Mitch trailed his hand down her spine and scooped her hip, drawing her flush against him. He felt her arms slide up and link behind his neck as she kissed him with hunger now, sounding almost as if she was crying. She was punishing him with her passion, but the persecution cheated her. She continued to mate with his mouth in a way that broke him and debilitated him with lust. He pulled back, uncertain.
“
Alex?” he whispered.
In the dim light she blinked, her pupils so large he barely saw the verdant eclipse at their rims.
“
I hurt.”
It was a simple and desperate testimony that could scope anything from the pain she felt over the jeopardy imposed on her students to her entrapment in a cave several stories underground. Maybe it was the soreness that his attraction caused her, or simply it was an ache she carried with her every day of her life.
He rested his forehead against hers and closed his eyes. The words formed on his lips and spilled over. “I hurt too.”
Her forehead brushed his in a slight nod.
“
I sense that,” she whispered. “Mitch, I don’t trust very easily. I can’t trust you, and yet I can’t stand here and deny that I’m attracted to you.”
“
Quite the quandary.” He rubbed his palm over the small of her back, trying to soothe and disregard the sting of her mistrust.
Alex withdrew from his embrace and placed a hand to her forehead, pacing the small seating area. She stopped and looked at him with a wide, sober gaze. “I want to sleep with you right now. I want a physical release. I want heat and passion and−” her voice cracked.
Mitch closed in and raised her chin with his hooked finger and smiled down at the anxious eyes. “I want to
make love
to you.”
Alex whimpered her denial. “Don’t say that.”
He kept her chin raised and gently kissed her. When he drew back he noticed that her eyes remained closed and there were telltale pools of moisture at the corners. He dipped down and brushed his lips over the arc of her cheekbone.
“
So there are three reasons why this won’t happen right now.”
Alex gaped up at him. “Why?”
“
One,” he cleared his throat, “I don’t have anything on me to ummm−for ummm−protection.”
“
At the moment I’m not rational enough to care about that, Mitch. Our lifespan may be very short-lived. I am not sticking around in this hell. I’m prepared to risk getting killed in order to escape, so
protection
isn’t first on my list.”
That declaration did little to alleviate the grape-stompers in his stomach.
“
Okay. I agree on that account, but two−” He couldn’t resist. He needed the fortification of her lips before proceeding. The fact that they responded to his touch nearly undid him. “Two,” he croaked. “Baby, as much as I want you, I’m about to pass out on my feet. I have spent the past couple hours worrying about you and trying to figure out their little washer/dryer tower. Last night in the jungle I had to stay awake until the guards made their circuit, and then after taking them out there was no luxury of rest. And the night before that−” Even reciting the events, the grey cloud of oblivion started to worm its way into his head, marring his vision, “I just don’t know when I slept last−and Alex, when this happens between us, you are getting one hundred percent from me.”
A dent formed between her eyebrows. “And the third reason?”
“
The third reason,” his voice dropped real low, “is that I will wait until you want to make love to me instead of looking for a release.”
Alex’s lips formed a small
o
. She opened her mouth to respond, but snapped it shut again. After a deep breath she managed, “You’re a pain in my ass.”
“
I know,” he grinned. “But you’re getting used to it.”
They shared a smile as if it was a sip of the finest wine, but it only lasted a second and Mitch was the first to break it. “Alex, I have an awkward question.”
She looked up.
“
Can I sleep with you?”
“
But I thought you just said−”
“
Can I sleep in your bed?” he hesitated. “With you? Just sleep. You’ll realize just how exhausted I am if I’m in bed with you and I don’t try anything.”
“
Who’s to say I won’t try anything?” Her eyes sparked.
“
Well, then don’t take my snoring personally.”
Taking his hand, Alex linked her fingers with his. It sent a jolt up his arm that fissured into his chest. Christ, it would be his luck to suffer a heart attack at this moment. What a strange sensation the simple connection of their hands had caused.
He had slept with women during the job−exotic women in exotic countries. He once even managed to keep a girlfriend for a brief spell at home. But in all his recollection, he realized that he had never held a woman’s hand. Not even on a date in college. How was that possible? It was making him weak. The electronic pulses from his palm to his chest were debilitating. He actually had to rely on that link to make it the few paces to the bed, where he stretched out atop the covers and fell asleep before he could whisper the words, “Thank you.”
***
He slept.
Alex couldn’t take her eyes off the man in bed with her. His dark eyelashes twitched as some creature of the netherworld tormented his slumber. During those moments she would place her palm against his chest to soothe him, but the texture of his muscles beneath the thin cotton shirt enticed her. He was so solid−a vista of muscles she had never climbed. She stared at his lips until heat rose in her cheeks. The light shadow of stubble around them made him look dangerous−only the danger was to her heart, not her body.
He wanted to make love to her.
He had lied to her.
She found it so hard to trust, and yet here was a man who entrusted her with the most vulnerable act of all. Sleep.
Exhaustion and confusion staked claim on her brain. Alex glanced at the digital clock beside the bed. 2:15. Did AM and PM even exist down here?
She felt the steady drum of Mitch’s heart beneath her palm, a beguiling pulse that drew her close as she stretched her body alongside his, feeling so small in comparison. She inhaled his scent, a combination of soap and detergent and some rugged element that made her tremble.
Her eyes closed and soon the limbo of hell enticed her. She entered the cave−the path to Xibalba. How far down must she travel until she reached the demons−the rulers of the underworld? The trials and traps of the Mayan death lords awaited her. They called out to her. They wanted to play a game.
Could she win?
