“Very cold,” Miguel added, his smile just as wide as his brother’s. “Very nice.”
“Very cold, very nice?” Kayla repeated. “Clearly we have a translation problem here.”
“Use bucket for shower,” Alberto repeated with an encouraging nod. “I give you towel.” He nodded toward Brett. “Man make you warm.”
“Works for me,” Brett said, struggling to keep a straight face.
“Me, too,” chimed in Bill. “Hear that, Eileen?”
Ashley and Eileen chuckled, then headed toward the path where Paolo indicated the bathroom tent was now assembled.
“So you’re up for one of these cold showers?” Kayla asked him.
Before answering, he stepped forward and drew her into his arms. “Sweetheart, I’ve been up all day long and could have used a cold shower long ago, what with staring at your gorgeous ass for hours. I took a few pictures of it, by the way.”
“Of my ass?” She leaned back in the circle of his arms, her hands resting against his chest. “You were supposed to be taking pictures of the scenery.”
“I did. I snapped a few pics of the flora and fauna, the ruins at Llaqtapata and your ass. What did you take pictures of?”
She laughed. “You’re impossible.”
“Better be nice to me, or man won’t keep you warm after cold shower.”
“Man better keep me warm or man won’t get erotic massage.”
He chuckled. “C’mon. Let’s grab that bucket, a change of clothes and our towels. We’ll get cleaned up before the sun goes down and it turns chilly.”
While Kayla pulled clothes from her backpack, he walked over to Alberto who handed him two thick, white towels then said in an undertone, “After bathroom tent, big rock. Follow path this way.” He curved his hand toward the right. “Private place.”
Brett’s brows shot up. “How private?”
“You be alone,” Alberto said, nodding. “Always send hikers different paths to wash for privacy. No one bother you-unless you late for dinner. Then send search. Dinner in one hour. No be late.”
He smiled at the young man, then said, “Gracias,” one of the few Spanish words he knew.
Alberto grinned back, then returned to his tent-pitching duties. Brett made a quick stop at his backpack, then, with the shower items in hand, headed with Kayla down the curving path leading toward the river.
And privacy.
12
IMPATIENCE PULLED at Brett, and he quickened his pace.
“Whoa, where’s the fire?” Kayla asked, tugging on his hand. “Slow down. I need the restroom tent, but not bad enough to actually jog there.”
Damn. The words privacy and Kayla had collided in his mind, and the almost painful anticipation of making love to her that he’d suffered through all day had instantly morphed into full-fledged rampaging desire. The knowledge that he wouldn’t have to wait until they retired to their tent to make love had fired heat and lust and raw want to his every nerve-ending. It was all he could do not to fling her over his shoulder and break into a sprint.
“Sorry,” he said, slowing down-an effort that cost him.
They rounded a curve in the path and saw Eileen and Ashley heading toward them. “It’s just a bit further,” Eileen said. “Good luck!”
“Okay, you know it’s not going to be good when you need luck to use a bathroom,” Kayla said with a sigh. Just around the next curve they came across what was clearly the bathroom tent, beneath a tall tree. The tent was nothing more than four six-foot high poles attached at the top and set in a square shape with white shower curtains hanging between them. A wooden plaque with the word Vacant painted in bold red letters was propped at the base of the tree.
Brett looked down at her, his impatience somewhat tempered by curiosity as to how she’d react. “Well, princess?”
She drew a deep, bracing breath, then squared her shoulders. “I’m not going to be beaten by a square of shower curtains. When in ancient Incan territory, do as the ancient Incans did. I’m going in.”
“Atta girl. Except, the ancient Incans didn’t have plastic shower curtains.”
“Well, see that? I’m feeling lucky already.” She cast a quick look around. “Keep an eye out for bears, okay?”
“Sure. Wildcats and snakes, too.”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “Not helping.”
“Sorry. I’ll keep guard.” His lips twitched. “While I remain standing up to take care of business over there.” He nodded toward a nearby group of tall bushes.
