by Jessica Hart
He took it instinctively, leaning forward. Cairo's eyes gleamed a sudden vivid green, and with one sharp, vicious tug she pulled him off balance and brought him crashing into the water beside her.
CHAPTER EIGHT
STAGGERING in the backsplash, Cairo backed away as Max surfaced, his hair sleek and wet.
'Why, you little—!' he grated, and reached for her, but she fell back out of his reach.
'You started it,' she pointed out. The bodice of her dress clung to the curve of her breast, and she tugged at it in a vain effort to make it less revealing. Her hair hung in dripping rat's tails of dark gold, and drops of water clung to her eyelashes.
Max flicked his head to get the water out of his eyes. They caught the sunlight reflecting off the water, and looked even more startlingly light than usual in his dark face. His khaki shirt was damp and dark, stuck to his broad chest like a second skin.
Standing chest-deep in the desert pool, they glared at each other and then, quite suddenly, the accumulated tension of the day snapped at the absurdity of it all, and they both began to laugh.
Their laughter rang across the water and echoed out over the bleached rocks.
One by one, the tight ropes of strain that had bound them all day loosened their grip and fell away altogether as they threw their heads back and laughed and laughed.
'You are without doubt the most infuriating woman I have ever met,' said Max, gasping for breath, still laughing, and he lunged towards her, dragging her back down beneath the water.
Cairo was ready this time. The first chill of the water had passed, leaving her cool and exhilarated, and she closed her mouth and eyes as she sank so that when they surfaced, shaking their hair out of their eyes, they were both still grinning like lunatics.
They were standing quite close together, smiling into each other's eyes, when for some indefinable reason the atmosphere changed abruptly again.
Their smiles faded slowly as their eyes held and there was a long moment of silence.
Cairo could feel the drips running down between her breasts. The late afternoon sun was warm on her back and the water cool and silky against her skin. It rocked around them and then steadied slowly as the last ripples shimmered across the surface towards the edge of the pool.
She looked into Max's eyes, and the expression she read there set her heart thudding with a slow, reverberating, almost painful beat. The vast landscape shrank until there was nothing but the two of them, staring at each other in the cool desert pool, the air tightening between them, shortening their breath and making it difficult to breathe. For Cairo, time itself seemed to unwind with each long, slow beat of her pulse until Max reached out for her and it stopped altogether.
He held her face between his hands, his palms hard against her soft cheeks.
Cairo could feel their cool strength flowing through her, and she began to tremble, but she made no move to step away. ,A11 she could do was look into his eyes, her own a deep, intense green, the pupils dark and dilated with a desire that could be denied no longer.
She never knew how long they stood there, or which of them it was that made the first move. Did she step towards him, or did he pull her roughly into his arms? All she knew was that the stillness and the silence and the deep, painful tremble of desire were suddenly unbearable and as the spell that had held them immobile snapped, she found herself in Max's arms, returning his hungry kisses with a sort of desperation.
Her hands spread across his chest and then slid round him as she strained closer, melted against the hard, exciting body. Max still cupped her face greedily between long fingers, holding her as if he feared that she might pull away, but her lips were warm and eager beneath his, and he let his hands slide round to the nape of her neck and then down her spine to hold her closer still.
Their clothes were so wet that they might as well have been naked. Cairo could feel the heat and demand of his body, and she pulled his shirt out of his trousers so that she could slip her hands beneath and glory in the feel of his wet, sleek, smooth, firm back, in the way his muscles flexed at the touch of her hungry fingers.
'Cairo,' said Max, with a rather shaky laugh as they broke apart for breath.
His arms held her tightly, and he bent his head again almost immediately to burn kisses along her jaw. 'How can you do this to me?' he murmured against her ear, kissing the soft skin just beneath the lobe, and Cairo shivered in response.
'Do what?' she asked with difficulty, and tipped her head with a gasp of inarticulate pleasure as his lips drifted down her throat, setting her skin afire with exquisite sensations.
