“In the United States where my mother lives.”
“Why don’t you live there with her now?”
“Because I like the jungle and El Jaguar. He is most kind.” When the woman saw Keira’s expression change, she said, “It is not like you think. El Jaguar is my father’s friend. He thinks of me as a niece, nothing more.”
Pondering this new and startling knowledge, she almost asked Christina where El Jaguar got the money to send her to college, then thought the better of it. Perhaps El Jaguar saw himself as Robin Hood. Besides, he’d taken the fake engagement ring with every intention of using it to finance his cause. Despite the startling consideration the rebel leader had shown them, Keira felt something remained missing from the picture. She couldn’t admire a man who operated outside the law, even if he was Haan’s enemy. In his own way, El Jaguar might be no better than Haan.
“Why did El Jaguar really want to bring us to this camp, Christina?”
“Because he knows you are true of heart. He is very good at seeing into a man or woman’s heart and understanding their true purpose.”
“He reads minds?”
“Some would call it that,” Christina said, her voice clear and melodic. “When I was a child he always knew when I was lying. We look into your eyes and into Señor Spinella’s soul and we know who and what you are.”
“We?”
“My people. We are capable of extraordinary things.”
A shiver cascaded up and down Keira’s spine. The woman’s imagination must be working overtime. “Such as?”
“I cannot tell you. It is forbidden.”
“Why?”
“Our secrets must remain isolated with us. Anything else would bring death and disaster to us.”
Doubt entered Keira, but she didn’t want to be rude to her hostess. “Thank you for bringing me here. I feel much better.”
“You are more than welcome.”
Weary of the questions running full speed through her mind, Keira closed her eyes and floated again. Drifting in and out of a meditation state, she allowed the water to caress her body with a lover’s touch. As the liquid lapped at her body, she wondered what it would be like to grow up in this jungle, surrounded by nothing but nature. The peace would be profound, but loneliness more difficult. Would the isolation make a woman like Christina imagine the supernatural lurked in the rainforest and her people possessing unusual power?
She went back to floating and drifted on the water for a long time before she noticed the stunning quiet. She couldn’t hear the birds and the wind whispering through the huge trees. With a start she opened her eyes. The pile of towels and clothes lay on the rock, but Christina was nowhere in sight.
“Christina?”
Birds broke away from the trees with a shriek that made Keira jump. She swam to the edge of the pond. When she looked up, two big, booted feet stood near her clothes.
Chapter Eleven
With a gasp of surprise, Keira jerked away. With hands on his hips and cap on his head, Zane towered over her. His unshaven cheeks and chin gave him an almost piratical look.
“Come on, we need to get out of here. I passed Christina on the path and she said you wanted to stay out here for awhile. I didn’t think it was a good thing for you to be here alone, no matter what she says.” Zane’s words snapped at her rapid fire, his gaze burning like fire.
When she realized he could see her breasts, she sank into the water as far as she could. “God, you scared the crap out of me.” She looked around the banks of the pond. “I can’t believe I didn’t hear Christina leave.”
Clipped and precise, he said, “Get dressed.”
She wanted to be pissed at him, but something more primitive called to her. She would teach the hard-nosed agent a thing or two. “Not until you wash up. If I’m going to all the effort, so can you.”
He glared. “We don’t have time for this.”
With a sense of womanly clout, she stood up straight. She strode toward him, as uncaring and cool, at least on the outside.
Oh yes. She felt the power grow in her; control that said she could influence him body and soul. He’s seen her naked. He’d brought her to screaming climax and she’d given him head. They’d made love. Modesty shouldn’t come into their relationship at this point.
She half expected him to growl at her, but instead his eyes sparked with renewed interest in her as a woman.
“Like I said,” he said huskily, “we don’t have time for this.”
As her entire body exited the water, she savored the liquid flowing down her body, caressing her skin in private and not-so-private places. His jaw tightened as she walked toward him. She saw his Adam’s apple bob as he swallowed hard. Yes, I’m getting to him all right.
“What’s wrong, Zane? Feeling a little heat?”
He drew his cap off and tossed it on the big rock. “Fine, I’ll get washed up. Then we’re going.”
She tried not to blush or acknowledge in any way that his hungry perusal of her nakedness turned her on. His gaze raked her from head to toe and drank Keira in like a starving man would do with water. He then tore his attention away from her and removed his boots and socks. As he yanked off his shirt, pants and briefs, it was her turn to swallow hard. Seeing him naked in the light of day defied coherent description.
Powerful arms, wide chest sprinkled with that dark hair, narrow waist, hard stomach and a cock to…oh, my God. He stood with feet a little apart. His cock, surrounded by dark, curly pubic hair, was thick and more than ready to make love. The head was bigger than the rest, and a drop of pre-cum slicked the tip. She wanted to lean over and lick it, grasp him in her hand and suck him like a delicious hard candy. She wanted to hold that hard, thick length in her pussy and feel in moving back and forth, caressing her walls and driving her insane.
His cock looked so hard and tight he might be ready to burst. She almost offered to put him out of his misery. At the same time she liked that she’d done this to him and that she could bring Zane to a point of screaming need. Excitement, forbidden and hot, surged through her in great waves as she devoured his glorious body. Without a word she tossed the soap to him.
