He couldn’t.
She drew him closer and he discovered that he could feel the music through her, move as she moved. It didn’t take much. He’d seen the samba before … he’d played at it before. He’d never considered himself much of a dancer.
But the crowd around them was dancing too, drinking, laughing—and calling out in encouragement. Suddenly, he discovered that they had moved out into the streets, in the midst of a massive party. Bright, vibrant lights and colors abounded; fireworks went off over the water and streaked across the sky.
Someone handed him a slice of lemon, salted his hand, and gave him a shot glass. Natal had one too. She laughed and sucked the lemon and then placed her lips on his hand to taste the salt there. “Quickly, drink!” she told him.
And he did. They thanked those around them and the music continued to throb like a pulse inside of him, but they weren’t moving anymore.
They were just standing in the street, staring first at the sky bursting above them, then at one another.
“I thought you had to be home,” he said softly.
“I do what I wish,” was her response.
“Then you wish to go home?”
She looked him square in the eyes. “There are times I must.”
He shook his head. “No. Not to him. Reed Amato is a bad man.”
“Yes,” she agreed.
His eyebrows arched. “But—”
She pressed her finger to his lips. “Not tonight,” she said passionately. “Not tonight. We will not speak about him.”
Every muscle in him seemed to tighten at her words. He couldn’t push—he would lose her. But he had to make her see the danger she was in.
“I am with you tonight,” she continued.
As she spoke, in the whir of colors around him, River found that his eyes suddenly focused on one.
Blue. Dark blue.
The man in the blue suit and the hat was there, just beyond them. He seemed to be intrigued by the celebration.
But he was looking.
Looking for River.
“I have to go,” he said.
She stared at him, puzzled.
“From me?” she whispered.
“From here.”
She studied him a moment, then caught his hand and tugged at it.
“Come,” she told him.
Together they hurried through the crowd. Natal knew what she was doing; she led him swiftly and managed a unique pattern through the dancers and celebrants in the street. When he turned back, he saw people filling in the gaps their bodies had made—no one could follow them.
Natal led the way through street vendors and entertainers and then down a quiet street where there were few lights in the houses. Finally, they came to a gate. Behind it he could see a children’s playground set and beyond that, paths through the trees and brush.
“Come,” she said before climbing quickly over the gate.
He followed.
When they had both landed softly on the other side, she caught his hand again.
“Come—I know a place.”
They ran across the children’s play area, over a manicured lawn, and through to the trees. There were trails here, made up of soft earth and grasses and what looked like pine needles. She kept going until they broke through the trees to a small lake.
Lights from the now-distant city fell gently here, casting a soft white glow upon the water.
Natal stopped, gasping for breath and smiling at him. His own breathing came just as heavily.
“Here we are now,” she said. She slipped off her shoes and headed down to the lake. Sitting by the water’s edge, she tapped the surface with her foot, sending ripples onto the calm surface.
He sat beside her.
“We’re safe now, safe here?” she asked.
“I think,” he said softly.
“What were we running from?”
River hesitated, not sure how to answer. To tell the truth would mean admitting to having stabbed a man. He ran a hand behind his neck. He was supposed to have been on a train. As long as he remained in Rio, he wasn’t safe—not with the blue-suited man following him.
Who was the man? Not a cop—he seemed to be alone as he came after River.
It occurred to him that the man might be another goon in the employ of Reed Amato. That he’d been sent to find River—and take the matter of revenge into his own hands.
“River?”
“It doesn’t matter,” he said. “With you is where I want to be. Even if you insist on being with a drug lord.”
“I’m not with him,” she asserted angrily.
“You go home to him.”
“We argue,” she said. “I am not his—he does not own me. No one can own me.”
He wanted to believe that she hadn’t been with Amato again since she had been with him—that he was what she needed, what she wanted.
“We’ll stay here tonight?” he asked her.
She smiled at that. As her eyes met his, she untied the knot to her crop top, nestled between her breasts. She slowly removed the top, leaned forward, and kissed him. He drew her into his arms and slid his hands over her flesh, her bare breasts, as their lips met in something passionate and forceful and tender, liquid and intimate and beautiful.
She rose to let the skirt slip from her hips and was caught in the white light that gleamed in from the city. He looked at her body, lithe and graceful and beyond beautiful. Then he tossed his pack aside and scrambled out of his clothing, rising up to meet her.
But she leapt aside, avoiding him.
“Catch me!” she said softly, smiling broadly, and raced into the water.
He paused at the edge of the lake. She had swum out and was treading in the deep water, looking back at him. “Come in, americano!”
“Is it swimmable?”
She snorted. “Children swim here all the time.”
River stripped off his clothes and stepped in and cursed at the frosty bite on his flesh. He could hear her laughing at his discomfort.
“Move about and it will not be so cold!” she told him.
“If I catch you, it won’t be so cold,” he assured her.
When he was finally within reach, Natal dove, swimming away from him. They played the game several times.
She was laughing with delight when he finally caught her. She turned in his arms and their naked bodies touched fully, their legs entwining as they kissed and tread the water. The kiss broke and she swam from him again quickly, heading back to the shore.
He followed with all speed, and hurried out of the water to her.
She had no intention of eluding him then.
As they stood, naked, alone, surrounded by the pines and the whisper of the night, she had never appeared more beautiful. The moon played upon her sleek, damp skin, and she seemed like something out of a magical tale.
She stepped closer to him so their bodies touched and her warmth seemed to engulf him. He tenderly touched her damp hair, smoothing it from her face. They kissed again and sank back to the earth together.
There, upon the soft grass of the embankment, with the gentle lap of the water nearby and the music and the life and pulse of the city distantly behind them, they made love. And in the moment, in the loving, River dreamed that this was his life, that this could be his life …