Mayan Lover (6 page)

“It’s the softest thing I’ve
ever felt,” he whispered.

She felt herself drown in the milk-chocolate
pools of his eyes. The moment was broken when the coffee started to
boil out of the spout. She jumped up, turned off the burner and
searched for cups. “It’s a curly pain in the ass. I
should have it cut off.” She pulled two cups down and grabbed a
third for Enrique.

“You should wear your hair any way you
like. It is beautiful. You are beautiful. Beauty such as yours comes
from both the inside and outside.” Thank God the cups were
plastic, because one dropped from her hand. Arka spoke as if he were
stating a fact rather than giving the nicest compliment she’d
ever received.

He scooped up the cup and handed it back to her.
At a complete loss, Gwen saw Enrique emerge from his tent. “Enrique.
Coffee’s ready,” she called to him. He smiled and headed
over. Good thing. Gwen needed a buffer right about now.

By the end of the
second week, the three of them developed a comfortable pattern. No
matter what she said, Arka slept on the ground in front of her
trailer. After coffee and a healthy breakfast, they dug late into the
night, stopping only for bagged meals and trail snacks throughout the
day.

Gwen was thrilled with the finds and impressed
with the reverent way both Arka and Enrique handled the artifacts.
Arka could explain every object, though he wasn’t always
correct and some of the functions he gave things were impossible to
confirm scientifically. Of course, they were impossible to
dis
prove
either. She could listen to him talk forever. Her attraction to Arka
grew till she often found herself staring at him while he worked
instead of working alongside him.

“Break,” she called out. Enrique and
Arka lifted their heads to give her a confused look. They probably
wondered how that word got into her vocabulary—the other
archaeologist called her a slave driver. “My friend is coming
in from the states today, and I need to get cleaned up. Rumor has it
there are waterfalls a few miles from here. Are either of you up for
a hike?”

Both men nodded and Gwen raced to her trailer to
gather her bath items. She put on her bathing suit and tied a short
sarong above her breasts. When she stepped out, Arka lifted the small
bag from her shoulder to his with the quirked grin she found
fascinating. His eyes tracked her body, leaving a trail of warmth in
their wake. He gave a small shake of his head.

“Did you purposely dress to torture?”
He joked.

His quick grasp of the English language amazed
her. At first when she and Enrique would banter back and forth she
could tell Arka didn’t understand much of what was going on. He
even challenged his nephew because he thought Enrique had
disrespected her. Now, he not only picked up on most of the jokes, he
was starting to make a few. She even saw him flip the bird at Enrique
with a laugh.

Gwen poked him in the chest with mock
indignation. “A waterfall in the middle of the forest after a
few weeks of grime and sweat? You should be grateful I’m not
planning to jump in stark naked.” She expected him to chuckle;
instead his nostrils flared and his eyes infused with the passion she
usually saw from him in her nightly dreams.

“I got chow,” Enrique announced,
ruining the moment. He carried a backpack.

With Enrique in the lead, Gwen in the middle,
and Arka trailing behind her, she could feel his eyes on her. There
was no doubt the attraction between them was mutual, yet Arka had
never made a move. Behaved a gentleman, treated her with complete
respect, and followed her directives to the letter. He seemed as
driven to dig as she. Almost like he was seeking something specific.

The deeper they dug, the more powerful the draw
of the skull became and the more his feelings for Gwen grew. Her
carefree laughter turned heads and brought smiles to everyone in the
encampment. She was full of life, joy, and light that flowed into
those lucky enough to dwell in her midst. There was no escape from
the pressure in his loins. Even his dreams were filled with her.
Since she never said a word about the dreams, he’d kept them to
himself. Perhaps they were merely his and were no longer shared
between them. Of course, if that were the case, why was he compelled
to stop short of sinking his manhood deep into her luscious body
while in dreamscape?

Her night rain scent swirled around him with her
arousal, the soft curves of her body undulating against his. Her soft
moans of pleasure, the salty taste of her neck, and the sweet taste
of her lips lingered with him long into the days. He loved the fierce
passion of her sexual nature in his dreams. She would scratch and
bite him, driving him wild. During his waking hours, her easy wit
made the hard day’s work hours fly by.

