by Paige Tyler
“If I have to eat, so do you.”
“I’m not hungry,” he said. “I loaded up before the mission, remember? I’m still good for a couple more days.”
Kendra knew that was bull. She hadn’t seen Declan eat anything since the day before the ambush—over forty-eight hours ago. There was no way he could keep going as hard as he had been with absolutely no fuel in his system, bear shifter or not.
She wrapped the bar back up. “Well, in that case, I’m not hungry either. I’ll wait until tomorrow.”
He growled but reached into his pack and pulled out another bar. “Fine, you stubborn woman, I’ll eat one. But we don’t have many of them left. This will have to be my last one for a while.”
She waited until he unwrapped his bar and took a bite. Only then did she nibble her own. Yuck, she really had grown tired of these things. But she was starving.
“I want to go to P.F. Chang’s,” she said in between small bites.
“What?”
“You said you’d take me to any restaurant I wanted and that’s where I want to go. It’s my favorite place to eat.”
He thought about that, then shrugged. “Okay. If that’s where you want to go, that’s where I’ll take you.” Declan took another bite, devouring more than half of the remaining bar in a single chomp. “So, what do you want to eat?”
She didn’t even have to think about it. “Spring rolls.”
“That’s it?” He finished his bar, then stuffed the wrapper in his pack. “I’m taking you to your favorite place for dinner after a week in the jungle, and all you want is spring rolls?”
She laughed. “They make really good spring rolls, but no, that’s not all I want. The spring rolls are just the appetizer.”
“Tell me what else you want.” He gestured to the bar in her hand. “Just don’t forget to eat while you do.”
She looked down to see that she hadn’t eaten much of the bar at all. When she took another bite, it just reminded her why energy bars weren’t on the menu at P.F. Chang’s. She forced herself to eat. Declan was right. If she didn’t keep up her strength, she was going to weaken at the worst possible moment. She opened her canteen and took a swallow to wash it down. Chang’s had about five or six dishes she loved, so it was hard to decide what she wanted—even if this was just in her head.
“Does it take you this long to make up your mind about what you want to eat when you’re actually in the restaurant?” Declan asked.
She grinned. “Most of the time. I don’t know why I have such a hard time making some of the simplest decisions. It’s crazy.”
He let out a deep chuckle. “I’ll remember to eat before we go to dinner, so I won’t rush you.”
That was when it hit her. Declan really intended to take her out…like on a date. The thought warmed her right down to the tips of her combat boots. Would it be too much to hope that it might be the start of something?
Declan took a drink from his own canteen. “If it helps, for the duration of this conversation, the food is calorie free, so don’t feel you have to limit yourself to just one thing.”
She laughed. That would be really cool, wouldn’t it? “Well, in that case, I’ll start with the spicy chicken. You can absolutely never go wrong starting with that.”
He leaned back on one elbow, getting more comfortable and looking sexy as hell. “Go on.”
“From there—since I’m not worrying about calories—I’ll have the Mongolian beef, then the sweet and sour pork. And to finish up, their famous lettuce wraps.”
“Because that’s what everyone has after eating three entrées—another appetizer. What happened to dessert?”
She laughed. If it wasn’t for the fact that they were sitting in a pile of prickly brambles, surrounded by monsters that wanted to kill her and cut up Declan for his DNA, she’d say this was the best date she’d been on in…well…forever.
“Is the no-calorie offer still in effect?” she asked.
“Of course.”
“Then I’ll have the Great Wall of Chocolate.” She almost shivered at the thought of all that deliciousness.
“Damn,” he said. “You must be hungrier than I thought.”
“It’s cake, silly.” She frowned. “Wait a minute. Haven’t you ever been to Chang’s before?”
He shook his head. “I tend to eat mostly at the DCO cafeteria at the training complex.”
Was he serious? “Well, that just isn’t right. The moment we get home, we’re going to Chang’s and I’m going to order you the Great Wall. It’s a huge slice of chocolate cake smothered in raspberry sauce. I promise you’ll love it.”
He grinned. “I do like chocolate cake. You’ve got yourself a date.”
Declan probably didn’t mean it in the literal sense of the word, but the thought of going on a date with him made her pulse kick into a whole other gear.
He suddenly sat up and leaned in close; for one wild moment, Kendra was sure that he was going to kiss her—and she was more than willing to let him. But he only reached out and gently brushed his thumb over the corner of her mouth.
“You, um, had a crumb sticking to you.” The back of his knuckles lingered ever so briefly on her cheek before he took his hand away. “I figured you wouldn’t want something nibbling on you while you’re sleeping.”
She didn’t want to even think about that. Unless Declan was the one doing the nibbling, of course. That prompted all sorts of erotic images, and she bit her lip.
“Thanks,” she murmured.
He cleared his throat. “Speaking of sleep, we should get some rest if we’re going to get an early start in the morning.”
