by Lora Leigh
CHAPTER 3
Stashing her at base would have been a hell of a lot easier on his nerves, Jordan thought the next morning as he watched Tehya move around the kitchen preparing coffee. To fight this battle effectively, he needed to know she was safe, needed to know there was no chance of her being taken. That there was no chance of his hunger getting the best of him and distracting him. As she was now.
Frayed denim cutoffs barely covered the rounded curves of her ass, the threads caressing lightly tanned lush, toned flesh. It was evident she had kept her training up from the appearance of firm feminine muscle beneath her flesh. The snug toffee-colored top she wore molded her full breasts, and thin straps running from her shoulders crisscrossed at her back. She looked even more fragile, more delicate than ever in the skimpy summer clothing. Almost too delicate for the lustful, erotic hungers raging through him.
She didn’t wear a bra and the hardened tips of her nipples pressed against the thin material, drawing his gaze and causing his mouth to water. He remembered the heated, sweet taste of them, as well as their sensitivity in her response to his hungry mouth sucking them.
For the moment, he simply watched her as she poured their coffee then slid his mug across the counter to him. The narrow-eyed resentment in her expression was almost amusing, except he hated seeing her this upset
“You bought the house,” he stated as he gazed around the neat open area and he searched for a topic that would ease her anger.
He’d been on the computer before she came out of the bedroom. She hadn’t just bought the house, either, she’d also bought a small landscaping company that had gone from near bankruptcy to healthy profitability in the six months she had had it.
“I bought the house,” she agreed.
She surprised him doing so. He hadn’t expected Tehya to put down roots without being forced.
“Why, Tehya? Why did you buy a house rather than renting?” Leaning forward, Jordan was careful to keep his tone even, his expression merely curious. He didn’t want to antagonize her this morning. Too many plans had to be made now that plan A was out the window. But also needed to learn more about this side of Tehya that he hadn’t expected.
Leaning against the island, she stared back at him with a serene confidence that only made his dick harder. “Why wouldn’t I want to buy a house, Jordan?” she asked him. “I thought I was safe from my past. If I had known the truth, perhaps I would have done things differently.”
“Then you would have made that decision in Texas,” he said quietly. There was just something about the tone of her voice that warned him that buying this house, buying the business, was something Tehya had hungered for only after leaving Texas. After she had felt she had lost her family there. “Buying a house isn’t something you do on a whim.”
She shrugged negligently and looked around. For a moment, her face softened. For the barest second Jordan glimpsed dreams he had never known Tehya held inside herself. Damn, how had he managed to miss the fact that his Tehya had hungered to put down roots?
“Maybe,” she finally murmured.
Maybe. It was a definite. Just as his certainty in the fact that she was in danger.
“Tehya, I’m working on a safe house for you…”
“Then you’re wasting your time,” she assured him, and he knew she wasn’t joking. “A safe house is only a delay, Jordan. Changing my identity, moving me, hiding me. It’s never worked in the past, it won’t work now.” Acceptance, bitter and filled with regret, tightened her expression.
Jordan wiped his hand over his face and fought to come up with a new plan on the spur of the moment.
“You know, Jordan,” she said as she stared around the house again. “I’ve been on the run, one way or the other, since I was five years old. I never attended a normal school, I didn’t have playmates, and I never had a home.” Her gaze met his as her eyes flashed with pain. “Changing my hair, my looks, my name, my fingerprints, or my location never helped. They always found me eventually and they always will. Delaying the inevitable will only give them the chance to surprise me. What you should do is take your men and just leave. Let me face my past and deal with it for good. I know what I’m facing and I know how to deal with them.”
Hell.
Leaning back against the barstool, he regarded her silently. Tehya was putting down roots and now she was determined to stand and fight for those roots. He had to admit, he hadn’t expected that of her but perhaps he should have expected.
Tehya had never been predictable.
“If I were in danger, Tehya, would you just walk away?” he asked then knowing the answer, just as she should realize he could never walk away either.
