Page 15

He shrugged. “Up the coast a little ways. I’ve got a map and GPS on my phone. We’ll find it.”

“In case you hadn’t noticed, this island is trashed. It’s not like we can just take off hiking over hill and dale. We’ve got no food, no water, and worse, no bug spray!”

He arched an eyebrow at her.

“I’m serious! Think about the size of mosquitoes that are going to start breeding in this mess. In a week, they’ll be carrying off small children.”

“I have industrial-strength bug repellent,” he replied dryly.

“You do? Hand it over.”

“There aren’t any insects out to speak of.”

“I feel itchy,” she declared.

“That’s the sand in your clothes. We need to preserve the supplies we have. I have no idea how long we’ll be here or what we’ll find when we get to where we’re going.”

“Do you know exactly where that will be?” she asked in resignation.

“Nope.”

He took his bearings using his cell phone, and then backtracked cautiously to a side road they’d passed a few minutes earlier. No telling if there were more military patrols out hunting for them or not. She rather thought that they would still be out here.

She stared up the narrow track that disappeared into the darkness. “You’re seriously going to just head off into the jungle?” she asked in dismay.

“There are fresh tire tracks on this road. It’s passable for at least a while.”

Well, that was encouraging. This “road” of his looked like a pair of bad ruts and not much more. Her certainty that he was torturing her on purpose mounted as they hiked up into the hills.

Thick cloud cover obscured any stars or moonlight, and with power out for many miles in every direction, there was no light pollution to break through the total blackness of the night.

She’d experienced darkness this thick and impenetrable once before, the night she, Dawn, and Alex had run for their lives in a remote mountain region on the other side of the world. She’d been terrified then, and she wasn’t much less terrified now.

The “road” did, in fact, hold up for several miles. But then, they hit a patch where, as far ahead as Alex’s high-powered flashlight could reach, nothing but downed trees were visible.

“End of the road,” he muttered.

“How far to wherever we’re headed?”

“Far enough that it’s time for us to make camp and get a little rest before we finish the hike.”

Oh, God. She watched in dismay as Alex moved off into the debris field.

She followed glumly and helped him spread out a tarp on a tiny patch of relatively bare ground.

They spread another tarp over a downed tree limb lying several feet above the first tarp.

They laid shredded banana leaves they pulled from the debris in a shingle pattern over the shelter to help it shed water, and then they covered the whole shelter with brush to camouflage it from prying eyes.

She crawled into the low tent and Alex followed suit. She muttered, “Did I ever mention I hate camping?”

“I got that memo the first time you went looking for an electrical outlet in a cave in Zaghastan so you could blow dry your hair.”

“I did not look for an outlet! I merely complained that there wasn’t one.”

“I rest my case,” he murmured.

“Just tell me there aren’t ginormous snakes crawling around all over the place out here.”

“There aren’t ginormous snakes crawling around all over the place out here.”

“Is that the truth?”

He snorted. “Of course not. The locals’ name for the Cuban boa constrictor is maja . They’re native to these jungles. Not the biggest snakes on Earth, but they’re aggressive.”

“Oh my God.”

“Get some sleep, Katie.”

“You’re kidding, right?”

He merely offered his arm for a pillow, and she couldn’t maintain enough ire to turn him down. She was exhausted by all this Jane of the Jungle stuff.

She wasn’t sure if it was the deafening cicadas outside or the steam heat inside the tent that woke her up, but either way, she roused to green light and the sticky discomfort of sand and sweat on her skin.

She rolled over and suppressed a groan. Her body ached from head to foot.

Her Pilates instructor was going to be so disappointed.

“Alex?” she called quietly.

“I’m here.”

She crawled out the opening in the end of their makeshift tent and sighed in relief as a stirring of cooler air caressed her skin. Alex was chopping up what looked like a papaya with the same sort of machete she’d seen those men carrying last night.

“Where’d you get that?” she exclaimed under her breath.

“From the tree over there. It fell over in the storm and the fruit wasn’t all blown away.”

