Maddy Lawrence's Big Adventure

by Linda Turner

  Ace chuckled, but there was little humor in the sound. At the sight of the tears tracking her pale cheeks, something clutched at his heart, something that was a hell of a lot stronger than mere admiration, sweeter than tenderness, more frightening than the near fall she’d taken off that damn cliff. Where did she get her courage? he marveled. And did she have any idea what it did to him? Beauty he could appreciate but walk away from, but true courage was a rare thing and stopped him in his tracks every time.

  Unable to resist touching her, he cupped her face in his hands. “You’re something else, princess,” he rasped, swiping at her tears with his thumbs. “You didn’t have to be brave, you know. You could have screamed this whole rain forest down and I wouldn’t have blamed you. Why didn’t you?”

  “Because I was afraid if I started, I might not be able to stop,” she said with a sigh, closing her eyes. “And somehow, I don’t think you handle hysterical women very well.”

  “I do when they’ve got a right to be hysterical,” he retorted. “How’s the pain now?”

  “Better,” she claimed, but she still didn’t open her eyes.

  He snorted, not believing that for a second. She was still pale, barely able to hold her head up, her brow etched with lines that hadn’t been there the day before. Reaching for the first-aid kit, he dug up a couple of aspirins and uncapped his canteen. “Wake up and take some aspirins, sweetheart. Then I’ll help you get ready for bed.”

  The fact that she didn’t offer an argument said far more about her exhaustion than words ever could. She simply took the aspirins, swallowed a gulp of water and handed the canteen back to him as her eyes once again drifted shut. Rising to his feet, Ace found one of his T-shirts and returned to where she still sat on her sleeping bag and settled down in front of her, his knees just brushing hers.

  Images of the night before flashed in front of his eyes, and all too easily he remembered her sweet insistence that he close his eyes while she dressed at the river, even though he’d already seen all of her there was to see. Hesitating, refusing to let his gaze dip below the level of her chin, he said huskily, “You can’t sleep in those clothes, Maddy, honey. You’ll be a lot more comfortable in one of my T-shirts. I’m going to slip it over your head, okay?”

  Stirring to awareness, she frowned, “I don’t think I can lift my arm.”

  “Don’t worry about that. You just sit there and let me do all the work.”

  It should have been easy—she was already practically topless. But Ace hadn’t counted on how much he would have to touch her just to get her ready for bed. When he pulled the T-shirt over her head and it settled around her slender frame with a soft whisper, she obviously couldn’t reach around behind her to unhook her bra. It was left to him to slip his hands under the shirt and do the task for her. Too late, he realized he’d just made a big mistake.

  Chapter 8

  How he got through the next few moments without going quietly out of his mind, Ace never knew. With his arms around her under her shirt, her breath warm against his throat, he suddenly knew why the road to hell was paved with good intentions. His only thought had been to make her as comfortable as possible, but suddenly, he couldn’t get his mind off the scent and feel and closeness of her. She was soft and so damn breakable right now. And she didn’t have a clue what that did to him. His blood hot, his loins aching, he stared at her mouth and needed, just for a moment, to kiss her more than he needed his next breath.

  But he couldn’t, dammit! She was hurt and exhausted. Only a selfish, unfeeling bastard would think about taking advantage of her right now, he told himself savagely, and he hadn’t quite sunk that low. She needed some TLC—nothing more. And by God, that was what he was going to give her even if it killed him!

  Later, he would have sworn it almost did. Under her shirt, his fingers blindly found the back hook of her bra and gently released it. A muscle ticking along his jaw, he slid his hands to her shoulders and carefully eased the straps of the undergarment down her shoulders. She sighed, her head dipping to rest against his chest, and right then and there, he nearly came undone as the bra came away in his hands.

  Heat curling low in his belly, he dragged in a cooling breath and tried to get a grip. Still, his voice was betrayingly rough when he murmured, “Better?”

  She nodded, unconsciously rubbing her cheek against him like a cat. “Mmm-hmm.”

