as he sucked it into the hot, wet cavern of his mouth. God. This is crazy… She stood on tip toes to wrap her arms about his neck and draw his body flush against hers. The thin fabric of whatever they were wearing was almost no barrier at all. His abs pressed hard against her aching breasts, and the ridge of his erection nudged tantalizingly against her mons. Elizabeth’s breath hitched.
Blank. Her mind went completely blank. She couldn’t even think as she blocked out everything but Sam, and kissing him the way she’d imagined kissing him for months. A sigh of pure pleasure escaped, as Sam tasted the inside of her cheek, then ran his teeth along the edge of her teeth before sucking on her tongue and making her almost sob with the pleasure of it.
A bird screeched, and Elizabeth flinched out of the sensual spell. There were a dozen different kinds of birds perched in the trees surrounding them. There were snakes, and wild pigs, and other animals just waiting to have them for a midnight snack. And here they were—
His warm, wet tongue slid along the length of hers, bringing Elizabeth to heart-somersaulting attention again. He kissed her with slow, deliberate care. Hot and deep, taking her from zero to sixty between one heartbeat and the next. She tightened her arms around his neck and rose higher on her toes to bring their bodies flush at all the right places. Sam angled her head and kissed her like he’d die if he didn’t. Hotter than the kiss he’d planted on her six months ago. Of course after that one he’d hauled ass and disappeared for a month.
Her husband had preferred closed-mouth kisses, if he kissed her at all. The kiss Sam had given her at the clinic had revved her engines and made her want more. A lot more. But that kiss was tame compared to this. That had been banked. This was Sam unleashed.
The stubble on his jaw was rough against her smooth skin, and a surprise. She’d never seen him anything but immaculately smooth-shaven. She’d never seen him anything other than controlled. As he made love to her mouth, his hand slipped lower to stroke her behind through the thin material. Elizabeth felt surrounded by him, engulfed in his taste. A shudder of raw desire spiraled through her, bone deep and primitive. His tongue mimicked the sex act, making her throb and ache and pant, and crave the feel of his hands on her naked body.
She went hot all over as he dragged her hips back and forth against the solid ridge of his erection. Her brain short-circuited as his tongue raked across her teeth before plunging inside again.
Somehow she’d known it would be this way. That she would fall, all or nothing. She’d spent months protecting her heart. What a waste of time.
Nothing existed beyond the two of them. Not the danger, not the past. She wanted him to lay her down right there and then, unzip her from this climate-controlled suit, and take her right there on the muddy jungle floor.
Too soon Sam placed his hands gently on her arms and pulled them free from his neck. “Hold that thought. Gotta get going.”
Hold that thought? Her brain was filled with images of them rolling around on clean white sheets in a dimly lit room, and her heart battered at her rib cage like a wild beast trying to tear through. Hold that thought?!
The sounds of the jungle once again intruded.
“Okay?” At her nod, he said softly, “Let’s put some distance between them and us. I need both my hands free. Grab onto my belt and hang on.” He guided her fingers to the small of his back, and she latched into his wide utility belt, his body heat making her own temperature spike.
“We’re going to haul ass on three. All you have to do is hang on and keep up with me. Save your questions and trust me, okay?”
Trust him?
Who was he?
CHAPTER THREE - TROPICAL HEAT
The jungle never slept.
Nocturnal animals, reptiles, and birds growled, slithered or chirped as they were disturbed in the darkness. Thanks to the glowing visibility of his NVGs, Sam avoided stepping on a puff adder slithering across his path. Hissing, it inflated its body in warning. Sam stamped his booted feet to hurry it on its way. The adder was highly poisonous, and while it moved sluggishly, it could turn around and strike with lightning speed.
“Why are we stopping?” Beth whispered against his left shoulder blade.
“Cross traffic.” He waited until the tail of the adder disappeared. He smelled lemon-scented Beth, and sex. Wishful thinking. After kissing her it had taken a while for the cockstand to go down. He was always in an uncomfortable state of semi-arousal when she was close. Touching her, kissing her, had almost put him over the edge “All clear.” He resumed walking.
The dense canopy of deciduous trees overhead made the swampy ground of the understory relatively easy to navigate. Still, the few small trees, man-high ferns, bushes, and snaking vines and roots made progress slow and treacherous.
So far he’d barely used the machete. Ignoring the tug at his waist, he balanced the HK MP5 fully automatic submachine gun with a laser sight in his right hand. He’d picked up the smaller pack and was loaded for a
nything that threatened them, from an aardvark to a zebra, two-legged mammals to everything else. Sam had absolutely no illusions about needing every bit of firepower he carried.
