by Desiree Holt
She was silent for a moment as she lifted them higher again. “I guess I’m surprised by the scope of it, that’s all. It’s larger than I expected.”
He wanted to ask her if she’d thought he was nothing more than some scrub cowboy with a scrawny herd who was wasting their time, but he bit back the question. Grey had no doubt given them a complete briefing, but he had to admit, seeing it with his own eyes was a little different from hearing about it.
They had left the drilling site behind when Mason touched her arm.
“There.” He indicated a spot on the map. “Down there where you can see stands of scrub trees and all those thorny bushes. That’s the run up to the border. If you can go low enough, you can even see where some of the ground has been trampled.”
She moved the controls with practiced ease, bringing them low enough so her guys could get their still shots and video.
“Do you know how to mark our flight path on that map?” Kris asked.
He wanted to tell her he’d done it enough times during roundup, when they used a helicopter to help drive the cattle, but he held his silence. No sense antagonizing her or acting like an asshole.
Not yet, anyway.
She banked the chopper slightly. “I’m going to take us along the border, one sweep, end to end, then back again. Then I’ll fly a little lower so the guys can get better shots of any evidence of people. Be sure you get all of this, guys,” she said into her mic.
Mason turned his head to see two of the men seated with their legs hanging over the edge of the floor, capturing everything on video and stills.
He looked back at Kris. “Aren’t they afraid they’ll fall out?”
Her full lips curved in a smile. “Not with my excellent flying skills.” Then she sobered. “Besides, we’ve done this enough times, they know what to do. Okay, I’m going to fly over the key area a couple more times. Then we’ll head back to the ranch.”
It was close to six o’clock by the time they landed.
“I’ll be a few minutes,” she told hm. “Can’t just shut the chopper down like a car. I’ll do the postflight while the team offloads the equipment. Can you give them a ride back to the bunkhouse and send someone back for me? I don’t want to make them wait.”
“Sure.” He nodded. “It’s a quick trip. I let Grey know I’d be feeding you. There’s a big dining room in the ranch house where we feed the hands. If you don’t mind joining them…?”
“That’s not necessary. I’m sure we can find a place to eat if you can lend us a vehicle. We do that sometimes.” She sat there as the engine began its cooling cycle, not looking at him.
He closed his fingers over one slender wrist, and she turned to face him. He wished her damn sunglasses didn’t hide her eyes.
“In case you didn’t notice, the Double R is a long way from anywhere. Shelton’s the closest town, and it’s thirty minutes away.”
“You like your isolation.” Her voice had a slight edge to it.
“I get plenty of company here on the ranch. Anyway, we’re discussing meal situations. That’s it. Grey negotiated it, and I was more than happy to agree. Dinner will be in an hour.”
He unbuckled his harness and eased out of the seat, moving toward the cabin so he could get out.
“Mason?” Kris touched his arm.
“Yes?” He paused.
“I…thank you. We appreciate the meals.”
He gave a brief nod. “No problem.”
He dropped down to the ground to join the others where Stick waited with the truck. His arm, where she’d touched it, burned and tingled, sending messages to his hungry cock. He had no idea how he was going to get through this whole thing, and today was just the first day.
Chapter Two
They had finished reviewing the video they’d shot and were checking their still shots against it one more time when Kris called a halt for the night.
“I think we’ve got everything burned into our brains,” she told her team. “We’ll go out again tomorrow. This time, two of you will be on horseback. Lane, you’ll ride in the chopper with your sophisticated laptop. We’ll drop some sensors and see what kind of reading you get, checking out the area from the ground at the same time.”
Everyone nodded and made noises of agreement.
Kris pulled a hoodie from her duffel, zipped the bag up again, and tossed it up on her bunk.
Lane was at the table where he was back to working at his laptop. “Going somewhere?” he asked when she moved past him.
“Out for some air.” She shrugged into the hoodie and tugged up the zipper. “Need to stretch my legs a little.”
“Okay. I should have the map set up in here by the time you get back. In the morning, we can discuss where we’re going to place the sensors first. And get Jed and Rich some horses, since they’re the ones who’ll be doing the riding.”
“Sure, no problem.” She reached to open the door.
“Kris?” Lane called.
“Yeah?”
“Not that it’s any of my business, but things seemed a little tense with you and Rowell. Anything I should know about?”
“Nothing at all.”
He shrugged. “If you say so.”
“I do.” She yanked the door open. “I’ll be back inside in a little bit.”
The October day had been warm, but with the setting of the sun, there was a little chill in the Texas Hill Country air. Kris shoved her hands in her pockets as she walked away from the bunkhouse, taking a deep breath of the night air. The scent of hay, horses, and cattle drifted on the breeze. From the stable, she could hear horses softly nickering and, in the distance, the sound of cattle lowing.
She found a thick ancient oak tree some distance from the buildings and leaned against it, enjoying the freedom of being outside by herself, brain on pause. When she returned to the bunkhouse, Lane would have the sensor placements mapped, and they’d have to visit their action plan for tomorrow. Part of that included checking out the horses Mason Rowell said he’d make available to him.
Mason. Holy shit. He was the last person she’d expected to see here. Or ever again.
