Mutual Desire

by Donna Grant

Arian crept closer to her bodyguard as out of the corner of her eye she spotted something dart through the trees. She tried to follow it, but lost it in the shadows of the jungle.

  “What is it?” Vlad whispered.

  “I saw something.”

  “Damn.”

  A cry from one of her guards at the rear of their group made them jerk around in surprise. Arian watched as the guard fell to the ground, his hand holding his neck. Her mouth fell open in surprise as she saw the dart with bright red feathers attached to it.

  Vlad put a hand on her arm while he reached for his knife. “They won’t get you while I’m still standing, Princess.”

  Arian knew he had said it to help ease her fears, but it only added to them. If anything happened to Vlad, she didn’t know what she would do. He had always been there to help her, to aid her. She had done nothing alone since she had been old enough to walk.

  She gripped his arm, her gaze scanning the thick branches of the trees above them. And that’s when she caught her first glimpse of the warriors.

  A scream welled up inside her. Before Arian could warn the men, they were surrounded. Warriors grabbed her, yanking her away from Vlad. He fought them until he was knocked unconscious to the ground by a vicious club to the side of his head.

  “Vlad,” Arian screamed, terror turning her blood to ice as she saw the blood trail down his face from his wound.

  It was the last thing Arian saw before the warriors turned her away from the scene. She struggled against them as they bound her hands and feet. Behind her she could hear her guards fighting the warriors as they tried to get to her.

  She screamed, and something was stuffed into her mouth, silencing her. She fought against the gag that was tied at the back of her head. Tears welled in her eyes as she realized how helpless she was to defend herself against such an attack. She had no weapon or any other means to try to get free.

  Suddenly, she was lifted and carried through the rain forest as if she were some prized animal the warriors were bringing to their village as a trophy.

  Vlad…

  2

  Jensen D’Argent wiped his sweat-soaked forehead with the back of his arm and sighed. Even after four years, the heat still had the power to drain him. He sheathed the knife in his boot and reached for his canteen of water. He drank deeply, letting the cool liquid quench his dry throat, before he stood.

  The bird he had been following had flown away before he could see its direction, but he had gotten a good sketch of it. After all this time, he continued to find new species of plants, animals, and birds. He was quite sure he would find many more species in the river, but the thought of a piranha getting ahold of him kept his feet firmly on land.

  Jensen blew out a breath as he patted the notebook in his bag. That notebook listed all of his finds over the past months. Every couple of months he would send his notebooks to a friend at Harvard University who classified and documented Jensen’s findings.

  When he could, Jensen even sent samples. Harvard had dispatched a letter asking him to return to teach a course on the Amazon and his findings. It was a terrific opportunity, but the thought of leaving the Amazon wasn’t something Jensen was ready to do.

  It was odd. After all his travels and his restlessness, the Amazon had given him something nowhere else had been able to do. It had given him roots. There was nothing that could make him leave.

  A group of monkeys in the trees above him began to yell at each other as they fought over some fruit. Jensen chuckled and turned toward the village.

  It had been treasure that first brought him to the Amazon. Once he had found it, he had been unable to sell it and seek the fortune and glory he had longed for.

  That treasure had belonged to a tribe of the Amazon, the Yanomami. Someone had stolen it from the tribe decades earlier, and they had thought it had been lost forever.

  Instead of selling it, Jensen restored it to the Yanomami. In return, the tribe made him a member and gave him the honor of an elder. He chuckled every time he thought of that. As an elder he received special treatment, which only meant women were always throwing themselves at him.

  He was just a man after all, and a man had needs. When those needs became too much to bear, he would relieve himself with one of the women. It was never more than that, despite the fact the women wanted much more.

  But for Jensen, there was only one woman who had ever claimed his heart. A dark-haired temptress with amazing violet eyes. Those eyes held the promise of glorious passion for whoever dared to claim her.

  Yet, for all his wanting of his temptress, he could never have her. She was a princess, and he was far below her in social status.

