Free Tempestuous Eden by Heather Graham

beneath the warm glow of that smile. He laughed now, moving closer to her, his face just inches from her own, his breath caressing her skin. “I guess I’m just an aging hippie. I wanted to spend my life wandering the globe, and I had the money to do it. So I did.”
    “That’s nice,” Blair murmured. The reasons for her third degree were quickly slipping from her mind, as if she held a rope that spun crazily and ripped from her fingers without leverage to stop. When he moved toward her like that, she didn’t worry about a future, she didn’t worry about the past of the man. She was struck by immediacy, wanting only to feel the thrill of his full lips against hers again, feeling a warm desire burn from deep within her and spread, a desire to complete what he had curtailed a week ago, an impulse to forget all else and throw herself at him, demanding to know why he held back, demanding that he assuage her fears that he didn’t want her as she wanted him.
    He was caught just as she was. The spinner of spells, spellbound. Alone, they were still within vision of the rest of the crew, but it seemed of minor importance. Her lips were slightly parted so near his, moist, inviting. He knew their feel if he were to move. He knew the sweetness that her mouth would offer. A whisper away … just a whisper …
    He had the power, Blair thought vaguely, the power to make her breath quicken from a mile, to race her blood, to shatter her entire frame with trembling. Indeed, still not touching, he had the power to move the elements. The fire danced, the stars seemed to tremble, even the earth began to move.
    “Damn!”
    Suddenly Craig’s arms were around her, but it wasn’t with tenderness or desire gone crazy. The earth was moving, and Craig Taylor was not the perpetrator of the action.
    “Quake!”
    She heard the word shouted from the fire. Then she was rolling in Craig’s arms, and the earth beneath them was trembling violently. They rolled and rolled, even as her mind spun, and then she knew why. The tree they sat beneath, their tree, was careening downward, crashing to the ground not a foot away.
    Voices were screaming in the night. Pandemonium set in. Explosive fear pounded into Blair’s mind. There had been tremors before, many since she had first set foot in Central America, but nothing like this. The rumble went on and on, the sound of the brush falling throughout the jungle was that of a cacophony of drums.
    Beneath her she could feel the parched earth cracking.
    But above her she could feel Craig. His body covered hers, his broad hands laced over her head, sheltering her. There was tension in him. Along with the vibrations all around her she could feel his heart galloping along with her own, strangely giving a sense of security against all odds.
    Tents jiggled and collapsed, and the rumble went on. In the heavens the stars jerked dizzily, like images displayed out of sync on a movie screen. The rumble rose to a roar.
    And then ceased as abruptly as it had begun.
    “Are you all right?”
    Craig’s face, strained, harsh in the darkness, hovered over hers, the pressure of his cradling fingers on her head intense.
    “Fine …” She gasped, and then he was on his feet, drawing her up, gripping her hand and racing to the compound center.
    There he released her hand. The authoritative power in him was unleashed. He was in control, his voice, calm, firm, was commanding the crew into action with swift assurance while also checking for injuries.
    Thankfully, bruises, scratches, and fear were the only physical results among the assembly. It hadn’t been a quake after all, Craig announced, but a very healthy tremor.
    And they weren’t a group of easily panicked people. The quick note of control in Craig’s voice had them instantly in reciprocated calm. They were moving with brisk efficiency to pick up the damage.
    But it was still Craig giving the orders.
    “Juan, Kate, get into the village with the first-aid kits. Dolly,