It was the words she’d spoken into his
mind last night that gave him pause in the light of the day.
You’re
too good to be true … but oh how I wish you were real
.
That was not a phrase he could have conjured up. How did he tell her
that he was very real without scaring her? Her bruises and quick
defensive reaction on the day she arrived led him to believe someone
had tried to hurt her. The male in him wanted to demand she tell him
who, so he could hunt down the man responsible and kill him slowly.
Watching her blossom with happiness held his tongue. He didn’t
want to see that blossom withered with a painful memory she seemed
determined to put behind her.

With her hair restrained in her usual tight
braid, the purple sarong left the gentle slope of her shoulders
bared. Arka drank in the sight of her pale skin. His eyes dropped to
the hint of her bottom flexing with her steps. Her legs stretched
below the short, flowing material to her surefooted feet, which took
two steps for each of his long strides.

He could hear the thunder of the waterfall they
approached. Gwen raced past Enrique with bouncing steps, clapping her
hands as the water-filled basin came into view. In a fluid series of
motions, she kicked off her sandals and dropped the sarong to the
ground, gifting him a momentary peek of her curvaceous bottom covered
only by a pale-yellow triangle before she hit the water with a splash
and dove under.

Arka reached the water line as her head popped
to the surface. “This is better than sex.” She unbraided
her hair and dove out of sight.

Enrique gave him an accusatory glare. “Don’t
tell me you suck at sex, uncle.” Apparently his nephew thought
he and Gwen were intimate.

“Have you forgotten she is the Goddess of
Moonlight?” Arka reminded.

Enrique shrugged. “No, but have you
forgotten she is also a woman?” He kicked off his sandals and
dropped his shorts leaving him in a pair of blue cotton
undergarments. “Because if you have uncle, I’d be happy
to show her.” Enrique raced a few steps into the water before
Arka could throw a punch.

He looked around. The waterfall-fed pond had not
changed much over time. The dense forest surrounding it had grown
thicker and the pool had increased in size now that the water for
irrigating the crops was no longer diverted to the village. As a boy,
his first commune with the Sun God using the skull was on folded legs
at the river’s edge above the falls. Behind the fall of water
was a large gap of space. The natural cave had a wall of water on one
side, stone on the other, and a floor of smooth pebbles. Deep water
in the center of the falls became shallow enough to stand at the
edges.

His gaze returned to Gwen and Enrique splashing
water at each other like children. He’d had no idea the modesty
of the modern world extended to water. After Gwen’s comment
about swimming naked, Arka had decided to keep his shorts on since he
wore nothing underneath. With his nephew’s challenge, Arka
changed his mind. Nudity was as natural to him as breathing. Since
he’d walked in barefoot, he simply unbuttoned the shorts. They
fell to his ankles and he kicked them out of the way.

“Damn Arka, you need a woman.”
Enrique’s laughter at his erection did not cover the sound of
Gwen’s swift intake of breath. He was not a small male, even
when his manhood didn’t stand at attention. The current state
of his body, though frustrating, had become perpetual. “If you
got it, flaunt it—right, uncle?” Enrique used Gwen’s
distraction to send a huge wave splashing into her face. She ducked
under water.

He took a few steps forward, the water reaching
his hips, and pushed off with his toes, using long breaststrokes to
cover the few yards to the edge of the falls. The cool water flowed
around him as he stood beneath the cascade on the smooth, pounded
rocks below. A quick shake sent the excess water out of his hair. He
looked back to where Enrique and Gwen had been. Enrique stood at the
shore pulling his shorts up his legs. He lifted his thumb into the
air and disappeared back into the trees.

Gwen swam toward him on her back with a couple
of bottles clutched to her chest. Unable to see where she was going,
she hit the top of her head against the top of his chest. “Oh
shit,” she exclaimed.

