Page 24 of Vaquero
Chapter Nine
‘You did it now,’Julio thought once he’d left Meg behind. He’d kissed her. Not just kissed her, but he’d tongued her good and proper. Like a man should with a no-holds-barred woman like Meg. Hell, he would’ve stripped her bare and plunged into her sweet, warm body if he’d had more time. If he’d been any other man. If he’d been smart. She’d be absolutely certain how much he wanted her then. Only Julio didn’t just want someone like her. He wanted her.
His tongue ran a slow lap around his lips. She’d tasted incredibly sweet. Meg was not what he’d expected in an aid-worker. Marta was, but Meg was young and vibrant and…
Julio growled at the way his entire body had hardened with blood during that kiss. He’d been dead for so long, and here in the middle of Nowhere, Brazil, she’d brought him back to life. Piece by piece and part by part, his body was remembering how to hold little children and how to hold—her. It was remembering how good it was to eat. How starved he’d been.
His long, sturdy legs ate up the ground between him and the site of the explosion. Gravel pit, huh? This part of Brazil was rich in gold, as well as gemstones. Precisely what precious gems or mineral was Oz mining? Hematite? Tourmaline? The most prized imperial topaz? The gravel pit itself was man-made, the gravel used for roadbeds and damming rivers. Had Oz hit a vein of gold there? Seemed logical. Gold had turned enough weak-minded men into greedy bastards before.
Like a heat-seeking missile, Julio’s mind zeroed back to Meg. Acknowledging that he had feelings for a woman other than his wife was an astounding new development all by itself. He’d been living on heartache for so long. But everything had changed the second Meg dropped that sweet little boy into Julio’s hands. When she’d badgered him into securing the sickly child inside his shirt... Skin to skin... Against his heart...
The sweetest, bitterest memories of his short time with Tomas sprang back to life. It was as if the love he’d had for his son had jumpstarted Julio’s heart again. Holding Dom had only hurt because loving and losing Tomas was still stuck in his chest like a living, writhing knife. Only now, he felt more than just the bittersweet agony of loss. The sweetness to life that Julio’d thought he’d lost, was suddenly found again. He could breathe. Better yet, he actually wanted to breathe. It’d been a long time coming, this simple act of allowing oxygen to fill his lungs and his being. His mind cleared as, with every breath, his belly expanded.Dios,it felt good to be drinking in the oxygen-rich breath of the forest. All because of Meg.
It had taken her brassy way of ordering him around, as if he were nothing but a raw recruit, for Julio to realize that, although Bianca and Tomas were gone, he was still here. There was still purpose in living. In getting up every day. There was still work worth doing. Enemies still to fight. Love to be made...
From the first sight of her with those little kids around her, Meg had brought color back into his depressed, weary life. Now she’d awakened his soul. Better still, Julio wanted to live again. He wanted that elusive one more chance.
Because Meg was different. While Bianca had always said what she’d thought Julio wanted to hear, Meg did not. She knew what she wanted, and she had no trouble telling him what that was or going after it. But who would’ve thought she’d ever want him? That scene against the tree back there? Downright erotic, and precisely the stimulation he’d needed to wake the hell up and stop grieving. To start living. For the first time in years, Julio had a spring in his step.
She loved children, too. Didn’t that make his heart skip a beat? Most women these days were career-minded and driven to succeed the world over. Somewhere along the line, the traditional motherly role of bearing children and raising those little ones to productive adulthood had taken a backseat to industrial promotions and professional notoriety.
During his short stint in the Navy, he’d seen enough Navy wives to know exactly who ruled their husbands’ careers and what little downtime they had. The divorce rate among SEALs alone exceeded all other military departmental divorces at a whopping ninety percent. Suicide among military spouses in general was another dilemma all together.
Yet even as he walked away from her, there was no doubt in Julio’s mind that Meg was made of stronger stuff. Bianca had never supported his decision to apply for BUD/S, Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL training. He had a feeling Meg would have. She might’ve argued like hell, but in the end, she would’ve understood why becoming a SEAL had been important to Julio.
What would she be like in bed? Julio had to wonder. Then he had to knock off wondering because a man with a hard-on couldn’t walk to save his life. The oddest sound croaked out of his throat. Almost a laugh. At himself. At the fiery sensations of lust surging through his blood. It made him believe that today would end well. That he was a man again. Not just a shadow.
But first, Julio had a job to do. Schooling his tender feelings for Meg in order to negate the surge of blood in his nether parts, Julio changed back into the special operator he was. Oz would die screaming today. Then Julio meant to return to Meg, and he’d save her like she’d saved him. Piece by piece.
*****
“Where is Pepe?” Meg asked no one in particular.
Fernando and Joseph had the children ready to go. Each child shouldered a small backpack with two bottled waters stuck in the mesh side-pockets. No doubt those bags were stuffed with food, what few medical supplies had been salvaged from the orphanage, and whatever necessities were needed on a helicopter flight. Marta and Craig carried much larger backpacks. Fernando and Joseph did, too.
“He was just here,” Marta said as she turned around in a full circle. “Craig? Do you see him?”
Craig was a foot taller than his wife. “No, and I haven’t seen him since you and the kids arrived. I thought he was helping Phillipe or Maria like he usually does. Pepe!” he called out. “We’re ready to leave. Time to get going, son. Where are you?”
But no Pepe came running breathlessly into camp. No pounding footsteps sounded from the forest beyond. Panic flared up Meg’s spine. “Where could he have gone?” She directed this question at Craig, yet feared she already knew the answer.
“Either he went after Mr. Juarez or—”
“But Julio just barely left. If you haven’t seen him since we arrived… My God.” Meg’s heart stopped. “He’s gone after Oz.” That would be just like Pepe, to think he had to protect the younger children, and yes, Meg. Pepe had a crush on her. Of course. He wanted to be a man. He had to be hunting Orlando.
The eyes of the children gathered around her zeroed on Meg like a target.
“We can’t leave Pepe here,” Maria said.
“I don’t intend to,” Meg replied.
“He has to be close by,” Marta argued. “That boy was just here. He wouldn’t just leave. I know it.”
But Meg knew different. Marta had been preoccupied with the smaller ones, and more than anything, Pepe wanted to be like his father. Which meant he was right now on his way to confront the man who’d undoubtedly murdered that father. And he had a head start.
Meg whipped Julio’s sat phone out of her pocket and pressed one.
“Sullivan.”
