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not going to risk our friendship for a good fuck."
    "You want me as badly as I want you." He jumped to his feet.
    She couldn't look at him with his hair a mess from her hands, handsome face dark with desire, and shirt half-up his hard chest without thinking of how good it had felt to have his body on top of hers. Her mind raced for an excuse that wouldn't damage their relationship.
    She needed his friendship more than she needed a lover.
    "You're Bill. "
    "We've got that covered! Why the hell do you keep saying that? What does my name signify to you? Is it that I'm your lap dog and nothing more? Have I been segregated into some weird place in your life where I am permanently in the friend-zone?"
    Words failed her. She faced him and shrugged. The hurt in his eyes stabbed her in her heart.
    "Bill, wait," she said when he opened the door again. She grabbed his arm, not knowing what to say but terrified that a crack had formed in their relationship that would never heal. "I need to understand."
    "If I need to spell it out to you at this point, then maybe I've been wrong about us for a very long time." He met her gaze. "That's why I need to go. You confuse me. I want a life with a wife and kids and big family barbecues and all of that and I'm starting to think this...friendship we have...is standing in the way of the rest of my life. It's you, always you in my head when I'm with anyone else."
    "You're my best friend," she whispered, fear making her voice quake. "That's always been enough."
    "That's what I thought, too."
    "Then what changed? We're Savannah and Bill, we have fun, we're each other's go-to person...Why complicate it? Why can't you have a wife and kids and everything you want with me as your best friend?"
    "Is that what you want? Really?" He leaned close enough where the gold flecks in his hazel eyes were only an eyelash away. "Do you want to watch me marry someone else one day? Because I can honestly stand here and say that the idea of you being some other man's bride tears my heart out."
    She cringed at the idea of being anyone's bride. "Why are you doing this? Now? Here? Before a dangerous dive?"
    "It came up, that's all."
    "Like hell it did. You're my partner and now you threw this—"
    "Let it go, Savannah. Pretend I never came to your room." He twisted free of her grip and walked onto the suspended bridge.
    Talk about a serious mind fuck.
    Deciding to let him have his nervous breakdown on his own, she slammed the door closed and stomped toward the bed. Her dive buddies were her safe haven from the nutty men in the world—or at least they had been before Bill decided to go bonkers. She fell back onto the bed and blinked at the thatched ceiling. Absently, she touched her lips that still throbbed from his kiss.
    Okay, so maybe she'd fantasized about him now and then. Perhaps she'd been guilty of comparing other men to Bill and finding them lacking. But crossing that line had never been an option for her. Couldn't be.
    Mae West had once said that a man's kiss was his signature.
    Savannah grinned against her fingertips. Now she knew what Ms. West had meant by that and had to agree. Damn, no man's kiss had ever curled her toes and boiled her blood like that.
    Too bad it could never happen again.

 
     
     
    Chapter Three
     
    The jeep ride to the first sinkhole left a lot to be desired in terms of comfort. His ass hurt from being thrust into the air and back down onto a worn seat that had seen far better days. He held onto the roll bar and inhaled the rich scent of the jungle after another night of rain. Everything here seemed more vivid and alive. Birds chirped in a mad song at each other while the density of green around them moved with unseen creatures that he knew watched their passing. But the smell that filled his lungs is what breathed new life into him this early morning—the smell of absolute freedom and purity. Nature at its most wild.
    "You look more like yourself and you haven't given us any lectures yet,