She lifted her head and stared into his face, his eyes. "I don't deserve you, Rio,"

He fought back the strange lump in his throat. His people wouldn't see him or speak with him, yet she thought she didn't deserve him. His hand went to the nape of her neck, held her still for his kiss. He put every bit of tenderness he could find in himself in that kiss, tasting her tears, her sorrow, tasting love.

"I think you're an amazing woman," he murmured when he lifted his head.

She managed to smile at him. "It's a darned good thing because it might be difficult to get rid of me." Rachael slowly uncurled her body, She had cried so much her eyes burned and her throat ached. She was determined to pull

283.

over the railing. "You know those little leech things you love so much? They just sink their teeth in and hold on, well that's me with you."

He made a face at her, reluctantly allowing his arms to drop away as she stretched and stood up to limp across the room to open the door.

"Isn't it strange how the house can feel so small at times?"

He smiled at her, knowing she was trying to regain some semblance of control.

"Why do you think I often leave the door open?" Her body was supple and strong with generous feminine curves, a body a man could lose himself in. He liked watching her move around his home. She touched a candle, her fingers gliding gracefully over it. She picked up his clothes and tossed them in the small box he never used for dirty clothes. "I'm messy."

A ghost of a smile curved her mouth. "You think that's news to me?"

"I was hoping you hadn't noticed." Her smile widened. "It's impossible not to notice. You like soaking dishes in the sink. It drives me crazy. What's the point of soaking them? Why don't you just do them? You've already gone to the trouble of sc.r.a.ping them and rinsing, you might as well get it over with."

"There's a perfectly logical explanation," he said. "To wash the dishes in hot water, I have to actually use the gas or the wood. It's more economical to wait and wash a bunch together. Hauling gas in is a pain. I use it sparingly." She made a face at him. "I suppose I'll have to concede the point."

He stood up, filling the room immediately with his wide shoulders and powerful presence. "Do you want to move, Rachael?" He had spent years building his house and the underground storage hidden beneath it. The water system had been difficult to hide. He had everything he wanted in 284.

things necessary in modern living, he would have to build a house closer to the protection of the village where they could have a generator. So far from protection, the noise and smell of a generator was too dangerous, a complete giveaway to Tomas and anyone else chasing him.

"Move?" Rachael gripped the edge of the door and turned back to look at him with her enormous eyes. "Why would you want to leave this beautiful house? The carvings are extraordinary. I love this house. I don't think there's any reason to move."

"We don't have a decent cooler most of the tune. Hauling ice is nearly impossible, unless I get it from the village, and I rarely shop there."

"Your system works quite well. I don't think we'll

starve."

"You might not feel that way when the kids start

coming."

Rachael stepped backwards out the door, laughing at him. "Kids? They're going to start coming our way, are

they?"

He stalked her, following her onto the verandah and pinning her against the rail. "I think there's bound to be lots of kids," he murmured. His hands came up to cup the soft weight of her b.r.e.a.s.t.s. He rubbed his shadowed jaw over her sensitive skin, gently over her peaking nipples. "Marry me, Rachael. We can't use the ritual ceremony of our people, but Kim's father can marry us."

"It isn't necessary. I know we're married already." , "I know it isn't necessary, but I want to marry you. I want to feel my child growing inside of you someday. I want it all with you." He lowered his mouth to her b.r.e.a.s.t.s, suckling gently, so that she arched her back and thrust into him, holding his head while he feasted on her. The rain began a slow drizzle and the wind blew endlessly but up high, in their own world, it all seemed perfect.

She lifter her face to look up at the gently falling rain

285.

over her skin. "How many children are a lot?" Her fingers tangled in his hair.

"Are you thinking two, three? Give me a number." She tried to listen to the songs of the rain the way he'd instructed. It was such a medley of sounds, never the same, ever changing, all of it seeping into her veins like a drug. Like the fire he produced with the hot silk of his mouth with the heat of the forest pressing in on them.

Rio straightened, held her in his arms. Just held her to him. "We can have a houseful, Rachael. Little girls to look like you. With your laughter and your courage."

She wrapped her arms around him, sank deep into his hard frame. "And with all those little children running around, how are we going to manage times like these?"

Living with Rio was a sensual adventure. Her body always seemed ripe and ready, never sated for long no matter how often he touched her. She wanted more. Wanted him a million times, a million ways. She wrapped her leg around his waist, pressing her hot, slick body against him suggestively. Her fingers tunneled in his hair, her teeth nibbled his ear, his shoulder, anything she could reach.

"We'll find a way. We'll find a million ways." Rio lifted her, so that she could wrap both legs around him, so that she could settle over his body, fitting sword to sheath. He rested her against the railing and they looked at one another, locked together. Rachael leaned forward and buried her face against his neck.