He came toward her and instinct made her take a step back. “You’re playing with fire, honey.” His voice held that rusted, husky quality of a man who desired with burning intensity and could barely hold back. “If you want a fuck right now, one that doesn’t mean anything but takes the edge off, I can accommodate you immediately. Otherwise, stop looking at me like that.”
Her mouth fell open in surprise, then a flash of heat coasted over her entire body. In that moment she knew that despite the pleasure making love with him this minute would give her, she needed something more than a quick fumble and the few hard thrusts that would probably get him off and leave her cold.
“That’s what I thought,” he said as he turned and walked to the water.
When he sank into the water he plunged his entire body under for a moment.
Disturbed at her own actions and ashamed at the way she’d tried to manipulate him, she dried off in a rush. She slipped into the sweats. After she dressed, she left Zane washing in the pond, and returned to camp without a word.
* * * * *
“The jungle is beautiful, you know.” Keira said as they neared Haan’s house. “Very dangerous, but interesting.”
Zane gave her one of those male grunts and kept walking. His broad back became her anchor point as they’d hiked through the dense foliage. Three hours passed since they’d left El Jaguar’s camp. Zane made her stay close to him as they hiked, not that she would have done anything else.
Maybe he was angry with her, and she couldn’t blame him. Tantalizing him like that at the pond had been foolhardy. She’d let a little pleasure in his arms—okay, earth-shattering pleasure—dictate her actions. From now on she’d keep her sexual desires in check.
Despite the surly silence Zane maintained along the trip, she enjoyed seeing the jungle she’d trekked throug
h the other day without noticing. Moments later she saw another iguana about four feet away sunning on a rock.
“Zane, look. An iguana.”
He turned around for a second as she pointed at the miniature dinosaur. “Yeah, that’s a tree chicken all right.”
“Tree chicken?”
“The locals eat iguanas sometimes. The ctenosaur is more edible, though.”
She swallowed and licked her lips. “Yuck.”
“Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it.”
She wrinkled her nose. “You’ve eaten iguana?”
“Yeah.”
“Let me guess. It tastes like chicken and that’s why they call it a tree chicken?”
He just laughed and kept going.
Happy that she’d gotten a chuckle out of him, she took one last glance at the reptile and continued onward.
Shortly after she spied some tiny tree frogs which Zane promised packed a big noise at night. At intervals she identified a woodpecker and a heron. When a salamander scrambled across her path, she jolted in surprise and barely kept back a girly scream. She realized the creature was harmless, but with the initial movement she thought it was a snake. The entire jungle seemed out to either impress her or scare the shit out of her.
A white-faced monkey screamed at them from a tree branch as she trailed behind Zane.
She grabbed his arm in reaction to the noise, and as her fingers dug into his arm, he glanced down at her. “What’s wrong?”
She immediately released her grip on is arm. “Nothing. It just startled me. I can’t believe I made it all the way through this jungle yesterday without getting killed.”
His eyes narrowed and she saw long-held suspicion in them. “Neither can I. You were wearing a skimpy dress, sandals, you had no hat, no food or water.”
She nodded. “I know.”
“Tarzan wouldn’t have liked this jungle, you know.” He gestured upward. “He wouldn’t have liked the wasps, ants, and saw-toothed edges of the canopy vegetation. He would have been bitten, stung, and cut into ribbons. And yet you made it through all this the other day on your own. You’re either the toughest damned woman I’ve ever met or you sprouted wings and flew.”
For a moment she thought he might say more, then he shook his head and moved out.
“Women have done things like this before on their own, you know,” she said.
“Yeah, but they were trained for these type of situations. You’re not.”
She left it at that, unwilling to argue with him. Fatigue threatened as the heat increased. Sweat trickled down her neck into the bandana she’d soaked with water and tied around her neck. Despite being in damned good shape, the heat made this trek never-ending. A wide-brimmed hat borrowed from Christina helped prevent sunburn.
Tired, Keira blinked away the desire to collapse right here. As the sun beat down relentlessly, she drank enough water to avoid dehydration. Then they remembered that her hat would be a dead giveaway that she’d encountered someone else in the jungle, and they pitched it under some vegetation where it wouldn’t be found.
When Haan’s house came into view, she let out a little exclamation of joy. “I never thought I’d say that about this place. All I want now is a hot bath. I’m so sticky I feel like flypaper.”
When they ventured toward the back door, Haan appeared in the conservatory as if he’d been watching for them. “Thank the heavens.” Although the man’s eyes lit up with a smile, she didn’t feel as if he meant one word of his relief. “If you hadn’t made it back soon, I was going to call the authorities.”
Just like you called the authorities the last time someone disappeared?
Haan hugged her and she smiled and acted glad to see him. “Thank you, Ludwig.”
He held her at arm’s length, his hands gripping her forearms as he looked her over. She saw the pretense of concern in his eyes. “You’ve had an adventure getting back, I see. Why did you venture out on your own yesterday? Don’t tell me you were getting pre-wedding jitters and decided it best to run away?”
