“Through what?”
His arms tightened around her. “Not tonight. I don’t want to think about anything but you tonight.” He bent and kissed her again, and his hands slipped under the waistband of her shorts. “Tonight I don’t want to think about anything besides how you feel—” his fingers danced over her hips “—and how you taste—” his mouth dipped to the hollow in front of her collarbone “—and how you make me feel.”
He shifted and she could feel the heat of him, burning into her. “Caine...” Her voice trembled in the still air and she reached blindly for him. Their mouths met in an explosive kiss—one that had her aching for his touch, for the feel of him wrapped around her and buried inside her.
Lowering her to the floor, he swept her shorts down her legs, then sat up long enough to pull off his own thin cotton pants. When he lay back down, he pulled her gently against him, then bent to take one nipple into his mouth.
Sensations cascaded through her, making her arch helplessly against him. He slid his hand along her thigh until he reached the spot where her legs met, and he gently cupped her in his palm. Her shivering cries were swallowed by his mouth covering hers.
The thrust of his tongue into her mouth was matched by the stroking of his hand farther down. All she could do was hold on to him as she felt the trembling start, deep inside.
“Caine,” she panted. “I need you. Please...”
“I’m sorry, Lex,” he muttered as he lowered himself between her legs. “I wanted to go slow, to take all night to make love to you. But I can’t. I’m going to explode with wanting you.” As he eased into her, he murmured into her ear, “I’ll do better next time, I promise.”
“Caine!” Her hands dug into his back as he began to move slowly inside her. His whole body shook with the effort he made to hold himself in check and go slowly. Sensation spiraled more tightly inside her, and suddenly she surged against him, wanting all of him.
With a groan he arched above her, then they were locked together in a heated, frenzied haze of passion. When she flew off the peak he was with her, holding her so tightly she could barely breathe, his trembling matching her own.
As her heart rate slowly returned to normal she turned her head and nuzzled his neck. His face was buried in her hair, his arms still wrapped around her as if he would never let her go. When her lips traced a pattern below his ear, he tightened his grip on her for a moment, then suddenly rolled over, carrying her with him.
“We’re not exactly lying on a bed of roses, here,” he whispered, smoothing her hair away from her face and running one hand gently down her back. “I’m a better mattress for you than the ground.”
“You certainly feel better,” she murmured, nestling closer to him. The hard planes of his body felt wonderful against her softer curves, and she sighed as she trailed her fingers down his side.
She stopped abruptly as she found a small, hard, raised bump on his skin. As her fingers explored it, she realized there was another one close by, and another near that. Running her hand lightly over his skin, she found that his side and abdomen were covered with the small, irregular lumps.
“Are these insect bites?” she asked, ignoring the fact that he’d stiffened when she’d found them.
“No, they’re not.” His voice was abrupt.
“What are they, then?” Her fingers brushed over another one and lingered, smoothing his skin.
His arms tightened around her, then he gently reached down and pulled her hand away from his side. “Let’s just say they’re a legacy from my last job.” He raised her hand to his mouth and pressed a kiss into her palm.
“What...?” she began to ask, but he laid his fingers against her lips. In the darkness she could feel him shake his head.
“Not tonight, Lexie. I don’t want to talk about it now. I promise I’ll tell you all about it sometime, but not now.”
He had tensed in the last few moments, and slowly she nodded. As curious as she was, she didn’t want anything to spoil the magic of this night. And to prod him to talk about the marks on his skin would do just that. The tenseness that had filled him when she’d asked about the bumps was all the proof she needed.
“I can wait,” she whispered. She raised her hand to let her fingers tangle in his hair, and felt him slowly relax. “Besides,” she murmured into his ear, “there are a lot more interesting things to talk about.”
His hand trailed down her back and lingered at her hip. “Such as?”
She touched his earlobe with her tongue, then rolled off him to snuggle against his side. “Oh, like what good books you’ve read lately, for instance.” She grinned into the darkness as she felt his thunderstruck reaction to her words.
