Protecting Caroline (SEAL of Protection Book 1)

by Susan Stoker

  Caroline sighed. He was right. Matthew deserved the truth. She didn’t know what was going on with the two of them, but whatever it was, at least he seemed to feel it too.

  Her voice trembling with emotion and just above a whisper, she told him honestly, “I called you because you were the first person I thought of when I was scared. I called you because if I died, I wanted you to know I was thinking about you, that I wanted to see you again. I didn’t want you to come back to Norfolk and think I didn’t want to go to see you again. I wanted it more than you know, and I thought I wouldn’t have a chance…” Her voice trailed off.

  Wolf didn’t say anything, just did what he’d desired to do the first time he saw her in the room. He reached over and gathered her into his arms. She was stiff at first, then she melted into him. She smelled of some sort of flowers. Maybe it was her shampoo, maybe it was a lotion she used, but it went straight to his head. He tightened his arms around her and Caroline lost it. She cried. She cried for being scared on the plane, she cried for being hurt, she cried remembering how alone and scared she felt in her apartment when only a thin piece of plastic kept a killer from knowing she was in the bathroom, she cried in relief that Matthew was back from his mission. Matthew rocked her and held her tight. He wasn’t used to a woman’s tears, but there was no way he was letting her go.

  Finally her tears dried up and she only sniffed here and there. Wolf drew back a bit and looked at her face. She wasn’t a “cute crier”—her face was red and blotchy. She refused to raise her eyes. Wolf rubbed her cheeks with his thumbs and then lifted her chin up so Caroline had to look at him. He didn’t say anything just leaned down and touched her lips with his. It wasn’t a passionate kiss, but it felt right. It was a comforting kiss. It was exactly what she needed from him at that moment.

  He pulled back and looked into her eyes. “You’re safe now. I’ll do everything in my power to make sure you stay that way.”

  Caroline believed him. He was an honest to God hero. And for the moment, he was her hero. She tipped her chin up, reaching again for his lips with hers.

  The second she moved, he was there. Wolf had tried to hold back with her. She was feeling vulnerable and he didn’t want to take advantage of her. But with the first touch of her lips against him, he was lost.

  He devoured her. He stroked her tongue with his and she stroked his right back. He fell back on the bed taking her down with him. He could feel every inch of her delectable body against his. She was curvy and soft and he could feel her nipples harden against his chest.

  He wrapped his hand in her hair and moved her head where he wanted it. He took complete control of the kiss and rolled them until she was under him. Wolf felt her leg bend and it opened herself up to him even more. He settled into the vee of her legs and felt his erection burrow into the heat in Caroline’s center. Christ. He had to stop. Now. Or there’d be no stopping. It was the thought of the FBI agent in the other room that finally made Wolf stop. Hell, he hadn’t even shut the door behind him. When he took Caroline it wouldn’t be in some crappy cabin with someone who may or may not be a traitor to their country listening nearby.

  Wolf eased back, but couldn’t bear to break contact with her. He buried his head into her neck and licked and suckled at her earlobe. The whimpering that came from her throat made him grow even harder. She arched into him, trying to get closer. She was sexy as hell.

  “Jesus, sweetheart. I’d give anything to take this where we both want to go, but I can’t, not now, not here, and not while you’re in danger.” He hoped like hell Caroline wouldn’t be offended by his words.

  Caroline shut her eyes tightly. God, Matthew felt so good against her. She was wet. She hadn’t ever gotten so wet so quickly with any other man before. Just Matthew. Only him. When she felt him shift above her she slowly opened her eyes. Jesus. He was so sexy, and he was here, with her. That alone was a miracle. She saw the hard line of his jaw and his kiss-swollen lips. She wanted nothing more than to have him strip off all her clothes, but unfortunately, she knew he was right.

  “I-I know. Will you stay? Here? With me?” Caroline was a little embarrassed to even ask, but she needed him. She needed his closeness; she needed the safety his embrace promised.

