To Save His Child

by Margaret Watson

  “Turn around,” he ordered, and she slowly pivoted. She felt his hands hesitantly moving on the knot she’d tied in the shawl, careful not to touch her back.

  “What are you doing?” she whispered.

  “Making this thing tighter. It might be uncomfortable for you or the kid for a few minutes, but it’ll be easier for you to get through the brush. If it’s a little tighter, you won’t catch on so many branches.”

  The shawl pulled taut around Ana, lifting her higher and tighter against Lexie’s breasts. The baby moved sluggishly, and Lexie put a hand on her to quiet her. The last thing they needed right now was a baby crying.

  “There. That should do it.” She could feel the knot on the shawl being pulled snug, and then Caine’s hands rested on her shoulders for a second. He removed them almost immediately, but not before her skin came alive. Each place his fingers had lingered throbbed with awareness. Turning away so he wouldn’t see her reaction to his casual touch, she made a production of covering Ana’s face.

  When she looked back up at him, he was watching her with an inscrutable look on his face. The silence stretched between them as the chatter from the jungle seemed to fade away. Then he said abruptly, “Follow me. You’ll only have to crawl for a short distance, but watch where you put your hands.”

  He knelt on the ground and wriggled between two bushes, and after a moment she dropped down and followed him. The rich, moist scent of the earth surrounded her. Branches and vines clawed at her face, and she tried to use one hand to protect herself and Ana. When she paused to push a particularly thick vine out of the way, she heard a noise from the direction of the path behind her that made her freeze.

  Apparently Caine had heard it too. He halted in front of her and swung around, motioning for her to stop. Looking around fearfully, she wondered if they had gone far enough to be invisible from the narrow path they had just left. Caine must have seen the fear in her eyes, because he took her hand and gripped it tightly.

  Under any other circumstances she would have been ashamed of how she clung to him. Now she just held on, finding more comfort than she would have ever thought possible in the warm fingers engulfing hers. Comfort wasn’t a quality she had ever associated with Caine, and the thought crept into her mind that she could have sat here with him, like this, for a long time.

  They sat, silent and unmoving, for what seemed like ages. “Let’s move,” he finally whispered, drawing his hand away from hers. “They’re gone.”

  She thrust the bereft feeling aside and followed him through the tangled greenery again. It seemed to stretch on forever. By the time he stopped in front of her, she felt bruised and disheveled from forcing her way past the endless branches.

  “This should do it.” Caine stood in front of her in a tiny clearing and reached down to pull her to her feet. “We’ve come far enough that no one should be able to find our path unless they crawl through the jungle the same way we did.”

  “Won’t they be able to see where we left the path?” Lexie looked around her at the unending greenery, and shivered at the thought that someone would want her so badly that he would pursue her even through this.

  “Only if they have people trained in tracking,” Caine answered grimly. “And right now, I don’t think they do. If they did, they would have found you in the jungle.”

  “You’re so reassuring,” she muttered.

  One of his rare smiles flashed across his face. “Cheer up, Lexie. The worst is behind us. Now all we have to do is get to the Jeep and leave this village in the dust behind us.”

  An unexpected sheen of tears filled her eyes at the thought of what she’d be leaving behind. Besides the people of Santa Ysabel, who she’d thought were her friends, it was the place where she’d learned she was pregnant with Ana, the place where her child had been born. Now she was sneaking out of the village, unable to say goodbye to any of her friends, not sure if she would ever be back.

  “Tell me what you found that made you so sure there were people looking for me,” she said suddenly to Caine. “You never told me.”

  Caine unsheathed a machete from his belt and began methodically hacking away at the vines. “Yes, I did. I told you someone had been searching your house.”

  “It might have just been someone looking for me, someone who needed medical help,” she protested. The longing to go back to the village was so intense she had to stop herself from turning around and fighting her way through the undergrowth.

