|
 Sophia slept the
entire two-hour drive back to the village. Jordan was both
grateful and
disappointed. On
one hand, he’d wanted to know more about her, ferret out the
obvious discrepancies.
On the other, he didn’t want to know her at all and
certainly didn’t want to be drawn to her. Yet he could barely
keep his eyes on the road with her long, naked legs stretched
out on the passenger side, head tilted so the her
throat lay exposed.
By the time they pulled into camp, he found himself far
too interested.
The children must have been
in school, because they didn’t run to greet him as they
usually did. He
parked, set the brake and turned to look at her for a long
moment.
“Castillo.”
When she didn’t
stir, he laid his hand on her shoulder and eyed the open
neckline of her blouse, the smooth, slick cocoa skin beneath. He licked his bottom
lip, already tasting the saltiness of it, the warmth.
“Come on,
Castillo. I don't need
this." He squeezed her shoulder above the delicate collarbone
that peeked from beneath the windblown fabric. She remained
asleep.
So close
now, his mouth only inches from her skin.
Her scent filled his senses, spicy, slightly Oriental.
It clouded his mind, weakened his judgment.
He
stroked her cheek, and found her skin as soft as the petals of a wild
orchid. Just one taste.
One little kiss on her jaw line. Even as he drifted
toward her, he wondered what in the hell he was doing. But part of him needed
to lay his lips on that spot just below her ear and sample.
The children
burst from the small schoolhouse en masse, saving him
from himself. “Castillo.
Wake up before you’re trampled by a horde of wild
children.”
He shook her shoulder and
smiled at the exuberant group approaching. Hope she likes
kids.
But he’d bet she wouldn’t. The wealthy had
nannies to perform the dirty work of raising
children.
But he wasn't
going to find out how accurate his assumption was because she
didn't wake. Concern honed his attention. He pressed
one hand to her forehead, then her neck.
She was as hot as the undiluted Brazilian sun.
“Shit.”
He scanned the crowd of children. “Tomás!” he called to
one of the older boys.
“Get Tula.”
The boy
hesitated less than a second before sprinting off. Jordan turned Sophia’s
face toward him.
“Castillo.
Come on, wake up.” He shook her
gently.
“Castillo.”
She scrunched
her face and groaned. A
breath of relief hissed though his teeth, as her eyelids fluttered
then went still again. He continued to prod
her, tapping her face, jostling her shoulder.
She reached up and slapped
his hand away from her cheek. Jordan laughed. “That’s it. Come on,
baby.”
“Don’t call me baby.”
“When you
open your eyes, get your butt out of this Jeep and walk on
your own two feet to the hut, I’ll stop calling you baby.”
She pulled her eyes open
just enough to scowl at him.
He vaulted the
driver’s door and rounded the Jeep, pushing past the hovering
children. “Come
on, Castillo.
Let’s get you into bed.”
 Carnal visions
sparked in his head—naked
limbs entwined, bodies and lips pressed. Oh, yeah, it would be
a long two weeks.
“What?"
Her eyes popped
open. A flash of
pain slid into a dull sheen, and they fell closed a moment
later. “I
hurt.
Everywhere.”
“Let me take
care of that.” He
plucked her from the seat and carried her toward his hut.
The children followed,
whispering and giggling.
Other village residents stood outside their huts
watching with a mix of concern, interest and
amusement.
“McBride. Put me
down.”
“I’d be happy
to, but you’d end up in the dirt.” Entering the hut, he
turned to the dark-skinned faces filling the doorway. “Vamoos!”
Laying her gently onto the
straw mattress he’d prepared for her stay, he pressed a hand
to her forehead again, as if he expected her temperature to
have changed in the last two minutes.
He knelt by the side of the
make-shift bed and unbuttoned her blouse.
Her hands covered his, grasping his fingers firmly enough to immobilize his
fingers.
His surprise turned into a
smile with thoughts of what those strong hands could do. “That’s quite a
grip.”
“What do you
think you’re doing?”
“You’ve got a fever. I’m taking off your
clothes to cool you down.”
“The hell you
are.”
Jordan stood and stared down
at her, hands on hips.
Didn’t take long for the nasty little spitfire to
emerge from under the gloss. “Christ, you haven’t
been here thirty minutes and you’re already a pain in the
ass.”
“Get used to it, or stay out
of my way.”
“Yeah. You’re downright
terrifying.”
Sophia rubbed her eyes. “Shut up.”
“I can see we’ll
get along just fine.”
He wet a small cloth in the
water basin and laid it on her head. Her body
lost all its tension, and she dissolved into the stiff
mattress. “Oh, God.”
Her whisper shimmered over
him, tightening his skin. He repositioned the
cloth on the side of her face then slid it down her neck. When the coolness touched her chest, she tipped her
head back, parted her lips and murmured something
unintelligible. A
glimpse of how she’d respond in bed. His groin grew heavy
and hot. He
continued to move the cloth over her face and neck. “Can I at least put
this on your stomach?”
She murmured. He took the seductive
sound as a yes.
With both hands, he gripped the fabric at the waistband
of her shorts and tugged it up over her torso. She didn’t utter any
complaint. His
gaze skimmed her tiny waist and flat, smooth stomach, his
fingers flowing over her navel. Her body
quivered.
“No, no, Jordan,” Tula scolded him as
the hut door closed at her back. He glanced over his
shoulder only to be rewarded with a slap to the side of his
head.
“Ow!” He rubbed his temple
and grinned at one of the eldest tribal members. The mother he’d never
had.
“You bad boy. Leave the poor
girl.” The lines around her eyes deepening with
the weak reprimand. She bustled around the
hut gathering a blanket, another cloth and the water bowl.
She nudged Jordan out of the way with a compact, lithe
little frame and knelt next to the mattress, murmuring to
Sophia in Portuguese.
Jordan crossed
his arms and watched the older woman smooth back the dark
strands that had fallen out of Sophia’s hair clip.
“Don't baby her too much, Tula. We might never get rid
of her.” | 
