Chapter 5

Ever tried to run along a rainforest path?

No? Well, I wouldn't advise it. Chances are you'll slip a lot, just like I did in my haste to get back to the camp and find out what the Hell was going on with Terry.

Just knowing how much fun it was going to be to whup his ass when I did find him and drag him away with me toward safety. I didn't have his expertise in dealing with newly released hostages. I was just going to have to wing it and, frankly? I just knew I was going to mess it up badly. I was hoping to God that something bad hadn't happened to him and made him flip out. Hoping instead that there really was a reason for him to risk his life for a damned laptop.

When I reached the clearing, I probably had mud over most of my lower half from all the slipping I'd done. It started raining just as I made it to the nearest tent. Where the water falling in the rainforest was broken up by canopy, the water falling in the clearing was dropping bluntly down. The afternoon downpour made the going tougher, but it also dampened the noise I was making.

It took me several more structures before I caught a glimpse of him, sneaking furtively just on the other side. I skee-daddled over to where I'd seen him and quickly picked up his tracks in the mud. I was with him in a few seconds.

Should have been uppermost in my mind who I was sneaking up on. He had his fingers around my neck and my body in a vise grip. I was choking before he realized who I was. "What are you doing here?" he whispered as he released me, his pissed off tone ringing right into my brain.

"You didn't honestly think I'd let you come in here, alone, with no weapon?" I said, rubbing my neck and trying to look at him more closely.

He stared at me, shoving a glare that was ice cold my way. "Fine. C'mon. The laptop's in Isabelle's tent." And he took off.

I did the only thing I could. I followed him. And kept him covered. We could hear shouting and gunfire; it seemed to be in the opposite direction than from where we'd come. Dino must have had some type of diversion going on until he knew one of his guys had found the hostages. Some of them surely had to be near us. He wouldn't have just relied on only me to free them. Would he? That made me pause. Did he really trust in me that much?

Terry slipped inside a tent and I followed him after checking around for unexpected visitors. Inside it was dark. Terry was digging around, rifling through a cabinet, then inside boxes. Well, crap. If he's going crazy, I might as well help find the laptop so I can get him out of here quicker, I thought. I started ripping apart the boxes near me.

"Got it," Terry said, touching my shoulder, pulling my arm toward the tent's opening as he slung the laptop case strap over one shoulder.

"Wait, Terry. Why's it so damned important to risk your life for your lousy computer?"

He looked at me like I was speaking a foreign language. His voice was almost petulant. "It's why they took me. I want it back."

I reached a hand up to his face, smoothing my fingers along his beard, running my thumb along his lips. Soft voice. "Okay, baby. You've got it now. Let's go find Dino."

"Don't you dare look at me like that, Lisa. I'm not a child," he snapped out, grabbing my wrist and tossing my hand off his face. He turned on a dime and went charging out of the tent. I was dead on his heels.

We were steps away from the tent when we heard loud voices that were much too close. I caught a glimpse of four people running flat out our way. They were carrying guns and they looked eager to use them. Just as I was turning away, I recognized Isabelle among them. It wasn't just that they were coming our way that was bad. It was that they were between us and our escape route. The only way away from them was almost the opposite of the way we should have gone.

I grabbed his arm and shoved him in the new direction we needed to take. Through the downpour, I had seen a path there that I thought might lead toward the area of the rain forest they'd taken me. If I was right, it was the path that led to the dam overlook spot. As we hit the head of the path, I heard the zing of a gunshot near us. I turned as we made the cover of the foliage and laid down fire, trying to buy us time to outrun the people pursuing us.

Then I turned and followed him. I was nearly up with him. He turned to see where I was and then, before my eyes, he disappeared. I pulled up short and stared in disbelief before I pounded down the path. I stood there, where I thought I'd last seen him standing, turning in circles, wondering where he was. The rain stopped as suddenly as it started.

"Fuck! Lisa!" His voice came harsh and hoarse. And from somewhere beneath me. "I slid. You need to come down here to me."

Then I saw the place in the greenery on the edge of the path where the earth had caved in thanks to the rainstorm. Going to its edge, looking down and seeing evidence of his rapid and unplanned descent. Fucking great, I moaned, then sat on the edge of the slope, grabbed my backpack around my chest, pushed myself off and started bouncing my way down the walls of a ravine. Landed with a solid jolt at the bottom. Looking up and finding him coming to me, holding out a hand.

I slapped his hand away from me and wobbled to my feet. "What the fuck were you thinking, Terry? You could have gotten us both killed going back in there like that."

Stark, raving furious. Wanting to scream at him but instead getting right in his face and whispering my extreme anger because I didn't want to give our position away to our pursuers. Who, hopefully, had run right past where he'd fallen and I'd slid.

He was cradling his laptop case to his chest. I looked down at it and then up into his eyes. He was crying.

"Oh, God. Oh, Terry. I'm so sorry," I reached for him and he let me grab him into a hug. "Baby, please forgive me. I know you had a good reason. I'm so sorry."

I just didn't think I could tell him enough how sorry I was. How could I have been so awful to him? Didn't I know only too well how jumbled your mind got when you were being held as a hostage? How no one ever really knew how they'd react? Why was it I expected Terry to somehow be immune? It's just that in so many ways, he'd seemed himself. But, in reality, there were more than a few things that were off. One, he'd let me take the lead from the beginning. Two, he'd never even tried to retrieve a weapon from either of the two yo-yo's we'd beaned coming into the shanty. Three, this thing with the laptop. Four, he'd let me worry about covering our retreat without even offering a suggestion, much less lending a hand. Five, he was crying. Obviously, he'd lost it.

