“You are amazing. In the midst of the trouble we face now, you bring up ancient grievances. I can’t believe you even remember me and the little contact we had twelve years ago.”
“Oh, I remember all right, babe. I remember every little thing.” His blue eyes held hers… beautiful eyes with long, ebony lashes. Unconsciously, he licked his firm upper lip, slowly, and she wished… Oh, the things she wished didn’t bear examination!
Rafe was a gorgeous, gorgeous man, and she was going to have to work very hard to stamp out her impossible attraction to the brute. “And you’ve thought about these things all these years?” she asked in astonishment.
He nodded. “What was it that poet Langston Hughes said one time? Something about a dream deferred. It doesn’t just wither up and blow away. Instead, like a raisin in the sun, it just festers and eventually explodes.”
A dream deferred? Oh, surely, he can’t be referring to me as his dream. She immediately stifled that enticing thought. “Rafael Santiago quoting poetry? Wonders never cease.”
He cast her a sheepish grin. “Don’t look so stunned. I’m amazed myself. One day in your company and I go off the deep end.” He raked his fingers through his thick hair, no longer wet from his dunking in the stream. She had an unexpected, outrageous desire to touch the strands herself to test the texture.
“You’re right, Helen,” Rafe said, jarring her back to attention, “this isn’t the time for this discussion. We have to talk about today’s problems. I’ve been thinking — do you suppose that the Army gave us some kind of hallucinogenic drugs?”
“Would you get off your Army-bashing kick?”
“Hey, it wouldn’t be the first time the military has done that kind of experiment.”
“This nightmare we’ve landed in has absolutely nothing to do with the Army.”
“What other explanation is there?” He was playing with the nap of the blanket as he spoke, his long, surprisingly graceful fingers stroking absently, first in one direction, then another.
What if… Oh, Lord!
He looked up abruptly and caught her watching his fingers with parted lips.
He knew.
She thought he’d laugh.
But he didn’t. He stared at her questioningly, hungrily.
Helen closed her eyes against the sensual assault. Oh, he was a master at this game of seduction. She was a mere novice.
“Stop trying to rattle me,” she snapped.
“I rattle you?” he asked with boyish pleasure, leaning back on his elbows and stretching out his long legs, crossing them at the ankle. He watched her the entire time.
“Back to our situation,” she insisted, licking her lips nervously. The smooth line of his muscled thighs drew her eyes, and her pulse quickened. “I told you before. In my opinion, we’ve traveled back in time.”
“Maybe it’s UFOs,” he said, ignoring her theory. “Yeah, maybe we’re on another planet. But I never expected aliens to look like these three stooges.”
“Stop joking. This is serious.”
“Who’s joking?
“Rafe, time travel is the only explanation. I know these mountains like the back of my hand. It’s the same place, but different. I’ve studied the clothing on these three men, too. They’re all handmade, and some of the fabrics are of a type no longer available. The guns are collectors’ items, early models of Colt revolvers, I would guess. Worth a fortune.”
“A fortune, huh? Maybe we could take them back with us and send them to Sotheby’s or some other auction house. I could really, really use the cash.”
“Is money that important to you?”
“Money is very important to me. In fact, you could say it’s everything right now.”
How sad! She put that thought aside, for the present. “So, do you accept that this is time travel?”
“Hell, I don’t know. I’ll tell you this. If it is time travel, it wasn’t caused by science. I think we sort of died, and God sent us here for a reason. You know, like Purgatory.”
She laughed. “Sort of died? Is that like being sort of pregnant?” She pressed the bridge of her nose with a thumb and forefinger, trying to solve the puzzle. When she looked back at him, she said, “Heck, your explanation is as good as any. Assuming we have time traveled at heavenly direction, how do you figure we’re going to get back to the future? Sprout wings?”