by Rachel Hanna
She hadn't expected to like it.
Furious and embarrassed, she demanded, "How. Dare. You?"
She saw his face move almost unwillingly into a smile. "You're so cute. Come here."
Was he freaking nuts?
Was she?
Because she did come there. She moved into his embrace as he held his arms out to her, still sitting on her couch. His head was somewhere around her solar plexus, and he kissed her there, his breath hot through her light cotton shirt. His tongue followed, hot and wet through the fabric while Hannah, her hands on his shoulders, leaned back, her head back, her body thrumming and alive and awake.
He tugged at the hem of her shirt, pulling it up, and Hannah grabbed it, pulling it the rest of the way over he head, unfastening the clip on her least favorite jog bra but at least this one had a clip, she could get it off without the usual pullover wet Lycra struggle. Her arms were still straight up, divesting it, when his mouth found the first of her breasts, his hot tongue playing over and over the rock hard nipple, sending chills down her spine. She arched against him, hands now in his sandy hair, hips thrusting toward him. It only took him an instant to tug down her silky shorts, leaving her naked and in her running shoes, incongruous and she didn't care, only tugged at his shirt, at him, wanting to go into the bedroom, wanting what was happening to happen.
He stood easily, catching her when she fell back. With both hands he reached behind his own back and grabbed the t-shirt, hoisting it over, and they both toed off their running shoes and socks, leaving them sandy and damp on the living room floor as naked Hannah reached for his hand, leading Knox in his tented running shorts to her bedroom.
They fell together onto her king sized bed, tumbling into the middle of it, Knox's shorts hitting the floor about the same time they hit the bed. Laughing, they twisted round each other until Knox had her over his lap again, Hannah protesting, not actually words, just sounds, and not really protest.
He rubbed her bottom, hard, and then harder, and then he was spanking her again, Hannah held tight against him, feeling him hard against her belly where she had him trapped between their bodies. She wanted to get at him, hold him in her hands, stroke and maybe suck and she wanted –
"Ow!" she shouted. "Ow, that hurts!"
"Good! Maybe you'll think twice before putting yourself in danger again." His hand descended another dozen times, sharp smacks that made her arch her back and cry out, and every time his hand connected she got wetter, more anxious, wanted him more, until he stopped, rubbing her backside hard, making the sting worse rather than better and the tension in her all raced to the V between her legs, driving her.
Hannah forced herself up off his lap, took him in hand, began stroking his already rock hard length, looking into his eyes, said, "And about endurance. I mean, you said you were all about speed…" Taunting, her tongue at the corner of her mouth and then sweeping across her lips, his eyes following it, his mouth following it.
Knox spun her, down onto the bed, on her back, followed her down. His mouth on hers was sweet, hot, cinnamony, and sharp, like lemons. His tongue found hers.
His hands found hers.
His body found hers. He slid inside her, an unfamiliar warmth and hardness. Hannah made a sound and lay back, pulling him with her, legs going up around his waist, trapping him inside.
Knox drove his hips forward, deliberate, hard but not fast, nearly teasing with the span of time each stroke took, until she was frantic, tightening her legs around him, trying to drag him from his stiff armed cobra pose above her, wanting him down with her, pressed tight against her, chest to chest, body to body and Knox holding himself rigid, the two of them arguing even now, contrary and coming, so hard she thought her mind would explode. The rings of pleasure eddied out and out from her core, and at the same time, all the sensation and joy in the world seemed centered in one small space between her legs.
Hannah laughed with delight. Knox came just at that minute, head back, body rigid, shaking with pleasure as he held her, hands on her shoulders, head back, back arched, mouth open.
He tumbled down on top of her minutes later and they turned onto their sides, facing each other, glowing, sweating, disheveled.
Happy.
Chapter 4
"Your head in the game?" Tanner Davis asked. "I only ask because that is one serious drop and you're – beaming. Damned strange thing right now."
