Danger Signs (Delta Force Echo: An Iniquus Action Adventure Romance Book 1)

by Fiona Quinn

  “Do you like Qatar?”

  “I love my family dearly. I love the food. Oh my goodness, so delicious.” She stopped to smile, remembering the amazing buffets her aunts would set out for their guests. “I love many of the traditions. The music. The literature. The Persian Gulf.” She fingered the strand of pearls around her neck—ubiquitous to traditionally Southern women in the United States but also important to the Qatari culture. “Yes, there are many aspects of Qatar that I enjoy. But I love the four seasons in North Carolina. I adore the lushness of June when I hike the Appalachians. July here is a bit humid but compared to Qatar’s humidity, this is quite bearable.” She spooned up a taste of the hot chocolate decadence and closed her eyes as she savored the taste.

  When she opened her eyes, Ty was smiling at her with merry eyes and little laugh wrinkles.

  They stared at each other for a long moment until Kira suddenly felt shy, blinked, and turned her head toward the sound of a boat horn. She finally felt brave again and turned back to look at Ty. “I do love boating on the Persian Gulf.” She looked down at her lap, remembering the Princess from Bahrain who had just sent out her hostage video, held captive in her room for two years since her attempted escape on her friend’s yacht in the gulf heading toward the Arabian Sea.

  Kira folded her hands into her lap, and the animation in her body melted away.

  She was firmly wedged between a rock and a hard place.

  Meeting Ty was making it tougher on her.

  She had prayed all the way through her university years for a deep and abiding love to find her. If she had just found Mr. Right, she would have been free of this quandary.

  That didn’t happen.

  Now, her uncle was calling an end to Kira’s opportunity to find her soulmate.

  Then, as if the universe was laughing at her, Ty landed in front of her.

  She could easily see herself falling in love with Ty. Kira could well imagine what life could have been had he shown up oh, six or seven months ago. If they married, she could have lived in her little house when or if Ty went somewhere on an assignment, and she could be with him at the fort, which was just an hour up the street, when he was in town. She’d spend her days working on her literary projects and raising their children.

  Ah, make-believe and fiction.

  Kira wasn’t even sure that if she defied her uncle that William would allow London to be her friend—given his close work with her Uncle Nadir.

  London was cautious not to displease William since his brain operation last fall and certainly since their baby’s birth. Kira thought that there was love between them, but also that London wanted to secure her new lifestyle for herself and for her son. After all, London was something like wife number five—not in the sense that men in Arab countries took multiple wives but as a matter of William’s string of divorces.

  London’s stepdaughter Christen had a mom who fled that uber-rich lifestyle with her daughter in tow.

  Christen seemed happy enough.

  Kira had met Christen when they were both members of London’s bridal party. The woman’s strength to do as she pleased with her life had been a source of jealousy for Kira.

  And there sat Ty, patiently letting her ruminate. Focus on the now, Kira. It’s really all you’ve got.

  “I changed the subject on you.” She forced a smile. “This started as a conversation about how one’s looks affect them. You’re by all measures an attractive man.” Kira was gratified when he ducked his head modestly.

  Most men she knew, when told how handsome they looked, absorbed the compliment as fact. “Do you find it a boon or an anchor?” Her tone turned mildly teasing. She thought she’d done a good job changing the subject from her morose contemplation of what her future held.

  “My looks don’t really come into play in my life. It’s mostly the dogs and me, and frankly, the scruffier and stinkier I am, the better they like me. Old Rory likes me best when I smell like a wet goat.”

  “Ah, so you showered because you’re on leave?”

  “I’m on the clock. I’m training Rory to remember his polite company behaviors, and that includes being around people who bathe.” He laughed. “You’re not eating your cake. Do you not like it? Shall I order something else?”

  “We ordered dessert with our meal when my stomach was grumbling. I simply can’t take another bite.” Oh, she was hungry all right, just not for cake.

  Ty lifted his hand to signal for the check.

  They were both quiet as they finished up in the restaurant. Ty placed his hands on the back of her chair as she stood; his manners were impeccable.

  They took the side door out of the Frog and the Good ‘ol Boy. It was her favorite celebration restaurant. How he landed on this particular place almost made him seem psychic. She thought back to him showing up with the single Sterling rose. She wondered if he would have chosen that particular rose if he knew it meant love at first sight.

  “What are you thinking?” he asked as he offered her his arm to walk over the wood plank walkway.

  “It’s a lovely night. I’ve really enjoyed myself.” She stopped, and Ty turned to her. “Would you like to come to my house for a nightcap?” A shiver brushed over her from the breeze coming off the water.

  Ty wrapped his arm around her, and she snuggled in, resting her cheek over his heart and absorbing his warmth.

  “I’d love that,” he whispered into her hair. “But I need to get back and check on Rory.”

  She nodded but didn’t move from her spot.

  So much for that condom and its upcoming expiration date. Kira was sorely disappointed. Surely, he knew what she had meant by that invitation. And he hadn’t invited her back to his hotel room, probably because he was thinking about her own responsibility with Princess Beatrice.

