“True. We can stop here, and I can look for something to eat. There’s water nearby; I can hear it. Hopefully, it’s drinkable.”
“We don’t need to forage for food right now. I have some fruit from this morning, and I have meal replacement bars.”
“You do?”
“Of course. I knew that we would probably end up in the jungle, or I would end up in the jungle at some point, and I wanted to be prepared. I even have these cool little bug repellent wipes that dissolve when they touch water so that waste isn’t a concern.”
“All that is in your bag?”
“Yep.”
“Wow. That’s pretty impressive.”
“Thanks. I like to be prepared.”
“We can stop by the water and have a break and some food, then we’ll keep going.”
“Sounds good,” she said.
She followed him to the source of the sound, surprised when they broke through the trees and found themselves at the top of a small waterfall. Tara was struck by the beauty of this place, and for what seemed like the millionth time, she wished that she were here under different circumstances.
They climbed down the rocks beside the waterfall. Luis went first, but he didn’t offer Tara help. More than anything he had said to her at this point, his silence was the most flattering. It proved that he knew she could handle anything and that she would ask for help if and when she needed it, and she didn’t need a man to take care of her. Tara had spent her life proving to others that she was a strong, independent woman, and it was nice to know that Luis didn’t even need a reminder. His assumption that she had things under control said more about his level of respect for her than anything else he could have said.
She followed a similar path down the side of the cliff face, using the handholds he did and taking her time. The ground wasn’t far below her and falling wouldn’t kill her, but the rush of free climbing was still there. The rushing waterfall just inches away and the constant sounds of the wild surrounding them added to the feeling of freedom she got as she worked her way down.
Her feet touched the ground far too soon, and Tara went to where Luis was sitting on a large boulder, his bare feet dangling in the water, jeans rolled up, and shoes a short distance away. She sat down beside him, removing her own shoes and rolling her long khaki shorts up so that the water didn’t get on them.
The water was crisp and cool, rushing over her legs and working the soreness out of them. She put her backpack beside herself and pulled out all the fruit that was left.
“If you’re still hungry after this, I have those bars, but we should probably finish these off first.”
He grabbed what he wanted, leaving about half of the fruit for her and digging in. They took their meal in easy silence, with Luis occasionally pointing out an animal in the trees or on the ground not far from the water’s edge on the other side of the river.
“This place is amazing,” she said, finishing off the last of the fruit and washing her hands in the water. She scooped some water in her hands and washed her face and her bare arms, then stood and rummaged around in her backpack.
Luis watched her with interest, though he didn’t ask her what she was doing. She found the water pouch and went to the water fall to fill it, then screwed on the purifier and turned the bag upside down like the instructions said to. She laid it against the rocks and then went back to where Luis was sitting.
“I have to ask, what are you doing?”
“The pouch makes water safe to drink. It takes half an hour.”
He nodded.
“That will be useful plenty of places, but you don’t need that here.”
“Why not?”
“I’ll show you a trick. This is white water, and it’s running pretty fast. Fast running water is usually safe, but here, there are other things that can get into the water and make you sick.” He stood, looking around the bank beyond the rocks and scooping up a handful of sand. He went to the water’s edge, finding a place where the shore created a small pocket of slower water and motioning Tara over to watch. “When you drop the sand in the water, if it floats, you need to use that purifier. But if it sinks,” he tossed the sand in and watched it sink quickly to the bottom, “like that, then the water is safe to drink. You can drink it right out of the river.”
“That’s good to know.”
“There are a lot of jungle tricks we use to survive. As we come across them, I will teach you.”
“I appreciate that, though I don’t know that I’ll ever be in the jungle again after this.”
“If something happens to me, I need to know that you will be alright.”
She looked up at him, but his expression was unreadable.
“Are you planning on leaving me alone in the jungle?”
“Not planning on it, but things happen.”
“Well, nothing is going to happen to you,” she said quickly. “So don’t think about that. We have a mission, and we’ll make it through.”
She dug through her bag some more, pulling out a small bottle of pills and throwing her head back to take one, chasing it with a handful of water.”
“What is that?” Luis asked.
“It’s for my joints. I had a problem with them when I was a teen; they would get stiff and cause me some pain. I’ve been taking this since then, and I haven’t had any problems.” She felt suddenly self-conscious, wishing that she had waited to take the pill when he wasn’t looking, so she decided to change the subject. “Do you have any idea how much further we have to go until we get to the research facility?”
“We’re more than halfway there.”
“I thought you said it was two days.”
“It’s really a little over one. I didn’t know if you could keep up with me on foot, but you’re faster than I expected.”
“I hike a lot. This is rough, but it’s not like I sit around watching television all day. I’m pretty active.”
“I see that. The sun will be setting soon, so we can find somewhere to bed down for the night, or you can let me shift and ride.”
She sighed.
“I’m not a fan,” she admitted. “I feel like I’m going to fall off the entire time.”
