by Desiree Holt
She finally crawled up into her own bunk and dropped into a dead sleep. The touch of a hand on her shoulder woke her. Reflex took over, and she sat up, gun in hand, pointed at whoever was touching her.
“Hey, hey, hey.” Lane grinned and backed away, hands up. “It’s me. Don’t shoot.”
“Sorry.” She rubbed her hand over her face. “Old habits never go away.”
“Nor should they. Anyway, we’re going up to the house for lunch, and the client is on the porch, waiting to have a few words with you.”
She frowned. “About what?”
“Not my department, but he’s got a cooler with him. Maybe he wants a private lunch and powwow.”
“It’s business, nothing more.” She hated that she sounded so defensive.
“Makes no never mind to me. You call the shots. You’re the leader.” He started toward the door then turned back. “And, by the way, a damn fine one.”
Then, he was out the door. Kris took a few minutes to use the bathroom, wash her face, and brush her hair into a better ponytail. Hauling in a deep breath, she went out to meet Mason. And, yes, Lane was right. The man was holding a medium-size cooler.
She glanced from him to the cooler and back again. “Are we taking a trip?”
“A short one. If you’re okay with that.” He waved in the direction of the house. “Your team is eating lunch and then going over the plans, again. I figured you could take a short time out.”
Her breath caught in her throat. She knew damn well what was behind this sudden picnic. “You did, huh?”
He motioned behind him, where a bright red ATV sat. “I figured that would be faster than horses. Come on. I’ll give you an up-close look at that cabin.”
Her gaze met his. They both knew, if she got onto that ATV, exactly what would happen. Okay. They might not have anything beyond this moment in time, nor should they, but damn it, she might as well enjoy it.
Still, she made a last-ditch effort. “I don’t think this is such a good idea.”
He cupped her chin and tilted her face up to his. “You afraid of me, Kris? Afraid to be with me?”
“Hell, no.” She jerked her head away. “It’s just sex, anyway. Right?”
So many seconds ticked by as he studied her face, she wanted to smack him.
“Well?” she prompted. “We don’t even like each other.”
“That remains to be seen. Come on. Let’s give it a shot.”
She took his hand, the heat flaming through her bloodstream.
Big mistake, Krissy girl. Big, big mistake.
*****
They lay side by side on the bed in the cabin, clothes tossed aside on the nearby chair, bodies slick with sweat. Lunch had been filled with small talk and casual touches. No wine, no alcohol of any kind because they would need to be at their sharpest for the evening. But that hadn’t affected the intensity of their passion. The sex had been hot, intense, and erotic.
Mason stroked his fingers down her cheek. “I figured this might help get you out of my system, but who am I kidding? I don’t know if that will ever happen. And I’m not sure what to do about it.”
She turned so she lay facing him. “I feel the same way. It’s a bitch, isn’t it? You know this doesn’t change anything between us, right?”
“No kidding.” He rolled her on top of him and threaded his fingers through her hair, holding her head in place. “I have no idea how you see the rest of your life, but I’m a really bad bet, Kris.”
“Is that so? Tell me exactly how.”
He tore his gaze away from hers. “I’ve been a lone wolf all my life. Never even wanted to settle with someone, share my life with them.”
“You did once,” she reminded him.
His grip on her tightened. “Taught me a lesson, too.”
“Mason, all women aren’t like your former almost-fiancée.”
He shifted his gaze back to her face. “What about you? You’ve carved out a life for yourself. Where would you fit any man into your schedule with The Omega Team?”
She hesitated. Emotions he couldn’t identify, or maybe didn’t want to, flashed across her face.
“You’re right,” she said at last. “This is all we should focus on. Maybe sometime—” She bit off her words. “Forget it.”
Before he could ask what she meant, she licked his lips with the tip of her tongue, teasing him until he opened for her. She swept inside, and he moved his own tongue to duel and dance with hers. God, he loved her taste, everywhere on her body. He could get drunk on it, he was sure.
He rubbed his hands up and down the slope of her back and the sweet curve of her ass. His fingers crept into the hot crease there, pressing against the tiny opening.
“Today,” he told her, tearing his mouth away from hers, “I’m going to fuck you in your ass so hard you’ll remember it well after you’re gone. And give you an orgasm that will blow the top of your head off. You’ll dream about this, Kris. Think about this every night.”
That odd look came into her eyes again, a brief flash before it was gone.
“Okay. I want that, too. I’m tired of fighting it. We need to do this and get it out of our systems.”
“Then get ready for a hard ride.”
In seconds, he had shifted her aside, rolled on a condom, and lifted her over him. Very slowly, he lowered her onto his dick, which seemed to be perpetually hard when he was around her, no matter the amount of sex they’d already had.
She slid onto him easily, still so wet and ready for him, it took his breath away. The tight walls of her pussy clamped around him, gripping him like a wet fist.
“Slow and easy,” he ground out between clenched teeth. “I want to make it last.”
“Me, too,” she told him in a breathless voice.
And that’s exactly what it was. She rode him like a wild thing, breasts bouncing, head thrown back, hair flying. He gripped her hips hard, guiding her, stabilizing her, holding himself back once he felt the first tremors begin in her cunt. It took every ounce of discipline but somehow he managed.