They hung in rappelling harnesses over a section of hillside that had given way, weakened maybe by torrential rains in the spring and just waiting for tourists to drive up the canyon and park as far out on the uncertain bluff to get a great view of – well, as they had no doubt discovered right before the Earth disappeared from under their feet, a view of more canyon. Which would have been one thing. The county had sent their own search and rescue, part of the Sheriff's Office, which had brought in whatever equipment it was they needed to haul the squawking tourists back up to street level before giving them a good talking to and, hopefully, a hefty invoice.
Only none of that seemed to have mattered. Because the couple of feisty hipsters in pretty good shape physically though Knox might wonder about the mental component, had come back. Apparently there was something in the car – which was still at the bottom of the ravine – that they didn't feel they could live without. It wasn't an animal and it wasn't one of their offspring, if they had any, so Knox found the exercise foolish and, now that he and Tanner were lowering themselves down to where the tourists were – again – stranded, it was going to be an expensive exercise in willfulness, too.
"Just had a couple good days, boss," Knox said, pushing off from the cliff face and dropping another good distance. From below the stranded tourists were yelling as if Knox and Tanner were just coming down the side of the ravine for the hell of it and might miss them.
Tanner, checking his gear, about to lower himself again, said, "Yeah? What's her name?"
Knox smiled wryly. "It's not like that. She's a friend." No way to explain what had happened two nights before if he stuck to that story, but that had been an aberration. He wasn't looking for anything complicated and relationships by their very nature were.
Tanner didn't seem to be buying it. When Knox caught up to him again Tanner said, "Friends don't make you smile like that, dude. Least I hope you're not smiling like that because of me."
"You never gave me reason to, boss."
"Stop calling me that." Tanner's black hair gleamed in the sunlight. It was a perfect September day and climbing down the side of a cliff wasn't a bad way to spend it if he couldn't be with –
--with his friend. His new friend.
Maybe they could be friends with benefits. Because he was not getting his heart involved. The last relationship Knox had was right before the team was deployed to Syria and all hell broke loose. She'd been beautiful and smart and clingy as all hell. He'd broken the engagement off when it became obvious Dakota could never take the pressure of being a SEAL wife. Those relationships that lasted, they were usually with a girl from a military family or even a girl in the military or they were with somebody very special because otherwise they just didn't last. The girl wore out, constantly afraid the last time she saw him was the last time she was ever going to see him.
Dakota hadn't taken the breakup well. She'd freaked out when he tried to break it to her easily, and showed up so many times in the next twenty-four hours which was all he had before they were heading out that he hadn't had to violate orders and tell her they were going – she figured it out. He hadn't quite gotten his ass chewed for that and hadn't quite not. It had been suggested to him – strongly – that he end that particular relationship, and it hadn't been appreciated when he'd responded that he'd love to and was open to suggestions as to how to.
Then again, he wasn't a SEAL anymore. Reserve, yes, but what were the chances they'd get called up again? It had happened over the summer and that was already pushing the law of averages.
And? Sometimes a guy got lucky. Found
a girl who was just fierce enough to live that life. Just –
Special.
"Knox."
Tanner's voice broke through the rose colored clouds. They were less than thirty feet from the bottom of the cliff. Time to put his thoughts completely on the job. Already the clamoring of the people below them was too loud to ignore.
"Lock off," Tanner said, and they both locked their carabiners and hovered there above the heads of the people they'd come to save. Looking down, twisted in the harness, Tanner said, "Mr. and Mrs. Townsend?"
Instant reaction in the form of panic. As if rescue was coming this close only to leave again.
"Hey!" Knox shouted and they quieted.
Tanner gave him a bemused look.
Knox would have shrugged if not in harness. "We know you're there. We're here to bring you up. There's actually a way you could walk out from here." How the hell had they gotten down there in the first place? "It's pretty damn dense with foliage, though, and rattlesnakes – "
That got the woman setting up a keening. Shit, she'd already been down there how long? Had she seen any snakes? Because if not, there was no reason to expect any were going to materialize now just because she was so close to getting out.
