Rainforest Honeymoon

by RaeAnne Thayne

  “There’s coffee in the galley,” Wallace Lambert said in the brusque voice Ren was beginning to realize was customary for him. “Come down and you can tell me what you were thinking to go off without telling me.”

  He led the way to the three or four steps leading below deck without waiting to see if she followed. Olivia gazed after him, then back at Ren.

  “Go on,” he urged. “I need to talk to Manny anyway and catch him up on our side of things.”

  She looked torn for just a moment, then she nodded and followed her father. As he watched her go, he wasn’t sure what hurt more—his head or his heart.

  CHAPTER 15

  This all felt wrong.

  She should be deliriously happy. She and Ren were both safe, James Rafferty would have to pay his karmic debt after all, she had a cup of delicious Costa Rican coffee steaming between her hands and she was on her way back to civilization.

  And, stunning shock of all shocks, her father had been worried enough about her safety to come to Costa Rica looking for her.

  She still couldn’t quite fathom that one. She wasn’t sure she would ever get over her stunned disbelief when she saw him on the deck of Rafferty’s yacht, looking down on them with worry in his stern eyes.

  She hadn’t realized what a terrible burden her fear had become until it was lifted from her shoulders. And while she was almost dizzy with relief that no one would be shooting at her again anytime soon, she couldn’t shake the conviction that things had changed drastically between her and Ren.

  He had barely looked at her since they climbed aboard the Buena Suerte. He had been distant and cool, as if the arrival of her father and Manny Solera and the conclusion of their terrifying ordeal was not at all what he wanted.

  She had no idea why he was acting like a polite stranger, but she had come a long way in the last few days and she wasn’t about to let him shut her out. Not anymore.

  They were nearing Puerto Jiménez when she finally broke away from her father’s astonishing solicitude and headed to find Ren.

  She found him on deck, leaning against the railing and gazing out to sea, still wearing the tan cargo shorts and navy golf shirt he’d borrowed from his friend’s closet in the bungalow.

  He looked darkly gorgeous, male and dangerous and very unlike any scientist she had ever imagined.

  He gave a half turn when she walked up from below deck and watched her approach, an unreadable expression on his features. She leaned against the railing and watched the sea rush past the swiftly moving yacht.

  The silence between them felt odd, constrained. They had never had trouble talking while they were running through the jungle, but now everything seemed different.

  He was the first to break it. “Your father isn’t quite the ogre I pictured.”

  “He’s not, is he? He apologized to me for the whole Bradley thing. Can you believe that? I don’t remember my father ever saying he was sorry for anything. He said he made a terrible mistake trusting him, and he was proud of me for doing the right thing and breaking the engagement.”

  “Good. That’s just what he should have said.”

  “You know, it’s strange. After all we went through, I feel like I’m seeing my entire life through a different kind of lens. As if everything I thought I knew about myself has been shaken around and put back together.”

  She lifted her face to the sea breeze. “I have spent so long feeling as if I would never measure up. My father has rigid expectations for himself and everyone around him. I was so busy feeling inadequate, I never realized he loved me despite my failings.”

  “You’re not inadequate, Olivia. I hope you realize that.”

  He didn’t call her sweetheart or baby or Liv. His formal use of her full name seemed just another stone in the wall he was building between them.

  “I do realize that now. I’m only sorry it took a traumatic few days to show me.” She paused. “I suppose you’re eager to return to your turtles. Olive Ridleys, right?”

  He seemed surprised she remembered. “Yeah. Lepi-dochelys oliveacea. I’m expecting an arribada sometime soon.”

  “That’s when thousands of females come ashore at the same time to lay their eggs, right?”

  He blinked. “Right. How did you know that?”

  “It’s amazing what you can learn on the Discovery Channel.”