When the tremors finally subsided, he lifted her from his body and placed her beside him on her hands and knees. Her body still trembled, so he shoved pillows beneath her to steady her. He reached for the tube of gel he’d placed on the little table next to the bed, squeezed a generous amount onto a finger, and slowly began to massage it into her rectum.
Jesus, she was hot there. Her tissues squeezed the hell out of him, as he probed and massaged. He added a second finger, stretching and scissoring to get her ready for him. Her choppy breathing rasped in the air, and she rocked back against his touch. Moans drifted from her and filled the air with the sound of sexual need.
“Ready?” He barely recognized the rough voice as his own.
“Yes, please. Now.”
He sheathed himself, pressed the head of his cock against her opening, and carefully eased himself inside.
Jesus! The sensation was as hot as he remembered.
“Play with yourself,” he ground out. “Touch your clit. Do it.”
When she moved one arm to slide a hand between her thighs, the movement tilted her ass in the air and pushed harder against his intrusion. Mason gritted his teeth, took a deep breath, and began a steady, in-and-out thrust. He tried to take it slow, but his balls ached, and his cock swelled even more.
“Almost there.” He barely got the words out. “Ready?”
She nodded, her hips moving in cadence with his.
They exploded together, a soul-shattering climax that ripped apart every shred of their joined bodies. They shuddered together, gripped in an orgasm so powerful it robbed him of breath and nearly made his heart stop. On and on, the spasms went, shaking them with their intensity, until, at last, when he was sure he was about to pass out, they slowly subsided.
When he could breathe again, he eased from the clasp of her body, stripped off the condom, and rolled to his side. Hooking an arm around Kris’s waist, he pulled her against him, un
willing to lose contact yet. Something had happened here today, between them, something in their frantic coupling he didn’t want to examine. Or even admit.
Had she felt it, too?
They lay like that, locked together, for several moments before Kris pushed up and locked her gaze with his. He tried to read the message in hers, wondered what she saw in his. For a moment, he thought she was going to kiss him, but then she rolled away.
“Time to get back. We need to get ready to catch the bad guys.”
With those words the mood was broken. Fine. That’s what he wanted, too, right?
Absolutely.
“Let’s get it done.”
He rose and reached for his clothes. They dressed silently, not even acknowledging each other. Yeah, something had changed in a minute, something during that most intimate, most personal coupling. But Kris didn’t appear to want to bring it up, so neither did he. Everything was better this way.
Kris pulled her hair back into its usual ponytail. “Time to get our act together.”
Mason wondered if that would even be possible where Kris was concerned. Instead of solving his problem with a healthy dose of raunchy sex, all he’d done was create more need, a stronger hunger.
When she turned around, dressed, to face him, he was shocked to see her face wiped of all expression. “Ready?”
“Absolutely.” Ready to drag you back into bed.
And exactly how do you plan to handle that, asshole?
A question that riddled his mind as he locked the cabin, helped Kris onto the ATV, and cranked the engine. Too bad he didn’t have any answers.
*****
They were all deployed tonight, every one of them. Mason had convinced Kris to include him, using his time in the military as a bonus, and she had grudgingly agreed. The air between them was tense, more so than it had been since the moment she’d set foot on his ranch. The vibes they gave off had to do with a lot more than sexual hunger, but he damn sure didn’t want to dig into what it was.
Not tonight, for sure, when they all needed to block out everything except what was about to happen.
Kris flew everyone on the team—all six members—out to the last of the cleared pastures at dusk and parked the chopper behind a large copse of trees. While Lane waited in the chopper with the monitoring program on his computer, the rest dropped to the ground and took cover in the dense copse, waiting for word to move. Each of them was armed, and each had night vision goggles.
He was stunned to see Kris take up a position with them, a rifle cradled in her arms. When he opened his mouth to say something, she shook her head and touched her finger to her lips. She’d told him she’d be back at the bunkhouse monitoring the sensors with Lane. What had changed her mind? Of course, she had every right to be there as the leader of the team. And where had this protective shit come from, anyway? She could more than take care of herself.
This whole situation with Kris was driving him nuts. He wished he knew how she really felt. But, then, he’d have to examine his own feelings, and he didn’t know if he was ready for that. Somewhere along the way “just sex” had morphed into something else. Something he didn’t know if he was ready for. Or if Kris was.
Stop it, jackass. Concentrate on business.
Mason knew this had to be timed right to the second. If, indeed, the smugglers took a group across tonight, it was imperative to wait until they were all not only on the Texas side of the river, but also well onto Mason’s property.
There was no moon tonight, a perfect cover for the smugglers, so they were completely dependent on the sensors to signal them. Time dragged, but he was used to it, as he was sure the others were, also. He had shifted his position slightly when he heard three clicks in his earbud.
The sensors had tripped.
Showtime!
Pulling down his NVGs, he moved stealthily, taking cover behind giant, thorny shrubs where he could. He could see the team members creeping along and, off to his right, the line of illegals. But instead of the one coyote leading them, he counted four people, three of them heavily armed, shepherding the group. Did the others see them?