"I haven't lost it, Lisa," he murmured into my ear, as if he knew what I was thinking. "For God's sake, I knew you and Dino would come for me. Give me a little credit."

Looking into his eyes, seeing the remnants of tears, and totally lost in the conversation. "Why were you crying?"

"Christ, woman, cut me some slack. This is the first moment I've had to feel free since the bastards grabbed me. And you're standing there looking at me and I can tell you're fucking positive I've gone off the deep end. And I'm so glad to see you. And now I've got us both lost." He paused and then glared at me. "And I am so fucking glad to see you."

"You already said that," I said softly, smiling at him as his glare started to recede into concern.

Laptop on the ground beside his feet. Backpack dropped swiftly at my feet. His hands sweeping over my jaws, his thumbs lingering along my cheeks. He tilted his chin toward me and I leaned up to him. Our lips met, hesitant at first. Then he took my bottom lip between his lips, paused for just a tic and, when I opened my mouth, he pressed in over my lips. Our tongues met, eager for the connection, happy to explore each other deeply.

"Now look who's crying," he whispered to me when we parted. Giving me one of his soft, heartbreaking smiles.

"Yeah, well, I'm entitled. I haven't had you around to make me feel safe and it's been a pretty bad week. I could have used you," I told him, giving him a playful pout.

"You look so fucking, unbelievably good to me right now, baby," he groaned into my hair as he pulled me into an embrace. "I knew you and Dino would come through for me. I never had a doubt."

The air between us seemed to almost instantly charge itself. As if electrons picked up the energy we were giving off and, perhaps because of the liquidity of the air, they were zapping bolts of pure electricity.

"Maybe we should..." I whispered, half-heartedly, trying to be practical, trying to remember just how precarious our situation was.

His mouth was on mine and I could feel him shaking his head 'no.' Backing me up against a small tree, his hands roaming over my skin. "Just give me a few minutes," he said in this dark voice, his fingers swiftly trying for the snap and zipper of my shorts even while I was wrestling his hands off.

He had me backed up hard against the tree before he finally stopped groping for me in this frantic way that was all wrong. We stared at each other. I was searching his eyes to find him.

I saw a jolt of new awareness come into his eyes the second we heard voices above us and the sound of feet rushing down the dampened path up there. He leaned against me and I held on to him tightly.

For him, I sensed, this new danger seemed to bring more of him charging back to the surface. He seemed to become more like the Terry I would have expected to be taking charge, to be ever alert and always professional.

We were both listening avidly to the world around us. Both back into our professional personas. Locked in the most unprofessional stance and yet, with newly cleared minds, ready to start fighting our way out of the predicament we were squat in the middle of, deep inside this rainforest with people hunting us.

"Which way should we head?" he asked me, his voice so soft because his mouth was almost next to my ear. Dead quiet even though it had been five long minutes since we'd heard any of our pursuers above us.

"We should head back the way we came in," I told him. "We need to hook up with Dino in San Ignacio. But at this point, Terry? I don't think we have a chance that way. I think we're gonna have to keep going toward the river and then head downstream. There's a small town there, just upstream from San Ignacio and some lodges. We can get someone there to give us a ride, or find a radio to call Dino."

He stood up, looked up at the sky and then around us. "Let's see if we can make the river before it gets too dark."

We looked down the ravine. Then back at each other. "It's going to be slow going; too much noise will draw too much attention," I said. He nodded at me, walked over to pick up his laptop case and started walking down the floor of the ravine, heading in the general direction of the Mecal River.

About an hour into our hike, which was difficult because we were essentially smacking our way through heavy underbrush, even while we tried to remain silent so those hunting us couldn't find us that easily, he dropped back to walk next to me. "No provisions, I'm assuming?"

Half grin, half smirk his way. "Wise ass."

"And I suppose you'll go all girly on me and make me hunt for dinner?"

"Yeah, that'll happen, big boy," I said.

We both giggled, looking at each other. "So, Lisa, enjoying your first operation with us?" he asked merrily.

"No, I'm not," I replied, looking hard at him. Flashes of memories zapped into my brain. Of the way it had been far too frightening to think of him as a hostage.

He stopped suddenly, pulling me toward him. "I'm okay, love," he said, firm voice and sharp eyes. "They didn't hurt me. Well, they damned near fucked over my pride, but that's it. I swear that's all that happened."

I nodded. I had questions, tons of questions. But they could wait. Right then? I needed to give him the gift of trusting in him and his formidable skills as an operative. He needed - and deserved - my respect. Not my pity.

"They'll be expecting us to head to the river," I said. "I'm pretty sure the path we were on leads there eventually. We should come out just downstream from the dam they're so pissed off about."

"Right," he said, dropping my arm and leading the way down the ravine. He turned to talk to me over his shoulder. "When we get to the river, let's take a quick peak around and then find a safe place to hunker down for the night."

"I've got tracking devices in my shoes and in the vest," I told him. "But there's no way Dino has the manpower to come tracking us here and also be looking out for the bad guys. Still, he might be able to guess where we're going and get there ahead of us."

