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  “Oh, God,” she rasped, her breath coming hard and fast now. “I’m going to c—”

  She didn’t finish the sentence. Instead, she threw her head back against the tree, her lovely, damp throat arched delicately, her brilliant eyes squeezed shut in ecstasy. His name moaned from her open mouth, and he watched as the most beautiful woman in the world came unraveled in his arms. Watched as—

  A loud crash sounded behind them and Steady spun, his weapon ripped from his holster, up and aimed in a split second. All the hot passion roaring through his veins was instantly replaced by the harsh bite of adrenaline. And when he saw what he was drawing down on, his asshole tightened so fast he was surprised the thing didn’t whistle. Swearing sharply when Abby’s soft-soled shoes scuffled in the dirt as she teetered against his back, he threw an arm behind him to steady her. The puffs of moist air that hit his left tricep were her ragged breaths.

  “Merlin’s pants!” she cursed, and under normal circumstances he would have barked out a laugh. Abby came up with the most amazing and inventive profanities he’d ever heard. It was one of the things that had immediately endeared her to him. Well, that and her tight little tush. Come on, now. He was a red-blooded male, after all. “What the damn, Car—”

  “Shhh,” he hissed. “Don’t say another word, Abby. Don’t move.”

  He heard a fainting ticking sound as her throat stuck over a swallow. Then she disobeyed him, slowly peeking from behind his back. He knew she’d gotten a good long glance at their current problem when a little eep hissed from between her lips and her nails dug into his arm.

  You know those wild animals he was contemplating earlier? Well he was eyeball-to-eyeball with one of them.

  The biggest one of them…

  “Okay, Abby,” he said softly, making no sudden moves lest he frighten or threaten the big bull elephant standing no more than ten feet away. The animal’s ears flared wildly, and its trunk swung back and forth in obvious challenge. He’d always heard the Asian elephant was smaller than the African elephant. But, Madre de Dios, this creature looked huge. And mean. Definitely mean. “We’re going to slowly make our way back toward the river bank. And then we’re going to run—”

  “No,” she interrupted him. “We can’t run. We have to skirt the tree, hide behind it, and wait.”

  Wait? Wait for what? “Abby, I don’t—”

  “Listen to me, Carlos. I know what I’m talking about,” she growled, and the elephant’s eyes rolled until Steady could see the whites. Then it lifted its trunk to trumpet an earsplitting warning, and his heart tried to frackin’ Spider-Man its way out of his throat.

  How many rounds would it take to bring the bull down?

  More than you’ve got, pendejo. Much more. Mierda!

  He hesitated a second longer. Every instinct told him to make a run for it. The beast was big, but it was lumbering, sí? They could surely outpace it. Then again, Abby was no fool. And if she said she knew what she was talking about, he’d be an idiot not to listen.

  “Okay,” he whispered, “let’s get behind the tree.” And pray to the good Madre Maria you know what you’re doing.

  Slowly, carefully, they began inching their way around the huge trunk. The bull watched them, furiously swinging its head from side to side. Its huge white tusks cut through the foliage with each move, proving how sharp the ivory really was…and how deadly…

  When Steady could no longer see the animal, he glanced down at Abby and asked, “What now?”

  She looked at him, her mouth squeezed into a thin line. It was hard to believe mere seconds ago she’d had it slung open while in the throes of orgasm. Dios, he would have liked to continue watching that. Watching Abby unravel oh-so-completely.

  Talk about piss-poor timing. If they happened to survive this encounter with the elephant, he was going to curse the beast to an early grave.

  “Like I said,” she whispered. “We wait.”

  And people accused him of being reticent with details? “Wait for what?” he asked the question aloud this time. But before she could answer, the bull let loose with another eardrum-bursting baraaaaaag!

  Abby jumped and clutched his biceps. Now it was the whites of her eyes he was worried about. She certainly wasn’t wearing the expression of a woman who was certain of her decision to hide behind a goddamned tree!

  “Wait for what, Abby?” he insisted, taking her hands from his arms to squeeze her fingers. There still might be time to make a run for it.