  Caine lowered the machete and faced her. “Lexie, someone had gone through all your belongings. And it wasn’t a friendly search, believe me. I know the difference.” He stared at her for a moment, impatience in his gaze now. “Have you forgotten the guy watching your house last night, or the two men in the jungle just now?”

  “No,” she whispered, holding Ana more tightly. “I guess I just don’t want to believe it.”

  He dropped the machete and stepped over to her. He slowly reached out and tilted her chin upward until she was looking at him. “I know.” His voice was quiet. “You feel betrayed and hurt, and you’re trying as hard as you can to convince yourself that what I’m saying isn’t true. I understand, Lexie, and I wish I could fix it for you, but it can’t be fixed. Someone did betray you, and there is someone waiting in the village for you.”

  She was horrified to feel her eyes filling with tears. Turning away, she made a production of adjusting the scarf that held Ana in order to avoid looking at him. She desperately wanted to hold her child, but knew if she woke her now, they would have to wait while she was fed. Instead, she ran her hand gently down Ana’s back and gulped twice, swallowing the sobs that threatened to erupt.

  Caine’s hands gripped her shoulders from behind and gently turned her around. “It’s all right, Lexie.” His voice was softer than she’d ever imagined it could be. “I know how you feel. Betrayal hurts more than almost anything in the world. But you can’t give in to the hurt, because if you do, they’ve won. You have to get angry and use that anger to save yourself and the baby.”

  She was close enough to smell his crisp, male scent and to see the dark shadow of hair on his chest through his T-shirt. Memories came flooding back—of lying against his chest, hearing his heart racing beneath her ear. She remembered in vivid detail the strength of his arms wrapped around her, the taste of his mouth on hers.

  There were a lot of things about Caine that she hadn’t forgotten.

  Their eyes met and she realized he hadn’t, either. There was more than comfort in his eyes now. They glittered with something hot and primitive, something that would burn her if she gave it half a chance.

  This was the time to back up, to thank him for comforting her and step away from him. She found she couldn’t move. His hot gaze had mesmerized her, holding her in place.

  He brought one of his hands up and tangled his fingers in her hair. Even in the jungle heat she shivered.

  “Lexie,” he whispered. His hand caressed her scalp and he bent his head and brushed his lips over hers.

  It was the softest of kisses, a mere sweep of his lips over hers. It shouldn’t have made her tremble. Caine shouldn’t still have the power to make her ache inside, with just one touch of his mouth. She’d worked too hard to forget about him.

  He raised his head, and she saw the triumph and fierce desire in his eyes. “Lexie,” he said again, thickly, as he lowered his mouth to hers again.

  This time the kiss wasn’t gentle or comforting. His mouth was hard and bruising, demanding her surrender. She knew she had to stop, to move away, but she was caught in the sensual web he knew how to weave around her. Her senses spinning, desire coiling tightly inside her, she gripped his forearms and held on to him.

  He steadied her with one arm around her back and one behind her neck as his mouth moved on hers. Lexie forgot about Ana, still lying between them. She forgot about the jungle, about Santa Ysabel, about everything except Caine kissing her.

  When he took her lower lip between his teeth and ran
his tongue over it, sensations speared through her and she tightened her hold on his arms. She heard a moaning sound, and realized with a shock that it was her. He slipped his tongue into her open mouth, and one of his hands slipped down to caress the curve of her hip.

  Desire pounded through her blood, pooling in her lower abdomen, and she tentatively touched her tongue to his. He groaned into her mouth and tried to pull her closer. For a moment she didn’t recognize the whimper, then she realized it was Ana, jostled by their two bodies straining toward each other.

  Her desire vanished as quickly as if someone had dashed a bucket of ice water over her head. Letting go of Caine, she stumbled backward, staring at him with shock.

  His eyes glittered with passion and the sharp planes of his face were taut with arousal. He reached out to touch her, but when she backed up a step he let his hand fall to his side. He stood staring at her as the moment stretched on, the tension between them pulling tighter and tighter.

