Navajo's Woman (16 page)

"Tell that to someone who'll believe you." Joanna pat-ted Andi's shoulder. "Remember, I've been watching the two of you together. If ever two people desperately needed to be together—as one—you and Joe do."

"Are you saying what I think you're saying?"

A wide, all-knowing smile spread across Joanna's preg-nancy-plump face. "I'm saying that what you and Joe need to work off some of that sexual tension is to have a lot of hot, sweaty sex."

"Joanna Blackwood!" Andi couldn't stop herself from giggling. "You're awful."

“If after you and Joe make love, you can still honestly tell yourself that you don't love him and don't want to spend the rest of your life with him, then fine. At least, you won't go to your grave wondering what it would have been like."

"What makes youthink. . .okay, so there's this sexual chemistry between us. That doesn't mean we could have anything more than a physical relationship."

"You'll never know unless you try."

LeCroy Lanza traced the sweat lines down the frosted glass of beer sitting in front of him. He did not like it when his employees let him down. Charlie Kirk had proved to be a great disappointment. LeCroy had been so sure that the man was a competent killer, able to do the job for which he'd been hired. The idiot might have been able to outsmart the law, but this time he'd had to deal with more than the local Tribal Police. Joe Ornelas and J. T. Blackwood weren't ordinary Navajos. They'd both had experience as professional security agents. And to make matters worse, they were both related to Eddie Whitehorn, so they had a personal interest in finding and protecting the boys. Kirk had no doubt underestimated these men. But LeCroy wouldn't make the same mistake.

He supposed he could hire another hit man, but whatgood would that do when no one knew where the boys were right now? No, he'd just bide his time and let Or-nelas and Blackwood find the boys. What he needed was a tracker, someone to keep tabs on the people searching for the boys. Once their whereabouts was discovered, he could move in for the kill. And even if he couldn't get to the boys before they told the police what they knew, he still had plenty of time to eliminate them before they ac-tually testified against him. Hell, he'd bring in a damn army of assassins, if that was what it took to protect him-self .

One thing LeCroy knew for sure—he wasn't going to let a couple of punk Navajo kids take him down.

And if that meant destroying Ornelas and Blackwood and even Lapahie's gorgeous half-sister, then so be it.

The following day, only two days after Joe had been released from the Castle Springs Clinic, he was out of bed, dressed and ready for action, albeit with his left side still heavily bandaged. And althoughhewould never ad-mit it, Andi knew he was still in pain. Her greatest worry was that he would reopen his wound by physically over-exerting himself. But who could tell that mule-headed man anything? He certainly wouldn't listen to her. She'd given up on him yesterday when he had all but tossed his dinner tray at her.

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She had focused her attention on working tirelessly with J.T. to garner all the information they could on Char-lie Kirk. And by keeping busy, she'd been able to avoid thinking about her feelings for Joe.About why she was so concerned with his well-being. And shewasconcerned.Deeply concerned. More than she would be for anyone else. Did that mean she still loved him?No, of course not. Despite what Joanna thought, shedid notlove Joe. But Andi had to admit that she was still emotionally involved with him and he was with her, even though neither of them wanted or needed that kind of extra baggage weigh-ing them down.

But what if Joanna had been at least partially right? Andi asked herself. What if the hostility between Joe and her would diminish if they released some of the sexual tension that kept them both on edge? Was she willing to have a brief affair with Joe in order to maintain peace between them while they worked together to save Russ and Eddie?

Andi carried two tall glasses of iced tea out to the pool area, where Joe sat alone in a lounge chair, shaded by a huge umbrella. The late-afternoon sun had begun its de-scent over the western horizon. She had steered clear of Joe for the past twenty-four hours. But now, she had no choice but to return to the role of nursemaid, at least until J.T. and Joanna returned tonight.

"We've got the place all to ourselves," she told him as she handed him a glass.

"Where is everyone?" He lifted the chilled tea to his lips and drank, then sighed contentedly.