It was fortunate for him that currently there was a skirmish on the border between Huren and Mallaruza. The typical bands of rebels and soldiers from both sides, and soldiers for hire, were absent this far away. Usually they roamed the country, destroying everything and everyone in their path like human locusts. Looking for trouble and always finding it. And if not, making it.
Unless Thadiwe called in reinforcements, the odds were currently in Sam’s favor.
Thadiwe expected his surgeon to report to his operating room at 0700. At 0701 he’d have his men fanning out to find her.
“We should go and get the Jeep you hid. We’d make better time,” Beth whispered half an hour later, fingers still tucked in his waistband. Her steps didn’t falter in the sultry darkness, although her quiet voice did.
“I have a boat waiting.” Sam got a quick whiff of the lemon-scented soap she favored. Unlikely beneath the DEET, but imaginary or not, the lemon fragrance brought to mind every aching memory he had of Dr. Elizabeth Goodall. He’d seen her serious and professional in her crisp white lab coat at her small clinic back home. Pale red hair twirled up on top of her head in some smooth intricate roll that looked as though one tug would bring the entire mass tumbling down her back.
He’d salivated seeing her—long-legged and sexy, in jeans and a sky-blue T-shirt, that shiny red-gold hair flowing over her shoulders as she’d walked beside him to go to a movie. Then in that yellow sundress that cupped her small breasts and bared her pretty shoulders when he’d seen her with a girlfriend at that little Italian place she liked.
Jesus. She was so fucking out of her element it was surreal. Yet somehow she still managed to maintain that air of unflappability that her patients were used to seeing.
She was so delicate, so earnest. He’d spent a year and a half pussy-footing around her, biding his time. He was ready for Beth. She wasn’t ready for him. Not then. She was as beautiful and fragile as a jungle orchid. It had been love at first sight for Sam. He’d decided she should be surrounded by children; he’d pictured her, a baby—his—at her naked breast. He’d never felt this alien blend of lust, love, tenderness and fear for any woman in his life. He wanted her with an intensity he’d never felt for any woman. Ever.
It was damned unsettling, he thought, shoving aside a six-foot-long palm frond. He’d gone way past unsettled by the unexpected mixture of emotions he’d felt for this woman from the start and directly into determination and a strange kind of peace.
A loud croaking sound, followed by a guttural rurr, rurr, rurr, sounded several feet to the left.
“What do you think that is?”
“Colobus monkey. He’s been following us for a while.” Sam could see the little guy’s bright, inquisitive eyes as he swung by his tail from a nearby branch, waiting for them to move on.
“As long as it isn’t a damn bird,” Beth muttered under her breath, making Sam grin.
While a portion of his mind was aware of every small movement in the foliage around them, and his ears engaged in IDing every noise, a small compartment of his brain was reserved for flashing memories of Beth.
According to her patients she was an excellent GP. And sweet. And inordinately kind. And compassionate. And attentive. Everyone in the small Montana town adored Dr. Beth.
Sam had taken one look at sweet Dr. Beth’s marmalade-colored hair, creamy freckled skin, and big brown eyes and fallen for her like the proverbial ton of bricks. He’d wanted to strip her and count every freckle. Unfortunately, five minutes after meeting her he’d discovered she was married. Fifteen minutes after that he’d gotten an earful from Traci at the diner about the idiot she was married to.
They’d married while both were in med school. Beth and Rob were more like friends than lovers, which Sam found good to know. Rob was a nice guy, Traci told him. Too bad he’d fallen in love with a woman he’d met on the Internet. Dr. Beth was being really decent about it and doing what she could to expedite the paperwork to get it over with as quickly and quietly as possible.
Damn good thing. Because Sam didn’t poach on other men’s territory. Not that he thought for a moment Beth would do anything hinky behind her husband’s back, even if she were tempted.
Sam’s thoughts had nothing to do with sweet, or kind. The second he’d seen her, his thoughts had turned carnal. Primitive. He wanted her hard and fast. Hot and sweaty. Slick and slippery. He wanted to have her on the counter at the bank. And on the hood of his car, on the floor of the only hotel in town. Hell, he didn’t think that they’d make it to a bed the first few times.
