“How did your father die?”
“He went hi with a team to pull a diplomat from a rebel force. He was shot. It happens.”
Rachael rested her head against his shoulder. “I’m sorry. It must have been so difficult for your mother to know that you chose to carry on your father’s work.”
“She didn’t like it. My mother didn’t do what my father wanted her to do. She stayed in the rain forest on the edge of the village. It caused some problems occasionally. She was a beautiful woman and it was easy enough to fall hi love with her. Do you look like your mother?”
She smiled and relaxed hi his arms, sinking into him without being aware of it. “I do look somewhat like her pictures. We have the same eyes, and my face is shaped like hers. And I have her smile. She wasn’t as tall or as heavy.”
Rio stopped right there under a tall tree with silvery bark and hundreds of orchids cascading down the trunk. “Heavy? You have curves, Rachael. I’m very fond of your curves.” He bent his head to her throat, his breath whispering fire against her skin.. “Don’t say anything bad about yourself or I might be forced to prove you wrong.”
Rachael laughed happily. He made her feel bright and alive when she had been so close to gloom. “I don’t think that’s much of a threat, Rio. And thank you for bringing up
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tare of her. When you asked me about her, I began to think of all the little details and I can see her again so clearly. She had thick hair. Very curly.” She touched her hair. “I always kept my hair long because she wore hers that way. When I wanted to disappear, I cut my hair to my shoulders because I thought having it reach to my rear end was too conspicu-^ ous. I cried myself to sleep every night for a week.”
“Wear your hair any way you want to wear it, Rachael. They’ve already found you here.” He began walking again, picking up the pace, wanting to get back to the house and get her settled again. She was obviously growing tired and attempting to hide it from hun.
“But they don’t know I’m still alive. We might be able to make them think I drowned in the river. I threw my shoes in so something would turn up if they were really looking.”
“Rachael, the only way we’re going to be able to live a normal life is to remove the threat completely. We don’t want to be looking over our shoulders the rest of our lives.”
Rachael was silent, turning his words over and over hi her mind. Rio was thinking along the lines of a permanent relationship, she was still taking it one day at a tune. She looked closely at his face. The right thing to do would be to leave him as quickly as possible, remove all threats to him. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I’m just realizing I have an incredible selfish streak. I always thought I was unselfish, but I don’t want to give you up. It isn’t the greatest moment in one’s life to find out how completely self-centered you really are.”
“It might be my greatest moment, to find out you want to keep me.”
“Tell me that in a couple of weeks and I might believe you. This is all so unexpected. And as for normal, is how you live here in the rainforest your definition of normal?”
“I’ve rarely lived any other way.” The smile faded from his face. “I doubt if they’ll allow us to live in the village. I „„„ ^i,nr, ti^oT-o oltVirMinrh T Hnn’t miirVi It’s nnrnmfnrtahle
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for some of the people. As I’m supposed to be dead to them, shopping is difficult. They look through me, I can’t ask questions, I leave money on the counter.”
Her dark eyes flashed. “I know what I’d like to say to them. I don’t want to live in the village. Not now. Not ever. And I’ll have to think about shopping there. I wouldn’t mind making everyone uncomfortable, but on the other hand, I would hate to help them out by supporting them.”