Like she could sleep with the feel of his fingers lingering on her skin. It didn’t help that Declan lay down behind her, placing one of his big arms over her in what he probably thought was a very nonsexual manner. Okay, so having his big forearm and bicep lying across her hip and stomach wasn’t necessarily sexual, but it sure was nice as hell. She could definitely get used to snuggling with him like this every night. She was already getting warm all over and her body hadn’t really come in contact with his…yet. She was tempted to wiggle her bottom back against him, but resisted the urge. This was not the time or place for that, no matter how much her body wished it were. No, she’d just lay here like she was. Thinking that was one thing, but doing it was another.
Declan must have mistaken her restlessness to mean she couldn’t sleep because he leaned closer to her ear. “Get some rest. I’ll stay awake and keep an ear out for any hybrids.”
Having his warm breath that close to her ear certainly wasn’t going to help her stop fidgeting. “Are you going wake me when it’s my turn to stand guard tonight?”
“Yeah, of course,” he said. “I’ll wake you up in a couple hours.”
Kendra didn’t believe that for a second, but she didn’t call him on it. The night had gone too well to end it with an argument. She stifled a groan. Was this sad or what? It took a screwed-up mission with both their lives at risk for her to finally realize how good she and Declan were together. She’d never be able to kick herself hard enough for how stupid she’d been. The guy she’d been looking for all these years had been right in front of her the entire time. Unfortunately, it was too late to do anything about it.
Declan had been cordial tonight, even warm. And he would probably keep his promise and take her out to dinner if they got out of this alive. But she couldn’t miss the huge gulf existing between them. Declan still had his walls up higher than ever. Even now, while his arm was close enough to provide a sense of comfort and warmth, he was being careful not to touch her.
She’d been banging her head against the wall trying to figure out why Declan had shut her out so completely and could only come up with one reason. He’d found out she’d slept with the one person he couldn’t stand—Clayne.
Kendra lay there with him almost touching her but not quite, feeling like she wanted to cry. Part of her wanted to tell Declan that Clayne wasn’t the o
ne she wanted. But then she cringed. She refused to be the girl who said that stupid line, Yeah, I slept with someone else, but it didn’t mean anything.
Because it would mean something to Declan. It would mean she’d chosen Clayne over him. Chosen the loud, in-your-face, aggressive shifter who embraced his inner animal without apology. If there was one man who was the one-hundred-and-eighty-degree opposite of Declan, who acted in every way different than the introspective, calm, quiet bear shifter, it was Clayne.
And she’d slept with him.
Tears stung Kendra’s eyes and she wiggled, pressing herself closer to Declan, as if that would somehow make everything better. But Declan moved away, silently confirming her worst fear. Even if they made it out of this jungle alive, there was just no way he could ever get past what she’d done to him.
Chapter 7
“Okay, I think they’ve moved far enough away,” Declan said softly in Kendra’s ear, then immediately wished he hadn’t done it. He didn’t regret the words—he really felt the damn hybrids who’d literally forced them up a tree an hour ago were finally far enough away for him and Kendra to climb down. No, what he regretted was leaning in close to say those words. Even after running around the jungle for four days, she smelled so damn good he could barely keep himself from licking her.
Fortunately, Kendra removed the temptation by grabbing a branch and lowering herself to the ground. Declan found himself dropping his head back against the trunk of the big tree, breathing deep as he tried to get her scent out of his head.
Why the hell was this happening to him now, when they were in the middle of the jungle, surrounded by hybrids who wanted them dead?
They’d scrambled up the big tree when he’d heard two groups of hybrids converging on their location. It had been a dangerous place to hide, but there hadn’t been any other options. So, after he’d rubbed a few of the orchids he’d had in his cargo pants’ pocket on the lower trunk, up the tree they’d gone. The hybrids had passed by without even looking up. Still, he and Kendra had stayed in that tree just to make sure it wasn’t a trick.
Declan had his nose back under control by the time he hit the ground beside Kendra, but just barely. It seemed to be getting harder and harder to ignore her as the hours passed. By the time they got out of here, he’d probably be drooling on her.
“Well, all those supposedly smart people who say adult grizzlies can’t climb trees have obviously never watched you do it,” Kendra said as he straightened his rucksack. “There are monkeys out in the jungle right now hanging their heads in shame.”
He couldn’t help but let out a snort of laughter, even if he did want to yell at her to stop being so sweet and nice to him all the time. “Anyone can climb fast when they’re properly motivated.”
“I’m not so sure about that. I had just as much motivation as you and still would’ve never gotten up there if you hadn’t given me a boost.”
Oh crap. That boost brought back more memories he’d rather forget—mostly the one that involved his hand pushing against her ass as he helped her get up in the tree.
“Yeah, sure,” he mumbled, not looking at her. “No problem.”
Damn, her ass had been really nice—firm, but soft, too.
Stop thinking those thoughts, you stupid idiot. But it was too late. His cock had started to harden again in his uniform. Shit. He’d spent most of the time in that tree thinking about anything and everything he could just to get the thing to go down. Now he was going to have to walk around the jungle with a tree branch in his pants.
“You hear anything?” she asked, completely oblivious to the torture she was putting him through.
Declan forced his attention outward, glad to have something else to focus on. He picked up a hundred individual sounds—small animals moving across the jungle floor, monkeys and birds hooting and screeching, leaves and branches rustling against each other—but nothing that made him think hybrids were nearby.
