“Don’t be a dipshit,” Sera hissed, gesturing at Hadley.
She tugged on Whit’s arm to move them to the side of the aircraft opposite of us, giving Hadley and me a small degree of privacy. I yanked our comms units out of our ears and gripped them in a fist, settling us on our side until my back was against the wall of the chopper and Hadley was seated on my lap facing me. I lowered my head, my mouth settling above her ear to ensure she could hear me over the noise from the chopper’s motor.
“It was him or me, precious, and I for one am damn grateful you took the shot that saved my life.”
She pulled back, staring at me with tears filling her pretty green eyes before she leaned up to answer me. “Me, too. I think that’s the hardest part, knowing I don’t regret taking a life. Not even a little bit. I know if I hadn’t done it then you’d be dead, and that’s something I couldn’t live with.”
When she was done speaking, her head dropped onto my shoulder and sobs shook her body. I held her close, running my hands down her back trying to soothe her as she cried for the rest of the long flight to the airstrip where a private plane waited for us. The chopper had been borrowed from the army base in Honduras, thanks to the General. Once we made contact with him, someone would be sent to pick it up from the airstrip since it was a short drive from the base.
The plane belonged to my best friend. I’d helped to save Morgan’s woman a while back and he was happy to return the favor when I’d called him to see if he could help with our transportation on this mission. I hadn’t wanted to trigger any red flags with our arrival, and he’d arranged for the flight into Honduras under the guise of business purposes, listing Devon as the pilot, Whit as the co-pilot and Sera and me as the only passengers—only we hadn’t flown in under our own names and had used Morgan and his wife’s credentials. It was risky, but the General had pulled some strings with his military contacts to make it work.
He’d also arranged for a military log to show Sera as flying into the base yesterday. The plan was for her to fly back with us on her own passport while Hadley and I entered the United States as Morgan and Angelica, who would meet us at the private airport when we had our “emergency landing” and exchange places with us before the plane was “repaired” and continued on to the final destination where Customs would board the plane. The plan was risky because I wasn’t sure if the fake passports I’d had made for Hadley and I would hold up if we weren’t able to make the switch, but I didn’t want anyone to know she was back in the States.
I also didn’t want her captors to connect Hadley to me or my company. Not until I was able to pinpoint who’d been the one to order her kidnapping. Then they wouldn’t need to link us together because they’d be too busy trying to stay alive to worry about Hadley. I’d collected a lot of contacts during my time in the military, made friends and saved lives. Many favors were owed to me, and I’d call in every single one if that’s what it took to ensure her safety. A message needed to be sent— Hadley was off limits—and I was the man who’d make sure it was received loud and clear by anyone who thought to use her as a pawn in the future.
Even if it turned out that her father and the General were in bed with the bad guys somehow, Hadley was officially out of this mess. She wasn’t her father’s responsibility anymore. She was mine, and I’d do whatever was necessary to keep her safe and happy, right where she belonged. With me.
As I led her from the chopper and across the airstrip to the plane, it was as though she was in sync with me. She asked a question directly in line with what I was thinking, the perfect question for me to be able to keep her by my side.
“Where are we going? Is there anywhere in the world where I’ll be safe?”
“Yes, Hadley. There’s most definitely somewhere you can go to be safe. You’re coming home with me.” And that’s where you’ll stay once this is all over, too. At least I was smart enough to only think the last part and didn’t blurt it out and scare her half to death.
Chapter 10
Hadley
Brecken wanted me to go home with him. His words kept replaying in my head as we all transferred from the helicopter to the plane. Brecken and I took the seats in the back of the plane. Sera sat near the front, and Whit and Devon went into the cockpit. I gripped Brecken’s hand during takeoff. After going through hell, my fear of flying seemed silly but it was still at the back of my mind. Then a miracle happened, something which had never been in the realm of possibility during any of my previous flights, the motion of the plane lulled me to sleep. I woke up to the sound of the landing gear going down and found myself with my head in Brecken’s lap, his fingers running through my hair. The feeling was incredibly soothing, but I jerked up when the plane landed with a bump.
“We’re safe and sound in the States now, Hadley,” Brecken reassured me.
“But what about Customs?” I worried aloud. “I don’t have any paperwork with me. Nothing to prove who I am, let alone that I’m an American citizen.”
I heard the screech of brakes and then Sera jumped up from her seat and got to work at opening the plane door.
“No need,” Brecken answered, undoing my seat belt and tugging me behind him as he strode down the aisle between the seats. By the time we made it to the door, the stairs were down and a hot guy with a beautiful younger woman was climbing up them. “We’re getting off here.”
“It’s good to see you made it back without damaging my plane,” the guy joked, slapping Brecken on the back as he moved past us.
“Oh, stop it, Morgan,” the girl scolded, flashing me a quick grin. “We both know you couldn’t care less about the plane. Even if you did, it wouldn’t matter since you owe him a debt which can never be repaid.”