  A muscle ticking in his cheek, he bit back a groan. If this was God’s idea of a joke, he wasn’t laughing. Against his better judgment, he’d wanted the lady almost from the moment he’d come to her rescue, but she’d continually kept a brick wall between them. Until now. When he could touch her but he couldn’t have her.

  “This is payback time for all your sins, old man,” he muttered to himself. And paybacks were hell—he hadn’t realized just how much until he fumbled for her hands under the soft cotton of the T-shirt and brushed her thighs instead, then a breast. Sweat broke out on his brow. Damn, how much of this was a man supposed to take?

  Growling a curse, he finally found her hands and carefully eased them through the sleeves that hung well past her elbows. Completely covered, she should have looked about as appealing as a frumpy teddy bear. To another man, she might have, but Ace knew what was under that T-shirt. And he still had to get her out of her shorts.

  “We’re almost finished, Sleeping Beauty,” he promised hoarsely. “Just lay down and relax while I get rid of these shorts and boots. Then you can go to sleep.”

  She didn’t wait that long, however. The second he helped her stretch out, she turned over on her stomach, pillowed her face on her uninjured arm and was out cold. “Oh, no,” he moaned. “Not yet. Don’t crash on me yet, honey. Give me a little help here.”

  His only answer was a deep, nearly silent sigh.

  Setting back on his heels, he scowled down at her and was half tempted to just leave her the way she was. But the jeans shorts were still damp, and even as tired as she was, she’d have a miserable night if he didn’t get her out of them. Swearing, his face grim with purpose, he straddled her hips and reached under the T-shirt for the snap of her shorts.

  It took less than a minute to finish undressing her. But it was the longest minute of his life. Curses he’d picked up in some of the remotest areas of the world falling from his lips to rise on the close, steamy air filling the tent, he dropped the damp shorts on the floor next to her sleeping bag and swished the T-shirt down over the tempting curve of her scantily clad hips. It didn’t help. Awake, asleep, too sore to move, too tired to keep her eyes open, she still had the power to make him want her more than any woman ever had.

  He had to get out of there. His jaw a block of granite, he rose to his feet, switched off the flashlight and headed toward the tent entrance. Outside, the evening shower that should have stopped by now was still going strong and showed every sign of continuing all night. That was just fine with him. Stepping out into it, he lifted his face to the wet sky and waited for the rain to cool his heated blood.

  Maddy slept for nearly two hours without moving so much as a muscle. Then she shifted slightly in her sleep, unconsciously turning on her side, and the scraped skin there instantly flared like a struck match. Startled, she jerked awake on a sharply indrawn breath, her heart pounding. Images from the afternoon flashed across her closed eyelids, vivid in every detail, and all too easily, she could feel the sick terror that had gripped her when she’d started to fall and for an instant there’d been nothing but thin air under her feet. The taste of coppery fear filling her mouth, she bolted straight up on the sleeping bag, gasping.

  “You want some more aspirin?” Ace asked quietly from across the tent.

  The low rumble of his voice reached out of the darkness to touch her, stroke her, steady her. Letting out a slow breath, she searched for him in the thick shadows but couldn’t see him anywhere. “No, thanks,” she said just as quietly. “I was just remembering…” A shiver slid down her spine. “What time is it?”

  �
�Nearly nine.”

  He switched on the flashlight then, and she saw that he stood at the unzipped entrance to the tent and stared out at the rainy night like a man who would have given just about anything to be anywhere else but where he was. From six feet away, she could practically feel the tension rolling off him in waves. Frowning, she stared at his back. “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing. You hungry?”

  It was a deliberate attempt to change the focus of the conversation away from himself to her, and for the moment, she was willing to let him. “Not really, but I guess I’d better eat something or my stomach will think my throat’s been cut. Did I miss supper?”

  “If you want to call it that…” At the sound of her struggling to her feet, he turned sharply to face her, saw what she was doing and reached her in two strides. “What the hell do you think you’re doing? Lay back down, dammit, before you hurt yourself!”

  He was, she could see, going to be difficult. “I don’t need to lay back down. It’s not like I broke a leg or something. I just scraped myself up a little.”