"Mmm." It came out of his mouth like a soft grunt. I recognized that sound. His mind was a thousand miles ahead, figuring out something, making a plan, going through the ins and outs. I smiled to myself. That just might have been the most reassuring sound to come out of his mouth that day.

I looked ahead of me and watched his back as he moved down the ravine. He was dirty, his jeans were in ungodly shape, his shirt looked like it should be burned. And his hair. Well, it actually wasn't too bad. He always wore it rather short so a little while without attention didn't show that much. It actually looked a little scruffy and, I had to admit, it was almost perverted how I suddenly thought it looked sexy.  But his body, now, there was no denying it. It looked good, just like always. And the way he moved - lithe, cock-sure and manly. Damn, girl, get a fucking grip of your hormones, I sighed to myself.

Almost three hours later and we were slowly losing the light. We hadn't made the river yet, but we had reached the edge of a smaller stream. We crouched at the edge of the foliage, searching for signs of humans. Unfortunately, we had no equipment to help us so we relied on the skills and intuitions we both possessed, thanks to years of training and practice. From that safe vantage point, we made a concerted examination of every place that seemed likely to hold a threat and nothing popped out at us.

"Shall I go first since I thought to bring along a gun?" I whispered to him. We smirked at each other and then he motioned me out. As I went to move away from him, I gave him another soft smart-ass remark, "You're always such a gentleman."

"You know you're gonna pay for your sass later, don't you?" he asked, his eyebrows drawn up and a twinkle in his amused eyes.

"Promise?" I tossed back at him just as I zoned right into what I was doing. Melted away from the green of the plants and eased out close to the wide stream. In a crouch, eyes darting systematically and my fingers ready on the gun's trigger. I went upstream about a hundred yards and then crept slowly back down, past Terry's spot and ranged about a hundred yards downstream. Nothing.

Terry came out from hiding and we both knelt by the stream's edge. Taking turns drinking the water while the other stayed alert and watchful. Then our eyes met and I imagine we were both thinking the same thing.

Yuck.

"I'm not very hungry," I whispered. He smiled at me and stifled a giggle.

"You have to eat something," he said. "You know the drill."

Oh, gross, I thought. This was the part of wilderness survival training I nearly flunked when I was in the military. And it never got any easier in any training mission. Oh, what I wouldn't have given for a good old snake right about then. I knew this moment was coming and, frankly, I'd been on the lookout for a snake for at least the last hour or so.

Then I got a bright idea. "Hey, Terry, you suppose any of the plants are edible? I'm kinda rusty on this."

I turned to look at him and he was avidly digging under a rock. I shuddered and turned away. Started patting down my vest and remembered. I had a pocketknife! Oh, cool, I was thinking, a hunting tool. Turned back to show it to Terry and he was eating a slug.

His eyes caught mine and he almost choked trying not to laugh out loud. "For Christ's sake, Lisa. You should see the look on your face." He put his hand out toward me. "Here, love, have one. Don't ever say I'm not a good provider."

"Fuck no. I'd rather starve," I said, falling on my backside in my haste to put some distance between me and the horrible, slimy foodstuff. And watched in fascination as he sucked in the other slug, knowing it was one of those mind over matter things. My problem was that it did matter and I did mind. "Damn. That just looks a bit too easy for you. You're a better man than me, Charlie Brown."

"I should sure as shit hope I'm a better man than you, love," he growled in his low whisper of a voice.

I held up the knife. "What say we hunt for something a little better than slugs?"

He closed his eyes. "Now you show me."

"Think I'd be safe to do some fishing?" I asked him, not really looking at him as I was scanning the vegetation, looking for a likely stick to sharpen with the knife. When I looked back at him, he was staring upstream and the hairs on the back of my neck stood up.

Using hand signals to alert me to possible danger. When he looked back at me, we signaled to each other that we should retreat silently back into the covering foliage. I crept backwards, not even watching Terry, my eyes needing to watch our retreat while he made sure we weren't heading into trouble. When I felt his tap on my shoulder, I stopped moving. We waited together, our breathing shallow and almost inaudible. Listening. Listening. Waiting. Identifying sounds we heard and evaluating threats. It took fifteen minutes before either of us moved so much as a muscle. I turned my head just far enough to look at him. Damn. He was back in form.

Whatever he'd heard, it either wasn't human or it was a person who was now gone.

In gathering darkness by the time he relaxed, we rose and walked away from the stream until we came to a small clearing. Using the knife, I hacked on small trees and bushes, pulling together our shelter and bed for the night. By the time I came back in to our makeshift camp, Terry had already lashed together a lean-to using nothing but materials he'd found in the jungle undergrowth.

"We make a good team," he told me. I smiled, knowing he couldn't see me very clearly but tickled at the remark. "Hey, I got you a present. Here."

I felt his hand shove something hard into mine. "What is it?"

"Food. And it's not slimy. It's a root that grows in this area. Tastes kinda like a raw sweet potato." 

"Oh, man, you're a doll. Remind me to always take you along on these kinds of trips," I told him. We both munched away and I don't know about him, but to me, that damn root tasted better than I could ever have imagined.

I was exhausted by the time we finally crawled into our little lean-to. The branches beneath us kept us up off the wetness of the ground. We snuggled together for body heat; it got chilly in the damp night air.

