father died under somewhat mysterious circumstances." She spoke the words quickly, as if by doing so she could soften their impact. I think you killed your father, she wanted to say, but of course she could not. That was something he would have to admit on his own, and she wasn't sure if he ever would.
"We have to get back to the fazenda," Jason said sharply, putting an end to the conversation. His closed expression and rigid stance convinced her not to push him further.
"But what about these people?" she asked. He appeared calmer now that he knew she wasn't going to pursue her questioning.
He didn't have to touch her; she only had to stand next to him to feel her body melting, her heart thundering so loudly she was sure he could hear it. He only had to look at her with those slate blue eyes to start a fire smoldering inside her.
"I can't stay here, you know that," he said, lifting her chin with a gentle finger so he could look into her eyes, "and I'm not leaving you behind. We'll arrange something. You have no idea how dangerous it is for you to come here. These are slaves, runaway slaves. Aiding them is a serious crime. We could lose everything."
"Well, it's a stupid law," she argued, her mind registering the fact that he had said "we."
"You said that your treatment wasn't working. Why not show Ines how to do what you've been doing. She can stay a day or two until she's convinced they know how to administer whatever treatment you recommend. Maybe in a week or two you can come back and check on them."
"Maybe?" Caroline asked with a wry smile.
Jason smiled in return, and Caroline couldn't remember ever having seen a genuine, guileless smile on his handsome face before. It transformed him and touched a tender place in her heart. The Jason she longed to reach shone through clearly in that candid, almost angelic expression. If only she could reach him, pull him out from behind the emotional wall that always surrounded him.
"All right," he conceded, "you can come back. But I want you to bring several armed men with you next time. Now, let's get your things together."
"I need to check on my patients first," she insisted. Several of them were very ill, and she wanted to assure herself that she had done all she could before heading back to the fazenda.
Jason glanced around the small room. "There doesn't seem to be much. I'll pack while you see to them." He lifted the bottle of witch hazel from the table beside the cot. "I hope we don't run out of this stuff," he said with a lascivious grin.
Caroline smiled in return, her face growing crimson as she turned to go, wanting more than anything to stay with Jason for the rest of the day, but knowing that there were people who needed her desperately.
A sweet soreness lingered between her thighs as she moved through the morning. It was hard to concentrate when her every thought was filled with her husband. The wanting never dimmed.
Vaguely she wondered how he had become such a consummate lover, locked away in the Amazon jungle as he had been for most of his adulthood. She didn't want to think of him with another woman, other women. Had he been as tender, as passionate with them as he had been with her?
Closing her eyes tightly, she forced herself not to dwell on the past. They were together now, she and Jason. No matter what had come before, they were man and wife, bound together for all time.
They would be all right, she and Jason. He hadn't said he loved her yet, but that would come in time. He desired her; he'd asked her to stay. She had an inkling what that one request had cost him. To admit that he wanted someone in his life must have taken a great toll on him emotionally.
Every time he'd ever expressed a need or desire or affection for anything, his father had taken it away from him or found a way to use it against him to manipulate him. Jason had grown up believing that the best solution to the problem of not knowing whom to trust was to trust no one. He had just taken one small step toward trusting her. That, in itself, was a miracle.
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Jason carried the bottle of witch hazel to the medical bag on a table in a