"So up is a better option than out."
"Don't know why you went back down there," Tanner said, and as the male started shouting something, "Don't care, either. Good grass, scary illegal bag of ecstasy, that copy of Walden you just can't leave behind? Doesn't matter. What matters is do you have whatever it is you went back for? Because we're not taking you up if you're just coming back."
"Second," Knox said. "Are you armed in any way? If you're carrying, put it down. We'll lower a basket and you'll lock it inside and it will go up before you do. Same thing if there are any weapons in the car."
Whatever they were saying, it was mostly incomprehensible other than the fact there were no weapons, no animals and apparently no copies of Walden.
"What about the car?" the guy called up.
"County will send a team to get it out. It's not going to stay down there and rot. You'll get a bill for that, too." Seriously, dude, Knox thought as the two of them started talking again, nonstop, very loudly. Lives at stake. Yours. Deal.
No guns were produced. While Tanner and Knox lowered themselves to the valley floor, ending up in some bushes they had to navigate out of, the guy apparently went back and locked the car doors.
Knox and Tanner exchanged glances. "Either of you know how to rappel?" They'd be doing the opposite now but no point worrying about terminology.
"We can rock climb," the girl said. Up close she looked older than she had from above. Older than Knox's twenty-seven, anyway.
"Not really the same. This wall's too unstable. You'd drop back down covered in dirt. How did you – "
Get down here? But Tanner interrupted him, giving them directions, asking for the keys to the vehicle, which they'd turn in to the county Sheriff's Office, though he didn't bother to tell them that.
They'd already decided Knox would carry the girl. She'd been designated the one most likely to freak and Tanner's rotator cuff injury from their last mission hadn't quite healed. Better he have the heavier but probably more stoic guy.
It would help if either of the people they were rescuing had ever abseiled. Chances of which were of course slim. So Tanner worked with the woman, separating her from her husband, showing her how to pull on the heavy canvas straps that created the harness, talking low and quiet as Knox worked with the husband, Jason, who kept trying to interject facts and figures about what they were about to do and why it probably wouldn't work.
Joy.
Somehow Tanner ended up with Cindy anyway. Whatever. She'd be in her own harness. And Knox ended up with the still babbling Jason.
Eventually Knox got him into the harness, got him hooked up to the line. There were proven ways to lead someone back up, two people – rescuer and rescued – sharing the same rope.
It was rather nice if the person being rescued would resist freaking out, though.
They hadn't even left the ground yet when the female, Cindy, freaked. Knox looked away from her husband just long enough to see her starting to thrash. Tanner was doing his best to stabilize the lines.
"Hey!" Knox shouted up at Jason. "Do something to stop her."
But one look up at the guy proved he was just as freaked. Which meant going fast and coming back down. He started climbing, forcing his way up, moving the descender along the straps, moving faster than advised, and when he caught up to Jason, he pushed the guy, talking over his words, sending him up, out of the way, nonstop chatter until there were hands reaching for him and Knox almost shouted that Jason was likely to pull anyone grabbing him right off the cliff, but they were trained, it wasn't Jake and his bodybuilder friend who'd come along for the ride today who were reaching, but EMT's there to take the couple to the hospital for evaluation, and they were trained and, more important, used to people freaking out.
Jason, though, surprised Knox. He didn't tug on the arms, but used them to guide him up, and the minute he made the top of the cliff, he unhooked from the line and crossed to where his wife was thrashing in the harness, kicking, panicked, her big blue eyes rolling. Her feet kept coming closer to Tanner's head than Knox thought necessary. He reversed his direction and started kicking off the crumbling wall of the cliff, angling himself over to where Tanner fought with the woman who he'd caught up to.
Now he was out of options, though. He couldn't climb up from where he was, couldn't lead her, could only talk to her, loudly, calmly and with the desire to slap her silliness away well hidden.
