Enemy Mine (9 page)

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to awaken you,” Mac said. Never had he expected Katherine to answer the door dressed only in a towel. The yellow color emphasized her blond hair, which lay across her shoulders in mild disarray. She had obviously not bothered to comb out the strands before falling asleep, such was the state of her exhaustion. Mac didn’t blame her.

Nervous because she was barely clothed, Kathy saw the glimmer in his narrowed gaze as it slowly moved up her body, scalding her. First, heat swept across her hips and abdomen, then her breasts tensed hotly beneath his penetrating stare. When he lifted his eyes to her lips, she felt like a deer caught in headlights. Never had a man looked at her so hungrily, stripping her to her flesh. My
God. Her lips tingled as his smoldering glance lingered there. “That’s all right. Just give me a minute?”

Clearing his throat, entranced by her soft, shapely mouth, Mac replied, “Sure. I’ll wait here in the living room.” What kind of spell was she weaving over him?

Kathy saw he had a small brown paper bag in his hand. She almost asked about its contents, but her need to get dressed won out. She turned and dashed to the bedroom, located at the end of the long hall. Glad to escape Mac’s smoldering, appreciative inspection, Kathy discovered the walk-in closet full of clothes. Her heart pounded, as she tried to concentrate on what to wear. The man looked at her and she melted! Kathy didn’t melt. But she did with him. Shaking her head, she muttered an expletive.

She discovered her luggage in the closet and dragged it out. Opting to wear some of her own clothes, she pulled out a pink tank top and a pair of comfortable trousers. Still groggy, she didn’t bother to put on a bra, which she hated wearing, anyway. She grabbed her comb and brush from the bathroom, then frantically slipped on a pair of socks and her sensible brown oxfords. Mystified by her eagerness to see Mac Coulter again, Kathy slowed her pace. Why was she acting like a smitten teenager? Those years had long since passed her by.

Mac stood up when Katherine emerged from the hall. As she came to the sofa, he gave her a slight smile. When she managed a smile in return, he felt ten feet tall. After sitting down, she drew a brush through her hair. He couldn’t help admiring those blond strands, her lush
and curvy body. Before her beauty could overwhelm him, he sat down once more.

“How are you feeling?” Mac sank back in the flowery, overstuffed chair. A teak coffee table with a huge vase filled with white-and-purple dendrobium orchids provided a barrier between them.

“I feel like death warmed over,” Kathy said sleepily as she brushed her hair. When she started to raise her left arm, she flinched and bit back a moan. White-hot pain shot up her arm.

“Sore?”

“No kidding.”

“The doc said for you to take some aspirin. Did you find it in the medicine cabinet in the bathroom?” Mac watched as she lowered her arm, her soft lower lip tensed with pain.

“No, I didn’t. I was too hungry, and then after I ate, I took a hot shower and dropped dead on the sofa. I just wasn’t thinking very clearly at that time.” Of course, once she got around Mac, all her wits went out the window, anyway. Men had never affected her this way. Oh, she’d heard of some of her girlfriends being smitten like this, and she’d laughed. How could it be possible that one human could so elementally affect another? She wasn’t laughing now.

“You have a high tolerance for pain, then.”

He didn’t know the half of it. Kathy gave Mac a wry look and continued to brush her hair. “I’ve been told I do.” Managing the left side of her head was a little tricky, but she finally did. Now her hair, which was slightly wavy, hung in gold sheets around her shoulders
and halfway down to her breasts. She saw his shadowed face in the lighting provided by the one lamp she’d turned on. His eyes glittered and her skin responded, tingling. Feeling vulnerable, Kathy set the brush on the coffee table.

“What do you have in that sack?” She flinched inwardly because her tone sounded snappish even to her.

“Oh…” Mac opened it up. “Some arnica cream.” He motioned to her right hand. “I saw the black-and-blue bruises you had on your knuckles. This is a homeopathic ointment that’s great for taking out soreness. I thought you might like to try some. All you do is rub a little across the area. You’ll get fast relief, I think.” Mac got up and handed her the tube across the coffee table. Their fingers briefly touched, and the sensation was electric to Mac. Unexpected. Nice. It stirred memories of a woman touching his body. He hadn’t been with a woman in over a year, not with his deep undercover work. And he sure as hell wasn’t interested in Therese, who was always teasing and flirting with him.

