Deadly Race

by Margaret Daley

  CHAPTER 6

  Ellie only took a few steps before he grabbed her by the arm and swung her around to face him. His rakish smile made her pulse beat erratically, and she knew her vow not to lose her heart to another man would be sorely tested as long as she was with Slade.

  “Flowers for me?” he asked, holding the orchids up for her to see.

  “I don’t know how they got there—”

  “Liar,” he cut in.

  “Unless I put them there,” she finished, her chin tilting up at a defiant angle as she stared at him. “I’m not scared to admit I gave them to you, but I am wondering what overcame me,” she said while trying to break free of his hold. All she managed to do was close the space between them even more. “Must be the heat and exhaustion. I had to be delirious.”

  “Liar,” he breathed the word against her mouth, right before crushing it beneath his, while his arms snaked about her like the vines around the trees in the jungle.

  After thirty years she should know how to handle a situation like this, but then again she had never been stranded in a jungle with a handsome man like Slade Calvert. Actually she had never been stranded in a jungle at all. And she was enough of a woman to respond to his tantalizing persuasion, even against her better judgment. She found herself clinging to him like the orchid to its host plant.

  When he ended the kiss, which wasn’t nearly long enough, he kept his arms locked about her, her body pressed against his. “I can’t say I’ve had the pleasure of receiving flowers from a beautiful woman before, but I could get used to it. I could get used to more than that.”

  Slowly, too slowly, her common sense surfaced to be heard above the invitation in his voice, and she dislodged herself from his embrace. “Right now all I can think about is that bath.” Liar, she thought, but wasn’t about to let this man know she was focused only on one thing, him--his scent of jungle and sweat, his skin touching her, his taste still on her lips.

  “Why did you give me the orchids?”

  She took several steps away from him. “Does there have to be a reason?”

  “No, not necessarily, but in this case I think there is and you won’t admit it.” He closed the distance between them but didn’t touch her.

  “Okay. I saw the orchids and remembered what we discussed yesterday about a man never getting flowers from a woman. I decided to show you we’re for equality.”

  “We?” he asked with a half grin. “Was someone helping you?”

  “Women! Why are you making such a big deal out of this?”

  “Because I’m trying to figure you out. You’re sending me mixed messages.”

  Probably because she was mixed up herself. She wanted him—oh, did she want him—but her past track record, where men were concerned, made her very wary. She was afraid to trust her judgment about men after her ex-fiancé’s betrayal, after her father’s abandonment when she was young.

  “Why do you respond to my kiss one minute and the next you’re fleeing from me?”

  “I don’t believe in brief affairs, no matter how pleasurable they might be. Can you honestly tell me you have more in mind than a brief affair while we are stuck with each other?”

  His expression became serious. He tilted his head to the side and didn’t speak for a long moment. “I don’t know, Ellie. I won’t deny I’m attracted to you. That much is obvious. But I also won’t deny I’m not looking for any kind of long-term commitment. I’ve been there, done that. I don’t usually repeat something that doesn’t work.”

  “Then we do agree on something. We are attracted to each other, but that’s as far as it should go.” Again she placed some distance between them and hoped he respected the space. She needed it to keep her resolve not to become romantically entangled with him. “We need each other to get off this island, but after that we’ll go our separate ways.”

  “That’s true. I have to admit this time together is not our reality.”

  “And the real world is out there for us to resume living in as soon as we get off Bella Isla.”

  “Correct.”

  When he agreed with her, Ellie was surprised at the disappointment she felt. She should be relieved, but she wasn’t completely. There was a part of her that wanted things to be different. There was a part of her that wanted to forget the past, but the past was what had molded her into the woman she was today. “Good. Now that we know where we stand with each other, we can take our dip in the pool and then get back to camp for dinner.”

  She started forward on the path, acutely aware of his presence behind her the whole way to the waterfall. The hair on the nape of her neck tingled, and she was sure he was following her hip movement with his gaze. Probably with that infuriating smirk on his face.

  Coming out of the jungle onto the pool and waterfall took her breath away, just as it had earlier when they’d discovered it. “This has got to be one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen.”

  “Yeah. Nature at its best—raw, untamed, wild, exotically luscious.”

  The water was clear, fed from a stream that came tumbling down the mountain above them. Around the pool there were beautiful flowers. Ellie had no idea of their names, but their colors were a visional assault that made her realize she needed to stop more often in her busy life to appreciate nature and its wonders. The scent of all those flowers perfumed the moisture-laden air, making her decide this was probably what the Garden of Eden would have looked and smelled like.

  “You know it’s a shame a place like this is stuck way out here where no one can appreciate it,” Ellie said, bending down to smell one of those flowers whose name she didn’t know.

  “If it was where everyone could appreciate it, do you think it would remain like this? There would probably be pop cans at the bottom of the pool.”

  She eyed him. “Cynical but true, I’m afraid.”

  A monkey high in a treetop shrieked, causing some brightly colored macaws to take flight in a flurry. Ellie followed one bird’s course until it disappeared in the green-covered branches of a tree.

