Redemption (6 page)

“Okay then.” She took a deep breath and walked past him, back toward the site. Her hand trailed across his abdomen as she passed and he hardened. He didn’t know if she meant that as a promise or a claim. He didn’t care, only pleased that she’d touched him. He watched her walk away, remaining where he was because her scent lingered there.

Sunscreen and toothpaste, deodorant but none of the acrid cosmetics and sprays the other women doused themselves in to disguise their scent. He liked that about her, her lack of artifice. In the jungle, the male of the species worked to entice the female. Out here, females wore the bright feathers. Except for Sophie, and the human males, their senses blunted, dismissed her as plain. She seemed to encourage that, dressing in shapeless clothing and drab colors. He saw a beautiful woman, ripe and alive. Quiet but not timid. Smart but not arrogant. She could be lovely by human standards as well if she chose. He liked her fine the way she was.

That wasn’t what had attracted him to her though. There were plenty of pretty human women wandering about. It was something in the way she saw the world. That hint of vulnerability he sometimes caught in her eyes and beneath it all a hidden core of strength. She loved the country, his people and her work. Contagious, that enthusiasm. When he’d escorted her team from the airport, he’d found himself watching her every time he pointed out another ruin no matter how small just to see the expression on her face. Wonder, pure delight.

He’d hoped to see that expression on her face when she came. But he hadn’t. She’d closed her eyes and tipped back her head as her body trembled with those gentle quakes. He wanted her shaking and screaming his name but hadn’t wanted to risk hurting her. Or scaring her by taking her like an animal. The desire to claim her, to mark her, had scared the hell out of him.

He shouldn’t want that with a human. But he couldn’t stop thinking about her, thinking about showing her his world. She would love his home, built at roughly the same time as this site but continuously occupied and never fallen to ruin. He could show her ruins if she preferred, great abandoned cities overgrown by the jungle. She would be the first human to enter most of them in centuries. He wanted to give her that.

She stopped next to Mia and the unhappy blonde handed over a plastic bottle. Sophie squirted some cream into her palm and began to smooth it over her shoulders and chest. His gaze followed the path of her slender hand across her collarbone and lower over the tops of her breasts. He looked away before he lost all restraint. She wouldn’t need sunscreen beneath the jungle canopy. She wouldn’t need clothing at all. Or that obnoxious bug spray they all wore. He would feed her Holla berries. The delicious purple fruit released a scent from your pores that repelled insects. Catsi oil did the same. He would smooth it over her pale skin, her lips, her pussy, her sweet ass.

His lips twisted. A useless fantasy. He would never show Sophie the wonders of his world.

“No, Mom. I’m fine. Really fine.” Sophie held up a finger and pointed at the phone.

Mia wrinkled her nose in sympathy and walked past her to unzip the tent flap and duck inside.

“I worry about you out there alone.”

“I’m not alone,” Sophie said automatically, even as Mia came back out with a backpack and waved good-night. Sean? She couldn’t be going back to him. But before she could ask, Mia was gone, heading off in the direction of Sean’s tent, half-hidden behind some scrub brush for privacy.

And Sophie was alone again, the night falling slow and gentle around her, a rodent scurrying through the dry grass behind her. The sun had set beyond the jagged mountains, leaving the camp in shadow. She could just make out the first stars. The lack of road noise had been astonishing to her when they first got here, almost creepy. Now it was peaceful.

Her mother sighed, started to say something else but then paused. “Just a minute.” Sophie heard her muffled voice answering someone in the background.

She wished she could ask her mother for advice on Adriano but they’d never been close in that way. Part of what made her mother such an excellent surgeon was that drive to try to fix everything. If Sophie brought her a problem, she wouldn’t get compassion or advice. She would get a solution and probably a reservation on the first flight home. That suffocating concern wasn’t good for her or her mother. Her mom’s life was busy and stressful enough as it was.

“Okay.” Her mother came back. “You’re getting enough to eat and nobody’s gotten sick, right? The bathroom facilities—”

“Are fine,” Sophie cut her off. “I wanted to tell you I’m staying an extra two weeks so I won’t have time for that visit before classes start back up.”

She braced herself for a protest but her mother said, “Just as well. I have a conference that I need to go to the week you were due home. I’ll come for the weekend once you’re settled.”