That one night they’d spent together had been nothing more than a night out of her life, sort of in an alternate universe. She had been out of the military only two weeks at that time, about to take the job with The Omega Team and hoping to let her hair down after all those months of discipline flying as a Nightstalker and before that as a regular military chopper pilot. She had checked into the hotel in Dallas, planning to get roaring drunk for one night, sleep it off, and contact Grey Holden the next day.
She had, in fact, made a good dent in her sobriety when Mason Rowell walked into the hotel bar. The first thing she thought when she saw him was hot damn! At least six foot four of rangy muscle, broad shoulders, and long legs. Blond hair, streaked by the sun and a little shy of needing a cut, topped off a face that could have been the model for a rodeo cowboy.
She sat in a booth, watching him and nursing her drink, while he hitched himself onto a bar stool and ordered his drink. She was still watching him when he got to the third one, glanced around, spotted her, and eased his way over to her side. As if some unspoken words had been exchanged between them, he slid onto the bench opposite her and gave her a crooked smile.
She still remembered those chocolate-brown eyes framed by sooty lashes, the square jaw and high cheekbones, the barest cleft in his chin. He looked at her, touched her glass with his, and nodded. Things escalated from there.
Even now, there were nights she still remembered the feel of his hands on her body, the touch of his mouth on her skin, the heavy thickness of his cock inside her. They had fucked every possible way and in every possible position. They barely spoke, the only words they used being explicitly erotic.
She was the one who awoke first, seconds after dawn. He was still sleeping soundly, hair mussed, rough stubble on his cheek in a sexy shadow of a beard, the sheet barely draped across the tight muscles of his very fin
e ass. As carefully as possible, she’d slid out of bed, thrown on her slacks and blouse, stuffed her underwear in her purse, and eased herself out of the room.
For weeks afterwards, whenever she had a few quiet minutes, she’d allowed herself to wonder what would have happened if she’d stayed around until he woke up. Would they have had sex again? You couldn’t call what two strangers did making love. Would they have talked about themselves? Gotten to know each other?
But that was useless, foolish mind-wandering on her part. She had in no way been ready to start a relationship, and she’d had the feeling he wasn’t either. And now, here they were, thrown together in the unlikeliest of situations. If only her body hadn’t reacted to him so instantly. She was sure the soft T-shirt material had done little to disguise the hardening of her nipples. And she had to hope he hadn’t caught a scent of her musk because two seconds in his company and her panties were soaked with her liquid as erotic images danced in her brain.
She’d need every bit of her personal discipline to survive this assignment.
Tilting her head up, she stared at the moon, wondering if he was up at the house thinking about her. Remembering. Feeling the same way she did. Had today kicked those dormant memories alive for him, too?
Crap. She was driving herself crazy.
“I couldn’t believe it was you when you climbed out of that chopper today.”
His deep, rich voice startled her. He’d moved so silently, she hadn’t heard him approach, or maybe she was too lost in her own thoughts to hear him. That scared the crap out of her. What if it happened when they were actually in active mode? Was she letting this man affect the skills she’d honed for so many years?
Damn, damn, damn.
Before she could move, he was right in front of her, arms on either side of her, caging her against the tree. This close, she caught the scent of his aftershave, something earthy that teased at her senses. There was enough moonlight so she could see the strong planes of his face and the heavy shock of his hair. She clenched her fists to keep herself from running her fingers through it.
“Well?” he prompted. “Nothing to say?”
She swallowed. “I…didn’t expect the client to be you. If you recall, we never exchanged introductions that night we spent together, so when Grey gave me the assignment the name meant nothing.”
“And I didn’t expect my hot-shot chopper pilot and team leader to be the woman who burned up the sheets with me a year ago.”
“I-I didn’t think we’d ever see each other again,” she stammered.
“Neither did I. Especially since you ditched me before I even opened my eyes the next morning.”
She lowered her gaze for a moment. “I was frightened by the intensity of what we had. I still am, to tell the truth. And I was at a major crossroads in my life. Not more than a couple of weeks out of the service. Starting a new job. I didn’t want anything to distract me.”
He nipped her chin. “Is that what I was? A distraction?”
She caught her lower lip between her teeth. “I was afraid you were going to be a lot more.”
“I thought you were my bad luck charm.” He gave a humorless laugh. “Right after that, we started losing cattle and then Stick found the evidence of the smugglers. I thought it was payback.”
She frowned. “For what? For having a night of raunchy sex?”
“I used you, Kris. You didn’t even know it. That’s why I didn’t even want to know your name.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I was in Dallas to get engaged to a woman I’d had a relationship with for two years.”
Nausea rumbled up from her stomach. “Then why were you with me? You damn sure didn’t seem like your head was somewhere else.”
“When I got to her condo, she opened the door wearing only a man’s shirt.” He paused. “Another man’s.” He shook his head. “I’ll spare you the sordid details, but I was half-blasted by the time I got together with you. I was out to get drunk and forget.” He shook his head, his mouth twisted in distaste. “That’s what I did with you. And when shit happened after that, I figured it was payback for me being such a jackass.”
She touched her lips, remembering those kisses from a year ago. “I did the same. You didn’t have a corner on that market.”
