Deadly Race

by Margaret Daley

  He didn’t say a word while he placed his fruit on the ground, then touched her lips where her tongue had been a few seconds before. His heavy-lidded gaze searched her face while his thumb continued to trace the outline of her mouth. She wanted to dissolve into his arms, her body weak from his probing attention.

  He broke off a chunk of coconut and offered it to her. When she seized the meat between her teeth, his taste mingled with the favor of the coconut, making a unique feast for her. While she ate the piece, his hands framed her face, delving into the silver-blonde strands to cradle her head in his hold.

  “I’m getting more pleasure out of seeing you eat than eating my own. More?” His husky words filled the small space between them with a savory promise that had nothing to do with food.

  She nodded, totally unable to do anything for herself but remain where she was, with him kneeling in front of her.

  He fed her another piece. As he watched her chew then swallow the coconut, one hand slid down to embrace her neck, his thumb on her pulse beat at the base of her throat. He tugged her toward him and this time it was his mouth that touched hers as he slanted it across hers. Again she savored the taste of him and the coconut.

  A roar punctured the night and Ellie pulled back, her eyes wide, her mouth slightly open. She scanned the area about them while Slade straightened to his feet, the hammer in one hand, the screwdriver in the other. Another roar sounded, followed by a monkey’s scream. Then an unusual silence descended.

  For a few more seconds Ellie held her body rigid, then she slumped forward, what energy she had gone. “The survival of the fittest, I suppose.”

  “That’s the law of the jungle. Eat or be eaten.”

  Her hands trembled as she picked up her coconut and began to eat some more, careful not to look at Slade. “Is that what’s going to happen to us?”

  “Not if I can help it.”

  The vehement tone of his voice made her glance up at him. His expression was like an immovable rock, his eyes a dark, smoky green. She knew that if anyone could get them out alive it would be Slade. Where had he learned to be so ruthless, so hard? On the streets of Boston? In the boardroom? There was so much she didn’t know about the man who held her life in his hands.

  “Finish, Ellie. You need your rest. I’ll stand guard first.”

  “You will wake me, won’t you? I want to do my part.”

  “Sure. I need my beauty rest, too.” He turned away from her to tend to the fire, adding a few more pieces of wood.

  She grabbed his arm and immediately regretted touching him. As soon as she pulled him around to face her, she dropped her hand away. “Promise me. I will carry my own weight around here. No heroics.”

  “Am I that transparent?”

  “No, but it seemed the male thing to do.”

  “Actually, that had nothing to do with it. I can function well on only a few hours of sleep. Normally, I only require four or five hours and have often gone days with less.”

  “I tried to once because I had decided it was a waste to sleep a third of your life away. Boy, was that a mistake! I was on a job and fell asleep at the wrong time. I had just started being a governess and had a lot to prove. To say the least, the people I was working for weren’t won over to my side.”

  “But you won them over in the end?”

  “Yes, I was determined to and I did.” She took one of the blankets and wrapped up in it on the ground near the fire. She looked across the blaze at him. “Good night, Slade. Wake me in a few hours.”

  “Of course. I wouldn’t want to face your wrath tomorrow morning.”

  His smile was definitely doing a supreme job of undermining her resolve to keep their relationship as businesslike as possible. She went to sleep with that smile imprinted on the screen of her mind, while he sat a few feet from her watching her sleep.

  His thoughts were troubling and confusing. The woman across from him was unfolding before his eyes. His initial impression of Ellie Winters had been all wrong. At first glance he had believed her to be a woman who was all tinsel and no substance. This woman, stripped of her tinsel, surprisingly had a great deal of substance, in a crazy sort of way, and she was vulnerable, a vulnerability that had nothing to do with the situation they were in. He usually didn’t allow himself to get this close to a woman, and that was what was troubling him. He had perfected how to hold himself apart in a crowd of people. But for some reason it wasn’t working in this predicament.