“Is Dad…” She couldn’t quite make herself ask the question. Her father hadn’t wanted her to go to Peru. He wanted her to pursue a boring, useful, business-type degree and get a real job. Safe. He wanted to wrap her up in cotton and keep her close to home. In her darker moments, Sophie thought she knew what he really wanted. Delia was the one who’d always wanted to go into marketing.

“He’ll be fine,” her mother said with an edge to her voice Sophie knew wasn’t directed at her. “He’s still refusing to pay the tuition. But if he doesn’t, then I will. We’ll find a way—”

“I don’t want you fighting over me.”

“Oh, honey, we’re divorced. You’re my daughter and it’s my money. What can he say really? We’ll work it…Okay. I’ve got to go. Love you, sweetheart. We’ll talk next week. Don’t you worry about a thing.”

“I won’t,” she promised. “Love you too.”

She slipped the phone in her pocket but stood there for a moment longer, letting the silence settle around her. She knew her parents worried about her and she felt bad about that but she also knew she was making the right decision. After her twin died, she stopped living, closing herself off from her old friends because they were Delia’s friends too. She’d thrown herself into her studies because work was clean and easy. And because she felt guilty whenever she had too much fun. Survivor’s guilt, the doctors called it but having a name for it didn’t make it any easier to deal with.

Her parents worried about losing her too, but if she did things their way and took a nice safe job close to home, she’d lose
herself
. So, yeah, she felt bad about making them worry but this—being here, working at the site, enjoying the time she had with Adriano—felt good. Like taking a piece of herself back. Like waking up from a long nightmare.

A hand closed over her shoulder and she nearly jumped out of her skin, spinning around and landing against Adriano’s broad chest. He gripped her upper arms to steady her. “I didn’t mean to startle you.”

She pushed against the hard slab of muscle and he let her go. “Damn it. You just about gave me a heart attack.”

He reached out and touched his palm to her chest, fingers splayed against the slopes of her breasts and she stopped breathing.

“Your heart’s just fine.” His eyes flickered up to meet hers and she wished she could slow her heartbeat. Its rhythm pounded in her ears and his slow smile said he could feel it too. She could step back. His eyes gleamed with challenge but she knew he’d let her go. He’d been letting her back away from him for weeks, she realized and he expected her to now. His thumb stroked slowly down the curve of her breast, shifting her shirt, the fabric abrasive against her tight nipples even through her bra.

Instead of running, she stepped in closer, liking the flare of surprise in his eyes and the tension in his arm that now held her back.

“I wasn’t sure you’d come,” she said.

All at once, he pulled her closer, gathering her in his arms as if he was afraid she might break. She was tired of people treating her like cracked porcelain. She rose up, twining her arms around his neck in a stretch that rubbed her body flush against his. His nostrils flared and his breath feathered across her cheek when he exhaled in an unsteady laugh.

One of his hands pressed into the small of her back, steadying her and pushing the bulge of his erection into her belly. She wanted that heat and hardness inside her. With his other hand, he tipped up her face, smoothing her hair and tracing the curve of her lips with his thumb.

“Your roommate?”

“Already gone,” she told him and he smiled. “Adriano…” There were things they should discuss. She couldn’t think of them right now but…

He shook his head and pressed his thumb harder against her lips. “Let this be enough, Sophie.”

She bit him and his eyelashes lowered, a curious stillness coming over his body that felt so dangerous she released him. He hooked his thumb on her lower lip, pulling her mouth gently open and gliding along the wet edge. She closed her lips over the tip and sucked him inside, pulling him deeper and deeper, intensely aware of his rapt attention. His other hand slipped down to cover her ass and his fingers clenched there, digging into her skin.

“God, Sophie.”

She opened her mouth to let him go but he didn’t drop his hand. He traced the curve of her lips with his fingertip and drew in a shaky breath.

“Do you really want to talk now?”

“No.” She didn’t.

He half lifted, half pulled her toward the tent, fumbling and cursing at the zipper while she laughed. Finally, they both fell through the flap, him landing on top of her, which only made her laugh harder.

