wanting to tear his clothes off.
'Rachael? Where did you go?'
'Obviously nowhere.'
'I'm going to call Kim in.'
'What does that mean?'
'He's a tribesman, Rachael. He knows I'm on the bandits' hit list. He signaled to me who he was and he's waiting for an all-clear signal before he comes on in.'
'Do you have to give it to him?'
'He'll come in fighting if I don't, I told you, he's a friend.'
'In case you haven't noticed, I need clothes. I don't want to sit around in your shirt and nothing else in front of your friends.' She was hastily buttoning up the front of the shirt, hiding her generous breasts from his view.
Rio didn't comment on the quarrelsome note in her voice. He simply pulled the blanket from the bed and tucked it around her. 'Kim's father is a medicine man, very good with herbs. He taught me quite a bit, but Kim knows far more than I. Hopefully he can help both you and Fritz.'
When she didn't look up, Rio hunkered down beside her. 'Rachael, look at me.' When she didn't respond he caught her chin and forced her head up. The last thing he expected to see was heat and fire glittering in her dark eyes. Raw hunger stared back at him with an intensity that made him groan, push his brow into hers. 'Don't. I mean it, Rachael. You can't look at me like that and expect me to function properly.'
She had the craziest desire, no need, to squirm and rub herself all over him, much like a feline. It was a heat wave rolling through her that shook her confidence. 'If I could help it, do you think I'd be making such a fool out of myself?' Scratching his eyes out seemed a better alternative than rubbing her body against his at that moment. She let him see that too.
His face was inches from hers. He was catching fire from touching her skin, feeling the crackle of electricity arcing between them. Her eyes held a challenge he couldn't resist. Rio caught the nape of her neck, cupped the back of her head and dragged her mouth to his. There was no resistance at all. She fused with him instantly. Hot. Electric. Wild for him. Climbing into his skin, wrapping herself around his heart so tightly he felt it like a vise. Devouring him just as eagerly as he was devouring her.
It was only because they had to come up for air that he found the strength to lift his head. Rachael buried her face against his throat. 'This time it was my fault.' Her lips moved against his neck. Rio closed his eyes against the shimmering fire the brushing of her soft mouth sent through his body in strong waves. He had to find a way just to breathe. He doubted if air was going to get his brain functioning again.
The soft one-two note was closer this time. 'You just drove Kim right out of my head, Rachael.' He rubbed his face in the mass of thick curly hair.
'It's shocking how well you know how to kiss.'
He couldn't stop the silly grin that spread across his face. 'Isn't it though? I shocked myself.' The smile faded and he caught her chin again. 'I'm not giving you up or betraying you, Rachael. I know Kim. He won't endanger your life, not for any reason.'
'Money talks, Rio. Almost everyone has a price.'
'Kim lives simply, but more than that, he has a code of honor.'
Rachael nodded. There wasn't much else she could do. Rio was right in that she couldn't very well run away with her leg torn up. 'Answer him then.'
Rio didn't look away from her, but let out a singsong note that sounded to her exactly like the birds calling to one another just outside the walls of his home. She tucked his wild, shaggy hair behind his ear, allowing her fingertips to trail over his jaw, rub over his mouth. 'I'm afraid.'
'I know. I can hear your heart beating.' He circled her wrist, his thumb sliding over her pulse. 'There's no need to be.'
'It's a great deal of money he'll pay to get me back.'
'Your husband?'
She shook her head. 'My brother.'
His hand went to his heart, as if she'd stabbed him. Almost at once his face closed down. He drew air into his lungs, let it out; There was a watchfulness in his eyes, a suspicion that hadn't been there before. 'Your brother.'
'You don't have to believe me.' Rachael pulled away from him, leaned back in the chair and pulled the cover closer around her. The humidity was high, even with the wind blowing. Where Rio had pulled the covering away from the window, she could see thick mist curling around the foliage and creepers surrounding the house. 'I shouldn't have told you.'
'Why would your brother want to have you killed, Rachael?'
'You make me tired. It does happen, Rio. Maybe not in your world, but certainly in mine.'
Rio studied her averted face, trying to see past the mask she wore to what was going on her mind, his brain racing with the possibilities. Had she found his home by accident, or had she been sent to assassinate him? She'd had a couple of opportunities. He'd given her a gun. It was still there, beneath her pillow. Maybe she hadn't taken care of it because she needed him while her leg was healing.
He straightened slowly and walked over to the stash of weapons hanging on the wall. He strapped a sheath to his leg and pulled the leg of his pants over it. A second knife was positioned between his shoulder blades. He pulled his shirt on and tucked a gun into his waistband.
'Are you expecting trouble? I thought you said Kim Pang was your friend.'
'It's always better to be prepared. I don't like surprises.'
'I noticed,' she answered dryly, prepared to be angry with him over his boorish reaction to her admission. He may as well have slapped her. She had revealed something to him she had never admitted to another soul and he didn't believe her. She could tell by his immediate withdrawal.
Rio crouched beside the injured cat, his hands incredibly gentle as he examined the leopard. Her heart nearly turned over in her chest. His head was bent toward Fritz, his expression almost tender as he murmured softly to the cat. She had a sudden vision of him cradling his child, looking down lovingly, his thumb in the baby's tiny hand. He suddenly lifted his head and looked at her and smiled.
If it were possible to melt, Rachael was certain she did. His eyebrow arched. 'What? Why are you looking at me like that?'
'I'm trying to figure out what it is about you,' Rachael answered honestly. His face was no boy's face. His features were tough and hard-edged. His eyes could be ice-cold, frightening even, yet sometimes when she looked at him, Rachael couldn't breathe with wanting him.
Rio's hand stilled on the small leopard. She could shake him with just a simple sentence. It was terrifying to think of the hold she already had on him, especially since he had long ago accepted he would live alone. His life was here, in the rain forest. It was where he belonged, where he understood the rules and lived by them. He studied her face. A mystery woman with a silly made-up name.
The beast roared and Rio embraced the rising temper. He didn't want to see the expression on her face, her gaze drifting over his face with a mixture of emotions, feminine and confused, a tenderness he couldn't afford. 'The rules are different here in the rain forest, Rachael. Be very careful.'
As always she surprised him, her laughter invading his senses and squeezing his heart. 'If you're trying to scare me, Rio, there's nothing you can do I haven't already seen. I'm not easily shocked or easily frightened. I knew the day my mother died, back when I was nine years old, that the world wasn't a safe place and there were bad people in it.' She waved a dismissing hand, princess to the peasant. 'Save your scare tactics for Kim Pang, or whoever else you want to impress.'
Rio gave the small leopard one last pat, reached out casually to scratch Franz's ears before straightening to his full height, towering over her, filling the room with his extraordinary presence. He looked very uncivilized, completely untamed and at home in the wilds of the forest. When he moved, there was a fluid grace she'd only seen in predatory animals. When he ceased all movement, he was utterly, completely still. It was intimidating, but Rachael would never admit it.
'You'd be surprised at what I can do.' He said it quietly, and there was a soft, underlying menace to his tone.
Rachael's heart skipped a beat, but she kept her expression serene and merely lifted her eyebrow in response,
