by Hazel Hunter
“I really do need to do this,” he said, laying his hand on her leg.
He waited for her to get her bearings.
“I know,” she said, lowering her hand. “I know.”
He’d started with the good foot, just to check it. The shoe came off easily and, as he expected, there was nothing wrong. Then he untied the laces of the other shoe and slowly tugged at the heel. As it came off, she sucked in a breath and gripped the blanket on both sides of her. Finally, it pulled free and they both breathed a sigh of relief.
It looked like the puncture hadn’t gone deep but Brett knew it needed to be cleaned.
“Okay,” he said. He washed his hands with a wad of gauze and a bottle of purified water, mixed with a little alcohol. Then he picked up a new piece of gauze and looked at her steadily. “Here we go.”
She nodded, still gripping the blanket.
This was going to hurt. Anything on the foot was going to hurt. That’s why Frederico had picked it. Brett felt his muscles tighten at the thought. If the Red King hadn’t killed him, he’d have done it himself, beat him, and put a blade to his feet.
There was no sense in delaying this.
He held the gauze below the wound and poured the water and alcohol into it.
Again, Jesse sucked in a breath and slowly blew it out. Brett kept pouring water until all the dried blood washed away and the wound looked clean. When he finished, he looked up at her. She’d closed her eyes but now she opened them, her lips pressed into a straight line.
“Done with the bad part,” he said, putting down the water. She exhaled and hunched over. “You okay?” he said, laying a hand on her leg. She nodded. “Good,” he said. “Some antibiotic cream.” He squeezed a little on his finger and gently smoothed it over the puncture. She winced a little and her foot jerked. “Done,” he said, putting the cream away.
He quickly wound her foot with gauze, cut it, and tied it off.
“That feels better,” she breathed, relaxing.
He picked up the tube of first aid cream.
“If you thought that felt better,” he said standing up. He showed her the tube and smiled. “Lay back,” he said, sitting next to her on the edge of the bed.
Although the cream only had a little bit of pain relief medication, it had to help.
Slowly, she lay back.
As he lifted, the bottom of her tank top, she tensed. It suddenly occurred to him what this might remind her of.
“Um,” he said, pausing. “Maybe…”
She sat back up and began to take off the tank top herself. He helped her but, as she lay back to take off her shorts, he saw her pink skin.
“Oh, Jesse,” he whispered.
She paused but then continued to pull the shorts down. The red welts had nearly disappeared and the swelling had been replaced with pink skin. But the edges of the blade were still visible.
“It’s not bad,” she said, quietly. “Not like my foot.”
He shook his head. Again, the fury of what she’d endured rose up in his chest. He clenched his jaw and quickly squeezed out some cream on his fingers and gently touched it to her stomach. There was no reaction, not like with the foot. He relaxed a little and realized how tense his shoulders had become.
Slowly, he smoothed the cream over her midsection. He watched her deeply inhale and slowly exhale as her eyes closed. She was relaxing. Using more cream, he gently worked it onto her flat tummy and between her round hips.
“Your hands are so nice,” she whispered, with a little smile, her eyes still closed.
He didn’t say anything, just kept smoothing the white cream over the pink skin, gradually working it in, closer to the hem of her panties. She might just fall asleep, he thought. She was obviously exhausted.
“That feels so good,” she whispered and then her hips jerked ever so slightly against his hand.
He stared down at it as new energy surged through him. As his fingers smoothly rubbed the cream under the hem, her hips rose up in response. He swung his gaze to her face. The same dreamy smile played on her lips and her eyes were still closed.
Though he left his hand in place, he sat closer to her and placed his other hand next to her shoulder. The plump mounds of her breasts rose and fell with her deepening breaths. They swelled within the confines of her pink and white bra, smooth and creamy flesh that drew him steadily downward. Softly, as though he didn’t want to wake her, he kissed one.
“That feels good too,” she breathed, barely audible, and still her eyes were closed.
