Follow the Sun (51 page)

“Kat, you’re denting my rib cage. Calm down.”

She grasped his face between her hands and searched his eyes for answers, for help. “Is it too much to want respect and love just for
me
, for what I am, no matter how different I am from everybody else?” Her voice was low and choked. “I don’t want to go through the rest of my life bein’ raped and used and laughed at.”

Nathan inhaled sharply. Oh God, she hurt so much. “Katie, I’ll make it up to you, I swear,” he said hoarsely, caught in a blinding need to right every wrong that had ever been done to her. “We can have it
all
this time.”

“
This
time?”

Nathan shut his eyes and grimaced. “I don’t know what I’m saying, but I know what I mean.” She was stroking his face with quick, possessive little caresses, her hands trembling.

“Katie,” he said again, without thinking.
That nickname was part of his soul
. Nathan shuddered with emotion. “Forget what you read tonight. Trust me.”

That was stranger than what he’d already said. Nathan looked at her anxiously. “I don’t make sense around you. I want you too much to make sense. Don’t run scared because I’m this way.”

She moaned softly. “I’m not scared. I haven’t been scared since the first time you called me ‘Katie.’ Oh, Nathan, what’s going on between us?”

“I don’t understand it either,” he whispered, lifting her onto her toes. His voice dropped even lower. “I don’t have to understand it.”

She slid her arms around his neck. “Make love to me, she begged. “I won’t ask for too much.”

“You won’t have to ask. Everything—everything you want, or need—it’s yours.”

“You, I need you,” she cried as he covered her mouth with his.

They were quick, almost rough, fired by needs and emotions that swept the whole world away to leave
only the two of them touching, loving, seeking to give pleasure.

Her dress barely survived. Nathan no sooner jerked the bodice open in back than she was fiercely struggling to get her arms out of it. Underneath she wore absolutely nothing. He pulled the dress down to her waist and she tugged him to her, her eyes flaring when her naked breasts flattened against his chest. He reached between their bodies to squeeze her nipples, pulling them forward, rubbing the peaks, wrapping his fingers around first one breast and then the other in an almost frantic desire to make her back arch again and again.

The dress fell off her hips, leaving only one barrier between them. Nathan thought he would burn up from the pure, lovely bawdiness in her as she slid her hands under the waistband of his briefs.

“I couldn’t walk away when I saw you taking a bath that day,” she told him. “I never saw a man enjoy being naked so much. I wanted to be naked with you.”

“Now you are.” His briefs fell to his ankles and he stepped out of them.

Immediately he curved both hands down her spine, underneath the mane of hair, along her rump, then beneath it, so he could pull her to his hardness.

She gasped with delight as the ridge nestled into her belly, and he thought there would never be a more exquisite sensation in his life than the feel of her soft mound fitted to the tops of his thighs.

“Nice,” she whispered. “And remember, I’m not real good with words.”

“You’re great with body language.”

He picked her up. Her thighs wrapped around his waist and her arms circled his neck in a deep embrace. With his face near enough for her mobile, sweet little mouth to enjoy, she kissed whatever she could reach.

Nathan staggered from sensation, dimly aware that he was flexing against her and that she was answering the primitive, erotic invitation with movements of her
own. She dug the necklace from between them and kissed the nugget.

“I want to kiss everything on you and everything that ever touched you,” she explained.

Nathan heard the breath slide from his mouth in a sigh of helpless surrender. The spontaneous movements of their bodies joined them suddenly. Kat made a high-pitched keening sound and, panting, looked at him through half-shut eyes.

He knew from her silkiness that he hadn’t hurt her. He had surprised her, though.

“You’re so strong,” she murmured breathlessly, and the devotion in her eyes told him that she loved his surprise.

“I can hold you,” he promised, and squeezed his hands into her thighs to lift her higher on his body.

“Hold me,” she begged, kissing him deeply, slipping her tongue in and out of his mouth and filling him with a hunger that poured extraordinary strength into him.

She was no heavier than a dream, and he moved inside her easily, nuzzling his face along her shoulder, kissing her, biting her, licking her throat when her head fell back and she cried out to him.

