‘I’m not going anywhere, Luca.’
A glimpse of something distinctly like surprise crossed his face, and a dart of pleasure made Serena stand tall. Even that small indication that she was proving to be not as easy a pushover as he’d clearly expected was enough to keep her rooted to the spot.
He looked down then, his attention taken by something, and then back up at her. A very wicked hint of a smile was playing about his mouth as he said, with a pointed look towards her feet, ‘Are you absolutely sure?’
Serena looked down and her whole body froze with fear and terror when she saw a small black scorpion crawling over the toe of her boot with its tail curled high over its arachnid body.
Without any previous experience of anything so potentially dangerous, Serena fought down the fear and took her walking pole and gently nudged the scorpion off her shoe. It scuttled off into the undergrowth. Feeling slightly light-headed at what she’d just done, she looked back at Luca.
‘Like I said, I’m not going anywhere.’
Luca couldn’t stem a flash of respect. Not many others would have reacted to seeing a scorpion like that with such equanimity. Men included. And any woman he knew would have used it as an excuse to hurl herself into his arms, squeaking with terror.
But Serena was staring him down. Blue eyes massive. Something in his chest clenched for a moment, making him short of breath. In spite of being sweaty and dishevelled, she was still stunningly beautiful. Helen of Troy beautiful. He could appreciate in that moment how men could be driven to war or driven mad because of the beauty of one woman.
But not him.
Not when he knew first-hand just how strong her sense of self-preservation was. Strong enough to let another take the fall for her own misdeeds.
‘Fine,’ he declared reluctantly. ‘Then let’s keep going.’
He turned his back on the provocative view of a flushed-faced Serena and strode back into the jungle.
Serena sucked in a few last deep breaths, relishing the cleared space for the last time, and then followed Luca, unable to stem the surge of triumph that he was letting her stay. And as she followed him she tried not to wince at the way her boots were pinching at her ankles and toes, pushing all thoughts of pain out of her head. Here, she couldn’t afford to be weak. Luca would seize on it like a predator wearing its quarry down to exhaustion.
* * *
Serena felt as if she was floating above her body slightly. Pain was affecting so many parts of her that it had all coalesced into one throbbing beat of agony. Her backpack, which had been light that morning, now felt as if someone had been adding wet sand to it while she walked.
They’d stopped only briefly and silently for a few minutes while Luca had doled out a protein bar and some figs he’d pulled from a nearby tree—which had incidentally tasted delicious. And then they’d kept going.
Her feet were mercifully numb after going through the pain barrier some time ago. Her throat was parched, no matter how much water she sipped, and her legs were like jelly. But Luca’s pace was remorseless. And Serena was loath to call out with so much as a whisper.
And then he stopped, suddenly, and looked around him, holding up a compass. He glanced back at her and said, ‘Through here—stick close to me.’
She followed where he led for a couple of minutes, and then cannoned into his backpack and gave a little yelp of surprise when he stopped again abruptly. He turned and steadied her with his big hands. Serena hadn’t even realised she was swaying until he did that.
‘This is the camp.’
Serena blinked. Luca took his hands away and she didn’t like how aware she was of that lack of touch.
Afraid he might see something she didn’t want him to, she stepped back.
‘Camp?’
She looked around and saw a small but obviously well-used clearing. She also noticed belatedly that the cacophony that had accompanied them all day had silenced now, and it was as if an expectant hush lay over the whole forest. The intense heat was lessening slightly.
‘It’s so quiet.’
‘You won’t be saying that in about half an hour, when the night chorus starts up.’ He was unloading his backpack and said over his shoulder, ‘Take yours off too.’
Serena let it drop from her aching body and almost cried out with the relief. She felt as though she might lift right out of the forest now that the heavy weight was gone.
Luca was down on his haunches, extracting things from his bag, and the material of his trousers was drawn taut over his powerful thighs. Serena found it hard to drag her gaze away, not liking the spasm of awareness in her lower belly.
He was unrolling the tent, which looked from where Serena was standing alarmingly small. Oblivious to her growing horror, Luca efficiently erected the lightweight structure with dextrous speed.
When the full enormity of its intimate size sank in, Serena said in a hoarse voice, ‘We’re not sleeping in that.’
Luca looked up from where he was driving a stake into the ground with unnecessary force. ‘Oh, yes, we are, minha beleza—that is unless you’d prefer to take your chances sleeping al fresco? Jaguars are prevalent in this area. I’m sure they’d enjoy feasting on your fragrant flesh.’
Tension, fear and panic at the thought of sharing such a confined space with him spiked in Serena as Luca straightened up. She put her hands on her hips. ‘You’re lying.’
Luca looked at her, impossibly dark and dangerous. ‘Do you really want to take that chance?’ He swept an arm out. ‘By all means be my guest. But if the jaguars don’t get you any number of thousands of insects will do the job—not to mention bats. While you’re thinking about that I’m going to replenish our water supplies.’
He started to leave and then stopped.
‘While I’m gone you could take out some tinned food and set up the camping stove.’
When he walked away Serena had to resist the cowardly urge to call out that she’d go with him. She was sure he was just scaring her. Even so, she looked around nervously and stuck close to the tent as she did as he’d instructed, muttering to herself under her breath about how arrogant he was.
* * *
When Luca returned, a short while later, Serena was standing by the tent, clearly waiting for his return with more than a hint of nervousness. He stopped in his tracks, hidden behind a tree. His conscience pricked him for having scared her before. And something else inside him sizzled. Desire.
His gaze wandered down and took in the clothes that were all but plastered to her body after a day of trekking through the most humid ecosystem on earth. Her body was clearly defined and she was all woman, with firm, generous breasts, a small waist and curvaceous hips.
The whole aim of bringing her here had been to make her run screaming in the opposite direction, as far away as possible from him, but she’d been with him all the way.
He could still recall the terror tightening her face when she’d seen the scorpion and yet she hadn’t allowed it to rise. He’d pursued a punishing pace today, even for him, and yet every time he’d cast a glance back she’d been right there, on his heels, dogged, eyes down, assiduously watching where she stepped as he’d instructed. Sweat had dripped down over her jaw and neck, making him think of it trickling into the lush valley of her breasts, dewing her