When she was done, he was drying himself. He pulled on a pair of Bermuda shorts and a T-shirt and sandals, then headed inside. He stopped when he saw her and smiled.
“You clean up nicely if you don’t mind the cliché,” he said, stalking toward her. She thought he was going to begin kissing her all over again.
Instead, he took her arm and examined the claw marks. They had stopped bleeding, and he kissed them gently. “I suppose you don’t have any bandages.”
“No, afraid not. I thought I had some in my suitcase.” She envisioned David and the ladder of colorful, fanciful bandages across his forehead. She was almost glad she didn’t have any of those bandages.
“Okay, let’s go. David has a first-aid kit in his bag.” Wade caressed her back with his hand, and she thought that if they didn’t leave the cottage quickly, they’d end up in bed together instead.
“Just plain old bandages?” she asked.
Wade smiled down at her and kissed her nose. “We’ll have to add some fancy ones to the kit just for you. Your brother didn’t expect us for dinner, but he and Kat and my brother are saving us seats.”
She felt her face heat. “I take it you’re planning on staying here this evening.” She motioned to Wade’s bag as he escorted her past it, hoping he was planning on sleeping there. “And you’re not taking off after Lion Mane in the dark.”
She didn’t feel comfortable being alone if Lion Mane had any intention of returning to finish what he started.
“Oh yeah. If I hadn’t insisted on it, your brother would have. He doesn’t want you to be alone until he gets you home. He tested my resolve first, though.”
“Tested you?” she asked, puzzled, as Wade led her down the walkway toward the lodge.
“Yeah. He said David and I could stay in your cottage, and you could stay with your brother and Kat. I said no.”
Maya looked up at Wade, saw the determination on his face, and smiled. She smelled the aroma of red fish and stewed pork cooking and sighed. “I’m hungry. Is Connor really okay?”
“Yeah. He took a bite out of Lion Mane, though.”
Her mouth gaped for a second. Then she nodded. “Good. What about the hunter who’d been with him?”
“He’s joined the other one in the river.”
Maya pulled Wade to a stop. “What happened?”
“He held a gun on me at our cabana. I believe he’d been ordered to hold David and me hostage until the shifter returned. He didn’t figure on me not going along with the plan.”
Maya stared at Wade, then took a deep breath, tears misting her eyes. He pulled her under his arm and walked again with her toward the lodge. “Everything turned out all right. We just need to get Lion Mane now.”
“Did you get the name of the buyer?”
Wade chuckled. “No. I mean, it’s not funny. But you’re the third person who’s asked me that tonight.”
“Your brother and mine,” she guessed.
“Yeah. I only have my boss to add to the list when I call him.”
When they reached the dining hall, several of the guests were still arriving after cleaning up, some looking a little shaken from their ordeal with the jaguar.
“There had to be three or four of them,” one woman complained. “At least. They were roaring and screeching, and I was sure the lady…” She looked up to see Maya walking in with Wade and snapped her mouth shut.
Wade escorted Maya to the table where David and Connor rose from their seats. Kat remained seated, looking a little pale.
“Are you feeling all right, Kat?” Maya took a seat, and the men followed suit.
“I’ll be fine once I have something to eat.” Kat was already nibbling at a garden salad. She looked at Maya’s arm, which was burning like crazy. “What about you? Are you okay, Maya?”
Without any bandages, Maya hadn’t wanted to wear a sleeve that would rub against the open wound. David was already rising from his seat as the waitress approached.
Once they ordered their food, David said, “I’ll get a bandage for Maya,” then hurried out of the dining room.
Everyone was quiet for a while, then someone started talking again at another table about the jaguars attacking them. Maya said to her tablemates, “We saw the most beautiful crystal cave today where the Mayans held some of their ceremonies. A treasure trove of ancient pottery was strewn about. When we come back here, maybe you and David could see them with us.”
The conversation at the other tables died.
“It was spectacular,” Kat agreed.
David raced back into the dining room, breathing hard. He had to have run all the way to his cottage and back. He shoved a roll of gauze and tape at Wade, then retook his seat.
“Thanks,” Maya said to David. He smiled at her and winked.
Everyone waited for Wade to bind Maya’s wounds. She wished they would just talk and get all the attention off her. Her whole body was heating to sauna levels despite the cold air circulating in the dining room.
“Oh yes, and the cave tubing was so much fun,” Kat said, perking up after finishing her salad, finally starting the conversation again. “The water was just the right temperature.”
“I’d love to visit the cave.” Wade finished binding Maya’s wound, then took her hand in his and caressed it, gazing into her eyes like an adoring puppy instead of a hot-blooded cat.
She smiled at him, deciding she liked him both ways, a lot.
She noticed that both her brother and Kat were watching the way Wade was caressing her hand, and her whole body heated all over again. She pulled her hand away from Wade’s and dipped her spoon into her soup.
“We won’t be coming back for some time,” Connor said, running his hand over Kat’s belly. “Too difficult with twins on the way.”
Poor Kat. Every eye in the place turned to look at her stomach.
Maya sighed a little, grateful that Connor got her out of that one. Until he said, “But you and Maya could visit in the meantime, Wade. I wouldn’t want her to feel that she couldn’t enjoy the rainforest just because we can’t go.”
Maya glowered at her brother. Spending time totally alone with Wade was not a good idea.
Wade grinned. “Sounds like a deal.”
She could have kicked her brother under the table. Then she saw David smiling at her, and she had a brilliant thought. “David could go with you, Wade. Since he hasn’t been there, either.”
“If he wants to come along for the ride, sure,” Wade said, not about to let her slip out of that one so easily.
The entrées were served, and they got busy eating, the whole room quiet except for the clinking of silverware or the pouring of fresh water into glasses.
Thinking back to what their guide had told them, Maya said, “The cold crystal-clear water was coming up from natural underground springs. I didn’t expect to see the catfish in the pools of water or how clear it would be.”
“And a jaguar hunts there, too,” the woman who’d spoken about Maya earlier said.
This time Maya frowned at her, irritated that the woman kept harping about the jaguars. “He wouldn’t come out until night and only to hunt big rodents, not people,” Maya finally said, annoyed.
The woman motioned to Maya’s arm. “You didn’t have those claw marks before. One of the jaguars did that, didn’t he?”
Wade placed his arm around Maya’s shoulder, but she didn’t need protection from the woman who scorned their kind. Maya tapped her long nails on the table and then showed them to the woman. “He did. But when I clawed him back, he took off running.”
Everyone chuckled.