"Didn't J.T. tell you? He took Joanna into Trinidad to her OBGYN for her weekly checkup. They're staying in town for dinner and won't be back until late."

"Where's Rita?"

"This is her day off."

"Where are the children?"

"With Alex and Elena," Andi said.

"Whose idea was that?"

"Not mine, if that's what you're implying."

"I wasn't implying anything. I was just asking a simple question."

"Humph!" Andi sat in the cushioned wooden rocker situated across from Joe's reclining lounger.

"Nothing is simple with you. There's always a hidden meaning in your questions."

"So you say."

"So I know."

"All of this arguing isn't good for my recovery," Joe told her, just a hint of a sardonic smile lifting the corners of his mouth.

"Bull. You seem to be thriving on our little confron-tations," Andi countered. "I'll bet you've missed me, haven't you?"

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"Maybe," he admitted. "After all, I need something for entertainment while I'm recuperating. But if you think you're going to put me back in bed and keep me there, then you'd better think again."

Andi felt the blush as it crept up her neck. Before it reached her cheeks, she looked down at the tiled patio floor, deliberately avoiding Joe's eyes. What he'd said could easily be interpreted in more than one way. She had immediately thought of keeping Joe in bed for a couple of days, and the two of them making love.

When she heard him chuckle, she jerked her head up and glared at him. "What's so funny?"

Damn it, why had she asked him something so stupid? He was bound to respond with a caustic remark.

But in-stead, he surprised her.

"We arewhat's funny. You and I," Joe said. "There's so much tension between the two of us that everyone around us can't help but notice. We've been fighting ever since the first day I returned, when I came to Kate's house and found you there. Why can't we stop arguing?" He sipped on the iced tea,then set the tall, perspiring glass down on the wooden Mexican-style table to his right.

"We argue because we disagree. I'd think that's ob-vious."

"Okay, I'll give you that. But we seem to be disagree-ing over everything. If I say up, you say down. If you say black, I say white."

"So what are you suggesting? Do you want to lay the reason out on the table and examine it?" she asked. "Are you sure that's what you really want to do?"

“It might help us if we did just that. It might clear the air."

"Or it could get us in trouble."

"We're already in trouble and we both know it. That's part of the problem. We're trying so hard to avoid the truth that it's become the size of an elephant, just sitting there between us. How do we continue avoiding some-thing that big?"

Andi stood, looked directly at Joe and said, "I'm not ready to—"

Joe grabbed her wrist and jerked her down onto his lap. When he winced and groaned, she tried to pull away, but he reached out and wrapped his arm around her waist.

"Please, let me go." The steely determination she saw in his eyes momentarily rattled her.' T —I hurt you when I fell into your lap. You must be more careful."

"Stay where you are." He spoke with authority, his words a command instead of a request. “In the past, I let you postpone things one time too many. You were never ready to take the next step in our relationship. Well, An-drea, this time you're not going to put off facing the in-evitable. You're as ready right now as you'll ever be."

Andrea?Dear God, he had called her Andrea. In the past, the only time he had used her given name instead of her nickname was when he had been aroused and intent on making love to her.

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"This can wait until you're better," she told him.

"No, it can't wait. So, I will go first. I will speak the truth," he said. "I have wanted you, as a man wants a woman, since the first time I saw you. That one thing has not changed."

Andi sucked in a deep breath as his words settled over her and a tingling awareness spiraled outward from the feminine core of her body."All right. I can be totally honest, too. I knew you felt that way. I felt it, too, from the very beginning. But I was afraid of that feeling. I had never experienced anything so powerful."

“Is that why you kept putting me off?'' he asked. “Be-cause you were afraid?"

"Yes," Andi admitted. "I thought that if I gave in to what I was feeling and we became lovers, I would love you too much to leave you. And that frightened me. We weren't sure if we had a future together. I didn't want either of us trapped in a relationship that might eventually bring us both a great deal of unhappiness. And I was right, wasn't I?"

