“Time is passing. I have to go meet with the elders.”
She sat up. The sleeping bag fell away from her, exposing her breasts, still rosy from the attention he had given them over and over again during the night. It thrilled him to know he’d brought that glow to her skin, that she was so unselfconscious around him, she didn’t even try to cover up.
He stood and pulled her to her feet, then held her away from him, his gaze moving over her, memorizing each dip and plane of her body, the curve of her waist, the roundness of her bottom, the firmness of her breasts. He drew her to him, crossing his arms and sliding his hands down to hold her in place against him. She put her arms around him, snuggled into his hug and they stood that way for several long moments.
“What’s wrong, Aaron?” she asked against his chest. “What’s happening out there.” She tilted her head toward the world beyond the tent.
“I don’t know. I’ll be back to tell you when I do. Now, kiss me and make me get out of here, or I’ll have you down on that bed and be buried inside you within two minutes.”
“Braggart,” she said. Glancing down, she smiled, then lifted herself to stand on top of his boots and pull his mouth down to hers. “I’ll bet I could hold you off for at least two and a half.”
Laughing, he kissed her, long and hard, with a kiss full of promise.
He pulled away, tilted his head, and looked at her critically. “Rebecca?”
She gave him a lazy, sexy smile. “Yes?”
“Before you go out, you might want to see if you can do something about that whisker burn.” Then he set her away from him while she gasped in embarrassment and dove for her bag looking for a mirror. Laughing again, he swept from the tent.
~*~
Becca dressed and ate a breakfast of cereal bars smeared with gobs of peanut butter. She washed it down with bottles of water, then followed that with more mangoes -- which had definitely become her B. F. F. -- Best Fruit Forever. Her body and all of her appetites had come roaring back to life with a vengeance. She had been marching in place, marking time, waiting for things to get better and suddenly, thanks to Aaron, they had. She felt happy, excited, ready for anything.
She wanted to eat everything in sight, have sex with Aaron several times a day, every day until they both collapsed from blissful exhaustion, and then start all over again. She wanted to have adventures with him, fight monsters with him, live her life with him.
That was a hazy possibility right now, though. She could only think about last night and today.
She left the tent, looking around furtively, hoping no one was watching her, eager to run up and point out her reddened face and kiss-swollen lips that fairly screamed ‘Night of hot sex with Aaron’. In truth, the only one who knew her here was Jenny, who was bound to notice. Still, she adjusted the scarf around her head and face.
There was a great deal of busy activity in the camp. Women were calling their children to them, pulling them inside their tents, apparently giving them stern lectures. Groups of grim-faced men stood talking. She glanced around, wondering which tent held Aaron, Ferran, and the elders.
When she reached the tent where Jenny and her colleagues were staying, she called out a soft greeting. Jenny answered, so Becca flipped the tent flap open and walked in. She saw right away that Sophie was asleep, although her color was better than it had been the day before.
Jenny was on the floor with small sample boxes of artifacts spread out around her. She glanced up and her eyes widened as she whispered. “What on earth happened to you? Rug burn? Or is the rug burn on your back side?”
Becca wrinkled her nose at her. “It’s exactly what you think it is, big sister.” Then she blushed.
Jenny laughed, and then sobered. “I’m the last person in the world to tell you what to do because I haven’t been the best sister in the world for the past few years, but be careful. I think we’ve already figured out that these Côte de Diamantian pilots can break your heart.”
Becca shook her head. “That already happened. Now it’s on the mend.”
“You look happier than I’ve ever seen you.”
With a blissful sigh, Becca settled down beside her. “That’s exactly how I feel.” She looked down. “What are you working on?”
Eagerly, Jenny showed her what they’d found at Sik Ru, describing the kind of civilization that had been there, their trade routes, their culture. Becca listened, thrilled to finally know what it was her sister did for a living.
An hour later, the two of them left Sophie still sleeping and walked around the camp. Aaron stood with a group of men, but he looked up when he saw her and Jenny. He walked over, followed by Ferran.
“You’re going to have to stay here today, Rebecca, and so are Jennifer and her colleagues. Ferran and I have to be gone for a while.”
Alarmed, she glanced from one of them to the other. “Why? What’s wrong?”
He looked at Ferran, who nodded.
“We think a coup is about to happen in Isbahar. That’s what that border guard meant the other day when he talked about ‘security issues’. This has happened before, many times, and every time it means trouble for Côte de Diamant. We suspect the generals who want to take over are planning a diversion. They’ll try to trump up some nonsense to start a border incident with Côte de Diamant, blame the current government, then take over and try to sweep everything under the rug. In the meantime, the people of Côte de Diamant will be on high alert, terrified.”
Aaron nodded toward Ferran, who stood and listened impassively, his eyes on Jenny, who looked away. “He hasn’t been here only to visit his mother’s family. There have been rumors about what’s happening so he came to see for himself.”
Ferran broke in. “I sent word to Jibril to bring all of you here from Sik Ru, although I didn’t know you were there Jennifer, or even on this side of paradise, for that matter,” he added ruefully, but he gave Becca a slight smile that told her he had forgiven her.
