She laughed. “You worry too much, Ryder.”
He turned to look at her. She was floating on her back in the water, her hair flaring around her head, the tips of her breasts skimming the surface.
Her very naked breasts.
He glanced quickly away and moved another foot in the opposite direction. The water was way too damn clear for his taste. Especially now, when that warmth he’d felt earlier was suddenly spreading lower.
She came back up and shook the droplets from her eyes before he had time to get to the edge of the lagoon and get the hell out. “Why did you leave the navy? I just realized I never asked before.”
Oh gee. There was a topic he did not want to dive into. Especially not now when they were both naked and she was way too close to touch. Because talking about the past was like a giant knife slicing open a wound that would just leave him wrecked and vulnerable.
“My body couldn’t take it anymore,” he lied. “Sucks to get old.”
She laughed and splashed water over her shoulders. “You’re hardly old. You’re what, thirty-six? And now that I’ve seen you without your shirt on, I know you’re just as built as the rest of the guys at Aegis. I’m sure you’ve got a few more years left before you get all senile and decrepit.”
Had she just implied she was checking him out? He turned in the water, watching as she ran her fingers through her damp hair, rinsing away the dirt and grime. A sliver of sunlight filtered through the canopy to highlight the different colors in her hair and make her skin glow, and though he knew he shouldn’t look, he couldn’t seem to tear his gaze away. If he didn’t know who she was and had just stumbled across her in this pool, he’d think she was a water sprite, or a mermaid, or a forest nymph out for a quick dip. Yes, she was that fresh, alluring girl-next-door, but she was also confident and sexy, and that didn’t just make her pretty, it made her drop-dead gorgeous.
That warmth in his belly spread down into his groin, making him hard and hot and achy.
She opened her pale-blue eyes and glanced his way. “Oh, I forgot to tell you. Before I—as you so eloquently call it—stole your plane, I sent that paperwork to the realtors.”
“Realtors?” Why hadn’t he ever noticed that spray of freckles along the bridge of her nose? The tiny little light-brown dots that seemed to dance across her olive skin, making it that much more alluring.
Because she usually wore reading glasses at the office, he realized. And because he’d never let himself take a close look like he was doing now.
“For the properties we talked about. The ones you haven’t shown any interest in since your father passed. They should all be listed within the next week or so.”
Just the mention of his father dampened his arousal and slingshotted his mood back to dreary. He blinked, looked away from her and out over the water, then blinked again. Before his death, Linus Ryder had cultivated quite the portfolio of land all over the world, most of which Jake had never seen. Real estate had been his father’s one true love, and now, even four and a half years after his death, Jake was still trying to unload a good chunk of disgustingly ornate homes he had no interest in visiting—most out west where his father had spent the last years of his life schmoozing with celebrities and girls half his age in an attempt to stay young.
“That’s good.”
“I didn’t mean to bring up your dad,” she said quietly. “It just popped into my head when I was thinking about you not liking the jungle and how good it is that you don’t have a house here you’re trying to sell.”
Marley knew Jake held no love for his late father, but she didn’t know exactly why, and right now it wasn’t a topic Jake felt like diving into. Especially not when just looking at her was short-circuiting his brain and making him think about things other than what they were really doing in this jungle.
He flashed her a smile, one that didn’t come close to reaching his eyes, and moved for the edge of the pool. “It’s fine. And you’re right. This would be a shitty place to own a house. We should get going before it gets too hot.”
“We’re near the equator, Jake. It’s always hot here.”
She was right. But unfortunately, he was too hot near her. And being naked here in the water with her wasn’t helping.
A fat raindrop hit his nose. He looked up toward the canopy but couldn’t see more than layers of green. “All right, let’s go before a giant alligator thinks we’ve taken over his home. Turn around again, Addison. I don’t need you ogling my naked ass.”
She laughed once more, the sound like a soft breeze. “They’re called caimans.”
“They can be called chompers for all I care. Same damn thing to me.”
He climbed out and dressed. After pulling on his pants and shirt, he sat on a log and laced his boots. Another droplet hit his forearm. He glanced up again but still couldn’t see any clouds through the dense canopy.
“Are you just gonna sit there, or are you going to leave so I can get out?” Marley asked.
“Shy all of a sudden?” He looked over at her. “You weren’t shy ten minutes ago when your nipples were sticking out of the water.”
Her eyes widened. “What?” She swam toward the edge of the pool and slapped her hand against the surface, sending water spraying all over him. “You could see my nipples? Why didn’t you tell me?”
Laughing, he jerked off the log and moved out of her splash zone. “Watch it. It’s so humid in this jungle my clothes won’t dry out if they get wet. Besides, you’re the one who said the water was clear. All I was doing was checking for predators.”
“I’ll show you a predator,” she mumbled. But there was no heat in her adorably annoyed look. “You’re still here, idiot.”
“Okay, okay. I’m going.” He held up his hands and turned. “You win.”
Just before he passed a palm that would block his view of her and the pond, he glanced over his shoulder. “They were nice nipples, though.”
“Oh my God.” Her eyes flew wide. “That’s sexual harassment, Ryder!”
