Then I started slipping, my boots giving away beneath me, my hands too slippery to grip the tree.
“Camden!” I cried out.
He quickly grabbed me around my chest, keeping me upright. Then he pulled out for a moment and turned me around. While I leaned on him, he bent down and took my underwear, jeans and boots off until we were both stark naked, standing in the rain and looking at each other. He was so fucking gorgeous it almost brought tears to my eyes. I needed him back inside me. Immediately. In any way I could get him.
I dropped to my knees, sinking into the warm mud, not giving a shit if I got dirty and took his cock into my mouth. I ran my teeth lightly over the hardened ridge until he gasped then soothed it with my tongue. He moaned. “Fuck.” And moaned again.
I tightened my fist, taking him in as far as he could go, sliding him in and out until the grip he had on my hair became vice-like. “Not yet, not yet,” he gasped. I looked up at him standing tall over me, the rivulets of water running over his beautiful ink and sculpted muscles. His eyes were lid-heavy with lust.
“Get on top of me,” he said and before I could respond he was lying down on his back, right on the muddy earth, and pulling me down on top of me. “Ride me. Fuck me. Fuck me as if it were the last time.”
I straddled him eagerly and he grabbed me by the waist, lifting me up before impaling me on his cock. I moaned from the tension then started to grind myself into him. His muddy hands gripped my waist and when I leaned forward, they squeezed my swollen breasts, thumbing my nipples. I didn’t give a fuck if I was covered in mud from head to toe, if we were drowned, dirty rats. I was going to ride the hell out of him, right here on the forest floor.
He pumped me up and down on him until I leaned back, letting the rain cascade down my chest, and he worked on my clit again. I felt utterly primal, alive, loved. We were animals fucking, humans making love, two wounded, tortured people bringing each other to ecstasy beneath tropical skies. I rode him hard until we were both going over the edge. I came first, screaming gibberish, my body letting loose, my walls gripping and milking his cock as the spasms went through me, each one more powerful than the next. When it was time for him to come, I looked down, making sure I watched the pleasure on his face, the pleasure he was getting from me and only me. His eyes rolled back, his head pressed harder into the earth, mud smeared all over his beautiful body. He moaned, grunting, “Fuck, fuck, fuck” over and over again, gasping for breath, his mouth open in surprise like he couldn’t believe what was happening.
I knew how he felt. I couldn’t really believe it either. I was so lucky to have this man. My heart couldn’t have been more full. I couldn’t have been more high.
God, I don’t think I could have loved him more.
When we both calmed down, I went to get off of him but he quickly grabbed me and brought me down to his chest. “No,” he grunted into my ear. “Stay where I can see you. Where I can feel you.”
I nodded and nuzzled my face into the crook of his neck. He smelled like musk and damp earth, fresh and manly. “I love you,” he whispered. “I was never meant to love anyone else. No matter what. Ellie Watt, you own me. And I’ll keep you safe.”
My throat felt thick and I blinked back tears. Above us, the rain was tapering off a little. I ran my hands over his face, my finger over his perfectly straight nose, over his dark, arched eyebrows, over his square jaw, the spots on his cheeks where I knew his dimples appeared when he smiled. I owned him. And he would keep me safe.
I kissed him softly, sweetly then lay my head back on his chest. We lay like that for a while, until the rain stopped and we finally realized we were lying naked in the middle of the Honduras jungle. As much as I wanted to keep lying there, keep feeling his heart beat against mine, his strong arms around me, protecting me, loving me, there was reality to face. A job to be done. A mission we were both committed to. It was heart-wrenching when I finally got off of him and slipped my clothes back on. The moment would be forever committed to my memory, keeping me going when everything else got scary, dangerous, hopeless. I would return to that moment when it was just him and I and for a brief time, nothing in the world mattered. No one could hurt us. It was just love and it was all we needed.
When we were both dressed – and still partly splattered with mud – we resumed our duty. We brought out the compasses and started walking again, heading northeast. I felt like I left something behind on that forest floor. The us I hoped we could return to.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
It was dusk when we saw the first lights in the jungle. At first I was certain that it was a pair of animal eyes, maybe a panther, watching our every move. But the eyes turned into several eyes and the forest began to open up and suddenly the lights belonged to a walled fence and a pathway and the roof of a sprawling mansion.
We had found it.
This was Travis’s compound.
“Now what?” I asked Camden as we stopped a football field’s length away, sticking close to the trees for cover. We couldn’t really see anything because of the high stone wall that went on forever, hiding the mansion and who knows what else behind it.
“You don’t happen to have a pair of binoculars in there?” he asked, gently taking the backpack off my shoulders and opening it. “Maybe night vision goggles?”
“No. Javier had them.”
“Of course he did,” he said. He sighed and rubbed his hand on his face. He looked up at the trees. “Well, we won’t have any idea of what we’re dealing with if we can’t see it. You good at climbing trees?”
I smiled. “World’s best date palm climber right here.”
A weird flash came across his face, as if something dawned on him. “I had a dream about you and I last week. We were in high school and climbed to the top of one of your uncle’s date palms. There was a fire coming across the valley.”
“Did we get burned?” I asked, reaching for his hand and pulling him toward me.
He smiled sadly. “We did. But at least we were together.” He cupped my face in his hands and my eyes closed at his touch. “My Ellie. My beautiful girl. I will burn for you. I will die for you.”
My heart skipped and burst, overflowing until my chest was radiating with heat, love, peace. I turned my face and kissed his palm. “You give me life, Camden. Death doesn’t seem so scary after that.”
He pulled me close and kissed my forehead. “How about we climb this tree, see if we can get a good look before it gets dark?”