"Why was your arm in a sling?" I asked a few minutes after we settled. When he didn't answer, I thought he might have been asleep. We were lying spooned together; his arms and legs were wrapped around me. Finally, he hugged me in a little tighter.

"I gave them some trouble during the transport from Belize City to the camp," he told me, his mouth so close to my ear.

"And the black eye?"

"Payback."

Neither of us said anything for a few minutes.

"Tell me about the laptop, Terry," I asked, keeping my voice carefully neutral.

"There're some inside men who helped set this up. And it isn't only about the environment. A lot of it's about money. One of the inside guys is with the survey company, our client's company, and the other with the Canadian company. The evidence is in an email attachment that's on the computer."

"If it's on e-mail, we could have pulled it down from anywhere. It's not stored on the hard drive."

"Except I pulled the attachment off and saved it on my hard drive. And then I erased the e-mail message. You know how I am about getting rid of all the e-mail off the server."

"Okay." Another pause. "How did they know you had it?"

"I told the wrong person." I felt him take in a deep breath behind me. "Have you met the local people for the client?"

"Yeah. I thought one of the engineers might be hinky. Just a gut feeling. But Dino said he checked out, that I was just being paranoid."

"Wilson?" he asked me. When I nodded, he said, "He's the one I figure told them I had the evidence. You've always had good instincts, Lisa."

We laid together in the dark. I heard his breathing slow, felt his arms go a little slacker. My eyes were open. "Terry? Can I tell you a secret about me?"

His mouth nuzzled against my neck. "You need to sleep, baby. Turn off that mind of yours."

"Being out here, in this forest, at night? Things like this have always scared me. I feel like if I fall asleep, something bad will happen. Maybe we should take turns standing watch tonight," I said, my voice soft. Tough to admit this type of weakness to him. Knowing it could come back to haunt me. It's why I'd never before admitted it to anyone I worked with. Fear of the boogeyman out in the big scary forest? Can you see that going down well amongst a bunch of macho commandos or undercover drug agents?

"It's not the things in the forest you should be worrying about," he whispered, his deep voice pitched in this dangerous tone that instantly buzzed into me. "It's the man inside this shelter with you."

His mouth was warm, wet and insistent on my neck. I closed my eyes and felt my entire body arch toward his mouth. I sighed when his hand caressed my breast and his arm around my waist pulled me so tight to his groin that I could feel his hardness growing.

"Every night, I dreamed about you," he said as he began unbuttoning and unzipping, then his hand was slipping down my pants to touch me. I could barely breathe in the closeness of the night's dampness as his fingers began stroking me insistently. "About the feel of your skin, the way your tongue feels in my mouth, the sound of you sighing when I touch you. And how you moan when you start to lose it. How tight you get when you come around my cock. But most of all, the way you hold me in your arms and the way you never let go. It's what stayed in my mind. It's what always stays in my mind whenever we're not together, baby."

On my back by then, my eyes adjusted to the darkness enveloping us, I was watching him as he took his time with me. His head dipped down and his mouth sucked on my breasts. "Welcome back, Terry," I said, hearing my voice steeped in a heady mixture of lust and emotion.

"Shh. We need to be so quiet." His mouth against my ear, his hot breath almost scalding me with desire, his teeth slowly grabbing my earlobe.

I think you could have been standing not two feet from us while we made love and you might not have heard a thing. Even our movements were slow and measured, barely rustling the leaves that cushioned us. As we moved against each other, we were so careful. So discreet. It was a form of erotic torture as much as it was an exercise in fulfillment. My mouth was open so wide when I came but not a sound escaped. And when the aftershocks rippled through me as he came, I rose my head up and captured his mouth in mine, feeling him release into me in both places.

He stayed in my arms until our hearts began to beat more normally. He pulled me into him as he rolled to his side, bringing his jacket up to cover our legs and my vest to cover as much of the rest of us as it would.

"Go to sleep, baby," he said finally. "I'll watch over you tonight."

I woke in the morning to soft gray-green light etching its way through the canopy, slanting at an angle. I turned in his arms and his eyes were open, his lips in a soft smile.

"Let's go find Dino," he said.

It was a fine day for an adventure. Too bad the people hunting us had other plans.

Chapter 6

There are a few things you can pretty well count on in a tropical rainforest. Some of them, you can see when they start to happen. Others seem to happen so regularly that you learn to plan on them.

Especially during the rainy season, you can almost set your clock by the rain showers. It seems like some unseen claw rips a seam in the heavens and out dumps barrels of water. And then some unseen repairman comes along about twenty minutes later and caulks up the ripped seam to stop the downpour as suddenly as it appeared.

We were huddled under thick underbrush next to the ravine's side and waiting out the morning shower. Both shivering ever so slightly and holding each other in a vain attempt to warm up. Ten minutes after the rain stopped, we were still wet; but now perspiring in the dank heat.

By the time we reached the Macal River, we were ready to step into the sun along the riverbank just to get a little dryer. 

"Here, let's trade," Terry whispered to me, draping the strap of his laptop case over my shoulder and taking the stock of the rifle in his big hand. Our eyes met and I finally released my hold on it as he said, "My turn to do the recon."

