"Got any fucking ice?" He had to shout over the noise of the plane.
"My thermos!" Stan yelled back, tossing it behind him to Clint.
Clint undid the cap and dumped out what was left of the contents, catching several cubes of ice in his palms. He tossed the thermos aside and applied the ice to Sarah's bite, elevating her hand. When he’d done all that he could, he sat back against the side of the plane. Sarah had passed out again, thank God, but he couldn’t tear his eyes away from the shallow rise and fall of her chest.
Releasing a deep sigh, Clint knew it was going to be a long, hellish flight before they reached Florida…and a hospital.
Hold on, baby. Fuck, hold on.
Chapter Fourteen
Sarah opened her eyes, surprised to find herself in the sterile environment of a hospital room. She felt the warmth of the sun on her arm and realized she was near a window. Slowly turning her head toward that warmth, she received her second surprise. Susan was sitting at her bedside.
A small smile formed on her mouth. “Susan?” She blinked several times to clear her vision.
Slumped in a chair, Susan raised her head from where it was resting on her crossed arms, her worried eyes meeting Sarah’s. Tears of joy and relief quickly filled her eyes. “Thank God.” She reached over, taking Sarah’s hand gently, a trembling smile on her pale face. “Oh, honey, I was so worried about you.”
“What happened?” Sarah asked weakly. The last thing she remembered was boarding the plane with Clint.
“The doctor said you had a severe allergic reaction to an insect bite. You were in bad shape when they brought you in an hour ago. Thank God Clint gave you a shot of epinephrine. The doctor said it saved your life.”
Only an hour ago? “I remember…” She glanced down at her bandaged hand, her brows drawing together in a frown. “Clint?” She stopped what she’d been about to say, a fog clouded her memories of him.
“My cousin from Montana. He owns a ranch there,” Susan supplied, when it appeared Sarah was drifting off. “He was the only one I could turn to for help.” She got up and poured Sarah a glass of water. “Here, have a drink, honey, it might help.” Susan was the motherly sort, and her cure all for everything was plenty of water. A weak smile spread across Sarah’s face when her friend automatically began taking care of her.
“When I went in to work that morning, there was a note on the floor just inside the door saying I’d been kidnapped and would be released safely once the jewels were returned. I tried to contact you, and when I couldn’t, realized they’d taken you by mistake. Clint and Mark used to be Navy Seals together. I knew they were in some kind of business venture together after that and thought he could help me.”
Sarah wasn’t about to inform her best friend what that business venture was. Susan wouldn’t believe her brother had been capable of living the life of a ruthless mercenary.
“Jewels? What jewels?” Sarah asked in a slow mumble, trying to digest Susan’s words. She didn’t know much about her cousin or the ranch in Montana, only that every year Susan sent her sons there to spend a few weeks of their summer vacation with her Aunt Lois.
“The jewels this Mr. Rodriguez thinks Mark gave me to keep for him. But I don’t know anything about them.”
“But I thought…I thought he was after some kind of statue.” Sarah was more confused than ever now.
“Yes, but apparently the jewels were being smuggled into the country in some cheap statue Mark bought for me, which I never received. It’s a long story, honey. We can talk more about it when you’re feeling better.”
Sarah met Susan’s gaze, trying to put the pieces together so that they made some sense. “Where’s Clint now?” she asked in a raspy tone.
“As soon as he knew you were going to be okay, he took off. Said there was something important he had to take care of. He…”
Yes, he had to return the statue with the jewels in it to Raul. She tried to follow Susan’s chatter, but the drugs in her system were too powerful, and she began drifting in and out. After a while, she gave up trying to keep her eyes open. They must have given her a sedative.
“Tired,” she mumbled.
“We’ll talk later. The doctor said he wants to keep you overnight for observation. I’ll be by for you in the morning and discuss Montana then.” She kissed Sarah on the forehead, skipping from the room before Sarah could ask what she meant.
After Susan left, Sarah slept again, her dreams filled with the haunting memories of a rugged face and battle-scarred body. Of piercing black eyes and a mouth that lifted her to heaven and back. In her dreams, she loved Clint, but when she woke later that night, she knew it wasn’t just in her dreams.
****
A trip to Montana, so that was what Susan had on her mind. Sarah spared her friend a glance that all but said she knew what she was doing. They were lounging on her back porch, enjoying the sea breeze and salty air coming in off the ocean.
Susan reached for her glass of ice tea. “It will do you good to get away.”
“I just got back from getting away,” Sarah said with mild sarcasm, focusing her eyes on the surf and the screeching sea gulls as they flew overhead in search of a free meal.
She was resigned to the fact that once Susan got an idea in her head, nothing short of a miracle would change her mind. She was like a hungry dog with a bone, and she’d known Susan long enough to know any protest she made would go in one ear and out the other.
“I’ve already bought you a ticket. You’re flying out with the boys and me on Saturday,” Susan said firmly.
A laugh escaped Sarah because Susan had been trying to get her to go with them to Montana every year since they started going—since before the boys had come along and Susan’s husband Tom was still alive.