“Again, not helping.” After another scan of the surroundings clearly satisfied her that nothing harmful lurked, she handed him her bundle of clothes, raised her chin then marched toward the tent, looking like a solider heading into battle.
Chuckling softly, he moved a discreet distance away toward the tall bushes, his amusement increasing when she turned over the wooden sign so that it that read Occupied and rested it against the tree trunk. Five minutes later she emerged, then rinsed her hands from the bucket of water Paolo had provided.
“You okay?” he asked, joining her and rinsing his own hands.
“I survived. I’ll certainly never take indoor plumbing for granted again. Nor will I ever complain about Porta Potties.”
“See? It’s all in your perspective. Sort of like the man who complained about his shoes hurting-until he met a man who had no shoes.”
She looked up at him, brushing her hands dry against her shorts, and Brett stilled at her serious expression. A long look passed between them, then something flickered in her eyes. Confusion? He couldn’t tell. Then, with a slight frown pulling down her brows, she reached up and rested her palms against his chest. “My perspective is changing,” she said softly. “Rapidly.”
Keeping his gaze on hers, he covered her hands with his, pressing her palms tighter against him, knowing she’d feel the quickening beat of his heart. “Changing in what way?”
She shook her head. “I don’t think I can explain it. I just know I feel…different here. Weird as it sounds, I can feel myself, my ideas, changing.” Her gaze searched his, looking for what, he didn’t know. “Maybe it’s all my gears shifting, getting back into balance.”
“Which is good-getting back into balance is why you came here. Me, too.”
Again, something flickered in her eyes, something that curiously almost looked like guilt, but was gone before he could tell.
“Maybe this place really is mystical,” she said softly. “Magical.”
Mystical? Magical? His scientific nature rejected the idea. Yet, he couldn’t deny he felt different here as well. As if she’d cast a spell on him. One that needed satisfying. Right now.
He drew her closer and kissed her, the way he’d been aching to the entire day. She rose on her toes, wrapped her arms around his neck and parted her lips. His tongue mated with hers, slowly exploring the delicious warm satin of her mouth. Fire licked under his skin, and his arms tightened around her, pressing her warm softness closer against his aching hardness. She opened her mouth wider beneath his, and he groaned, lost in a haze of lust.
The sound of distant laughter roused him and he slowly raised his head. Kayla looked as glazed as he felt.
“Are you as frustrated as I am by our lack of privacy?” she asked, rubbing her breasts against his chest.
He huffed out a humorless sound and curved his hands over her lush bottom, hauling her tighter against his aching erection. “Do you even need to ask? But the good news is that according to Alberto, privacy is just a short walk away. Everyone gets their own private bathing area and ours is down that path.” He pointed to the right.
“Then what the heck are we standing here for?”
“Damned if I know.” He snatched up the bucket which he’d stuffed with their towels and clothes, grabbed her hand, and headed quickly toward the path near the big rock. “You distracted me with that kiss.”
“Is that a complaint?”
He smiled and quickened his pace. “Hell, no.�
�
“Hmmm…Methinks you’re just easily distracted.”
“Actually, I’m not. Ask anyone I work with-they’ll tell you I’m the least distractible person in the lab.”
“So it’s only when you’re not wearing your goggles and lab coat that you can be led astray.”
“I don’t think it has anything to do with what I’m wearing, but who I’m with. You are very distracting.”
“Another complaint?”
“Actually, I meant it as a compliment.”
“In that case, you’ve scored a few more points for originality.”
He grinned. “Always happy to score.”
The path narrowed, twisting and turning for several minutes, the sound of the rushing river water growing louder with each step. After one last curve, it ended at a small indent in the river bank encircled by trees and dense shrubbery. A large rock, nearly waist-high, provided a natural fence of sorts, setting the tiny cove farther apart from its surroundings. On the opposite shore, a waterfall cascaded over a cliff, spraying silvery droplets which glistened in the waning sunlight.
“Beautiful,” she murmured.
