Anonymity (9 page)

Going out of her comfort zone had its perks.
She'd need to make sure she found new places to explore at least once a year.

"Stand there. I'll take your picture with that in the background," he offered when she simply gaped at the view.
"Give me your camera."

She handed it to him as if on automatic pilot
, transfixed by the view. Posing with hands on hips, she smiled for the several shots he took "to make sure he got it right." Looking at him, she felt a tug in her heart. 

"You look like a fierce adventurer." He put her camera down and pulled out h
is own. "Don't move. I need to take my own."

Her smile widened with surprise that he'd want photographic evidence of her existence. Now that she knew pictures were on the table, she'd ask someone in the group to take one of them together.

"You're a hard person to figure out," she said when he handed her the camera.

"How so?" He snapped off a few pictures of the view himself before meeting her gaze.

"It doesn't matter, just thinking out loud." She turned her back on him and reminded herself why she'd wanted a simple fling and nothing more. She didn't want the answers to the questions that tumbled into her brain like where he lived, what his life was like, and if he believed in long distance relationships.

Damn it. I'm being the typical woman not the think-like-a-man person I wanted to be when I started this.
She kicked a pebble down the path.

* * *

They raced each other to the top of the High Temple of Lamanai, taking the ancient stone steps two at a time. He didn't know why he felt like a teenager around her, but he liked it. Laughing, he stood on the top of the temple and soaked it in. Mountains to the West and ocean to the East, nothing but jungle between each. His imagination took him back to Mayan times where he visualized a bustling city beneath them.

"You cheated. Let me guess, you climb mountains in your spare time." She sat on the top step and waved to the others from their group who were on the bottom.

"I do, actually." He looked at the back of her head and smiled.

"Figures." She pointed to the stack of clouds looming to the North. "Do you think that's the storm everyone worried about this morning?"

His smile faded. From what everyone said, a norther equaled hard rains and dangerous waters. Considering all the boats they needed to get back to the resort and that tequila he planned on indulging in, it concerned him more than he would reveal. He hoped Reggie paid attention and trusted that they'd be out before the severe weather arrived.

"I don't know about you two, but we're ready for a beach bonfire and some of Rosie's special brew." Bill, Savannah, and
four others from their dive group finished the climb and surrounded him. "This is gorgeous, though, isn't it? Worth the trip."

"I could have gone for a spa day myself." Savannah sat next to Alyssa. "The problem with being the only woman traveling with a group of men is that they rarely go for facials and massages. I don't get it."

He looked at the two women, surprised that they were getting along after the way Savannah had come onto him before Alyssa's arrival.

"Don't let her fool you, Alyssa," Bill said. "She's a tomboy. She's simply trying to make a female friend. Most women hate her."

Savannah glared at him over her shoulder.

"Alyssa's not like most women," Luke said with more pride than he should feel.

"Let me take a picture of the two of you." Savannah stood, her gaze still shooting daggers at Bill.

Alyssa handed her a camera before walking toward him and adjusting the headband that covered her wild curls. "I probably look like a mess."

"You're beautiful," he said and meant it. He wanted pictures of them together to look at on nights when he'd had a long day at court and doubted that authentically nice people still existed in the world.

He pulled her against his side and smiled as Savannah took their picture with the mountains at their back.
Then she was gone and reciprocating the favor for the divers. Savannah stood in the middle of the men, looking like a queen with her knights at her side.

"We'd better go. We're going to be cutting the hour close," Bill said as he stepped toward the stone steps.

With one last glance at the view, he picked up his backpack and followed the group. Alyssa led the pack down. He thought about them kissing behind the stone temple and wished he'd had enough courage to seduce her anyway. Her taste was an addiction, her body a sanctuary.

When they finally reached the boat at the dock, rain had begun to fall. Reggie was onboard with rain ponchos
set out for them. Trepidation drummed in his skull. Normally, he was the calm and collected type, but he didn't trust the look of those dark clouds descending upon them.

