Kat felt a soft-skinned dolphin glide close enough to brush up against her as if in greeting, and she grinned. They were beautiful and huge. And amazingly pink. Not all of them, though. Some were gray with a pink belly, or pink with a mottling of gray on top. The four she glimpsed rising out of the water and then diving back in were much bigger than she had imagined them to be. These were freshwater dolphins, not like the ones at the shows she had seen. But actually being in the water with them was both exhilarating and intimidating.
Connor stuck close to Kat as if she might need his rescue at any moment. She loved the way he was so protective of her and of Maya, too. He knew his sister’s capabilities better than he did Kat’s, so he seemed more concerned about Kat than she thought warranted. Except for the sickness, she normally was extremely capable on her own.
For now, she felt rejuvenated. Clean, refreshed, loving the water as she always had. And as she stroked the good-natured dolphins, she was thrilled they had stopped to swim and play.
“A male,” Connor said as she ran her hand over an even bigger dolphin.
“But females are usually bigger.”
Connor shook his head. “Not among these dolphins. The males are bigger and are more likely to be all pink.”
Maya swam on her back and said, “Some call them botos. Did you know that some claim they have supernatural powers? An Amazon legend states that a sexy man seduces a girl, gets her pregnant, and then returns to the river in the morning to become a boto again. Some believe that it is bad luck to kill one. Some believe that the spirits of drowned souls enter the boto’s body.”
“I wonder what they would say about us,” Kat said, watching the dolphins swim near, then disappear again underneath the dark water.
Maya smiled. “I believe they’re already making up tales. Connor has his own harem.”
“Which,” Connor said to his sister, “if it keeps you out of trouble with the men, suits me fine. Not that you’re part of my harem, but just that the locals think so.”
Maya grew thoughtful. “Do you think the other male jaguar we heard was a shifter or just a regular jaguar?”
“It’s hard to tell,” Connor said, although from the odd expression on his face, Kat wondered if he really did know but wasn’t committing himself. “I hadn’t been leaving a scent around the area like I normally do to let other beasts know that I’ve claimed the territory, what with Kat having been so ill. So it could have been either.”
Kat hadn’t thought about it much, but now she realized that Maya must want to check the other jaguar out. She’d said they hadn’t been able to locate any other jaguar-shifters. What if the guy was one, and Maya and he hit it off? She could have a mate without having to bite anyone to make it happen.
“Do you want to locate him and determine if he is?” Kat asked Maya. She figured that Connor didn’t want to look for the male jaguar, or he would have suggested it already. Was he worried Kat might be interested in the other male jaguar if he was a shifter?
Connor drew in a deep breath as he stood near Kat. “He’s stalking us.”
Kat’s mouth opened, but she didn’t say anything. He was following them and Connor knew? She glanced at Maya. His sister sighed. “At least we’re pretty sure he is.”
“As a jaguar?” Kat asked, amazed at the news.
Why hadn’t she seen any sign of him? She knew they were being followed, but she couldn’t say exactly what had alerted her. Maybe that sometimes a flock of parrots would shoot heavenward into the canopy some distance in the jungle, or that monkeys would titter and squawk at each other in warning, alerting the others of trouble. She had believed they were being followed by the native people who lived here, not by anyone who might wish to take them hostage. The thought that more of Manuel’s kind might be around still bothered her, but she figured anyone else like him would have made a move by now.
She had thought Connor was pushing them through the jungle so relentlessly to get them somewhere safe as soon as possible. But now she wondered if it was because he worried about another jaguar—or jaguar-shifter.
“A jaguar’s been following us,” both Maya and Connor said at once. Apparently they didn’t know for sure if he was a shifter. If he was running around as a man, they probably wouldn’t have thought he was a shifter.
Kat looked at the trees lining the banks of the river. “You’ve seen him?”
“In a tree, two hours ago,” Maya said.
“How did I miss him? Why didn’t you tell me?” When neither answered her right away, Kat asked, “Is he trying to figure out our relationships?” She assumed Connor didn’t want her thinking he was so controlling that he wouldn’t let her get to know another shifter.
“I’m sure of it, if he’s a shifter,” Maya said rather wistfully.
Connor had a harem, so who was with whom? Were both the females his? Like a regular jaguar who claimed a couple of females or more within his territory?
Kat hadn’t had a real family. Not one that had looked out for her. And she had never had a man care for her to such an extent, someone who was willing to take care of an unknown woman alone in the jungle who hadn’t been the best of company. She had been sickly, looking like death warmed over, so he was probably figuring she couldn’t have been very bright to be there in the first place.
She’d had her share of relationships; none of them had worked out. Either the guys were too busy making rank and enjoying the freedom and money as single men in the service and didn’t want to be tied down to a wife and kids, or there just was no spark. Until Roger came along. But that engagement had been short-lived after her aborted mission in the jungle. He didn’t even have to tell her it was over between them. When he began giving her the third degree about her mission while she was still so out of it from her injuries, she knew the mission was all he cared about. And she had been the one who ended it between them.
With Connor, it was totally different. She was certain that if he had been able to save her life and take her with him that day she had been shot up so badly, he would never have questioned her about anything until she was ready to share what had happened. But in truth, if he had known her beforehand, she was sure he wouldn’t have allowed her to go on a mission that would have endangered her life in the first place.
Even now, the way he stood so close to her made her feel sparks and heat and sizzle. A dolphin bumped gently against her leg, but Connor, looking down at her and trying to read her feelings, was the one who stole her attention.
She wanted to wrap her arms around him to prove to the other jaguar, if he was watching, that she already had a shifter she was interested in.
That’s when Connor smiled at Kat in the most devilishly sinful way, cupped her face with his wet hands, and pressed his mouth against hers.
Everything—the flow of the river, the dolphins swimming nearby, Maya and anyone else who might be watching—faded into the distance as if none of them existed. Only Connor’s hot lips against hers held her attention. It was just like at the waterfall, as if nothing mattered but his touching her. She treasured it and needed it—the closeness and the feeling she wasn’t someone who had no one, had never had anyone in her life, and was wanted now for the first time ever.
But it was more than just want. It was a craving, something primal, instinctive, necessary. Not just an urge to have sex—although she was already thinking about the room arrangements when they reached the city. She wasn’t sure Connor would want to leave his sister alone in a room of her own, while Kat and he shared another. She wasn’t sure she wanted Maya off by herself, either.
But she did know she wanted Connor alone to cure this growing need to have him. Ever since he’d begun sleeping in the same small bed with Kat in the hut, with his body pressed indecently against hers, she had wanted more.