“Thanks.” Kathy felt warmth, a tender ribbon, flow from her heart toward him. She tried to ignore the sensation Mac’s fingers caused by touching hers. A sizzling feeling of fire ignited within her lower body, a yearning that took her completely by surprise. There was no question that Mac Coulter was someone she could easily fall for. The fact that he worked for a drug dealer splashed ice-cold water on her ridiculous attraction. Opening the tube, Kathy carefully spread ointment across her discolored knuckles.

“I thought I’d broken my hand on that one dude,” she confided.

“Looking at the three of them, I’d say they got the worst of it.”

Her mouth quirked. After capping the ointment, she laid it on the table. “That was thoughtful of you, Mr. Coulter. Thanks.”

“Call me Mac. Remember?” God help him, he wanted to move over to her and kiss her pain away.

“Okay.” Kathy curled up on the sofa, resting her left arm against her body. The cut area ached and she knew she should take some aspirin to dull the pain. The way Mac looked at her, that hungry look, made her uneasy. Two lonely people stuck out in the middle of the jungle…Both of them Americans…That was it: loneliness was the reason for her crazy reactions to Mac. She forced herself to meet his gaze. “You came here for a reason?”

Nodding, Mac could see she was going to be all-business. That was fine with him, although a tiny part of his heart wished that she was as attracted to him as he was to her. He knew this was dangerous for him and his cover, so he quickly squashed those feelings. “I’d like to take you for a late evening walk around the villa. It’s very beautiful this time of day.” Mac sat up and smoothed his hands on his thighs.

Kathy frowned as she saw him nod his head toward the lamp near the end of the couch. What was he doing?

“I really don’t feel up to a walk….” she said, tilting her head and giving him a questioning look.

“I think you’ll feel better if you limber up, Ms. Lincoln.” Again, he flicked his gaze discreetly toward the lamp. He wanted to alert her to the fact that there was
a listening device in it. Garcia had almost every area of the compound bugged. He had a team of men who constantly monitored and taped conversations to spy on his employees and guests. What Mac wanted to tell Kathy would be in direct violation of his orders, and Garcia would have him shot in the head for it. Would she realize what he was trying to tell her? Mac saw the confusion clear and her eyes sharpen.

Kathy had been slow to realize it because she was wiped out from the day’s events. Somehow, Mac was trying to tell her something. What? Who was he, really? Standing, she said, “Maybe you’re right. The more I sit around, the stiffer I’ll get. A walk would do me good. Thanks for suggesting it.”

T
HEY WERE ON A NARROW
jungle trail of red coleche clay, which led down the mountain, at least half a mile from the estate. The sun had set and the day was dying, but there was still ample light to see where they were going. Around them, the jungle was alive with insects singing, frogs chirping and monkeys howling.

Mac spoke to her for the first time, in a hushed tone. He had walked at her right elbow until now. Stopping, he turned and drew close enough so that their arms nearly brushed.

“Your villa is bugged,” he informed her. Mac saw her go pale, her eyes growing huge with shock. “The
patrón
listens to all of us. He has men constantly monitoring nearly all buildings and the people who live in them.”

“That doesn’t seem right.” Kathy searched Mac’s stern countenance and saw honesty mirrored in his gray
gaze. She could feel his heat and found herself absorbing his protectiveness.

Shrugging, he said carefully, “It’s his way.”
Garcia is a drug lord and he’s paranoid, so that’s why he has bugs.
Of course, Mac couldn’t say that to her, nor would he want to right then. The stunned look in her eyes told him she wasn’t a spy. She had beautiful, soul-stealing eyes. A man could spend his entire life mapping out her face and losing himself in her sea-blue gaze. It took a huge effort to restrain himself and keep to the point of their talk.

“And that’s why we’re out here? You wanted to talk to me but you knew we were being taped?” To escape Mac’s steady look, Kathy glanced away and pretended to gauge the trail. It curved steeply downward, and she didn’t feel like taking it. Mac stood less than a foot from her, his hands resting languidly on his narrow hips, his brows bunched.