***
A slender woman with long black hair cascading down her back stooped over a youthful version of herself. The young girl possessed the biggest brown eyes he had ever seen and they searched humankind with ardent curiosity. Even now they were locked on him, unblinking. Though he grinned, they did not react. They kept staring as if taking a scan of his face and storing it in a drive inside her mind along with other images she must have copied there. The woman looked up from her child and saw him and offered a hesitant smile.
He took the picture. A camera would fail to capture this beauty, but he took the picture for himself. To remember this moment.
The image faded and night befell him. He stood before a wooden barn, light streaming from its gaping planks in a strobe effect across the frost-covered turf. He could hear the crunch of his boot on the gravel path as his steps slowed on approach. Repulsed by the frozen handle of the barn door he was nonetheless drawn towards it−compelled to open it.
A golden halo poured onto the grass around him as he hauled open the door and the light pierced his eyes.
Mitch shouted and vaulted upright. Disoriented in the dark, he was aware of a bed beneath him−a far cry from the gnarled roots of a few nights ago. What was more shocking was the warm female body tucked up against his. With the help of the diffused light, his sight gradually acclimated. The female body hoisted up next to him.
“
Are you okay?”
Until he heard the voice, Mitch had feared it was the black-haired woman next to him. But she wasn’t there. Neither was the beautiful child with the eyes of an owl−capable of ingesting his soul.
It was Alex.
“
Yeah,” he swiped a hand over his face to try and brush away the ghosts.
Alex touched his hand and brought it down to rest on his thigh, with her fingers still meshed with his. “Monsters hunt you at night, don’t they?”
Dammit
. He stared at the union of their bodies in those joined hands. The effects of the nightmare wore off much more quickly tonight, but he could still see the little girl. She stood in the corner, just outside the ring of light. Watching him. Always watching him.
“
I−” He was hoarse and coughed to clear it. “I don’t sleep well.” He looked at the clock, evading her question. “But believe it or not, that was a pretty powerful nap. Thank you for not taking advantage of me.”
Persistent, Alex didn’t seem to buy his diversion. She kept a hold of his hand, preventing him from rising. He wanted to throw a blast of cold water over his face.
“
I watched you,” she whispered. “Dreams are only supposed to last for seconds, and yet they seem to assault you back to back with no relief. No wonder you don’t sleep well.”
Mitch tried not to dwell on the fact that she was watching him while he slept. It made him feel vulnerable−or coveted.
Which
?
“
Look−” He swung his legs off the bed so that his bare feet hit the carpet. “We have to get going. Aren’t we supposed to meet up with the Pastorellis and get a tour of this hell hole?”
Alex scooted up onto her knees and arrested him with firm hands. “Mitch, your nightmares are bad. They scared me and I’m not even
in
them.” She waited until he looked over his shoulder and then asked in a hushed voice, “What is it that torments you?”
His throat clenched. He shook his head, like a dog trying to rattle a toy, only he was trying to discard the images and cast off the sincerity in Alex’s voice.
“
I don’t want to talk about it, Alex, okay?”
Her hands fell from his shoulders and she sat back on her heels. “Okay.”
Dammit
. Her concern was a precious gift he sensed was not often bestowed. To reject her now when their lives were on the line would be a slap greater than that of his deception. And besides, wouldn’t it be a relief to share the black-haired angels that lived just outside the realm of consciousness?
He leaned forward avoiding eye contact. “I was stationed in Kosovo.” Feeling her settle next to him, Mitch continued, “The US had troops there for stability in the Balkan region. Kosovo was declaring its independence from Serbia, and Serbia feared that the Albanian government was going to physically force Serbs from their homeland.”
He sat up and looked over his shoulder. “Aww hell, you don’t want a history lesson.”
“
I spend most of my time in the field, Mitch, but I’m not ignorant to world politics. I can’t be. I can’t narrow my knowledge to just Central America.”
“
Okay.” He grinned halfhearted, but lost it once the memories returned.
“
They called it the Forgotten Front,” he started. “Everyone was consumed with the political strife in the mid-east, but battles were still being waged. Even though the war was long over, Serbs and other minorities were still being threatened by Albanians. The US soldiers that stayed behind were there to play peacekeeper−and I was assigned to the location. I drove to the Serbian village of Silovo where the locals were poor, but peaceful. There was a US military camp set up across the street from a Serbian church that I wanted to take pictures of. They were both on a hilltop, and I went up there, and in front of this church stood a beautiful woman with long black hair…” he hesitated because there she was, in the corner of this subterranean room, watching him, “−but her beauty was completed in the face of her daughter. The girl was a mirror image. The daughter stared at me with the biggest brown eyes. Soulful eyes. She didn’t move. She didn’t listen to her mother leaning over her, talking. She just stared at me. And I−” he coughed into his fist, “I took her picture.”
“
That was your job,” Alex offered. “They sound striking. You captured an image of their beauty for the whole world to see.”
Mitch shook his head. “It was the first time I ever felt that I had photographed something I was not privileged to.” He turned to face Alex. “Explain that. Can you explain that?”
Alex opened her mouth to answer, but sensed that he wasn’t looking for one. He wanted to continue.
“
That night I returned to the village, and to that church. I don’t know if I was looking to reflect on the images from earlier in the day, or just to capture a picture of the historic building under the light of a nearby bonfire. Regardless, I never quite made my destination. I parked the car and started up the hill, but a barn close by caught my attention. It was the noise. There were shouts coming from it, and light poured out of the cracks in the wood like lasers, and well…” he nodded, “−in my field, recklessness is heralded.” He looked at her, “So I approached that barn, and I slid open the door.”