  He smiled a little, though it wasn’t anything like the broad, delighted grins he’d given her at random moments over the last few days. “Arribada means arrival in Spanish. It’s an amazing thing to see. Thousands of females—sometimes hundreds of thousands—cluster offshore, waiting for more and more turtles to gather. We don’t know why they finally decide the time is right, but they suddenly start to come ashore in waves—sometimes so many, there’s no room for more nests and they start digging up others to lay their own. We think it’s a survival mechanism. A saturation effect. When they reproduce in such mass numbers, it’s impossible for predators to take all the eggs so it increases the odds that more will survive.”

  He glowed when he talked about his work and she envied his passion. “I hope your research hasn’t been compromised because you’ve been away from it for a few days.”

  “I should be okay. I might need to tweak a few things here and there, extend the data collection dates, but I can figure it out.”

  His voice drifted off and again they lapsed into awkward silence. She hated this. With a physical ache, she mourned the loss of the closeness they’d shared back at the bungalow, those incredible moments in his arms. She had no idea how to gain them back.

  “I guess you’ve had a pretty unforgettable honeymoon,” he finally said.

  “There are some things I can’t wait to forget.” She met his gaze intently. “Others, I will remember the rest of my life.”

  A muscle tightened along his jawline. After a moment, he jerked his gaze away and looked back out to sea. She would have given anything to know what he was thinking but he seemed as impenetrable as a sea stack.

  He was pushing her away and there was nothing she could do about it. She didn’t know how she could scramble back. “Ren, I…”

  Her voice broke and to her horror, her eyes filled with tears. He looked down at her for only about half a second, then he pulled her into his arms. He was solid and warm and wonderful and she wanted to stay here forever.

  “Don’t, Liv,” he murmured. “Don’t cry.”

  With effort, she choked down her tears, focusing on the hard beat of his heart beneath her cheek. This might be the last time he ever held her, and she didn’t want to ruin the moment by blubbering all over him.

  “I’m sorry,” she finally murmured. “It sounds so trite, but I have no idea how to thank you. What does a woman say to the man who saved her life a dozen times? Everything seems completely inadequate.”

  “You know what you need to do. Just go back to Texas with your dad. Patch things up with him, chase your dreams. You can do anything you put your mind to, Liv. These last few days have proven that without question.”

  She laughed raggedly, wiping away a lingering tear. “You just might be the first person in my life who’s ever believed that.”

  “Not anymore. Now there ought to be at least two of us. If anybody ever gives you cause to doubt it again, you just smile that Southern belle smile of yours and sweetly tell them you’ve faced off with a fer-de-lance, climbed a hundred-foot tree and ziplined through the jungle in pitch darkness. You can do anything you want to do and if they don’t believe it, they can just go to hell. That ought to shut ’em up.”

  She managed a tremulous smile that slipped away when he gave her a kiss on the forehead that seemed painfully like a benediction.

  “Drop me a line when you open your restaurant.”

  He stepped away and though the morning sun was already warm, she shivered at the absence of his heat.

  “Is this it, then?”

  “That’s Puerto Jiménez right there. We’ll be docking in a minute. I imagin
e we’ll have to give more formal statements to Manny, but you and your dad can be headed home in a couple of hours.”

  He spoke casually enough, but she was certain she saw shadows in his eyes. She opened her mouth to beg him not to do this, not to shut her out, but fear closed it again. She couldn’t bear the idea of laying her heart bare for him and having him reject it.

  She had endured a tremendous ordeal the last few days, but she was quite certain she wouldn’t survive that.

  * * *

  It took most of the morning to give his statement to Manny at the police station in Jiménez. He knew Olivia was doing the same in another room.

  Already, La Guardia Civil Rural had a powerful case against Rafferty. They had him cold on kidnapping charges and could probably make attempted murder charges stick if they could prove he’d fired on Olivia and Ren. Ren knew there was a chance he could try to wiggle out of those charges by saying his henchmen had acted too aggressively, but since two of those men had come forward willing to testify against him, it would be a tough sell.

  Trying him on homicide charges for the woman Ren had watched him murder wouldn’t be as easy, Manny told him, despite Ren’s eyewitness testimony. They would probably never find her body—likely fed to the gators or dropped out to sea somewhere by now—which would make a conviction difficult.

