by Amy McKinley
His fingers played with her hair, and he felt content to open up to her. “We’re kind of opposites in relation to how people perceive us. Trev’s super laid-back and easygoing, while I’m more introspective. He jokes around, and I’ve got my nose buried in work.”
“Hey.” Mari pushed against him, lifting herself up so their gazes locked. “It’s her loss and my gain. I get to have you in my life and to love you. Not her.”
His body tensed beneath her, and he studied her face. When she’d admitted she loved him her eyes had gone wide, and that’s when he knew she meant it. Sincerity and something else softened her features.
He’d slept the day away, and the moonlight cast a silver glow across her face, accentuating the planes of her cheeks, her spiky lashes, and her plump lips. Her hair fanned around them in that look he adored. But it was her pulse keeping a steady beat against his chest, and her pupils, that confirmed what he’d hoped. She wasn’t lying. She did love him.
After slipping his hand around the back of her neck, he tugged her closer and crashed his lips against hers. She opened hers for him in a willing surrender. Their tongues tangled with equal passion.
He broke the kiss, both of them breathing heavily. “Babe, I want nothing more than to make love to you, but I’m worried about your injury.”
“It’s on my leg and ankle. I think I’ll be fine.” She pushed against his hands, which cradled either side of her head.
“I’m not sure you will. Blood flow will increase. Your heart will pump faster and harder, and if there are any lingering toxins, I want your body to fight them off rather than spread them through because I couldn’t control myself for a few hours.”
Sagging against him, she pouted, which had to be the most adorable thing he’d seen her do yet.
“Fine,” she half-heartedly growled. Settling against him once more, she drew lazy circles on his chest. “Then let’s talk about something else. I need to keep my mind off taking advantage of you.”
He chuckled. “Tell me about your aunt. Did I ever meet her?”
“Oh.” Sadness coated her voice, and her fingers froze for half a beat in their hypnotic pattern on his body. “No, you never met. I went back to Colombia because she was dying. There was no one else to care for her. No family.”
“What was she like?”
“Loud.” She laughed. “God, she was loud and demanding. But she had this incredible artistic eye and could sew anything she set her mind to. All the clothing in her store was hand sewn. And her customers loved it. The quality was amazing.” Her voice quieted, and her body relaxed further.
God, he’d give anything to remember their life together, no matter how short she’d said their time was. Even thinking that, his instincts pricked. They’d been doing that a ton since he woke and found Mari looking over him that first night in the jungle. While he wanted to pay attention to his gut, he didn’t know where the alarm stemmed from.
The only thing he could do was protect her.
Time passed swiftly as they shared aspects of their lives with one another. The hammock swayed with their weight, and the wind that’d picked up gusted through the leaves. It was the middle of the night, and he hoped the storm would abate in the morning. Thunder rumbled in the distance, and he followed the gentle rise and fall of Mari’s even breathing. She’d fallen back asleep.
In a matter of minutes, heavy rain fell, forcing its way through the protection of the trees and pelting them. Even though the wetness was frustrating in the jungle, making travel more difficult, it was a great way to get clean—even more so than bathing in the streams.
Turning his head, he let the patter of the raindrops lull him back to sleep, with Mari wrapped securely in his arms.
Chapter 16
Mari
Sleep came swiftly, and Mari welcomed it, knowing she needed additional time to heal. Snuggled against Chris, she felt safe until her dream swirled into focus.
Her aunt’s store was closed. At eleven in the morning, that was unusual. Going around to the back, she climbed the stairs to the second-floor apartment. Doorknob in hand, she turned and pushed the door open. Her frown deepened because it had been left unlocked. Her nose crinkled as she crossed the threshold. It smelled rancid.
“Aunt Linda?”
A horrific round of wet coughing was her answer. Mari rushed inside, following the sounds. “Oh, Aunt Linda.” Tears welled and tumbled down her face. Her aunt was curled up in bed, bloody tissues strewn around her. Another bout of hacking seized her frail body, and she wiped more blood from her mouth.
Stretching a hand out, her aunt tried for a feeble smile. “Mari,” she rasped. “God knows I love seeing you, but I told you not to come.”
Mari knelt beside her. “You told me you were sick. There was no way I was going to leave you to fend for yourself.”
With her hand clasped tight in her aunt’s, she leaned closer to hear her thready voice, which was so different than what she’d been like while Mari grew up. Her loud, boisterous aunt was dying—a husk of the larger-than-life person she was.
“It’s too dangerous for you here. Go back to Venezuela. Things have changed over the last several years. Not for the better.”
Mari gave her aunt’s hand a gentle squeeze. “I’m here now. You just need to rest and not worry about a thing. I’ll take care of you and the store.”
“No.” She curled into herself, paying for forcing words out with another fit of coughing.
Mari rushed to get her a fresh glass of water. After she helped her aunt into a more comfortable position, she gave her the water. “What’s important is your health. I don’t want you worrying.”
Panic-filled eyes met Mari’s gaze, and Aunt Linda whispered, “Oh, darling, you’ve a knack for arriving in the eye of the storm. The store is the least of our problems. If he notices you, and he will, there’ll be trouble.”