He’d moved into a condo a few blocks from her house and waited for the divorce to be final. One look at Beth, and he hadn’t been capable of staying away. Hadn’t, God damn it, been able to think of much else. He imagined her naked, having her on her desk in her cramped little office at her clinic two doors down from the bank. He pictured her small high breasts, and imagined that her nipples would be a soft delicate pink, like her lips.
“You have reinforcements, right?”
She was as tenacious as a bulldog and her lack of faith stung. “I’ll take care of you, don’t worry.” He was alone in this. It wasn’t a sanctioned op. He’d come on his own. Beth was a personal matter.
“That’s sweet, Sam.”
Sweet? She didn’t exactly exude confidence. And why should she? As far as she was concerned, he didn’t know one end of a gun from the other. Eleven years in a private army guaranteed he knew how to use the MP5. He also knew some interesting, and painful, tricks with a machete.
“But what’ll happen if you’re bitten by a snake?” she continued, slightly breathless now that she was on a roll. “Or eaten by a lion?”
Jesus. “Odd are against it.” He’d better stay hale and hearty. She stood zero chance of survival alone in the jungle. Less than zero if she was returned to Nkemidilm’s compound and the man who waited there.
He used the muzzle of the MP5 to flip away a curious, and highly poisonous, bush viper hanging from a limb in their path. It landed almost noiselessly in a thicket of vines before slithering into the underbrush. There’d be time to think about Beth’s delectable body later. Right now he had to get them both the hell out of Dodge before Thadiwe’s men caught up.
“How much longer?”
“Couple of hours.” Give or take. He could almost hear her brain working as she digested the information.
“Don’t you think I’d be better off going back and waiting for you to bring in some help?”
He heard her nervousness. So much for trust. “No, Beth, I don’t.” Sam made sure his barely-a-whisper was implacable. “We’re meeting a guy with a boat. Don’t worry. I’ll get you out of here in one piece, I promise.”
He stopped, and she stepped right against his back, letting out a little huff of surprise. “There’s a three-foot high log in our path. I’ll go first then help you over.”
Sam flung a leg over the mossy trunk and dropped down on the other side. Beth’s breathing was a little fractured. Fear. Tucking the machete into the sheath strapped to his thigh, he leaned over the log, extending his hand. Not that she could see it in the crack under dark. “Give me your hand.”
Blindly she held it out. Grabbing hold of her wrist, Sam gave a little tug. “Up and over. Straddle the log, then slide down on this side.”
Her cold fingers felt ridiculously small in his. Her chilled, sweaty skin told him she was scared out of her mind. Despite that, she was keeping up and not falling apart. Not yet anyway.
He gave a little tug to help her up, then watched as she flung both legs over to his side. “Right here,” he told her when she hesitated.
She slid into his arms. “Tha—What’s that?”
She was pressed against his semi-erection. “Don’t worry,” he told her dryly. “I’m not going to have my wicked way with you. N
ot here anyway.”
She smothered a laugh. “Not that. That.”
That. “It’s an MP5 submachine gun.”
She put her hand on his chest, the smile still tilting the corners of her mouth. Sam wanted to kiss her in the worst way. This time he resisted.
Not the time. Not the place.
“Do you know how to use it?”
He huffed out a laugh. “Yeah.” The fact that her body was still flush with his didn’t exactly make his thinking process crystal clear. Taking her hand, he stepped back. “Know that outfit just outside of town?”
“That private military place?”
“Counterterrorist training site, yeah. I work for them.”
“You—work for them? I thought you were a teacher?”
“Tactical instructor. I train special ops in weaponry for high-risk environments.”
“Thank God.” Beth gave a small laugh, her relief evident and heartfelt. “Better than I’d hoped. My highest expectation was that you excelled at playing paintball.”
“I wouldn’t trust your safety to anyone less than one hundred percent competent. If I didn’t think I could handle the situation, rest assured, I would have sent in someone who could.”
“Oh, God, Sam. I’m terrified out of my mind.”
“It’s warranted, sweetheart. You’re in a bad spot. But this time tomorrow you’ll be on your way home, I promise.”
“Adventure isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.” Beth slid a hand around his waist and leaned into him. “I couldn’t have made it past the guards. And frankly, since I have zero sense of direction, I’m not sure how far I would have gotten if I’d managed to steal a Jeep and drive out. How far is the closest town?”
“Village? Ten miles or so. A real town? With transpo? A hundred.”
She shuddered, and his arms tightened around her. Not romantic with a semiauto in one hand, and a machete strapped to his leg. But he’d take what he could get, when he could get it.
“I could have died here without anyone knowing.”