“Yeah, that’s right. We have some privacy here.” Mac had excellent hearing, and if someone was coming up the path, he’d know it. But to be sure, he dropped his voice to a bare whisper. “You need to listen to me, Katherine.” It was the first time he’d used her first name. She hadn’t given him permission, but the driving fear overrode his normal social skills. “I’m supposed to drop you at the jungle test point at 0500 tomorrow. I told you that they give you nothing and you’ll likely run into that jaguar on the way back. You have to survive that encounter.”

Nodding, Kathy leaned her head forward so that his lips were almost brushing her hair. Fear zigzagged through her. More and more, Mac Coulter was looking
like a guardian angel to her. “Go on.” The unexpected desire to simply take one step and lean her head against his broad shoulder was nearly Kathy’s undoing. His ability to draw her to him was mind-blowing. He had powerful male charisma, and it was working overtime on all her senses. Kathy told herself it was the danger of her situation that was making her overreact to him. After all, Mac was the only person in this nest of snakes who was trying to help her survive.

“It’s a short flight across the Urubamba, so I won’t have time to tell you what you need to know before I drop you off. That’s why we’re standing here right now. You have to know the river is turbulent—fast, deep and dangerous. But one mile upstream is a rope bridge that the locals use. You can’t cross safely any other way. A lot of women have lost their lives trying to cross where they were dropped. Just hike a mile upriver.” His nostrils flared, and he unintentionally inhaled the subtle, sweet scent of ginger from her recently washed hair. His fingers positively itched to tunnel through the thick, gold strands.

“Okay, I will.”

Mac studied her shadowed face, her narrowed eyes. She was a hundred percent focused, just like a combat pilot ready to destroy a target. Again he couldn’t shake the feeling that there were two very different sides to this woman—one the meek and mild facade he saw most of the time, and then this one, the warrior woman.

“On the other side of the river you have two choices. The jungle is so thick you can’t penetrate it without a machete and a helluva lot of hacking. For hundreds of
years the Peruvian people have been using paths created by the wild animals that traverse the rain forest. Wild pigs have carved most of them out, but there are paths that the jaguars have made.”

Kathy glanced up at him. Mac was so close she could feel the palpable energy of his masculine strength. The evening was humid and she was perspiring. She gulped unsteadily and tried to stay focused on what he was saying. “Okay, so which trail do I take once you insert—er, I mean, drop me off?” Fear racked her. She’d nearly used the military term
insertion.
A civilian wouldn’t use that word. For a moment, he lifted his chin and studied her. Had she corrected herself in time? Or had she just blown her cover? It was hell standing there beneath his scrutiny. His eyes glimmered with some unknown emotion she couldn’t decipher.

“After you cross that rope bridge, you’ll see a trail going off into the jungle. That’s the one you’ll take. But it’s the jaguar’s path, too. And it will lead you directly through his territory.”

“Where will I meet him?”

“There’s no way to know. A jaguar has a large territory. If you get lucky, he’ll be sleeping during the day. Unless they’re really hungry, jags sleep in the day and hunt at night.”

“You said this was a fifty-mile stroll.”

“Yeah, it is. The most you can walk in a day’s time, providing you’re up to it, is maybe thirty miles on foot.”

Nodding, Kathy said, “You’re right. When does my employer expect me back here?”

“They give you four days to pass this test, so that’s
not an issue. Your problem is the cat. That whole path from beginning to end is his territory.”

“How am I going to survive, then? I have to sleep at night. What should I do?”

She was asking all the right questions. “I’m going to stow some gear for you. Once I drop you, you’ll have a pack containing a lightweight hammock, beef jerky, a compass, a tube of antibiotic ointment, extra dressings for your arm and a knife.”

“What about water?” Every moment spent with Coulter was like a rich, unexpected dessert to Kathy. She saw the ruddiness in his cheeks, absorbed the warm intimacy of his husky voice. When he lifted his hands, she stared at their shape and wondered what it would be like to feel those long, strong fingers caress her. Closing her eyes, she touched her brow. Somehow, she had to get a handle on her desire for this man.

Mac barely controlled his desire to reach out and touch her cheek. The look in her eyes told him that she wanted him as much as he wanted her. Struggling not to be so drawn to Katherine, he managed a slight, disarming smile. “That’s the easy part. You’ll see a lot of wooden vines no matter where you walk—lianas. All you have to do is snap them off and pull them into your mouth. They’re filled with water, and will quench your thirst.”