“Whatever it is will work itself out. I’m here now so you can get well. Please, just rest.”
“Don’t open the shop.” Linda clutched her hands, squeezing as tightly as she could, and pleaded with unmasked terror. “Go back home. I’m grateful to see you before I leave this world. I love you, Mari. But I want you safe. Please, for me, go.”
Mari jackknifed into a sitting position, causing the hammock to swing precariously. With her heart pounding against her rib cage, her gaze darted all around. She was afraid something or someone hid nearby.
Chris
“Chris.”
A sexy voice wove into his dream, and he lifted his hands to grip her hips, pressing into her soft, pliant body. Heat was all around them, consuming him from inside. Their bodies were slick where they touched. She shifted. An elbow pressed into his chest, and something clicked that he wasn’t dreaming.
In a fast blink, he worked to focus his eyes as he woke from their late-afternoon nap. A form hovered over him, and his mind played tricks, changing Mari’s long, dark braid to Hannah’s platinum-blond one.
“Hey, Chris.” Her husky voice filtered in, and he let himself follow the strings of memory from the image, which he superimposed over Mari’s. The past materialized as he walked into an office he’d been in many times before—because it was his. His gut reacted as he noticed small details. The papers on his desk didn’t look right. Someone had been in there. The faint smell of perfume in the air told him who.
Hannah.
Something pricked at his intuition when it came to her. He didn’t trust her.
“Chris.”
Mari’s insistent voice snapped him back to the present, and her features came into focus. He scowled at the loss of her slight weight pressing against him. “Why are you on your feet?” Still in the hammock, he was met by her frown.
“I had to go to the bathroom, and you were totally out of it.” She plopped her hand onto her jutted-out hip. “What’s going on?”
Chris grunted. “Did Hannah tell you anything about why she was in the jungle?” He pushed himself up and snapped, “And sit d
own.”
With a roll of her eyes, she eased back into her hammock. “No, she didn’t tell me anything. Oh, wait. She said she was going in the opposite direction we would be headed.”
“Deeper into Colombia?”
“Yes, but I don’t know exactly where. The entire thing was weird. She was there one minute, making me promise to help you, then gone as soon as you and I were sort of settled. There was one more thing. She said there were people, or a person, who would be looking for you. The message I got was that it would be bad if they found you.”
He frowned. “I know her.” He unhooked his hammock, his brain churning, trying to analyze everything he remembered and put the few puzzle pieces he had into place. Stuffing their things into the packs, he lifted Mari and set her by the base of the tree so she could lean against it before he took her bed down, too.
“You remember?”
At her quiet tone, he zeroed in on her unsettled features. “Not everything, just a snapshot of a memory with Hannah.”
She gave a curt nod, her lips pressed into a stubborn line.
“Something bothering you?”
She shook her head quickly, and when she failed to meet his gaze, he eliminated the space between them and tilted her chin up with his hand. When they were facing each other once more, he studied her features, looking for clues for why her mood shifted. Her almost-frightened look shook him. “What is it?”
She shrugged. “I don’t understand what Hannah is to you, and at times, the thought of your memory coming back scares me.” Tears gathered in her eyes. “I’m afraid I’ll lose you.”
“Baby, there’s no way.” His thumb caressed her lower lip, and he bent, brushing his lips over her. A spark leapt between them. Before they gave into their desire, he pulled away just enough. “There’s nothing to worry about.”
He shouldered their packs before he lifted her, cradling her to his chest then slipping from their tree fort. “Pull your gun out since my hands are full.”
“I can walk.”
His answer was another grunt while his gaze swept the jungle around them. In no time at all, they reached their canoe. He set her on her feet then removed the vines and brush he’d used to camouflage it from travelers or guerrillas in the area. After he freed the canoe, he helped her climb in then followed.
“Mari, get down so you’re not visible.”
“If I’m lying down in the canoe, I can’t help to spot potential threats,” she argued.
“They’re after you and not me at this point. While they’ll think about stopping me, they’ll for sure come after us if they see you. This is easier and gives us more of a shot to get out of here safely.”
There was no arguing that logic, so she flattened herself along the bottom of the canoe, her gun still in hand and resting on her stomach.
Every nerve ending buzzed as he dipped the paddle in one side then switched it to the other, his gaze constantly searching. They were out there, so it was only a matter of time. If they could get out of this area, using the cover of night, they stood a good chance of reaching the border without incident.
After traveling for several hours, the heat of the day became unbearable for both of them. They needed to stop and rest until it was cooler. Mari was doing remarkably better, and his worry for her eased. No blistering had occurred around her snakebite, and her skin looked to have suffered no permanent damage. Chris suspected the young snake’s bite only contained a fraction of the venom an adult fer-de-lance would have injected.
Thick trees enclosed the spot he’d decided to stop to rest in, and after they’d secured and hidden the canoe, they ate. Mari stepped away to wash her hands and face by the river, and he waited for her to come back.