  “Thank you for trying to comfort me.” She knew her words tumbled out too quickly, but she was desperate to break the tense, throbbing silence. “I’m sorry I acted like such an idiot about leaving Santa Ysabel.”

  Something shifted in his eyes, and it was as if his face had been suddenly shuttered. His eyes, alive with desire just a moment ago, were now flat and opaque, unreadable. She had no idea what he was thinking.

  “You’re welcome.” His words were flat, too, without inflection. “Are you ready to go?”

  She nodded, unable to hold his gaze.

  “Follow me. Stay far enough behind that I can swing the machete.”

  He turned and picked up the huge knife and began hacking at the vines. Every blow looked vicious, and she could see his muscles bunching for each massive swipe. He moved ahead at an almost-inhuman pace, hardly seeming to take a breath between swings of the razor-sharp machete.

  Waiting for him to move a few feet ahead of her, she picked up her pack and swung it over her shoulder, then began to follow him. She looked down at Ana worriedly. She should be waking up soon, hungry and ready to eat. She was sure Caine wouldn’t want to stop now so she could feed her.

  “How much farther until we get to your Jeep?” she called to Caine.

  He didn’t even pause in his rhythmic swings of the machete. “Another ten minutes or so.”

  As long as they kept moving, Ana could probably wait that long. The motion would soothe her enough to make her forget her empty stomach, at least for a few minutes.

  She looked up at Caine again, wondering at the fury that propelled him. Was it directed at her, or at himself? It didn’t matter, she decided. What had happened just now was a mistake, brought on by her momentary vulnerability. From now on, she vowed, she would control herself. She wouldn’t let down her guard for an instant.

  If Caine thought he could control her by exploiting her body’s traitorous reactions to him, he was going to find out how wrong he was. Less than a year ago she’d surrendered to him, and then he’d abandoned her without a word of explanation. He might be Ana’s father, but that didn’t mean she was going to be putty in his hands a second time.

  No, she didn’t care if he was angry at her. He might as well learn now as later that she had grown up, and she wasn’t the infatuated little fool she’d been a year ago.

  Chapter 5

  Caine cursed himself with each swing of the machete. Every vine in front of him, each bush in his path mocked him for his desire for a woman who represented everything he couldn’t have in his life and didn’t want anyway. He slashed desperately at them, trying to rid his mind of the demons that haunted him.

  He could hear Lexie behind him, staying well back from the machete. It had been the hurt in her eyes that had managed to get past his barriers and make him touch her. And once he’d touched her, he’d been lost.

  It wouldn’t happen again, he told himself with a particularly brutal sweep of the blade. It had been far too appropriate that the baby had physically separated them a few minutes earlier. She represented everything that he’d always known was out of his reach, and now everything that stood between him and Lexie. The taste of the past was bitter in his mouth, taunting him with the fact that he was a lousy choice as a father for any kid.

  “Caine?” Lexie’s voice came from behind him. She sounded worried. “I’m going to have to feed Ana soon. Do you think we should stop?”

  “No.” He drew a deep, shuddering breath and wiped the sweat out of his eyes. His muscles were protesting their unrelenting workout, but he ignored his body’s warning. “We can’t stop now. She’s going to have to wait.”

  “I’m not sure if I can keep her from crying.”

  “Dammit, Lexie, if we stop now we’ll be sitting ducks!” he exploded. “You’re her mother. Do something to keep her quiet.”

  “I’m not a miracle worker,” she snapped. “She doesn’t know that it’s inconvenient for her to eat right now.”

  “Then give her some water.”

  “In what?” she asked sarcastically. “The bottles are in my backpack, and I’d have to stop to get them. Or should I just pour it down her throat?”

  “How the hell would I know?” he snarled. “What do you normally use?”

  “My breast,” she shouted.

  She seemed to realize what she’d said the moment the words were out of her mouth. There was dead silence from behind him as he froze momentarily. He could almost feel the embarrassed heat radiating from her body.