Nathan’s knees buckled a little at the feel of her pulsing with release. Her wail of pleasure held surprise and fierce happiness.

He found himself laughing and almost crying and on the verge of filling her with everything he could give. “It’s like this with you and me, Katie,” he shouted with delight. “Didn’t you always know it would be like this?”

Her head fell forward and she sank her mouth onto his for a long moment, which brought him into a realm he’d never known before. “
Yes
,” she said against his mouth. “Always.”

Nathan dropped to his knees and arched into her in one final, explosive moment that made his head sag back even as his fingers dug into her and she gave him
more—more of her body, more of her fire, more of her soul.

They collapsed onto the floor together, still joined, their skin slick with sweat, their breaths mingling in a turbulent search for the center of the storm.

All Nathan could manage to do was hold on to her with the same exhausted grip she had on him. “Now, Katie,” he whispered, “we can start again.”

Whatever he meant, she stroked his face and hair and smiled down at him with joyful tears in her eyes. “I know.”

S
HE HAD TO
leam everything about him, everything that those handsome, droopy eyes had seen and everything that weathered, work-hardened body had done, everything that had made him into the man she now loved.

Nathan protested that he felt like her private playground, but the smile he gave her said that he didn’t mind a bit. She made him lie on the bed while she nuzzled her face over his torso, licking and kissing the sweaty, sexy essence until he swore she was trying to eat him alive.

Kat lifted his hands to study the scars and calluses from rough work and dangerous encounters. She traced the lines in his palms, thinking how his past and future seemed to merge with the blemishes; this man had never avoided a challenge, and it showed in his hands.

Now he’d brought that challenge into her life, and she would read his body like a map, trying to understand him so well that she could find his heart, and keep it.

Kat stroked a fingertip over the fine white lines on his right knuckles. “You used to fight?”

“Just enough to keep my hide in one piece so you’d enjoy it one day.” Oh, he knew how to make an electric jolt of pleasure slide through her, and he recognized it in her eyes. “I like your hide, too,” he
promised softly, brushing his scarred knuckle over her breasts and smiling when the peaks grew harder.

“You’re plain
wicked
, Nathan Chatham.” She arched one black brow at him. “You ever fight over a woman?”

“Yep.” He waited just long enough for her to thump his chest in exasperation. “I punched a water buffalo that was about to do a tap dance on an old Australian lady.”

“Oh.” She took his hand again and kissed the knuckles. “Other fights?”

“I had a run-in with boys in Surador last year. Just helping out an acquaintance of mine.”

When Kat looked at him quizzically he explained, “Fellow I met while I was studying sites. Said he was an anthropologist, but I suspect he was in government work. Nice guy, but a funny name—Surprise. Kyle Surprise. He hung around with me for a few weeks, then moved on.

“I heard later that he’d gotten into some trouble. One of the nationalist
patrons
didn’t like Kyle’s brand of anthropology, I think. Had him locked up on a banana plantation.” Nathan shrugged. “I just organized a few of the rebel troops and got him out.”

Pride swept over Kat, making her bend forward quickly and kiss him. “You’re a wonder.”

“Wonder all right. Wonder what you’re gonna do to me next.”

She sat back, stroked the hard plane of his belly, and said in a husky tone, “I’m gonna turn you over and see that tattoo. I want to know all about it.”

“Got it on the Amazon.”

“That’s not where
I
saw it.”

Chuckling, he rolled onto his stomach without the least hint of shyness and propped his chin on crossed arms.

Kat smiled in delight. “It looks like a clown face!”

Nathan huffed loudly. “That’s Numanchuko, the god of earth. The natives said Numanchuko must like me if he let me know his secrets.”

“Secrets?”

“Gold.”

“Oh.” Kat molded her hands to Nathan’s back and drew them down to his thighs, watching the muscles flex in response. “Numanchuko’s lively,” she noted.

“I think he expects an earthquake.”

“I expect he’s right. I’m gonna get real friendly with him.”

Wanting to be close to Nathan in ways she’d never wanted with any other man, she draped herself on top of him like a blanket, smiling a little at the thought of the colorful tattoo face flattened under her stomach.

“Ol’ Numanchuko’s never had it so good,” Nathan said with a soft groan.