“No, silly. The big-ass knife.”

“That road we were walking along last night used to be lined with houses. All sorts of household goods are snagged in the rubble. I picked this up.”

Personally, she’d been too absorbed in her misery to notice such things.

He passed her a dripping slice of orange papaya and she bit into it with a moan of pleasure. She’d never tasted anything so sweet and refreshing in all her life.

“I saved this for last,” he announced some minutes later. He hoisted a big green, roughly triangular fruit onto a big rock and raised the machete over it.

“What’s that?”

“Coconut.

“No way. They’re round, brown, hairy things.”

He grinned at her and took a whack at it. “The brown bit is the seed. This is the entire fruit.” It split open to reveal what she knew as a coconut nestled inside. He dug it out of the mushy pulp.

He gave the coconut a sharp rap with the machete and it split open. He dropped the knife and caught the two halves in his hand. “Drink the coconut water. We need the fluid.”

It didn’t taste bad, but it wasn’t that great, either. It was wet, though, and her body craved the moisture. They scooped out the coconut flesh with their fingers and ate that, as well. She liked hers sweetened, but hey. It could be a worse meal. Alex could be asking her to eat raw fish. Or bugs.

As the morning heated up, Alex stripped off his t-shirt to reveal a glistening chest rippling with muscle. “Are you looking to get jumped, sailor?” she murmured.

“By you? Bring it, baby.”

Her gaze narrowed. She did need to get naked anyway and shake the sand out of her clothes. She wiggled out of her jeans, which had dried tightly to her body. “I’m going to have to do some serious twerking to get those back on,” she declared.

He grinned. “I can’t wait to see the show.”

Speaking of which, she stripped off her shirt and made a production of reaching behind her back to unhook her bra. She brushed the sand off her breasts sensuously, enjoying the feel of her fingertips sweeping across the sensitive peaks.

Abruptly other fingers were there, pushing hers aside.

They brushed the sand off her entire body, in fact, leaving her moaning and gasping with pleasure.

And when she didn’t think she could take any more, Alex pushed her back against a fallen tree trunk, arching her backward until her body was taut.

When he had her immobilized and at his mercy, he finally unzipped his jeans, freed himself, and plunged into her.

She cried out and he pressed his hand over her mouth fast. Good call.

She never did have any restraint once he took control of her body.

She arched up into him, matching him thrust for thrust, sprawled across the giant log, while he took her fast, then slow, rough, then gentle.

He closed his eyes today, lost in his own pleasure.

But that was fine with her. Any second now, she was going to… .

…explode. She screamed against his hand. Like that. Ohmigosh. The orgasm had taken her by surprise, ripping through her like Giselle had gone through this end of Cuba.

Alex collapsed against her with a low, shuddering groan, pressing her uncomfortably into the rough tree bark. But nearly as quickly, he pushed away lifting her up and gently brushing off her backside. “Did we get all the sand off?” he asked wryly.

“I’m pretty sure we shook it all off,” she managed to reply without panting too audibly. She pulled her clothes on with unsteady hands while he efficiently dismantled their shelter, folded the tarps, and stowed them in his pack.

He announced, “It’s time for us to get moving. We have a ways to go before night. Wait here, and I’ll do a little reconnaissance.”

“Want me to come with you?”

“Good lord, no!”

Whether he was concerned for her safety or for the burden she would be to him, she couldn’t tell. Either way, he whirled and disappeared into the brush quickly, as if worried she might follow him, anyway.

She sighed. The man was such a loner, sometimes.

Darned if that wasn’t part of his appeal, though.

The fact that he’d chosen to let her inside his personal fortress of solitude was sexy as all get out to her.

Were they not fugitives who’d be arrested or shot on sight, and were there not boa constrictors out here, this wouldn’t be a bad little spot to stay for another day or two and have lots of hot monkey sex.

But after that, she would want a hot shower in a real bathroom in a decent hotel.

One day at a time, Katie. One day at a time .