* * *

Chapter Six

Rain, river, followed by ocean...too much water in her near future as far as she was concerned. It was as if the sky had turned on a faucet. She huddled in the rain poncho and
pressed close to Luke on the boat bench. Already an inch of water covered her hiking shoes and soaked through to her socks. She'd stuffed her sunglasses into the backpack, which was now securely on her shoulders and beneath the poncho, but now regretted doing so as she squinted against the slamming rain.

And this was only the first boat.

Maybe she wasn't made for adventure travel.

Luke steadied her with an arm around her shoulder as the boat rocked back and forth while it traveled upstream against suddenly high water.
Gusty winds blew her hood off and made it almost impossible to keep the water out of the poncho. She couldn't wait to be dry.

"Do you think it's like this all the way back to the island?" She leaned close to his ear to ask the question over the howling wind.

"I'm afraid so. Did you seal your camera in a dry-bag...you know, a diving bag?" He pulled her hood over her head. "If not, give it to me. The water will seep into the backpack."

She
twisted so that he could access her backpack beneath the poncho and took a moment to scan the rest of the guests on the boat. Huddled in yellow ponchos and hunched against the driving rain, they weren't exactly a merry bunch of travelers anymore. Reggie and Bobby maneuvered the boat over water that had become angry in a very short period of time.

Luke patted her shoulder. "Don't worry. It's all going to be fine."

"I'm not worried," she lied and squeezed his hand as she rearranged herself on the bench.

When
the boat pitched precariously to the side, everyone made a "whoa" sound before it righted itself. Nervous laughter followed.

She gulped back fear even as the boat swung back onto its side, this time capsizing.

Snakes. Crocodiles. Those were the first words in her brain as she fought against the water sucking at her legs. Someone kicked her in the back during the chaos. Opening her eyes beneath the water, she could only see a murky darkness.

Luke
pulled her out from beneath the boat. She spit water and blinked against the rain. The cooler floated by along with the boat back toward Lamanai. A few of the group clung to the top of the boat, their hands reaching in the water for others still in the water.

"I've got you, hold on." Luke wrapped his arm around her shoulders from behind and pulled them toward the shore.

She kicked, wanting to touch bottom but terrified of what might lurk there. The rain poncho ballooned around her and felt more like a hindrance than a help.

The force of the water pushed them downriver, wind
and rain slapped them hard.

"
Grab the branch!" He yelled against her ear.

She nodded,
unable to speak, her gaze focused on the low branch over the water. In sync, they reached for it. He released her and struggled to get a grip on the tree. She used all of her strength to hold on and pull herself up, her fear of drowning only a little more severe than her fear of snakes or whatever else waited on shore.

Luke fell to his knees next to her once they were on land
and gasped for air. "Do you see anyone else?"

Spitting water, she
pulled long green slimy pieces of muck from her face and hair. Feeling like insects were crawling on her skin, she shook out the poncho and patted her shirt and pants. The ground itself squished when she struggled to stand and gain balance. She looked back toward the river, still pulling stringy green things from her hair.

Reggie stood on the oppo
site side, giving them a thumbs-up sign.

Really? A thumbs-
up?
She lifted her arms to the side and shrugged.

"Walk that way." He yelled and motioned upriver. "Follow the river
to where we parked the bus and you'll be fine. I need to find the others. If you see anyone else, tell them to keep walking up river. It's all fine."

"He has a different definition of the word fine than we do," Luke muttered from behind her.

Several feet ahead of them, Bill balanced precariously on a boulder and held Savannah with both of his hands. Her backpack and poncho had wrapped around debris in the water. She had one leg up on the shore, both hands in Bill's, but the other leg was submerged.

"I'm stuck!" Rushing water whooshed against Savannah's face.

Luke ran to help, leaning into the river to untangle her from where she'd gotten snagged by underwater tree roots.

Rain
drops felt like bullets pelting their faces. With each step toward the trio, Alyssa's shoes made a sucking sound when they pulled free of the grasping mud.

Savannah
lay on the ground for a minute, eyes closed and face muddy. "Spa day. Next time I choose the one activity outside of diving we do."