  However, it hadn’t stopped him from telling the tribe of his travels around the world and meeting this special princess. Even after four years, he could still see her face as vividly as if she were standing in front of him.

  She had been just a young woman, but he had seen the stunning, rare beauty she would be even then. He hadn’t spoken to her, but when her gaze had passed over him, his heart had given itself to her.

  It was idiotic for him to love a woman he didn’t know, a woman he could never have. He had tried many times to find someone else to hold his attention, but it all came back to those violet eyes.

  By the time Jensen reached the village, all he wanted to do was sit in his hut and dream about his princess and a life that could never be. He would speak of his finds to the tribe the next day, after he drowned his misery in a bottle of whiskey.

  He was two steps into the village, and he knew instantly something was amiss. He hesitated, wondering if he should turn back into the jungle lest they try to marry him off again. But something prodded him onward.

  When he noticed the people surrounding his hut on the outskirts of the village, he became concerned. As he walked to his hut, he nodded to the men as he passed. To confuse him even more were the number of smiles and whispers he heard.

  What in the hell was going on?

  He stopped outside of his hut where two of the Yanomami’s most feared warriors, and his closest friends, stood by his door. They leaned upon their spears and smiled.

  “Yuso, Magwi,” Jensen said. “Tell me the reason you’re gathered here isn’t because you’ve found another woman you think would be perfect as my wife.”

  The men exchanged a glance. “No,” Yuso said.

  Jensen waited for him to say more, and when he didn’t, Jensen clenched his jaw. He didn’t like the apprehension that snaked down his spine. “Is there a jaguar in my hut then?”

  Magwi’s grin widened. “No. Something much better.”

  Jensen sighed. The warriors obviously weren’t going to tell him. There was only one way to find out what was inside, and that was to have a look himself. He began to reach for his knife when Yuso’s laughter stopped him.

  Jensen fisted his hand. He was tired and in no mood for jests. “What is so funny, Yuso?”

  “Trust me, Jensen. You won’t need a weapon.”

  Jensen glanced at the warrior before he pushed past them and opened the door to his small hut. He stilled instantly, letting his gaze slowly move around his home while he took stock of everything.

  And that’s when he heard it—the soft breathing of a woman.

  Jensen set his satchel by the door and moved to the back of his hut. Whereas the tribe slept on the ground, he had built himself a bed. He could envision any number of the tribe’s women inside his home hoping to catch his eye and attention, but he wasn’t prepared to see a woman sitting on his bed, her hands bound to the bedposts.

  The sunlight from the opened windows poured into the small shelter, casting shadows throughout. A stream of light landed across the woman’s face, and he noticed the gag in her mouth.

  He started toward her, thinking it was another jest by Yuso and Magwi to get him married—until Jensen spotted hair as black as pitch draped over the woman’s breast.

  His cock hardened. He shifted, recognizing it had been q
uite a while since he had bedded a woman. Still, the thought of a woman’s breast shouldn’t send blood to his rod so quickly.

  Then her gaze swung to him.

  Jensen felt as if someone had punched him in the gut. He stared into violet eyes that had haunted him for four long years. Before he could speak, Yuso and Magwi walked inside. Jensen faced his friends, his heart pounding so fiercely he thought it might burst from his chest.

  Violet eyes. Raven locks. If he hadn’t been thinking of his princess, he could almost believe she was tied to his bed. But surely he was mistaken.

  “What is this?” he asked in the Yanomami’s native tongue.

  “I knew as soon as I saw her,” Magwi said. “She’s the woman you’ve described to us, isn’t she?”

  Yuso snorted. “Of course she is. All you have to do is look at his face to know it’s her.”

  Jensen ran a hand down his face. It is her. My God. “You can’t just take her. She’s a princess and important to her people.”

  “But we did,” Yuso said. “It’s the least we can do after you returned our treasure.”

  “She’s a princess,” Jensen argued again. “She’ll have people looking for her.”

