Ari! You’re here…how?
Ari felt every nuance of his emotions throughout her entire body, moving into her open heart, which was pounding in her breast. She realized she could talk to him with her mind. She didn’t need to speak to him verbally.
Rafe! Come back! Please come back. I need you…I love you! You can’t leave me now. I came back to see what we had together. Please, can’t you return so we can try to live together? Darling, I love you. I’ve come home….”
She saw his dark brown eyes lighten to that wonderful cinnamon color. Sunlight sparkled in the depths of his gaze as his mouth lifted into a dazzling smile of welcome. He looked over at the beings of light, then down at the golden line between him and them. Turning, he lifted his eyes to Ari and he laughed. It was the laugh of a man who had been given everything he could have possibly wished for.
Come here, mi flor. All I want to do is hold you. I love you. I’ve always loved you. Come here…. And he walked toward her, his arms opening.
Ari cried out his name and flung herself into his awaiting arms. The instant their bodies met and touched, a powerful, shaking bolt of what could only be described as lightning slammed through them simultaneously. Ari cried out and clung to Rafe. She felt them spinning madly around and around. She felt Rafe clutching her.
Don’t let go of him!
Inca’s growl reverberated through Ari. She clung even more tightly to Rafe as they became spinning light, like a huge, oblong cocoon of glowing energy. She felt movement, but she was unsure of direction. All she knew, all she felt, was a powerful spinning. Moments later, the light was gone and she was plunged into blackness. She could no longer see Rafe, but she could feel him gripping her hard against his entire body as they were whirled wildly into the inky depths.
Ari felt her fingers loosening behind Rafe’s back as the spinning quickened and became more powerful. She felt her arms slipping from around his torso. Crying out, she tried to retain her hold.
Hold him! Do not let him go!
Sobbing, Ari tried. She felt herself being torn away from Rafe. No! She had to struggle. She had to try and keep hold of him, for she knew if she didn’t, he would die. Having no idea how she knew that, Ari tried to focus on her heart, on her love for Rafe.
Yes! Concentrate! Empower yourself! You can do this!
Strengthened by Inca’s growling voice hurtling around in her head, Ari inched her fingers back around Rafe’s torso. There! She locked her hands behind him. The blackness was complete. She felt as if she were being swallowed up.
Then, just as suddenly, there was a jolt, as if a jet flying at Mach 3 had slammed into a steel wall. Ari gasped. Light and color splashed violently up around her. She felt herself being ripped away from Rafe. Oh, no! And then she felt herself falling…her knees buckling and her body meeting the cold linoleum of the hospital floor with a thud.
Ari groaned. Her lashes fluttered open. Where was she? What had happened? She saw Inca leaning over her, her green eyes narrowed upon her. She felt the woman warrior’s hand gently caressing the top of her head.
“You will be fine, my brave little sister.” Her lips curved and she showed her even, white teeth. Looking up, she nodded toward the bed where Rafe lay. “And thanks to you, so will he. Come, get up. You will be weak now, but you will be fine in a few hours.”
As Ari clung to Inca’s strong arm and got to her feet, she saw the stunned expression of the nurses and doctors who were standing outside the room, faces pressed to the glass. Dizzy, she put her hand to her brow.
“I felt like I just got hit by a Mack truck,” she muttered.
Chuckling deeply, Inca took her over to Rafe. “Here, hold on to the rail for a few minutes. Spread your feet and keep your knees soft. The energy will run out of you and you will feel better.”
Instantly, Ari forgot her own confusion and instability. “Rafe? How is he?”
Inca moved confidently around to the other side of the bed. She grinned. “Look at his color. You see? Life is flooding back into his face. Pick up his hand. Is it not warmer now?”
Excitement and hope threaded through Ari. Inca was right; there was a dull flush to Rafe’s cheeks as he lay there unmoving. Gripping his fingers, Ari found them warm and alive once again.
“He is returning, little sister. Look…” Inca pointed to his fluttering lashes. “Welcome him home, eh? You were responsible for him returning to us.”