'One moment I want to murder you, and the next...'
'Yes?' she whispered huskily. Her arms slid out from beneath his shirt and wound around his neck. 'Yes?' she asked again, teasing kisses at the corner of his mouth, smiling against his rough male jaw because she knew the answer. 'What do you want to do next?'
Max began to pull her over towards the shallow edge of the pool, where the pebbles shelved up a narrow beach. 'I'll show you,' he said, and his voice was very deep and warm with promise.
The water rocked as they waded through the shallows, throwing shifting reflections of light over their faces, and streamed from their clothes as they clambered out on to the beach. Neither of them even noticed. As soon as they reached dry ground, Max pulled Cairo hard against him once more, and she lifted her face to meet his kiss.
'Show me now,' she murmured against his lips.•
Max's mouth was hot and demanding on hers, and as the desire grew between them, threatening to spin out of control, so did their kisses become more frantic, the need more intense.
Fumbling with the buttons at the front of her dress, Max kissed her face, her throat, the curve of her breast as he managed to undo the top one, cursing under his breath as the second one proved more intractable. In the end Cairo helped him, although her fingers were hardly more steady than his own, and when they were all undone she stood still and quivering with anticipation.
Max took a sharp breath as he looked down into her face, then, taking the sodden material of the dress between his fingers, he peeled it slowly off her shoulders, past her waist, over the slim hips, following its path with hot, lingering kisses against her wet skin, until it lay in a puddle of water around her feet.
Cairo's fingers tangled and clung in his hair, as if to anchor herself. She was almost frightened by the gusts of sensation that shook her with every touch of Max's mouth, by the aching fire of need that twisted tighter and tighter within her until it was so acute that it veered on the edge of pain.
Max began to straighten, and Cairo shuddered as his mouth teased a trail of fire up her flat stomach. She was completely naked now, and his hands slid insistently over her curves, making her gasp with excitement.
'Shall I show you more?' he murmured hoarsely as he reached the pulse beating wildly at the base of her throat. His breathing was ragged, and Cairo arched her body, scarcely conscious of anything but his brown fingers at her breast, his lips drifting tantalisingly below her ear.
'Yes,' she gasped. Her mouth was so dry with excitement that she could hardly speak. Disentangling her fingers from his hair, she began to unbutton his shirt with fierce concentration. Max stood quite still until all the buttons were undone, looking down into her face with an intent smile in his eyes.
She let him drag the wet shirt off himself when she had finished and their eyes met in acknowledgement of shared need as it dropped to the ground.
Cairo's eyes were very green. She spread her hands wide against his bare chest, and let them slide slowly down to the buckle of his belt. Leaning forward, she touched her lips to his throat, and then to each of his nipples.
'Yes,' she whispered against his skin, and this time it sounded more like a plea. 'Show me more.'
When he was as naked as she, Max lifted Cairo in his arms and carried her across to his sleeping mat. They sank down on it together, their hands moving hungrily over each other, their kisses new
ly urgent, their bodies glorying at the new awareness of skin on skin.
'Cairo.' Max murmured her name against her breast and she thrilled at the note in his voice. His body was hard and insistent on hers, and she arched her head back.
'Yes...yes,' she said, almost sobbing, not knowing what she meant, knowing only that the need was unendurable. She turned her head feverishly, digging her fingers into his shoulders until Max lifted his head at her unspoken plea.
He braced himself on his elbows, he held her face in his hands to look down into her eyes. 'Cairo,' he said again, and his voice was a caress. The sun was sinking rapidly, the late, slanting rays burnishing her skin with an unearthly red-gold light.
Lowering his head at last, Max kissed her mouth once more, then again and again. Cairo wrapped herself around him with a cry of release as at last he sheathed his hardness in the softness of her body, and they began to move together in a timeless, instinctive rhythm. As one, they gave themselves up to the whirl of sensation, to the soaring, gasping excitement of touch and taste and feel.
