Heated Pursuit

by April Hunt

  “Shit,” he murmured into her hair. “Mom’s going to kill me for letting you do this. I’m a fucking dead man.”

  “Maybe eventually.” Penny gave him a firm squeeze before pulling back. “But at first she’ll be too thankful to have us all back at home.”

  “You need to be careful, okay? I’d do anything for Rachel, too, but I know you have an aversion to people telling you what to do. You have to listen to Rafe every single second that you’re out there. Every. Damn. Second. He’s the best of the best, and even more, he knows I’ll kick his ass if anything happens to you.”

  Like a magnet pulled their gazes together, Penny met Rafe’s blue eyes through the sliding glass door. He’d taken a chance on her. They all had. Now that she’d convinced them all that she was up for this assignment, it was time to convince herself.

  * * *

  More holes littered their plans than the jeans of a nineties teenybopper boy band. Hours of research wasn’t enough. Hell, Rafe could spend a week reading maps and forming contingencies for every contrived scenario and it still wouldn’t be sufficient to make him feel fucking prepared.

  Around one in the morning, the guys started leaving the suite one by one. Trey lagged behind, hands shoved deep in his pockets as he casually glanced around the room. He looked the most uneasy Rafe had ever seen him, and considering they’d both been sent to some hellish locations during their stint with Delta, that was saying a damn lot.

  “Whatever’s on your mind, unload it. We have a big day tomorrow.” Rafe crossed his arms and waited.

  Trey leaned against the doorjamb. “You know I own up to my mistakes…when I make them. Cutting Penny out of my life the way I did was one of the largest. And it’s one I’m not going to repeat.”

  The sumo-sized weight that settled on Rafe’s chest was unnerving as hell, and most definitely unwelcome. Ever since the hugfest on the balcony, he’d barely been able to keep his foul mood to himself, wondering if Trey and Penny’s relationship had been as platonic as each claimed.

  “What’s your point?” Rafe asked, unsure if he wanted the answer.

  “My point’s that I have a lot of ass kissing to do, and I can’t do it if she’s dead. She’s important to me, man.”

  “I’ll keep her safe and sound so the two of you can kiss and make up the proper way. Don’t worry.”

  Rafe sounded catty even to his own ears. Trey’s also picked it up, his face blank for a moment before realization turned shock into humor and the bastard laughed so hard tears sprang to his eyes.

  “Glad you find this so funny,” Rafe practically growled, his nails biting into his palms as Trey fought to take a deep breath.

  “Yeah, well, when one of my best friends looks like a green volcano ready to blow his top, I can’t help it. Jesus, Rafe, you think I want her, want her? Hell no! I mean, yeah, I love her, but like a sister! Christ!” Trey wiped tears of laughter from his eyes. “My mother practically raised her from the moment her asshole father dumped her and Rachel off on our doorstep. Even during my crazed hormone years, I’ve never seen her as anything more than a sister.”

  The tightness in Rafe’s chest loosened a fraction. “Then what the hell was the bit about making amends and shit?”

  “I meant that I’ve been a raging jerk to Penny through the years. I took my entire family for fucking granted. It’s done. I can’t rewind back through the years and start over, but the very least I can do is start looking out for her. That begins by making sure she doesn’t get put into a bad fucking situation. You hear what I’m saying?”

  “Are you talking about Fuentes now, or me?” Rafe’s voice chilled significantly.

  Trey lifted his hands in mock surrender. “Look, I don’t blame you for being interested. She’s fucking amazing. All I’m saying is that the two of us are men of the same combat cloth. We constantly put ourselves in these shit storms, disappear for months at a time. Long-term for us is thinking toward the weekend, or hell, the next few hours. I don’t care if she’s with Bail Enforcement, Central Intelligence, the Federal Bureau, or any combo of the government alphabet. She doesn’t fit in this ass-backward life. She deserves better. She deserves more than the half-assed attention that Admiral Kline gave her. And that’s all I’m going to say on the subject.”

  About to leave, Trey turned. “Oh, and one more thing. If you hurt her, or if she comes out of this op with so much as a split end, you’re going to be pissing in a bag through your belly button. You feeling me?”