She smiled weakly. “Believe me, Ludwig, if I’d wanted to run away, I wouldn’t have gone into the jungle. Something strange happened—”
Zane stepped up. “Can we talk about that part later? She needs to rest and we both need showers.”
Ludwig’s gaze sharpened, but his voice went conciliatory. “Of course. I’m just happy to see you both alive.” As they trailed Haan back into the main house, he said, “I trust this will delay the wedding one more day?”
“Yes,” she said.
“No,” Zane said.
Zane forestalled comment by slipping his arm around her and drawing her tight to his chest. The man was a fine actor; she could almost believe the desire she saw running wild and deep in his eyes. “Darling, I’m so happy to have you back, I want to marry you right away.”
She didn’t expect what he did next. He leaned down and kissed her, exploratory but gentle. The kiss couldn’t have lasted long, but it sent feverish tingles deep into her belly and lower into her pussy.
Ludwig laughed. “If you wish, then it will be done. The priest, Father Trujillo is here already. He’s waiting to meet you both. You can be married tonight.”
“Splendid,” she said, but didn’t mean it. “I’m so tired, though. I need to get some more sleep. What time do we want the wedding?”
“Whatever time you designate,” Ludwig said.
Zane’s arm tightened around her. “How about seven o’clock?”
He looked down at her for confirmation, a warning light in his eyes that begged her to cooperate.
Thinking she must be insane for agreeing, she said, “Sounds wonderful.”
She managed to trudge through the jungle twice and encountered rebels on this little adventure. Now all she needed to do was survive a wedding and a wedding night. Wedding night. That one didn’t bear thinking about too much.
Every muscle ached as they trudged upstairs, her in the lead and Zane following. Ludwig puttered along behind them like a benevolent father, ordering a maid to bring them meat, cheese, and breads on a tray.
When they reached their room and went inside, Zane locked the door and came toward her. He dumped his pack and weapon on the floor by a chair, then shrugged his shoulders as if they hurt. Over forty pounds of junk lugged around for several hours could do that to a person. She wanted nothing more than to ease his muscles with a massage, but knew she couldn’t and shouldn’t offer.
“Why do we still have this stuff?” she asked with a sigh.
“We might need it for when we leave with La Pasion.”
“When we find it how are we going to skip out of here without him knowing what’s going on?”
“It won’t be easy. We’ll need a major distraction. I’m working on that one.”
Tired and a little cranky, she rubbed the back of her neck. “You’re just now thinking about it?”
“Yeah.” His rough tone said he wouldn’t argue the point. “Why don’t you take the first shower, okay? I’m going downstairs to talk to Haan for a few moments.”
“About what?”
“To explain what happened when you went into the jungle.”
Disbelief arched through her. “You’re going to tell him the ring gave me amnesia?”
He shook his head. “No. I’m telling him that we had a fight and that you just wandered off and got lost.”
“Great, now he’s going to think I’m a total dingbat.”
He frowned. “What the hell do you care what he thinks of you?”
She rubbed her forehead, weariness coming on strong. “You’re right. It doesn’t matter. I can play the part.”
“From now on, whenever you put that ring on, I’m going to be with you. No more amnesia episodes, okay?”
“Believe me, I don’t want anything to do with that ring as it is.”
“Good. I’m also telling Haan that you and I want to spend our wedding night fucking in all the rooms in his house. He offered, so I
’m taking him up on it.”
Alarm ran through her. During her sojourn in the jungle she’d forgotten the plan to search Haan’s house with the pretense of making love in every room. More than fearing they’d get caught scouring the rooms, she feared the play acting required to accomplish it. “The kinky angle, eh?”
A smile flickered over his lips, then left as he headed for the door. “That’s right. The kinkier the better.”
Without another word, he left the room.
After she stripped off her filthy clothes, she decided a quick rinse in the shower to remove basic grime would be in order, then a soak in the tub would do her good. Her bones even felt like they throbbed. How could she get through a wedding tonight? After taking the shower, she eased into the bathtub with a groan and laid her head back. Sleep overcame her and she drifted into a warm sea.
* * * * *
Zane returned to the bedroom after his talk with Haan, his nerves strung tight. Telling the man about his eccentric fiancée’s foolish junket into the rainforest and the honeymoon plans didn’t ruffle Zane’s feathers. Hell, no. Pretending to be in love with this woman at the wedding…that alone gave him the jitters. Haan seemed thrilled that Zane wanted to visit all his rooms in the estate, and then he explained why. He told Zane that he and his last wife put sex toys in every room in case they needed them. Haan said he’d bought new items in anticipation of their visit. Then he told Zane where to find them for each room they planned to explore. Zane decided he wouldn’t tell Keira in advance. She’d freak out; he could tell she found the idea of faking lovemaking in the rooms to be distasteful.
Since they had a late night ahead of them, he hoped to sleep off the effects of their jungle walk for a few hours.
When he walked into the bedroom, he half expected to see her asleep on the bed. When there was no sign of her, a mild flashback panic set in. What if she wandered off again? She wouldn’t, would she? He’d wring her neck if—
Special Investigations Agency: Primordial Page 20