I watched intently as he crept so slowly out into the open area along the river.  It took him fifteen minutes before he felt confident enough to motion me out. We were both still moving in semi-crouches, not quite trusting in what we couldn't see.

After taking turns to drink fresh water from the river, we sat on rocks near the foliage and took stock of where we were.

"We should head downriver," I said, and instinctively we both looked to our left. "You think we dare travel along the bank? It sure would be easier and faster."

For almost twelve hours we'd been busting our chops walking through the underbrush. It wasn't as bad as you might think because the canopies of the rainforest kept a lot of sunlight out, which meant that anything that grew low to the floor of the forest was usually not too thick. But it was still much too slow going. Like we were crawling on hands and knees compared to how fast we would have been going if we'd ever been able to get back on that path. Or if we could just stroll down the clearings alongside the river's banks.

"We'd have a better chance of making it undetected if we were on the other side because they won't be expecting us over there. I've been studying the river. It's swimmable and the current doesn't look so strong that we couldn't keep the gear above our heads while we cross," Terry said quietly.

I stood up slowly and examined the river. Shielding my eyes, I looked upriver at what appeared to be some rocky outcroppings. Terry saw where I was looking and nodded at me. We made our way there. Without discussion, I knew I was first going over. Terry had the gun and he was in full protection mode so I figured he'd want to keep watch while I crossed. He took the laptop case from me so I'd only have to worry about the camera on the first trip.

My first step into the shallows was simple since I started by crossing the rocks. But when my body started sliding into the water and it was up to my waist, my breath almost rushed out of my body at the feel of cold water on my heated skin. I stayed put until I could establish more of an equilibrium and slowly my body adjusted. One last glance at Terry, the backpack hoisted high above my head and I moved off into the deeper water, feeling the current's force begin to work against me.

Treading water and edging myself forward. Trying to keep the camera out of the water. Finally having to drop one hand to help paddle over to the other side. Struggling to keep my concentration, allowing my body to slip down lower, until only from my nose up was above water. And then feeling the edges of rocks and knowing I'd be fine. On the other bank, I moved up near the foliage, dropped my backpack on the ground and bent over at the waist to work air smoothly back into my laboring lungs. I looked back for Terry. In moving across the river, the current had pushed me about 100 yards downriver from where he stood. I walked his way on my side of the bank, went back into the river, dove in and swam hard for his side. I emerged giggling from the depths. He watched me in between glances up and down river, ever on guard for our pursuers.

"You want the laptop or the gun?" I asked him as I pulled up next to him.

He grinned down at me. "You really like this shit, don't you, Lisa?"

"What can I say? I'm a sick puppy."

"You're the first woman I've ever known who understood the attraction."

"Then you haven't been running in the right circles," I replied, my smart-ass tone, the one I knew he appreciated at times like this. "In your day, meaning the Dark Ages, I guess this was still an all-boys' club. Course, in the U.S., we've always been a lot further ahead of the Brits or Aussies in recognizing that the more ruthless sex is female."

He plopped the gun in my hands, rolled his eyes and stepped off into the river, holding his precious laptop high above the water. I waited until he'd made it to the other side and then I made the trip. It was easier making the crossing with the rifle than with the backpack. While you might prefer not to get guns wet, they were pretty rough and tumble so a little water shouldn't really hurt them. Nonetheless, I kept that rifle high above the waters. No sense taking unnecessary chances.

A half hour later, we paused in a bend in the river. Hiding just inside the foliage, we scanned the opposite bank. Terry's finger pulled in front of my face and I followed his line of sight. Damn, but he had good eyes. I might have missed the lone figure crouched a short ways downriver from us. From his spot, he could watch completely around the small crescent in the Macal.

We slowly snuck inland, away from the river. Reaching a small clearing, we stopped and sat on the ground. I watched Terry think. It was always amazing to me to see his eyes when he was deep in this type of thought process. Like you could almost see the synapses firing inside his brain. Watching his eyes shift and sparkle as he weighed options and considered possibilities and dreamed opportunities.

I looked around the forest floor below us. My eyes were searching for more of the roots we'd been living on. I rose and began scavenging for food. Heard this slight rustling sound above me and looked up to see a snake gliding along a branch, wrapping his body along it as he moved. My pocketknife was in my hands a second later and I slung it up. Precise and forceful. My old survival teacher would have been proud of me. Right through the head. Grabbing the branch's lowest hanging extension, I shook hard and the snake's body released its grip. The only thing left holding it to the branch was my knife. One good jump and the knife was back in my hands, the snake dead on the ground, and lunch coming up.

Light crunch behind me and I turned to meet Terry's amused expression. "The great white hunter," I teased him, raising one arm up in triumph. With the other hand, I pulled out the safety matches from my vest pocket. Thanks to their waterproof container, they were ready for use. A short time later, we were cooking our snake and trying hard not to remember what it was we'd soon be eating.

I closed my eyes to eat the meat. And imagined I was dining in the finest restaurant. That was the trick I always had tried to use when I'd been on one of these types of experiences, whether for training or for real. Sometimes it worked. It worked best if I could picture a specific dining experience.

In my mind that afternoon, I was sitting across from Terry and we were in an Italian restaurant in Washington, D.C. It was just two blocks from my apartment, where we were staying during a four-day 'meet and greet' round with clients and potential clients. We were both so exhausted from the mental torture of the day's meetings that we were barely able to make conversation. Neither of us liked meetings. The only reason we were both doing this was that I had absolutely refused to have this ordeal foisted off on me alone. He and Dino had tried everything to get me to do it for them.

