Lethal Game

by Julie Rowe

  Intense pleasure and the desperate climb toward an orgasm the likes of which she’d never experienced before made breathing almost impossible.

  “Oh my God, Con,” she cried out. “Please.”

  He flicked her clit rapidly and pressed down with the heel of his hand against her mound as he fucked her hard with his fingers. “Come for me.”

  Her body seized, unable to process the extreme pleasure rocketing through it.

  She screamed into his mouth.

  Sophia didn’t know where she was, when she was or who she was, and she didn’t care. She’d never felt anything like it before in her life.

  She wasn’t sure how long they stood there with his hand between her legs. It could have been a few minutes or an hour, but eventually, her higher brain functions began to bring her down to earth.

  She’d just orgasmed with all her clothes on. He couldn’t have gotten much out of the exchange. That wasn’t right. Fair was fair.

  She lifted her head and looked up at him. His face was flushed and he stared at her as if he wanted more. She’d put that expression on his face. Her. A geeky doctor who never in a million years thought she’d ever be in this sort of situation with a man who was even more dangerous than he was smart.

  She put her hand on his crotch and sucked in a breath. The fabric beneath her hands was damp, his penis semi-rigid under her questing fingers. Though it did seem to be growing longer and harder.

  He pulled her hand away and put it on his neck.

  “You had an orgasm?”

  “Oh yeah.” He traced one large finger down her face and bit down on his bottom lip. “I haven’t come in my pants since I was about seventeen.”

  She swallowed down her need to kiss him again. “I...I don’t know what I’m supposed to do next.”

  He traced her ear. “What do you want to do?”

  She shivered. “I want to kiss you. I want you to touch me. I want to touch you. I want—”

  He put a finger over her lips, his expression changing from lazy and sated man to something harder. The soldier was looking out of his eyes. And she was his target. “Slow down a little. We need to get a couple things straight.” He leaned his forehead against hers. “I’m here to keep you alive and safe.” For as long as he could.

  “I know, but can’t we...?” She let out a frustrated huff. “I’m going to say this all wrong, so take it like I mean it and not how I say it.”

  He started to laugh.

  She punched him on the shoulder. “I want you. Jerk. I know it’s against the rules and probably not the smartest thing to do, have a sexual relationship with my bodyguard, but...”

  He closed his eyes and let his head fall back for a moment. “I could get transferred at any time. You and I can’t have a relationship.” He put air quotes around the last word. “All we can have is an understanding that what we do together during our off-hours is recreational.”

  He was right. With her projected life span, she couldn’t have a relationship with anyone. But if she could, it would be with him. “So, no emotional attachment?”

  “Yes.”

  She was missing something, she knew she was. His expression was too conflicted. He should have looked satisfied and focused, but now he looked sad and angry.

  “You want me?” she asked, uncertain.

  “Yeah. You’re gorgeous, inside and out.”

  “Smart is sexy, and I like your muscles.” She gazed at him and licked her lips. She still hadn’t found out what his skin tasted like.

  “Oh yeah, which ones?”

  “Your pectoralis major, trapezius and deltoid muscles.” She stroked each pair of muscles as she spoke their names. “Are amazingly well defined. I could fondle you for hours.” She wanted to tell him to take his shirt off, but the grin on his face convinced her to wait for his response.

  He opened his mouth to say something, but there was a knock at her door. He eased her away from him and he nodded at her to answer.

  “Hello? Who’s there?”

  “Doctor,” said a male voice, “I have a message for you from Colonel Maximillian.”

  Sophia looked at Con and shook her head. If Max wanted to tell her something at this time of night, he’d tell her himself or have Eugene deliver a message. Whoever was at the door was not Eugene.

  Con signaled her to keep talking while he snuck across the room to stand next to the door.

  “Just a moment, I need to put my uniform on.” She zipped up her pants and tucked her shirt back in.

  “No problem, ma’am,” said the voice.

  Con put his hand up, palm out for three or four seconds, then nodded at her to approach the door. He had her stop a few feet away, then opened the door swiftly, grabbing the man who waited on the other side.

  Con threw him past Sophia and into a pile of books. Two strides and Con had his arm behind his back.

  It was the idiot who’d tried to kiss her.

  Con gave him a grim smile. “What the fuck?”

  Moron stared at Con like he was the boogie man. “Sorry, man, I got the wrong room or something.”

  “No,” Con told him, yanking him up by his collar. “You got the right room, you just didn’t expect her to have security in the room.”

  “Are you brain damaged?” Sophia asked, examining the idiot like he was a cockroach. “I said no and you ignored me. You hurt me.” She showed him her bruised hand, which was now a sickly greenish, yellow color.

  The idiot started babbling. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I really am. I was just...just...”

  Sophia paused and looked at Con.

  He tightened his grip on idiot’s arms and asked in a low, deadly voice, “Just out for a stroll and thought you’d indulge yourself and assault an officer?”

  “No! No, no, no. I got lost and...and knocked on the wrong door.”

