Dangerous Attraction Romantic Suspense Boxed Set (40 page)

“Kick, Ann!” He used all his leg muscles and thought he felt the bottom of the river. It took a few more kicks before he could dig his toes into the pebbles and dirt at the river’s bottom. The rushing water started carrying Ann out of his arms, but he grabbed onto her bag and held on as she gripped the shoulder straps. Her head went under the water several times as he forced his body against the flow of the water.

He was totally focused on each step, but suddenly noticed that her weight had disappeared. He freaked out, thinking she’d fallen out of the arm holds of her backpack. He looked back and saw her moving beside him, taking each step he did, trying to make it to shore. She smiled over at him, and he knew he had lost a part of his heart.

How could this have happened so quickly? A woman who could smile as if she was looking at the gates of heaven after what they’d just been through deserved better than him. He was a soldier, a drone, used to doing other people’s hard and dirty work. He didn’t deserve someone who took sunshine with her everywhere she went.

When they collapsed on the muddy shore, he looked around for his bag, hoping that it had somehow come ashore. He tried to gauge how far they’d gone and looked back up river to see if the men were in pursuit.

He estimated that they’d traveled a few miles. He didn’t notice anyone following them, but that could change. They needed to get away from the water and quickly. He looked over at Ann. She was resting the back of her head on the grassy shore. Mud was caked into her hair and her clothes were soaked and muddy. Her eyes were closed as she leveled her breathing.

“We have to get moving, Princess. The men might be right behind us.”

She nodded and started to rise, her bag still on her shoulders. He reached over and took it from her. “Since I lost mine, I’ll carry the extra weight.” She smiled and nodded again. He wondered why she wasn’t talking and asked, “Is your throat okay?”

She coughed a few times, then whispered. “I think I drank too much water and dirt. It will be fine, after I get a drink.”

He stopped and allowed her to pull out her canteen of water. As she took a drink, he realized most of the food had been in his bag. He could have kicked himself for not looking ahead and being smart enough to put some more in hers. He’d never lost his bag before. Never. He’d just have to deal with that later. Right now they needed to get as far away from the water as they could.

“Here, walk on the dry spots so we don’t leave tracks.” He held out his hand and showed her where to step. She followed his instructions and then he said, “Go stand under that tree.”

She walked over and after checking the branches for snakes, leaned against the trunk. He broke off a small branch and tried to wipe away their exit from the river. It wasn’t perfect, but it would have to do. He threw the branch into the bushes and met her under the tree. Grabbing her hand, they started walking quickly.

“How do you know where we are? If we are even heading in the right direction?”

He tapped his head.

“Oh, come on. You can’t have a map in that big head of yours.”

He chuckled at her. He jumped a small ravine and then turned to help her across.

“I have a photographic memory. Actually, my sister has it, too. I guess we got it from our mom. I could never get away with anything when I lived at home.” He chuckled again.

She watched his back, almost tripping over a small tree that had fallen.

“Well? Go on…”

He turned and looked over his shoulder at her.

“What?”

“Tell me about your mother.”

He smiled and held a large branch aside for her. She noticed he made a point not to break it. If anyone was following them, they would have a hard path to follow.

She felt like they were zigzagging through the jungle, turning at every third tree. She noticed they never headed in the same direction for too long. If he did have a map in that brain of his, she was very impressed.

“Well, I was raised as an only child, so I got too much attention from my loving parents. At times I wished for my older sister’s return so I could have someone to take the blame once and a while. No matter what I did or said, my mother’s memory was long and always correct.”

“How about your dad?”

“My dad is a lot like me. He likes to hunt, fish, and spend time with his two brothers. They live near my parents in Washington. My parents had known each other all their lives, but a year after my sister was stolen, they fell in love and married. I came along a while later.”

“I always wanted a sister or brother, too. I guess that’s why I was so happy when Blake came along. Even though he’s half my age, I spoil him.” She smiled and realized that they had more in common than she’d thought they did to begin with.

