Wild Orchids by Karen Robards Read Free Book Online Page A

moaning about?" He turned to face her as he spoke, his eyes glittering points of light in the darkness. She could feel them moving down over her body and then back up to her face again. Her hands tightened on the wheel; she did not like the speculative way he was looking at her body. Of course, he could merely be trying to decipher the cause of her obvious discomfort, but along the way he was making no bones about eyeing her curves. Lora slowed the car to a crawl as the quickening droplets turned without warning into sheets of pouring rain; modesty and fear battled with urgent need. Need won.
    "I have to stop."
    He snorted. "We'll stop when I say stop. It's not raining that hard."
    Lora stared out into the raging downpour. He probably would call a hurricane a little rainstorm, she grumbled inwardly. But in any case that was not her problem at the moment.
    "I need to stop," she said tightly, without looking at him.
    "You heard what I said."
    "I have to go to the bathroom!" The words burst out of her mouth. Furious that he had made her admit something so intimate, she shot a glare at him. His eyes moved swiftly over her once again, and then he settled back into his seat. To her angry embarrassment, she caught the glimmer of a faint grin as it came and went on his mouth.
    "Oh."
    When, after a few minutes, it became obvious that that was all the response he meant to give to what was rapidly becoming the driving force of her life, she shot him another furious look.
    "Is that all you can say?"
    "What do you want me to say? In case you haven't noticed, it's raining cats and dogs out there. I would say that you are welcome to stop the car and go behind a bush if you like, but I'd have to get out with you and I'm damned if I'm going to get soaked to the skin. You'll just have to exercise some self-control."
    "Self-control!" Lora Spluttered, thinking of the miles that she had been doing just that. He looked over at her, and once again she caught that faint, glimmering grin before it disappeared and his mouth became as hard and uncompromising as ever.
    "Unless you have a jar in the backseat."
    "A jar!" Words failed her. She seethed silently, steering the car through the driving rain with gritted teeth, not really caring whether or not they stayed on the roadway. More by good luck than by good management they did, but she was at the point where it made not the slightest difference to her. She had to go to the bathroom!
    The gun was lying in his lap, its nose pointed toward the dashboard, his hand resting negligently on the handle. Even if it had been pointed directly at her, she wouldn't have cared. There were no restrooms or even any buildings in sight, nor had there been for miles, there was no jar in the backseat, and there was no way she was going to wet her pants.
    "I'm stopping," she said through her teeth, suiting the action to the words. "You can shoot me if you want to, but I have to go to the bathroom!"
    He turned to stare at her as she threw the car into neutral, set the brake, and opened the door, stepping out into the downpour. She heard him curse, and saw his brown hand tighten on the gun as she shut the door behind her with a bang. He got out onto the roadway, clapping the sombrero on his head as he emerged, and stood scowling at her over the roof of the VW. The gun, pointed directly at her, was in one hand while with the other he tried to hold the folded sarape over it to protect it from the cascading torrents.
    Lora ignored both him and the gun, walking away from the car into the quagmire at the side of the road. She was already soaked to the skin. Water streamed over her face and hair, and her dress was plastered to her body. Mud oozed slimily over the sides of her sandals, sucking at her feet with every step. A most unaromatic smell assaulted her nostrils. She sniffed, barely avoided getting a nose fall of water, and identified the odor's source. Mexican farmers fertilized their fields with human excrement. Shuddering,