  * * *

  In her sleep Ellie brushed the first drop of rain absently away from her face. When the second, immediately followed by a third one fell on her, her eyes bolted opened. Through the trees overhead she heard the steady downpour and felt the rain quickly filter down to her below.

  Slade snatched up the other blanket and scooted over to her, placing the inadequate cloth protection over their heads. “Maybe it won’t last long.”

  Under the shelter of the blanket, she slanted a look at him and laughed. “We should have expected this. After all, this is a rain forest.”

  “And nothing should surprise us after the past two days?”

  “Right.”

  Their breaths mingled in the small space under the blanket; their gazes locked in the dim light of the dying fire. Slowly their mouths met in a searching kiss. It didn’t matter to Ellie that the world around her was fast becoming drenched. Nothing mattered but the feel of his lips touching hers, the closeness of their blanket shelter.

  Again she felt her self-control eroding away, like a riverbank during a flood. She felt inundated. What was she doing? she asked herself, alarmed at her matching ardor. Everything she did, she had vowed she wouldn’t do. She pushed away, berating herself for not resisting sooner.

  Thankfully, as quickly as the rain had started it stopped. She moved out from under the blanket and tried to rebuild the fire. Her hands, however, were shaking so much she was having a hard time holding the matches.

  “Here, let me,” Slade said, taking the book of matches from her.

  But everything was so wet it was useless trying to restart the fire. The night darkness inched in on Ellie and enclosed her in a menacing world of blackness. Reluctantly she found herself again huddling against Slade for companionship, with a vague feeling of safety in numbers. But every sound vibrated down her spine and left her stiffer and feeling more vulnerable. The howl of a monkey nearby pierced the air and brought Ellie to her feet. Slade placed a hand on her arm and gently tugged on it. She sat back down, but her body was like a piece of board.

  “How many more hours till dawn?” she asked, partly to hear her own voice, partly to take her mind off what she imagined lurked out beyond the wall of darkness surrounding them.

  “Not long.” He slipped his arm about her and drew her next to him. “Everything will look better in the morning.”

  “Did I ever tell you about the time I went to the old haunted house in the town where my grandmother lived?”

  “No, but are you sure this is the time to tell ghost stories?”

  She heard the humor in his voice and smiled, comforted by it. “But that’s just it. It isn’t a ghost story. The house wasn’t haunted, just very rundown. To discourage kids from snooping around, the owners had made up this story of two ghosts that lived there. It was said someone was murdered in the house, which I believe was true, and the owners used that as the basis of their story.”

  “Why didn’t they just tear it down?”

  “It was tied up in some lawsuit and nothing could be done. Of course, now it has been torn down, but back then it was like a magnet to the kids in the town. The owners only increased our interest in the house. Obviously they didn’t have children of their own. That summer we were constantly daring each other to see who would be the first one to spend time in the house. Up until I came along no one got past the front door.”

  “Well, don’t keep me in suspense. Why did you go past the front door?” He rubbed his hand up and down her arm as though to warm her. The mo
vement brought her even closer to him.

  “Because Billy said he would give me the pick of his dog’s litter if I would. And I wanted a puppy so badly I would have done anything to get one. I already had a name picked out, so I had to go through with the challenge.”

  “How long did you stay in there?”

  “All night.”

  “All night! Didn’t anyone wonder where you were?”

  Ellie could tell he was staring at her in the dark. She felt his hot breath on the side of her cheek. “The whole town.”

  “No one knew you were at the house?”

  “Billy did. But he was so sure a ghost had gotten me he was too scared to ‘fess up he had dared me to go to the house.”

  “Why did you stay the whole night?”

  “I fell through a floor and was knocked unconscious. When I came to, Billy was gone and I was trapped in the basement. Billy finally told his parents early the next morning when he heard there had been search parties out all night looking for me. Poor Billy. He never talked to me after that. I never got a puppy from him either. But the rest of the kids couldn’t believe I had spent the night in the haunted house. I was a hero for about fifteen minutes, until my grandmother grounded me for the rest of the summer.” She lowered her voice and leaned even closer to Slade. “I never did tell the kids the house wasn’t haunted.”

