by Dale Mayer
And she’d responded in kind. They’d always cuddled a lot and the sex that had followed had been good because she’d enjoyed the cuddle. With Evan there would be cuddles – afterwards. But right now she couldn’t even imagine as her body twisted under his hands.
Please, her mind pleaded with him to give her the satisfaction she’d been looking for. To feel the sharp edge of passion that proved she was alive. He’d been the only one to give her that.
She’d really thought there was no choice but to leave him. He’d been around for a good time not a long time – so she’d thought. And she’d had plans. It wouldn’t have worked her mind had said. There’s no way he’s for you her subconscious had said.
And her inner spirit had wept for the loss of the man who made her body cry out and her heart sing.
He’d made her feel things. Want things. It had scared her a little. All new territory for her and he’d taken it one step – rather many steps – further than she’d ever gone before.
Peter had been safe.
Evan had been the opposite – dangerous, edgy, a daredevil.
And she wanted that again.
She stretched up to pull his head toward her, and he kissed her but not the deep drugging kisses she desperately wanted. He teased her with light tastes of his passion, raising her hopes only to pull away.
“Stop teasing,” she whispered.
“Impatient,” he answered.
“For you, yes.” She remembered that. Evan loved foreplay. He loved to watch her climax and be there to hold her through it.
“I don’t want to be alone,” she said as she realized her jeans were gone and his fingers were playing along the edge of her panties. “I want you there with me.” She groaned as tension twisted her insides again. “Jesus, you’re smooth.”
“No,” he said. “I’m not. My fingers are trembling. I’m scared to mess up. That if it’s not perfect you will walk away and not come back.”
Her emotions hiccupped. “I won’t do that,” she cried. “This isn’t a performance you’re going to be judged on.”
“Sure it is. You’re looking for that fantasy.”
And she heard the insecurity, the fear that he had to be good enough or it was all over.
Ignoring her injury, she pushed him over until he lay on his back. She was down to a bra and panties and he was fully dressed. How seriously unfair was that?
She reached down and tugged his shirt up above his head. He helped her out and tossed it on the floor. She slid down so she was sitting on his thighs and quickly undid his button and the zipper of his jeans. She carefully avoided touching the bulge underneath and awkwardly tugged the jeans to the floor. She scrambled back up his legs and unceremoniously pulled his boxers off. He was laughing by the time she resettled in place. Until she reached out to grasp him gently in her hands. Then his breath gusted out of him as she stroked him up and down.
“I never had a chance to do this last time,” she whispered. “We were jumping each other like rabbits, but it went by so fast I never had a chance to do everything I wanted to do.”
He opened his mouth and she shook her head. “Nope. Don’t want to hear it. I’m not saying I didn’t like it because that would be a lie. I loved it.”
He slid his hand over her hips, snagging her panties in his fingers.
“You’re still overdressed.”
“No I’m not,” she said. “It’s good this way.”
“No, I think the view would be better this way.” He rolled her gently to the side, always mindful of her injury, and her panties were gone. Her bra followed the same path. Flung to the far corners of the room. He rolled again putting her back on top. She let out a gusty laugh. “Smooth, so smooth.”
And she leaned forward and bit his nipple. He yelped so she did it again. He laughed the second time. She stretched out fully on top of him and stroked the hair back off his face. She cuddled his erection in the hollow between her thighs and gently rocked back and forth. A ruddiness slid up his neck as his eyes drifted closed. Just enjoying.
She kissed his temple. “Remember this?”
She found the curl of his ear and licked it gently, sending warm hot air inside.
“Remember this?”
He shuddered, goose bumps rising up on his arms. She shifted to drop kisses on his closed eyelids, his cheekbones and chin.
“Or how about this?” She slid a hand down between them and grasped the length of him gently. She pulled her knees up on either side of his hips and slowly, lightly rode the hard ridge.
He tossed his head from one side to the other, a strangled exclamation caught in the back of the throat as he held back.
She sighed happily as she rocked and swayed and gently let her body remember the perfection of being within his arms. His ability to let her do and be and have whatever experience she wanted from him. She slid further down his thighs, stroking and licking and kissing his hard body from his chin to his abs. When she came to his belly button she traced the outline with her tongue. He twisted beneath her, willing her to go where he wanted her. And she would, but on her terms.
She was having too much fun to make this happen any faster.
Only he had other ideas.
“I know you’re having fun, sweetheart, but you’re killing me.”
She lovingly stroked the sexy line of his hips, her tongue making tiny lapping motions on the bone. “Nah,” she whispered. “This is too much fun to be killing anyone.”
“Well, it’s been a little while for me,” he said apologetically, his hips lifting under her in a slow dance. “I don’t want to end this party before we’ve barely begun.”
Her motions slowed. It had been a little while? She slowly slid up until she could stare at him eye to eye.
“How long?”
He frowned but answered readily enough. “Since I heard you were back.”
Oh happy sigh. She wrapped her arms around him and held him tight. He flipped her over so she was the one on her back and whispered in that so dark and sexy voice, “My turn.”