She’d always managed to come up with an excuse to stay home. “Me, on a ranch somewhere out in the wilds of Montana? Not a very good mix,” she warned her friend, in the same response she gave her every year.
“You’ve been through a lot lately.” Susan reached for an orange and started to peel it, bringing back a memory of another time when she’d reached for a banana, from a man with haunting midnight eyes.
How could she tell Susan she didn’t want to go there, especially now that she knew Clint would be there? The fact he’d just disappeared after dropping her off at the hospital revealed his lack of feelings for her, didn’t it? She wasn’t about to show up on his doorstep putting them both in an awkward situation.
Besides, she didn’t want to know about his life. The memory of his passionate kisses and the ecstasy of being held against his strong body when he’d made love to her came back to haunt her, both day and night. What if he shared his life with another woman? She’d given him her body and yes, her heart. Finding out he shared his life with someone else would devastate her.
He was probably off on some other mission now, rescuing another woman in distress, making love to her. She angrily gave her head a shake, tears filling her eyes. She looked away so Susan wouldn’t notice them, pretending interest in Susan’s boys where they were playing in the water.
When she pulled herself together, she said softly, “Susan, I can’t go to Montana with you. Please don’t ask me why.”
For a moment Sarah thought she was going to get her wish, until she heard Susan’s sudden gasp. “Oh my…” Sarah’s eyes riveted to her. “You went and fell in love with my cousin, didn’t you.”
Sarah knew she could deny it, but Susan would see right through her lies. Therefore, she decided not to answer at all. She picked up her glass of tea and took a sip, trying for nonchalance.
“Oh, honey.” Sarah hated her tone. It sounded sad, like she knew there was no hope of Clint ever loving her in return. “You’re thinking about him even now, aren’t you?”
“Trying not to,” she replied, injecting a little anger in her tone. “He was rude, crude and…”
It didn’t work. He made her yearn for him in ways no other man had. She looked a
way so Susan wouldn’t see the truth she was trying so hard to deny.
Montana would never help her forget about a black-eyed man who set her on fire and had turned her world upside down. A man who meant more to her than she realized, now that he was gone from her life. Her eyes returned to the surf, wondering how she was ever going to go on without him.
Susan and the boys remained with Sarah through the long weekend. She was glad for their company. It kept her mind off Clint, allowing her to pretend—if just for a little while—that he wasn’t locked up deep inside her heart. And that the time on Raul’s island was just a fantasy in her dreams.
Later that Sunday evening, after they’d gone home, she found herself alone on the beach, walking along the edge of the water beneath the darkened sky, feeling the sand beneath her bare feet. The reflection of the moon and the stars on the glistening black surface held her mesmerized. It was easy letting her thoughts wander back to Clint and their days on the island.
Where is he now?
Somewhere along the way, she felt rain against her cheek, surprised when she reached up to brush the moisture away and found it was really tears. Turning her face against the sea breeze, she let it caress her lightly clad body, soothe the ache in her heart. She was determined to keep walking until she outdistanced the heartache consuming her.
It didn’t appear that was going to happen anytime soon. Sarah fell to her knees, sobbing into her hands, giving in to the tribulations of the last week. How could she fall in love with a man in that short of time? She damned Clint out loud for making her love him, falling back into a sitting position and bringing her knees up to hug them against her chest. An occasional sob escaped her as she stared out at the shimmering water with burning eyes, until she was able to bring herself under control again.
She didn’t know how long she sat there, before realizing how dangerous it was. Walking the beach alone, late at night, wasn’t something she usually did. She knew some of her neighbors, but most of the homes along the beachfront were vacation homes and therefore vacant. The lack of lights backed that up.
Deciding it was time to start back, she rose to her feet, following the small light she’d left burning on the porch. When she was close enough, she noticed something in the sand, the shadow of a long object that hadn’t been there before. Her steps faltered. A small boat had been dragged up the beach from the water and left beneath a swaying palm tree.
Her eyes shot out to the water. She was barely able to make out a tiny light in the distance, indicating there was a much bigger boat anchored out there. Assuming someone had probably rowed to shore to walk to one of the many bars or convenient stores across the street, she turned to walk up her porch steps, not seeing a shadow detach itself from a nearby palm until it was too late.
“Angel?”
Sarah froze just inside the French doors leading to her living room. My God, now she was hearing his voice! Sighing softly, she wearily leaned her forehead against the doorjamb for a peaceful moment, thinking that the ocean breeze must be carrying voices, as it did sometimes. She flipped off the porch light cloaking herself in darkness.
“I must be losing my mind,” she declared softly, shivering with the thought.
“Then we both are because I lost mine the first time I fucked you.”
Sarah whirled around but all she saw was darkness. Squinting into it, she searched the shadows, too numb to think about flipping the porch light back on. She wasn’t imagining that! Her hand flew up to cover the erratic beat in her heart.
“Clint?” It couldn’t be. She began trembling with reaction, struggling to see someone who wasn’t there. “I can’t see you.”
