She made a face. “How lovely. The sheet is going to be a mess.”

“I have a couple of towels I can put under it.” His fingers tightened around her foot. “Rachael, I think we’re out of the woods and we’ve saved the leg, but it’s going to scar. I tried to repair the damage, but…” He trailed off, the pressure of his grip hard enough to reveal his distress at his inadequacy without actual words.

Rachael shrugged. “I wasn’t worried about scars, Rio. Thank you for what you did. It doesn’t matter to me.”

“Not right now, but when you’re back in your world, dancing in a slinky dress, it may make a difference.” He forced himself to say it, to think it. At once the beast rose up, fighting for control, fur threatening to burst through his skin. Wickedly sharp teeth pushing at his jaw to make room. Even his fingers curved, the stiletto-sharp claws threatening to burst out the ends.

“I can’t ever go back, Rio,” Rachael said firmly. “I don’t want to go back. There’s nothing but death there for me. I was never happy in that world. I’d like to try here, where I feel alive, where I feel close to my mother again. It was her stories that made me come to this place. When she spoke of the rain forest, she made me feel as if I were in it, sensing its sounds and smells and beauty. I felt as if I’d walked in it, long before I ever came here.”

“This isn’t a lark for some rich woman’s fantasy,” he said, abruptly standing. With the same casual immodesty he pulled on a pair of jeans. “There aren’t stores here, Rachael. There are cobras and wild animals that will hunt and eat you.”

“Someone managed to put a cobra in my locked room before we traveled on the river,” she said. It was hard not to stare at him, not to see the play of his muscles beneath his skin. She could see the scars covering his body. Many of them were obviously from large cats. But there were scars from knives and bullets and other weapons she couldn’t hope to identify.

His head snapped around, his hands stilled on the buttons of his jeans. “Are you certain the thing didn’t get into your room on its own, Rachael?”

She shook her head. “No, the room was locked up tight. I made sure of it. I really prepared for this trip, Rio. I knew about the snakes and other unpleasant and poisonous crawly things. I took precautions.”

Rio reached for her. “Let me help you to the bathroom.”

“I think I can make it on my own,” Rachael said.