  “For him to stop seeing us as a threat, get bored, and wander off.” She chewed on her lower lip—that lower lip he’d been in the middle of sucking one minute ago. Damnit! He had to remind himself once again that their interrupted bout of…uh…whatever you’d call it…heavy petting?…pre-coitus, maybe?…was currently the least of his worries.

  The most of his worries? Well, those began and ended with the fact that Abby’s entire plan hinged on the idea that the elephant would eventually…wait for it…get bored.

  “Seriously?” he hissed. “We’re supposed to rely on the short attention span of a pachyderm? Aren’t they known for their long memories?”

  She made a face at him. He made one right back. She whacked him on the arm. He whacked her—gently—right back.

  “Stop it,” she grumbled.

  “You stop it,” he replied, fighting a smirk. Their playful banter reminded him of how they were together in college. Of how he’d loved to torment her until she slugged him on the arm, which in turn gave him a reason to slug her…but really just touch her…in return. Then a shuffling noise told him the elephant had stepped up to the tree, and all his lightheartedness disappeared.

  The hairs on the back of his neck twanged a warning. “We should have made a run for it when we had the ch—”

  “We couldn’t have outrun him,” she insisted, gulping loudly when snuffling sounded on the other side of the tree.

  “And how could you possibly know that?” he demanded in a harsh whisper, his fingers itching for the feel of his weapon. Not that a bullet would do much good should he be forced to use one. It’d likely just piss the animal off.

  “When I was studying the effects of rubber tree plantations on the native plant species”—she said, referring to the speech she’d given at the horticulture convention and scooting closer to him when the elephant’s trunk appeared directly to their right; they shuffled as a unit two steps to the left to avoid it—“I read a few articles about increased aggression of jungle elephants toward humans.”

  “Increased aggression?” he growled.

  “The articles said that with their loss of habitat, the elephants have started going after farmer’s crops. The farmers, in turn, are injuring and sometimes killing the elephants. So now the elephants are charging humans whenever they see them. There have been quite a few deaths. Deaths that could have been avoided had the humans not tried to run. Running only antagonizes the poor creatures. And they’re much faster than they look.”

  Poor creatures? Not exactly how he would have described the big bull. Especially when it slammed the flat of its head against the trunk of the tree, causing the entire thing to shimmy and groan. Big heart-shaped leaves rained down from above. Bark snapped as it was cracked loose from wood.

  Abby grabbed his shoulders, her eyes flying so wide it was a wonder the things didn’t fall right out of her head.

  Steady would not have been surprised to see himself wearing a similar expression. “Did these articles happen to mention how long it usually takes for the animals to get bored?”

  She glanced up at him, wrinkling her nose. “They left that part out.”

  “Sí. Of course they did.”

  Chapter Ten

  Sniff…wuffle…baraaaaaag!

  The elephant was getting frustrated at their continued ability to evade its searching trunk, and Abby could only pray the advice she’d read in those articles was correct. It was bad enough to think of dying at the hands of militants, but getting snuffed out by a pissed
-off pachyderm?

  PRESIDENT’S DAUGHTER DONE IN BY DUMBO…

  Yep, she could see the headlines now. Definitely not the most respectable way to go and—

  Baraaaaaag! She jumped as another head-splitting trumpet blasted through the humid jungle air. Carlos tightened his arms around her, and she couldn’t help but think of what would have happened had the elephant not timed its arrival so precisely.

  I mean, what the frickin’ sticks was I thinking? Oh, yes. She hadn’t been thinking. That was the whole problem. She’d simply been playing the part of Slutty McSlutNuggets, attempting to bang the one guy on the face of the planet she had no business banging.

  Of course, in her own defense, it was a hard to say no to him when she’d been fantasizing about saying yes for most of her adult life. And then, as if that weren’t enough, there was the shock value of the thing. As in, Carlos Soto kissing her, caressing her, telling her to ride him and—

  She still had trouble believing it. Trouble believing he’d actually, factually wanted her. And, alrighty then, so maybe instead of seeing her as nothing more than that pesky undergrad who followed him and Rosa around like a lost puppy, she had, in fact, grown up in his eyes.

