Rachael’s heart skipped a beat, but she kept her expression serene and merely lifted her eyebrow in response, a gesture she’d worked hard to perfect. “You know what I think, Rio? I think you’re the one who’s afraid of me. I think you don’t quite know what to do with me.”

“I know what I’d like to do.” This time he sounded gruff.

“What did I say that upset you?”

Rio stood in front of her feeling like he’d been felled by a huge tree. He had closed that door so long ago, his emotions raw and bruised and bleeding, and he wasn’t about to open the door for her or anyone else. He couldn’t believe it still shook him, those occasional glimpses into a past he didn’t want to remember. A different life. A different person.

Rachael watched his hands curl into fists, the only sign of his agitation. She had inadvertently touched a nerve and had no idea what it was that had done it. She shrugged. “I have a past, you have a past, we’re both looking for a different life. Does it matter? You don’t have to tell me, Rio. I like who you are now.”

“Is that your way of subtly asking me to stay out of your business?”

She tugged at the hair at the back of her neck, obviously used to it being much longer. “I was saying it doesn’t matter. No, I don’t want you prying into my past. I shouldn’t have told you as much as I did.” She smiled at him because she couldn’t help herself. She was acting out of character, telling things best left unsaid. She shouldn’t have hurt feelings because he didn’t want to spill his life’s story to her. She doubted he would have been hiding out in the rain forest unless something traumatic had happened in his life. He made her want to tell him everything. “I’m sorry I made you uncomfortable, Rio. I won’t do it again.”

“Damn it, Rachael. How do you manage to do that?” One minute he could work up anger and the next she disarmed him completely. “And, by the way, how is it that you escape the mosquitoes? I only use the netting because they annoy me buzzing around, but I thought you would be covered in bites.”

“Mosquitoes don’t find me quite as charming as you do. I noticed all the others in my group were having to use repellent all the time. I don’t think mosquitoes like the way I taste. Does it bother you that they leave me alone?”

He nodded. “It’s a rare phenomenon. The mosquitoes don’t bother the tribespeople. Your mother knows the stories of the leopard people. Were you born here? Is your mother from here?”