“Beautiful,” he agreed. He dropped the bucket and towel and hauled her into his arms. “Alone at last,” he muttered, then covered her mouth with his. She parted her lips, inviting him to explore, while her hands went straight to the button on his shorts-and the control he’d been forced to maintain all day snapped like a dry twig.
Lips clinging, tongues dancing, breaths panting, they tugged on each other’s clothes, clumsy desperate fumblings interspersed with moans of pleasure and grunts of frustration. With tunnel-vision determination, he unfastened her shorts, then pushed them and her panties down her legs and helped her kick them off. He insinuated his knee between her thighs, spreading them, then curled his hand over her mound, his fingers sliding over her sex, groaning when he found her already drenched.
“God, you’re so wet,” he said, scraping his teeth along her arched neck.
“That can’t be a surprise-this whole damn day has felt like foreplay.”
He couldn’t agree more. Every time they’d touched, every brush of their hands, each time they’d looked at each other, had notched up his anticipation.
“Hard and fast okay with you?” she asked in a tight voice, moving against his hand.
“Hell, yes. How hard and fast?”
“Give me all you’ve got. There’s a condom in my shorts’ pocket.”
“I have one.”
“Thank God. Putting it on now would be good.” She yanked his shirt over his head and tossed it aside and he quickly unfastened his shorts and pushed them and his boxers over his hips. His erection sprang free and while he ripped open the condom, she peeled off her T-shirt and bra. The instant he was sheathed, he dropped to his knees, dragging her down with him. Desperation clawed at him, his own fueled higher by hers. He settled back on his haunches and she straddled him, taking him into her tight, wet heat in a single silky downward slide.
Raw need scraped along his nerves, and gripping her hips, he gave her what she wanted, what they both wanted. Hard, fast thrusts that beaded sweat on his brow and narrowed his entire focus to the place where their bodies joined. She arched her back and he leaned forward, drawing her nipple into his mouth. The scent of her arousal invaded his senses and he quickened his thrusts, bringing them both to the brink. With a ragged groan, she fell over, her body gripping him, grinding against him. The sensation sent him over the edge, and with a final thrust, he came, dropping his head in the warm curve where her shoulder and neck joined, as the jolts of pleasure shuddered through him.
He was still breathing hard when she said, “Thanks. I seriously needed that.”
“That makes two of us.” He lifted his head and looked at her. When their gazes met, his heart, still slapping against his ribs, seemed to skip a couple of frantic beats at her smile.
“You look flushed,” he said. “And gorgeous. And sexy. And…wow.”
“Dazzling me with those scientific terms again, huh?”
“Just calling it like I see it.”
“Well, I feel flushed. And sexy. And wow. Thanks to you.”
“You forgot gorgeous.”
Her expression turned serious and she shook her head. “I’m not. But I have to say, the way you look at me…the way you touch me…you make me feel as if I am.”
He leaned in for a kiss. “Because you are.”
“Back at ya, Mr. Chemistry.”
“You mentioned having a condom in your pocket-where did you get it?”
“I didn’t just purchase film and water-purification tablets when we went shopping this morning.”
“You bought condoms?”
“I did.”
“But I bought condoms.”
“I know. I just wanted to have some of my own, so if I had the opportunity to drag you off into the woods to have my wicked way with you, I could.”
“I like it. But you could have just taken one of my stash from my bag.”
Something flickered in her eyes, and a dull flush crept into her cheeks. “I wouldn’t want to go poking through your things. So I just bought my own.” A half smile curved her gorgeous lips. “Besides, a girl can’t have too many condoms-you never know when you might need one.”
He’d bought a box of thirty-six-way more than enough for their hike, especially considering that privacy was at a premium. And if she had her own supply…an image of her needing a condom with a guy who wasn’t him flashed through his mind.
An unpleasant sensation crawled through him, cramping his insides. As much as he hated to admit it, there was no mistaking it: jealousy. The thought of her making love with someone else, of her looking at another man the way she was looking at him right now, with teasing warmth glittering in her eyes, along with the lingering remnants of sated arousal…well, he didn’t like it one bit. Not one damn bit.