  “I see even as a child you were developing a talent for getting yourself into messes.”

  “And you were the perfect child, I suppose?”

  “Yes, I had to be.” There was a sharp edge to his words.

  “Why do you say that? All kids have their moments.”

  “After my parents were killed, I was moved from one relative to another until Aunt Flora finally took me in.”

  “Your parents were killed?” She could tell by the tension conveyed in his body that this wasn’t a subject he wanted to discuss.

  “They were missionaries in Africa and they were murdered. After I saw them being killed, I had to flee into the jungle to stay alive. The authorities found me six weeks later.”

  “So that’s why you know so much about jungle survival.”

  “I didn’t have a choice. It was either that or die. That’s why, Ellie, I know we’re going to make it. I’ve done this before. I don’t take losing very well.”

  She noticed the first rays of dawn filtering down through the trees, but she didn’t want to move. She was fascinated and intrigued by Slade Calvert. They had spent the past hour talking, and she hadn’t thought once about their precarious situation or the night creatures out beyond the darkness.

  He looked up into the trees and reluctantly said, “We’d better pack our things and get ready to leave. Tonight I want to stop early enough to build a makeshift shelter for us. I don’t want a repeat of last night.”

  “You didn’t get any sleep.”

  He smiled, touching her chin with his finger and lifting her face toward his. “Don’t worry about me. I’ve spent many nights stuck in an airport and believe me, they aren’t made for sleeping.”

  He rubbed his thumb back and forth under her chin, and she had a hard time thinking straight, let alone saying anything. In the dim light of dawn she could see his eyes fire, his nostrils flare as he inhaled deeply, telegraphing his desire. Her throat closed while her heartbeat accelerated to double time.

  She closed her eyes and tried to retain a thread of cool logic. But it was Slade who abruptly moved away, standing and thrusting the tools into his duffel bag.

  She took a moment to gain control of her emotions, then she, too, was busy getting ready to leave, vowing for what seemed the hundredth time that she would have to stay away from Slade Calvert. But even as she lectured herself, she knew in her heart she was going to ignore her common sense and do something totally foolhardy and emotionally dangerous--lose her heart to him.

  * * *

  Ellie stopped at the edge of the small clearing that was surrounded by tall trees and dense foliage, cutting the place off from the rest of the world like a slice of paradise in the midst of chaos. Sunlight and dark shadows were patterned on the jungle floor, casting the area in eeriness. Flowers and vines draped the trees in multi-colors.

  “I hope this means recess time,” she said to Slade’s back as she surveyed in wariness what she knew would be their campsite. This small bit of paradise was much too seductive and beautiful.

  He swung around, dropping the duffel bag to the ground at his feet. “Don’t you think this place is perfect for a campsite?”

  Yes, indeed, it was perfect—perfect for her to let down her guard, perfect for her to surrender finally to the side of her that responded to his every nuance. “Well, there could be a few more flowers and lush greenery. And of course, let’s not forget the apple and serpent to complete the picture. Otherwise, perfect.”

  The slow uplifting of the corners of his mouth attested to his innate ability to read her mind. He knew she was uncomfortable about the beauty and serenity of the clearing, about the fact they were probably the only two people for miles around.

  “After disagreeing with me all day, Ellie, I just knew we could find common ground for agreement.”

  “I disagreed with you? I disagree on that, sir. It was you. I was perfectly agreeable.”

  “Oh, you were?” He folded his arms across his chest, one brow arched in mockery.

