Free Secret Guardian by Jill Sanders Page A

and all.
     
    She turned and watched him set the bag down and do the same. He smiled at her. “You know, you sure are taking all this very well.” He stopped right in front of her and sat down.
     
    “How else would I take all this?” She ducked down and leaned back to rinse the dirt and sweat from her hair. Using her hands, she tried to wash the dirt from her clothes. She’d almost forgotten she’d dyed her hair black until she loosened her braid and the dark tresses surrounded her face.
     
    “Well, I thought you’d be doing a lot of crying and complaining,” he said sitting next to her, trying to scrub himself clean. The rocky bottom of the small pool was a little hard to get comfortable on, but she finally found a flat rock and propped herself on it. .”
     
    She laughed. “Normally I would have.” She raised her legs up and looked at her bare feet. His boots were still on and she knew that it would take a few hours for them to dry. “But since it’s all my fault that we’re in this mess, I thought I’d leave the complaining to a minimum.”
     
    “Ann—”
     
    “No, don’t. We’ve been over this. I don’t know what I’d do without you, Ethan.” She tried to hold back the emotions.
     
    He pulled her close and they started floating in the water together. “You know, if you imagine hard enough, I bet you could convince your mind we’re in some fancy hotel in Rio, sipping margaritas and having the time of our lives.”
     
    She closed her eyes and allowed her mind to float away.
     
    She woke a few hours later to Ethan pulling on her arm. He must have carried her out of the water after she’d fallen asleep floating with him.
     
    “Ann,” he whispered, “we have to go. Put on your boots.” She blinked a few times and then she could hear it. People. Quickly sitting up, she realized they were laying in the grass near the water’s edge. Her boots were within arm’s reach. She threw them on and was ready to sprint when she recognized several words being spoken by the approaching people.
     
    “Ethan,” she whispered to him, “they’re American.”
     
    “It doesn’t matter. Come on.” He pulled her arm and they started moving quietly in the opposite direction.
     
    The voices continued as if they hadn’t heard them. Soon they were so far away, they couldn’t hear anything except night noises.
     
    She didn’t want to be walking anymore. The only plus was that the moon was full. She could see clearly enough to follow him, but she could have used a few more hours of sleep. They walked for what seemed an hour before he finally stopped.
     
    “We can spend the rest of the night here. There’s a nice sandy riverbed where we can make camp. He sat and pulled her bag into his lap and started searching the large section in the dark. Finally, he pulled out one of the bags of food she’d placed in her bag and handed it to her.
    They ate in silence and then he pulled her down into his arms. She fell back asleep leaning against him in the soft sand with the large moon overhead.
     
    He watched the stars and the clouds as they crossed in front of the moon, blocking out its rays. His mind just wouldn’t shut down. Thoughts of her consumed him.
     
    He’d never had this hard of a time clearing his mind before. She was just a job. He’d had plenty of jobs that he’d wanted to get close to. Plenty of women that would have been easy to enjoy. But he’d kept his private life separate and it had worked out well so far.
     
    Then he remembered the waterfall and his mind played over the scene of Ann diving into the water naked. He thought of her swimming, her long legs and arms moving towards him. He saw her pulling her wet body from the water and walking slowly towards him. No, she wasn’t just a job. He pulled her closer and closed his eyes.
     
     

Chapter Seven

    E than woke to the sun in his eyes and was shocked. He’d never slept so deeply. Then he realized he was alone and panic overtook