  Magwi chuckled then. “No, I don’t think she will.”

  “You didn’t kill them?”

  He shook his head. “There wasn’t a need. It was a small group, and we took them by surprise. While the men were fighting, Yuso and I ran off with your princess.”

  “She isn’t mine,” Jensen said with a sigh. Though I wish she was. He put his hands on his hips and squeezed his eyes shut. When he opened them, his friends were no longer smiling.

  “You aren’t pleased,” Yuso said. “We thought you wanted her.”

  “I am pleased,” he said. “Too pleased. That’s what is so damn hard. I’ve wanted her for so long, and now that she’s here, I still cannot have her.”

  Magwi clasped his shoulder and grinned. “Why not? It’s no use to fight your destiny, Jensen. It wasn’t coincidence that brought her to the Amazon after four years.”

  Yuso nodded. “When a man wants something as desperately as you’ve wanted her, why question the reason she’s here. Take what is given to you.”

  Jensen watched his friends leave, their words echoing in his mind like a drum. Jensen’s body flared with white hot desire just knowing she was near. He couldn’t quite believe the princess was in his hut. Tied to his bed.

  He groaned as his balls tightened. Now that she was with him, all the things he had dreamed of doing to her sent his heart racing and his blood to boiling.

  Jensen closed his eyes and tried to make himself walk out of the hut. If he could leave, he would have Magwi return her to her people. She wasn’t his. She was stolen.

  For you.

  But she wasn’t his. She was a princess. He was nothing more than a commoner, and not even from her country. She was most likely married or promised to another by now.

  Only one way to find out.

  Jensen made his hands relax from fists. He tried to control the hunger for her that clawed at his belly, begging him for just one taste of her.

  Like Magwi said, it isn’t mere coincidence that brought her to the jungle.

  Those words were his undoing. No matter how hard he tried or how much he pleaded with himself, Jensen couldn’t make his feet move toward the exit.

  He turned to face Arian and felt his gut constrict as he gazed at her beautiful oval face. Her expressive eyes regarded him with a hint of panic as he moved toward her. He knelt beside the bed and removed her gag so he could look at her wide, full lips—lips he could imagine gliding over his cock.

  He bit back a moan and lowered his gaze. Which was a mistake since he found himself staring at her breasts. Her cream-colored gown was soiled and thin and molded to her curves by her damp skin.

  To his agony, he saw the dark outline of her nipple through the material, and it was everything he could do not to reach out and thumb it until she begged him to take her.

  “Who are you?”

  Her voice snapped his attention to her face. He sat on the bed and cleared his throat. “My name is Jensen D’Argent. I was born in England but raised in America.”

  “Which explains your accent.”

  He shrugged. “I suppose it does.”

  “Why are you here?”

  “I’m an explorer. I visited nearly every country before coming to the Amazon in search of a treasure.”

  “Did you find it?” she asked casually as if they spoke over tea.

  He glanced at her bound wrists. She was scared, but she hid it well. Brave princess. “I did.”

  “Yet you are still here.”

  “The treasure belonged to the Yanomami tribe. I returned it to them.”

  She swallowed and looked around the hut. He could only imagine how dirty and dingy she thought his home.

  “Still,” she said, “if you are an explorer, why stay in the Amazon?”

  He was intrigued as to why she wanted to know so much about him. His opinion of her grew at how easily she handled the situation. There were no tears or demands as he had expected from her, a princess. She was calm, her gaze direct.

  “I’m not ready to leave,” he answered after a moment. Life in the Amazon was simple. The tribe didn’t expect anything from him. They accepted him for what he was and welcomed him. “I find I quite like it here.”

  They sat in silence for a few moments before she blew out a breath. “You haven’t asked who I am.”

  “You haven’t asked why you’re here.”

  “No, I haven’t. I assume you will get to that soon enough. Why don’t you ask who I am?”

  “I don’t need to. You are Princess Arian de Busso of Tulso.”

