A big tree was clinging to the earth right at the water’s edge. As they passed it, Diaz reached out with his right hand and caught one of the big roots.
He stopped, but the water didn’t and neither did she. When the belt reached the end of its length, her entire body snapped backward like the end of a whip, but she didn’t lose her grip on the leather. Diaz’s face was twisted with effort, his teeth gritted, as he hung on to the root with his right hand and with the left tried to pull her against the current. She kicked, swinging her body, and suddenly the grasp of the water eased and seemed to push her against the bank on the far side of the tree. They were stretched out with the tree between them, tethered by the belt.
Milla caught one of the roots, too, and managed to wedge her feet against an underwater rock that was just past the tree. The current still pushed at her, but she locked her trembling knees and managed to hold her position.
“I’m letting go of the belt,” she managed to say. “I’m braced. How about you?”
“I’m good,” he said. She untwisted the belt and the leather floated free. For a split second she panicked as the water seemed to tug at her, as if it had just been waiting for her to release her lifeline. But she pushed back harder against the tree and held her position.
Her lungs were pumping like bellows, dragging in air for her oxygen-starved muscles. She couldn’t hear anything now except the water and her own heartbeat thundering in her ears.
Diaz hooked his hands under her arms from behind, and dragged her up and back, onto a shelf of rock and out of the water.
The effort seemed to take all his remaining strength, because he collapsed on his hands and knees on the rock, wheezing and groaning. Milla lay facedown where he’d let her drop, too exhausted to move. Her body felt as if it weighed a thousand pounds, as if even twitching a finger would take gargantuan effort.
The rock was in full sunshine and felt warm under her chilled body. Water streamed from their clothes and hair. She closed her eyes and listened to their laboring breaths, listened to the pound of blood through her veins. They were alive.
Maybe she dozed, or fainted, or both. After a while she managed to turn over, onto her back, and let the sunshine wash over her face. Still breathing hard, almost giddy with relief, Milla tilted her face up to the warmth.
That had been so close. She still couldn’t quite believe they’d managed to make it to the bank; she definitely knew she wouldn’t have been able to make it on her own. The water rushed and swirled only a foot beyond where Diaz lay, sucking at the rock and the stubborn tree, knowing that eventually it would claim them. Time, after all, was on the water’s side. Only Diaz’s strength had enabled them to break free of its clutch.
Still gasping a little, she said, “What happened? Why did we fall?”
He said, “The ground crumbled under the other end of the plank and tilted it.”
Her next question was “How did you know there’s a waterfall on this river?”
He was silent a minute; then he said, “There’s always a waterfall. Don’t you watch any movies?”
Overwhelmed by relief and an almost effervescent joy at being alive, she began to laugh.
Diaz had rolled onto his back beside her, his own chest heaving as he fought for breath, but now he turned his head toward her and the hard line of his mouth moved in a slight smile. He watched her for a minute, his dark eyes narrowed against the glare of the afternoon sun. Then he said, “I’d give my left nut to be inside you right now.”
Her laughter vanished as if it had never been, sucked away by the shock of his words. She’d daydreamed and fantasized and obsessed, but she’d never thought she’d have to deal with reality, and here it was, staring her in the face. Diaz? And her? The hard fact of what he’d said was so jarring that reality tilted for a moment, leaving her adrift on that warm rock with her head buzzing and adrenaline still burning through her veins. Then everything slammed back into place, and with it came a rush of carnal hunger that stunned her with its force. Diaz—and her. Her insides clenched at the thought of him on top of her, between her legs. She wanted him. She had wanted him the moment she saw him, and she wanted him now.
He’d never even really kissed her. That light comfort kiss in Juarez didn’t count.
She’d wanted this, and now reasons for backing away swarmed through her mind like locusts. If all he wanted was a quick fuck, she wasn’t the woman he was looking for, and she couldn’t imagine him wanting anything other than that. This was Diaz, after all; he wasn’t the hang-around type of man, and she wasn’t stupid enough to think she could change him. She’d been so careful not to give him any sexual reaction, any hint that she found him attractive; she’d kept it all inside, in her daydreams. But he’d known anyway; it was in those shrewd dark eyes, that knowledge.
“You’re thinking too much,” he said lazily. “It was just an observation, not a declaration of war.”
“Women always think too much.” She sniffed. “We have to, to keep things balanced.” Odd that he’d chosen “war” as a metaphor . . . or perhaps it was fitting. Squinting up at the sun, trying to find something solid to hold on to, since the ground had just shifted beneath her, she said, “Why do men always offer their left nut and never their right one? Is something wrong with it? Or is the right one somehow more important?”
“You wrong us.” He closed his eyes with a tired sigh, and that slight smile touched his mouth again. “A man takes both his nuts seriously.”