“That’s different,” she answered softly. “As you suspected, I care more for you than I should.”
Damn her, she had the ability to slip past his defenses in ways he could never have expected and never failed to surprise him.
“Do you believe I don’t care for you?” How the hell had she managed to come to that conclusion?
“Observation,” she snorted. “So, did you discuss my phone with Commander Reece?” Pushing away from the center island, she moved to stand across from him. Her brows lifted inquisitively as he fought to find a way to deal with her last comment as well as her abrupt change of subject and the memory of Killian’s betrayal.
Jordan felt the familiar anger rising inside him at the thought of what his former friend had done. “Your ability to call the team wasn’t affected,” he informed her. “There was a tracker pin attached to the programming. He swears the default kicked in and kept calls from sensitive numbers from coming in which is possible, but doesn’t change the fact he did it.”
Her lips parted, her tongue touching the tip of her upper lip for a second in a gesture unique to Tehya. Mocking disbelief and an edge of hurt.
“Killian definitely believes blood will tell, I guess,” she said impassively. “Are we shocked?”
Actually he had been. Shocked and furious. Had Killian been there with him when Jordan learned what he had done, then blood might have been spilled.
“You never called any of us either, Tehya,” he reminded her, his voice tight. “You knew you were being followed, you knew someone had found you.”
She shook her head, her lips tightening for a second as the long ponytail her hair had been gathered into brushed against her back. “I honestly thought it was paranoia,” she admitted bitterly. “I’d never been in one place longer than a few months until I joined your group.…” She gave her head a brief shake. “Base was so secure, my suite there completely protected. I worked where I lived. There was no possibility of any danger.” Her breath hitched for a moment. “I thought it was a product of being away from that security and being on my own.”
She had ignored her instincts and that could have been fatal.
Jordan exhaled roughly at the thought of the danger she could be facing.
“John and Travis are heading in with their wives,” he told her. “We need to find out who’s behind the search for you and why. The team that’s heading here are no more than flunkies. Ira Arthurs and Mark Tenneyson aren’t leaders. Someone has to be backing them.”
“I don’t need your help with this.” Her expression became closed. “I’ll deal with it. I told you Jordan. I’ve been-here-done-this. I don’t need your help.”
“And you think I’m going to let you?” He was almost amused to think that she would believe that. Amused and fucking offended. “Stop wasting your damned breath.”
Her arms crossed beneath her breasts. “What do you care? You were more than eager to walk away nine months ago. Do you really think I need you around now? Trust me, I don’t.”
No one was able to make him mad faster than Tehya could. Son of a bitch, she was staring right back at him, actually believing the crap spilling out of her lips. As though she actually believed he was going to fucking walk away.
With that knowledge, with that anger, his arousal only surged hig
her. She tempted him and defied him for the hell of it. It didn’t bother her a damned bit to stand there and pretend that her death wouldn’t affect him. He knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that it would destroy him.
“I think you’re living under the mistaken impression that you have a choice whether or not I stay here and protect that pretty little ass of yours,” he warned her as he rose from the barstool, his jaw clenching at the defiance in those incredible green eyes of hers.
“I didn’t need you to protect my ass before I met you, and I don’t need it now,” she informed him, a flush beginning to bloom across her lightly tanned cheeks.
Her nipples were harder, he swore they were. Hell, they were standing there having a serious discussion while their bodies were straining for sex.
It would have been amusing if the situation weren’t so damned life-threatening.
“Why the hell do you think Kira pulled you into the Ops, Tey?” he asked her with curiosity, fury beginning to boil inside him. “Do you think it was because she simply liked your pretty face or your charming personality?”
She glared back at him irritably. “I appreciated the help,” she ground out. “I appreciated the period of peace. Kira knows that.”
But he recognized that flash of fear in her eyes. Tehya knew damned well and good that she had been on the verge of losing the battle she was fighting against whoever had targeted her after Sorrel’s death. Just as she had been losing the battle against Sorrel before she killed him and his son.