I wondered what Brecken could have done for this man to be in his debt to such an extent that the loss of a private plane would be negligible. Morgan pulled the woman into his lap as he sat down in the aisle seat in the front row. The love in his gaze as he looked at her was evident to anyone seeing them together. “You’re right, Angel. Without him, I wouldn’t have been able to save you and all the planes in the world wouldn’t come close to the loss that would have been.”
Mystery solved then. Brecken had helped save her life, just as he’d done with me. If I was lucky, maybe he’d come to look at me the way Morgan gazed at his Angel.
“No time to chat,” Sera growled at us. “You need to get out of here before air traffic control realizes we stopped. This might be a tiny airport, but we can’t count on them being completely oblivious.”
“You heard the woman,” Morgan replied. “I left the engine running. I bought the car yesterday and the title work is in your name. There’s a cooler in the back that Angel packed for you, and you’ll find a suitcase filled with clothes, toiletries and the papers you had overnighted to me.”
“It sounds like you thought of everything,” Brecken called out as we made our way down the stairs.
“You didn’t even say thank you,” I pointed out when he climbed into the driver’s seat after getting me belted in on the passenger’s side.
“We don’t usually do the thank you thing,” he replied. “Morgan’s my best friend.”
“Wow,” I breathed. “Your best friend does stuff like loaning you his plane and buying you a car?”
“Not usually, but this mission was different.”
“Different?” I repeated. Could what I was thinking be true? Had he been serious when he’d said I’d been precious to him from the moment he saw my photo? Had he really reached out to his friend because of what he felt for me from the start? “Because of me?”
He reached across the console to squeeze my hand. “Haven’t you figured it out yet, Hadley? I’d do just about anything for you.”
I cocked my head and studied him as he raced out of the service entrance to the private airport and headed for the highway. As hard as it was to believe since we’d only met two days ago, I had faith he was telling me the truth. Although the sun was setting in the
sky, I could still see his face clearly. His eyes were focused on the road ahead of us, but his expression was determined, as though keeping me safe was his most important mission. My heart raced in my chest as butterflies took flight in my stomach.
“I feel the same way about you, Brecken.”
His hand tightened around mine and he briefly glanced my way, male satisfaction in his gaze. “You already did all you need to do, my precious girl. It’s my job to take care of you from here on out.”
With his declaration, my heart melted and I was filled with the resolve to make sure this relationship, whatever it was, didn’t end up being one-sided. I wanted to give to Brecken at least as much as I took from him. It was the one thought which kept replaying in my head as we raced through the evening, heading towards Brecken’s home. “I don’t even know where you live,” I mumbled.
Brecken must have had exceptional hearing because he caught what I said. “Chicago.”
“Is that where we’re headed?”
“It is,” he confirmed.
It was dark outside and there wasn’t much traffic on the road with us. “Any idea when we’ll need to stop?”
“I’d like to go until we need to stop for gas in about an hour or so, if that works for you.”
I turned my head away from him to hide my sly grin. “It’s more than okay with me.”
Taking a deep breath, I gave myself a silent pep talk. Life was short. I was stronger than I knew. I could do anything if I set my mind to it. Even this.
I unlaced my fingers from his grip and lifted his arm to place it over my shoulder. Then I undid my seat belt and leaned sideways in my seat to whisper in his ear. “Remember back at the waterfall when I said I wanted to taste you too?”
His arm dropped down, his hand tightening on the back of my neck and holding me in place. “Yes,” he hissed out. “But you don’t need to do it like this.”
I pushed against his hold to look into his eyes. “What if I want to do it exactly like this? To have my first blow job happen with you right here in the front seat while you’re driving me to the safety of your home?”
“Fuck, Hadley,” he groaned, his hand clenching. “How the hell am I supposed to say no to something like that?”
“You’re not,” I breathed out. “You should give in and let me do exactly what I want.”
He released my neck, moving his hand down my back. With his other hand, he set the cruise control right at the speed limit and undid his cargo pants, unzipping the fly and shoving his boxers down. His dick jutted out, fully hard. It was all the permission I needed. I reached down and gave it a few tentative strokes.
“Feels so damn good.”
The huskiness of Brecken’s voice made me bold, or bolder than I was already being. I strengthened my grip on him and rose to my knees in my seat. Bending forward, I moved my hand from his dick to the side of his seat and placed the other on the handbrake for leverage. Once I was positioned the right way, I dipped my head and licked the tip of his dick, enjoying the salty taste of the drop of pre-come I gathered on my tongue. His answering groan told me how much he was enjoying my actions and spurred me on more.
Sliding my mouth halfway down his length, I suck at him eagerly. My cheek muscles were straining to fit him into my mouth and I struggled to take more of his dick.
“Work your mouth up and down on me.”
I began to slide my mouth up and down his shaft, moaning when I felt the muscles of his leg tighten under me and his fist clench in the fabric of my shirt. I moaned against his flesh at the feeling of power that coursed through my veins.
“Fuck,” he hissed. “Do that again.”
I moaned again, letting him feel the vibrations from my throat. His hand moved up, tangling in my hair as he began to guide the movements of my head.
“Can you suck me harder?”