  Her eyes widened in surprise. She regarded him silently a moment as she gathered her thoughts. He could almost see her mind spinning as she tried to remember if they had ever met.

  “Few people know of our kingdom,” she said. “Is it a ransom you want, then?”

  He shook his head and chuckled. “First, Princess, I have no need to ransom you off. And second, I had no idea you were in the Amazon.”

  “You could be lying. You could have sent your friends to capture me.”

  “I could have. But I didn’t.”

  She licked her lips and shifted on the bed. “Why was I taken?”

  “I suppose they saw a pretty woman and thought I might like you as a prize.”

  Her lips pinched in agitation. “Then explain how you know who I am?”

  “I visited Tulso on my travels. Four years ago, to be precise. It was during one of your sisters’ weddings, I believe.” Jensen didn’t want to tell her any more than she needed to know lest she begin to wonder if the warriors had taken her on purpose and not on a whim.

  “Teresa,” she mumbled. “It was Teresa’s wedding.”

  “The streets were lined with yellow flowers. The entire royal family was dressed in their finest, and your sister rode to the church in an open carriage pulled by four matching white horses. You and your family traveled in similar carriages behind her. It was a grand day in Tulso.”

  She lowered her eyes and nodded. “It was a long time ago. I was only fifteen at the time.”

  “Was your wedding as beautiful?” He wasn’t sure what made him ask, but he couldn’t believe that she was still unmarried, not a woman as beautiful and alluring as the one sitting before him.

  Violet eyes rose to meet his. “My wedding is scheduled to take place six months hence.”

  A burst of hope flared in him. His cock throbbed, hungry to bury deep within her hot, slick sex. Jensen clenched his jaw as he fought to control his rising desire.

  “Why am I still bound?”

  He turned his head from her and took in a steadying breath. He had no answer for her, not when he wasn’t sure if he could let her go. He knew he should, knew he didn’t have any other choice, but for the life of him, he couldn’t do it.

  Whatever answer
he was forming died on his tongue as the door to his hut was thrown open. Three women, each carrying a bowl, walked into his home. He stood, recognizing what the bowls were for. He opened his mouth to tell them to leave.

  Only he didn’t want them to go.

  After all these years, the woman he had fantasized about and hungered for was in his bed. She was his to do with as he pleased. Only a saint would be able to let her go, and Jensen was far from a saint.

  Without another word, he stalked from his hut.

  3

  Arian felt her fear rush to the surface as Jensen left the hut. She wanted to call after him to stay, but a princess didn’t beg. Not even one that was tied and at the mercy of a tribe of warriors.

  The women situated themselves around her, setting aside bowls before they began to undress her. She clenched her hands to try to stop herself from shaking as her panic continued to mount.

  She had thought for a moment that Jensen might let her go. To her surprise, his presence had calmed her. Their talk had given her a measure of hope despite the way his hazel eyes had roamed over her body as if she were a feast and he a starving man.

  Many men had looked at her that way, but Jensen was the only one that didn’t make the bile rise in her throat. The desire she had seen in his eyes had done strange things—exhilarating things—to her body. Even now, her stomach still quivered from his gentle caress of her cheek as he had taken the gag away.

  His eyes met hers boldly as few dared to do because of her station. She liked his audacity. He treated her as a woman, not as a princess.

  He had dark hair that reached his neck, and a strand that curled over his forehead, teasing his brow. He was handsome in a rugged sort of way, with an angular jaw and square chin, and his nose was bent as if it had been broken.

  But it was his mouth that held her attention. He had a wide mouth and thin lips that she found herself wanting to kiss. Maybe it was the heat from the Amazon, but she had never felt so…wanton in her life.

  While he had spoken to the two warriors that kidnapped her, she had noted his wide shoulders and how he towered over the others. She smiled as she recalled his strange accent. American mixed with British, and she loved the sound of it. She could listen to him talk all day and never grow tired of it.