She kicked off her boots before she rolled up to her feet, stripping off all of her clothes except for the silk cami and letting them lay where they fell. She heard the whisper of cotton and then the soft thud of his boots and jeans hitting the ground as Adriano did the same. The tent was black and crowded but she knew where everything was, knew where Adriano knelt by the scent and heat of him. He filled the tent like a thunderstorm, electrifying every particle of air in the enclosed space.

She yanked some blankets onto the floor because her little cot was neither big nor sturdy enough to hold them both and then she blindly reached out, the frantic pulse of her blood settling only when her fingertips grazed over his smooth, hot skin. Adriano leaned into her touch. His back, the muscles long and taut, shifted beneath his skin as he moved, turning around then pressing her into the ground.

“Sophie.” Half whisper, half groan. He planted a knee between her legs and pressed into the space, parting her thighs to make room. He kissed her sweetly on the mouth and then with gentle pressure eased her chin up and back, exposing her neck. His lips were very fine, firm and mobile, wet when he traced the stretched tendon at the side of her neck with his tongue and then caught it lightly between his teeth, making her jump in surprise and then laugh at her own reaction. He pulled back and it was probably her imagination but she could feel him looking at her, direct and unblinking. “You left your shirt on.”

His fingers caught at the hem and she took his hand, placing it on her breast, over the silk. “I like the way this feels.”

“I want to feel
you
.”

Not now.
She forced a light tone. “Just leave it.”

He hesitated but then his fingers curled over her breast and she knew he accepted it, for now. But now
was
enough—he never really had to convince her of that. She arched her back, pressing into his hand, and then his mouth was there, hot and damp through the silk, pulling her nipple between his lips and against his tongue.

She rolled to grab a condom and he took it from her fingertips. She heard the wrapper tear while she zipped up the bag. Adriano finished before she did, coming up behind her, curving his knees and fitting himself to her back. When she went to turn, his voice sounded loud in her ear.

“No. Like this.”

He caught her knee and lifted it, pulling it up, spreading her wide. His other arm reached beneath her, angled to support her body, his hand set low on her abdomen to hold her steady while he pushed into her from behind. She adjusted her hips and he buried his face in her hair, lips moving against her neck. “Stay still,
gata
. Let me.”

He worked his way slowly inside of her, but she only wanted to push against the weight of the intrusion. “Relax, Sophie. Let me in.”

She couldn’t move then even if she wanted to, not with his big body wrapped around her, entrapping her completely, the fingers of his left hand digging into the skin inside her thigh, pulling her wider. His other hand, two fingers resting against her clitoris, pressing her gently back. It was killing her not to move.

“Please.” She was begging now.

He chuckled, low and wicked against her ear. “Let me.”

He flexed his body, tested the angle then surged forward in a heavy glide until—
oh, God
—he was planted full inside of her, the blunt tip of him lodged hard and deep. She could feel the pulse of blood in his cock, the scrape of his pubic hair where he pressed flush against her.

He held himself there, waiting for her muscles to accept him, his breath hot against her neck and his heart beating strong and steady where his chest touched her back. She whimpered and he licked at a spot just behind her ear, skimmed his teeth all the way down to her shoulder, distracting her from the need to demand more. It seemed like an eternity but he finally began to move. Slowly. So slowly she wanted to kick him, but she didn’t want him to stop. Instead, she kept herself very still. The pad of one finger barely touched her clit. She wanted to press into it so badly it drove her insane.

“Don’t chase it,
gata.
Let it come to you. Let me bring it to you.” Outside the dark tent, the camp was quiet. The rest of the world might as well have not existed. Their heat and scent filled this tiny bubble of space. Adriano’s deep voice and the feel of his body behind her, inside her, were the only things that were real.

The rough scrape of his teeth on her neck. The murmur of words she didn’t even understand giving way to his panting breath harsh in her ear, echoing her own. And then even that awareness faded to the need rushing at her like a wild thing springing its cage. Even when she lost control and her body shook and shuddered, Adriano held her in place. Spread, vulnerably open, him pummeling hard and deep into her spent body, until both arms wrapped around her waist and his body curled into hers in release.

Adriano shushed her when she tried to speak, tucked a damp tangle of hair behind her ear and held her close to his body until the sound of his steady breathing lulled her to sleep.

He was gone in the morning.