He tossed the tube of cream to the floor and leaned further over her, as he kissed the other breast, using his tongue to gently lap at her. Before he was even done, her hips slowly began to pivot the other way, as her back lifted. He quickly reached behind her and undid the bra. Then, as he slid the panties off her, she raised her hips to help.
Her lithe and ravishing body lay waiting for him. His arousal flared at the sight of her delicate mound, her bared breasts, and the pale pink buds at their centers. Though her eyes were closed, her hips slowly squirmed, as if they felt his gaze. He wanted to tell her yet again how beautiful she was but the words seemed impossibly inadequate. Suddenly, though, the perfect thing came to mind.
Quickly, he stood and stripped his clothes and in moments, he was seated back next to her. As he leaned down, his hand smoothly sought out her mound and he put his mouth next to her ear.
“String garlands around your shapely throat,” he whispered–the words she’d read at the Caracol. “Glorious you will be seen.”
“What?” she murmured and her hips stopped moving.
“For none is more beautiful here,” he said, and then he kissed her neck.
“What?” she said more clearly.
He felt her fingers digging into his hair and, as he pulled back from her, he realized her eyes were wide open staring hard into his.
“I love you, beautiful lady,” he breathed into her parted lips and then he kissed her.
• • • • •
Jesse had recognized it immediately–the love poem from the Caracol. But impossibly and incredibly erotically, it was falling from Brett’s lips and then into her mouth. The pulsing red glyphs of the poem swirled behind her closed eyes as she dragged in air through her nose and opened her mouth to his deepening kiss.
Was this real?
Was he real?
Suddenly, his lips released hers.
“No,” she gasped, as her eyes fluttered open.
But suddenly his lips were on her throat.
“You will appear like the smoking star,” he murmured against her skin.
The words reverberated through her, vibrating and echoing, as her heart began to thrum in time with them. Brett’s mouth devoured her, his hot tongue savagely lapping at her skin, sliding down the front of her throat as she tipped her head back, pressing it into the mattress. He traced a burning line down between her collar bones, alternately kissing and licking, as she gasped.
She felt him move directly over her as his chest skimmed tantalizingly across her breasts, but his hips settled low between her knees. As his warm breath washed over her breasts, he quickly pressed his wet lips to the tender skin between them.
“You will be loved even as existence,” he murmured, and then suddenly he captured her nipple.
“Oh god,” Jesse whimpered.
The sensitized flesh tingled inside his mouth even as his words seared into her and his lips clamped down. Her back arched violently and her hands clutched at his muscled back but he seemed not to notice as he gnawed hungrily into her. His lips squeezed her. His tongue lashed her. And his mouth sucked furiously. She felt her nipple tighten, shivering erect, as he stroked it to ecstasy. It throbbed within the moist confines of his mouth and as his tongue slowly began to circle it, her hips swiveled in time. Suddenly, the tip of his tongue probed hard into the center of it and her other nipple hardened in empathy.
She sucked in air through her teeth as the circling of her hips abru
ptly ended and they jerked up into Brett’s midsection. As though it had been a signal, he released her with a quiet, smacking sound and turned his face to the other nipple, already desperate for his attention. He captured the tip of her breast with his lips and rolled the throbbing nipple with his tongue.
Jesse’s hands flew to the back of Brett’s head, bunching his hair in her fists. He sucked savagely at the tortured peak. Swollen and rigid with desire, the engorged nipple was suddenly between his teeth. She tensed in anticipation, barely able to control herself, and then he lightly bit her. A harsh and agonized gasp flew from her lungs, accompanied by a deep shuddering that raced down her body as Brett finally let go.
Relief mingled with an aching need to have his mouth on her again. But there was hardly time to catch her breath as his body moved higher over hers and his arousal slid upward along the inside of her thigh.
• • • • •
If Brett could have consumed Jesse–a single, succulent, bite at a time–he would have. Her incredible responses had left him as breathless as her. But when her hips began to circulate and her body writhed under his chest, his straining arousal could no longer wait.