  “The only way anything would happen to her is if I was already dead.” And it was the damn truth. He’d jump in front of a bullet or scale a building using nothing but his teeth to keep her safe.

  Trey slapped him on the shoulder, the tension instantly forgotten. “Yeah, well, let’s not aim for that either. Be safe, brother. Watch your ass.”

  “I’ll watch Penny’s, too,” Rafe joked, straight-faced until Trey shook his head on a laugh.

  “Don’t push your luck, man—or you’re going to be investing in a hell of a lot of plastic bags.” Trey chuckled before closing the door.

  Now alone with only his thoughts and the sound of Penny’s running shower for company, Rafe paced the length of the room. When he started making himself dizzy, he sat down in front of one of the Honduran maps, and then got up again a few seconds later. Each lap around the room intensified the ache in his clenched jaw.

  His ability to keep Penny safe from harm wasn’t bothering him. It wasn’t fear that they’d fail this op. Hell, it wasn’t even Trey’s blatant threat to his manhood. The closer Rafe got to the answer, the more his control inched from his grasp. And then it hit him.

  That sumo-sized weight sitting on his chest was gone. It disappeared. Now that he knew where Trey’s head—and heart—was at, each breath didn’t feel like it was being squeezed out of his lungs.

  What the hell was that about?

  Nothing had changed. He didn’t do relationships. He couldn’t do them. Getting jerked from one fucked-up foster home to another, he’d never learned much about love and devotion, or reliability. That was what a woman like Penny deserved.

  Knowing he and Penny could never work didn’t make ignoring the stir in his pants easier, especially when the water shut off. Mental images of her warm, damp body had him planting his ass in the chair. He curled his fingers around the arms and worked on convincing his body to stay seated instead of heading to the room where she was probably standing wet and naked.

  Five minutes later, her voice brushed over his skin like a soft touch. “More maps? I thought we’d gone over everything.”

  “I’m taking another look for my own peace of mind.”

  Before he glanced over his shoulder, she was taking a seat next to him, her compact body covered head to toe in a terry-cloth robe. The bulky layers of fabric didn’t deter his cock’s awakening. He went from half-hard to full-scale flagpole in less than a few seconds, his massive erection practically pleading with him to take action.

  “It was either the hotel robe or…well, you don’t want to know,” Penny chuckled, mistaking his drooling attention for curiosity. “Let’s just say that between the dress tonight and the clothing Maria so graciously packed for me, you’d think I’d raided a naughty nighties boutique with a limitless credit card.”

  “Are naughty boutiques something you visit with regularity?” He loved the pink hue that stained her cheeks when he teased.

  “A girl needs a few of the basics,” she tossed back.

  The growing tightness in his pants was a not-so-gentle reminder to put his focus back on the maps and not the mental image of a just-ravished Penny in a dark emerald-green scrap of lace—or better yet, nothing at all.

  With a subtle shift in his chair, he yanked the conversation back to her initial question. “A man like Fuentes likes privacy. He’s worked too long and hard to take a chance on blowing it to high hell. Not only is he not going to point out the landmarks as we fly over them, but there’s a pretty good chance he’s going
to require us to be blindfolded.”

  “So how’s memorizing maps going to do any good?”

  “Because I’m hoping you can hone your inner actress and make a stink about being blindfolded. If we play it right, they’ll leave yours off and then you can become our eyes. Don’t look so panicked,” he added when his meaning registered. “I don’t expect you to memorize the maps. I’ve got that covered. Your job is to point out or remember things that might make it easier for me to pin down our location.”

  “Like rivers and lakes, open fields, and villages. That sort of thing?”

  “Exactly. And you need to do it without drawing attention.”

  “I can do that. If there was one thing being a Navy officer’s daughter taught me, it was excellent memory recall. Those military socials are no joke.” Their shoulders touched as she huddled over the maps. “We really have no idea where Fuentes’s compound is located?”