She listened about the third time he started his repetition. She turned to face him, and he saw the panic there in her face. However she'd gotten down to the valley floor, the event had frightened her, and now the climb was exhausting the last of her reserves of bravery. She was stalled halfway up, and thrashing hard in the harness, which he needed to stop, but otherwise she hadn't preformed too poorly.
"Cindy Townsend? I'm John Knox, SEArch & Rescue. Listen, you're about sixty-five percent of the way up." An exaggeration, but he didn't think she'd stop to do the math and thinking she was closer to the top might motivate her. "If you can take a deep breath and concentrate on going up, we can have you back with your husband in minutes. Literally, minutes. You're so close to the top now."
"I can't!" she all but wailed, and frantic, looked behind her. "Every time I go up there's a bigger drop!" She turned terrified blue eyes on him and he couldn't dispute what she was saying, only agree.
"But with every up you're closer to the top and out of here. If you go back down, you just have to start over or walk out through the brush – " SNAKES, he thought nastily but didn't say, "and if the Sheriff's Office has to bring in a chopper, that's really going to be expensive for you."
He'd caught her attention with that one. She turned wide, even more terrified eyes to him. "They can do that?"
"Lift you by chopper? Of course. So can we."
Her face went rigid. "That would be worse."
Knox let a tiny smile out. "We can't leave you here. One way or another, you have to get out of here. Any problems with the equipment?" I mean, other than the fact you're not qualified on it and had about five minutes instruction?
She shook her head hard enough to rattle herself on the rope, then grabbed the rope hard to steady it.
"Ready to go up some more?" Knox asked, smiling so benevolently at he that his teeth ached.
She nodded this time, less forcefully,
"Good girl. Up you go."
And she did go up, tentatively, which made it go slower, but without stopping, which was good, and when she got within distance there were hands reaching out to pull her up and her husband there to wrap her in a big hug he looked to need as much as she did. Knox and Tanner went over the edge less than a minute behind their rescues, Jake and Angel pulling them up, enthusiastic back pats before the couple was with them, spou
ting thanks, still scared, somehow. Knox had never figured that out but nine times out of ten people were more afraid after an event than during. During they coped. Afterwards when there was nothing left to worry about they broke down.
Maybe that had something to do with survival of the species.
"Ready to get out of here?" Tanner asked.
"Hell no, thought we'd go back down and look for those rattlesnakes." He grinned.
Tanner rolled his eyes. "There are rattlesnakes out here in the canyons,."
"Sure, but you ever seen one?
Heading back to the beach house where SEAL reserve team 11 – now mostly civilian SEArch & Rescue – kept its office, Knox rode with Tanner in one of the Humvees while Angel and Jake followed in a Toyota 4-wheel drive pickup.
"Good job out there," Tanner said. The road they were following was pockmarked and dusty but didn't take special attention to navigate. He steered with one hand, his other hand out the window.
Knox leaned back in the seat, feeling a couple sore spots where he'd gotten too close to his charge. "Not really anything out of the ordinary. Other than the special brand of stupid. Who goes back over the cliff they've already slid over once?"
Tanner grinned, wolfish. "You really want me to answer that?"
"Not so much. Nice day for falling off cliffs."
That made Tanner laugh. "Taylor's making pizza tonight. Want to come over? I'll have beer."
Knox rolled his head across the back of the seat and stared at his partner. "I offer to take on the dangerous client, the going-to-thrash-in-the-harness-and-kick client and what thanks do I get? You want me to eat Taylor's cooking?"
"She's improved?" Tanner hazarded. Tanner and Taylor had been together several months, having met when Tanner pulled her out of a wildfire in a wilderness area using the team's Chinook chopper. She was cute, bubbly, blond and a threat to life in the kitchen.
"Yeah, even you can't say that with a straight face." Knox turned back to staring out the passenger window, watching as the canyon dwindled to low hills and the city became apparent through gaps. "I've got something else in mind for tonight." Feeling Tanner's eyes on him, he added, "Running. I've been doing a lot of running."