  “A little?” he roared. “Have you looked at yourself?”

  With a careless wave of her hand, she dismissed that argument and replied, “Anyway, it’s too early to go to bed. If I sleep all evening, I’ll be climbing the walls by four in the morning. I don’t think you want that anymore than I do, so I’m going to get up, eat, walk around a little and find a way to kill the clock for a while. Okay?”

  No, it was not okay, he wanted to growl. He was the one already climbing the walls, and it was all because of her. He’d spent the past two hours trying to steer clear of her and their tent by seeking out Dominic and discussing their route for the following day over a supper of rice and dehydrated vegetables, but he hadn’t been able to concentrate. Afraid that he wouldn’t be able to hear Maddy if she called out because of the thundering cadence of the rain, he’d checked on her every few moments. Just like a new mother peeking in on a newborn, he thought in disgust. Dominic hadn’t said anything, but he’d seen the amusement glinting in the other man’s eyes and had felt like a damn fool.

  But she was right. He’d rather deal with her now than at four o’clock in the morning.

  Without a word, he retrieved the bowl of food he’d brought back with him from Dominic’s tent. “Here,” he said curtly, shoving it into her hands. “It’s not anything to write home about, but the nearest McDonald’s is a long way away.”

  Turning away before she could drag him into a conversation he wanted no part of, he tried to ignore her by charting their course on a waterproof map of the area that he pulled from his backpack. And for a while, it worked. They’d made up for lost time that afternoon after Maddy’s near fall at the waterfall, and by the time they called it a night, they’d reached the beginning of the final stage of their trip. Tomorrow, they would leave the river and canoe behind at dawn and head south on foot through the jungle for Barrera’s secret stronghold.

  Dominic, when pointing out on the map the area where Barrera was rumored to live, had warned him it still wasn’t too late to turn back. Once they hiked deeper into the jungle, however, the drug lord’s men could be anywhere, and they might not be given a second chance to change their mind.

  Folding the map and returning it to his pack, Ace knew the time for second thoughts—and turning back—had long since passed. Lazear was out there, dammit! He hadn’t been this close to catching him since New York, and this time, the snake wasn’t getting away, by God! Before the sun set tomorrow, he’d have the bastard…and the ring…in his possession come hell or high water.

  “So what’s on the agenda for tomorrow?”

  Intent on just what he was going to say to the miserable excuse for a human being when he caught up to him, he hadn’t noticed that Maddy had wandered over to see what he was doing. She stood less than a foot behind him, her hair mussed and his T-shirt engulfing her almost to her knees, and didn’t seem to be the least bit self-conscious about it. Dammit, she was naked under that shirt except for her panties! She should have been cowering under the sleeping bag, not parading around in front of him like some kind of fashion model without an ounce of modesty!

  Cursing the sudden knocking of his heart, he scowled. “Lazear,” he said coldly. “We either catch him tomorrow or there’s no sense going on. Don’t you have a robe or something to put on?”

  Surprised by the sudden change in subject and his fierce frown, Maddy glanced down in confusion at the T-shirt as if she had just now noticed it. What was he all in a snit about? she wondered, bewildered. The T-shirt covered her better than any gown she had at home and was about as provocative as a garbage bag. “No, you didn’t buy me one. If it’s bothering you—”

  “Did I say it was bothering me?”

  “Not in those words, but—”

  “Then it’s not bothering me. I’ve seen a woman in a T-shirt before.”

  Not caring for the image that that particular comment brought to mind, it was her turn to frown. “I’m sure you have,” she said coolly. “But if you don’t mind, I’d appreciate if you’d spare me the details.”

  “Details? What details? I just said—”

  “I heard what you said. You don’t have to repeat yourself.”

  “And you don’t have to be so damn touchy!”

  “Touchy?” she echoed incredulously. “You’re calling me touchy? You’ve got to be kidding! Talk about the pot calling the kettle black. You’ve been acting like a bear with a sore paw ever since I woke up. And I’m getting damn tired of it!”