It wasn’t fear for him, or the team she had been a part of, that had her protesting their involvement though.
“You’re more scared of this fire between us burning us alive than you are of dying,” he said as he placed his hands on the bar and faced her confidently. He knew exactly why she’d rather face her past then have him face it with her.
His dick was throbbing beneath his jeans with an intensity that threatened his self-control more than anything ever had before. The need to taste her, to feel her pussy, so damned hot and tight, wrapped around his cock, was making him crazy.
He’d lain beside her in that bed last night, pretending to be asleep as he listened to her toss and turn for hours. Sleep had been long and slow in coming, and even then, the thought of fucking her had filled his dreams.
He couldn’t be with Tehya without wanting her, without the hunger clawing at his guts. And he knew it was worse for her. The illusion of love trapped the senses, the emotions, and infused woman’s sexuality like nothing else could.
“I’m not the one scared of it,” she all but sneered back at him. “And I’m not the one that regretted the one night we did spend together if you recall. That was you, Jordan.”
Yeah, he had regretted the hell out of it because he’d known that forgetting her would be next to impossible. It had been worse than he had imagined it could be. Sleep was impossible most nights; something as insignificant as a breeze reminded him of her touch. The heat of a summer sun, the warmth of a Texas rainfall. No matter where he turned, memories of Tehya haunted him.
“Did it hurt you, Tehya?” he asked carefully. “When morning came and you knew it couldn’t go anywhere, that it was just that one night, did it hurt?”
Her lips tightened. “Not in the least, Jordan. You should have told me just how easy it would be to walk away. I would have left sooner.”
The little liar. He almost grinned thinking of the lie that slipped so easily past her lips but didn’t quite make it to her eyes.
“I spent six years trying to convince you what a bastard I am.” He straightened as he stared back at her. “Hurting you was the last thing I ever wanted do, because you mattered Tehya. Because you hadn’t yet figured out that love is the greatest illusion of them all, and I didn’t want to be the one to teach you that lesson.”
He knew the man he was, and he knew the woman she was. Breaking her heart had broken a part of him that he still didn’t recognize.
“I don’t need you to teach me anything,” she informed him, her eyes narrowing on him. “And I won’t give you the chance to prove anything, new. So you’re wasting your breath and your time. Go find one of your bimbos, they might appreciate your efforts. I don’t.”
A dare. It was the one thing she obviously hadn’t learned while she worked with him. Never dare him. He was too close to her, too aware of the fact that if he gave her an inch then she had the inner strength to attempt to take a mile and more.
“Oh Tey, there’s so much I could teach you though,” he crooned, watching her face flush, those beautiful dark green eyes flickering with a surge of hunger at the sound of his voice.
Moving around the bar, he locked his gaze on hers as he neared her. He’d decided now was as good a time as any to show her exactly how wrong she was. Until this was over, illusion or not, she was his woman and she would be his lover. And by God, he’d dare anyone to try to take her from him
Tehya felt her heart racing, a weakness filling her womb as she backed up, edging into the corner of the L-shaped counter as Jordan stalked toward her.
He didn’t move quickly. Eyes narrowed, his muscular body tall and broad, tense and predatory, he focused on her with an expression tight with lust. He came up to her, trapping her against the counter, his hips pressing against hers, the hardened length of his cock shockingly thick and hard beneath the denim he wore.
“What do you think this is going to prove?” She heard the weakness in her voice, the catch of breath, the hunger, and she hated it.
All he had to do was touch her. She was such a glutton for punishment that it didn’t even matter that she knew he would never stick around, that she knew he thought she wasn’t good enough for a relationship or to love. When he touched her, it didn’t matter that the only reason he was back was because of responsibility and duty. All that mattered was that he was touching her. That he was there, that she would have one more moment of pleasure at his hands.