Without thinking, Ari leaned over the bed and pressed her lips against his parted ones. No longer were they cool. Tenderly, she moved her mouth against his. She breathed her life into him. As he took a deep, shaking breath, she felt tears slide down her face. And when he exhaled, she drank his breath deep into her body, and into her heart.
Easing her lips away from his, she whispered, “Come back, Rafe. I’m here. So is Inca. I love you, darling. I love you with every cell of my being. Please, open your eyes. We’re here. We’re waiting for you….”
Ari had no idea where her words were coming from. All she knew was that she was speaking from her heart, her soul. Whatever had happened was a miracle, as far as she was concerned, and she realized that even more when Rafe’s dark, spiky lashes opened to reveal his cloudy brown eyes. She smiled gently down at him. “Welcome home, darling. I love you. I’ll be here with you every step of the way. You’re going to live, Rafe. Do you hear me? You’re going to live….”
“I think you’ve upset the hospital personnel by returning from the grave,” Ari told Rafe the next day. She’d remained with him throughout the last twenty-four hours, since he’d miraculously emerged from the coma. He was no longer in ICU. They had transferred him to a private room in another wing of the hospital. Rafe was sitting up, pillows behind his back, the pale blue of the cotton pajamas emphasizing his deep, golden skin, which now glowed with returning health. He was still weak, so she guided the glass of orange juice to his lips.
As she sat there helping him, her heart throbbed with such joy that she was unable to understand what had happened. She knew the healing Inca had given him was powerfully catalytic. When the doctors had rushed in shortly afterward to examine Rafe, they’d been stunned. After several more tests with the CAT scan, they’d pronounced his liver not only there, but healthy and no longer shredded or torn by the bullet that had ripped through it.
Inca had placed a kiss on Rafe’s brow as the doctors rushed in, said goodbye to Ari and then left, disappearing just as mysteriously as she had appeared. Now Ari wished Inca had remained. She had so many questions to ask her since that profound experience.
Rafe smiled weakly as she eased the glass from his lips. “This is like a dream,” he told her, his voice sounding rusty. “I dreamed of you being in the light with me. I knew I was dying. The angels on the other side told me it was my choice as to whether I came back or not….” He slid his hand into hers, her hip resting gently against his thigh as she sat beside him. “And when you held me, I felt my heart explode with such pain and joy. I thought I was having a heart attack…”
Ari sighed and slid her fingers down his darkly haired arm. “So much happened, Rafe. I’m not sure about all of it, or how to explain it….”
He rested his head against the pillows. “Inca is powerful in many mysterious ways. That is why she’s called the jaguar goddess. The people of the Jaguar Clan are all shamans and healers of varying strength and power. She is one of their most powerful.”
Chewing on her lower lip as she watched Rafe close his eyes, that tender smile lingering at the sides of his mouth, Ari wondered why she’d ever doubted her love for this man among men. Squeezing his fingers a little, she whispered, “I’m so glad she came. If she hadn’t, the doctors gave you less than forty-eight hours to live.”
Rafe felt the terror in Ari. Feeling her like this, experiencing her every emotion, was new to him, but he didn’t mind it. The healing that Inca had given him must have forged a deeper bond and connection with Ari, one that gave him privileged access to her emotional state. Sometimes
he could swear that he could read her mind, too, because he knew what she was going to say before she spoke the words out loud. Squeezing her fingers in turn, he whispered, “Now that I have a good liver, the doctors tell me that in a few days I can go home.”
“Home to your house here in Manaus,” Ari told him sternly. “Not back to your camp near the Juma Indian village.”
Hearing the fear in Ari’s voice, he opened his eyes. Right now, all he wanted to do was sleep. He knew a sick animal would curl up, unmoving, and sleep for days. Sleep was the great healer. But before he did, he wanted to reassure Ari. He saw the worry banked in her glorious, light blue eyes. She looked beautiful in her purple floral skirt, alive with pale yellow daisies, pink carnations and deep blue hibiscus. The purple short-sleeved, seed-stitched rayon sweater that she wore with it only emphasized her beauty even more. Love for her swelled through his chest.