Feeling ten times better than he had in days, Jake laughed and headed back toward their makeshift camp. “Only if you can prove it, Addison.”
He might be a moody pain in the ass sometimes, but Marley didn’t mind Jake tagging along as much as she’d originally thought.
After breaking camp, they’d spent the next two hours picking their way through the jungle on their way to Bruhia. Jake had let her take the lead, and as Marley used the machete to chop palms and brush out of their way, she thought back over his teasing at the waterfall.
A silly smile toyed with the edges of her lips. She kinda liked him when he was in a good mood. When he wasn’t grousing and nagging, he was actually funny and easy to be around. She’d even consider the nipple comment flirting if it had come from anyone but Jake, but she knew he wasn’t interested in her. Interested in annoying her, sure. Interested in frustrating her, absolutely. But not interested in her romantically. Not even close.
Her smile faded. A little of her good mood ebbed. She hacked at a palm frond and shoved it out of her way. It wasn’t like she wanted him to flirt with her. God no. That would just muck things up since they worked so closely together at Aegis. But, really. She’d seen some of the women he went out with, and she knew she was just as attractive and way smarter than all of them put together. So why on earth would he flirt with them and not her?
“Careful, Addison,” Jake said at her back. Too close at her back. What was he, breathing down her neck? “You’re hacking at those branches erratically. Sure you don’t want me to take over?”
“I said I’ve got it.”
“Oookay,” he drew out. “Just trying to help.”
Marley blew out a breath, hating that he had this innate ability to get her worked up even when he wasn’t trying to annoy her. This was Jake. Her boss. Not a guy she even wanted to flirt with her. So w
hat was her problem? She shoved another palm aside and kept moving,
“So this boyfriend,” Jake said casually behind her. “Is he the only one?”
Marley stopped and turned, blinking in surprise. “What is that supposed to mean?”
“It means, I just think I should know if there’s one, or more than one, or if you’ve got a string of guys in various countries I should be worried about.”
Was he jealous? No, that couldn’t be. She was clearly misreading things because of her messed-up thoughts. Facing forward again, she hacked at another vine. “You’re worried? Seriously. Let’s not tell lies, Jake.”
He reached for her arm and gently tugged her back. “I think I’ve been pretty patient waiting for you to start talking. We’ll reach Bruhia soon. I’d just like to know what I’m walking into before we get there.”
He was talking about safety. Not her or them or any kind of emotions. She needed to pull her head together and start thinking rather than reacting to things that weren’t even there.
She shifted her weight. Palm fronds closed in around them like a cave. Too close. Too cozy. Way too hot. A bead of sweat slid between her breasts, only frustrating her more. “What do you want to know?”
He let go of her arm and rested his hands on his hips. “For starters, why didn’t your father want you dating him?”
It was the same question he’d asked last night, and she knew she couldn’t put him off much longer. Besides which, he’d risked his life to come out here with her. She owed him an explanation.
“He didn’t want me to marry a mercenary.”
“Is that what he was? A merc?”
“Before he joined Omega, yes. Several of the Omega guys were. But it didn’t matter what Gray did before he went to work for my father. My dad didn’t want me involved with any of his black ops guys.”
“Why not?”
Marley focused on a palm frond near his head. “He once said that he regretted dragging me all over on his jobs. As a kid, I thought it was pretty cool. I mean, the world was my classroom. But he didn’t like the fact I never went to a regular school, that I didn’t go to my senior prom, that I didn’t get the full experience of being a teenager. I never felt like I missed out on anything, but he did. When it came down to it, I don’t think my father wanted me dating Gray because he wanted more for me.”
“And you disagreed.”
Marley shrugged.
Jake’s eyes narrowed. “Were you going to marry him?”
“No.” She looked back at him. “We weren’t engaged if that’s what you’re asking.”
“But you thought about it.”
Marley rolled her eyes, hating this whole conversation. “Every girl thinks about getting married, Jake. Doesn’t mean she’s stupid enough to go through with it.”
Jake was silent for a few seconds, then said, “Were you in love with him?”
Marley looked up at the canopy and sighed. “I don’t know.”
“You either were or you weren’t. It’s not a hard question, Addison.”
The bite to his voice told her loud and clear that he was back to being irritated.
She pinned him with a hard look. “I don’t know, okay? For a while I thought maybe I was. Then I sorta freaked out and realized he wasn’t the guy for me. Then he died—or supposedly died—on that op, and I didn’t know what to feel. I was both heartbroken and relieved. And then racked with guilt because I felt that way. And now he’s alive and I don’t know what the heck to feel. It’s been five years. I was pretty well resigned to the fact he was dead.”
“Okay. I get it.” Jake held up both hands. “I shouldn’t have pushed.”
Confused, Marley looked down and realized she was holding the machete out like a sword.
She dropped the blade to her side. “I’m not gonna cut you, Ryder. Sheesh.”
“I’m just making sure. You do tend to dislike me more often than not.”
No, she liked him. Liked him more than she should. That was the problem.
“All I’m trying to do is clarify what’s going on here,” he added. “Not piss you off.”
Right. Because he cared about facts, not emotions.