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“Aren’t those the kinds of things you’re supposed to talk about on a first date?” She tried to keep the laughter out of her voice, but she couldn’t keep the smile off her face when he turned to her.
“This is hardly our first date, Lexie.” She trailed her fingers over his face and could feel the slight upward curve of his lips. “And even if it was, I’d say we’ve gotten past the favorite-book-and-movie conversation.”
His hand swept down her chest and splayed flat on her abdomen, an unconsciously possessive gesture that started the heat inside all over again.
“It feels like a first date, Caine,” she whispered, and all of a sudden she wasn’t laughing anymore. “I feel like a completely different person than I was eleven months ago.”
“You are, Lexie. So maybe you’re right.” He lifted his hand from her belly and slid it lower, and she arched into him. “And if that’s the case, maybe I’d better stop right now.”
“How come?” she managed to say, unable to concentrate on what he was saying.
“Because you know what they say. ‘Once is a mistake, twice is a habit.”’
She turned on her side and slipped one of her legs between his. “Then here’s to old habits,” she whispered, and raised her head to kiss him.
Chapter 11
Caine awoke slowly, wondering why he felt so damned good. A heavy languor enveloped him, making him reluctant to open his eyes or move his arms and legs.
Someone moved against him, snuggling closer to his chest, and the memories came flooding back. Lexie. He reached out for her instinctively, pulling her harder against him, feeling himself stirring with need for her.
“Mmm, good morning to you, too,” she whispered against his chest. He could swear he felt her mouth curve up in a smile. “I guess this means I wasn’t dreaming last night.”
“Why don’t we find out for sure?” he asked, his low voice cracking with sleep and sudden, flaring desire. Rolling over onto his elbows, he looked down at her, trapped between his arms, and watched awareness heat her eyes.
“If once is a mistake and twice is a habit, what’s three times?” she whispered, watching him, her enormous eyes darkened with passion.
“Inevitable as the sunrise,” he answered as he reached down and kissed her. She wrapped her arms around his neck to pull him closer, and he felt himself being swept up into the vortex of passion again, helpless to stop himself. All Lexie had to do was look at him, let alone touch him, and he was lost.
Except that he didn’t feel lost; he felt as if he’d come home. When he skimmed his hand down her side, feeling her skin heat and soften with desire, she moved against him as if this dance was intimately familiar to her. Opening to him, she lay beneath him trustingly, gathering him close and wrapping her arms around him as if they belonged together. And as he closed his eyes, in a moment suspended in time, he allowed himself to think so, too.
Unlike during the night, when their lovemaking had been hot and frantic and driven, they went slowly in the semidarkness of the dawn. He stroked her, kissed her, tasted every inch of her, until she was sobbing his name and he was gripping the material of the tent so hard he thought he would rip a piece out of it. When he could no longer control his body, when every inch of him was in
an aching, throbbing agony of need, he finally eased into her.
She arched her back and met him in the air, but he refused to let himself go and moved inside her slowly and deliberately. He wanted this to last forever, but when she suddenly cried out his name and convulsed around him, his control snapped.
Feeling her delicate contractions caress him intimately wrung a hoarse cry from him, and he wrapped his arms around her and held her against him. He drove into her frantically, wanting to bury himself inside her so deeply that she would never be able to release him. Dimly he was aware that she had wrapped her legs around him in an attempt to draw him closer.
He was swept over the edge of the abyss and fell through the air, holding on to her, crying her name. He felt shudders racking him, and he wasn’t sure if they were his or hers. As he slowly settled to the earth again, he realized that she was holding him every bit as tightly as he held her. When he lifted his head to brush a kiss along her cheek, he tasted the salty trail of her tears.
Lifting himself above her with an effort, he stared down at her, trying to see her clearly in the too-dim light. “What’s wrong? Did I hurt you, Lex?” he whispered.
