Leopard 02 - Wild Rain

mean?”
    “He’s a tribesman, Rachael. He knows I’m on the bandits’ hit list. He signaled to me who he was and he’s waiting for an all-clear signal before he comes on in.”
    “Do you have to give it to him?”
    “He’ll come in fighting if I don’t. I told you, he’s a friend.”

    “In case you haven’t noticed, I need clothes. I don’t want to sit around in your shirt and nothing else in front of your friends.” She was hastily buttoning up the front of the shirt, hiding her generous breasts from his view.
    Rio didn’t comment on the quarrelsome note in her voice. He simply pulled the blanket from the bed and tucked it around her. “Kim’s father is a medicine man, very good with herbs. He taught me quite a bit, but Kim knows far more than I. Hopefully he can help both you and Fritz.”
    When she didn’t look up, Rio hunkered down beside her. “Rachael, look at me.” When she didn’t respond he caught her chin and forced her head up. The last thing he expected to see was heat and fire glittering in her dark eyes. Raw hunger stared back at him with an intensity that made him groan, push his brow into hers. “Don’t. I mean it, Rachael. You can’t look at me like that and expect me to function properly.”
    She had the craziest desire, no need, to squirm and rub herself all over him, much like a feline. It was a heat wave rolling through her that shook her confidence. “If I could help it, do you think I’d be making such a fool out of myself?” Scratching his eyes out seemed a better alternative than rubbing her body against his at that moment. She let him see that too.
    His face was inches from hers. He was catching fire from touching her skin, feeling the crackle of electricity arcing between them. Her eyes held a challenge he couldn’t resist. Rio caught the nape of her neck, cupped the back of her head and dragged her mouth to his. There was no resistance at all. She fused with him instantly. Hot. Electric. Wild for him. Climbing into his skin, wrapping herself around his heart so tightly he felt it like a vise. Devouring him just as eagerly as he was devouring her.
    It was only because they had to come up for air that he found the strength to lift his head. Rachael buried her face against his throat. “This time it was my fault.” Her lips moved against his neck. Rio closed his eyes against the shimmering fire the brushing of her soft mouth sent through his body in strong waves. He had to find a way just to breathe. He doubted if air was going to get his brain functioning again.
    The soft one-two note was closer this time. “You just drove Kim right out of my head, Rachael.” He rubbed his face in the mass of thick curly hair.
    “It’s shocking how well you know how to kiss.”
    He couldn’t stop the silly grin that spread across his face. “Isn’t it though? I shocked myself.” The smile faded and he caught her chin again. “I’m not giving you up or betraying you, Rachael. I know Kim. He won’t endanger your life, not for any reason.”
    “Money talks, Rio. Almost everyone has a price.”
    “Kim lives simply, but more than that, he has a code of honor.”
    Rachael nodded. There wasn’t much else she could do. Rio was right in that she couldn’t very well run away with her leg torn up. “Answer him then.”
    Rio didn’t look away from her, but let out a singsong note that sounded to her exactly like the birds calling to one another just outside the walls of his home. She tucked his wild, shaggy hair behind his ear, allowing her fingertips to trail over his jaw, rub over his mouth. “I’m afraid.”
    “I know. I can hear your heart beating.” He circled her wrist, his thumb sliding over her pulse.
    “There’s no need to be.”
    “It’s a great deal of money he’ll pay to get me back.”
    “Your husband?”
    She shook her head. “My brother.”
    His hand went to his heart, as if she’d stabbed him. Almost at once his face closed down. He drew air into his lungs, let it out. There was a watchfulness in his eyes, a suspicion that hadn’t been there before.
    “Your brother.”
    “You don’t have to believe me.” Rachael pulled away from him, leaned back in the chair and pulled the cover closer around her. The humidity was high, even with the wind blowing. Where Rio had pulled the covering away from the window, she could see thick mist curling around the foliage and creepers surrounding the house. “I shouldn’t have told you.”
    “Why would