  “I wish we could have camped here.”

  “Not at the local watering hole. I doubt you’d like a repeat of last night with the jaguar. Come on, here’s the soap. Ladies first.”

  She examined the pool and remembered something about the story of the Garden of Eden. “Snakes are right below heights on my list of things to avoid. So in this case, I think it would be the gentlemanly thing for you to go first and check out the water.” She handed the soap back to him.

  “Who said anything about me being a gentleman?” With that infuriating smirk on his face, he shrugged out of his shirt, but to her relieve leaving on his pants.

  She ignored his question, diverted her gaze from his body— barely—and tried to concentrate on the floral vista. But its beauty held no attraction for her when she knew Slade was standing so near, definitely one of the most handsome men she had ever seen and even better than that he’d come to her rescue. She turned back to watch as he dove into the pool and swam underwater to the middle, tossing his head as he broke through the surface, water spraying everywhere.

  “Come on in. It’s perfect,” he called out as he treaded water.

  Okay, she could do this. They were both adults, she told herself while she turned her back on Slade in a futile attempt at modesty while she stepped out of her skirt, leaving on the oversized shirt that hung halfway down her thighs. When she faced him again, he was still treading water and watching her intently.

  “Is it cold?” she asked, hoping it was, to cool her off.

  “Yes.”

  She walked to the edge and stuck her foot into the pool. At least the water’s temperature was going her way.

  “That’s no way to go into the water, one inch at a time. At that rate it’ll be morning before you’re completely in.”

  “You advocate plunging into the unknown with no regard for the hidden perils?”

  “Yes.” He swam toward her, his strokes even and sure like the
man.

  “Throw caution to the wind?”

  “Yes.” He stood up, water dripping from his broad chest, the pool waist deep where he was. “Come in.” He held his hand out to her, his look enticing.

  Alarm signals rang loudly in her mind, but the water looked so inviting and she desperately needed to feel clean, to cool off. She made a shallow dive into the pool, surfacing several yards away from Slade. “Where’s the soap?” If she worked fast, she could be cleaned and out of the water in three minutes and safely on her way back to their camp.

  “Right here.” He held it up, clenched in his hand.

  The smile on his face told her she would have to come and get it if she wanted it. The alarm signals clamored again. She stared longingly at the bar of soap, then at the determinedly set expression on Slade’s face. What had started earlier in the camp wasn’t over. That much was clear from the look in his eyes.

  “Don’t you want to use the soap, Ellie?”

  “Yes, toss it to me.”

  “I wouldn’t want to lose it in the water. You’d better come and get it.”

  “I’ll catch it. Didn’t I tell you once I was a catcher for a girl’s softball team one summer?”

  “No, and I do believe you’re a chicken.”

  “I don’t trust that look on your face, Slade Calvert.”

  “What look?” Innocence bathed his expression now as he boyishly smiled at her and waved the soap in front of her as if it were a long awaited piece of candy.

  She shook her head and swam backward until her feet touched bottom near the other side of the pool. “You don’t play fair.”

  “I promise I won’t do anything you don’t want, Ellie.”

  She stared at him for a long moment. The water felt great, but she knew she would feel even better if she could properly clean herself. “Promise?”

  “I am a man of my word. You call the shots.”

  Without taking her eyes off him, she swam toward him. In her heart she knew he wouldn’t break his promise; that wasn’t what she was afraid of. She was afraid of herself and what she would do if he touched her. She wanted him. It was as plain and simple as that.

  “Let me wash your hair. You’ve got some globs of mud stuck in the back.”

  His reasoning was faulty but the denial she knew she should say wouldn’t come out. She nodded.

  After lathering the soap, he massaged his fingertips into her scalp. He turned her around so her back was to him and continued rubbing her hair, so the blobs of mud plopped into the water. When his hands moved to her nape, she tensed. But the kneading worked some of the tension from her shoulders and neck. It felt wonderful. Her eyes slid closed as shivering tingles flashed up and down her spine. All she had to do was say stop and he would. The word died in her throat as it constricted, making it difficult to breathe properly.

  Her mind emptied of all thoughts except what Slade was doing to her willpower. The primeval beauty around her faded from view as her eyes closed. The sounds of the jungle dimmed as the outside world vanished and her center became Slade.

  “Ever since I can remember, a Calvert was taught always to complete a job to the best of his ability,” he whispered in her ear, nibbling its shell until her knees buckled and she collapsed back against him. “I think your hair is squeaky clean now.”

  He brought his arms around to anchor her to him. When he turned her within his embrace to face him, her eyes flew open and she stared up into his endearing features.

  “I want to complete the job, Ellie. You could use someone to scrub your back.”

  No, her common sense screamed, but yes was on the tip of her tongue.

  A howl, like a sound straight out of hell, pierced their haven and brought Ellie sharply back to the present, to sanity. She blinked, focusing finally on her surroundings. The roar continued, and she turned her wide eyes to Slade.

  “What’s that?” she asked, her mind still not functioning properly.

  “Howler monkeys. They won’t harm us.”