An hour before nightfall, Ann was so worn out she could barely lift her feet. Her clothes were wrinkled and dirty, her hair had come undone from the braid, and she just felt frazzled. She could see that Ethan didn’t look any better than she felt. Not having to carry her bag did help a lot, but her feet were just so heavy, she desperately wanted to stop for the night.

“Ethan?” He stopped and turned to look at her. “Can we stop soon?” She could see him think about it, then he looked around like he was trying to gauge where they were. There was no possibility that he knew where they were. They had continued to zigzag through the thick forest for the remainder of the day. At this point, she wasn’t even sure which way the sun was setting. The clouds were thick and hung low in the trees. There was even a mist hanging around the top of the trees. It was still in the high eighties, and she wanted another shower in a cold waterfall.

“There’s a small creek with a pool near here. It’s only about half a mile away. Can you make it that far so we can clean up?” She nodded. Okay, so if he knew there was a creek a half a mile away, she was going to stop underestimating him.

A short while later, they cautiously approached the stream. There was a
very
small waterfall and the water was only a few feet deep, just deep enough that she could probably sit in it. There was no cave in case it rained again that night. They’d just have to get wet. She’d gauged all this as he was scouting out the area to make sure no one was around.

“It’s a popular camping site,” he told her as they sat by the stream. “We’re about half a day’s hike from civilization. There are a few small towns we will have to pass through. We’d better do it in the middle of the night, so we aren’t seen by anyone.”

She nodded her head in agreement, but in truth she was only half listening to him. She’d sat down by the pool on a large round rock and had removed her shoes. Nasty red blisters covered her heels and when she dipped her feet into the cool water, she almost cried at the relief it provided. She stood up and walked cautiously over the large rocks right into the clear water, clothes and all.

She turned and watched him set the bag down and do the same. He smiled at her. “You know, you sure are taking all this very well.” He stopped right in front of her and sat down.

“How else would I take all this?” She ducked down and leaned back to rinse the dirt and sweat from her hair. Using her hands, she tried to wash the dirt from her clothes. She’d almost forgotten she’d dyed her hair black until she loosened her braid and the dark tresses surrounded her face.

“Well, I thought you’d be doing a lot of crying and complaining,” he said sitting next to her, trying to scrub himself clean. The rocky bottom of the small pool was a little hard to get comfortable on, but she finally found a flat rock and propped herself on it.”

She laughed. “Normally I would have.” She raised her legs up and looked at her bare feet. His boots were still on and she knew that it would take a few hours for them to dry. “But since it’s all my fault that we’re in this mess, I thought I’d leave the complaining to a minimum.”

“Ann—”

“No, don’t. We’ve been over this. I don’t know what I’d do without you, Ethan.” She tried to hold back the emotions.

He pulled her close and they started floating in the water together. “You know, if you imagine hard enough, I bet you could convince your mind we’re in some fancy hotel in Rio, sipping margaritas and having the time of our lives.”

She closed her eyes and allowed her mind to float away.

She woke a few hours later to Ethan pulling on her arm. He must have carried her out of the water after she’d fallen asleep floating with him.

“Ann,” he whispered, “we have to go. Put on your boots.” She blinked a few times and then she could hear it. People. Quickly sitting up, she realized they were laying in the grass near the water’s edge. Her boots were within arm’s reach. She threw them on and was ready to sprint when she recognized several words being spoken by the approaching people.

“Ethan,” she whispered to him, “they’re American.”

“It doesn’t matter. Come on.” He pulled her arm and they started moving quietly in the opposite direction.

The voices continued as if they hadn’t heard them. Soon they were so far away, they couldn’t hear anything except night noises.

She didn’t want to be walking anymore. The only plus was that the moon was full. She could see clearly enough to follow him, but she could have used a few more hours of sleep. They walked for what seemed an hour before he finally stopped.

“We can spend the rest of the night here. There’s a nice sandy riverbed where we can make camp. He sat and pulled her bag into his lap and started searching the large section in the dark. Finally, he pulled out one of the bags of food she’d placed in her bag and handed it to her.

