Free Words of Love by Hazel Hunter

said.
    She looked up at him.
    “I’m fine, Brett,” she said. “Really.”
    He brushed some hair back from her forehead and tucked it behind her ear. Though it was impossible to know for sure, she did seem fine.
    “You’re filthy,” he said, smiling at her.  
    “Really?” she said, finally smiling. “Well, don’t look now, but you’re a mess.”
    Although he had to laugh, both of their smiles quickly faded. The hulking pyramid loomed like a stone sentinel against the dark. In all the times he’d visited it, climbed around it, and pored over it, he’d never sensed the danger it harbored. The Red King played a treacherous game–a deadly one. As though she sensed it too, he felt a mild tremor run through Jesse’s body. He instinctively turned to her and held her closer. But rather than meet his gaze, she looked down between them. She was afraid but she didn’t want to show it.
    “What are you thinking?” he asked quietly.
    “Honestly,” Jesse said. “I was thinking that a shower would be nice.”
    “Well, you’re in luck,” he said.

CHAPTER TWELVE

    As Brett led her by the hand, Jesse realized where they must be headed. The monsoon was finally starting to relent but the rain was still coming down at the cave entrance.
    “I think of it as rustic,” he said, as he started to take off his clothes. “The best spot is right over here.” The curtain of water behind him poured down from the slope above. “It’s flat and not so slippery,” he said as he continued to strip.
    Jesse stared at him.
    Despite having made love, she was still amazed by Brett’s body. He could’ve been a model. No , she thought. He could have been a sculptor’s model, posing as a Greek or Roman god. As he bent to move a bar of soap that she hadn’t realized was there, she watched the hard ripple of his muscles.
    As he stepped into the water and ran his fingers through his hair, his broad and mounded pecs lifted and his back flared even wider. He turned in the water and Jesse realized how every bit of his six-pack stood out from the rest. At his sides, corded muscles flanked him and framed his narrow hips. Even from the side, he was triangular–the bulging expanse of his chest tapered to an incredibly lean waist. Then the triangle inverted as his hips widened to tight buttocks and then his bulky thighs. Water coursed down the deep channel in the center of his chest, flowed over his navel, and then into his groin. He turned again, giving a sensuous twist to his torso as the muscles of his wide shoulders bunched.  
    As Jesse gaped at the utterly masculine display, she found her eyes centered on the flat, taut triangle above his groin. She imagined the sinewy flesh between his hips suddenly tightening as it would when he thrust into her and an ache of desire pulsed between her legs. She watched the water shimmer and cascade over his powerful contours as the words of Chilam Balam came to her mind: “Joy is the law of the entire world. It is a rich year and the year is good. The rains are good.”
    She might have watched him forever but she realized he had turned to her. Now he held out his hand.
    “There’s room for two,” he said.

    • • • • •

    Brett watched as Jesse almost stepped in with her clothes. At first he thought she’d meant to but when she suddenly realized, she backed up. He knew very well the effect he had on women but the effect he’d had on Jesse just now had been an accident. She was flustered and, though he hadn’t intended her to be, he found he was a little glad.
    Each time they’d made love, he had been the one to initiate it. After making it through the storm and then after she’d read the love poem in the Caracol, it had been him who had needed her. Though her response said she needed him as well, he wanted more than just a response.
    He watched as she took off the filthy clothes. The dirt had managed to get inside them but, as she removed her bra and panties, the contrast between