  “Of course, sweetheart.” Without letting go, he moved them up further onto the bed and turned them on their sides. Wolf tucked Caroline into his big frame. Her back was to his front and they lay there in silence for a few minutes. Wolf had one arm under her head and the other was wrapped around her tightly. His forearm rested between her breasts and his hand rested on her shoulder. She was cocooned in his arms, and it felt heavenly.

  “What’s going on, Matthew?” Caroline asked sleepily.

  “Shhhhh. I’ll tell you everything tomorrow,” he told her. “Just sleep now. I’ve got you.”

  Caroline fell asleep almost immediately. She felt safe for the first time in a long time. Matthew was here, he wouldn’t let anything happen to her. Even while unconscious, in the depths of sleep, her body knew she was safe. She didn’t have one nightmare that night.

  Chapter Fifteen

  The next few days went by without anything interesting happening. Matthew came by the cabin each night, but left early each morning. He’d told her, he and his team were here and they were keeping watch, but she hadn’t seen anyone but Matthew. She would’ve liked to have talked to Christopher and Sam, but she was way out of her element. She didn’t ask Matthew any questions, outside of the obvious ones. She didn’t ask where his team was, she trusted him to make sure she was safe.

  Matthew slept with her each night. They’d shared more of those soul searching kisses, but he hadn’t let anything more happen. On one hand it was driving her crazy, but at the same time she understood he was “working”—they’d have to wait. For now, it was enough to be able to fall asleep cuddled up in his arms, safe. She wasn’t convinced Matthew could really want someone like her, but she held out hope. He was convincing her one night at a time. She hoped the bounty on her head would be taken care of soon and then they could figure out where they stood.

  Caroline thought sometimes it was all just too ridiculous. She lived in Norfolk now and Matthew lived in San Diego…when he was even in the country. She didn’t begrudge him his job, but knew it was tough to be involved with any military man, but most especially a SEAL. But at this point in their relationship, Caroline could honestly say she wanted to give them a shot. Matthew was the best thing to happen to her in a long time, she didn’t want to give it up yet.

  It wasn’t just because of the way he looked either. Caroline supposed that was a part of it, but it was more the kind of man he was. He was loyal, smart, and attentive. Matthew paid attention to her as if she was the most important thing in his life. She knew if they stayed together, she’d come first in his life—before his friends and even before the military…if at all possible. She’d be an idiot to let him go. If Matthew wanted to see where their relationship could go after all the crap with this was over, she was all for it.

  Caroline wasn’t sure what had woken her up, but when she went to roll over she felt Matthew’s large hand cover her mouth. She stiffened. She knew it was Matthew behind her because she could smell his unique scent, but he was as still as a statue and was as tense as she’d ever felt him. She felt him lean down toward her head.

  “Don’t make a sound. Okay?” he whispered tonelessly, directly into her ear.

  Caroline nodded and he lifted his hand from her mouth. He rolled off the bed soundlessly, a pistol materializing in his hand. Caroline didn’t know where the gun came from, but was glad to see he was armed. She watched as he took the time to push his feet into a pair of boots.

  She was afraid to move, but forced herself to sit up and scoot over to the edge of the bed. If she had to move quickly, she wanted to be ready. She also leaned over and slipped on her shoes sitting next to the bed. Caroline couldn’t hear anything at all, but he’d obviously heard something out of the ordinary.


  Wolf listened at the bedroom door. He eased the bedroom door open and still didn’t hear or see anything. He looked back at Caroline sitting on the bed. The last few days had been hell, holding her, kissing her, but not making love to her. He wanted to bury himself so far inside her she’d know she was his, but he held back. It wasn’t the time or the place, but he hoped it would be soon. They were making progress. Each day he and his team met and went over documents, and he felt they were narrowing in on the double crosser.

  Wolf held his finger to his lips and motioned for Caroline to stay where she was. He saw her nod once and eased out of the room. He was very proud of her. She hadn’t panicked and didn’t ask any questions. She understood what was at stake and trusted him to do his job. That trust made him feel ten feet tall. He wouldn’t let her down.