They ate in silence and then he pulled her down into his arms. She fell back asleep leaning against him in the soft sand with the large moon overhead.

He watched the stars and the clouds as they crossed in front of the moon, blocking out its rays. His mind just wouldn’t shut down. Thoughts of her consumed him.

He’d never had this hard of a time clearing his mind before. She was just a job. He’d had plenty of jobs that he’d wanted to get close to. Plenty of women that would have been easy to enjoy. But he’d kept his private life separate and it had worked out well so far.

Then he remembered the waterfall and his mind played over the scene of Ann diving into the water naked. He thought of her swimming, her long legs and arms moving towards him. He saw her pulling her wet body from the water and walking slowly towards him. No, she wasn’t just a job. He pulled her closer and closed his eyes.

Chapter Seven

Ethan woke to the sun in his eyes and was shocked. He’d never slept so deeply. Then he realized he was alone and panic overtook him. Sitting up quickly, he jolted when he heard Ann say from behind him.

“I’m over here. Don’t worry, I didn’t go far. Just had to clean up.” She dropped her bag next to him and smiled. “You look like you could use a couple more hours of sleep.”

He’d actually been having a nightmare about a job he’d done a few years back. He’d woken still able to hear the men chasing him, and the client, an old friend, screaming his name as he slowly died. It had been almost seven years ago, but it still felt like yesterday. His back ached where the long scar covered his spine; he’d barely made it out of Afghanistan alive.

Having another close friend literally stab you in the back made you reevaluate your friends.

Javan had been there for him. He’s the one that had nursed him back to health until he was well enough to fly home. He’d actually thought about retiring then, but had stuck it out a few more years. He’d been sick then and had slept for a week. Now he felt like he could sleep at least that long, which was totally throwing him off. His head hurt, his back hurt, his feet hurt. Hell, everything hurt. He frowned and tried to assess why he wasn’t feeling so hot. He quickly tore off his clothes and started checking himself.

“Not that I’m going to complain about you getting naked, but what’s with the strip show?”

“Help me check for small bites.” He motioned to his back. “They’ll be two small red spots, maybe with a white circle around it.”

She started running her hands over his shoulders slowly. “Nothing,” she said and he stood up and dropped his pants quickly. She gasped and said, “Here.” She circled a small section on his upper thigh. “But it’s red and swollen, not white.”

He relaxed a little. “Okay, whew. That was a close one.” He started to pull up his pants.

“What? What does that mean? Shouldn’t you put something on it? Do I need to suck out the poison?” She tried to keep him from pulling his pants back up.

“No,” he chuckled, “it’s just a small snake bite.” He pulled the pants up.

“What would it have been if it was white?”

“Spider bite,” he said and zipped his pants.

“So, snakes are better than spiders?”

He frowned. “No, not normally.”

She crossed her arms and looked at him, obviously waiting for more information. “I was bit by a snake a few years back. Same kind of thing, I felt achy for a day or two then was back to normal. Most likely it’s the same thing this time. But once I was bit by a poisonous spider, and I spent almost a month in the hospital. Almost lost my foot.”

She gasped, and he could see her cringing, trying to make herself smaller and looking around.

“Don’t worry, Princess. It’s very rare to get bit. I just happened to sit on a nest while I was on lookout a few years back. The guys in my group never let me hear the end of it, though.”

He bent to pick up his shirt and shook it out, then put it back on. He thought he heard her sigh when he was fully covered again.

“Let’s see what else you’ve got in this bag to eat.”

He sat next to the bag on the soft sand and started rummaging through the items she’d grabbed from Javan’s shelves.

“This will come in handy.” He pulled out a small medical box and opened it. Then he popped two aspirin into his mouth and swallowed quickly. Hopefully they’d take care of the aches. Then his hand hit another box and when he pulled out the silver case, he was shocked and happy. He’d lost his weapon when his bag sank to the bottom of the river. “Wow, I’m impressed, Princess.” He smiled at her as she sat next to him.