Chris leaned back against the tree as Mari sauntered over to him, the natural sway of her hips teasing and tempting him to pull her onto his lap. Her long, thick mahogany hair was pulled away from her face again. He wanted to slip his fingers through it and see it fanned out around her exquisite face. My wife.
Every minute, hour, and day they spent together, they grew closer, moving in sync with one another. Still, there was a part of him that found her claim difficult to believe, but he wanted her, because with one touch his desire for her struck like lightning, like a match to a flame.
Mari bent down, her full breasts pushing against the thin material of her T-shirt, and snagged the canteen. She straightened and moved before him. He grabbed her hand and tugged her down. Her throaty laughter filled his ears as he brushed a few stray strands of hair from her neck. Her body cradled into his, and she trailed a finger down his chest.
He took in the knives strapped to her outer thigh. “Why did you marry me? Was it just to gain a ticket out of Colombia?”
She jerked her head and held his gaze. Her expressive eyes burned with passion, but not the kind he’d come to enjoy. She was angry. “At first, yes. I would do anything to leave this place. Aside from a few good things, such as my family—who are all dead now—there is nothing this place can offer me. It takes and takes and takes. I wanted out.”
He moved his hand to cup the side of her face, skimming along her cheek before resting it on her neck, where her pulse jumped against his palm.
“You were different. The thought of where you came from was exciting. You were a way out, sure, but you became more.” Her features softened. “So much more. I… You’re protective and cunning. Nothing will stop you once you want something. Not only that, you’re kind and loving. I’ll admit this all didn’t come together until our time in the jungle—but I saw a glimpse of those traits and wanted them for myself.”
The jungle was harsh—beautiful, but unforgiving if a wrong step was taken, hydration ignored, or tiredness allowed to cloud judgments. Through the constant nausea the jungle provoked, he and Mari came together, celebrating the beauty of life.
“Beauty is one thing, but not everything. You’re so very handsome, but that’s not what makes me want to fight for you, to stay with you, to share my life with you.” She placed her hand against his chest, her palm pressing against his heart. “You’re mine, and I love you.”
The last, she said in a throaty whisper. His lips crashed down on hers, devouring her. She opened hers immediately, and he swirled his tongue inside. Needing her, he tugged at her shirt, exposing her sun-kissed olive skin to his gaze. She helped him, whipping the offensive material from her body. Her body was trim, toned, and soft in all the right places.
It didn’t take long before she freed him from his pants and straddled him. As he thrust into her, her head arced back. Over and over, he sank into her warmth. He slipped his hand between them and teased her with his fingers. In no time at all, she convulsed all around him, and he followed her climax, gripping her hips.
She fell against his chest, her movements still graceful and her pupils fully dilated. “I love you, Chris,” she whispered under her breath.
His hand rubbed up and down her back. This fiery woman is mine. But something held him back, and he didn’t return her words. “We need to keep moving. It’s going to get harder on us the longer we stay here.”
Lifting her, he got to his feet, her legs still wrapped around his waist, before she released them and slid down his partially-clothed body. For a brief moment, her head rested against his chest. “How long do you think we have until we’re out of here, across the border?”
“We backtracked. We’ve got a long trek ahead of us, but with the canoe we can make our way through the network of streams as long as possible. That’ll save us a lot of time.”
They fixed their clothing, slung their packs over their shoulders, and moved toward the stream, not far from where they’d rested.
Deep inside, the reason he was there tugged at him, urging him to figure it out before more trouble found them.
Chapter 17
Chris
They made their way down the stream. Mari fingered a knife. As she slipped one from the sheath around her thigh, he grinned. They were his kniv
es, but in her hands he found them sexy as hell.
“What happened to all your knives?” She had sheaths sewn into her pants to slip them in, where they’d be safe and secure, but they’d been empty until she’d found his. And he knew they were his because one of them had a chip on the handle. She’d taken them before he’d woken to find himself in the jungle.
“Caught that, did you?” That throaty laugh of hers caused him to smile. “When I paid the guy to take me to the entrance of the Darien Gap, he changed the rules while we were on the water.” She shrugged. “Money was no longer enough. He wanted all my weapons, and a few side benefits, so I threatened him.”
Anger surged in him, but she only grinned and shook her head at the wicked scowl on his face.
“We came to a swift agreement. He’d continue with what he promised, and I agreed to surrender my knives without burying them in his flesh.” She shrugged. “It was a fair trade. One of the knives he took from me may be recognized. It’ll only bring him trouble—quite possibly, death.”
He grunted, already imagining his hands around the guy’s neck, crushing his windpipe.
“So, I took yours. I figured you wouldn’t mind, especially since you know how crazy good I am with them.”
Dark thoughts swirled in his head, not about Mari handling weapons, but about himself. They were nothing new to him. In fact, his pack held a plethora of them, including C4 and the detonators for it. What had I been planning to do? He couldn’t keep ignoring it and sweeping it under the rug—nor the captains who were searching for her. “Why are cartel captains after you?” His words carried the dark promise he was capable of delivering if his back was in a corner. In a sense, he was already there.
She stiffened in front of him, then her head whipped around, sending her braid against her opposite shoulder with a thwack. “How should I know?”
