His job had always been enough to pull his mind from the sexual gutter. No one could get a hard-on while calculating the amount of C-4 needed to drop a building. If he needed a bit of feel-good stress relief post-mission, he’d work out his sexual frustrations with a blonde or a brunette and get back to work the next day. Hell, a few hours later.
It wouldn’t be that simple with Penny. There wasn’t a thing about her that didn’t mess with his head or other parts of his anatomy. Her death-ray glares created an instant erection. When she got that pain-filled, faraway look in her eyes as she thought about Rachel, he craved to kiss the pain away. And when she ravaged him with a simple glance, he mentally mapped a route to the nearest flat surface—vertical or horizontal.
No woman had ever affected him this way, not on a physical level and most definitely not in a way that made him worry over everything going on in her head. He could no longer deny it when, with a sleepy sigh, she shifted innocently against his crotch. The only thing that kept him from expelling his load was the sight of the viper not four inches from her bare left foot.
He should’ve seen it, should’ve realized that as the sun set, day-sleeping creatures would start to rouse. And of all the venomous snakes, it had to be an eyelash pit viper.
He swallowed a curse as the small, coiled yellow snake shifted securely on the branch where Penny’s sneakers were tied and air drying. One eye on its movement, Rafe nudged his mouth against Penny’s ear. “Red, baby. I need you to wake up. And don’t move.”
With a sleepy groan, she shifted. This time, the movement didn’t create a single stir in his pants. As a matter of fact, the snake extinguished his hard-on completely.
“Penny.” He gave her ear a gentle nip. “We have a bit of an issue here, and I need you to wake up. Slowly.”
“Is there ever a time when you’re not raring to go?” Slow to rouse, her words sounded sluggishly amused.
“Around you? No. But right now I’m more concerned with creating a little distance between us and the snake.”
“The what?”
He knew the instant she saw it because her body stiffened like a flagpole. “Oh God,” she whispered breathlessly. “Please tell me that thing isn’t venomous and that it’s more afraid of us than we are of it.”
“Wish I could. It may look small and dainty, but the eyelash viper suffers from a continual streak of general bitchiness. We must’ve invaded its home turf.”
“You mean it lives in trees?” The tight squeak of her voice made the viper lift its triangular head.
“If it’s any consolation, there’s a whole hell of a lot more poisonous things on the ground. Trust me—you don’t want a dart frog jumping into your pants.”
“Oh yeah. That’s much more comforting. Any idea how we’re going to get out of this?”
“Can you get to the knife strapped to my left thigh? Just move slow. Be careful. And if the snake moves, you freeze. Immediately.”
“We really need to talk about this reassurance thing you seem to lack.” Penny inched her trembling hand slowly onto his thigh.
“That’s it. Slow and steady. Easy. You’re doing great, Red.” The second her fingertips made contact with the knife’s handle, the damn snake tightened its body into an offensive position. Rafe urged her still with a touch. “Don’t move.”
Every muscle in Penny’s body froze. The staccato huffs of her breathing were the only thing he could hear above the pounding of his heart.
“Where’s that commando s-superhero cape?” she joked in a stutter.
“I must’ve left it in my other tree.”
“Too bad you didn’t leave your snake there, too.” Her voice shook. Hell, he was scared, too. A venomous bite was one thing they didn’t need tallied onto their list of fucking obstacles.
Rafe slid his leg over hers, ignoring the ten names of stupid she mumbled at him from under her breath. The viper rose, body tensed. Rafe swung his booted foot just as it struck. Both speed and luck knocked it off course before a second well-aimed kick dropped it fifteen feet to the jungle floor.
He felt the hitch in Penny’s breathing before he heard the first quiet sob. Damn if his own hands didn’t shake as he wrapped his arms around her trembling body. “It’s okay. It’s over. Where’s my badass bail enforcement agent, huh? The woman who can wear six-inch stilettos and still kick a man’s ass to the curb?”
From out of nowhere, a string of soft giggles shook her shoulders. Laughter definitely wasn’t the response he’d been expecting, but the sound of it pulled a smile to his lips.
With a deep sigh, she dropped her head back onto his shoulder. “Yeah, I left that woman somewhere in the helicopter, or in that dark alley. She may have even stayed in the States, because she sure as hell isn’t here.”