by Lori Wilde
“Stop saying that word.”
He pantomimed zipping his lip.
“Madison?” Hampton called again.
She sent an assessing glance over Jake. “Be packed and ready to go. I’ll meet you in the cantina hut at 6:00 a.m.,” she hissed, “If you’re not there, I leave without you.” Then she spun on her heels and stalked away in the darkness.
That’s when he knew she liked him, too.
WHY HAD SHE agreed to take that weird Jake Strickland into the jungle with her? Madison wondered as she brushed her teeth and got ready for bed. Especially after she’d caught him eavesdropping on the fight she’d had with Hampton.
But the truth was, even though she was sure her calculations on where to find the orchid were correct, the idea of venturing into the ruggedly beautiful tropical terrain on her own scared the pants off her. She was a scholar, not an adventurer. There might be something off about Strickland, but he looked to be as adventurous as they came and in excellent physical condition.
Unfortunately, she felt a bizarre attraction toward him.
Okay, maybe the attraction wasn’t so inexplicable. He had a million muscles, all firm and honed. A strong jaw just begging to be stroked. Eyes the color of cymbidium orchids. A roguish, broken nose that added to rather than detracted from his sex appeal. And besides all that, he smelled good.
Thank heavens she’d worn the chastity belt and taken Izzy’s bet. The last thing she needed was a sexual distraction.
Because Strickland was surely that.
Madison crawled into her sleeping bag wearing the silky lingerie designed by Thomaz Santos and tried not to notice how it caressed her skin. She also tried not to think about Jake and his hands slipping beneath the waistband of the panties.
Stop it!
Right. Head in the game. She was in the middle of a turf war with her professor. If she was going to fret about something, that’s what she should be fretting about.
She’d known that impossible fling they’d had last summer had been a big mistake. They’d been in Belize, hunting down a lead on an amore sighting. It had turned out to be just Dichaea muricaroides.
Their disappointment had been so great that they consoled themselves in each other’s arms. It was stupid. They’d had too much to drink and afterward they’d sworn never to speak of their short-lived affair again, and on the surface it seemed their teacher/student relationship had gone back to normal. But now, Hampton’s stubbornness to acknowledge that her theory had merit told her she’d been deceiving herself. He wasn’t about to admit she was on to something, even to the point of letting his ego get in the way of the chance to fulfill his quest.
Well, fine. If Hampton was with her when she found the amore, he’d take the credit. This way, she’d get it.
Whichever, she had to stop ruminating and get some sleep. She had a big day ahead of her. Who knew? Maybe tomorrow her most cherished dream would come true.
2
MADISON had told Jake to meet her at six because she wanted to leave camp before Hampton and his entourage. When she got to the cantina, Jake was already there, stuffing muffins in his backpack and swilling a cup of coffee. When he saw her, he paused to push his glasses up on his nose and then grinned as if he was truly, madly glad to see her. Suddenly, her pulse accelerated.
“Mornin’,” he said in a lazy drawl.
Heightened awareness shot through her and she curled her hands into fists. She moved ahead of him, feeling the silky lingerie she had on shift sexily. She shouldn’t have worn the damned thing. It was certainly not wilderness attire, but she’d made that silly bet with her friends, so she’d worn it and turned it on.
She filled her own backpack, shouldered it and headed out of camp. She sensed Jake fall in behind her, but she did not turn her head when she said, “Let’s go.”
The eastern sky was tinged purple as they trudged into the darkened jungle. Jake came up beside her, walking abreast, even though the narrow path they were on required walking in single file. Palm fronds brushed against their legs and their shoulders made contact.
Madison veered away from him, stumbling over a tree root but she quickly regained her balance. “Why don’t you stay behind me?”
“It’s more fun being beside you. And it’s easier to talk when we’re side-by-side.”
“But not easier to walk.”
“You—” he started, but bit the words off.
She glared at him. “What?”
“Nothing.”