  “Damn?” he repeated, his eyes narrowing dangerously. “Did you just say damn? I’ve never heard you say a curse word before. I don’t like it.”

  As surprised as he, Maddy blinked. He was right. She’d actually used damn. She should have been horrified. She’d been raised to think that curse words were nothing more than a lack of vocabulary and, therefore, an insult to her intelligence, but she found the use of that simple four-letter word exhilarating. And what did he mean, he didn’t like it? Who was he to tell her what she could and couldn’t say?

  “You don’t have to like it,” she retorted, lifting her chin proudly. “I can use any damn word I want, any damn time I feel like it, and there’s not a damn thing you can do about it.”

  “I wouldn’t be too sure of that, missy,” he growled, glaring at her nose to nose. “Don’t push me—”

  “Push you? You’ve been pushing me for a fight for the past fifteen minutes! What’s your problem, anyway? All I did-”

  “All you did,” he cut in furiously, grabbing her, “was parade around in front of me nearly naked.”

  “I did not! I’m decently covered!”

  “You call that decent? It barely comes to your thighs. And any man with eyes can see that you don’t have a damn thing on underneath it!”

  She shouldn’t have said it, shouldn’t have even thought it, but the words just popped out. “Since you’ve got eyes and you’re the only man in sight, I guess that means you’ve been looking.”

  “Of course, I’ve been looking!” he roared, pushed to the limits. “Dammit, woman, what do you think I’ve been trying to tell you?”

  Too late, he realized what he’d admitted. Curses fell from his lips in a steady, uninterrupted stream. He saw awareness flare in her eyes, felt a sudden charge of energy between them that could have lit up the entire Southern Hemisphere, and should have pushed her away then and not touched her again until his head had cleared and he had a grip on his hormones again. But he couldn’t let her go—hell, he couldn’t even remember his name. All he could think of was how long it had been since he’d kissed her. It seemed like forever.

  “Dammit, Maddy!” Her name a prayer, a curse, on his tongue, he glared down at her, his hands tightening on her arms as he fought to do the right thing. But the burning in his gut was hotter than the fires of hell and there were some things a man just couldn’t walk away from. And she was one of them. Past thought, past reason, he dragged her u
p on her toes and covered her mouth with his.

  The heat was immediate, intense, bone melting. Stunned, Maddy stiffened for all of two seconds, her thoughts in a whirl and her heart pounding out of control. Which was just what she felt like, she realized with a sob. Out of control. She shouldn’t let him touch her, shouldn’t let herself get caught up in the magic of something that was never going to last. Somehow, some way, she had to stop this. Now!

  But when her hands came up to push him away, they touched the rock wall of his chest, and she found herself fascinated all over again with the differences between his body and hers, the strength and hardness and power of him. She wanted to touch him, taste him…everywhere. Just this once, she promised herself as her eyes grew heavy and her mind blurred. Just this once she was going to be like every other woman in the world and know what it was like to kiss a man senseless. Murmuring his name, she opened her mouth under his and threw caution to the wind.

  His response was immediate, gratifying, shattering. With the same barely controlled impatience with which he’d snapped at her, he groaned, jerked her fully against him and slanted his mouth across hers with a hunger that left her weak with need. Elated, her heart slamming against her ribs, she went farther up on her toes and fit herself against him with a daring that would have horrified her only days ago.

  Hard, throbbing, he felt like a man stretched tight on a torture rack. Need burned in his gut like a hot coal, a need to bury himself in her so deep that neither of them would know where one ended and the other began. He wanted to move in her and feel her shatter around him. Just once, he promised himself as his hands swept down under her T-shirt to cup her bottom. Just once before his common sense reminded him of all the reasons why he couldn’t do this.

  His breath hissing through his clenched teeth, he held her still against him, savoring the feel, the heat, of her. Wrenching his mouth from hers, he murmured endearments in her ear he hadn’t even known he knew and scattered kisses across the curve of her cheek, the faint sweep of freckles across her nose, the soft, tempting skin of her neck. And all the while, his hands were blindly moving, seeking, caressing.