Of course they did. These were seasoned veterans. He knew he needed to wait for Kris’s signal to act.
It came only seconds later. Three clicks in his earbuds again.
“Everyone stop right where you are.” Ray’s voice boomed across the wasteland. In the next second, he turned on the flood he carried, bathing the shocked group in light.
“Drop your weapons,” Ted ordered. “Everyone not armed come here to me, and you won’t be hurt. The rest of you, drop your weapons.”
Confusion exploded. The man at the head of the group turned to his guards, who shouldered their rifles. The illegals dropped to the ground, aware only that they needed to stay out of the way of any bullets. One of the guards fired toward the floodlight, shattering it, but the NVGs pierced the darkness, turning everything green.
Then the shooting began in earnest, bullets flying, people screaming. Mason took out one of the guards, someone else took out another one and, in seconds, it was all over. The coyote and the other guard put their hands behind their heads, ordered to their knees by Ray. Lane was out of the chopper and, in minutes, the coyote and the guards were flex-cuffed and the illegals herded away from the action where they huddled in panic.
“I called the sheriff.” Kris was right at his shoulder. “He’s sending vans to pick these people up and turn them over to Border Patrol, along with the nasties. We need to keep a lid on things for a few minutes, okay?”
“I don’t think these people will stop,” Lane said, approaching from the left, “but at least they won’t be using your land anymore, Mason.”
“Thank god for that.”
“Hey, Kris?” Lane’s voice, close to him, was underlined with concern. “What’s that all over your shirt? You don’t look so good. Jesus Christ! Mason, she’s been shot.”
“What? I….”
Mason turned in time to catch Kris in his arms as she collapsed. He kept on his NVGs so he could see better, and what he saw made him want to throw up. Her T-shirt was dark and wet, covered with what was obviously her blood. For one moment, his heart stopped then he moved into action. He ripped off her goggles and laid her on the ground, gently probing for the bullet wound.
“Damn!” He stared at Lane. “She was hit on the left, right below the shoulder. I don’t know what’s hit internally, but she’s bleeding like a stuck pig. We need to get her out of here.”
“I can fly the chopper,” the man assured him. “I’m her backup.”
“Then let’s get the fuck out of here. Have the other guys sit on everyone until the sheriff gets here. Let’s roll.”
Mason ripped off his own shirt to make a pressure bandage for Kris before lifting her in his arms. Holding her steady, he carried her as fast as he could to the helo.
“Where to?” Lane asked as the blades began their whine.
“County General. You can radio them. They’ve got a helipad. Come on. Move it.”
The flight seemed endless, even though, in actuality, it took less than twenty minutes. The moment they hit the helipad, an emergency team ran to them with a gurney and whisked Kris away.
“Go with her,” Lane shouted. “I’ll go back with the helo and get the others. Catch.” He tossed something to Mason. “Kris’s cell. I’m speed dial one. Let us know what’s what.”
The chopper lifted off, and Mason ran for the entrance to the hospital.
*****
“You scared the shit out of me.” Mason handed Kris a glass of wine then climbed back onto the bed next to her. “I nearly died myself in that hospital, waiting to find out if you were okay.”
They were back in the cabin, where they’d spent a good deal of time since Kris had been discharged from the hospital three weeks before. Oh, he’d moved her directly into his room at the ranch, but here they could be completely alone. Have total privacy. They hadn’t yet talked about what came next
.
So far, she was still on medical leave from The Omega Team. Grey had flown out himself to check on her. On both of them. And told Kris not to hurry back to work.
She gave a soft laugh. “I didn’t think you cared, big guy.”
“Oh, I cared. Care.” He was deadly serious. This was the first time they’d approached anything personal since he brought her home. He’d been giving her space and time to heal.
Questions were reflected in her eyes. “Do you? Really?”
“Bet your ass. I didn’t realize how much until I thought I’d lost you.” He ran his knuckle lightly down her cheek. “That night I was more frightened than I’ve been in, oh, maybe, forever. I thought for sure I’d lost you. Even when they said you were okay, I wasn’t sure I believed them.”
She smiled. “I heard they had to bar the doors to Recovery to keep you out.”
“Damn straight. That doctor told me the wound appeared worse than it was, that nothing vital had been hit. But I wanted to see for myself.” He leaned on his elbow, resting his head on his palm. “That’s when I realized what I really feel for you. It’s about a lot more than the sex, Kris.” He chuckled. “Although that’s still off the charts.”
“Or it would be, if you’d stop treating me like an invalid. The doctor has signed off on me, and I’m good as new. Or almost.”
“Indulge me. Okay?” He paused, searching for the right words, not wanting to scare her away. “I never thought I’d feel this way about another woman. I think, at first, I resented you because you lit emotions inside me I thought I’d locked away.”
She reached up and stroked his cheek. Wet her lower lip with her tongue. “Me, too, Mason. I had a lot of time to think while I was in the hospital. What happened that night reminded me how short life can really be. How it can be snatched away in a moment.”
“Too true,” he agreed.