Slowly, a tall, dark figure stepped from the shadows in front of her, until it resembled the shape of a man. He’d been that close. She still couldn’t see him clearly, but she did see the glitter of his eyes. Swallowing a cry, she took a step back, afraid her mind was playing tricks on her. That she was going to wake up and find she was dreaming.
****
“It’s me angel.”
“I thought you’d gone. What are you doing here?” She sounded disinterested, and yet there was a slight tremor in her voice.
Clint had been asking himself the same thing since arriving there that afternoon. “I needed to see for myself you were all right.” It was an excuse for having a reason to return.
“A phone call could have done that,” she replied, her voice neutral as though afraid to reveal too much to him. From where he stood, he caught her light fragrance, something mild and sweet. “I would have thought by now you’d be knee-deep in your next mission.”
A rich chuckle moved up Clint’s throat, floating away on the wind. “I can see that spider bite didn’t improve your mood.” He stepped closer, asking himself what he was waiting for. He wanted to kiss that mean mouth of hers until they were both out of their minds. “You still have a lot of sass left.”
“I thought you were the kind of man who walked away and didn’t look back.”
“Sarah…”
She ignored the edge of steel in his tone. “No, really. That’s what I expected you to do. I mean, you’re a ruthless mercenary, a man who doesn’t have any scruples. If you did, you wouldn’t be here now.”
“Are you sure about that?” He dropped his hand to her shoulder; jerking her roughly against him, but that was a mistake when all it did was make him intensely aware of her. “This is exactly what a man without scruples would do.”
“Why?” Her head fell back and Clint felt her breath against him. “So you can hurt me?” she whispered.
His gut clenched when she said the words. “I don’t want to hurt you. I thought you might like to know you and Susan don’t have to worry about Rodriguez anymore. The jewels have been returned to him.” He expected her to step away, surprised when she didn’t.
“Susan told me about them. Where was the statue they were hidden in?”
Was she aware her hands came up to rest upon his chest? “At my ranch. Mark had originally purchased the souvenir for Susan from a street vendor when we were in Jerusalem, but when my mother saw it, she loved it so much he gave it to her instead. I figure the merchant was holding the statue for someone else and mistakenly gave it to Mark.” He shrugged. “We’ll probably never know what really happened.”
“Poor Aunt Lois is your mother?” she said.
Clint leaned his forehead against hers, grinning against his will. “I’m going to miss that smart mouth of yours.” He regretted the words as soon as they left his mouth.
“Thank you for helping us, Clint. I-we owe you so much.” Her voice caught, but it was the mint on her breath he noticed more.
That, and when she breathed, he could feel her tits move against his chest. He should release her and step back, but Sarah felt too damn good against him. Memories returned of how good she felt when she was naked against him, letting him fuck her with wild abandon.
He tried to brush those memories aside, moving his head back. “Any time you need me…”
“Then help me forget you,” she whispered desperately. With a resigned sigh, her head fell against him, right over where his heart was beating in his chest.
She had the power to make him want her at the slightest provocation. Yet he hadn’t come here for that. Did I? He’d sworn that once he knew she was okay he was going to leave. Up until a few minutes ago, he was going to do just that.
So why am I still standing here? He knew the answer to that, because he couldn’t get enough of her. She’d managed to crawl under his skin so deep that he’d never be rid of her memory. Stan’s words came back to haunt him. “Whether you know it or not, you’re hooked old buddy…hooked good.”
Clint shook his head, trying to wipe away the memory of his friend’s knowing smile. They went a long way back, and next to Mark, Stan probably knew him better than anyone else. Only he refused to accept what he’d said. It was easier that way. In time, he’d forget Sarah.
He tried to resist the sexua
l pull having Sarah against his body provoked, but her allure was stronger than anything he had to fight back with. She was leaning full length against him, her softness against his hardness. Every breath she took made him fiercely aware of her. She was so close he could make out her features beneath the light of the moon—the gleam of desire and of promises to come in her shimmering eyes.
What did it matter why he was there? All that mattered was he hadn’t been able to get her out of his mind and was touching her now. She was making him feel more alive than he’d ever felt before.
“Help me forget you,” she repeated breathlessly, her words in direct contrast to the passion in her voice.
“Can you, angel?” Clint’s voice sounded harsh in the darkness. “Can you forget me?” He tried to deny the ball of heat curling low in his gut from her nearness. Reminding himself that it was his fault he was there.
“Yes!”
“Liar!”
She made herself out a liar by rising on her tiptoes and brushing her soft mouth against his. His senses went into overdrive, his body growing taut with need. When her chaste kiss was over and she moved to pull away, he was the one who wouldn’t let go.
He crushed her to him, groaning deep in his throat, covering her mouth for a more intimate joining. He held Sarah to him like a drowning man, and she was the lifeline sustaining him. When she opened her mouth, he quickly took advantage, thrusting his tongue inside, exploring the inside of her warm mouth, allowing her to probe his. Her response turned wild, and he bore the brunt of her nails as they raked down his back.
Clint reared back, breathing heavily. “This isn’t a good idea. I am that ruthless mercenary you accused me of. I’ll fuck you tonight and be gone by morning. Can you live with that?”
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