  “Ancient civilizations are easier to find than this bastard’s hideout.” The subtle sound of flesh being nibbled drew his attention to her mouth. He reached out, freeing her lower lip with a soft swipe of his thumb. “It’s not too late to change your mind. I can go to the airfield tomorrow alone.”

  “Do me a favor, Rafe.” Penny’s voice was so quiet he had to lean close to hear it.

  “Anything, Red. Name it.” And damn it all if he didn’t mean it.

  “Stop offering to do this without me. All you’re doing by offering a way out is pissing me off and making it harder to act like your brainless bimbo.”

  “Are you going to be able to handle that?”

  “You pissing me off, or acting like your bimbo?”

  Rafe smirked. “The moment we hit that airfield tomorrow, you’ll have been upgraded from bimbo to lover. Lovers are…affectionate. Openly affectionate.”

  “Is this your way of telling me you’re going to be touching my ass, Rafael Ortega? If it is, I should warn you that that perk better go both ways.” Penny’s voice dropped, the low husk making Rafe nearly come in his pants.

  Her breasts rose and fell with each heavy breath as he slid one finger into the crease of her robe. “What was the longest you had to go undercover to snare a target, Red? An hour? Two?”

  “Three.” She failed to contain a gentle shiver as he brushed the top mound of her right breast.

  “We don’t know how long we’re going to be at the compound. We won’t be in charge of surveillance. That means we’re going to have to be on twenty-four hours a day. No second-guessing. No hesitancy.” Keeping his heated gaze on her, he lowered his mouth to her skin. “And lovers don’t look uncomfortable when the other touches them.”

  “Is that what you’re trying to do right now? Make me uncomfortable?”

  “Is it working?”

  “Not in the way you mean.”

  Rafe eased down one side of her robe, exposing the curve of her shoulder. The second his lips touched her skin again, she closed her eyes on a soft sigh. She needed to get used to him touching her. To maintain their cover. At least that’s what he told himself as he dragged his mouth up to just below her ear where her vanilla scent seemed strongest.

  In reality, he just needed the feel of her beneath his hands…and mouth.

  With a painful groan, Rafe forced himself to pull way. He didn’t get far. Penny’s hands slid into his hair and directed his wandering lips straight to hers. This was what nirvana must feel like. She nipped his bottom lip, ratcheting up his desire a thousand and one degrees before slipping her tongue into his mouth.

  All good intentions to maintain any kind of distance fell away. Fucking instantly. No way in hell was Rafe stopping her. Trey’s threat to his dick be damned, he guided her off her chair and onto his lap. Her legs spread automatically, widening the gap of her terry-cloth robe. She was still damp from her shower, and the warmth of her skin seeped through his clothes.

  He let his mouth feast, tangling his tongue with hers as his hands roamed over her curves. Beneath his palms, her body arched, undulating against his jean-covered erection. If she felt this fucking fantastic with a barrier between them, he could only imagine how she’d feel without.

  Rafe didn’t want to stop her, but he also needed to make sure they were heading in the same direction, and for the same reasons. “Before we do this, Red, I need to make sure we understand each other. This isn’t some kind of test, or an initiation. This is you. Me. And this crazy-ass need I have to be inside you.”

  “Mm. A threesome.” Her voice rumbled against his neck before she gave it a playful nip. “I’ve never been into that kind of thing before.”

  Rafe nearly went up in flames right then. A threesome? Fuck no. He didn’t share—period. And he sure as hell didn’t share her. “I need to hear you say it, Red.”

  “This is just you, me, and this.” An evil smirk lifted her lips as she gave his cock a firm rub. “You’re not going to get any complaints from me…unless you take too much longer.”

  “This may not be the job, but that doesn’t mean—”

  “A proposal. Trust me, I’ve seen how that road ends and I have no desire to travel down it. I’m a big girl, Rafe. I know exactly what this is and what it isn’t, and there’s no chance of me confusing the two. So you may continue, unworried that I’m going to engrave wedding invitations next week.”

  She met his gaze, unflinching. She was telling him the truth. He didn’t know what irritated him more: her easy dismissal of what was happening between them or that he was the one who didn’t have high hopes for it being that fucking simple.

