This is what Homer meant, she thought incoherently. You can get drunk on adventure. …
“I’m not the one with the problem, Miss MacKenzie,” he said. “It’s clear you have more than you can handle. Is that why the disguise?”
“What are you talking about?”
“The trousers. The hair.” He adjusted his stance to one that practically shouted masculine challenge. “You’ve done well disguising your gender—”
Mac choked.
“—but not well enough.”
His eyes were no longer fixed on hers. Now they were trained on her chest. She was suddenly, terribly aware that the rain had stopped, her shirt was clinging to the unimpressive curves of her breasts, and her nipples were still puckered.
She might as well have been naked. Liam’s clone spent a little too long studying that part of her, and his demeanor was no longer quite so pitying. There was a certain distracted quality to it, a slight loosening of his jaw and mellowing of his gaze. Mac was far less familiar with that kind of regard.
The sensation of having a man look at her as if her body were of any interest whatsoever was so novel that she was momentarily incapable of any emotion but surprise.
Until she remembered that this guy might be more than merely eccentric, and it was getting very close to sunset. The almost drunken feeling of invulnerability drained in an adrenaline rush from her body. She took a step away from him, forcing herself to keep from wrapping her arms across her chest.
“Did you consider this masquerade a way of ensuring your safety?” he asked, scowling ominously. “You’re fortunate it worked this long.”
What was this stuff about hiding her sex? He thought she’d come to Tikal disguised as a boy, and that made about as much sense as the rest of the things he’d said.
“I wasn’t trying to ‘disguise’ anything,” she retorted, unable to help herself. “I just decided to leave my high heels and miniskirt at home.”
“You should have stayed at home, Miss MacKenzie. Your guide could have slit your throat, or worse. You’re more a fool than he was.”
She tried to imagine that young man slitting her throat and felt an unexpected need to defend him. “No way. Sure, he left without me, but I can make it back just fine on my own.”
“Back to where? How long have you been alone?”
Serious warning bells rang in Mac’s mind. This time she listened. All at once it seemed like a good idea to let him believe she wasn’t alone. For all she knew, he might be contemplating slitting her throat.
“Oh, not long,” she said airily. “In fact, he’s probably right down the trail. I think I should go find him.”
Yes, very good idea. The game had gone on long enough. Mac turned cautiously toward the path her erstwhile guide had cut through the jungle.
And realized a moment later that something wasn’t right. The ragged clearing that had been there before was—gone. The heavy rain had obscured everything until a few minutes ago, and then she’d been too absorbed by Liam’s double to pay attention.
Now she noticed. A few steps away from the temple and she was hitting waist-high foliage—not as dense as in the jungle itself, but thick enough to trip her up at a moment’s inattention. She stopped and scanned the area. Yes, she was in the right place. She had to be. The temple and ruins were exactly the way she’d seen them when she’d emerged from the path.
Okay. She must have gotten more confused than she’d thought when she’d been lost in the tunnel. She kicked and batted dripping plants out of her way until she reached the place where a certain crumbling stele had marked the path’s end.
The stele was still there. The path wasn’t. Mac checked her alignment again. This was the right place. The jungle closed in like a wall where the path should have been, solid and impenetrable.
“I know plants grow fast in the jungle,” she muttered, “but this is ridiculous…”
“Is something the matter, Miss MacKenzie?”
Mac stiffened. She’d had her back to Liam’s improbable twin all this time, and she’d never heard him take a single step. He moved up beside her now, jerking his chin toward the fortress of young trees, vines, and intertwined bushes. “Is that the way you came from Tikal?” he asked. “You said you’d walked here.”