They'd tried sweet talk. They'd even tried, stupidly, just ordering me. They'd sent me flowers. They'd promised me days off. They'd sworn they would each give me a kidney if I ever needed one.

"No. No way. You're not getting me to do this by myself. These are YOUR clients, not mine. They want to see you guys. They do not want to see me," I told them, my teeth tightly clenched and, I'm sure, my face was red. "You did this by yourselves last year. It's not like it killed you then, so it's not going to kill you now."

Little boys. With those big puppy dog eyes. Hoping to melt me into some big glob that would do anything for them. Well, I would do a lot for them by then, but here I drew the line. I'd been working for them for almost six months. I was pretty much onto their ways by then.

I made one tiny concession. I would go along with one of them. After all, I had some contacts there and, since we'd be there anyway, we could set up some meetings with any that might have an interest in their services. But I was only willing to go if one of them was going with me. They grinned at each other.

"Well, buddy, this year we'll train her and next year she'll do it all on her own," Dino had the balls to say to Terry. I beaned him with a book and he looked at me with wounded eyes. "Fuck, Lisa. I keep forgetting how good your aim is."

That night, I convinced Terry to be the one to go with me. "I'd love to have a few days at home with you, baby," I'd whispered to him.

"This is your home now, Lisa," he replied. "Isn't it?"

"You know what I mean. Don't be so literal, Terry."

He shook his head. Walked away. I sighed and followed him. A full fifteen minutes of groveling finally got him to not feel wounded or take personally the fact that I still considered the U.S. to be home. To accept I was still staying with him in London because it's where I most wanted to be. Men and their fucking fragile egos... even a man like Terry wasn't immune. Sheesh.

And that's how we had ended up in Washington on those days. Sitting blitzed out inside one of my favorite neighborhood joints, and barely able to make intelligent conversation.

The restaurant had been almost empty. I had looked across the table at Terry, watching how the flicker of the candle on the table played on his face and glittered in his eyes. He was leaning on an elbow and studying me. Neither of us seemed to have the energy to do much more than pick at our food.

"You're all done in, love. Let me take you back to the apartment," he said, in this warm way he had whenever he just wanted nothing more than to take care of me.

"I don't even know if I can walk anymore. I'm tired of shaking hands. My mouth is tired of smiling," I told him, stretching my mouth in a big 'O' to release some tension and rubbing my fingers along my lips and jaw.

"Ohh, baby," he groaned at me. "Don't do that. You're making me hard. You look like you're asking to do a blowjob. I'm about two seconds from having you wrap those lips around my cock if you don't close your mouth."

My eyes flew open. He had to be tired. I wasn't sure I'd ever heard him say something quite like that out loud in public. Although I actually liked it whenever he started getting raunchy because he could make me hot with how very blunt his requests for sex acts could be when he was just plain needing something a certain way. Somehow, seeing him drop his guard that much in this public setting got to me, and I decided to up the ante. I slipped my foot out of my shoe, and then slowly slid it along the inside of his thigh before putting my sole right on his balls. Started massaging around and he stopped breathing. Looked right in his surprised face and said, "Hmm. Not too hard. Not yet, anyway."

His eyes half closed and he got that serious set to his face as he regarded me over his wine glass. "Careful, love."

"Careful? Of what?" Raised my eyebrows at him and gave him a tiny smile as I felt him growing almost instantly hard.  "Maybe you'd prefer me on my knees instead? Look around. No one would notice if I just crawled under the table and gave you that blowjob. Shall I?"

He made this tiny groan and I dropped my eyes from his face because the look there was about to make me laugh. Removing my foot, slipping it back into my shoe, I paused for a second and looked around. No one was near us, no one was watching. And I wondered. Just how much longer would he let me play this game with him? How far would he let me go?

As quietly as I could, I moved my chair around the small table until I was right next to him. Close enough to touch him and my hand was under the table in a second, stroking him through his pants.

The arm he was leaning on was suddenly below the table and his hand circled my wrist, pressing me in and encouraging a faster pace. "Careful I don't throw you on this table and take you right here. In front of all these people," he whispered, in his low dangerous voice, his eyes now studying me intently.

"Would you, now? You certainly feel ready, willing and able, soldier," I whispered, grinning at him, knowing exactly what was happening with him. "I might just like that. Will you make me come hard, Terry? Or will you make me beg? Will you want me to scream your name when I come? Oh, honey, you're sweating. What's all that about?"

Suddenly, his hand clamped down around my wrist and pulled my hand away from his crotch. "Stop." He sounded like he was strangling.

I moved my hand back on top of the table, smiled demurely at him. Watched as he closed his eyes and concentrated. "Take me home, baby, and I'll make the pain go away," I cooed to him

His eyes opened. He looked into mine and I adored seeing the sea there. Warm, vibrant. Full of life. "You are, without a doubt, evil," he gritted out between his teeth. "Maybe that's why I love you so much."

I felt my smile flee and I dropped my eyes from his. Just a bit dazed because he'd never once, in all those months... he'd never even come close to telling me anything more than that he needed me. He was still talking around love. I wasn't sure if that had just been a deliberate declaration or a slip of the tongue, a figure of speech. His hand came back on top of the table, clamped onto mine and he squeezed gently.

