Heart of Fire Read online

  An hour. Dear God. She began to tremble at the thought of it. Not only was he sexy, he was slow.

  “I don’t want you to take care of me,” she cried, holding up her hand to ward him off. “I just want to be left alone. Ben Lewis, don’t come another step closer!”

  He did, stalking her as surely as any jaguar.

  “All right,” she said desperately. “I lied.”

  He stopped. “Lied about what?”

  “I was just teasing you.”

  “Teasing me.” It wasn’t a question. “You sure as hell have been doing that.”

  “No, not like that.”

  “That’s what you think.”

  “Ummm.” She tried to gather her thoughts. “It’s just . . . your attitude gets on my nerves.”

  “My attitude?”

  “Don’t sound so bewildered. Your attitude. You know, the attitude that you’re God’s gift to women and can have who you want, whenever you want.”

  He crossed his arms. “I pretty much can.”

  She crossed her arms. “Except for me.”

  “So that’s it,” he said slowly. “You’re doing it just for spite.”

  “Is that any worse than what you’re doing? You’re trying to seduce me just to up your score.”

  “I am not.”

  “Oh?”

  “Yes, oh.”

  “Do tell.” She waited patiently.

  He leaned so close that she could see the bright striations in those devilish blue eyes. “I’ve been trying,” he said, emphasizing the word just the way she had, “because you turn me on so much I’ve had a hard-on since the day we met.”

  She didn’t want to hear that. It was almost impossible to keep from looking down. What if he did? She took refuge in sarcasm. “You would be trying just as hard with any other woman under these circumstances, so am I supposed to be flattered?”

  “Now, there you’re wrong. I don’t mess around with married women.”

  “Well, I don’t want to be messed around with, period.”

  “Sure you do,” he said, a cheerful grin breaking across his face. “You just want to be talked into it so you’ll feel more appreciated.”

  The sound of voices as the men returned from their baths was probably all that kept her from knocking him in the head. She turned away and snatched up her bundle, and he did the same. They didn’t speak as the men filed into the camp. Ben slung the shotgun over his shoulder. “Anyone who tries to sneak a peek will get his head blown off,” he said casually.

  It was easy for Jillian to follow the path the men had made. It angled down the ravine for perhaps a hundred yards, which in the thickness of the jungle was well out of sight. The path ended just beside the narrow waterfall.

  Ben studied the situation. “We’ll cross over to the other side,” he said. “That way I can see the path better. There’s room behind the waterfall to get past.”

  There was, and they picked their way over the rocks to the other side. Ben took the shotgun off his shoulder and gave it to her. “I’ll go first.”

  She didn’t protest, because she was rather relieved. She was especially nervous about undressing in front of him after the conversation they’d just had. Somehow, if he bathed first, it wouldn’t be so hard when she did it, and she was grateful that he’d suggested it. Sometimes, such as when he’d massaged her sore back, he could actually be considerate.

  11

  Considerate, my foot, Jillian thought five minutes later. Diabolical was more like it. She couldn’t take her eyes off him and he knew it.

  He had stripped down to the skin with an utter lack of modesty that told her he was accustomed to being naked with a woman. Why would any woman in her right mind want him to wear clothes anyway? He was tall and lean and superbly muscled, and his buttocks were so round and taut that her hands instinctively curled into fists in an effort to resist patting them. He had the shoulders of a stevedore and the legs of an athlete, long and powerful. She had never enjoyed looking at a man more.

  He stepped under the waterfall and let the water splash over him while he tilted his head back and shook his hair. Sunlight dappled on the flexing muscles of that marvelously strong body, and the water droplets spraying through the air glittered like diamonds. His genitals hung heavily between his thighs, and he was so perfectly, utterly male that her chest constricted, making it difficult for her to breathe.

  Then he looked straight at her, the blue of his eyes so intense that she could see it even across the forty feet that separated them. He stepped forward a little, so that the main force of the water was hitting his back; he was right on the edge of the rock shelf above the pool of water. He was totally exposed to her, without the stream of water to blur the powerful lines of his body. As he stared at her, his shaft began to stir, to grow thick and long, to rise fiercely toward his belly.

  Damn him, she thought feverishly. A more graphic demonstration of desire wasn’t possible. Nothing was so seductive as knowing that you were wanted, and he knew that. The potent reaction of his body to simply looking at her did ten times more damage to her resistance than any of his slick, playfully profane cajoling, or even those bone-melting kisses.

  Her gaze went irresistibly to his erection and she felt herself literally grow weak. Her mouth began to water, and she swallowed convulsively. That thing was impressive, the shaft thicker than the bulbous head. She almost moaned aloud.

  She dragged her gaze back up and met his, bright and expectant. Oh, yes, he knew exactly what he was doing to her. The man was so diabolical that she had another almost irresistible urge to throw rocks at him.

  Humming, he finished his bath and even scrubbed his clothes, taking his time about it. Jillian’s hands tightened on the shotgun that lay across her lap, and she forced herself to scan the path that led back up to the camp, to see if any interlopers had dared test the strength of Ben’s casual threat. Birds sang and flitted from tree to tree without concern, the iridescent hues of their feathers glittering whenever they winged their way through a shaft of sunlight. It was peaceful and wildly beautiful, and the naked man standing under the waterfall was as much at home here as any of the jungle creatures.

  What would it be like to live out here with him, she wondered, just the two of them, no one else around for hundreds of square miles?

  No sooner had the thought formed than she scoffed at herself because of the ridiculousness of it. This wasn’t Paradise, and he wasn’t Adam. This was Ben Lewis, ruffian and adventurer. A woman would have to be crazy to even dream of any sort of permanence with him. All he wanted was a woman for the moment, someone to satisfy his immediate desires. Any woman would do. And afterward he would disappear on another of his treks. She supposed he would reappear occasionally, expecting to be fed and bedded, and he would seldom have any trouble finding a woman willing to do that for him. But that woman wouldn’t be Jillian.

  Finding the Anzar city would be the making of her career. She would be able to pick her position, though she hadn’t decided yet what her inclinations were. She had no ties with the foundation, not after the way they had treated her concerning both Ouosalla and the Anzar. She had taken an extended leave of absence to make this trip, but she wasn’t certain she ever wanted to return. She definitely wouldn’t return to her same position.

  She had decisions to make, decisions that didn’t concern Ben Lewis, no matter how magnificent he looked standing naked under a waterfall.

  He had finished bathing and left the water to stand on the bank while he dried himself. He made no effort to turn his back, so she made no effort to look away. Instead she accepted his unspoken invitation and appraised him brazenly.

  “You aren’t a very good guard,” he charged, a smile lurking around his mouth. “You spent more time looking at me than at the surroundings.”

  “Well, you were doing everything but waving a flag at me to attract my attention,” she replied. “I didn’t want to disappoint you.”

  “A flag wasn’t what I was