Drake frowned. "I never made it back to the village. I went with Kim and Tama upriver toward their village, but changed my mind and doubled back. As far as I know, the elders have never heard of Rachael. And if they have, they certainly don't know she's with you. Tama and Kim would never say anything. You know them.

You know they could be tortured and they'd never say anything. What's this all about?"

Rio shrugged. "He was one of us. Not our village, I doubt if he was born in this country, but he was one of us. Why would he hire out to kill one of his own kind? A woman at that?"

"We aren't a perfect species, Rio, you should know that." The moment the words escaped, Drake shook his head. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean it that way. There have been a few rumors over the years. A few going after money, women, power. We aren't immune to those things, you know."

"I guess not. I appreciate you watching my back, Drake.

Sorry for the reception."

"The pitiful reception. I trust you got him."

"He's dead. He left his clothes behind last night and there was nothing in them, not even a label. I needed matches."

"You haven't told me where Rachael is. You didn't leave her alone, did you?" Drake sounded anxious.

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"She's fine. She has a couple of guns and a few knives. She's handy with a stick too. I'll tell her you were expressing your concern."

A slow grin spread over Drake's face. "You're jealous, Rio. You've been bitten by the green-eyed monster. Inever thought it would happen, but you fell like a tree in the forest."

"I'm cautious, Drake. There's a difference."

"I think you just tried to insult me, but I'm laughing too d.a.m.ned hard to care.

Where is this mystery man? You go get your lady and I'll take care of the mop- up. I'm heading back to the village to call up the unit. We're going in after that church group."

"Who's guarding your worthless b.u.t.ts, Drake?"

Drake shrugged. "Conner is a crack marksman. He isn't you, but he'll handle it."

He held out his hand for the matches.

"I don't like it, Drake. Breaking up the unit is a bad idea."

"What's the alternative? You can't leave Rachael alone. Unless you bring her to the village. You know that Would be risky. You two belong together. I don't know how well that's going to sit with them."

Rio handed him the matches. "I'm heading home, Drake, call me on the radio when you're going in."12.RACHAEL leaned against the cavern wall for support as she put weight on her injured leg. Surprisingly, the pain she expected didn't flood her entire body.

The puncture wounds had stopped draining. She felt strange, itchy. Something crawled under her skin. Her body seemed foreign to her-s.e.xual, intensely feminine. She could barely stand the feel of the shirt against her skin and slipped the b.u.t.tons open, wanting to be free of the slight weight of it. She would have torn it off of her but it retained Rio's scent.

She inhaled sharply, drew him into her lungs, into her body, and held him there.

Her b.r.e.a.s.t.s ached unexpectedly, nipples tightened and her feminine sheath wept for him. She burned. There was no other way she could describe what was happening, her skin burning with need, her body unable to stay still. She turned to the cavern wall and placed her hands high over her head, curled her fingers into the dirt wall and raked downward, leafing behind deep grooves.

Rachael felt his breath on the back of her neck and she stiffened, but didn't turn around. His arms slipped around 204.

her body, his hands cupping the soft weight of her b.r.e.a.s.t.s, thumbs sliding over her aching nipples. His body, wet and naked, pressed against hers. She recognized the feel of him instantly, the hard frame, the thick, rigid erection pressing against her bare b.u.t.tocks. Rachael closed her eyes and breathed his name with relief. "Rio." She rubbed her bottom back and forth against him, nearly purring like a contented cat. "I'm so glad you're safe."

Rio kissed the nape of her neck, his teeth nipping her skin, teasing her senses.

His hands stroked and caressed her b.r.e.a.s.t.s, while his mouth nudged the collar of the shirt aside. She allowed the shirt to slip from her arms, arcing into him, bending forward to push tightly against him. His hands left her b.r.e.a.s.t.s to explore her body and she almost sobbed with the intensity of pleasure. A single sound tore from her throat when his hand teased the curls at the junction of her legs, pressed into her heat.

There was a strange roaring in her ears, anxiety, hunger and need. His finger slipped inside her and at once her muscles clenched and gripped. She couldn't help.,pushing back, riding his hand on the edge of control. She wanted him inside her, wanted him deep, thrusting with hard urgent strokes.

He pressed her forward to rest her hands against a shelf. She could barely breathe with wanting him, needing him inside of her. He pressed tightly against her entrance, his hands on her hips. Rachael couldn't wait, wanting to take him deep, thrusting back as he surged forward. Her joyous cry of relief and welcome echoed through the cavern.

Rio tightened his hold on her, throwing his head back, desperate to hold on to control. She was hot velvet, gripping him as tightly as a fist, the friction fiery, sending flames along his nerve endings. The tango was wild and fast, a coming together so fast and hard it was feral, a ferocious joining neither could stop.

Rachael pushed back again and again, wanting more, always more, ravenously hungry for his body, a voracious

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s.e.xual appet.i.te that could only be a.s.suaged by his deep, hard thrusts, creating fire. Creating heaven. She weprwith the beauty of it, with the absolute perfection of their joining. He filled her as no other could, his body completing hers. Sharing hers. He rode her hard, thrusting deeper and deeper, but she still wanted more. Craved more. She felt her body tightening, heat rushing, gathering into a terrible force. He seemed to swell inside of her, thickening until she was exploding, imploding, fragmenting into a million pieces, and her body rippled with waves of pleasure. She heard her voice, his voice, husky growls of ecstasy ripping through a throat in a tone that was not hers, could never be hers, yet wasn't his either. They blended together, united.