  Wolf pushed thoughts of Caroline out of his head and concentrated on figuring out what was wrong. He had a job to do and he knew he couldn’t do it if he was thinking about her. The gut feeling that something wasn’t right was what had woken him up. He thought he’d heard something, but wasn’t sure. He wasn’t willing to let it go, not when it meant Caroline’s safety.

  He eased his way into the small outer room, trying to figure out what, if anything was wrong. He looked right and left, then stopped suddenly. Shit. He smelled gas. Just as he took a step back toward the bedroom door, the front of the cabin went up in flames in one big whoosh.

  Wolf was knocked backwards by the wave of heat. He lay on the floor for just a moment getting his bearings. Before he could get up again, the wall on the other side of the cabin went up in flames. Matthew couldn’t catch his breath. The flames had sucked all the oxygen out of the room in an instant. He tried to crawl back down the hall toward Caroline. He had to get to her. Where the hell was his team? He had no idea what had gone wrong, but it was obvious something bad had happened to them. There was no way anyone could’ve slipped by them in order to torch the cabin.

  The terrorists had done their job well, and cut off both exits from the cabin, they were trapped. The last thought he had before he passed out from breathing the super-heated toxic air, was of Caroline, and disgust with himself that he’d let her down.

  Caroline didn’t move from her spot on the bed until she heard the first explosion. She leaped from the bed and ran for the bedroom door. What the hell? The heat coming from the main room almost drove her back. She got on her hands and knees and, without thinking twice about what she was doing, crawled into the burning room.

  She saw Matthew on the floor and then the other wall burst into flames. Caroline ducked and covered her head with her hands. Shit. Shit. Shit. She’d managed not to squeal like a little girl, but a terrified croak escaped before she could call it back.

  She looked up and saw Matthew try to crawl toward her and then fall down unmoving. Caroline didn’t stop to think. She fast-crawled over to him, grabbed him under the arms, much like she’d done with the terrorist on the plane, and hauled him back to the bedroom. It was a slow process because Matthew was heavy and the exertion plus the smoke filling the room was making it tough to move quickly.

  The cabin was quickly filling with smoke. It wasn’t until she’d gotten Matthew back into the room and shut the door she realized they were trapped in the house. She ran to the attached bathroom grabbed a towel, quickly soaked it in water from the tap, and stuffed it along the bottom of the door to the bedroom. It reduced the smoke coming into the room a bit, but not all the way. The bedroom was going to fill with smoke sooner rather than later, and it wouldn’t be long before the flames were burning through the entire wall.

  Caroline grabbed two of her T-shirts from the drawer. She ran into the bathroom, well aware of the time that was ticking by, and soaked them with water in the sink. She put one around her nose and mouth and ran back to Matthew. He was still lying where she’d left him on the floor. She tied the other T-shirt awkwardly around his head. She had to protect him from the smoke making its way into the room. Caroline was operating completely on auto-pilot now.

  She ran to the only window in the room. She cautiously drew back the curtain and looked out.

  BAM

  Caroline leaped back and crouched down just as the window shattered. She couldn’t help but scream out in fright this time and she covered her head as the glass from the window rained down on her. Crap. She crawled over to where Matthew lay on the ground motionless.

  “This would be a really good time to wake up Matthew,” she said shakily as she pried the pistol out of his hand. She shook him once, hard. He didn’t respond and Caroline allowed one desperate sob to escape before she beat it back. If she started crying now, she wouldn’t be able to stop.

  It looked like the terrorists had found her. They’d set the front and side of the cabin on fire to force her into this room, and the only escape was the window…only there were obviously men out there waiting for her to leave that way. She was going to die. She didn’t want to die and she definitely didn’t want Matthew to die either. She wasn’t going to give up until it was too late. She wasn’t a SEAL, but was there anything she could do?

  She tried to think like a soldier, what would Matthew do if he was conscious? As she eased her way back to the window and couldn’t see any bad guys she deflated a bit. How was she supposed to defend herself with the gun she now held in her hand, if she couldn’t even see who she was supposed to shoot?