Alyssa pushed her hands over her eyes and struggled to catch her breath. None of this seemed real. Maybe she should be grateful that they hadn't
capsized at sea, but right now all she could think of was how long it had taken them to arrive here by boat. At least an hour, she thought. How many miles did that equal?

Luke sat on a boulder next to Bill, both men staring at the river with shock on their faces.

Hand over her eyes, she looked up and down the river, relieved to see people crawling onto shore and yelling for one another. She couldn't be sure, but it appeared most were okay.

"We'd better start walking. I don't want to sleep here overnight," she said to no one in particular before looking at the thick
jungle they needed to traverse. "I don't suppose you have a machete in your special diving bag, do you, Survivor Man?"

He grinned and shook his head no. "Joking at a time like this?
That beats hysteria. You're right. We need to start walking. It's going to take awhile to get back."

"We need to stay together. It will be easy to get lost with such thick underbrush." Bill helped Savannah to her feet.

Luke stood, grabbed her by the shoulders, and looked her up and down. "How do you feel? Anything broken? Any bites?"

"Bites?" Fear froze her in place thinking about what could have bitten her.

"Just be careful, there are snakes around and most of them blend. They'll be difficult to see in this weather and a few are pretty aggressive."

She thought of that yellow one they'd seen eating a bird on the way here and gulped. "Thanks for freaking me out even more. I really didn't need an image. I'm fine. No bites."

"Good." He yanked her toward him and kissed her. Hard. "Whatever happens, don't let go of me, okay?" 

"On the way down here, I noticed some houses and clearings. Maybe we can find some shelter for awhile,
dry out as much as possible before continuing, and alert someone as to what happened." Bill had retrieved a baseball cap from his backpack and now adjusted it low over his eyes.

"It's going to be really thick walking through all of this. Are you going to be okay with that?" Savannah asked her.
"I'm only asking because you're so petite...you know...I mean, you look delicate."

Suddenly feeling a pigmy surrounded by giants, she straightened her spine. "I can handle it. Let's go instead of standing around talking about it."

They formed a line, Bill in front, then Savannah, with her in the middle and Luke behind her. They trudged through the thick underbrush, rain making it almost impossible to see so she kept her eyes focused on the ground. Thankful for the long pants, she stepped gingerly over gnarled roots, slipped a few times in the mud only to be caught by Luke, and pulled her legs free of spikey trees that seemed to grab at them with horror show animation. They all held onto each other forming a train of yellow ponchos moving through intense green forest.

She collided into Savannah's back. Blinking, she looked up to see the cause of the sudden stop and squinted toward the clearing where a tin-roofed cabin stood. Bill motioned toward it and they automatically moved forward as one.

"I don't think anyone's here." Bill knocked again. No answer.

Looking around the property, she doubted anyone lived here at all. It had been cleared, yes, but the animal pens were empty and there weren't any signs of human inhabitants.

"How far do you think we've come?" she asked, shivering down to her bones.

Luke winced and looked over his shoulder toward the river. "Not far. At this rate, I'm not sure we'll make it to the road before dark. It was after three when we boarded the boat at Lamanai and we've been walking for at least forty minutes. I don't know." He shrugged and looked at Bill. "What do you think?"

"I don't really want to be in the jungle after dark," Savannah said, pushing open the door. "We can at least get dry a bit. Come on."

Good girl sensibilities told her not to trespass. Soggy girl logic said to get her ass inside a dry building. She followed Savannah while Luke and Bill discussed it in the rain.

"I'm so cold." Savannah stripped off her clothes where she stood. "I've got another shirt in my backpack. I need these wet clothes off."

Teeth chattering from the extreme wet
, she wandered into the bedroom. Maybe this was someone's getaway from the city because, although furnished, a layer of dust covered everything and it smelled as if it hadn't been aired out in awhile. She mirrored Savannah's actions, ripped off her clothes until naked, and wrapped herself sarong-style in a sheet.