Rio bit her shoulder, a teasing bite he couldn't help, kissing her skin, the line of her back. Anything he could reach. He wrapped her up in his arms, just held her while he tried to recover his ability to breathe. Every moment that he was with her made him feel more alive. He thought running hi the forest was the most freeing feeling, but being with Rachael gave him something else, something he couldn't quite put a name to, but he never wanted to do without. Slowly, reluctantly, he eased his body from the haven of hers, a wide smile on his face.

Rachael sagged to the floor of the cavern as if her legs simply collapsed. Rio eased her down onto the sleeping bag. To his horror she burst into tears and covered her face with her hands. He stared down at her helplessly, astonished that she would be sobbing as if he'd broken her heart.

"Rachael. d.a.m.n it. You didn't even cry when Fritz nearly tore your leg off.

What's wrong with you?" He sat down beside her and clumsily put his arm around her shaking shoulders. "Tell me."

It was the first awkward movement Rachael had ever seen him make and it comforted her when she thought there could be no comfort. "I don't know myself like this. It frightens me, the way I feel for you. The way I think 206.

about you. I don't even know my own body anymore. I like s.e.x, Rio, but I'm not driven by s.e.x. I'm a thinking person. I like to think about things from every angle. When I'm with you, tike this, I disappear completely and there's only how it feels. How you feel."

He pulled her to him, pillowing her head on his shoulder when she wanted to hold herself stiffly away. "How we feel together, Rachael. It's being one person, in the same skin, our minds in the same place. It's how we are together. Why would you be afraid of that?"

"I can't fall in love with you, Rio, and you can't love me. If we just wanted to have s.e.x and it was pleasant or even fireworks, it would be fine, but this is different. It's so much more. It's like an addiction. Not to the s.e.x, that's only a small part of it. I feel like I have to be with you. That you're in some way essential to my life, to my reason for existing." She shoved her hand through her hah-, lifted her head from his shoulder and glared at him. "I wish it was a past life that makes me want you so much, but I can't even blame it on that. Love shouldn't be so all-consuming. I'm not an all-consuming person. I'm not."

"Are you trying to convince me or yourself? I never thought about loving someone, Rachael. I wish I could tell you how I know we're destined to be together, it sounds so stupid even when I say it to myself, but I know we're meant to be man and wife. I can't imagine waking up in the morning and not having you beside me. h.e.l.l, I don't even have all that much to offer you. I have a risky job, a people who won't welcome me into their village, let alone their lives, and that would certainly spill over to you and our children, but it doesn't matter. I know I have to find a way to make it worth it to you to stay with me."

"Are you even listening to me? Does any of this make sense to you? Because it doesn't make a bit of sense to me. What do you know about me other than I have a million-dollar price on my head? And some leopard man is running around trying to kill me. And I may or may not be part of a

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species I didn't know existed until a couple of days ago. That's it. That's what you know, yet you're ready to spend your life with me. Is that normal, Rio? Do you think people really react that way?"

"What's normal, sestrilla, and why does there even have to be a normal for us?

If you aren't one of my people I still want to share your life." He touched her tear-wet face. "This should never happen, not because you think you're falling in love with me."

"Don't sound happy about it, Rio. Do you think it's going to end happily? How can it? They won't stop with one killer. They'll send another and another until one of them kills you or me or both of us."

He kissed her. It was the only thing he could think to do, tasting her tears, feeling her terror. Not for herself but for him. She melted into him the way he was coming to know, every bit as hungry as he was. Feeding on his mouth.

Committing to him with her body when she wasn't ready to do so with words. And that was all right with him. He tasted her complete acceptance of him. Felt it hi her response. She simply surrendered everything she was into his keeping and just as wholly made her own demands.

Rachael leaned her head against his chest with a small sigh. "I'm not going to think about it anymore, Rio. Let's just see where it all takes us." She rubbed his jaw with the heel of her hand. "Did you find him?"

"He was not from our area. I'm guessing South America. He was definitely one of our species. Have you ever been to South America, Rachael?"

"You're not very good at sounding casual when you really want to know something, Rio," she reprimanded. "I was born in South America. I spent the first four years of my life there. We immigrated to the United States. My father, well, he's really not my birth father but to me he was my father, was born in South America and lived there most of his lif e, just as my mother had, but he had a lot of family in the United States."

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"You have a stepfather?"

"Had. He's dead. He and my mother were murdered. And he was my father as far as I'm concerned. I loved him very much and he treated me as if I were his own flesh and blood. My brother too. He couldn't have been better to us."

There was defiance in her voice. She stirred as if she wanted to get away from him. Rio began to repack the boxes carefully, trying not to look at her so it would be easier when he asked her questions. "Rachael, is it possible you did something to anger the elders of your people? Maybe inadvertently committed a crime against your people that might earn you banishment or the death penalty?"

She looked up sharply, eyes flashing fire, but Rio only glanced at her and then away, deliberately not engaging in a staring match. "I don't have people. I'm not a different species."

"How do you explain your ability to see hi the dark? The fact that mosquitoes avoid you? Your heightened s.e.xual awareness and the different emotions you've been experiencing?" he asked gently as he snapped the- lid on the box and replaced it in the cage of roots.

"There are perfectly acceptable explanations. My good eating habits could account for great eyesight and lack of mosquito bites. And you're responsible for my heightened s.e.xual awareness and my moods. You parade around naked half the time, what do you expect?"

He grinned at her. "Getting a little moody on me now, aren't you?" He held out his hand. "Let's get out of here."

"Where are we going?"

"Home. We're going home. I'm going to teach you how to live here, Rachael, and whatever happens, we'll just deal with it."

She took his hand, weaving her fingers through his. "You do realize I haven't got a st.i.tch on."