He tilted his head. “Yeah? What fucked up your life?”
“Stuff.” She waved a hand in the air. “I’d spent the previous six years flying choppers for the military, the last of them as a Nightstalker. When you’re constantly in a war zone, you lose yourself as a person. And I didn’t want to be one of those women who has a string of affairs between battles.”
“And?” he prompted.
“And I needed to feel like a woman again. Desired. Feminine. But not with someone I‘d have to see the next day. Or any days after that. I needed to get it out of my system and move on to my new job with The Omega Team. So you see? We both carry that burden.”
They stared at each other in the half-darkness. The sexual tension shimmering between them was so intense it was nearly visible.
“We can’t do this,” she told him.
“I agree.” But his gazed locked tightly with hers.
“Okay.”
“Okay.”
But neither of them stepped away.
Kris didn’t know who made the first move, but, in seconds, Mason’s firm lips were pressed to hers, molding to the shape of her mouth. Without even thinking, she opened, and his tongue swept inside, licking and tasting, drinking from her. He fed from her like a hungry tiger, the kiss so intense she felt it everywhere in her body. Just as the one time they’d been together, he made her pulse thump with an accelerated rhythm and the blood race in her veins. She squeezed her thighs in a useless effort to contain the driving beat in the walls of her pussy, signaling her instant need for him.
She slid her hands up the hard wall of his chest and tangled her fingers in his hair, full and blond like the mane of a lion. As his tongue continued to arouse her, she grasped his hair tighter and held his head to hers.
Only the need to breathe separated them, but when they did, his lips were still so close only a sheet of paper could slide between them. His breath was a soft breeze on her skin, his eyes like hot coals of fire boring into hers.
“I wondered if it would still be the same.” His voice was low, gravelly, harsh with need. “If touching you would blister me with your heat and make my cock harder than a steel rod.” He pressed his body against hers, the wide shaft pushing against her mound. “It’s all I can do not to strip you naked right here and fuck you until neither of us can breathe anymore.”
“I—” She swallowed, searching for the right words to say. How could she tell him Yes! when they were in this awkward situation?
“I can tell you feel the same way,” he growled. “You can’t fake that kiss.”
“I know,” she whispered. She wet her lips. “I didn’t want to.”
He ran the tip of his tongue along her lower lip, following the path where she’d licked. “I didn’t either. I nearly hogtied myself to stop from coming out here tonight.”
He slid his hand beneath her hoodie and T-shirt, cupping a breast and pinching the nipple between thumb and forefinger. A shock of electricity zapped straight through her from that hard bud to the center of her cunt. She pushed her hips toward him, and he groaned again at the contact.
“Feel that?” He tilted his head and nipped the lobe of her ear. “I want to be inside you so bad, I hurt. I don’t even know what this is but I see you and I’m on fire.”
He drew his tongue the length of her neck, swirling it in the soft spot behind her ear. She couldn’t stifle the small moan that escaped her mouth.
“This is crazy,” she protested.
“Uh-huh.” But his tongue continued on its magic path.
“If my guys knew about this, I’d lose my strength as their leader.”
He shifted until he was staring directly into her eyes again. “You
think they never have sex?”
She bit back a smile. “Of course they do. Just not around me. Besides, there’s still the old double standard for men and women. I worked my ass off to get this team leader position, and I don’t intend to jeopardize it. Not even for—”
“Not even for the best sex of your life?” His voice was low and deep and rumbled through her.
She lifted her shoulder in a so what gesture. “Where could it go, Mason? You live here. I live there. And I don’t think you’re interested in anything permanent any more than I am.”
He was still kneading her breast and tormenting her nipple, heat zipping through her like a trail of fire.
“It can go wherever we want it to. Or it can go no place.” He slipped his hand from beneath her shirt and trailed down to her crotch, rubbing the denim fabric of her jeans. “Soaked. I knew they’d be. You’re as hot for it as I am.”
“This can’t happen,” she told him again.
“Yeah? We’ll see. I’ll bet you want it as much as I do, so we’ll find a way.”
He crushed his mouth to hers again, thrusting his tongue inside. Before she realized what he was doing, he’d unsnapped her jeans, shoved his hand inside her panties, and run his fingers the length of her slit. Then he yanked his hand back and very deliberately licked each finger separately.
“We’ll find a way,” he repeated. Then he was gone, as silently as he’d arrived.
Kris leaned against the tree trunk, grateful for its support. Her legs were shaking, and her heart was trip hammering. The pulse in her cunt beat hard enough to reverberate through her body. She had to forcibly restrain herself from ripping off her clothes and screaming at Mason to come back and fuck her. What on earth had she been thinking? Nothing. That was her damn problem. The moment Mason Rowell had touched her, she went up in flames again, her control disintegrating. If she didn’t get her shit together, this was going to be a very drawn out, very difficult assignment.
She stood beneath the tree for a several minutes, evening out her breathing and her heart rate. Pulling in the edges of her frayed control, she composed herself enough so her face betrayed nothing and she could have a conversation with her team. She couldn’t give them even the slightest hint of what had happened during the last few minutes with their client.
