Chapter 7
CHAPTER SEVEN
Five days later, Buck was pleased with the progress they were making.
Mandy was holding up much better than he’d expected.
She didn’t say much as they walked, but that was fine because it allowed him to stay alert for any signs they were being followed or that the rebels had managed to drive their trucks ahead of them.
It didn’t take a rocket scientist to know that anyone who’d escaped them would be trying to get across the border.
But Buck still wasn’t sure whether or not the kidnappers knew anyone had missed the rescue helicopter.
It was possible no one was looking for them.
That they’d assumed some of the kids had stolen food from the kitchen.
Mandy had told him that she and the girls were left in the tent unaccompanied when they prepared meals.
That would be the best-case scenario, and the one that Buck was leaning toward. He hadn’t seen or heard signs of anyone in the jungle except for him and Mandy…and Rain, of course.
The little dog was tough. He kept up with them as they walked for miles every day.
He’d disappear every once in a while, and Buck could see how worried Mandy was about him each time, but he always showed up again, his tongue out, loping along as if he was on a grand adventure.
Buck wished the little guy could talk, he was sure he’d have a hell of a story to tell.
They were running low on cans of food by now, but he’d been able to catch some kind of fresh game almost every night. They’d had squirrel, another porcupine, and amazingly, even a pacarana. Buck hadn’t even thought they were in this part of the rainforest, but he’d obviously been wrong.
A pacarana looked like a guinea pig, with black fur flecked with white dots running along its sides.
The one he’d caught was smaller than usual, probably why he’d been able to catch it in his snare.
They were usually around thirty pounds, but this one had been about half that.
It provided some much-needed meat for all three of them.
And yes, Buck was now considering Rain a part of their traveling party. The dog was still wary of him, but at least he no longer flinched away every time Buck stood up or shifted.
So even though they were doing okay with food—and water, since it rained all the time, and he set up a catchment system with all their empty cans every night—the more immediate issue was hygiene.
Buck felt disgusting in his flight suit.
He would’ve taken it off long before now, but all he had on underneath was a pair of underwear and a thin tank top.
He’d unzipped it so he could get some air while he walked, but the wet and humid environment were doing damage to his feet in his boots.
He had sores in places he shouldn’t have sores and chafing all over his body from the suit.
He’d lost weight since they’d been walking, and the material was extremely uncomfortable against his skin now.
And he knew without a doubt Mandy was feeling the same way.
She was wearing sneakers, and when she took them off the other night, he could see her feet were in the same bad condition as his.
Her clothes were torn and caked with dirt and sweat, and at night when they lay down to sleep, she’d lower herself gingerly, trying not to flinch.
She had to have bruises all over her body from sleeping on the hard ground.
Something had to give. Buck wasn’t sure how much farther they had to go.
He’d estimated how far they’d walked every day, and knew how far it was to the border, but since they weren’t going in a straight line, it could be another week until they reached Guyana.
Mandy said she and the kids had walked for two weeks to get to the rebel camp, but they’d been moving very slowly.
It was tough to walk fast with twenty-three children.
It was ironic that even though they were surrounded by water—falling from the sky every day, puddles they walked across and through, and even the occasional pond—there wasn’t anything appropriate to clean with, other than the fast wipe-downs they did each morning with the rainwater he’d collected overnight. Whatever they didn’t need for drinking.
So that was why, when Buck heard what he thought was running water, and more than just a trickle, he didn’t believe his ears at first. But he couldn’t fight the huge smile when all of a sudden he was face-to-face with a good-size stream with fast-moving water.
Even more amazing, off to the side and not far from where he was standing, a small pool had formed thanks to a large tree that had fallen across the stream, diverting the water.
“Holy cow, how are we going to get around that?” Mandy asked, as she came up beside him to stare with wide eyes at the obstruction in their path.
She didn’t understand how fortunate they were right that moment.