  But thanks to Ren and Olivia, they did have the identity of the man who had accompanied the woman to Suerte del Mar. If they could convince him to testify against Rafferty, justice might be within reach.

  “That should be everything,” Manny said. “But I have to tell you, the next time you decide to kidnap a tourist and drag her through the jungle, I’m afraid I cannot go as easy on you.”

  Ren mustered a smile as he stood. “There won’t be a next time, I swear. I’ll leave the tourist rescues to you from now on. I’m going back to my turtles.”

  “Smart decision. Though what you did was a good thing. It would have been a shame if Rafferty had harmed Señorita Lambert. She is a very lovely woman.”

  Inside and out, Ren thought, awash in longing to see her again.

  He should go back to Playa Hermosa now, he knew. It would be safer that way, but he couldn’t force himself to go without at least saying goodbye one more time, wishing her well on her journey home. It was the polite thing to do, he told himself.

  “Where is she?” he asked with a deceptive casualness he was quite certain didn’t fool his old friend for a moment.

  Solera’s eyes darkened with sympathy. “Probably on her way back to the States by now. I’m sorry. Her father was taking her straight from here to the airstrip. They left a few moments ago.”

  Ren let out a breath and gripped the back of his chair tightly. He shouldn’t be surprised. He had made it clear enough on deck of the Buena Suerte that there was no room in his life for her. He had urged her to go back to Texas and build a life for herself and he had no business now feeling so devastated that she’d taken his advice.

  His head throbbed where Rafferty’s goon had hit him, and his stomach felt hollowed by loss. He was miserable already and she’d only been gone a few minutes. How in the world was he going to live without her the rest of his life?

  “Do you need a ride back to Playa Hermosa?” Manny asked.

  He shrugged. “I’ll catch the colectivo to Carate in a couple hours.”

  “We can probably find a cot for you here at the station to rest until then.”

  He shook his head. Right now, the only flat surface he was interested in was the polished bar at the cantina across the street.

  Though it probably wasn’t a good idea for someone who had suffered a head injury just a few hours before, he didn’t care. By the time the colectivo left Puerto Jiménez later that afternoon, Ren planned to be completely, hopelessly, thoroughly loaded, to forget for now about being on the wagon.

  Maybe then this ache in his heart would fade.

  A half hour later, he sat at the open-air cantina in question—mostly vacant since it wasn’t quite noon—with an Imperial and a plate full of uneaten bocas in front of him.

  He had a depressingly clear view of the airstrip from here and he couldn’t seem to rip his gaze away from it. He had watched two planes come in, but so far nothing had left.

  He might still have time to catch her, if he hurried….

  It was a crazy impulse, but he still stood up at the exact same moment a small silver jet suddenly thundered down the runway and lifted into the air.

  Ren stood and watched it soar into the drizzling rain until it was out of sight, then he slumped to his seat again. The lager wasn’t hard enough, he decided. He told the barkeep to bring him a whiskey instead.

  The man poured him one of the Costa Rican distilled varieties and he was just starting to raise it to his mouth when he sensed someone standing near him.

  “I’m no doctor but do you really think whiskey’s a good idea after a possible concussion?”

  The glass froze halfway to his mouth. He knew that low, sexy drawl. Still not quite believing his ears, he turned slowly.

  Shock and joy exploded inside him, and he set down the whiskey so hard some sloshed over the side of the glass. “You left. I just watched your dad’s plane take off.”

  He couldn’t seem to stop looking at her. She’d changed out of the cotton sundress she’d borrowed from Bobbi. She was wearing another dress, this one lavender with tiny dark purple flowers and undoubtedly expensive.

  “I decided I wasn’t ready to leave yet,” she murmured, and he forgot all about what she was wearing.

  “No?” he managed.

  “Nope. There are still things I want to do here.”

  “Such as?” His voice sounded as if he’d swallowed a handful of bitter genipa berries.

  “I haven’t been to Corcovado National Park, which I’ve heard is spectacular.”