Eyes up to meet his, watching the waves of my own personal sea swim there. Gentle smile of intent greeting me. "Well, that certainly put a damper on things." He squeezed my hand again, but this time it was hard enough to make me almost wince. Cleared his throat. "Let me try that again. Maybe I can do a better job this time... What I meant to say ... I love you, Lisa ... Okay?"

The words. There. Just for me. Something in the way he said them made me realize he'd been rehearsing them, as if they were so difficult for him to say just off-the-cuff.

"Someday, Terry, I want you to tell me why that's so hard for you to tell me," I said softly, feeling a tear sneak from my eyes. "But for now, I just want you to know that it means more to me than I can ever express ... just to hear you say that."

"Maybe someday should be tonight," he whispered in a hoarse voice. "Maybe it's time I shared that secret with you, baby."

It was a night things shifted between us to a more solid footing. Blinking back into present time and looking over at Terry. He was staring at the ground between his feet. He had a strange, tough look on his face. I sighed. Then crawled to where he was and knelt in front of him. His hand swept my unruly hair from my face. I leaned in and kissed him feather soft. "Tonight, I want a warm shower, clean sheets, and you. Think we can arrange that?"

"Sounds simple enough." Big warm grin and his eyes sparked out at me. "Can we also get something good to eat? I mean as long as we're dreaming and all. Because the food on this trip's been damned shitty."

"I'll be sure and let the tour director know," I replied, getting up from him. But his big arms reached out to gather me against him. He laid his head against my breasts and just hugged me in, not saying anything. I wrapped my arms around his head and held on.

That familiar gesture. It made me flash instantly back to that night in Washington. Because he'd held me just like this on that night. Right when he'd started telling me about the two women who came along in his life, one right after the other, and robbed him of his ability to trust in his capability to be loved. He'd held on to me and told me, like he was afraid if he'd not been gripping me that tightly, I might slip away from his heart.

It was how I learned that even while he fell in love with me, there was this part of him that just assumed it wasn't meant to be. It's why it was so easy for him to back off initially. It's why, I should have understood, he kept waiting for me to leave.

Looking down at the top of his head. Feeling his body all around me. It rushed over me. He was always waiting for me to leave him. Still. He never felt that he was the type of man women stayed with forever. And that's when I knew something else. This issue of me not moving my furniture from Washington? It was a sign to him that I was just staying with him until I got bored or pissed or tired of his crazy life.

"You do know that I'll love you forever, don't you?" I whispered down to him, feeling him suddenly freeze in my grip. It took a few seconds and then he raised his head and fastened his eyes to mine. "You do know that? Because it's true, Terry. I need you to know it."

"I want to believe it, Lisa. I do."

"If you can believe in anything, believe in that, Terry Thorne."

He stood up, his mouth grabbing mine as he rose into the kiss. His arms holding me tight and he kissed me good, deep, long and thoroughly. Ending with a sigh. When he finally opened his eyes and looked at me, I saw how bright they were.

"Let's get us the fuck out of this jungle," he said with a strong voice, putting me down, grabbing the laptop and the gun and marching back toward the river.

We trudged back inland for over an hour. Every so often, we'd head back to the river and look. Each time, one of us picked up someone on the other bank. We were exhausted. It had been a day of physical exertion, mental gymnastics, frustrations, and stress. With little in the way of real nourishment and weather that sapped your strength after awhile.

And now we were hiding in cover and the last time we checked, we discovered that our pursuers were now on both sides of the river. We looked at each other with tired and resigned eyes. No words were needed for each of us to know we weren't ever going to make it this way. We headed back upriver. I was trying to picture the map in my mind. I was almost positive there was a remote outpost on the river a mile or so up from where the dam was going in.

Getting past the dam was our new concern. If the eco-terrorists could be believed on this score, there'd be guards around the dam who wouldn't stop to ask who we were before trying to shoot us. When Terry and I finally stopped to discuss the dam's protectors, we were resigned that it was a chance we'd have to take. Neither of us doubted our ability to sneak around the protectors. But, as Terry noted, it just could be that if we could talk before they shot, they just might turn out to be our allies.

Big maybe, though, and we both knew it. Things are never black and white in these types of situations. If there was illegal building going on in a place that was such a controversy in Belize, would it ever be possible that they'd let us in and out if we were to witness it?

Four hours later, we were close enough to the dam to see people. And to see the building going on. It wasn't much building, but it was obvious they were laying the groundwork for the massive project. I muttered under my breath about breaking a certain Canadian's neck, and then took some pictures with the camera even though we were probably too far away for any details to come through. But, for some reason, I was suddenly a whole lot more pissed off than I could have imagined - if they hadn't started building again, I figured the whole hostage stuff would never have happened. Not that one excused the other. But the one had set the other in motion, in a way.

We waited for the cover of darkness before we snuck into the midst of the people building the dam. Not sure what we'd find, and hoping they weren't hiring guards who were too well trained.

And finally, we got lucky. I'm not sure either of us could believe it. We made it so far inside their perimeter, that I was picking the lock of the trailer that held the office without anyone even detecting our presence. Inside, there was a land-to-land radio. Terry powered it up, dialed in the frequency Dino had last been using and within ten minutes, he was talking with Rosaria. We waited while she used a phone to contact Dino and when she came back on, the good news was that he would be there in the morning. The bad news was we had to wait till morning for the rescue.