“This is the safest place for you, Rebecca,” Aaron said. “We should be back by tonight and we may have to leave right away to return to Côte de Diamant City. Be ready to go.”
Before she could ask any questions that might give answers to salve the stark fear that had gripped her, a man brought two horses forward. They were obviously thoroughbreds, beautiful, black, and shiny with muscles rippling beneath their skin and legs that appeared too delicate to carry a man across the Sahel.
Becca stared. “You’re going on horseback?”
“Better way to blend in,” Aaron answered. “We can’t exactly go roaring up in the Range Rover and ask questions about border security, and whether or not tanks are being massed for an invasion.”
She gulped. “Invasion?” He’d already used the word ‘incident’. The possibility of an invasion was far worse.
“It’s happened before.”
“I thought you said it would be a border incident,” she answered, emphasizing the word ‘incident’.
“We don’t know yet. That’s why we have to go find out.”
“Can’t you get satellite images? There are satellites everywhere. Couldn’t you just look at a satellite image and see . . . .”
“Becca,” he interrupted softly. His face was grim, but his eyes softened as he looked at her. “We need to see it up close.”
“What if you’re captured? You could be accused of spying.”
“We have permission to be in the country.”
She opened her mouth to blurt out another lame argument, but he said her name again.
“Becca.” His tone was full of understanding, but underscored with determination.
He was going into danger. Maybe terrible danger. She wanted to beg him not to go, but she forced away that thought. It was his duty.
Her lips trembled as she said, “Be careful.”
He came to her then, put his arm around her waist.
Conscious of the people around them, Becca’s eyes darted toward their audience. “Aaron, wha
t will these people think?”
“That we’re newlyweds,” he responded, then he kissed her as if he wanted to draw her essence into himself and take her with him.
She answered with her own ardor, and finally, he set her away from him. Without another word, he stepped back, removed his keffiyeh, refolded it into a big triangle and brought the sides up so that his face was masked, and protected from flying sand. He repositioned his akal and settled it in place. Only his eyes were showing and they were fixed on Becca, giving her reassurance even as he prepared for something about which she knew he couldn’t be that sure.
His partner in this desert adventure was doing the same. Becca pulled her attention away from Aaron long enough to see that Jenny was watching Ferran, her eyes as full of concern as Becca knew hers were. She saw that his gaze was on Jenny as he prepared his headdress, his eyes holding hers, as well.
Becca looked from one to the other of them speculatively. She and Jenny hadn’t had a chance to talk very much yet, but she knew things weren’t finished between them.
Aaron pulled her attention back to him when he grabbed his horse’s reins, placed his boot in the stirrup and swung into the saddle, his jellabiya swirling around him. The high-spirited horse danced in a circle until Aaron pulled him up and had him face north. As soon as Ferran was also mounted, the two men dug their heels into their mounts’ sides and galloped away without a backward glance.
Becca and Jenny waved and then turned away to while away the day waiting and worrying.
~*~
Aaron and Ferran raced across the desert to the same place their country had been invaded ten years before. There were hills along much of the border, but the place they were headed was flat, making it easy to move tank columns through.
“It’s a good thing they’re predictable,” Aaron called out over the pounding hooves.
“Yeah, we wouldn’t want them to try something new,” Ferran answered.
After three hours of hard riding, they approached the area and slowed their mounts to a trot. They approached the hills cautiously, coming in on the side where they couldn’t be seen, dismounted and climbed up until they could look down on the pass.
They lay down on their bellies and Aaron pulled out a pair of binoculars. “It’s just what we thought. A force big enough to pose a threat, but small enough for them to claim this is a training exercise.”
Ferran took the binoculars and made his own examination. “As soon as we’re away from here, I’ll call it in. It means we’ll have to go back to Côte de Diamant City tonight.”
Aaron scrambled backward for several yards down the slope and his friend followed. Then, walking in a half crouch, they made it to their horses and remounted.
“I told Rebecca to be ready, and have everyone else ready, just in case,” he said as he pulled on the reins, turning his horse’s head to head south once more.
Ferran looked up and grinned. “I’ll come with you. Looks as though my vacation trip to visit my mother’s family is over.”
“Some vacation.”
As planned, when they were far enough away from the troops they’d seen, Ferran called in, giving his bosses a heads up on what was happening. As he disconnected the satellite phone, he sat for a moment staring into the distance while his horse danced impatiently.
“What is it?” Aaron asked, seeing his friend’s troubled look.
“I want to know what your intentions are toward Rebecca.”
Aaron raised his eyebrows in surprise. “Are you acting in the place of her father?”
“As a concerned friend of the family.”
Aaron stared at him. Given their history, they both knew he was overstating that. “I love her and I intend to marry her.”
“Good. Don’t make the mistake I made.” Ferran dug his heels into his animal’s flanks and headed back to the nomad’s camp.
Aaron followed, thinking about how different all of this would have been if Ferran had made a different choice ten years ago, if Jenny had told him she was pregnant, if matters hadn’t deteriorated in the Sanger family to the point where Rebecca had come to Côte de Diamant to find her sister.
It had all turned on a twist of fate.