The swollen tip probed her moist entrance, pressing slowly into the soft folds. But as her hips tilted up to accept him, she also brought up her knees. His body responded with a fierceness that made his breath catch in his throat and he speared into her, entering her fully in one deep thrust. His back bowed as his hips slammed down and a harsh rush of air was forced from Jesse’s lungs. Their bodies slotted together as though they’d been made for each other. No barriers stood between them now and, as he drew back to sink into her again, he felt her fingers dig into his buttocks and unbelievably tug him forward.
He drove hard into her, embedding himself deeply, as his body claimed her. As though his molten flesh were trying to quench itself, he plunged deeply into her wet softness. The feel of her body accepting his, needing him as much as he needed her, and hearing her small cry of pleasure unleashed something primitive in him.
In one smooth movement, he brought his knees up under her hips, sat back on his heels, and pulled her onto his shaft. She lay before him as he supported her hips, her body writhing, as only her shoulders made contact with the bed. Her abdomen flexed, flat and supple, and he covered it with his hand. As he tugged her toward him, his driving thrust speared into her and, beneath his pressing hand, he felt himself bulge within her.
“Oh yes,” he hissed as he plunged into her again.
Fast and hard, he started to pound into her, as her back arched. And each time he buried himself, his pressing palm felt the swell of his penetration under the taut flesh above her mound. He heaved against her, pushing deeper with each thrust. Her hips bucked and her torso writhed in a desperate rhythm that matched his own. Her hands clutched the blanket to either side of her as she tried to gain traction. Her lungs were heaving and as their hips collided yet again, ragged, crying gasps were wrenched from her but still her back arched. He used both hands to pull her toward him and, as he stared hard at her belly, he sank himself to the hilt and saw her smooth flesh expand.
It was incredible. She was incredible and, in that moment, she completed him. They were one.
• • • • •
Jesse felt Brett’s arms under her, his arousal still deep inside her, and then he lifted her up. As though they rode a see-saw, he leaned back as she sat up. But he didn’t lay down. Instead, as she came down on him, his knees came up behind her and his mouth found her breasts.
Disoriented, her eyes fluttered open for a moment and her lungs, heaving like a bellows, fought for more air. But as Brett covered her in kisses, she clung to his neck and squeezed her eyes shut. The sensation of everything crashed in on her all at once. His swollen and throbbing arousal speared up into her, stretching the walls of her body, filling her completely, even as his hot mouth captured her nipple.
“Oh my–” she whimpered, unable to continue as a strangulated cry cut off more words.
Her aching peak immediately swelled between his warm lips as he suckled her. The wet sweep of his tongue seemed to stroke pleasure into the sensitive nub with each long and silky lashing. Her body shuddered, tried to tug her breast away, tried to press it deeper, at war with itself over the torturous ecstasy flooding through it. Her back suddenly arched and her hips swiveled and, for a moment, it seemed as though her nipple would pull free. But her back met Brett’s knees and the hard rod of his arousal barely moved. She squirmed on top of him, unsure of how to find release. Her short, harsh gasps ratcheted up a notch, burning her lungs and throat. And then Brett moved to the other nipple.
No, she thought. No more. But the word that came out in her anguished cry wasn’t ‘no.’
“Yes,” she heard herself gasp and Brett’s mouth eagerly responded.
It was as though he drank from her, pulling something from her she didn’t know she had to give. He suckled and stroked, tasted and teased, until the throbbing in the too-sensitive flesh peaked. Again her back arched and her hips jerked and a new throbbing in her sweet spot pulsed to life.
A high-pitched moan was wrenched from her. Brett’s thick hardness pulsated inside her, her tormented nipples sharply throbbed, and her sweet spot pulsed even faster. Impossibly, but with a mounting tension that couldn’t be denied, all three rhythms began to align.