  “You used my CO’s name,” Sophia reminded him. “You said you had a message for me from him. How does that equal the wrong door?”

  Idiot stared at her, horror in his eyes, and said nothing.

  What did he think they were going to do, kill him?

  She glanced at Con, who did sort of look like he wanted to kill someone, and decided enough was enough. She was tired, physically and emotionally, and she didn’t want to spend another two hours with the MPs explaining how another person out to attack her got his arms broken. Or a leg. Or his neck.

  Having a partner was more work than it looked.

  She picked up her cell phone and called her boss.

  “Max,” he barked into the phone after one ring. “You think of something to add to your report, Sophia?”

  “No,” she sighed. “I have to write a new report, though. Connor is currently restraining an American soldier who thought he could gain entry to my room by saying he had a message from you.”

  “What?”

  “Luckily, Connor was still here...” Saying they’d created a sticky situation together would probably be a bad idea. “...debriefing me on the earlier incident when this idiot knocked on my door.”

  “I’ll be right there with a couple of MPs.” Max’s growl practically vibrated her phone.

  Oh, he was pissed. “Very good, sir.” She ended the call and slipped her phone back in her pocket.

  Idiot, who had been so tense his entire body vibrated, relaxed, closed his eyes and let out a huge breath.

  “You shouldn’t look so relieved,” she told him. “Colonel Maximillian doesn’t take anyone screwing with his staff lightly.”

  “But I didn’t do anything,” Idiot said so fast he nearly tripped over his own tongue.

  She couldn’t understand the stupidity of his actions. “Only because I have a bodyguard.”

  “You’re so fucking weird,” he hissed. “I t
hought he was to keep you from tripping over your books.” He squawked then, a pain-filled sound.

  Con had tightened his grip and was bending Idiot’s shoulders back in a move that would eventually dislocate them.

  She shook her head at Con, then gave Idiot a smack on the head. “I’d rather be weird than stupid, Stupid.”

  The sound of several booted feet marching closer had her moving to the door. She was about to open it, but turned to look at Con. When he gave her a slight nod, she went ahead and opened the door.

  Max was just stepping up to knock and she got out of the way so he could come in along with two MPs.

  The look he gave the guy Con had by the arms could have frozen him stiff. “Do you have any idea how much trouble you’re in?”

  “Sir, I was mistaken about the room.”

  Max’s expression went glacial. “Shut the door,” he said softly to the two MPs.

  They did, then stood at parade rest waiting for orders.

  “Do you have any knowledge of the two men who attempted to abduct Captain Perry earlier tonight?” Max asked, carefully enunciating every word.

  Surprise rounded the idiot’s eyes for a second. “What?”

  “Did you provide information, maps or schedules relating to this base and its operation to the two men who attempted to abduct Captain Perry?”

  “What men?” He looked wildly from her face to Max’s. “Someone tried to kidnap her?”

  “This is the last time I will ask. After that, you won’t have an opportunity to speak until your legal counsel has been brought in. By that time, every soldier on this base will believe you’re a traitor and a terrorist.”

  “I’m no traitor!” His breathing was frantic. “I was going to...I mean she’s not bad looking and—”

  “Your intent was sexual assault?”

  The idiot’s mouth opened and closed, then finally he just nodded.

  Sophia had to breathe through her mouth to keep from kicking him in the testicles.

  Max glanced at the MPs, his face tight with disgust. “Take him away.”

  Con released the idiot to the two MPs. The three of them watched silently as he was handcuffed and taken out of the room.

  Max closed the door behind them and turned to face her and Con. “I’ll post a guard outside your door.”

  Sophia’s stomach knotted. “Sir, I’m not...that is, I don’t feel...” God, how did she explain the mixed-up muddle of her emotions?

  “Safe?” Con offered the word tentatively.

  “Yes, that. Could I bunk with Connor for the rest of the night and worry about my room tomorrow?”

  Max stared at her like she’d spoken a foreign language. “You said he was here debriefing you?” Max asked in a deceptively soft voice. He looked at Con with a tight expression.

  Con didn’t flinch or fidget. “You know as well as I do that venting to a buddy is important after something like this.”

  “So you’re buddies now?” Max asked in a tone that said he didn’t believe it.

  “Yes,” Sophia answered. “I trust him. He...” How did she explain? “He doesn’t treat me like I’m twelve or disabled.”

  “You only met him a few days ago,” Max said, his voice rising.

  “So what?” she demanded. “He’s kept his word to me, Max.” She stared at her boss and mentor, and begged him with her eyes to believe her. “I feel safe with him.” She held out her hands. “Isn’t that what you wanted?”

  Max looked at Con again and opened his mouth a couple of times before anything came out. “Fine. We’ll discuss this further in the morning.”

  “Yes, sir,” she and Con said simultaneously.

  Max shook his head and said, “Grab what you need for tonight. I’ll meet you two in his room with a cot.” Max didn’t wait for their answer. He slammed the door on his way out.

  “That was weird,” Sophia said after a moment. And scary and infuriating.