“Mi flor, we will go to my casa, my home, here in Manaus. Don’t frown, my love. Right now, it’s a time of healing, of celebration, because we’re together once again.” Closing his eyes, Rafe felt himself being pulled into a very deep, healing sleep. The fact that Ari was here, had spoken of her love for him, was all Rafe needed. The future was uncertain in some ways. He wanted only the peace and quiet that his home—which stood on the edge of Manaus with the walls of the jungle surrounding it—could provide. He saw his home as their castle where they could finally be alone and in complete privacy with one another. Rafe eagerly looked forward to that day. It couldn’t come soon enough….
Chapter Twelve
Rafe wandered across the red tile patio that adjoined his house, which stood next to the green wall of the rain forest. It was fall now, March, and he could see the change in the birds that were on their migratory travels northward, where spring was just about to occur. Hesitating midway across the wide expanse, Rafe stopped and observed Ari.
She sat at the wooden picnic table where she always drew her orchids since coming to live and take care of him in the aftermath of his gunshot wound. Several bright ceramic containers in front of her held the rainbow array of pencils. She sat looking out upon the rolling green lawn and the rain forest beyond. Sunlight slanted in beneath the protective Spanish tile roof, the rays touching her hair, which hung in golden strands around her shoulders as she worked.
This morning was warmer than usual. A sluggish, humid breeze moved slowly across the open patio. He smiled a little as he watched her work with confidence. How much Ari had changed in the eleven months he’d known her. There had been a shift of balance and energy between them since his wounding. Ari moved with new certainty and confidence, and she had nursed him back to full health. No small thanks to Inca, either, who had come once a month to lay her hands on his healing liver, too. Just yesterday, the doctors had given him a clean bill of health. They said it was a miracle he was alive, and that his liver was fully functioning now—as if he’d never been injured in the first place. Rafe had grinned knowingly into their confused faces. For years, he’d seen the power of the Jaguar Clan at work on his people, the Indians of Amazonia. Little did he know that he would need their services, too. He had much to thank Inca for.
Gazing around, he eyed the large wooden trellises on either side of the patio, each covered with a profusion of climbing flowers. Bougainvillea was thorny, but gorgeous. The white, vibrant violet and fuschia colors were like splashes of paint from a master’s brush. He watched with joy as a great egret landed on the lawn to look for frogs that weren’t already hibernating for the coming winter season. He saw Ari stop her work, lay down her pencils and simply take time to watch the tall, graceful white bird walk across the recently mowed lawn.
Rafe didn’t want to spoil the moment. He clasped the small, dark green velvet box in his left hand, feeling fear. Anticipation. Hope. Anxiety. What would Ari say to his proposal? Was it too soon? In his country, a woman was courted for at least a year, and then a man could ask for her hand in marriage. Would Ari say yes? Rafe was uncertain. She seemed happy with him here in Manaus. The rift with her father had been healed to a great extent. Ben Worthington had flown down for a visit a month ago. Luckily, Rafe had gotten along well with him. Ari’s father had looked him over closely, as if evaluating whether or not his daughter deserved better than him. In the end, Ben gave them his blessing, much to Ari’s relief.
Frowning, Rafe stood and watched Ari’s changing expressions as she enjoyed the visit of the white heron. When Worthington found out that Ari had her own bedroom, and that nothing was going on between her and Rafe, he’d lost a lot of his anger and aggressiveness. One day after Ben was unduly harsh with Ari, Rafe had taken him aside and told him that if he couldn’t treat his daughter with the respect she deserved, he could leave the country now. At that moment, Ben Worthington changed his attitude toward Rafe. Ben was a man who respected power, and when Rafe challenged him one-on-one, man-to-man, Worthington’s esteem for him rose. Ben demanded to know his intentions toward his daughter. Rafe told him he was going to ask for her hand in marriage as soon as he felt the moment was right. When Rafe asked if Ben had a problem with that, Worthington had sputtered, his face turning a dull shade of red. He’d said that he didn’t particularly like the idea of his daughter living in the rain forest. He didn’t want to see her put in danger as Rafe had been when he was shot and nearly killed in the line of duty.