And she groaned as he stroked and caressed and kissed until she was quivering with need. She widened her legs and tugged him over her. “I want you so damn much.”
“Not as much I want you,” he whispered. “It wouldn’t be possible.”
But she couldn’t think as her body took on a life of its own – just as it had before. She slipped into an altered state where she could feel so much more. Hear so much more and quivered from the emotions running through her.
He spread her thighs wide, and she widened them further. Waiting for him to take his place.
Instead, there was a breath of cool air as he shifted, and a warm tongue teased the nub at her center. She cried out as eruptions started deep inside her. He slid his huge hands down and under her hips and lifted her up.
When he moved up her body, she was barely aware of his actions. He pushed inside her, his motion slow, steady, and determined. She groaned as he demanded and received entrance. She twisted in his hands, forgetting how big he was. How careful he’d been. He remembered she had difficulty that first time. And even now in the heat of passion, he was careful to make sure she was okay. That he didn’t hurt her.
Ever.
She lay helpless in his embrace, filled to her core, shuddering. Waiting for him to move.
He gripped her hips and tugged her flush against him. The heat between them should have burned the sheets. The air was already hot and sweaty around them.
“Ready?” he asked, his voice low, guttural.
She lay in a white heat – waiting. “Oh God,” she whispered. “Yes.”
And he started to move. Slowly at first as if gauging how she was handling it. She tightened her inner muscles and was rewarded with his harsh groan. And then he started to move for real.
She watched him, head thrown back as he pounded into her. Over and over again. Tension twisted inside, her breath catching in the back of her throat. She arched, riding the waves as
they crashed through her body.
Thoughts fled as millions of tiny eruptions exploded inside.
Evan gave a strangled groan as he ground tight against her pelvis before collapsing down beside her.
And held her close.
“Remember now?” he whispered against her ear.
Tears collected in the corner of her eyes. “I never did forget,” she whispered. “I just figured I didn’t have a hope in hell of getting what I wanted so accepted second best.”
“Not any longer.” And he crushed her to him and held her close.
*
He loved it when she snuggled in close.
God he missed her. Missed this. She was back in town and back in his arms, right where she belonged. And he couldn’t be happier. Sure there was that smidge of insecurity…but he’d deal with it like he dealt with everything.
Her fingers slid across his chest and wrapped around the other side as she shifted in closer. She slid one leg over top of his and let out a long sigh.
“Happy?”
“Very,” she murmured.
He wanted to ask but no way in hell he was going to.
“It was,” she said. And fell silent.
He waited.
Nothing.
“It was what?”
“Just as I remember,” she whispered.
He glanced down at her to see her eyelids closed, her breathing soft and gentle.
“Good.” But he knew she didn’t hear him as her breathing deepened and she fell in a healing sleep. They hadn’t slept much when they’d been together before, yet it had been a mini holiday, not this respite from the horrors of the stress of their current nightmare.
She needed to sleep, to heal. That he could hold her, care for her, was an honor. He hoped it would become his right, but it wasn’t yet. His phone buzzed beside him.
He shifted until he could reach it.
Mason checking in. He confirmed all was well. Hawk and Shadow were on patrol outside. Nice. He couldn’t imagine not having his friends at his side. In this instance, they had the full power of the military behind them as well.
And yet no safeguards would guarantee their safety. He shifted her into a more comfortable position so she’d sleep without waking up sore in the morning. As much as he wanted to make love to her again and again, he knew she needed rest. He closed his eyes and willed his body to relax.
And heard movement downstairs.
Chapter 23
She woke to Evan’s dark voice in her ear. “Quiet, we have a visitor.”
Her gaze widened as she stared at Evan in horror. Again? He removed his finger from her lips and placed it against his. “Shh.”
As he slid from the bed to pull on his boxers, she realized she was in the buff as well and quickly scrambled off the bed to find her underwear and jeans. Grabbing up her t-shirt she tugged it over her head and followed him to the door. The house was dark. The bedrooms were the only rooms upstairs, with a railing that overlooked the living room, a huge room with a vaulted ceiling.
There was no sign of anyone. She followed him along to the stairway. How to get down without making any noise? He crept down three stairs and then using the railings, skipped the next one to end up a stair below.
She followed his example realizing he must know that that particular stair creaked. Downstairs he tucked up against the wall and peered into the kitchen. She followed his actions as exactly as she could and found herself now plastered against the wall between the bathroom and the kitchen. Still, she hadn’t heard a sound.
But she trusted Evan.
And then a man bolted past her. She flattened into the wall as Evan tackled him from behind.
As soon as Evan went down another person slid out of the shadows and helped Evan.
At least she hoped he was helping. It was too dark to see but there was plenty of grunting and flesh pounding contact. Her hand found a light switch and she flicked it on.
And found Evan and another man she recognized from Evan’s team, Shadow, standing over an unconscious man.
“Oh thank heavens,” she muttered. “I was afraid you’d be the one on the ground, Evan.”
