It was barely dawn, not light enough yet to travel, so she relaxed and absorbed the moment at his side. The mists moved slowly and sensuously through the rain forest’s branches, seeming to symbolize Shah’s own life: the twists and turns she’d taken, some of them by her own choice, most of them not, and where they had led her at this moment. The kiss Jake had branded her lips with lingered hotly in her body, like a fever that refused to subside. It was a new and unfamiliar sensation, one that Shah basked in. There was a gnawing ache within her, and she didn’t know where it was coming from, or why it was there. The entire lower region of her body felt like a simmering cauldron ready to overflow. Because Shah was Native American, she had grown up seeing life in terms of symbols, and understanding that everything was connected to everything else. This new and wonderful yet disturbing feeling in her triggered her curiosity. Would Jake know what it was? What she was feeling? She had long since recognized his perceptiveness about human beings in general.