  Blushing at the feelings he’d produced in her just by washing her hair, Ellie grasped the opportunity to take the soap away from Slade and swim across the pool, before he touched her again and she was lost in the sensations only he seemed to be able to create in her. She was indebted to a band of monkeys for stopping her from complicating an already difficult situation, since it was obvious she didn’t have the willpower needed. All she had to do was get close to the man and she lost the ability to say no. This was not like her at all! It had to be because of the predicament they were in. They might not even make it off the island safely.

  The hideous chorus filled the jungle clearing as she finished washing herself a safe distance from Slade. Several times the soap slipped from her trembling fingers, and she knew he was watching her with an intensity that didn’t help her.

  “The next time there won’t be any monkeys to interrupt us. What will you do then, Ellie?”

  “There won’t be a next time, so I don’t need to worry about that,” she replied with all the bravado she didn’t feel.

  “You state that with such conviction. You must be a good actress. You almost have me convinced. Almost, Ellie, but not quite. You see, I know how you respond to me, but even though you’re rejecting that in your mind, nothing else about you does. You want me as badly as I want you. That’s a hard combination to fight.”

  “Why are you doing this?”

  His brow knitted, and he took a moment before he answered. “I’m really not sure. I do know you intrigue me. You’re different from the women I know. You’re refreshing.”

  “Like a breath of fresh air in a stale room?”

  His eyes brightened and his smile grew. “Exactly.”

  “I won’t be a diversion for you or any man. When I make love with a man, I’ll be committing a lifetime to him. That’s the only way for me. What happens when you return to your life in Boston and I return to mine in New York and parts beyond? They don’t mix.” She was through taking a bath and was wondering how to reach the shore where her skirt was. Slade was in her path of escape.

  “You think I’m using you?”

  “I don’t know. I’m not good at relationships.” She wondered if she had used her job and her one disastrous relationship as an excuse all these years not to become involved in another one. As a child she had had little practice, because after the seventh move she had built a hard shell around her heart to keep from being hurt every time her family picked up and moved on. It wasn’t until she lived with her grandmother as a teenager, after her father had abandoned her and her mother, that she had stayed in any one place for longer than a year. Was that why she kept herself always on the move, taking different jobs? Not to see the world as she claimed, but to keep the world at arm’s length?

  “I wouldn’t use you, Ellie,” Slade said in a serious voice, his expression somber. “I don’t have casual relationships.”

  She glanced up through the canopy of trees and shouted over the din of the monkeys, “It’s getting dark. We’d better head back to camp. I don’t want to be here when the night prowlers come out.”

  Blessedly the horrid sounds stopped. Silence reigned for a moment before quieter noises crept in to fill the stillness. Ellie took one last good look at the beautiful clearing and pool before swimming to the shore where her clothes lay. She was thankful that Slade didn’t try to stop her, because she wasn’t really sure what she would do. And that frightened her, more than heights or snakes.

  After quickly wringing out her shirt, she slipped into her skirt, feeling his gaze on her the whole time. When he left the pool, she avoided looking at him but instead studied the flora next to the edge of the water. She examined the flowers without really seeing them. The only thing she remembered about the blossoms as she began to walk toward the camp was that they had been scarlet.

  “How long do you think it will take to cross the mountain?” she asked when they were back in camp and eating a soup made from the nuts Slade had gathere
d.

  “It shouldn’t be longer than a couple of days—that is, if no one is following us.”

  “Do you think they are? We didn’t see a helicopter all day or any other evidence they might be behind us.”

  “My practical side says to be careful, but I really don’t think anyone is behind us.”

  Ellie, now dressed in her satiny jump suit from the first evening she had met Slade, fingered the brooch pinned to her clothes. “Hopefully they are too busy to think about us.”

  He finished his soup and put the coconut shell that held it to the side. “Ellie, tell me why you said earlier that you weren’t any good at relationships.”

  He wanted to know details of her life she had kept hidden. She, too, lay her empty coconut shell down and busied herself cleaning up, which comprised all of twenty seconds. Then she was faced with the dilemma of avoiding his question or answering it.

  He waited patiently, watching her.

  She looked him in the eye, drawing in a deep breath that was laced with the fragrances of the jungle. “As a child I moved around a lot. Every time I was settling down in a new place, my father would pick us up and move. We never stayed longer than a year in any one town. I got tired of saying good-bye to my friends. Finally, I stopped trying to make friends. My grandmother was my only stability during those years. When my father walked out on my mother and me, we went to live with her, but my mother never got over my father leaving. She slowly died of a broken heart. I vowed then, I would never allow myself to be placed in the same position she had been.” Ellie glanced away from the intensity she saw in his expression.

  “We are more alike than I thought.”

  Her gaze returned to his face. She wanted to deny the reality in his words, but she felt the truth in them.

  “After my parents were killed in Africa, I was shuffled from one relative to the next. I got very good at shutting myself off from others, because it was too hard to leave behind people you cared about. My one attempt, my marriage, failed miserably. I don’t like to fail.