Joe frowned, but nodded agreement. "It seems you were. But things are different now. We aren't falling in love and hoping for a future together. We're just two peo-ple trying to resist a physical attraction."

"For once, you and I are in total agreement." Andi glanced away, uncertain what secret truths might be re-vealed in her eyes.

Joe loosened his hold around her waist and let his arm drift lower to drape her hip. "I never wanted to hurt you. I still don't."

Andi trapped the lump of emotion in her throat, stem-ming the tide of tears threatening to erupt. "I don't want to talk about the past. Not right now. Discussing what happened five years ago will only confuse me more than I'm already confused."

Joe eased Andi over to his side, so that she rested half on the lounge chair and partly against his right side. Her heartbeat accelerated when he reached under the fall of her long hair and clamped his big hand around the back of her neck. As she drew in a startled gasp, their gazes linked and they shared an utterly spellbinding moment of recognition. Man to woman.

She melted against his uninjured side when he brought her face down to his.Their breaths mingled, warm and sensual. Waves of anticipation washed over her as Joe touched his lips to hers.Tender and tentative.

She sighed. His fingers spread through her hair and gripped the back of her head, then pressed her closer as he claimed her mouth in a ravaging kiss.

Passion too long denied controlled their actions. The kiss deepened quickly, becoming a heated mating dance. Andi lifted her hand to his chest and laid it flat atop his shirt, over his erratically beating heart. She longed to touch his bare flesh, to run her fingertips over the solid muscles of his shoulders and broad chest. Seemingly oftheir own volition, her fingers opened the top four buttons on Joe's shirt and inched their way beneath the parted folds. The moment she encountered one tight male nipple, Joe groaned.

"Am I hurting you?" she asked.

"Only if you stop touching me," he replied, his lips brushing hers.

"We can't. . .If we try to. . . Your wound could reopen and—"

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Joe silenced her with another kiss, longer and more powerful than the first one. Within seconds her body took control, eliminating all rational thought. She wanted noth-ing more than to stay here in this glorious moment for-ever.On the verge of unparalleled satisfaction.The prom-ise of fulfillment almost as great as the fulfillment itself. Her body and her mind awaited the inevitable, yearning with an uncontrollable hunger.

She wanted Joe. She had always wanted him. Her soul recognized him as its mate. Denying this truth was use-less. She had lied to herself long enough. She could lie to Joanna and even to Joe, but her heart knew the truth. She loved Joe Ornelas. She had loved him since the first moment she saw him, and she probably would love him until the day she died.And beyond.

"Joseph," she murmured as she lifted her fingertips to caress the lips she had only moments ago kissed.

"Oh, Joseph."

He grabbed her hand, squeezing her fingers tightly. "Don't," he cautioned her. "Don't say anything."

She realized that he knew she had been about to confess her love and had stopped her before she spoke the words aloud. He didn't want her love, only her body. He was wise enough to understand that there was no place in their relationship for love. Too many unresolved issues stood between them.

Andi withdrew from him, first on an emotional level and then physically. He tried to hold on to her, to bring her back to him, but she resisted. And when she pulled away and stood, he made no move to stop her. He only looked at her, a sad compliance in his dark eyes.

"When we find Russ and Eddie. . ." Andi studied Joe's face, needing to read his expression as much as to hear his reply. "When they are safe and this is all over, you'll go back to Atlanta, won't you."

"I suppose I will," Joe said. "Unless. . ."

"Unless?"

"Unless something changes and I have a good reason to stay."

"You should stay," she said."For Kate and J.T. and their families.For Eddie, in particular. But mostly, you should stay for yourself. This is where your heart is, isn't it?In New Mexico, on the reservation? If only you hadn't run away—"

"I would never have left, if you hadn't. . ."

"You blame me. I blame you. We always come back to that, don'twe. "

Joe stood. Andi backed away from him.