  Now was not the time to think about her breasts, he reminded himself savagely as he resumed swinging the machete. Another vine fell from a particularly vicious blow. His body stirred as he remembered the smooth, creamy skin that she’d exposed when she fed the baby. Cursing, he called himself ten different kinds of pervert. He tried to think about their escape route and calculate what obstacles they might meet.

  Instead, visions filled his mind of another time, another lifetime. She was lying next to him, naked. Her small, round breasts with their pink tips had fit perfectly into his hands and his mouth.

  There was a whimpering noise behind him, and the sound fueled his temper. They were too close to the Jeep and freedom to let a crying baby stop them. “Keep that kid quiet,” he warned in a low, deadly voice. He didn’t even bother looking back.

  Lexie didn’t answer, but after a few moments there was silence again. He was free to concentrate on getting them back to the Jeep and away from this town before all hell broke loose. As he swung the machete in rhythmic strokes, the tension in his body eased and he was able to channel his thoughts away from Lexie and concentrate on what to do next.

  In another ten minutes he saw the dull gleam of metal in the distance ahead of him and he allowed himself a small smile of satisfaction. The Jeep was still where he’d left it. Stopping immediately, he turned around to find that Lexie was nowhere in sight.

  Pushing down the wave of panic that threatened to wash over him, he began walking back along the path he’d cut. As he rounded a small bend, he saw her walking along with her head bent over the kid. Anger immediately replaced the panic, and he strode forward to meet her.

  “You were supposed to keep up with me,” he said in a harsh whisper. “What’s the problem?”

  She looked up, and he saw the weariness etched on her face. She straightened and looked directly at him. “I was doing the best I could. I assumed you’d rather I walk more slowly than allow Ana to scream.”

  He glanced down and realized that she had been feeding the baby as she walked. The arm that cradled the child to her breast shook slightly with fatigue, but she continued to hold the baby steadily in place. When he looked up at her face, she held his gaze defiantly.

  Guilt flooded him. It couldn’t have been easy for Lexie to hold the kid in that position while she walked, and one look at her trembling arm told him what a strain it was for her arm muscles.

  “Sit down,” he said, more gently. “The Jeep is just ahead, and I have to make sure no one’s found it. Stay here
until I get back.”

  She sank to the ground immediately and leaned against a tree that stood next to the path he’d cut. Tilting her head back, she closed her eyes and brought her knee up to support the baby. Her trembling arm dropped to her side. The weariness in her face released another flood of guilt in him.

  “I’ll be right back,” he muttered as he turned to go.

  After he’d gone a few steps he looked back at her, but she hadn’t moved. He paused for a moment, wondering if he should go back to her, then forced himself to move forward. If they didn’t get out of here, it wouldn’t matter how tired Lexie was.

  Ten minutes later he stepped away from the Jeep and allowed the vegetation to spring back into place around it. After thoroughly inspecting the area, he’d decided that no one had found its hiding place—at least, not yet. It was time to get Lexie and the kid and get going.

  When he arrived back at the tree where he’d left them, he found Lexie wrapping something in one of the huge leaves that hung down from the tree behind her. The baby lay on the ground next to her, kicking her legs and waving her arms.

  He hadn’t looked closely at the kid before this, and he found himself watching her agitated-looking movements. “What’s wrong with her?” he finally asked.

  Lexie looked over at him, puzzled. “What do you mean, what’s wrong with her? There’s nothing wrong with her.”

  “Why is she jerking around like that?”

  She looked over at the baby, and a soft smile lit her face. “She’s just happy to be out of that shawl for a while. Even babies have to get some exercise, you know.”

  “Oh.” He tried to ignore the baby and concentrate on what they had to do, but he couldn’t seem to tear his gaze away from the kicking legs and gently swaying arms of the child on the ground. His child, a small voice reminded him. Whether he liked it or not, this child was his flesh and blood. Would she look like him? he wondered, staring at her. Would he see himself in her smile, her eyes?