“I think it’s going to prove that we both know we can’t fight it as long as we’re involved in this together,” he whispered as his head lowered, his lips feathering along her ear. “Fighting it was easier when we had a mountain to hide in, wasn’t it, darlin’?”
She drew in a hard, ragged breath. “I wasn’t the one fighting it, though, was I, Jordan?”
She had longed for his touch, ached for it. For nine months she had dreamed of it.
“No, you weren’t.” His lips caressed her jaw, the rasp of the dark growth of beard sending shards of sensation racing through her nerve endings. “And now, I just fucking don’t have the strength to save us both.”
A gasp barely escaped as he jerked her to him, his lips suddenly covering hers, slanting over them and pulling her headlong into a maelstrom of wicked sensation and fiery hunger.
One hand cupped her neck, his callused fingers holding her in place as his lips stroked, rubbed against hers, parted them and allowed his tongue to lick against hers as though he wanted nothing more than to taste her.
A whimpering, desperate little moan vibrated in her throat as she buried her hands in his hair. Pleasure sliced through her senses, enfolding her in sensation as Jordan’s arm folded around her hips and he lifted her onto the counter. The position was wickedly carnal, and infused with dominant, possessive intent.
Hunger blazed through her as his hands lowered to drag her legs apart, situating himself between them. The hard ridge of his cock ground against her sex as her juices began to dampen the silk of her panties. Her clit swelled and ached, as her fingers plunged buried deeper into his hair to hold him to her. And she began to pray that he wouldn’t stop, that he wouldn’t pull away. That he would give her just one more memory to hold onto.
“Don’t stop.” Desperation filled her as he broke the kiss, his lips moving to her neck before spreading a line of kisses to her collarbone. Her head arched back, languid pleasure flooded her body with each touch.
“Not hardly,” he bit out, his hands tugging at the hem of her shirt, pulling it u
p until he bared the tight, aching curves of her breasts. His gaze fell to her nipples, the hunger blazing in his gaze as Tehya stared back at him.
“Jordan.” She jerked against him as his hands framed her breasts, fingertips rasping against the tender, hardened tips of her nipples while his head lowered to them.
“Jordan. God yes. Like that. Suck my nipple like that.” Neck arching, damp heat surrounding the sensitive peak, Tehya arched closer as the explicit words fell from her lips. Words that had his mouth tugging tighter on the tender tip, his tongue lashing harder.
She stared down at him, shocked and torn by the sensations that were stronger and more powerful than they had been the first time. There had been pleasure with him before, but he had been restrained, more in control of himself. A control he didn’t have now, and didn’t bother to try to regain.
Staring down at him now, his blue eyes dark, wicked, as he watched her, his cheeks hollowed and he sucked at her nipple with such hungry demand that Tehya felt the lash of each stroke of his tongue straight to her pussy. The muscles there clenched painfully, spasming with an aching, burning need to be filled. To be fucked.
His tongue rolled and rubbed against the tender tip as each sizzling stroke struck straight to her womb, drawing a ragged moan from her lips. She wrapped her legs around his thighs and arched her hips closer to him, the heavy length of his erection beneath his jeans pressing heatedly into the tender mound of her pussy.
“There, darlin’,” he said, his head lifting as he kissed his way to the other sensitive nipple.
Tehya watched as he licked it first, priming it to pleasure. His tongue tipped against the hardened flesh, prodded at it, then licked over it with erotic hunger. Her breath caught as waves of heat rushed through her system. A second later, the rake of his teeth over the tender tip had her crying out again. Her hips arched, grinding against the heavy weight of his cock as it pressed over her pussy.
His lips parted and he devoured the nipple. Sucking, licking, he drew on it ravenously as his face flushed with hunger. Tehya fought to breathe as she felt the harsh, unyielding throb of need centered in the depths of her pussy. She felt the sharp shards of sensation that tore from her nipple to her clit as he drew on it, nipped and licked it. He made a sensual meal of the tender tip as she cried out in pleasure.