They clung to one another, holding tightly.

He whispered to her words of love in the language of his people. Sestrilla.

Beloved one. Hafelina. Small cat. Jue amourasestrilla. I love you for all time.

Anwou Jue selaviena en patreJue. In this time and in all other time.

She heard the words, recognized them although she couldn't respond in kind. The vocalization was a mixture of notes a feline used. She knew them, recognized them and found them beautiful, but she couldn't produce them exactly, Rachael lifted her head and looked at him. At bis face. His eyes. His mouth. "I love you too, Rio."

286.

As fierce as his lovemaking could be, as wild and rough as he was at times, he was infinitely tender. Kissing her with such tenderness tears welled up. His body moved in hers with deep, sure strokes, striving always for her pleasure.

His hands worshipped her, shaped every curve, slid over her skin as if memorizing every detail.

He took his time, long slow strokes designed to burrow deeper, to fill her with his love. As the fever pitch rose, as they climbed together, the white mist swirled around them, as if they had created steam with the intensity of their heat. She dug her nails into his back and threw back her head, moving her hips in an answering rhythm, a dance of love, there on the verandah with the scent of orchids enfolding them and the breeze touching their bodies like fingers. All the while the rain came down, droplets of silver as the night settled in.

Rachael gasped as she felt him swell with victory, with the sheer pleasure of their joining, and she tightened her muscles around him, carrying them both over the edge. His voice blended with hers, a cry of joy in the darkness". They clung to one another, both reluctant to let go of the other.

A small flurry of leaves and a shower of orchid petals rained down from a branch above them and Franz tumbled onto the verandah at their feet. They jumped apart, Rio alert and ready, pressing her body against the rail in an effort to protect her. The bundle of fur rolled, bouncing off Rio's calves. The small, clouded leopard dug paws into the floor and raked his hooked claws sharply over the wood.

"I looked for claw marks in the trees," Rachael said, bending down to burrow her fingers in the small cat's fur. "But I never saw any. Why do you rake claws in the house?''

"It's more than marking territory. It's the sharpening and disposing of old sheaths. It's actually necessary, but we've been taught not to mark our pa.s.sing in the forest because it draws poachers. Let them think we're gone, no longer here, and hopefully they'll stop shooting us. We choose to sharpen and mark indoors where we won't be

287.

discovered." He grinned at her, looking suddenly boyish. "Fritz and Franz learned from me."

"That's right, you're the mommy figure."

"Hey now." He toed the cat rubbing along their legs with his bare foot. "He's lonely for Fritz. They normally go everywhere together. I was hoping they'd find mates and bring me back a kitten or two, but they don't seem interested."

"Your life is much more exciting," she pointed out. "They get to brag to all the other little cats about their adventures."

They curled up on the small sofa in each other's arms, on the verandah, pa.s.sing the night away, listening to the endless rain. Watching the white mist curl around them until it felt as though they were high up in the clouds. Rio held her in his arms. "I do love you, Rachael. You brought something into my -life I never want to do without."

She rested her head on his chest. "I feel the same way."

Franz jumped up onto the couch, nosing the two of them, doing his best to burrow between their bodies. Rio growled at the leopard. "You're heavy, Franz, get down. You don't need to be up here."

Rachael laughed. Rio hadn't pushed the leopard off, instead, he wrapped his arm around the small cat's neck. Almost at once, Fritz hobbled out onto the deck, yowled softly and rubbed back and forth against their legs.

"Someone's a little jealous," Rachael pointed out and moved as close as she could to Rio to give the cat room to get up with them.

"Don't encourage the little demon. Don't you remember he's the one that took a chunk out of your leg?" Rio groused.

"Poor little thing, he's just lonely and he doesn't feel very good." She helped the cat up so he was lying partially across her lap. "If we had a houseful of children, they'd be all over us too."

Rio groaned and shifted until he found a comfortable 288.

position. "I don't want to think about it right now. Go to sleep."

"We're going to sleep out here?" The idea pleased her. The wind rustled the leaves of the trees so that they fluttered gracefully around them.

"For a little while." Rio kissed the top of her bent head, content to hold her, to sit on his porch with Rachael and the leopards close to him and the rain falling softly in the background lulling them to sleep.

He woke close to dawn, jerking awake, his mind and senses instantly alert.

Somewhere, deep in the forest, a nightjar screamed. A deer barked. A chorus of gibbons gave a full-throated warning. He closed his eyes for just a moment, savoring waking up with her next to him, with the small cats cuddled close. He hated to disturb her, hated to try to prepare her for the next crisis. There always seemed to be one and Rachael had gone through enough already. He wanted to protect her, make her life smooth and happy.