  He let out a shaky breath. “What else?”

  “Well, I haven’t seen an arribada yet. I’ve been assured by the pre-eminent turtle biologist on the Osa Peninsula that it’s a can’t-miss event.”

  “True enough.”

  She paused and gave a small smile, though he thought he saw nerves in the rich blue of her eyes. “And I haven’t yet spent an entire night in the arms of that turtle scientist, who, I should probably tell you, just happens to be the man I’m in love with.”

  Her voice trembled a little on the last few words, and she lifted her chin as if bracing for somebody to deck her.

  Ren stared, stunned into speechlessness, even as a fierce joy burned through him. He wanted to reach for her, just sweep her into his arms and drag her back to Playa Hermosa, but he knew if he touched her, he wouldn’t let her go.

  “You can’t be in love with me, Olivia,” he finally said. “We’ve only known each other a few days.”

  She shrugged. “I’ve lived at least two or three lifetimes in those few days. I don’t need more than that to know what kind of man you are.”

  He shook his head. “You don’t have any idea what kind of man I am. I’m selfish and thoughtless, completely committed to my work. Sometimes I get so busy working I forget to eat. I’m a bear to live with, Liv. You need to go back to Texas. That’s where you belong, where you’re comfortable.”

  “I’m not. I don’t belong there. I never have.”

  “You don’t even like Costa Rica!”

  “It’s growing on me. I’ve been told it’s a different place in the dry season. I’d like to find out.”

  “What about the restaurant you want to open?”

  “I’ve got this crazy idea. Tell me what you think. Why can’t I open a restaurant here on the peninsula? A nice little place on the coast that serves good, home cooked meals to tourists and locals alike?”

  He wavered for just an instant. The idea of having her here, building a life with her, planning a future, was heavenly. He had a vivid image of her bustling around a busy kitchen while he sat at a table telling her about some discovery he’d made that day
.

  He wanted that ideal to come true, with a fierce ache that stunned him.

  “You’d be miserable in a week,” he tried again. “You know you would. You’re used to an entirely different life. You said it yourself. You’re no nature girl. You can’t stay.”

  She stared at him for a long moment. He thought his words were getting through. Then she planted her hands on her hips and spoke in an exaggerated sweet magnolia kind of voice.

  “Excuse me, sir, but I won’t let you tell me what I can or can’t do. I’ve faced off against a fer-de-lance, I’ve climbed a hundred-foot tree and ziplined through the jungle in the pitch dark. I can do anything I want to do, Ren Galvez, and if you don’t believe that, you can just go to hell.”

  He heard his own words from earlier that morning bounced back at him. As he stared at this small, curvy woman, with her indomitable strength and courage, something shook loose around his heart. The last layer of carapace shattered and drifted away.

  He couldn’t live without her.

  It was as simple as that.

  He loved her, and it seemed the height of stupidity to push her away when she obviously didn’t want to go anywhere.

  “I can’t go to hell,” he said. “I’m already there, or at least I was until you walked in. My plan was to get good and drunk and maybe I could drown this pain in my chest at the thought of you leaving.”

  “I don’t want to go, Ren,” she whispered.

  He couldn’t help himself. He pulled her into his arms. Her arms slid around his neck and she sighed his name when he kissed her. He closed his eyes, overwhelmed with tenderness.

  “It ripped my insides out to say goodbye,” he admitted softly.

  She smiled against his mouth. “I love you. I know you think it’s too soon, that I don’t know you well enough, that I can’t possibly be sure of my own mind. But I do love you, Ren. You saved me in a hundred different ways.”

  His arms tightened and he kissed her again.

  “Those are all the reasons I told myself why I couldn’t possibly be in love with you,” he answered. “They make sense on an intellectual basis. A lasting kind of love takes time to develop. It can’t come from a quicksilver few days when everything was wild and intense. My head knows that. But a good scientist also knows when to throw out intellect and go with his gut. This is one of those times. I fell head over heels for you that first night when you started climbing that tree, even though you were obviously terrified of heights.”