“Nothing right now,” he told her.
“Good because my butt is so numb from sitting on that branch, I’m not going to be able to move fast for a while.”
She started off ahead of him, but he quickly passed her so he wouldn’t have to go through the torture of watching her massaging her ass as she walked.
“How can there still be so many hybrids around?” she asked from behind him. “I thought they were supposed to be spreading out.”
He’d thought so too, but Kendra was right. The area had been crawling with hybrids since 0500 that morning. They’d been ducking and diving nearly every twenty minutes as the creatures appeared. It was destroying his plan to keep them traveling in a generally northwest direction. No matter what he did to correct for it, every encounter forced them to move east and deeper into the mountains. He liked to think that all the hybrids moving through this part of the jungle was random, but his instincts told him different.
“The way I see it, there are two possibilities that can explain why we’re seeing so many of them right now—one good and one not so good. Which would you like to hear first?”
Declan looked over his shoulder to see Kendra smiling. Then she laughed as she caught up and started walking beside him. At least she wasn’t rubbing her butt anymore.
“Give me the good news first,” she said. “If I really like it, we can skip the bad news completely.”
He chuckled, too. She always knew what to say to make him laugh. “Well, if we’re lucky, the reason we’re seeing all these hybrids this morning is because we’ve reached the edge of their perimeter and the noose they’ve been tightening around us. If that’s the case, once we’re through them, it’ll be clear sailing all the way back to base camp.”
“Okay, let’s just go with that,” Kendra said. “But that’s probably not what’s really going on, is it?” When Declan shook his head, she sighed. “Thought so. Let me hear the bad news then.”
He hesitated, wondering just how much he should tell her. He decided to only go with the really bad, instead of the really, really bad.
“The bad news is that I think my biggest fear has come true—that the intermittent gunfire we heard last night and early this morning is the rescue party trying to track us down.”
A glimmer of hope flashed in her eyes. “But isn’t that a good thing? If it’s the rescue party, don’t we want them to find us?”
“Sure. Except, every time they fire their weapons, they’re drawing every hybrid within a twenty-mile radius to us. We may not survive their rescue if this gets any worse.”
She thought about that for a while, and he felt bad to burst her bubble like that. But what could he do?
“You think it’s Tate leading the rescue party, with Brent and Gavin?”
“I’m not sure anyone else would willingly come looking for us,” he said. “Not after going up against those hybrids in the dark. But it’s likely there’s a shifter with them, too. Tate and the guys wouldn’t be able to track us, especially at night.”
Kendra’s eyes went wide. “You mean Clayne?”
Hearing her say the shifter’s name made him want to growl. Kendra might know what to say to make him laugh, but she also knew exactly what to say to piss him off. And it usually had to do with bringing up Clayne’s name in the worst possible moment.
“Maybe.” Declan tried to keep his voice even. “But it could be Ivy, Trevor, even Lucy,” he added, thinking of the other female feline shifter at the DCO. “There are a couple others who could do it.”
Even though she had this irritating habit of bringing up Clayne’s name all the time, which usually snapped at least a little sense into him, Declan knew he was falling for Kendra all over again. As stupid as that was, it was happening, and he couldn’t seem to stop it. Lying close to her last night had been pure misery. But it had also been one of the best nights of his life. That was sad.
Fortunately, Kendra didn’t mention Clayne again. If she’d started going on about how the wolf shifter might ride to their rescue, Declan was going t
o be sick.
They made use of the relatively hybrid-free moment and tried to get some distance between them and the tree they’d just climbed out of. They even found some berries and mangoes growing along their path and had an impromptu snack. Eating something other than energy bars was too much of a morale booster to pass up. And, even though it probably wasn’t the wisest thing to do, they talked softly as they moved through the jungle. He had a feeling it was Kendra’s way of dealing with the stress, so he was okay with it.
At first, Kendra’s questions were pretty general—where did he hang out when he wasn’t working, what kind of movies did he like, what were his favorite foods? Declan didn’t mind answering those types of questions and even asked a few of his own—how much time did she spend with her family, and how often did she go out to eat at her favorite restaurant? But then she hit him with a seriously personal question that left him at a complete loss for words and no clue how to answer. Hell, he was pretty sure he didn’t even want to answer that kind of question.
He fumbled over his words, finally spitting out an extremely unintelligent sounding, “What?”
“Have you ever been in a long-term serious relationship?” she asked. “You’re such a great guy. I have a hard time believing no woman has ever tried to tie you down.”
Declan ground his jaw. If I’m such a great guy, why haven’t you ever shown any interest in me?
“I’m sorry if that was too personal,” she said when he didn’t answer. “You don’t have to answer that.”
He was tempted not to, but then she’d think he was hiding something, which he was. But he didn’t want her to think he was some kind of pathetic loser. The fact that he’d been engaged wasn’t a big deal. Anyone who’d read his personnel file already knew.
“There was someone…a long time ago,” he told her. “We were engaged.”
When Kendra didn’t say anything, he glanced at her and found her gaping at him.
“You should really close your mouth,” he said dryly. “Any number of nasty things could fly in.”
She closed her mouth with a snap.