"Dino wants to know why you kept changing your route today," Rosaria asked.

I looked at Terry and then we both looked at my shoes. "Unexpected obstacles," Terry said tersely. "Tell the bastard to get here at first light."

When he signed off, we both just sort of sunk on the floor in the small office. Too done in to do much more than sit there. "Terry, we're getting old," I whispered across the space to him.

He gave me a short, tired snort of laughter. "Not me, babe. I'm just sitting here picturing you in the all-together and wrapped around my cock."

I looked down at myself. Yeah, right. I was certainly a sight to inspire lustful thoughts. Dirty, sweaty, and smelly. Add hungry and thirsty to the list. Crawling up on my hands and knees, I pulled myself upright using the edge of a desk. Exploring the trailer to see what was inside. Opened one door and there was a real bathroom. With a sink and a small shower. I opened the taps and - glory - hot water. I nearly cried.

Pealing off my filthy clothes, I grabbed a bar of soap and began scrubbing them. When they were passable, I wrung them out and then stepped into the shower. When was the last time that water and soap had almost been an orgasmic experience? I flashed on to the famous commercials for that shampoo and sighed. I was too tired or maybe I would have felt like making those noises myself.

When I came out, Terry was standing near a desk. "Your turn," I told him and he turned to look at me. My clothes were still wet so I wasn't wearing a thing. No sense being suddenly shy around the man. But his eyes traveling up and down my body made me blush. "Go get clean. Then I'll let your dirty mind take over."

"I found some food and soft drinks," he said, telling me they'd been locked in a cabinet he'd pried open. Potato chips, warm soft drinks, and dried fruit. It was a feast for us.

When he came snaking out of the small restroom about a half hour later, I could barely keep my eyes open. But one look at him and I was awake. "Damn. You look good enough to be illegal."

"Come here to me," he told me, using his almost husky voice and I felt myself getting wet just hearing it.

After he pulled me into his arms, we just seemed to snuggle into each other. Content just to feel, skin on skin. The first time in forever, it felt, that we could relax into each other. I confess I got lost inside those arms. For a while, anyway.

And then I reached up for his lips and got lost there for a while, as well. I felt him, so hard against me below, and my body wanted to feel him in me.

He backed me up against the desk in the office area. "Ever have a fantasy about being fucked at work?" he asked me. "You pretend you're my secretary and we'll negotiate for your next raise."

My body was almost overwhelmed with what his hands were already doing to me. I could feel the steel edge of the desk biting into my upper thighs and slid myself up on to the top surface. Pulled him roughly in between my legs. "Why, Mr. Thorne, I had no idea screwing you was in my job description," I whispered.

"Feel the bonus I have for you, Miss Foster," he replied, taking my hand and wrapping it around his hard, velvety cock.

"We suck at this kind of banter," I giggled to him, then quickly gasped when I felt him grab his cock over my hand and start nuzzling its head along my slit. "OhmyGod."

"Don't say suck," he groaned as he pulled my hand off his cock.

And quickly, he was in me, buried deep inside. He stopped and I heard him take a long breath. Then his mouth clamped onto mine and, with his arms holding me tight to his body, he laid me on my back along the desktop. When his hands gripped my hips and pulled me hard back against him, his cock drove deeper inside as I brought my knees high up to my chest.

He was pumping in a firm, almost slow, rhythm. I watched him watch me, his eyes darker than the night, impossible to read and for a moment, he seemed gone from me, as if he was someplace else, far away. I reached a hand up for his face and he came back to me. "No matter what else happens, Lisa, I love you. I do," he told me in a quiet voice, in this way that made it seem so important that I believe him.

At first, I could only moan because he'd moved me to that point of almost no return. But as I felt myself slipping over, I concentrated on him and it's the only reason I could even speak. "I love you, too, Terry. Always."

He stopped. Closed his eyes. "Promise? No matter what?"

"Promise. No matter what."

Like something slipped into place for him, his soft smile came creeping out as he opened his eyes and looked down at me. He picked up the speed of his movements and almost sooner than I would have wanted it, I was coming with a force that made me throb for minutes afterwards. I had to bury my face in his shoulder and just hold on, stifling any loud noises and working hard not to cry. He came rushing in on the heels of my own coming, and the only noises he let out were soft grunts. Afterwards, he rested his head on my breasts and I loved being able to hold and caress him.

Being inside the perimeter of the work crew, we opted on the side of extreme caution and took turns standing watch while the other slept. Just before dawn was due to break up the darkness of the night, I shook Terry awake. We gathered our stuff and crept slowly into the closest foliage that would provide us some cover.

We didn't have long to wait. Two choppers circled as dawn grudgingly creaked over the dam and we heard lots of excited male voices within the camp as the choppers circled twice more before one finally landed. We watched the scene unfold before we acted. When we saw the redhead lumber down out of the landed chopper, we moved in closer.

"They don't seem too upset by this," I whispered against Terry's ear as we watched. "Let's go join the party."

We walked cautiously out of hiding and when we rounded the office trailer, one look at Dino's face told us both the situation was under control. The second chopper was landing somewhere behind us but all I really had eyes for was the man running toward us with open arms.