Rafe smiled slightly now as the egret walked on yellow stilt-like legs toward the red tile path that led up to the porch. He saw the quiet happiness on Ari’s rapt features as she watched the proud bird move with dignity and grace. As he gazed at Ari, his mind drifted back to the confrontation with Worthington. Ben had challenged him about what he would do to keep Ari safe if she decided to marry him and live in Brazil. Rafe had been thinking a lot about that on his own and he discussed some ideas he had with the man. If the cocaine factories of the valleys to the north of his camp could be destroyed, and the Valentino Brothers put out of business, the bulk of the murdering and kidnapping in his region would end.
Worthington gave him a wolf smile over his statement and told him that a top-secret project, which had been years in the planning, was about to occur. The Brazilian government was going to team up with the U.S. and go after the very cocaine factories Rafe spoke about. Worthington, in his position in the Pentagon, had supported this eradication mission from the start. The fact that he didn’t want his only remaining daughter out in the rain forest hunting for orchids one day, only to be snatched away by drug lords and placed into chains to work in a cocaine factory, made him even more supportive of the plan to go forward. Rafe was shocked by the news, but grateful, for it answered his concerns for Ari’s safety. Worthington said that the selection of people to work with the Brazilian government was occurring as he spoke.
Knowing that, Rafe promised Ari’s father he would not take her to his encampment near the Juma village until the joint mission had been launched and was successful. He would go down five days a week and return home to Manaus—and her—on weekends, until the balance of power in the basin was changed with military might. Ben had said that was reasonable. He’d shaken Rafe’s hand and said that he’d come down to Manaus with a lot of prejudice toward Rafe, but after meeting him, he could see the possibility of Ari marrying him.
Having Worthington’s blessing helped, Rafe thought, feeling somewhat more at ease about the proposal he was about to make. He watched as the egret suddenly spread her three-foot wings and lifted off the grassy lawn, obviously startled by Rafe’s approach.
“I think he saw me coming,” he called to Ari, so he didn’t frighten her as well.
“Rafe!” Ari twisted around. “Where have you been?”
He smiled tenderly and sat beside her. “Busy,” he told her enigmatically, holding the jewelry box between his hands. “How is the drawing going?” He gazed at the pure white orchid with a purple spotted lip that she had sitting on the table in front of her.
“Fine.” Ari brushed some tendrils of hair away fro
m her cheek as the sluggish breeze moved through the patio. They had shared lunch out here two hours ago. Usually Rafe puttered around in the small garden nearby pulling weeds, or he sometimes took a walk into the rain forest to simply commune with nature. She reached out and touched his shaved jaw. “So, what have you been up to? You look like the cat that caught the canary.”
He looked down at his hands. “I can’t fool you, can I, mi flor?”
Ari slid her arm across his shoulders and leaned against his tall, strong frame. “Not often,” she admitted. “What are you hiding in your hands?”
His heart raced a little to underscore the sudden anxiety he felt as her fingertips brushed his closed hands. Turning to her, he slid his left arm around her, their knees touching. “A gift for you, Ari. At least, I hope you see it as a gift….”
As Rafe met and held her gaze, Ari saw such tenderness burning in the depths of his cinnamon-colored eyes that her breath hitched momentarily. She saw the nervousness in the line of his full, strong mouth, in the perspiration dotting his brow.
“A gift?” she whispered excitedly. “But you’ve given me so many already, Rafe!”
That was true. He showered her with small gifts. Oh, they didn’t cost money, because on his salary he could not buy her expensive things. No, he looked for ways, daily, to tell her of his love for her. Sometimes it was a new orchid that he would receive from one of the tug captains who plied the Amazon River. Other times, he would cut flowers from the garden, put them in a vase in her bedroom and wait for her to discover them. Some days, he would make her favorite breakfast, quiche with spinach and bacon. Or her favorite dessert, butterscotch pudding.
“You are a gift to me,” he told her in a low, serious tone. He watched her eyes widen beautifully and her pink lips part. “And I was thinking, while standing and watching you and the egret, of how much of a miracle you are in my life, Ari. How much—” he swept his hand toward his humble house “—the past three months have meant to me.” He sobered and looked down at her. “I hope they have been happy months for you as they have for me.”
Man of Passion Page 17