“Look, I’m really not much of a talker. I enjoy peace and quiet. So how about we just not have a peppy early-morning conversation.”
“You giving me the brush-off?”
“I just want to pay attention to the task at hand,” she said. “We’re entering a tropical rain forest and the sun isn’t even up yet. There’s all kinds of wildlife in here, much of it unfriendly to humans.”
“You know a lot about Costa Rican wildlife?”
Honestly, nothing more than what she’d read about in guidebooks. Her entire focus had been on finding the amore orchid.
“Why are you here?” she asked.
“I thought you didn’t want to talk.”
“You don’t seem like an orchid enthusiast.”
“What makes you say that?”
“For one thing, you’re under thirty.”
“So?”
“There are very few heterosexual men under the age of thirty who are interested in orchids.”
“Well.” He cracked a smile. “I’m not your ordinary guy.”
She let it go for the moment and eventually, he fell back as they traveled deeper into the jungle, letting her lead. Sunlight slowly began filtering in through the lush vegetation and the sounds of the rain forest were all around them. Exotic birds, the scurrying of small animals, the clicking of insects. It was a vivid green world. Madison took a deep breath of the humid air, sweet with the smell of tropical flowers. She wondered what the amore orchid smelled like. Whether it was as a sensual as everyone claimed.
As if reading her mind Jake asked, “Do you think the rumors about the amore are true?”
“What rumors?” She feigned ignorance, then immediately wondered why she’d done that. If she pretended to be clueless about that legend, that meant he’d have to fill her in, and the last thing she wanted was to talk about sex with Jake. To reverse the challenge she’d inadvertently instigated, she stopped short and he almost plowed into her. She remembered last night, when she’d plowed into him. “What was that noise?”
Jake paused, cocked his head. “What noise?”
“Um…I don’t hear it now.” She started walking again.
“So,” he said, “when we find this field of amore orchids are you prepared for the consequences?”
Madison thought of the chastity belt she wore. You have no idea. “What? You think one sniff of the orchid will drive me wild and I’ll rip your clothes off?”
“A guy can hope.” He laughed.
That should have ticked her off, instead she felt flattered. It had been a long time since a guy had flirted this outrageously with her. “Don’t be ridiculous. No plant can make a person act out of character.”
“Meaning you’re not the type of woman who would rip off a stranger’s clothes and make love to him in a field of orchids even if you were madly attracted to him.”
Honestly, she’d love to make love surrounded by orchids. It was one of her biggest sexual fantasies, but no way was she going to tell this guy that. “I’m not the least bit attracted to you.”
“Ha!”
“Ha? What the hell does that mean?”
“You’re attracted to me.”
“You’re full of yourself.”
“That doesn’t change the fact that you’re interested.”
“Jeez, the ego. Where’d you get it? Egos Are Us?”
“Witty.”
“Thank you. Now could you please stay behind me? You’re getting on my nerves.”
“Ma
ybe you should be behind me,” he said.
“Why on earth would I do that?’
“Because you’re about to walk right off the edge of a cliff.”
“I am n—”
But she didn’t even get the words out of her mouth. One minute she was standing on firm ground, the next second she’d taken a step forward into a thicket of vegetation and the ground just disappeared from underneath her.
MADISON’S screams echoed through the forest.
“Holy shit,” Jake exclaimed, the hairs standing up on the back of his neck.
One second she’d been arguing with him like she knew what she was talking about, and the next she was sliding headlong down a cliff of tropical vegetation, barreling straight toward a rushing stream several hundred yards below them.
“Hang on, Maddie, I’m coming for you!”
Feeling as though he’d just stepped into the movie Romancing the Stone, Jake peered down the incline only to have the ground crumble beneath him. Then he was sluicing down the slick, green plant-chute after her at breakneck speed. Okay, now he knew why she was screaming. It was a damned scary sensation, even for a daring adventurer.
