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 golden skin with moisture.
Damn her. He hated to admit that up to now he’d been viewing her almost as a temporary irritation—like a tick that would eventually fall off his skin and leave him alone—but she was proving to be annoyingly resilient. He certainly hadn’t expected to be sharing his tent with her.
The Serena DePiero he’d pegged as a reckless and wild party girl out only for herself was the woman he’d expected. The one he’d expected to leave Rio de Janeiro as soon as she’d figured she was on a hiding to nothing.
But she hadn’t left.
So who the hell was the woman waiting for him now, if she wasn’t the spoiled heiress? And why did he even care?
* * *
Serena bit her lip. The light was fading fast and there was no sign of Luca returning. She felt intensely vulnerable right then, and never more aware of her puny insignificance in the face of nature’s awesome grandeur and power. A grandeur that would sweep her aside in a second if it had half a chance.
And then the snap of a twig alerted her to his presence. He loomed out of the gloom, dark and powerful. Sheer, abject relief that she wasn’t alone made her feel momentarily dizzy, before she reminded herself that she really hated him for scaring her earlier.
Luca must have caught something of her relief. ‘Worried that I’d got eaten by a jaguar, princess?’
‘One can but hope,’ Serena said sweetly, and then scowled. ‘And don’t call me princess.’
Luca brushed past her and took in the camping stove, commenting, ‘I see you can follow instructions, at least.’
Serena scowled even more, irritated that she’d done his bidding. Luca was now gathering up wood and placing it in a small clearing not far from the tent. Determined not to let him see how much he rattled her, she said perkily, ‘Can I help?’
Luca straightened from dumping some wood. ‘You could collect some wood—just make sure it’s not alive before you pick it up.’
Serena moved around, carefully kicking pieces of twigs and wood before she picked anything up. One twig turned out to be a camouflaged beetle of some sort that scuttled off and almost made her yelp out loud.
When she looked to see if Luca had noticed, though, he was engrossed in building up an impressive base of large logs for the fire. It was dusk now, and the massive trees loomed like gigantic shadows all around them.
Serena became aware of the rising sound of the forest around them as the night shift of wildlife took over from the day shift. It grew and grew to almost deafening proportions—like a million crickets going off at once right beside her head before settling to a more harmonious hum.
She brought the last of the wood she’d collected over to the pile just as Luca bent down to set light to the fire, which quickly blazed high. Feeling was returning to her feet and they had started to throb painfully.
Luca must have seen something cross her face, because he asked curtly, ‘What is it?’
With the utmost reluctance Serena said, ‘It’s just some blisters.’
Luca stood up. ‘Come here—let me see them.’
The flickering flames made golden light dance over his shadowed face. For a second Serena was too transfixed to move. He was the most