Something of his displeasure must have shown in his expression because she frowned, then cupped his face between her hands. “You okay?”
Brett blinked away the unsettling image of her wrapped around someone other than him and forced a smile. “I’m fine.” He ran his hands over her bare butt, and hauled her tighter against him, telling himself that the gesture wasn’t as possessive as it felt. “Thanks to you.”
“And thanks to me, we have another condom.” She waggled her brows. “And I’m willing to share.”
With him. Some of the unwanted tension eased from his shoulders. “Sharing is good.”
“I agree. So why don’t we share a cold bucket shower then see if we can’t find a way to share the condom I brought?”
His fingers flexed against her soft skin. “Like I said, sharing is good.”
13
“OH. MY. GOD.”
The words exploded from between Kayla’s lips with what little breath the icy water sluicing down her naked body had left in her lungs. Rivulets streamed down her wet hair, over her goosebumped flesh, and she clasped her arms around herself in a vain effort to stave off the chill. She glared at Brett, who stood-grinning, damn him-several feet away, holding the empty bucket. “That is crazy cold.”
“It’s a little chilly.”
“A little? Feels like it came from a freakin’ ice floe.” She eyed his wet nakedness with a combination of flat-out admiration and deep suspicion. “You didn’t say boo when I tossed a bucketful on you, nor did the frigid temperature rip the air from your lungs. What are you, made of steel?”
“Men possess more body heat than women.” His gaze ran down her naked form with unmistakable appreciation. “Besides, looking at you supplied a lot of heat.”
Teeth chattering, she grabbed her soap and quickly lathered up, watching Brett squat down along the river bank to refill the bucket from the rapidly moving water. A bit of her chill was forgotten when he stood and walked toward her, tall and leanly muscled, deliciously wet from the dousing she’d given him, and clearly not suffering from shrinkage.
When he stood in front of her, he set down the bucket. “Need some help?”
Before she could reply, he cupped her soapy breasts and flicked his thumbs over her hard nipples. Heat instantly shot through her. “You should have warned me how cold that water was,” she said, trying to sound stern, an effort that was lost when her words ended on a low groan as his magic hands roamed her wet, soapy skin.
“If I had, you never would have let me dump a bucket of it over your head. And look at the fun we’d be missing out on now.”
True. There was no way she could deny that his touch was incredible and warming her up fast. In gratitude, she slowly rubbed her bar of soap across his chest. His strong fingers massaged their way down her sore, tired back, dragging a groan from her.
He looked at her hands gliding across his chest. “You’re getting me all in a lather,” he murmured, leaning in to brush his mouth over hers. “In more ways than one.”
Her gaze flicked down to his arousal which rose between them, hard, wet and so very tempting. She moved her slick hands slowly downward, palming the bar of soap, leaving a trail of suds down his taut abs. When she encircled his erection in her slippery fist and gently squeezed, he sucked in a hard breath and his eyes slammed shut.
Encouraged by his response, she grasped him lightly, moving her hand slowly up and down, from the base of his shaft to the tip, while she ran the bar of soap between his legs. A long groan escaped him, and he thrust into her hand, all while his fingers played over the base of her spine, which, no doubt about it, was highly sensitive.
“You know,” she said, her voice husky with arousal, “this hiking gig is turning out much better than I ever thought it would.”
“No argument here. Ahhh…that feels really good.”
“This?” She tightened her fingers slightly around his shaft and circled the pad of her thumb over the engorged head.
“Yeah. That.” His fingers slipped lower, over her buttocks, then between them to stroke her from behind. The soap slipped from her hand and she raised her leg, hooking it over his hip, opening herself to his wickedly arousing touch. Leaning down, he lightly grazed her neck with his teeth. “Really glad you brought that second condom,” he murmured against her ear.
Just Trust Me… Page 11