Seconds later, he shot from the muddy flume and landed in the water. Instantly, he was caught up into a powerful eddy that sent him barreling downstream. He sputtered, kicked, tried to shove the wet hair from his eyes to see if he could locate Maddie.
He tried to call out to her, but water filled his mouth. She was bound to be terrified, poor kid. He fought to swim, but his backpack weighed him down. He gulped in a lungful of nasty jungle water and started coughing.
Get yourself together. Shake it off.
Jake blinked, struggled to get his footing. Then—ouch!
Something snatched at his hair. He muttered a colorful curse word as he felt himself being dragged.
Then he was lying spread-eagled on the ground underneath a guanacaste tree and Maddie was standing over him looking very pissed off. Her midnight-black hair was plastered to her face and her clothes clung wetly to her body. From his position on the ground, the view wasn’t half bad. He liked the way her shirt molded to her breasts, revealing that Maddie was hiding some very nice assets underneath her baggy attire. How had she managed to get out of the water on her own and then turn right around and save his ass? He was at once admiring and puzzled. There was more to this woman than met the eye.
He rolled over onto his side and stayed there, noticing the way her cargo shorts wrapped around her pale thighs. He’d never thought pale was a good color until he saw it on Maddie.
“Get up,” she said.
“What are you? A drill sergeant?”
“You’re lying in leeches.”
“Leeches!” He yelped and got to his feet, slapping himself. “I hate leeches. Get ’em off, get ’em off.”
Maddie burst out laughing.
He glared at her. “Leeches are not a laughing matter.”
“I lied. It’s not leeches, just leaves.”
He was so relieved that he wasn’t mad. “Why’d you do that?”
“So you’d stop lying there staring up at me with that goofy expression on your face.”
“You know how to control a man.”
“Thanks for the compliment.”
“It was a complaint.” He put his palms to his back and stretched.
“You lost your glasses,” she said.
“Oh, yeah.” He squinted intentionally.
She gave him an odd look.
“How did you manage to hang onto yours?” he asked.
“I grabbed hold of them as soon as I fell. I can’t see a thing without them.”
He didn’t want her to ask him any more glasses-related questions, so he stared up at the cliff that had completely dissolved underneath them. It was a least the length of two football fields away and there was no climbing up it. “Now we have to figure out how the hell to get back on the main trail.”
“That does seem to pose a problem,” she agreed, following his gaze.
He turned his head to study her. “You’re not freaking out.”
“Why would I freak out?”
“Most women I’ve known would.”
“You’ve never known me.”
“I’m beginning to see that. But you don’t really look like an outdoors girl, either. All the pale skin.”
“I can’t help it that I’m pale.”
“You don’t tan?”
“Nope.”
“Got vampire lineage?”
She laughed. “I have to wear lots of sunscreen or I burn to a crisp.”
“Well, whatever it is, it’s working for you.”
“Why don’t we just take that path?” she asked, ignoring his compliment.
“What path?”
Madison pointed to a faint trail that disappeared into the woods. “I’m just praying it doesn’t lead to a jaguar’s den or something equally terrifying.”
“Well.” Jake grinned. “What are we waiting for? Let’s get a move on.”
THEY’D BEEN hiking for well over two hours when the rain started. Not just a little spattering, either. Not sprinkles or raindrops or summer showers. This was an honest-to-God deluge.
Huge sheets of water poured from a dark sky, drenching them to the skin. At least it washed the mud away. Madison tried to console herself with the logic, but she wasn’t up to the challenge. Even though the temperature was warm, the abundant, constant rain made her shiver.
Jake looked as miserable as she felt. They could barely walk against the onslaught. The ground churned to mud beneath their feet. To make their way they had to cling to trees and fronds, anything they could grab onto. It was in the midst of this hell that Jake let out a hoot of delight.
For a moment, Madison thought he might have lost his mind. Especially when he started running. Or rather running, slipping, falling, getting back up and running again.
