Man of Passion by Lindsay McKenna

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    "How terribly sad." Ari felt hot tears steal into her eyes. She saw him give her a sharpened look. "Sorry, I cry at the drop of a hat. My father hates to see me cry."
    Leaning over, Rafe slid his fingers along the clean line of her jaw. Her eyes flared with shock, surprise and something else…pleasure, perhaps. But that was not why he'd followed his heart and touched her. "The Jaguar Clan has a saying, my wild woman. That if we cannot shed tears from our heart for those who suffer, then we are made of stone." Grazing her flaming cheek, his fingers tangled briefly in the gold of her hair along her temple. If he didn't stop, he'd kiss her. Shocked, Rafe pulled away and moved uncomfortably back to the wheel. Where had the words wild woman come from? He'd spoken them like an endearment, something intimate and private that he wanted to share only with her.
    Without thinking, Ari put her hand to her cheek where he'd touched her like a butterfly grazing a sweet, honey-filled flower. The tenderness in Rafe's normally hard expression shook her to her soul. This man…this person who seemed to know the very center of her heart, had touched her as she'd never been touched before. No one had ever sent burning tingles of pleasure across her sensitized flesh as he had. No one had held her heart with such tenderness. Blinking back tears, Ari could only sit there and absorb the moment. She couldn't think, could only feel. Her heart throbbed like a rainbow burning high in the blue sky above them. Surely this was how a rainbow felt, she thought as she moved her fingers lingeringly across where her heart lay, open and vulnerable.
    Gathering her courage, Ari whispered, "In my eyes—my heart—you're a knight in shining armor. Look how you care for and protect the Indians in the territory you have responsibility for. The people must love you for your dedication to them. I'm so sorry your father can't realize your dream, your vision. I hope someday he will."
    Quirking his mouth, Rafe said, "Not a chance, Ari. He's set in stone. The stone that the Jaguar Clan refers to. He's all head. He's buried his heart and feelings a long time ago. I'm afraid he's got an ego the size of São Paulo , and São Paulo has fourteen million people in it."
    "But," she said, opening her hands, "how do you stay in touch with your family, then?"
    "I have my ways." He smiled a little savagely. "My two younger sisters and brothers live in Manaus beneath his shadow, doing what he wants them to do with their lives. My mother and I have a secret code so that when I call her on a certain phone line, she knows it's me. I usually meet her at my home, which sits on the outskirts of Manaus ."
    "At least you get to see them." Still, Ari saw the damage that his father had done to him. Saw the agony in his eyes and the way he stood rigidly at the wheel. Her heart ached for him. "I didn't know you had a house in the city. I thought you lived here," she said, gesturing to the houseboat.
    "I do live out of this," he told her. "When I'm not tracking illegal miners, drug runners or drug lords on the land, I use a small aluminum skiff with a motor to move around in the back channels of the Amazon. I keep the houseboat tied up in a channel near the Juma village. They watch over it when I'm away on a mission."
    "Then the house in Manaus is…"
    He smiled. "I work for the State, so I have to have residency there. About twice a year I go in and report on what's happening in my territory, create a budget and tell the board how the money will be spent for the coming year. That kind of thing. It usually takes a week to do that."
    "And that's when you see your family?"
    "Yes."
    She heard the satisfaction in his voice. "In my eyes, you're still a knight," she said, and gave him a small smile.
    Rafe nodded. "A tarnished knight banished from his land and from his family. Not exactly storybook material, am I? More of a disappointment."
    Frowning, Ari shook her head. "You have problems