  Still, you’re an idiot to have let things go so far, she admonished herself, even as she reveled in the feel of being held so tightly against his wide chest that she could hear his heartbeat thudding steadily beneath her ear. She wondered how it was he could remain so calm when they were ten seconds away from being skewered on a set of pointy ivory tusks. But then he moved his leg, just a little, and every thought in her head came to tire-squealing stop.

  He was…hard.

  As in still fully, wonderfully, largely erect. Yep, there was no forgetting his rather…er…impressive girth. After all, she’d had her hand wrapped around him not five minutes ago when she’d come. Come! And then the afterglow had been cut frustratingly short by the ill-timed arrival of the elephant.

  Her fingers twitched against the material of Carlos’s tank top, and it was then she realized the stupid appendages were itching to reach down and touch him again. And maybe this time we’ll both be able to get off. Wouldn’t that be nice? Wouldn’t it?

  No, she admonished herself. Bad girl. Stupid girl. Horny girl… Damnit!

  Glancing up, she raised an eyebrow in question. It was the facial equivalent of Really? At a time like this?

  He frowned. It caused his delicious dimple to deepen, and her silly womb contracted like he’d stroked a finger into her center. She sighed as she realized there was no going back to the woman she’d been before she knew what it was like to be pleasured by Carlos. To have his lips on her lips. To feel his tongue teasing her tongue. To hear him demanding things that both thrilled and titillated her. To know that he—

  “It’s the adrenaline,” he whispered.

  “Huh?”

  “Why I’m still hard,” he explained. “Adrenaline does that to a man’s body. Not that I’m not still terribly excited to have you snuggled tight like this, belleza.” To prove his point, he pulled her closer, rubbing himself against her hip. She could feel the heat of him through his cargo pants. It was enough to make her light-headed. “And as soon as we get out of this godforsaken jungle, I plan to show you exactly—”

  He stopped when the elephant made one final attempt to find them with its trunk. Then the sound of snapping twigs and crackling leaves told them the bull had finally decided to move on.

  He gently set her aside and peeked around the tree. But the elephant was now firmly planted at the very back of her mind. Because screaming at the front of her brain were Carlos’s words… As soon as we get out of this godforsaken jungle, I plan to show you exactly…

  What?

  She suspected she knew. He planned to show her exactly what they’d missed out on with the arrival of the elephant.

  I have to tell him… Sorry, Dad, but it’s time to come clean.

  “Carlos, I need to t—”

  “We’re clear.” He turned to her, his dark eyes twinkling, his tan face creased in a wide smile that made his white teeth gleam, even in the shade of the canopy. “You were right!” He chuckled before bending to plant a smacking kiss on her lips. “He got bored and wandered off, eh?” He raked a big hand back through his mop of thick, black hair.

  She now knew what it was to feel that hair between her fingers, so warm and sleek and alive. And although that last kiss was swift and platonic, try telling that to her lips. The silly things prickled like they’d been stung by a whole hive of bees.

  Do it. Do it, now!

  “There’s something that I need to t—”

  “By my estimation, there are at least a dozen or so miles between us and the Thai border. Without my gear, and given the rough terrain, it’ll be one hell of a hike.” His eyes narrowed as he glanced at his big black watch, then at treetops overhead, and around at the dense, wet undergrowth. It was obvious by the two vertical creases pinching his eyebrows together that he was busy working through the ins and outs of their trip. “If we make sure to stay hydrated and keep up a steady clip, we might just make it by nightfall. Which would be my preference since the jungle is no place to navigate in the dark. And while there is something romantic about the idea of spending the night with you huddled in a slapdash lean-to”—he winked at her—“believe me when I say, the reality is far from sexy. Besides, staying in the jungle might make it difficult for our extraction team to get to us, and it just might give the militants time to catch up.”

  The militants…

  How could she have forgotten about them?