Jesse thrashed, no longer in control. Brett’s name was in her throat, on her lips, and yet she didn’t know if she’d been able to scream it. But in answer, his mouth finally released her. There were only seconds to realize that he was laying back as her hips began a ferocious and frenetic pumping that rocked them both. Her back arched convulsively, meeting his knees again, arching backward over them as they supported her. The radiating heat between her legs suddenly turned to fire and her abdomen spasmed as her head fell back. Brett’s hands were around her waist but her hips still jerked wildly. And then she felt him thrust, lifting her and impaling her on his rigid flesh. Her lower body flailed in a frenzied fervor, alternately crushing her sweet spot and rubbing it raw. With complete abandon, her hips gyrated, bucked, and then gyrated again as rhythmic convulsions began to surge through her abdomen. Faster she went and faster as her lungs heaved but couldn’t keep up. But as the convulsions turned into clenches, the rhythm suddenly crescendoed just as she felt the powerful fullness of Brett’s erection move inside her.
Her climax erupted as spasms of pure ecstasy rocketed through her. Tipped backward over Brett’s knees there was no sense of up or down, no gravity or world outside. Only the clenching deep inside her existed. Wave after glorious wave flooded through her and, as Brett grunted and then harshly groaned, she felt him thicken and swell. The burst of his release deep inside triggered a second, shuddering climax. She cried out at the uncontrollable, clamping contractions that threatened to sweep her toward oblivion. Brett’s pulsing life flooded into her as she milked him without mercy. Over and over, one spasm after another rippled along his length. He throbbed and stiffened in turn, in a chain of pulses that matched her own, until she no longer knew where he ended and she began.
But it didn’t matter. Time and place faded as her body continued to satisfy itself with his. Despite the burning in her lungs, her thighs, and her back, she savored the savage orgasm that would not let Brett go. He shuddered and convulsed beneath her, spending himself in jarring thrusts that now became erratic. And still her waves of passion clenched him, sucked from him, until he could no longer respond. Behind her, his knees began to slide downward and with enormous effort, she sat up. Only then did the contractions begin to ebb. She opened her eyes to see Brett’s magnificent body stretched out in front of her. Glistening with sweat, his eyes closed, his chest could barely keep up with his shallow pants. His arms reached upward and his fingers were still wrapped around the metal tubes of the footboard where he’d hung on.
She’d been about to run her hands up his body when a wave of dizziness took over. Though her arms trembled with the
effort, she managed to control her fall onto his chest. Even so, she landed with a soft thud, aware of her hips finally quieting and the last of her clenches fading. As her eyes closed, the glyphs of the love poem gradually began to whirl in her mind.
“Put goodness in your heart,” she murmured breathlessly. “Because today is the moment of happiness.”
As Brett’s arms gently enclosed her, she slowly exhaled in final, exhausted, and blissful completion.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Jesse was surprised to find Brett still sleeping when she awoke. She was snuggled into the crook of his arm but, as she looked up at him, she realized he wasn’t asleep.
“Good morning,” he said, smiling.
“Good morning,” she said, as he moved a few strands of hair from her face.
Had he been waiting for her to wake up?
“What time is it?” she asked
“I don’t know,” he said, glancing at the cave entrance. “It’s probably morning.”
They must have slept–or at least she must have slept–for over twelve hours. Suddenly, she remembered the Red King and Frederico and–she got up on her elbow.
“What are we going to do?” she asked.
His smile slowly faded and he looked into her eyes.
“We,” he said. “I like the sound of that.” Then he ran a hand through his hair and looked at the ceiling of the tent. “I’m going to leave the university.”
“No, Brett,” she started.
“Hold on a second,” he said, looking at her. “Let me finish.”
She bit her lower lip and waited.
“They might even want to keep me but it doesn’t matter,” he said, making it sound casual. “Once the Red King is public, we’ll be able to pick our school, or maybe a museum.” She stared at him. She liked the sound of we too. “First, though, I need to contact the federal police about what happened to Frederico and his accomplice.” He paused. “That might get a little complicated.” She thought of the dead accomplice and closed her eyes to the thought of what had happened to Frederico. “I know,” he said quietly and she felt his hand stroke her arm. She opened her eyes. “But, the federales will also be able to guard the site. I’ll recruit some local help, people I’ve worked with before, and then we can break the big news.” A smile began to grow on his face. “But first, we’re getting you back to the big city to see about those antimalarial drugs. The rest of it can wait.”
