Page 26 of Risk It All
Chapter Nine
Max
Ilook down into Madeleine's dazed but content hazel eyes. I'm right. That flash of green isn't just about anger. It flares in passion.
She shakes her head as if to rid it of fog. Good. I don't want to be the only one a little drunk from the kiss.
“When I imagined kissing you, it was pretty good, but the real thing is much better,” she says.
It's ridiculous how pleased I am to know she's imagined kissing me. “Me too.”
She smiles at me, and like always, it steals my breath. How can a woman look so beautiful wearing rumpled khaki clothes, no make-up, and twenty-four hours of travel fatigue shadowing her eyes? She is as stunning as the night I met her at her aunt's charity ball.
She starts to pull away, but I hold tight to the hand still resting over my heart. I place my other palm on her cheek, running my thumb over her swollen, thoroughly kissed lower lip that I desperately want to taste again.
“I know we need to get some rest and that this thing between us needs to go on the back burner, but I want to know, will I get another date when we get home?”
She smiles. “Eleanor would be pleased if we did.”
“She wouldn't be the only one.”
“Just to be sure, maybe you should kiss me one more time.”
“It's important to be sure.” With that I pull her close, and do everything in my power to make her be sure.
The next morning,Madeleine has me up before the sun. We move quickly and quietly repacking our packs, loading them up with extra bottles of water, and having a quick breakfast. We move with efficiency, barely talking to each other and I wonder if the intimacy of the night before had been a dream. Granted, during the night, she came to me in my dreams, looking like a goddess of the jungle as she took me on a wild ride. But I was sure that kiss last night was real. Wasn't it?
“Are you ready?” Madeleine waits for me by the door of our room.
I nod and go stand next to her. She looks up me, her hazel eyes focused and serious. “Are you sure you want to do this?”
I sigh. I'm tired of answering the same question over and over. “Unless something has changed, I want to follow through.”
She studies me for a moment. “Okay.” Then her eyes turn flirty with that flash of green as she grabs my shirt and tugs. “How about a kiss for the road?”
“So it wasn't a dream?” I dip my head.
She answers me by pressing her lips to mine. The kiss is shorter than I'd like, but what it lacks in length, it makes up for in punch. I feel it from the top of my head to the tips of my toes and all parts in between.
“Let's go,” she says.
Henri picks us up in the same place he'd dropped us off the night before. We drive for thirty minutes before Henri slows down the car.
“Bastu will be just inside the tree line. I can't stop for long, so you'll need to move quickly out of the car and into cover.”
“Is someone watching?” I wonder if maybe I should call off the trip.
“It's hard to know. It's best to get into cover just in case,” Henri says. “There are machetes here on the floor. One for each of you. Bastu will lead, but it won't hurt for you to each have one.”
Madeleine reaches down to the floorboard and picks up the long, sharp knives.
“If you get separated from Bastu, walk west until you reach the mine and then go south along the boundary. That will run into this road. If you're not here when I come back tonight, I'll drive to that area.”
Madeleine nods.
“Here is the drop-off.” Henri stops the car.
Madeleine and I quickly get out of the car, and Henri drives away within a few steps of our exiting. I hurry behind Madeleine toward the jungle.