She shook her head slowly and opened her eyes. He knew she was smiling. “Nothing’s wrong. Just the opposite, in fact.” She pulled him down to her again. “Don’t tell me we have to go now. I want to hold you for a little while longer.”
He rolled over, holding her close, until he was lying on his back and she was nestled against him. “I couldn’t get up now if I wanted to.”
He swept his hand down her back until it rested on her hip, and he told himself they could lie like this for a few minutes. As her lips brushed his neck, he inhaled her soft scent and closed his eyes. For a few minutes, he could savor her.
Caine awoke abruptly when he heard the noise. Although it came from far in the distance, his whole body tensed as he struggled to identify it. As it got closer, he realized with a jolt of icy fear that it was the same sound they’d heard yesterday—the coarse whop-whop of helicopter blades.
Lexie raised her head from his chest and looked at him with half-opened eyes. “What is it?” she whispered.
As he stared at her, the fear congealed in his gut. He shouldn’t be able to see her this clearly in the tent. The next second he realized why. It was daylight. Dawn had long since passed, and the gloomy light of the jungle floor by day had filled their tent.
“Damn it!” He slid Lexie aside and ripped open the zippered door. Poking his head out, he saw by the position of the sun that it had been light for at least two hours, maybe more. And the helicopter was getting closer.
Lexie had picked up the baby and sat with her back to him, nursing. Momentary tenderness flooded him when he realized she was shy about sitting naked in front of him, even after what had happened between them during the night. Then, forcing those distracting thoughts out of his mind, he zipped the tent again and reached for his clothes.
“The helicopter’s back,” he said, in what he hoped was a matter-of-fact voice. There was no reason to alarm her unnecessarily. “Once it’s gone, we’ll get dressed and leave.”
She turned and looked at him over her shoulder. He could see the fear she tried to hide, and it made him want to reach out and pull her into his arms. “Will they be able to see the tent?”
“I don’t think so.” He prayed it was the truth. “It should blend in with the trees and bushes. As long as we don’t move out of it, we’ll be fine.”
She watched him for a moment, as if trying to decide whether or not he was telling her the truth, then she nodded. “I’ll finish with Ana as fast as I can.”
The helicopter seemed to linger in the air above them for longer than it had yesterday, but Caine told himself it was just his imagination. And his nerves. Lexie’s head was bent low over the baby, and he could hear her murmured words of reassurance to the kid. He wished he felt half as confident as she sounded.
Finally the helicopter’s noise began to fade, and he eased out a long breath. “Get ready to leave,” he said as he unzipped the tent. “We’ll have breakfast after we’ve gotten away from here.”
“We’ll be ready in five minutes,” she answered.
Out of the corner of his eye he saw a flash of white, and he turned to see her fastening her bra. Desire stirred through him again, shocking him with its intensity when he should be thinking only about how to get the three of them to safety. Pushing his way out of the tent, he moved to gather their packs as he tried to push the memory of her soft, naked skin out of his mind.
A few minutes later she crawled out of the tent, holding the baby in one hand and a wad of white material in the other. Her face was as white as the cloth she held, and she looked at him with stricken eyes.
“What’s wrong?” He dropped the pack he was holding and grabbed her upper arms. “What happened, Lexie?”
“Oh, Caine.” She bit her lip and turned away, but not before he saw her lip trembling. “I’m so sorry.”
“Sorry about what, Lex? What happened?”
Slowly she turned back to face him. “Remember those diapers I washed in the river yesterday? I hung them over a bush to dry, and I never went back to get them. They’re still there.”
“Still there?” he repeated stupidly, feeling sudden panic twist his gut. “The diapers are still draped over that bush by the river?”
She nodded. “I figured I could leave them until we left this morning and give them plenty of time to dry.” Her mouth trembled again, with fear, and she bit down on her lip. “I didn’t think about the helicopter coming back.”
“I thought we’d be gone by now.” He looked over at the tent again, and memories of what had delayed them swirled around him. When he looked over at her, he saw that she understood what he was thinking.