She searched the jungle trying to see where he was going. And then, through the mass of water and the thicket of greenery, she saw it. A little wooden hut balanced on the top of a rise, almost completely hidden by the trees. The introvert in her worried that someone lived there and they’d be intruding, but her practical side told her to get over her shyness and follow Jake.
He stopped and turned back to her. “Stay here and let me check this out. It might not be safe.”
Madison paused. Costa Rica wasn’t in political turmoil but some of the neighboring countries were. What if guerillas lived in the hut? Clearly, he’d considered it.
She halted in midstride, rain rolling down her face, and she waited while Jake scaled the slippery hill to the hut. It was a short distance but the trip took him a long time in the muck and the mire. He cut a dashing figure—agile and quick—and her breath caught in her lungs. Oh, yes, he was much more than he seemed.
From the time she was a small kid, she’d been enchanted by stories of swashbucklers and rollicking adventures. She’d cut her teeth on Jules Verne and Edgar Rice Burroughs. She loved Indiana Jones and Romancing the Stone and any movie or book fraught with danger and the thrill of the chase. Mainly because she had so little of those elements in her own quiet, bookish life. There might be something not quite right about Jake, but right now she was just going to try and enjoy being part of the adventure.
Several minutes after he entered the hut, Jake appeared on the small ledge that barely qualified as a front porch and waved her up. “C’mon, it’s dry in here.”
She started up the rise, but couldn’t find a decent foothold. How in the world had he managed to climb this? After several minutes of struggling, a rope suddenly appeared in front of her face. She glanced up to see Jake standing above her holding the other end of the rope.
“Grab on and I’ll pull you up.”
After several minutes of grunting and tugging, Madison hauled herself up over the side of the hill and collapsed on the ground at his feet, breathing like a landed guppy. She was covered in mud and drenched to her soul, but she’d
made it.
“Well done,” Jake said, and put down a hand to help her rise.
She touched his hand and there it was again, that same spark, that same strike of electricity. It was so powerful she almost lost her balance and tumbled back down over the ledge. But Jake held on to her, drawing her closer.
“Whoa there, Maddie.”
She’d always disliked the nickname Maddie. The moniker belonged to a lighthearted person, not a serious scientist. Even when she was quite small she’d insisted everyone call her Madison and she got huffy when any of her friends—usually Izzy—dared call her Maddie.
But when Jake said it, the name sounded like cool water trickling over hot rocks. What was it about the guy that so appealed to her? She didn’t believe in love at first sight. Heck, she’d been suspicious of him from the minute she’d laid eyes on him, but there was something about the guy that just pushed all the right sexual buttons inside her and to hell with everything else. Why?
Don’t forget what happened last year when you threw caution to the wind with Hampton. You ended up with regrets. Don’t make that same mistake twice. She wouldn’t.
“Let’s get inside,” Jake said, pulling her even closer. His breath was warm against her ear and she allowed him to lead her gently inside the hut.
As domiciles went, it was pretty basic. One room. Roof made of palm fronds. A camp stove in one corner. And that was it. Shelter from the weather and really nothing more. But it was dry and relatively free of creatures, although she did spy a couple of click beetles scuttling across the floor. Not exactly the Plaza, but it would do in a pinch.
“Do you have a change of clothes in that backpack?” he asked.
“Yeah.”
“There’s an outdoor shower on the back porch,” he said. “If you want to rinse the mud off.”
She did. “Convenient.”
“You go first,” he offered and waved his hand in a magnanimous gesture.
Madison went to the porch and saw that the “shower” was little better than standing under the spout of an open water tower. Still, it was something. Of course she wasn’t going to get naked. Not with Jake inside the hut. She didn’t trust him not to peek out at her. And then there was the matter of the lingerie. She couldn’t take the damned thing off without notifying her friends first, and she didn’t feel inclined to dig out her cell phone and explain her predicament. She’d just have a quick rinse with the lingerie on. Good thing the sensor was encased in a waterproof cover.