  Maybe he just wasn’t thrown head over heels like she was.

  Ty trapped her chin in his fingers and tipped her head back. He paused for a moment, giving her a chance to step back if she didn’t want this.

  She wanted this!

  He bent, pressing warm, gentle lips against hers. She rose on her tiptoes to meld her body against him, tilting her head so he’d take the kiss deeper.

  His tongue slicked into her mouth. He tasted of chocolate and red wine.

  His kisses sent tingles racing up and down her spine. Her pretty indigo panties were wet for him.

  Ty pulled back and laced his fingers in hers as he started them toward his car. “I don’t want our evening to end. But I sadly still have work to do tonight.”

  Oh, that was better. Not just Rory. Work.

  She nodded.

  “I take Rory for a run every morning. Would it be okay if Rory and I ended our circuit at your house?”

  “Why don’t you come for breakfast?” she asked. “Say around eight?”

  “I’d really like that,” he said as they approached his Land Rover.

  He used his key to unlock her door and paused to kiss her again. This time the tingles reached all the way down to her toes. Her system was on fire. Kira could only imagine what it would be like if they were making love.

  Maybe tomorrow she’d find out.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Ty

  There was a lusciousness to Kira, her curvy figure.

  Her ample ass invited sin.

  All the way back to the hotel, Ty had imagined her on all fours, looking around behind her with a hurry up and get it in quirk to her eyebrow. Her hair was long and glossy, and he wanted to wrap it in his fist, tip her head back and rediscover the taste of her full red lips… “And that, my friends, is how your Johnson can get you into trouble on an assignment,” he murmured under his breath.

  That green light to take a roll with her from the CIA was making his engines race. But he wasn’t that guy—the elephant in the china shop stomping and crashing around out of pure joy.

  Yeah, he was pretty sure he could get himself into the princess’s bed.

  And yeah, it would proba
bly be a good time.

  But he was wielding a very dangerous weapon—psyops could scar a person for life. And he took responsibility for the weapons he held. Ty’s decisions made a difference. On his own, if they had met by happenstance, those variables wouldn’t have to be worked into the situation. But, damn it, if Kira sent him that fuck me now look again, he wasn’t sure that he could pry himself away from the opportunity.

  When he swiped the keycard and walked into his room, White was rousing herself on his bed. She’d obviously fallen asleep there with her computer resting on her stomach.

  Ty knew she was working overtime, working every angle to make sure this mission was golden.

  “Darn it,” she said by way of hello. “I was hoping to get the call.”

  “Sorry to disappoint.” He put the room card on the counter.

  “Things went well?”

  “You probably had your spook friends at the table next to us, so you tell me.”

  White put her computer to the side and slid up the bed to rest against the backboard. “Why do I get the feeling that you could have gotten between her sheets, and you decided not to?”

  Ty bent over Rory’s crate to check on him, then sat on the couch to unlace his shoes. “Next time you dress someone for the assignment, see if you can’t do something to break in the shoes. First the biker boots, now these GQ loafers, you’re giving me blisters.”

  “I see,” White said. Which meant she was about to slap him in the face with more of her psychological bullshit. “Falling in love is not hard. So enjoy it. But Ty, it’s temporary. Like having a bowl of your favorite ice cream, but that’s all that’s available, the one bowl. Once it’s gone, it’s gone. Once this assignment is over, you won’t be in touch with her anymore.”

  “My understanding is that’s not how things happen. The heart wants what it wants.”

  “Emily Dickenson. This isn’t the time for poetry. It’s time to stick to the science. Intellectualizing this mission can only help you keep your perspective. Many, many people have gone undercover with the goal to fall in love and manipulate their partners. Some of them marry, have children, have a long life together, and all the while, the mission is the mission. They are still able to bring the bad acting loved ones under the control of the law.”

  “She’s not, though…a bad actor. She’s an innocent—a vehicle to an end.” He felt himself blush. This was so outside his paradigms and maybe even his moral structure.

  “Exactly. And affection, trust, possibly love is the fuel for that vehicle.” White dipped her head and raised her brows. “Lives on the line. Innocent lives that won’t deal with heartbreak but torture, bullets, psychological agony. You’ve seen what the human monster can do. This mission has the potential to save lives, possibly thousands of lives. Are you up to this?”

  “I’m up to it, yeah. Fall in love, so she picks up on my love through her 1% of the world population intuition-wise and feels she too can fall in love with me. Work the mission, then put it on the shelf.”

  “Not on the shelf. Return to sender. You’re done after the assignment. She doesn’t know it yet, and I won’t explain that to you. She’s not available for a future. That should be helpful, too.”

  “Do you put any of this science to good use in your own life?”

  “Of course I do,” White pulled herself to the edge of Ty’s bed and stuck her feet in her flip-flops. “I know better than to go to dimly lit restaurants with a guy I’m attracted to. Attractions can be enjoyed without the emotional baggage of love connections. Usually,” she said, then sighed. “But not in this case. In this case, it’s got to be full-on Mr. Darcy shit.”

