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  After dressing swiftly, they covered as much ground as they could for the remainder of that day. When they did make camp, however, he permitted a small fire and they ate a hot meal of canned fish and more rice. “Do you know what I’m craving?” she asked, sitting back with a sigh.

  “Me.”

  “Good try, but wrong category.”

  “Not animal, then.”

  “Nope. Vegetable. Well, maybe with a little animal thrown in.”

  “Spaghetti and meatballs?” he guessed.

  “You have the right idea. Pizza, loaded with ham and extra cheese.”

  He reached into the pack and tossed her a small can of fruit. “Have this instead.”

  “Thanks, I will. When we get back to Manaus . . . Well, I might not be able to find pizza in Manaus, but when I get back to the States, I’m going to order the biggest one I can find.”

  He didn’t say anything, but suddenly his hard face took on a dangerous cast. He ate his own can of fruit without comment.

  Jillian wondered what she had said to put him in such an obvious bad temper, but decided to leave well enough alone and not ask him about it. Instead she devoted herself to the fruit, savoring every bite.

  Ben watched her with hooded eyes, his insides tightening a little bit more every time she licked the spoon with obvious enjoyment, with the unselfconscious, regal air of a cat. Damn her, how could she talk so casually about going back to the States? Not that he intended to let her go, but it was infuriating that she would even consider leaving. Had their lovemaking the night before been so commonplace to her that it meant nothing? He’d had plenty of commonplace sex, and he knew last night had been different. She should have realized it, too.

  She stood up, yawning a little. One thing about hiking through the jungle all day: she didn’t feel like staying up much past sunset. Of course, Ben had kept her up most of the night before, so that was a factor too. “I’m ready for bed. Are you going to stay up?”

  His face was still grim as he stood and pulled her hard against him. Circumstances had forced them to stay on the move all day, and he had restrained himself from touching her, though the need had burned in his gut. Perhaps, because of that, she hadn’t gotten the message that she was his now. The feel of her slim body in his arms brought an almost painful sense of relief, as if an aching emptiness that he hadn’t even known existed had suddenly been filled. He bent his head down to hers and felt savagely triumphant when she went up on tiptoe to press herself against him, winding her arms around his neck, lifting her soft mouth to his. He could feel the excitement humming through her taut muscles.

  “I don’t guess you are,” she murmured.

  He’d lost track of what she had said. “Are what?”

  “Going to stay up.”

  He managed a harsh bark of laughter. He took her hand and moved it down to his crotch, folding her fingers over his erection. “What do you think?”

  Jillian sank against him, already weak with anticipation. She had craved his touch all day, but accepted that they had to keep moving. She trembled at the knowledge that she would soon be eagerly accepting his heavy thrusts. “Maybe I should clarify the question.”

  “I don’t think it’s needed.” He kissed her again, hungrily. “We both know what we want.”

  She crawled into the tent while he doused the campfire, and was already half undressed by the time he entered. She left the flashlight burning while he stripped, delighting in the sight of his muscled body. He paused a moment to savor her nudity, too, then regretfully switched off the light and mounted her in the warm cocoon of darkness.

  18

  The days and nights fell into routine, though “routine” was a strange word to use to describe something that wasn’t ordinary at all. They walked all day, usually even eating on the run. Ben seldom touched her during the day, keeping those touches he couldn’t avoid to the briefest, most casual of contacts, but she understood. She felt the frustration too, the almost overwhelming compulsion not even to leave the tent in the mornings but to forget the urgency of their forced march in the fever of lovemaking. It was worse now than it had been before, as if reality were far more delicious than anticipation.

  Sometimes she felt almost mindless from the pleasure of those long, dark hours. All of the brash, teasing comments Ben had irritated and taunted her with for weeks turned out to be true. His sexual stamina was unbelievable, while she doubted he knew the meaning of the word “inhibitions.” He didn’t have any. According to his mood, he would dominate her completely, holding her down, laughing softly at her struggles to reciprocate in their lovemaking, while he rode her with a strong, endless rhythm until she could no longer hold off her climax and was shuddering helplessly beneath him. At other times he was as playful as a cat. A big cat. A tiger, carefully restraining his strength. Then he would turn as lazy as a pasha, lying on his back and lifting her astride him, letting her enjoy him as she wished.

  As a lover, he was irresistible. He had been truly aggravated and bewildered that she had held him off for so long, and now, looking back, she too was amazed. She could put it down only to not having known what she was missing. Every time she looked at him, tall and strong and confident, she felt such a surge of love and lust that she wanted to strip off her clothes and throw herself on the ground in front of him. Being Ben, of course, he would probably give a joyous whoop and leap on top of her. It was a tantalizing thought.

  But they both severely restrained themselves, knowing that there would be time enough to indulge their senses once they reached safety. She was grimly determined to reach Manaus, for only then could she file murder charges against Dutra. She didn’t know if they could implicate Kates in the murders, even though he had shot at Ben; she didn’t even know if the Brazilian authorities would pay much attention to a charge made against an American by another American. But Dutra was a different case; the authorities had been trying to get him for a long time. It was possible that both Kates and Dutra had fled, but she intended to file charges anyway.

  Often her throat would tighten when she thought of Rick. She would have liked to retrieve his body for burial, but as Ben had once pointed out, the jungle swiftly took care of that. There was also the possibility that Kates and Dutra would have moved the bodies, thrown them down a ravine somewhere, to destroy the evidence.

  She tried to resign herself to the certainty that all she could do was report the murders.

  She didn’t let herself think about what she would do after that. She had found the Stone City, but failed to bring back proof of it. She had left all of her notes and the corroborating photographs behind; she didn’t have so much as a pottery shard. She hadn’t let herself dwell on it, because whining wouldn’t have accomplished anything, but every day she’d had to deal with the hollowness of loss.

  She couldn’t think of any way to get back to the Stone City. Other archaeologists would not be any more interested in listening to her now than they had been earlier. She certainly didn’t have the kind of money needed to mount an expedition; that was why she had been forced to go along with Rick and Kates in the first place. She thought about asking Ben if he could help her return, but discarded the idea. He wasn’t a rich man; he was an adventurer, a river guide. He wouldn’t have that kind of money, and even if he did, he wouldn’t be interested in spending it for that, nor would she expect him to, just because they were sleeping together. Even if the government paid them a finder’s fee, it probably wouldn’t be enough to offset the cost of an expedition. No, she had failed, and she had to accept that.

  And eventually she would have to get on a plane and go home. Perhaps Ben would be around to kiss her good-bye and give her a farewell swat on the bottom; perhaps not. To a man like Ben, who had so many women, what would one particular woman mean? She was here now, and his passion was white-hot, but things would be different when they got back to Manaus. She couldn’t hold that against him; she had known the nature of the beast from the moment she first set eyes on him.