She floundered, the bottles bobbing in the water
as she spun around to face him. The water was deeper than her height;
she went under, her hair floating at the surface in every direction.
Arka caught her armpits and lifted her back up. She spit a mouthful
of water at him through the plastering of hair covering her face.
Arka laughed and dunked her back under the water. The movement of her
legs brushed against his manhood and he groaned. She bobbed up chin
first, her face free of tresses, and placed her hands on his
shoulders with a playful smile.

Arka silently cursed the Sun God again for his
torture. “I learned a new word. It fits you perfectly this
day.” He stepped nearer the edge of the falls, towing her to
shallower ground where she could stand comfortably.

She settled to her feet and removed her hands,
which was blessing and a curse to his body’s demand. She
smoothed the hair at her scalp. “Oh, yeah. What’s that?”

“Menace.” He swam back out to
collect the bottles she’d brought with her. The splash she sent
his direction missed him.

He held the two bottles out to her, and she took
one. “Do you always swim naked?” Her eyes lingered at his
chest and then returned to his face.

“I am an old-fashioned Maya Indian, Gwen.”
He chuckled.

She lifted a brow. “Even
Yucatan
Indians wear bathing suits … or something. I think you did it
to shock me.”

He needed her to find the skull before he could
tell her the truth, needed her to see her mother through the crystal
eyes of amethyst to be believed. “Perhaps,” he conceded.
“Did it work?”

“I’ve seen plenty of naked men,
Arka. Get over yourself.” The desire in her eyes said
differently. Still, the idea of her intimate with anyone bothered him
more than was appropriate. A goddess could take any lover she wanted,
as many as she wanted, anytime she wanted. She held all the power
over lesser gods and mortals alike.

“In that case, why would you think I did
it to shock you, since naked men are commonplace to you?” He
couldn’t help baiting her a little. Maybe she would choose him
for a lover. He could only hope.

“Most men don’t run around naked
with raging wood either.” She laughed. Raging what? She
squeezed a liquid from the bottle into her hand. Rubbed them together
and lathered her hair. It smelled of vanilla blossoms. Her eyes met
his. His confusion must have been evident on his face. “Come on
… you know what I mean.” Her eyes looked down at the
water then back at him with a lifted brow. Her phase dawned on him.
Erection … hardened manhood equals raging wood. Fitting.

“You’re taking your Journeyer
namesake to heart with that tattoo,” she said with her eyes
closed. Arka said nothing in response.

She took a few steps back and tipped her head
under the fall of water. The light-yellow triangles covering her
breasts did nothing to hide the pebbled pink buds of her nipples. The
curve and sway of her full breasts left little if anything to the
imagination. Quite possibly the hint of flesh was more titillating
that full nudity. She repeated the process, swapping for the second
bottle in his hand. He envisioned her breasts without the suit when
she leaned back and corrected his thinking. Nude … His “raging
wood” wagged in full agreement. Arka couldn’t help
himself; he swam to her belly and nipped it lightly before quickly
backing away.

Her head snapped up, the instant heat of passion
infused in the deep blue of her eyes stole his breath. She launched
at him, knocking him back in the water, her lips meeting his as they
went under. Her arms and legs wrapped around him and he held her
tight, using the strength in his legs to return them to the surface.
She was fire against him, more fiercely passionate than his dreams
revealed, as if her intent was to devour him whole. His primal male
instinct responded in kind. His long strides took them through the
waterfall to the caved area behind.

Unwilling to risk her back touching a jagged
rock he felt the rock behind her for roughness, never breaking from
the madness of her fiery kiss. Fearing the rocks might hurt her he
pivoted her away from them and used them against his own back to
balance his descent to sit cross-legged on the smooth stones in an
inch of water. The heat of her core radiated through the thin strip
of material separating them. She ground her sex against his, threw
her head back and moaned. As Arka blazed a trail of kisses down her
neck, his hand cupped her breast and she arched her back to meet it.
He brushed his thumb over her peaked nipple, reveling in the mewling
cry from her lips. Her tiny, worn nails dug into his shoulders and
scalp, like she did in his dreams.

“Is this what you want?” He used his
last reserves of control, needing to be sure he wasn’t
overstepping his bounds with her. Enrique was right … Gwen,
though a goddess, was also a woman, with a woman’s passions and
needs.