  “Who’s that?”

  “Darcy? A Jane Austen character.” White chewed on the inside of her cheek while she thought. Finally, she said. “Things are coming to a head at a disadvantageous time.”

  “I…what does that mean?”

  “Kira was on the phone with her Uncle Nadir earlier today. You have to understand that she’s lived her whole life with one foot in two very different worlds. Different customs. Different world views. Different laws. There are forces exerting their power on her and equally strong forces that press her away. She’s lived with the push and pull, the pressures that have been brought to bear.”

  “What are they, exactly?”

  “Family versus personal sovereignty are how I’d frame them in the most simplistic sense. I don’t want to freak you out or anything…”

  “Okay. Spit it out.” Ty worked hard on his poker face.

  “You need to nail this down by tomorrow night. And when I say that I mean it in all permutations of the word.”

  “What? You want me to… I… My ethics…” He stalled.

  “Your ethics aside. You knew this was where this was heading.”

  “No. That’s not what you said. I was supposed to form an alliance. You were basing this alliance on our having an emotional bond. You felt that the fastest and most useful bond was if she supposed herself to have a crush on me. It was never part of any scenario that I would possibly agree to a directive to bed a woman. I won’t even entertain such a crazy idea.”

  “And yet, I never actually said those words. So that’s where your brain took you?”

  “You’re playing psychological games. Stop.” He stood up to take the shoes to the closet. “I liked you a whole lot better when you were upfront and straightforward. What did Kira’s uncle say to her?”

  “That I’m not going to share.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because you aren’t to know right now, it would complicate things.”

  Ty suddenly dipped his head as he barked out a laugh.

  After he sobered, White said, “Yeah, that was a ludicrous thing for me to say. This is complicated enough. You don’t want to sleep with her?”

  “Of course, I do. But if I were to…have a physical relationship—”

  “Wait. Are you saying your relationship isn’t physical? You haven’t even kissed her?”

  Ty paused. He didn’t want to answer. He didn’t want to share and take anything away from that kiss. That kiss had been precious to him. It was sacred, personal, and not part of a mission.

  “Okay, you kissed her. And I’ll walk back what I said earlier. Asking you to have sex with her, if you ever do have sex with her, it has to be a natural continuation of your emotions. It really can’t be mission-based. But if I have a good handle on Kira—and I think I do—she should have made a move on you tonight. I hope your chivalry gene didn’t talk you out of following through. If she makes the move and you feel desire…” She stopped and coughed. “Ha! I’m chalking this up to one of the more bizarre conversations I’ve ever had on the job. But if you want her, take her. First, this might be your only shot. Second, she…well, I’m not going to tell you the second. Let’s just leave it with my constant reminder that your mission to get to Davidson Range must be successful. Hundreds if not thousands of lives depend on it, and that may well include Kira’s.”

  Fear whipped up Ty’s spine. “Is Kira’s life in danger?”

  “Yes,” White said without preamble. “I’m not going to lie. Not on this trip to Tanzania. And not in any way you can imagine. She doesn’t fully realize it yet, but Kira has just been tossed into shark infested waters.”

  Ty held himself very still. He wanted to throw himself out the door and drive to Kira and ask her to tell him what was happening. It was a fantasy. Of course, he couldn’t do that and blow the op. Ty promised himself he’d find out, and he’d do everything in his power to keep Kira safe, with or without him in her life.

  “We’re both tired. Jet lag is a thing, isn’t it? I put some melatonin on your sink.” She walked toward the door. “This was day two of the four days you had available. Are you seeing her tomorrow?”

  “Breakfast at eight.”

  “Good. Maybe a morning roll would do her some good.” She waggled her brows. “I’m not ordering you into her bed. But if you land there, it w
ill move things along much quicker.” She put her hand on the knob and turned toward Ty. “That is if you think you can make that a pleasurable experience—”

  “Wow. Really?”

  “Just realize, stud muffin, if you failed to please her, that might be your ticket to Nopesville for the mission. So if you do anything physical, give it your best effort.” She sent him a wink and walked out his door.

  Ty stared after her as she walked the three doors down to her room. That wasn’t a conversation he’d ever imagined having when he signed his name on the dotted line and joined the Army.

  Chapter Twenty

  Ty

  As he was getting himself together for Rory’s morning run, Ty had realized that he needed a plan for going to Kira’s house.

  A ten-mile would wear Rory out enough that he might calm himself and lie down or play nicely with Princess Beatrice. Ten miles in the high humidity and heat of a July morning in North Carolina meant he’d be ripe.

  Ty packed a small runner’s backpack, including chew toys for Rory, a change of clothes, antiperspirant, a towel, and the hotel bottles of shampoo and conditioner, so he could clean up respectably.

  It felt good to move his body. Stress slicked off Ty’s skin and was left behind on the trail as he and Rory set the pace to finish up in an hour. It was a good clip, and he liked that tempo. His mind slowly let go, and he moved into the meditation of a warrior, aware of his surroundings but quieting the inner dialogue.

  He found rest in his strenuous workout.