Evan sent her a look that had her immediately holding up her hands defensively in front of her. “Sorry. How could I forget? You’re SEALs and all,” she drawled in a mocking voice, but she grinned at him to show she didn’t mean it.
“Was he alone?” she asked Shadow.
“He was with another man who split off outside. Hawk went after him and I tracked this one inside.”
“Thank you. I hate knowing he managed to get inside while we slept.”
“And how did he?” Evan asked curiously. “I checked the security system before going to sleep and it was on.”
“It’s off now. So somewhere between then and now he managed to disable it.” Shadow shrugged. “I wanted to see how he was going to handle the security so I waited.”
Evan walked over to the system and nodded. “It’s been cut.”
“Still doesn’t answer how they knew we were here,” Megan muttered. “What’s the point of the safe house if these guys can find us?”
Evan nodded. “Good point.” He turned to Shadow. “Any idea how he found us?”
“No, but if he found it then someone else can too.”
“On that note, I’ll go and pack,” Megan said.
She turned and walked back upstairs, not impressed but as no one had been hurt, she’d adapt. She’d rather leave to find another secret location than stay and have a second visitor.
As she stood in the bedroom she realized she really didn’t have much to pack. Still, she collected the few items she had with her and then turned her attention to Evan’s bits and pieces. She packed everything and made the bed and was back downstairs in minutes.
She dropped their bags on the floor at the base of the stairs and walked to the kitchen.
The intruder had been propped on a kitchen chair and was slowly coming around.
She studied his slightly darker skin and black hair and realized he could be related to Levi’s Mexico problem. And how the hell she’d gotten caught up in this nightmare, she didn’t know.
She turned away to get a glass of water from the sink and spun back again. His face jogging a memory. She frowned. “He’s the man from my bedroom,” she announced.
“He is?”
“I think so,” she said apologetically. “Although a lot of it is a blur,” she admitted. “And I know that’s not what anyone wants to hear, but…”
Shadow studied the wallet in his hands. “No ID.”
“Of course not,” Evan said. “That would be too simple.” He cracked his knuckles and said, “There are other ways of getting information from him.”
The man’s eyes flew open.
He glared at her. “It’s all your fault.”
“My fault?” she asked in amazement. “What did I do?”
“You saw me and my partner at the hangars. Because of that so many things had to be changed.”
She blinked. “Oh.”
“What had to be changed?” Shadow asked quietly.
The man looked at him sideways. “The plan. We were only supposed to find out what was happening with Levi’s unit. Find out if they were still alive. And if they were we were to find out where they were staying so someone could finish the job.”
“And what job was that?” Evan asked, his voice, cold.
“They were supposed to be killed in Mexico,” he said in a low voice. “But he’s slippery.”
“Right, so you’re part of his US informant system and you betrayed him for more money,” Megan said in a dark tone. She hated to think how money ruled the world.
“We didn’t want to,” he cried, twisting the story. “But they made us. Levi saw too much and they wouldn’t play the game properly.”
“Right.” Like she believed that. “And the extra money was just extra sugar on top.”
“You,” the man snarled. “We were going to ki
ll for free. But not on base. We were going to make sure they couldn’t find your body.”
Evan’s arm reached out but she held him back.
“I guess you suck at your job then, don’t you. First you insisted I get dressed, making it easier to escape through the bedroom window, then you missed shooting me several times,” she said calmly. “In your world I imagine that’s a death sentence for being such a fuck up, especially as your new employer knows what you did to your old employer.”
The man shook his head. “They need us.”
She smiled. “Traitors and petty drug dealers are needed by nobody. Your new boss has better people,” she snapped. “Not scumbags who sell out their own family.”
The man’s face darkened in anger. “I am someone. My cousin is someone. We run the guns and we don’t deal with shit like you – we kill them.”
“If you were the right people,” she jeered, not sure where all this was coming from but realizing the men were letting her do this on her own, “then you’d have hired someone to take care of me and wouldn’t have had to dirty your hands yourself.”
“This one is a pleasure.”
“Why, because I’m a woman? Because I saw you at the hangar? Because I’m better than you?”
“Because you’re a bitch that’s been lucky and made me and my cousin look bad.”
“I didn’t have anything to do with that. You did that all on your own.”
And she walked away.
Sure enough it pissed him off right away. He lurched out of his chair. Evan slammed him back down.
“Get over here bitch,” he snarled. “You can’t say that and walk away.”
“Too late, I already did. Besides, you don’t run guns. You sell what…one, two. Big deal. It’s the big man above you we’re looking for. You, we’re going to throw into jail and let rot with the other scum.”
“You don’t know nothing.” He hopped to his feet to come after her, but Shadow shoved him back down. “Let me teach her a lesson,” he shouted at Shadow. “She’s a nobody.”
“You’re a nobody.” Megan laughed at him. “Just a little man with a little dick trying to play in the big league.”
And that did it. He yelled, “My cousin Miguel will deal with her like he dealt with Levi. He fixed it so Levi would die in Mexico. Both sides were tired of him. They fixed him good.”