“Mmmm-hmmm.” It was the only answer I could manage while my mouth was full of his dick. That and the pumping of my cheek muscles against his shaft while I opened and closed my lips around his length. It was more than enough, though. His hips jerked up and there was a loud gasp above me.
“You better pull away unless you want me to come in your mouth.”
I didn’t pull away. Instead, I sucked harder until I felt the jet of his come hit the back of my throat. I held still as his dick twitched in my mouth, swallowing when I finally lifted my head. Licking my lips, I sat up and shifted back into my seat, blushing.
“Marry me.” I felt the blood drain from my face, removing all traces of my embarrassment at my boldness.
“What?” I gasped, certain I hadn’t heard him right.
He pulled over to the side of the road, put the car in park and turned to face me. Pulling my hands into his own, he looked deeply into my eyes. “Marry me,” he repeated.
“I guess I must be really good at blow jobs,” I joked.
“You are,” he agreed, his lip tilting up in a grin. “But that’s not why I’m asking. The last name change may help me to hide you.”
My heart dropped. This was definitely the least romantic proposal in the history of the world. I crossed my arms over my chest, a protective shield I suddenly felt I needed for this conversation. “Don’t you think marriage is a little excessive?”
Brecken reached down and rested his hand on my belly. “You’re going to become my wife one way or another.”
“How romantic,” I sighed, rolling my eyes.
“And you could be pregnant with my baby already.”
Chapter 11
Brecken
“Holy crap,” she breathed out, her already pale complexion turning another shade lighter. Her hand moved over mine, holding it in place while she stared at me in amazement. “I might be pregnant.”
“That’s what happens when you have sex without a condom.”
“We had sex without a condom.”
She sounded like a parrot repeating after me, and it was fucking adorable. “We did.”
It was much less adorable when she punched my arm—until she shook her fist out while practically hopping in her seat. “Crap, crap, crap,” she chanted. “You’re built like a brick wall.”
I pulled her hand towards my lips and kissed it gently. “And you’re avoiding the question.”
My precious girl demonstrated her bravery once again by taking a deep breath and blurting out her concern. “If I’m not pregnant, would you still want me to be your wife? Because if so, I think we should wait, even if it means it will be easier for the bad guys to track me down. I might not approve of how my dad earns his money, but even though I haven’t talked to my parents in six months, I still want a marriage like theirs. I want my husband and me to be a team.”
“I want the same thing.” I knew I was fucking this up, not explaining it to Hadley well. Even worse, I was making her think I wasn’t serious about my proposal. Digging deep, I tried to find the words to convince her to say yes. “For you to be my teammate, I mean. I didn’t have the best example of marriage with my parents, but one thing the military taught me was the importance of knowing you can rely on your team. I know it’s insane for me to know this already, hell I gave Morgan a hard time for moving Angelica into his house the day he met her and here I am trying to convince you to marry me two days after you met me.”
My chuckle held no humor because I had too much riding on this to find it funny. I saw something working behind her pretty green eyes as I spoke, so I pushed forward and hoped for the best. “Baby or no baby, I want you to be my wife. I should never have presented this to you as a way to better protect you. That was me being an ass and using the situation to my advantage to try to avoid admitting to the real reason I’m asking you. And that reason is I want my ring on your finger, my last name after your first and you living in my home. Not just for the short term, either. I want it forever.”
Tears were streaming down her face in earnest, and they worried the fuck out of me. I hoped like hell they weren’t a sign of me fucking this up even
more. When a huge grin split her face, my lungs seized. And then she gave me the answer I’d been waiting for.
“Yes, I’ll marry you.”
Wrapping my hands under her armpits, I lifted her over the console and onto my lap. I captured her lips with mine and sealed our promises to each other with a kiss. When I finally lifted my head, her cheeks were dry and her eyes were dazed.
“Tomorrow.”
She smiled up at me. “Tomorrow what?”
“I want you to marry me tomorrow in Kentucky.”
“What about blood tests, waiting periods and a marriage license?”
I held up my hand and ticked off each point with a finger. “Kentucky doesn’t require a blood test, has no waiting period and we can get a marriage license in the morning by applying at a County Clerk’s office.”
She looked to the side for a moment, her eyebrows raised in surprise, before meeting my gaze again. “You sound awfully familiar with how weddings work in Kentucky.”
“I might have looked it up when I was planning our route home,” I mumbled, and this time it was me who looked away.
Her laughter rang out loudly in the car and I couldn’t stop myself from bringing my gaze right back to her. “You should have started your proposal with that information. It would have gone a long way towards convincing me you were serious if you’d planned this out before we had sex,” she teased. “Unless this is a plan you use for all the women you save.”
Her voice sounded like she was still joking, but the look in her eyes worried me. “This is the first time I’ve ever planned, or even thought about, my marriage to anyone. It’s you. Only you.”
The breath she must have been holding whooshed out. “Good,” she murmured. “That’s good, but what about identification? I didn’t think to bring any with me for my kidnapping.”
Save Your Soul (Body & Soul #2) Page 5