Max buried his face against Cairo's neck, and she clung to him as the passion that burnt between them scorched her senses and pushed them remorselessly higher, and higher, and higher still, until there was no further to go. For one heart-stopping moment, Cairo hesitated at the very brink of sensation, but Max was with her, and together they took the final step, letting their senses dissolve in an explosion of ecstasy, and calling each other's name as they spiralled down at last into the warm afterglow of fulfilment.
Later, much later, Cairo opened her eyes. Somehow she expected everything to be changed, but the desert was still there, the pool still gleamed quiet and mysterious in the fading light. Over the horizon, the sky was streaked with fiery red, and the stones which had seemed so white and bleached before now glowed in sunset.
Max still lay heavily on top of her, but Cairo didn't mind. She wanted to stay there forever, with her senses singing and her body entangled with his.
Her fingers slid luxuriously down his arm, loving the feel of him, and he turned his head and kissed her neck before raising himself on one elbow.
'All right?' he asked quietly. He tucked a stray hair away from her forehead, and stroked his thumb along her cheekbone, letting his hand linger against her glowing face.
Cairo nodded. 'Much better,' she smiled up at him, and he smiled back as the memory of what they had shared shimmered between them.
She had never seen him smile like that before, not with that warmth in his eyes and that light in his face, and her heart clenched at the realisation of quite what he meant to her.
I love you. She wanted to say it, but for some reason she hesitated, unwilling to spoil the moment with doubts or expectations. For now, it was enough that he was there, smiling at her like that.
'I'm sorry I was such a brute to you today,' Max said, suddenly serious, his hand tightening against her cheek.
'You were a pig,' said Cairo, but she was smiling as she linked her arms around his neck. 'I'm sure I deserved it, though!'
Max laughed and kissed her. 'You did!' He got to his feet and reached down a hand to pull her up. 'Come on, time for another swim.'
'I'd like to go in the shallow end this time,' Cairo said as they made their way back down to the pool, and then shrieked as Max swept her up into his arms and made as if to throw her into the depths after all. 'Don't!' she said, clutching at him and trying to look threatening at the same time.
Max was grinning. 'Ask me nicely!'
'Please don't,' she coaxed, tightening her arms around his neck and kissing his ear, then his cheek, then the corner of his mouth.
Turning his head, he met her lips, and they kissed as he let her go, letting her slide slowly down his body before setting her feet on the pebble beach. 'You should have asked me like that before!'
'I don't think it would have had the slightest effect,' said Cairo frankly. 'You were in such a filthy mood that nothing less than dumping me into freezing water would have satisfied you.'
'Whereas you were so sweet-tempered that you would have done anything I asked, I suppose?'
Cairo laughed and took his hand as they waded into the pool. 'I was only cross because you were cross,' she explained.
'And I was only cross because you were so infuriating,' Max retorted virtuously.
The water was cool and refreshing against their flushed skin. Cairo grimaced at the temperature and she sank up to her neck, but when the first shock was past she could feel sheer exhilaration flooding through her. She swam exuberantly across to the other side of the pool to warm herself up and then back to Max, shaking the hair out of her eyes, her smile gleaming in the last of the light.
'Was I really so infuriating?' she asked, treading water. Surely she hadn't been that bad?
Max drew her towards him and let his hands slide possessively over her sleek body. 'Yes,' he said, and laughed at her outraged expression. His grip tightened as she made as if to pull away and she soon gave up the attempt as he held her close. Their legs entangled, and Cairo put her arms around his neck and kissed him. The kiss went on and on, until they submerged, still kissing, and surfaced, breathless and laughing, to kiss again.
Afterwards, they made a fire with some dead acacia branches, and heated up a spicy lamb stew that Max had brought. Cairo stirred the stew and was filled with a deep, wordless happiness whenever Max touched her casually, resting his hand at the nape of her neck or letting it linger down her spine.
