Page 48

“Afraid to fight me like a man?” she seethed.

“You’re the one fighting dirty,” he said, pressing her harder into the soil.

“Dirty wins.”

She bucked beneath him and the friction of her body against his sent a thrill of electricity through him. He froze, suddenly aware of their positions. The last time he’d had a woman laid out beneath him like this, the circumstances had been much different. Though looking down at her with her face flushed and lips wet, he needed to remind himself of that fact. Heat crawled up his neck and he couldn’t draw his eyes away from where her lips stretched over bared teeth.

Unaware of his dilemma, Sofia continued to twist and fight beneath him, her hips shifting against him in rhythm.

“Stop moving!” he seethed, even as she went rigid beneath him. His body was thrumming, with anger and something more, and he knew she now felt his reaction to her. It was pressed against her hip and impossible to ignore. She went limp beneath him and he immediately let her go, pushing himself up.

He turned, straightening his clothes and adjusting himself, trying his best to suppress the red creeping up his neck. She brushed the dirt off herself and combed the leaves from her tangled curls before turning back to him.

“Don’t touch me again,” she said, sneering as she looked down at his crotch.

“That didn’t mean anything. It was a natural reaction.”

“I know how cocks work.”

“Why are you so crass?”

She gave a sharp laugh. “You don’t like me saying cock?”

The heat rose in his face and her smirk deepened.

“C..o..c..k…” she said, slowly enunciating each sound.

“Bitch,” he said, copying her tone with a smile. He ignored the snarl that rose from her throat, stepping closer to her. “Don’t hit me again.”

“Fine.” She didn’t meet his eyes.

He opened his mouth, not sure what he was even going to say, but she didn’t give him the chance. She turned and stormed away, not bothering to wait for him to follow. He was tempted not to. He wouldn’t have to deal with her constant verbal sparring or what his body’s reaction meant. He wouldn’t have to remember the feel of her body writhing underneath him. But it would be a pointless act of suicide to allow himself to be left out here alone—at least until they found water and he could get his brain working again. He had a weapon now and knew a vague direction he needed to go. If he could figure out his water situation, he could easily survive a few days alone in the rainforest as he made his way back to the city. He wouldn’t have her, but he’d have the information for the chief commander.

He was still trying to weigh his options, when he saw Sofia, who was walking a few yards ahead of him, vanish without warning. He stopped, staring at where she had just been, as if she might reappear at any moment, her disappearance another nasty trick of the rainforest. Was this some new faery magic he’d never heard of? But in the same moment he thought that, he heard the splash of water echoing from somewhere beneath him.

With more care than he thought possible given his dehydrated and exhausted state, he inched forward, checking his weight on the ground with each step. If Sofia had missed the hole in the earth, he’d likely not fare any better. Once he made it to where she’d disappeared, he saw a small tear in the vines and bushes that crowded across the forest floor and hid the small cenote opening from view.

The ground beneath his feet was unsteady and he carefully moved onto his stomach to yell down into the opening.

“Are you okay?”

There was a splash before he heard an answering splutter.

“I think so, yes.”

He leaned back, content to know she was at least breathing. As much as he wanted to simply walk away, the splashing of water beneath him made his jaw ache with need. But he also didn’t want to take the same way down.

“Is the water fresh?” he said as he ripped the vines away, careful to keep his feet on solid ground.

“Gods, yes!” she said after a delay that only made his thirst louder. He could almost imagine the cold, fresh water rushing down her throat which each swallow.

Once he’d ripped more of the vines away, he was able to see that the opening she’d fallen into was only a few feet across at its widest and there was no option for getting down without jumping. The hole itself was at the top of a large cavernous ceiling stretching above an emerald lake.

Even as he mentally prepared himself to jump down, he realized that the lake was sparkling with sunlight—too much sunlight given the small hole. He stood up, looking farther in the distance and trying to see the ground ahead, but the thick underbrush was impossible to read.

“I’m going to find the other opening,” he called down, trying to see where she was splashing below.

“Farther up. You won’t miss it.”