  After three seconds of internal debate, Rafe flipped his doubts the bird and deftly untied the robe with one hand while guiding it away from the rest of her body with the other. Every inch of skin he unwrapped, his mouth savored.

  Her pink nipples stood at attention, begging to be tasted. And he did. First one, then the other. Penny arched her back, pushing them more securely into his touch. Only when she trembled did he slide the robe the rest of the way to the floor.

  “Jesus Christ, you’re gorgeous.” And she was. Every curvy inch of her.

  Women in Rafe’s life had always come and gone, leaving no real lasting impact, and that had always been fine with him. But with Penny he found himself needing to mentally record every fucking second.

  “Ticktock, Rafe.” She rolled her hips.

  He lost it, whatever it was, and ignored his throbbing cock as he slowly slid one finger along her wet folds. With a keening groan, she pushed her pussy into his hand. He rubbed in slow circles, getting close but never quite touching her hardened clit.

  “You. Are. Evil,” she complained in a half moan.

  “I’m the worst, baby.” He simultaneously sucked her nipple into his mouth and slid two fingers into her pussy. One thrust. Two. Releasing her breast after the third stroke, he pulled away far enough for him to see her face when she came apart.

  Penny rocked her hips, fingers digging into his shoulders. “Please, Rafe. More.”

  Fuck, he wanted that, too.

  Holding her closer, he thrust his fingers deeper, curling them to hit the magic spot that would have her coming in no time. With each glide of his hand, he caressed his thumb over her clit—again and again.

  Her eyes, half-mast and darkened with desire, closed on a moan.

  “Eyes on me, Red.” Rafe slid a hand into her hair and dragged her attention down to his. “I want to watch you let go. And then we’re both going to watch as I slide all the way into your body. Fuck, sweetheart. I bet you’re going to wrap around me so damn tight.”

  Around his fingers, Penny’s body started to quiver. She threw her head back and muttered a soft “Oh God.”

  Rafe kept going, thrusting and rubbing, bending his head to taste her skin before pulling slowly away to watch her eyes lose all focus. Finally, her inner walls convulsed around him, one pulse following another. When they finally slowed, he brushed her clit with his thumb and skyrocketed her into another, stronger climax.

 
Only immense control had him waiting until the last quiver left her body, and the second it did, he was fishing for the foil packet in his pocket. Penny had his zipper down and cock out by the time he ripped into the packaging.

  He’d barely sheathed himself when she began lowering herself onto his engorged cock. “Fuck, you’re really fucking tight, sweetheart.”

  “I think it may be that you’re too big,” she teased with a low groan as he pulled her hips down the rest of the way.

  CHAPTER NINE

  Possession was her only defense. There was nothing else to explain why she couldn’t stop and why she, more importantly, didn’t want to. It was like there were two Pennys floating beneath the surface of her body, and the one Rafe always coaxed out was the vivacious, brazen, and, judging by the way her hips ground down onto his, horny one.

  Maybe it was Rafe. Maybe it was the dawning realization of how dangerous a situation they were stepping into. Suddenly, the woman who’d made it her life’s mission not to get emotionally involved with a bleeding-hero type didn’t give a snivel about what lay ahead of them as long as she was able to savor this moment. And the fact that she acknowledged it and still didn’t want to stop made it even worse.

  Rafe’s mouth and roaming hands temporarily banished all thoughts that didn’t involve him and sweaty, bare skin. She let him guide her body into a circular motion, the friction making her entire body begin to pulse with pent-up need.

  “More,” she whispered breathlessly. Tightening her grip on his shoulders, she ground her bottom harder against his lap. “Please, Rafe, I’m not going to break.”

  His fingers dug into her hips. “Hold on, sweetheart.”

  Penny squealed as he stood, but before she could protest the sexual pause, her back hit the wall and Rafe plowed into her with a powerful thrust.

  “I don’t think we’re going to make it to a bed,” Rafe growled out, thrusting again.

  In this position, she could feel everything—him inside her, him rubbing against her. She rolled her hips and double-fisted her hands in his hair, hungrily bringing her mouth down onto his. “Beds are highly overrated.”