  “Can you be specific?” Con asked. “A lot of weirdness has happened in the last few hours.”

  “All of it.”

  “Yeah,” he sighed. “I need a shower.”

  She glanced at his crotch and noted that the wet spot had dried enough that it wasn’t noticeable. “I’m uncertain of the protocol. Do I apologize, because getting undressed is probably going to be an even stickier situation than it was earlier?”

  He looked at her with a frown that turned his eyebrows into one long straight line. “Seriously? You’re going to ask me that out loud?”

  “How else am I supposed to ask? Charades?” She spun on her heel and went to grab her go bag.

  “Whoa.” Con took her by the shoulders and turned her around to meet her gaze. “You only apologize if you’re sorry you did it. Are you?”

  That cooled her frazzled nerves. “No. Are you?”

  “I don’t think it was the smartest thing either of us has done, but I’m not sorry either.” His face was somber. What had him looking so sad?

  “Okay,” she said, trying to smile. After all that had happened in the last few hours, it probably looked more like a wince.

  He watched her for another moment. “I scared you. When I took down those two assholes. Didn’t I?” He looked like he regretted what he did.

  For the first time since she met him, Sophia was tempted to lie.

  Chapter Eight

  She had been scared, but for the two men who attacked her. Con had looked both capable and willing to kill them. “No, I wasn’t scared of you. I was scared you were going to do something you’d get in trouble for.” She paused. “Though I admit I did have a hard time not kicking them both in the face. I really wanted to do that.”

  He grunted, and Sophia followed him out her door and into his room. No one else was around, which was probably a good thing. Rumors didn’t take long to make their rounds on the base and if anyone saw her going into Connor’s room, it would be all over the base by morning that they were sleeping together.

  Connor locked the door behind her.

  She took three steps in and came to a stop. Aside from the bed, much too narrow and probably too short for a man Connor’s size, there was a duffel bag on the floor. That was it.

  “Max said something about a cot, didn’t he?” she asked.

  “Yeah.” Con moved around her to crouch down next to his duffel. His shoulders were hunched over and he wasn’t looking at her at all.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing.” But he still didn’t look at her.

  “Don’t lie to me.” She hadn’t meant to say it so hard, but despite her normally excellent coping skills, after the events of the last few hours she was discovering she had very little control of her emotions.

  He glanced up at that with a fierce frown. “I’m not.”

  “Then why are you acting so strange?”

  “Strange? How long have we known each other? Three days tops and you think in that time you’ve got me all figured out?” He shook his head and went back to his duffel.

  “I know your job is the most important thing in your life.” She took a step toward him. “I know you hate feeling weak or out of control.” Another step. “I know that when you saw those two men attacking me in the hallway you were willing to do anything it took to save me.” One more step. “I know that if you were injured during that fight, you wouldn’t tell me because you don’t ever want to step foot in another hospital again.”

  He stood, staring down at her with an unreadable expression. “I’m not injured.”

  “Prove it.”

  He stood, unbuttoned his shirt and shrugged it off, letting it fall to the floor.

  She visually examined every inch of his chest, then took one wrist and rotated his arm to see if she’d missed a cut or a slice. No
thing. She repeated the inspection of the other arm.

  God he smelled good. Like pine and earth and strength.

  “Turn around.”

  He followed her order without comment and she found no injury of any kind.

  He turned around and pulled his shirt on, though he didn’t bother with buttoning it up. “Believe me now?”

  “Yes. But, I still think you’re acting strange.”

  He let out a gust of breath and said, “You want to know what’s bugging me? Fine, I’ll tell you.” He pointed at the bed and growled, “All I can think about is sleeping with you on that bed, knowing I won’t get any sleep at all.”

  She snorted. “Of course we wouldn’t get any sleep. All you’d have to do is turn over once and you’d squish me.”

  Connor covered his face with one hand for a moment. When he dropped it, he was laughing. Hard.

  He moved over to sit on the bed and continued to laugh. “You never say, do or think in a way I can predict.” He shook his head. “You are the most frustrating woman I’ve ever met.”

  “Ha.” She walked over and poked him in the chest. “I am a constant fucking delight.”

  He looked at her, his face alight with amusement, his eyes burning with what she now recognized as desire, and said, “Yes, you are.”

  A soft knock at the door and Con was up and heading toward it before she even realized what was going on. Gone was the amused man. In his place was the deadly soldier. He pointed at her to hide in the corner where someone in the doorway couldn’t see her, then opened it.

  No words were exchanged, but Max came in with a cot and a sleeping bag.

  As soon as the door was closed, Max turned on Connor and asked, “Why the hell is your shirt undone?”

  “Sophia thought I might have gotten injured when I took down those two goons earlier.”

  “He’s got an irrational fear of hospitals,” she said wryly to Max, coming out of the corner.

  “My dislike of hospitals is based on very rational reasons, thank you very much. Most of which involve pain, boredom and pain.”

  “You said pain twice.”

  “It hurt,” he told her. “A lot.”

  She raised an eyebrow. “Baby.”