She tightened her hold around his neck, lifted her body so he could suckle her breast. Just that easy she was hot and wet and needful. He did things with his tongue, stroking and dancing and teasing until she couldn't stand it and she began to slowly settle over his thick erection.
'Oh, yeah, that's what I want,' he said, his breath hissing out of his lungs. 'Arch back and ride me, nice and slow, take your time.'
She leaned back, turning her face to the sky, to the warm rain and slowly slid her body up and down his. The rain fell on her face, droplets trickled between her breasts, down her stomach to sizzle in the heat of their joining. She smiled up at their audience, wishing them all the pleasure in the world. Wishing them the joy and freedom of a sensual relationship.
'You're so beautiful,' he gasped the words, shocked at how the light fell across her face, revealing the intensity of her pleasure. It heightened her natural beauty. She was so uninhibited with him. So uncaring that he could see how much she wanted him, how much she enjoyed his body.
She laughed softly. 'I'm only beautiful because you make me feel that way.' Lightning sizzled in her veins. Fire raced over her skin. She controlled the pace, deliberately moving slow, taking him deep, gripping tight with her muscles.
Rachael had no idea how Rio managed to make the world a place of sunlight and paradise when she'd lived in the shadows for so long. The rain fell softly, enhancing brilliant color in every direction, scattering rainbow prisms across the sky. Or maybe it was behind her eyes. It didn't matter. There was only Rio in her world and he was all that mattered.
She felt his body gathering power and strength, she felt her own tightening in anticipation. Then they were spinning out of control on a dizzying ride, clinging to one another for safety. The leaves overhead whirled in a kaleidoscope of colors and shapes. Patterns of light and dark flecked the ground. It was necessary to share breathing as they kissed, hands moving over sensitized skin in a kind of worship.
Rachael laid her head on his shoulder, holding him close to her. Their hearts beat out a wild, frantic tattoo even as the rain continued to fall softly. 'I love it here, Rio,' she murmured, her lips against his throat. 'I love everything about this place.'
'You came home,' he answered, slowly lowering her feet to the forest floor.
The pack was stashed high up in the tree in case of flooding. Rio went up the trunk quickly and tossed her clothes, shoes and a towel. Rachael found herself laughing. 'This is a crazy way to live. Have you ever had the monkeys steal your pack?'
'Not yet. They are very respectful of my things.' He glanced upward at the animals as the gibbons moved through the trees foraging for food before he dropped down beside her,
Rachael dressed quickly in the shelter of a large tree. 'It's so much quieter.'
'The birds are busy looking for food. Fruit, nectar, insects, they don't have much time to call back and forth, although you'll hear them occasionally. During midday, there's often a bit of a lull in the chatter.' He buttoned his jeans and reached over to straighten the tails of her shirt. 'You always look so cute in my clothes.'
Her eyebrow shot up. 'I've never been called cute. Elegant, but not cute.'
'That's right. You're a rich lady. You wear designer clothes.'
'How did you know they were designer clothes, jungle boy?'
He grinned at her. 'I get around. You'd be surprised where this jungle boy has been.' He leered deliberately.
Rachael laughed, then sobered, her gaze drifting over his face. 'Nothing about you would surprise me, Rio.'
Just like that she managed to put a lump in his throat. 'Come here and let me carry you.' He held out his hand.
'I'd like to try to walk, even for a short distance. It feels so good to be managing a bit on my own.' Her fingers found his and clung.
Rio brought her hand to the warmth of his mouth, pressed a kiss into her palm. 'Just a short distance. You haven't been able to bear any weight on the leg and I don't want you to overdue it. Tama's potion will only help so much.'
'I know.' Her ankle and calf were throbbing, but she was never going to admit that to him, not if she wanted to walk on her own. He had a stubborn jaw, and his eyes could go from shimmering fire to ice cold in a heartbeat. Rio was a man who could get bossy very quickly given the right circumstances. She smiled to herself and took the first step, tugging at his hand. 'I can't wait for a hot bath, come on.'
He frowned but he went with her, keeping a watchful eye on how she walked. 'Out here, Rachael, you always have to be alert to your surroundings. The birds are going to sound a warning and you have to notice, you have to hear the different notes. They'll call to you, and depending on what frightens them, you can pick up what's intruding into our neighborhood.'
'I've caught it a couple of times.' She tried not to limp. Walking on her own seemed a miracle to her. She looked around at the trees laden with fruit. Everywhere she looked color exploded. The massive tree trunks came in all colors and were covered by life-forms. Lichen, fungi, fern and everywhere. At first there was quite a bit of light, the shorter trees along the river allowing the sun to blaze down, but as they went deeper into the interior, the taller trees sheltered them with denser canopy.
'Look at these tracks, Rachael.' Rio crouched down to study the myriad of tracks near a shallow pool. He touched a larger paw print with four distinct toes. 'This is clouded leopard. Probably Franz watching our backtrail. They started following me when I went to work, even when I crossed borders, so it was safer to train them. I couldn't stop the silly things from following me everywhere.'
'Are you worried about Fritz?'
'No, he's had wounds before. He knows how to hole up in the forest. He'll come back when it's safe. I didn't want him at the house alone. If the spotted leopard found him, it would have killed him just out of sheer meanness. Look at this one.' He pointed to a very small track much like the clouded leopard track. 'This is a leopard cat. They're about the size of a domestic cat, usually reddish or yellowish coats with black rosettes. This was a busy place this morning.'
'What's that strange track? It looks like it has webbing on the feet.'
'That's a masked civet. They're nocturnal.' He looked up at her. 'Are you ready for me to carry you?' He straightened slowly. 'Or do I have to pull rank and give you an order? You're limping.'
'I didn't realize we were in the military.'
'Anytime we're under a death threat, we're under military rules.'
Her laughter rose to the forest canopy, blended with the continuous call of the barbel, a bird that seemed to love the sound of its own voice. 'Are you making up tales as we go along?'
'It was quick thinking on my part. Aren't you impressed?' He swung her into his arms. 'I want to know a little more about your mother's family. Did you meet them?'
'I don't remember hearing of my mother's parents at all. My brother spoke of our birth father's parents. He said we went to visit them in deep jungle once. They gave him treats and my grandmother rocked me. But they died around the same time as my father. He was on a trip and he never came back.'
'And then your mother took you away?'
'I don't honestly remember, I was so young. Most of what I know is what my brother told me. After my father died, my mother took us to another small village on the edge of the forest. She met my stepfather. His family was very wealthy and they had a lot of land, a lot of power where we lived. We were there for some time and then he moved us to the United States.'
Rachael looked around her, drinking in the scents and sights of the rain forest. It was truly beautiful with thousands of varieties of plant life in every color. Butterflies were in abundance, sometimes covering trunks of flowering fruit trees, adding to the explosion of color everywhere she looked. The forest seemed alive, leaves swaying, lizards and insects continually on the move, birds flitting from tree to tree. It was teaming with life. Termites and ants vied for territory near a large fallen tree.
'We lived in Florida on a huge estate. It was such beautiful and wild country in the mangroves and swamp. We had humidity and lots of alligators.' She brushed back his hair. 'No one turned into leopards.'
'There were no big cats in the area? No signs of big cats?'
Rachael frowned. 'Well of course there were rumors of panthers, the Florida panther in the swamps, but I