Chapter 9
The day passed with excruciating slowness. The people from Sik Ru tried to stay busy by organizing and cataloging their finds, knowing they probably wouldn’t be back to their dig that year, or maybe for several years. Becca stayed with the injured Sophie so Jenny could work, but there wasn’t enough to fill the time. The tribal people were quiet, keeping to themselves.
The riders returned in mid-afternoon, dismounting from their horses in a swirl of urgency.
Becca ran out to meet Aaron, who took her arm and walked her to one side. “It’s true,” he said. “They’re massing on the border. Ferran called it in on the satellite phone. This tribe will be all right. Even in a coup, the Isbahar government doesn’t consider them to be worth harassing. But we have to get everyone else out of here”
“Back to Côte de Diamant?”
“Yes, and then out of Côte de Diamant and back to their own homes.”
That meant her, Becca realized. She was going to have to leave. She wouldn’t see him again. Dread thudded in her chest. “You’ll be called up, won’t you?”
“Yes. There’s no way of knowing how long this will last.”
In the darkness, she tried to search his face, but it was in shadow. She wanted him to look at her and tell her everything would be all right, that he would be safe.
“What do I need to do?”
“Help us get everyone out of here.”
Becca nodded. She had to put her own fears aside and focus on him, on helping him. “I have all of our things together. I’ll put them in the Range Rover.”
He nodded. “I’ll talk to Jennifer’s group, get them ready. Ferran is coming, too. He’ll drive them. Distribute what food we’ve got left to the tribe as well as most of the bottles of water. We’ll probably have to make a place for the injured girl because she needs to have her foot propped up.”
Becca chewed her bottom lip as she wondered how Jenny would feel about riding with Ferran. She couldn’t worry about it now. Turning, she hurried to the tent they’d shared the night before and gathered their things. She followed Aaron’s instructions, handing the food out to the elders while he removed the extra gasoline cans from the Range Rover and shared the fuel equally between the three vehicles that would be making the trip back to Côte de Diamant.
Becca used their sleeping bags and pillows to make a comfortable bed for Sophie, then returned to their tent to make sure she hadn’t forgotten anything.
Even though she knew they were in a hurry and people were scrambling to get ready to go, she paused for a moment to let the memories fill her with evocative heat and passion. Sex with him had been far more wonderful than she had expected it to be – partly because she’d never had particularly good sexual experiences, not with the few boyfriends she’d had, or with her husband. She realized now that Craig had been a selfish and arrogant lover as he’d been selfish and arrogant about everything else.
It had been wonderful with Aaron, though, because he was different. He’d been considerate yet demanding, making her give and take as much as she wanted. She ran her hands over her belly and held them there, feeling the remembered heat in her sex, longing for it again and again.
~*~
Aaron found her standing like that, head lowered in contemplation, her hands over the part of her that had given him such pleasure in the night – and where he’d given her joy and fulfillment.
He came up behind her, slid his hands down over hers, and then further to cup her in his hand. He kissed the side of her neck and she released her breath in a whoosh of air.
“You know, you’ve ruined me for any other lover,” she said, turning her head so that they were eye to eye.
“Good.”
She rolled her eyes. “You are so smug.”
He cuppe
d her sex again, making her shiver. “I think we’ve established that I’ve got a right to be.”
On a laugh, she turned. “Yes, you do.” She put her arms around his neck and pulled his head down so she could kiss him. Their mouths mated long and sweet until she pulled away and smiled up at him with trembling lips.
Seeing her like this, knowing they had to leave here and return to the real and dangerous world, was impossibly hard. He wanted to reassure her, say everything would be all right, but he didn’t know if it would be and he couldn’t lie to her.
Reluctantly, he set her away from him, but he took her face between his hands and looked into her blue eyes. “I hope you enjoyed your wedding night.”
Her lips slid into a soft, sexy smile and her eyes softened in a way that made him want to drag her back down to the bed on the floor and begin making love to her all over again. “I did,” she said.
“Good, because you’ll have no other.”
She blinked at him and opened her mouth to question him, but he kissed her again and said, “Come on. It’s time to go. We’ll have to drive all night and hope we don’t run into any trouble – or worse, the Isbaharian army.”
He ushered her ahead of him and they hurried to the truck where Sophie was settled, her leg propped up, bottles of water and pain pills at hand. They said hurried goodbyes to the tribe and started off in a caravan toward the border.
Since Ferran had spent his childhood roaming this area, he knew isolated back roads and sections of desert for them to cross. This kept them safer, and, amazingly cut several hours off of their traveling time. At last, they had to get onto the main road that would take them to Côte de Diamant because the border was heavily patrolled and crossing it at an unauthorized spot would bring guards from both countries down on them.
As he drove, following Ferran’s lead, Aaron wiped exhaustion from his eyes and fought to stay awake. Somehow, Sophie managed to sleep peacefully in the back seat in spite of the jolting and jostling she was receiving. Becca had stayed awake as long as she could, but had finally succumbed to her fatigue and now slept fitfully.
Book Boyfriends Cafe Summer Lovin' Anthology 2015 Page 71