Annoyed all over again, this time at herself, she turned and hacked at the palm fronds once more, pushing her way through the jungle, away from him. “Well, now you’re caught up to speed. I don’t know what to expect when we get to Bruhia, either.”
The underbrush thinned—thank God—and Marley stepped out of the palm trees and into a small clearing, only to be smacked in the face by a giant raindrop. Jake reached for her arm again before she could take two more steps.
“Hold on.”
Another raindrop hit her, and another, running in rivulets down her cheek. “What now?”
“Look, I know your dad. He’s a good read on people. If he didn’t want you dating McKnight, my gut says there had to be another reason.”
And Jake listened to his gut over everything else.
“I said he didn’t encourage my relationship with Gray. Not that he forbade me from seeing him.”
“Because we both know what you would have done if he’d flat-out said no.”
Marley frowned up at his already damp hair and the droplets pelting his nose and cheeks. “Are you implying I don’t know how to listen to reason?”
Jake grinned. That irritating, obnoxious—dammit—sexy Jake grin. “I know that for a fact.”
Marley tugged her arm from his grip. The hillside dropped to their right. She moved along a path some kind of animal had formed, ducking under branches and angling around prickly vines. The raindrops grew fatter, faster. Around them the echo of water splashing onto foliage increased. “Being independent is not a bad thing. And if my father had told me no—which he didn’t, I’d like to point out—I would have listened to his reasoning.”
Jake barked out a laugh at her back. “I say no to you all the time and you rarely listen.”
Marley moved around a large puddle that had already formed in the dirt. “That’s because the things you say no to make absolutely no sense. Like my working in the field. Look around you, Ryder.” She held her hands out in the now heavy rain as she walked. “I know how to handle myself. I would have been just fine in the jungle alone last night. I don’t really need your help, and we both know it.”
“Are we back to this again? Give it a rest, Addison. I said—”
The wet ground slipped out beneath Marley’s boot. Her eyes flew wide, and she tried to jerk back, but mud and water splashed in her face, making her gasp for air. She grappled for something to hold on to, but the thin rainforest sediments were already dragging her down the hillside in a roaring landslide that drowned out every other sound. Even Jake’s voice calling her name.
Don’t be dead. Please don’t be dead.
The words echoed in Jake’s head as he rushed down what was left of the hillside. Thick, fat raindrops pelted his body. Razor-sharp vines cut into his palms as he grappled for anything to hold on to. He ignored the blood and the pain, focusing only on getting to the bottom as fast as he could.
He’d been lucky the landslide hadn’t taken him down with it. Lucky and horrified that he’d let Marley take the lead. It should have been him. He should be the one at the bottom of the ravine, not her. He was tougher, stronger. She shouldn’t even be in this damn jungle to begin with.
After what felt like forever, he finally reached the bottom. Mud covered every inch of his clothes, his arms and face, even his hair. Water ran in rivulets down his cheeks, mixing with the dirt and mud to form streaks along his skin. “Marley!”
The mudslide created a fan-shaped area of sediments at the bottom of the hill. He tore off his pack and threw it on the ground, then forced his way through the hip-deep mud, searching for her, running his hands through the debris, afraid she was trapped underneath. Afr
aid she couldn’t breathe. His heart took up residence in his throat. His pulse turned to a roar in his ears.
“Marley!”
Panic spread through his chest, beneath his ribs, making it hard to get air. Water rushed down his face. Mud splashed over every inch of him as he kept searching. “Goddammit, Marley. Answer me!”
His muscles ached. His breaths grew short and labored. Time passed. He wasn’t sure how long, but every second caused his adrenaline to shoot higher, made his heart rate inch up. She had to be here. He wasn’t giving up. “Marley!”
With renewed determination, he waded through the mud, searching a new section, hoping, praying—
Voices echoed through the trees. Jake slowed his frantic searching, jerked his head in that direction, and listened.
Male voices. Several. More than several—many. Coming toward him. Speaking a language he didn’t understand.
The memory of those gunshots and the paramilitary group they’d just missed the day before ricocheted through his brain. Off to his right, another voice called, “Aki! Aki!”
He turned. Squinted to see through the foliage. A kid—no, not a kid, a native—was perched on his hands and knees, bent over, looking at something on the ground. More voices echoed through the rainforest. Jake took a step their way to get a better view. Several other natives rushed up, their bare legs and loincloth-draped bodies blocking his view. One native lifted branches and palm fronds and threw them at his back. The tallest of the bunch bent over, then hefted something into his arms.
No, not something, Jake realized, his eyes growing wide. Someone.
“Marley,” he whispered, his heart jackknifing all over again.
Her arm dropped to hang from her side. Her body was limp, her legs dangling in the air. Matted blond hair fell from her head as the native turned and headed in the other direction, but for a split second Jake saw her face. Dirty and covered in mud. Her eyes closed. Not a single muscle moving.
Jake’s pulse went stratospheric. Frantic to get to her, he waded through the mud, pulled himself out of the gunk, then drew to a sharp stop when he got a better look at the group and the multitude of weapons in their hands.
Fatal Pursuit (The Aegis Series) Page 8