Beautiful Sacrifice

bad?”
    “Wicked. Make it up to me.”
    His blunt erection nuzzled at the lips of her sheath.
    “Come here,” she whispered. “Deep, Hunter. I want you deep.”
    “Then hold your knees high.”
    She would have been embarrassed, but she was too caught in their mutual sensuality to care about anything but pleasing him. She opened herself as much as she could, then watched him sink into her, inch by thick inch. Seeing the joining set fire to her all over again. She had never known a lover like Hunter, a man willing and able to enjoy every aspect of making love, not just his own release.
    His pleasure in her was as surprising as it was arousing. Shebreathed his name as he filled her until she overflowed. Her hidden muscles flexed, held, caressed, until his control gave way to powerful, twisting thrusts. He rode her with a strength and power that made the world go black and red and wild until he shuddered above her, unable to hold back anymore.
    Then they lay tangled, sated, their sweat mingling, breaths ragged, bodies joined.
     
     
    W HEN L INA AWOKE AT DAWN, SHE WAS ALONE BUT FOR THE sunlight turning the mosquito netting to ripples of liquid gold.
    She wanted Hunter. Wanted him close to her, holding her, laughing while she kissed each tiny wound inflicted on him by insects and thorns. Then not laughing when she kissed the flesh that had given them both so much pleasure. There had been no more condoms, but she hadn’t cared. She just wanted to worship his body as he had worshipped hers.
    And she had.
    Smiling, stretching, feeling each sensual ache from Hunter’s tender, demanding lovemaking, Lina pushed through the mosquito netting. She showered and dressed in clothing suitable for jungle hiking, then took her backpack downstairs and tucked into the canvas enough food and water to last until evening. She filled a canteen with strong, rich coffee, left a note for her mother, and slipped out the back door before the maids arrived to begin grinding corn for Abuelita’s breakfast tortillas.
    As always, there were guards along the perimeter of the compound. Lina barely registered their presence. She was too impatient to see Hunter.
    The door to Casita Cenote opened before she could knock. Hunter’s eyes blazed a silver blue that took her breath. He was dressed, as impatient as she was.
    As hungry.
    “I’d kiss you,” he said in a deep voice, “but then I’d lose my head and go right to the top of your family’s shit list.”
    The way Lina’s eyelids half lowered as she licked her lips told him that she’d awakened with the same thing on her mind.
    “You’re killing me,” he said, touching her damp lips with a fingertip.
    She smiled, touched the tip of her tongue to his skin, then stepped away. “We’ve got to leave before Celia or Abuelita thinks of a way to keep us apart.”
    Hunter peeled the backpack off Lina, lengthened the straps to fit him, and said, “At your service, beautiful.”
    She hesitated, smiled. “I never felt beautiful before you.”
    “Have I mentioned that you’re killing me?”
    “Maybe I like the way you ‘die.’”
    The crunch of boots on crushed limestone was all that stopped Hunter from dragging Lina inside and bolting the door.
    “Start moving,” he said huskily.
    She turned and took a path leading away from the guard, walking quickly. He followed a little more slowly, just far enough back to appreciate the natural motion of her hips.
    “You have a seriously fine ass,” Hunter said.
    Lina gave him a you-have-got-to-be-kidding look over her shoulder.
    He grinned.
    “What am I going to do with you?” she asked, laughing.
    “You did real good last night…and then some. Now change the subject or I’ll be walking bent over.”
    Her dark eyebrows rose. “So it’s all my fault?”
    “Every little bit.”
    “There was nothing little about last night. Bitty either. You may be used to your whacking great equipment, but I’m walking funny today.”
    Hunter laughed even as red burned along his cheekbones.
    Smiling, she resumed her “funny” walk to the parking area of the compound. He took a long breath and followed her, wishing every step of the way that he had the right to drag her back to his bed for another up-close-and-personal loving from said equipment.
    The Bronco was waiting where they had left it, limestone dust dimming its deep green paint. She held out her hand for the keys he had reclaimed yesterday. He dropped them in her palm. They were still warm