His face was inches from hers. He was catching fire from touching her skin, feeling the crackle of electr icity 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 ever yone 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 your brother want to have you killed, Rachael?”

“You make me tired. It does happen, Rio. Maybe not in your world, but certainly in mine.”

Rio studied her averted face, trying to see past the mask she wore to what was going on her mind, his brain racing with the possibilities. Had she found his home by accident, or had she been sent to assassinate him? She’d had a couple of opportunities. He’d given her a gun. It was still there, beneath her pillow. Maybe she hadn’t taken care of it because she needed him while her leg was healing.

He straightened slowly and walked over to the stash of weapons hanging on the wall. He strapped a sheath to his leg and pulled the leg of his pants over it. A second knife was positioned between his shoulder blades. He pulled his shirt on and tucked a gun into his waistband.

“Are you expecting trouble? I thought you said Kim Pang was your friend.”

“It’s always better to be prepared. I don’t like surprises.”

“I noticed,” she answered dryly, prepared to be angry with him over his boorish reaction to her admission. He may as well have slapped her. She had revealed something to him she had never admitted to another soul and he didn’t believe her. She could tell by his immediate withdrawal.

Rio crouched beside the injured cat, his hands incredibly gentle as he examined the leopard. Her heart near ly turned over in her chest. His head was bent toward Fritz, his expression almost tender as he murmured softly to the cat. She had a sudden vision of him cradling his child, looking down lovingly, his thumb in the baby’s tiny hand. He suddenly lifted his head and looked at her and smiled.

If it were possible to melt, Rachael was certain she did. His eyebrow arched. “What? Why are you looking at me like that?”

“I’m trying to figure out what it is about you,” Rachael answered honestly. His face was no boy’s face.

His featur es were tough and hard-edged. His eyes could be ice-cold, frightening even, yet sometimes when she looked at him, Rachael couldn’t breathe with wanting him.

Rio’s hand stilled on the small leopard. She could shake him with just a simple sentence. It was terr ifying to think of the hold she already had on him, especially since he had long ago accepted he would live alone. His life was here, in the rain forest. It was where he belonged, where he understood the rules and lived by them. He studied her face. A mystery woman with a silly made-up name.

The beast roared and Rio embraced the rising temper. He didn’t want to see the expression on her face, her gaze drifting over his face with a mixture of emotions, feminine and confused, a tenderness he couldn’t afford. “The rules are different here in the rain forest, Rachael. Be very careful.”