“It’s not bad on the ground, I promise.”
“If I try it and don’t like it, can we stop for the night?”
“Of course.”
“Okay. I’ll do it then.”
“Alright. Let me rearrange the bags a little to make it more comfortable for you to wear them both and then I’ll shift.”
“Sounds good. Can I help?”
“I think I have it. Get something to drink and make sure you’ve had enough to eat. I think that I can actually combine the two since the fruit is out of your bag and we both packed light.”
She nodded, walking along the banks a short distance and crouching down beside the water to scoop some into her hands to drink. She drank her fill, peeking over her shoulder now and then to watch him as he worked. He had stripped down, putting his clothes neatly into the main compartment of her bag and rearranging things so he could roll up his empty bag and stick it into hers. She admired his naked body as he worked, amazed at how confident this man was in his own skin.
She didn’t blame him. He was absolute perfection, with shapely muscles and smooth, bronze skin. His black hair was kept shorter than many of the jungle shifters, and he had a habit of running his fingers through the thick strands when he was thinking. Tara’s heart clenched when she thought about what tomorrow would bring. How quickly would things go down when she got the information for Andrew that he needed? She had said a week, but she didn’t think it would take nearly that long. Truth be told, once the information was downloading, Tara was pretty certain that other agents waiting at the ready would descend upon this place a few hours after they got the information uploaded, and it would be over so quickly that Tara’s head would still be spinning on the plane ride home.
And she wouldn’t see Luis again.
&nbs
p; It was obvious to her that he was happy here. He thrived in the wilderness, so in tune with the wild that he was one with the jungle, and there was no doubt that the city life she led would crush him. And while Tara enjoyed the jungle, there was no way that she could actually live here. She loved her life, and while she didn’t love her job, she was happy with her life, and she wouldn’t give that up for anything—even love.
The last thought startled her out of her revery. Love? What was she thinking? She had just met this man. Sure, the sex had been beyond fantastic, but that wasn’t what made love. It was lust at best, and some friendship, because as she got to know Luis more and more, she was certain that he was someone that she would be close friends with.
No, she decided. She was leaving when this was over, and she was going to have to move on. Luis was happy here, and he hadn’t given her any indication that he felt anything beyond lust and quiet camaraderie with her. It was pointless for her to pine over thoughts of what they had lost when they really had nothing. It was sex, plain and simple. The sooner Tara could accept that, the easier walking away from him would be.
“I wish I knew where you went when you went inside your head like that,” he said, not far from where she sat even though he had been several yards away moments before. She hadn’t even noticed him come up to her. “I’m ready now. The pack is heavy, but if you let me help you put it on, then I can place it so the bulk of the weight will rest on my back while you’re riding. If you get tired or want to stop, just poke my shoulder a few times, and I’ll stop right away.”
“Got it,” she said, not bothering to share her inner dialogue with him even though he had asked.
She’d been very open about no-strings sex with him the night before. The fact that her feelings were changing wasn’t his fault, and there was no reason to make him feel bad about it. She knew getting into this that they wouldn’t have much time. It was her fault for letting her heart betray her like it was. It was a crush and nothing more. She would survive.
She stood patiently while Luis put the bag on her, adjusting it, then asking her to sit on the nearby boulder so that he could make sure it was just right. When it was perfectly placed, he crouched down so that he was eye level with her.
“I don’t know what you were thinking about a little bit ago, but I wish I could make everything right in your world. You have a beautiful heart, Tara. I want you to be happy.”
He leaned in and kissed her, the absolute last thing he should have done. She started to pull away, but she couldn’t force herself to. As much as she wanted to avoid intimate contact with him so that she could shield her heart, her body wasn’t going to push him away when his lips were so soft on hers. His strong hands cupped her cheeks, and he kissed her so tenderly that she felt her heart breaking into a million pieces. Life wasn’t fair, and she was living the perfect example of that. Somehow, she had fallen in love with Luis despite her best intentions, and come next week, she was pretty sure she would be back home, nursing a broken heart and trying to convince herself that the life that had once made her happy was good enough.
He pulled away and searched her eyes.
“Are you ready?” he asked.
“As ready as I’ll ever be. Let’s get going.”
“Alright. I’ll shift and you can climb on. Hold on tight. I want to cover as much ground as possible.”
“I’ve got it,” she said, her tone a little snippy. “Let’s just go and get this done.”
CHAPTER TEN
Tara’s legs were sore, her feet asleep from dangling for so long, when Luis finally stopped at a large river. It was dark and had been for a while, but his hazel eyes caught the pale light of the moon when he looked at her and then to a stand of trees by the river.
“Up a tree again?” she groaned. “Fine. But we need to stop soon. I don’t know how much more I have in me, and I’m starving.”
He blinked his understanding, then made his way to the tree. He sat back on his haunches, waiting for Tara to get into position and hold on tight, then he launched himself into the air, eating up the first ten feet in one leap. He climbed up the tree quickly, reaching the lowest limb after more than twenty feet of vertical climbing. Tara was holding her breath up until that point, eyes squeezed shut, arms locked around his neck.