Fear and regret filled her face. “We should have been. I’m sorry, Caine,” she whispered.
In two steps he was in front of her. “Don’t ever say that.” His voice was fierce. “There were two of us in that tent. Hell, blame me if you need to blame someone. I should have known better. But don’t tell me you’re sorry.”
“I’m not sorry it happened, Caine. Don’t ever think that. But if I hadn’t fallen back asleep...” Her voice trailed off as she gestured around. “If I had been thinking, this wouldn’t have happened.”
“I wasn’t thinking, either,” he said gently. “Now, let’s get those diapers and get out of here.”
She looked at him for a moment, as if seeking reassurance that their slip wasn’t too serious, and he bent down and kissed her, hard and quick. Then he turned away and reached for the tent. He was frantic to put some distance between them and this spot, but he couldn’t force himself to tell Lexie his fears. She had enough to worry about.
By the time he had taken down the tent and rolled it up, she had the baby settled in the shawl and her pack hanging on her back. She was just leaving the clearing when he noticed what she was doing.
“Where are you going?”
“To get the diapers, of course. Where else would I be going?”
“Wait a minute and I’ll go with you. We’ll get them on our way.”
She waited patiently while he shoved the tent into his pack and swung it onto his back. Then he stepped to the edge of the little clearing and examined it with a critical eye. He had no doubt that El Cuchillo’s men would be here soon, and he wanted to make sure there was no trace of their presence.
He spotted the little mound of earth and dead leaves where they’d buried the remains of the agouti they’d eaten yesterday. Digging it up, he flung the bones and pelt as far into the jungle as he could. Then he filled the hole, being careful to smooth it over with his foot so the ground looked undisturbed. When he looked up, Lexie was watching him with a frightened expression on her face.
“You think they’re going to come here looking for us, don’t you?” she whispered.
“They might,” he said evenly. “I think they’ll have a hard time getting
here, but we can’t take any chances. I don’t want to leave any evidence that we were here.”
“I never would have thought of that,” she said, gesturing to the spot where he’d dug up the bones. “What have you been through, to think that way?” Her face looked stricken.
“This is what I do, Lexie,” he said, trying not to frighten her. “I was trained to think this way.” He looked around one more time to make sure he’d taken care of everything, then looked back at her. “Let’s go.”
He led the way down to the river, and he could feel her right behind him. When they got to the place where she’d washed the diapers, he saw they were still draped over one of the bushes, bright white in the early-morning sun. They would have stood out like beacons of light against the dark green of the jungle and the brown of the river.
Instinctively he scanned the horizon. He heard nothing but the normal jungle sounds. He couldn’t see far over the canopy of trees, but nothing appeared out of place. But if his gut feeling about this El Cuchillo character was right, and he wanted Lexie as badly as Caine thought he did, that wouldn’t last for long. They needed to put as much distance between themselves and this place as they could.
“Turn around,” he told Lexie as he grabbed the diapers off the bush. “I’ll stick these in your pack for you.”
“Do you think we should leave a couple, to make them think they didn’t have anything to do with us?” she asked.
He stared at her, surprised and impressed by her suggestion.
“I hadn’t thought of that,” he said slowly. “It might not be a bad idea. If they flew over here and saw the white spots again, they might assume it was flowers or something else that belonged here.”
She nodded, some hope creeping back into her face. “That’s what I thought.”
He stared at the last two diapers, still lying on top of the bush, and finally shook his head. “We can’t take the chance. I’m tempted, but I don’t know enough about this guy to assess what his reaction would be. Maybe he would assume that it didn’t mean anything and go away, but maybe he would try to get a better look. If he got close enough to see they were diapers, then he’d know for sure we’d been here. No.” He grabbed the last two diapers from the bush and shoved them into her pack. “We have to take them. Hey,” he said, turning her around and forcing a smile onto his face, “this guy may not remember where he saw them. From the air, everything in the jungle looks the same.”
To Save His Child Page 17