I love you. Why hadn't she said it? Because whenever she wondered whether Max might love her too, doubt clawed at her mind. He had had plenty of opportunity to say so, but he hadn't. He desired her, she knew that, but it wasn't quite the same as love. Max was a loner, and he was unlikely to change his life for a woman, no matter how much he wanted her. And if he wouldn't change, he wouldn't make false promises either. Cairo didn't want to see the apprehension in his eyes when he realised that for her it was more than just physical desire. She panted him, yes, more than she had thought possible, but she loved him and needed him too.
How had she fallen so hopelessly in love with Max? He was all wrong for her, she thought desperately, but it didn't change the fact. He was the only man she would ever love like this, she knew it in her bones. Cairo remembered wryly how she had read that magazine while Max had been fixing the jeep, how she had convinced herself that she was longing to go home. What would home be without Max?
They ate the stew as the stars appeared in their millions, massing together in the deep blue velvet of the sky until Cairo grew dizzy watching them. It was absolutely quiet. No distant sound of cars or people, not even the surreptitious night sounds she remembered from the plateau. There was only Max breathing quietly beside her as she leant against him, and the occasional crack as a rock shattered in the falling temperature.
She wouldn't be able to bear the city after this, Cairo thought with an edge of panic, and then following swiftly on the thought was the cold realisation that she would have to bear it. She couldn't just give it all up and stay here with Max, even if she had thought he wanted her to. There was still her father to consider.
Cairo didn't want to imagine what Max would think if he knew the truth about her father. She knew how he felt about corruption, knew that he would be disgusted if he ever found out the real reason she was so desperate to complete this job. She never wanted to see the contempt in his eyes for her father, a man he would consider guilty and corrupt, a man who was for her only the other man who had ever been the centre of her world. Her father had done everything for her, and she couldn't abandon him now, not even for Max.
She turned her head slightly to look up at him. His face was etched in moonlight as he stared into the distance absorbed in his own thoughts. Every line of his face was achingly familiar, and her heart clenched as her eyes rested on his mouth and remembered how it had felt against her skin.
As if he was aware of the renewed desire that shuddered down her spine, Max's arm tightene
d around her and he looked down into her eyes. 'You're very quiet,' he said. 'What are you thinking about?'
For a brief moment, Cairo hesitated, wondering if she should tell him after all, but the night was too perfect. She would think about the future tomorrow; for tonight, the present was enough.
So instead of opening her heart to him, she turned within the circle of his arm and knelt so that their faces were on a level. 'I was just thinking,' she murmured, pressing tantalising butterfly kisses along his jaw towards his mouth, 'that I won't need Bruce's sleeping bag after all.'
'So you won't,' said Max with a smile, and pulled her down with him on to the mat.
This time their lovemaking was exquisitely slow, a languorous rediscovery of joy without the wild urgency that had driven them before. Afterwards, Cairo lay curled against him, content to listen to his steady breathing, and when she was sure he was asleep, she pressed her lips to his shoulder, and whispered, 'I love you,' against his skin.
She woke to the feel of hard hands drifting over her slender curves, lighting a slow-burning fuse of desire, and she stretched luxuriously beneath them.
The sun was still hidden behind the rocky crags to the east, but the air was suffused with the pearly dawn light.
'I thought you were never going to wake up,' he pre- . tended to complain, dropping slow kisses along the breathtaking line of her clavicle.
Cairo stretched again and smiled sleepily up at him, surprising a blaze of expression in his eyes. She slipped her hands around his neck. 'I'm awake now,' she said.
'It's late,' said Max, trying to sound stern, but his touch was anything but stern as his hand slid lovingly along her thigh, curving over her hip and caressing her breast. 'We ought to get up.'
'Ought we?' Cairo let her fingers drift enticingly down his body.
'Yes,' he said unconvincingly.