She opened her eyes then, staring across the darkness, the branches illuminated by the light of the full moon that peeked through the branches.
“Um, these branches don’t touch the ones across the river.” Luis didn’t give the slightest indication that he had heard her. “Luis, that’s too far. There has to be another way.”
Before she could convince him to let her climb down off his back or look up higher for branches that extended further across the river, Luis was off, running fast along the large, flat branch.
No, no, no, Tara thought frantically, but she knew that it was pointless to voice her fears. The end of the branch was barreling toward them, and she could hold on or she could fall twenty or thirty feet into the water and hope that it broke her fall.
She leaned forward and grabbed his neck, heart in her throat, terror making everything feel like it was in slow motion. She couldn’t do this. He wasn’t going to make it, and they were going to fall into the water and plummet to their death. She just knew it.
When his front feet left the ground and she felt him lurch forward, she closed her eyes even tighter and prepared herself for the worst.
There was that moment where she could feel the weightlessness that came from sailing through the air, that instant where he was completely air bound above the river, and if it were an old fashioned cartoon, they would drop like a rock straight from that point and into the river below. But it was real life, and they were already completing the arc of his jump, and in a mere second, Tara would know if they were going to live or die.
His feet hit the end of the thick part of the branch and a wave of nausea ran through Tara when the branch bent under his weight and then sprung back up as he continued his run along the new branch. He stopped when he was closer to the trunk of the tree, giving Tara a moment to collect herself.
“I’m fine,” she gritted out, “let’s just get out of this tree.”
When he lowered himself down, she looked at the branch beneath them, noting the endless branches that met at the tree’s trunk and wove themselves together to make a sort of platform where Luis had stopped.
“Am I getting off?” she asked, and he blinked. “Okay, but I don’t know what we’re even doing here.”
She slid off his back, her feet firm on the web of branches, but she still backed up until her back was against the tree. She slid down until she was sitting, watching as Luis shifted back to a human right there in front of her.
“I wish you could read my projected thoughts like other shifters can. It’s a lot of work just to shift to explain something.”
“Sorry. I’ll work on that,” she said wryly.
“I’m sure you will. We’re staying here tonight. It’s nearly midnight. The scientists change shifts at six, before the sun rises. While they’re changing shifts is the best time to gain access.”
“That makes sense; the men leaving will be dead on their feet and the ones showing up are still having their morning coffee.”
“That’s right. We’re only a mile away, maybe less. We’ll rest and we’ll head out at five.”
“So, we’re sleeping in a tree?”
“Yes. It’s the safest. There are too many wild animals about on the ground, and there is a possibility of armed guards from the research facility.”
“Luis, I can’t sleep in a tree. I’ll fall out.”
“I won’t let you fall. I’ll hold you close and you’ll be fine.”
“I don’t think I can.”
“Of course you can. This is nothing compared to everything you’ve lived through.”
She took a deep breath, trying to muster up her courage, but she wasn’t feeling it. She was terrified of heights, and she
sometimes walked in her sleep. It was a deadly combination.
“Look, Tara. I’m going to shift, and if you’ll lay with me and let me protect you, you’ll be fine.”
“Promise?”
“Of course I promise. I told Andrew that I wouldn’t let anything happen to you. I meant it.”
“Okay,” she said after a long pause. “I guess at this point, it’s really just one more thing to add to the list of crazy stuff I’ve done in the last two days.”
Luis smiled at her.
“You’re so much more than I thought you were going to be when I met you.”
“More what?”
“Everything.”
He was still smiling, sitting beside her on the tree, his hand on her leg. A thought flashed through her head, a vision of herself straddling him in this tree and taking her pleasure from him with no apologies and no regrets. The thought passed as quickly as it came, and she almost laughed it off. Who was she kidding? She was exhausted and her legs were screaming after riding astride him for hours. And they had a very short window to rest before the real action began and she couldn’t afford to be sluggish from exhaustion. It could cost Tara her life.
“That smile,” he said, breaking her out of her daydream. “I would give anything to get inside that head of yours.”
“I’m sure you would. Don’t worry, it was just a visceral response to you being naked most of the day.”
He laughed.
“I get that a lot,” he joked.
“Trust me,” she said, “I don’t doubt it. But we need to get ready for tomorrow, and I’m exhausted.”
He turned to her, pulling her onto his lap and wrapping his arms around her.
“Perhaps we can save it for a victory celebration when we free the oppressed and bring down the tyrant.”
She giggled, winding her arms around his neck and giving him a quick kiss.
“You say that like we’re toppling the tyrannical government of a sovereign nation. This is big, but it’s not that big.”
“It is to us,” he said sincerely. “This island is our whole world, and being free is everything.”
Her Undercover Panther : A Paranormal Shapeshifter Romance Page 9