"Good idea." Luke dropped his backpack and pulled off his shirt. "I don't think I've ever been so wet...well, with my clothes on I mean, I've been—"

"I get it." She smiled at his logical self explaining the obvious. She grabbed the blanket off the bed and held it out to him. "Share with me. It's cold."

Wrapped in floral sheets, they looked like they were going to a toga party. He grinned and wrapped his arms around her as she pulled the blanket over their shoulders.

"Any more sheets?" Bill asked from the doorway, the only one still in his wet clothes.

She nodded toward the closet before dropping her head against Luke's chest.
"How long are we going to stay here?"

"A lot of vipers are nocturnal and then there are the
jaguars to worry about—"

"
Never mind. I don't want to know. You'd think I'd learn by now not to ask you these kinds of questions."

Bill
donned a pink sheet covered with Mickey Mouse figures. "I hope everyone else is okay, that's all I can think about. We'll take a break here, but I don't think we should delay too long."

"I found a space heater and it looks like there's a generator," Savannah called out from the other room. "Bill, can you go out and deal with the generator?"

"Yep." Bill shook his head and reached for his wet clothes.

"Do you need help?" Luke asked, making no move to release her from his hold.

"Nope. You two look warm, stay that way. I'll be back." He smiled as he pulled on his jeans beneath the sheet.

She saw the worry in his eyes, though, and knew he thought of his friends still out in the rain and the jungle.

"It's weird we didn't run into anyone else out there. We can't be the only ones who washed up on this side of the river." She looked up at Luke. "I won't ask you if you think anyone drowned because you'll probably tell me they were all eaten by crocodiles or some other horrible thing."

He laughed and shoved his hands through her hair. "Am I really that bad? Last night you asked me why I was so happy now you act like I'm the biggest cynic you've ever met."

"I think you're both. Happy, yes, but a cynic down deep." She rubbed her hands against his sides for warmth. "Let's go help Savannah with the space heater and bring her a sheet."

On her way out of the room, she gathered their wet clothes to spread out by the heater.

"Wait." He walked to her, the blanket hanging from his broad shoulders like a cape and the flowered sheet tied around his waist. When he reached her, he framed her face with his hands and kissed her with such tenderness that she thought her heart would implode. "If I need to be stranded in the middle of the jungle in a cabin surrounded by lethal creatures, I'm glad I'm with you."

"So romantic." She laughed and stepped
away. "Lethal creatures, huh? You're horrible in a crisis, Luke. Absolutely the worst."

"What'd I say? I'm a realist," he called from the other room. "Hey, there's an indoor bathroom. That's a plus, right? Optimistic enough for you?"

Smiling, she spread the wet clothes in front of the dormant space heater before handing Savannah the pair to the Mickey Mouse sheets. The supermodel-in-training walked around the main room dressed in a dry t-shirt with obviously no bra and panties that declared 'juicy' on the ass. Long black hair hung down her back, already combed and perfect looking. No wonder she had a hard time making friends with other women...she defined the word 'intimidating.'

"I'm not sure why these people have Mickey Mouse sheets, but at least it's something dry to wear while we wait for our clothes," she said, looking away from the tall brunette.

Savannah smiled and wrapped the sheet around her waist. "I wish I had hair like yours."

"Why on earth would you want this mess?"

"You're soaked but you look cute as hell with all of those curls." Savannah motioned toward the space heater when it came to life. "Bill's a genius with all electronics, but don't tell him I said that. He has a giant ego." She sat cross-legged on the floor and held her hands toward the glowing red metal. "I thought we'd see more people from the boat, didn't you?"

Sighing, she sat next to Savannah and stared at the heater. "I did. Maybe they all landed on the other side of the river and are with Reggie."

"I think we should keep walking," Savannah said, meeting her gaze. "I think we should go back out in an hour or so,
after our clothes dry. We were drenched because of the river, not the rain. Our ponchos will keep us dryer now, don't you think? Luke will listen to you and Bill will listen to him."

"What makes you think Luke will listen to me? He's convinced we'll be dinner for either a snake or a big cat if we leave." She smoothed her hands over her sheet-covered thighs.