  Caroline allowed a few stray tears to leak out of her eyes. What was the best way to die? Burning to death? Smoke inhalation? Getting shot? Shit. None of the choices were good ones. She had to get herself together. Matthew wouldn’t just give up. If it was her lying unconscious on the ground he’d do whatever he had to do to keep her safe. She’d do the same.

  She tried to think. Caroline had to believe Matthew’s team would get to her. He’d said they were patrolling around the cabin. They’d get here soon; she’d act as if they were out there right now figuring out how to get both her and Matthew out. She risked a glance out the window again. There! She finally saw someone, a man off to the right. She stuck the pistol out the window and pulled the trigger. The kickback of the gun was more than she was ready for and she fell backward with the force of it. She heard yelling outside, then silence again. Had she hit him? She doubted it. She risked another glance. Nope, they were still there.

  The smoke in the room was getting thicker. She went back to Matthew and drug him closer to the window, trying to avoid the glass on the ground. She wasn’t sure how they were going to get out of this, but she wasn’t leaving Matthew behind. Wasn’t there some SEAL code on that? She tried to think back. Yeah, Christopher had said something about it to her in the airport when they’d come to find her.

  Well, she wasn’t a SEAL, but she wasn’t leaving Matthew behind to die in this stupid cabin. The only reason he was there was because of her. She wouldn’t be able to live with herself if he was killed because of her. Shit. She had to stop thinking about Matthew being dead.

  Just as she was gearing up to look out the window again she heard more shots. She hoped it was a good sign. She reasoned that since there were no bullets coming through the walls of her prison, it had to be. Hopefully it was the Calvary coming to their rescue. After a short period of time she heard a voice calling urgently from outside.

  “Wolf? Ice?”

  Caroline risked peeking out the window again. It was Sam. He was standing outside the window. She stood up and blurted, “Here!”

  Mozart was never as glad to see anyone as he was to see Ice. When the cabin had gone up in flames he’d been surprised. Someone, or some people, had obviously made their way past their recon around the perimeter of the cabin. He’d immediately set out to find the culprits and get Wolf and his woman out of the cabin.

  “Where’s Wolf?” he demanded urgently.

  “He’s here, but he’s unconscious.” Caroline stopped to cough. She had no idea trying to breathe when in a burning building would hurt so much. Again, stupid, but how was she suppose
d to know?

  “Let’s get you out, then we’ll get him.” Mozart ordered. He’d holstered his pistol and reached up for her. The window was on the first floor, but since the land sloped down on this side of the cabin, it was about a five foot drop to the ground. Caroline shook her head.

  “No. Matthew first.”

  Mozart started to disagree, but Caroline disappeared from the window. Damn. He didn’t have time to argue with her. He wasn’t sure if there were any other terrorists around, but he knew Ice and Wolf were running out of time. The roof was on fire and the entire cabin was about to go up in flames. He saw Ice struggling with Wolf’s inert body near the window. He grabbed the window sill to pull himself in and help, but let go quickly. The metal around the window was red hot.

  “Careful, Ice,” Mozart said urgently. “It’s really hot.”

  Caroline nodded. She heard him, but didn’t take her eyes off Matthew. He’d groaned a few times, she hoped he was coming out of it. She quickly dragged him as close as she could to the window and untied the T-shirt from around her face and laid it over the window sill. She heard it sizzling as the wet cloth met the red hot metal of the sill. She pushed as hard as she could until Matthew was lying on his stomach right under the window.

  Caroline grabbed Matthew again and hauled him up as close as she could get him to the open window. She draped his arms outside and yelled at Sam to grab him. With Sam’s help, she pushed, and Mozart pulled, and Matthew slid out of the house. Caroline quickly looked out and saw that Sam had mostly caught him and was easing him to the ground taking the T-shirt off his face as he laid him on the ground.

  “Okay, come on, Ice. I’ve got you.” Mozart held up his arms to help her get out of the burning cabin.