“We aren’t going to go around it. We’re going through it,” Buck told her, still grinning. “It’s not a Jacuzzi, but it’s the best I can do at the moment.” He remembered that she’d said a few days ago she wished she was on the beach, in a hotel with a Jacuzzi.
Her eyes widened as it hit her what all this running water meant. “Is it safe?”
“Safer than the stagnant pools we’ve come across before now,” Buck said. “Come on,” he cajoled, holding out his hand.
He smiled when Mandy put her hand in his, and he led them toward the pool.
He shrugged off the backpack, leaned down to take off his boots and socks, took his KA-BAR and compass out of his pockets, then walked into the pool of water with his flight suit on.
“Nash!” Mandy said with a laugh.
“What?” he asked, turning around and smiling at her.
“My clothes need washing almost more than I do. I mean…I could get totally naked if you’d prefer.
Don’t think I’ve missed the way you’ve ogled my ass, woman.
” He was teasing her, but the blush on her cheeks told him he might’ve been closer to the mark than he thought.
Which was fine, considering he’d done his share of checking out her ass over the last few days.
“Get in here, Mandy. The water isn’t too cold and it feels divine!
” Buck lay on his back and stared up at what little blue sky he could see between the canopy of leaves.
For once it wasn’t raining, and with every step they took away from the rebel camp without seeing or hearing any sign of anyone being after them, the more confident he was that the men didn’t know they hadn’t gotten onto the helicopter.
Mandy copied his actions and leaned down to take off her shoes—except she left her socks on—and entered the water with him.
“Oh my God, this feels amazing!” she moaned.
And the sound went straight to Buck’s cock. It was a good thing he was still wearing his flight suit and was under the water, because the last thing he wanted to do after all their time together was make her wary. And seeing his erection might make her think she wasn’t safe with him after all.
She ducked below the water and stayed under long enough for Buck to get a little worried. Just when he was about to go over and haul her back up, she stood and shook her head, spraying water in every direction.
The smile on her face transformed her. Until that moment, Buck had never seen Mandy carefree. But watching her now was like watching a butterfly emerging from its cocoon. She lifted her arms out to her sides and tilted her head back with her eyes closed.
She was a fucking goddess—and Buck wanted nothing more than to worship her the way she deserved to be worshiped.
The water made her T-shirt and shorts cling to her body in a way he hadn’t noticed before now.
Yes, she’d been wet from the rain, but there was something inherently different between then and now. And he couldn’t take his eyes off her.
After a moment, she lowered her head and arms, and when their gazes met, Buck could’ve sworn something arced between them.
He desperately needed to focus on something other than how beautiful this woman looked. Squatting down, he scooped up some sand from the bottom of the pond. “Look. You can use sand as a scrub. Not as good as soap but it should help, at least a little.”
Of course, he realized he was covered from his wrists to ankles in cloth.
He needed to peel off at least the top of his flight suit so he could clean his skin.
Without thought, he reached for the zipper and yanked it down, shrugging the material off his shoulders and letting it float in the water around him.
His tank top was disgusting, and he quickly pulled it up and over his head, sighing in relief at the feel of the water on his bare skin, of being able to essentially “air out” his upper body.
He crouched in the water once more and ran the sand over his arms, then his chest and underarms, reveling in the rough abrasion of the grains against his skin.
He’d acted out of pure instinct, simply wanting to get clean and enjoying the impromptu bath, but when Mandy made a noise, he looked up—and froze.
She was staring at him with wide eyes, and it didn’t look as if she’d moved an inch.
“Mandy? Are you all right?” he asked.
When she didn’t respond, Buck got nervous. He moved toward her, the water lapping at his hips, his flight suit trailing behind him. It wasn’t until he was a foot in front of her that he understood the look on her face.
Desire.
Seeing it ramped up his earlier feelings tenfold. And now that he was so close to her, he could see what he’d missed before. Her pupils were dilated, her nipples hard under her shirt and bra. She shifted where she stood but couldn’t take her gaze from his chest.