  Um, probably something to do with Carlos’s kisses. Yep, so those things were hot enough to burn a girl’s brain down to ashes. And she was totally going to claim that as her excuse. Because…you know…militants! Not generally something one filed away under the category of No Big Deal.

  “Sorry.” He shook his head. “What were you about to say?”

  She swallowed and squared her shoulders, briefly closing her eyes in order to bolster her courage. Frickin’ sticks…here goes…

  When she pried open her lids, she did her best to steadily hold his gaze. “There’s something we need to talk about,” she started, then stopped when his face became an instant mask of inscrutability. The change was so sudden, she frowned, tilting her head.

  “You regretting what we just did together?” he asked, a muscle ticking in his jaw, the heat in his black eyes having iced over in under a second.

  God, yes! Because if he knew what she’d done eight years ago, he would never deign to touch her, let alone kiss and caress her and whisper hot, demanding words in her ear until he made her come. On the other hand, she couldn’t bring herself to lament having allowed herself that one glorious, all-too-brief moment in his arms. Because it would undoubtedly be the only one she ever experienced.

  “No,” she told him. “That was…” She swallowed, shaking her head, having no words to describe what it had meant to her. She tried another tack. “I’ll relive that in my dreams a million times over. You were… It was…” Again words failed her, so she simply shrugged, her expression begging him to understand.

  That inscrutable mask of his dissolved into a grin. “Sí.” He nodded. “My sentiments exactly.”

  And it would be so easy to take a couple of steps forward, go up on tiptoe, reclaim his mouth, and forget about coming clean. “Carlos,” she began, “what I meant to say is how incredibly sorry I am that—”

  “Abby,” he interrupted, shaking his head. “Stop apologizing for having to take a leak, sí? When a girl’s got to go, a girl’s got to go. Besides, what’s done is done. And if we have any hope of making it out of this jungle alive, we need to focus on what’s in front of us, like that Thai border, instead of what’s behind us.”

  Any hope of making it out of this jungle alive…

  Focus on what’s in front of us…

  Alrighty then, so maybe now wasn’t the time to dish out heaping helpings of truth. Maybe
he had enough on his plate without her adding a big ol’ spoonful of painful revelations to the mix.

  And maybe I’m just a coward…

  “Okay.” She nodded, forcing herself to swallow the guilt sitting at the back of her throat like a thick slice of Momordica charantia, a plant known in these parts as bitter melon. “Let’s get a move on.” But when she took a step forward, her toe caught on a root, and she was thrown into his arms. “Son of an ingrown butt hair,” she grumbled.

  “Ha!” Carlos’s crack of laughter echoed into the canopy, startling her. “Son of an ingrown butt hair, eh?” With his warm hands on her shoulders, he helped her regain her footing, setting her gently away from him. And now her stupid shoulders were the ones prickling. “That’s a new one.”

  “I try.” She twisted her lips and looked down to re-arrange her tunic top around the skirt material bunched up around thighs. When she glanced back up, it was to discover a strange look plastered over Carlos’s face. Then to her utter consternation, he jumped back and started flailing around like one of those plastic, inflatable air-puppets that dances in front of used car dealerships.

  “What’s that? What are you doing?” she demanded. “Why are you hopping around like you have ants in your pants?”

  “Ants!” he yelped, whacking at his legs as he simultaneously unfastened the holster tied around his thigh. “In my pants!”

  For a moment, she simply stood there, blinking at him as he danced around. Then the levity of the situation had her rolling in her lips to keep from grinning. “So that’s an actual thing?” Of course, all her humor dissolved when she glanced around to discover that, sure enough, the elephant had disturbed an anthill and the dark red critters were swarming all around them. “Oh, God,” she said, then “Oh! Ow!” when one of the little suckers sank its mandibles into her ankle. Hopping on one foot, she slammed her palm down on the impudent pest and ran for the relative safety of the roots of a nearby tree. Jumping on the foot-high, bark-covered log, she watched Carlos bend to untie his jungle boots. For a moment, she was distracted by the quick efficiency of his long fingers. Fingers that had speared deep into her hair. Fingers that had gripped her hips to grind her—