  “Okay, maybe once I—”

  “Once. Let’s see.” He held up his hand and began to count off the number of times they had disagreed. “First, there was the time when we started out that you wanted to go away from the river and I wanted to follow it. Then when I found that turtle I wanted to kill it for food, which we sorely need by the way, but no-o-o. You vowed you would get sick, so I left a perfectly good meal behind. And let’s not forget when you—”

  “Okay, you made your point. I’m still glad you didn’t kill that turtle, though. We didn’t have time to eat it then and it was too big to carry along. You may be in good shape, but you’re no he-man.”

  He clutched his hand to his heart. “My male ego is wounded.”

  “After your stubborn stance today, I’m surprise anything gets to you.”

  “Ah, so your female ego is wounded because I wouldn’t listen to you. I still think it was a good idea we followed the river and stream this far.”

  “And got eaten by mosquitoes.”

  “The mud helped to protect you.”

  “The first thing I’m going to do when we get out of this mess is take a bath until my skin looks like a dried prune, then I’m going to have a manicure and a pedicure. I feel so dirty and unkempt.”

  “I can remedy part of that.”

  “The pool?”

  “Perfect for bathing. And now that we are away from the river and starting up into the mountains, the mosquitoes aren’t as bad.”

  “No more mud packs?”

  He shook his head, his eyes twinkling.

  “Well, let’s go,” she announced, not caring that the pool they were talking about was worse in the seductive scene than the clearing. She wanted a bath badly. She turned toward the path they had made through the underbrush.

  “Wait.” When she glanced back at Slade, he continued, “First, food, shelter and firewood, then recreation.”

  “I don’t consider taking a bath recreation. The way my skin feels right now, it’s a necessity.”

  “A necessity?”

  “Yes, never in my life have I gone this long without a proper bath. It’s so …” she waved her hand in the air, “so primitive.”

  “Remember last night? Do you want to spend another night like that?”

  The jaguar’s yellow eyes flashed across her mind, followed by the electrifying closeness of sharing a blanket with Slade while rain fell on them. “Well, no.”

  “Then I suggest you gather the firewood and some palm leaves while I look for some food. I promise you I won’t go as far from camp as I did last night.”

  Sighing deeply, she s
et about doing the tasks he had assigned her. For the next hour she worked hard to gather enough firewood and palm leaves for the shelter, because she realized how much she was looking forward to taking a bath. Tomorrow they would have to start their ascent up the mountain that stood between them and the coast. Tonight she intended to relax and fix herself up to resemble a woman as much as possible.

  On impulse, while stripping the broad leaves off a tree, she picked up some orchids growing near enough to the ground for her to reach. With a smile, she placed them on the blanket next to his duffel bag. As she straightened up, she heard the rustling of the brush across the clearing. She whirled about to find Slade entering the campsite, whistling some tune she didn’t know.

  “Look at this feast. I hit a gold mine this time.”

  His arms were full of bananas, coconuts, berries, nuts and some other kind of fruit that Ellie had never seen. While he made the crude hut for them using the large palm leaves, she fixed the wood for the fire and cracked the nuts to make a soup for them in a coconut shell when they returned to camp.

  “Ready?” he asked when he completed the shelter, just big enough for two people to fit cozily. “It’s not the prettiest house you ever saw, but it will keep you relatively dry if it rains.”

  As she started for the pool, Slade called out, “Wait, let me get the soap.”

  “You didn’t tell me you had soap. Have you been holding out on me?” Right now she would pay a king’s ransom for some.

  “It’s just a small bar from the hotel. It’s not much. In fact, I’d forgotten about it until I was looking for the matches last night.”

  He knelt down in front of his duffel bag and reached to unzip it. His hand stopped when he saw the orchids. Slowly he touched one then the other. He glanced over his shoulder at Ellie, his eyes searing her with his intensity.

  She didn’t have to be a mind reader to know what he was thinking. She shouldn’t have done something so foolish and impulsive. Spinning about on her heel, she hurried from the clearing, heading down the path she hoped led to the pool. At the moment she really didn’t care where it led, so long as it was away from Slade.