Kat nibbled the back of his neck, stroked a small patch of hair between his shoulder blades, then slowly slid her hands down his sides.

“Nathan? I want another pony ride.”

He slipped a hand into her hair and guided her upward so that her head was next to his. Kat curled over him, giggling when their mouths met awkwardly, losing the breath to giggle when he rebuked her with a deliciously rough tongue. She moved and lay in his arms, pulled chest to chest with him, her thighs hugging the leg he angled between them.

He drew her lower lip between his teeth, nibbled it, then let go slowly and licked the swollen skin like a wild animal tasting his mate. Kat shut her eyes and still saw him, imagined the primal glitter in his eyes, the ruffled hair of his desperado mustache a little damp from the wet kiss they’d just shared.

As he rose over her she locked her gaze on his face, trying to see inside him, hoping she could pour all of her love into him until he had no choice but to love her back.

He cared for the earth, wore its offering on his body, took from it as her great-great-grandfather had done, but Nathan had honesty and honor; he gave respect in return. On her land, her ancestors’ land, she and
Nathan had formed a very special bond that went beyond explanation.

And she believed that the land would keep them together.

N
ATHAN NUZZLED HIS
face into her neck and sighed with contentment. “How’s your ankle?”

She lifted it from the water. “Real good. I like your form of doctoring. Lots of rest, with plenty of company. It’s working. Even when my ankle hurts, I don’t notice.”

“You’ll go back on the tour right away?”

“Have to. Got bills to pay.”

“Nope.”

Kat turned her head toward his and kissed him gently. “Yep.”

“Nope. I already paid ’em.”

She twisted quickly and looked him straight in the eyes. “When?”

“When we were in town eating lunch the other day. You went to the ladies’ room, and I made a phone call. Just told a friend of mine what to take care of.” When she continued to look at him speechlessly, he added, “I did it so you could stay here longer with me. Is that so bad?”

“How long are you gonna stay?” she asked.

“I don’t know.”

“Where will you go after you leave?”

“Surador. I’ve got work to do down there.” He cupped her face with one hand and gazed at her tenderly. “See, Kat? We’re both nomads. But even nomads can find ways to be together. I’ll be back. I’ll find you.”

Suddenly the future was a lot less happy. Kat slid her arms around him and rested her head on his shoulder. “I’ll miss you,” she whispered.

“I’m not gone yet,” he said gruffly, and stroked her hair.

It feels like you are
, Kat told him silently.

•  •  •

KAT CARRIED AN
armload of kindling back toward camp, barely limping now that she’d had several more days of Nathan’s rather untraditional—but highly enjoyable—form of doctoring.

Sunset made long shadows hang from the trees, and bats darted across patches of sky overhead. She thought about all the Cherokee legends Nathan had told her of monsters and giants, elves and witches.

Kat chanted under her breath. “Lions and tigers and bears, oh my! Lions and tigers and bears, oh—”

“Hello,” a bass voice said politely.

Kat dropped her kindling. Her heart jamming her throat, she swung around on the trail and faced an incredible sight. Oh Lord, Nathan was right. There
were
giants.

He didn’t look Cherokee, but he could have been birthed by some Cherokee mountain. He stood there watching her, his neatly cropped black hair brushing a tree limb easily seven feet from the ground. He had shoulders a bodybuilder would die for, but otherwise he was streamlined. Big as a freight train, but streamlined, with a handsome, somewhat angular face.

Kat exhaled a little. No mythical giant would be dressed in a blue T-shirt, khaki trousers, and hiking boots. But she didn’t like the fact that he had a knife the size of a small sword lashed into a leather scabbard on one side of his belt.

Kat backed away slowly, her hands balled into fists.

The giant’s eyebrows shot up. “Wait.”

“I’m little, but I’m tough,” she warned in a low, fierce voice. “And I’ll take a prize or two before you squash me.”

He stepped forward, holding up both huge hands in a placating gesture. “I’m—”

“Dead meat,” she interjected, and whipped out the Beretta that had been hidden in the front waistband
of her shorts, under her floppy T-shirt. Kat pointed the gun at the center of his chest.