No Escape

by Heather Lowell

  “No,” she whispered. “Special Operations forces get the call. They’re the new military paradigm since Afghanistan and Iraq.”

  “There’s a reason. It works. I’m not worried about jeopardizing the legal case, because we have guilty pleas from most of the players involved. With that in mind, Kelly is my one and only concern. Of all the players out there working on this case, I’m comfortable that my team is the one best suited to getting this done quickly and cleanly.”

  “I trust you. I do,” she repeated when he was silent. “I wouldn’t be here without that trust, and you know it. I’m just…turning my back on a lifetime of working to support the system, and letting the system work the way it’s supposed to. It’s a foreign concept to me to circumvent it.”

  “Don’t worry, I’m getting pretty damned good at that part,” Luke said with a light squeeze. “There are a lot fewer variables to control this way.”

  “The only important one is Ricky,” Tessa agreed.

  “He’s in town gambling, thinking that everything is going as he planned. No one has seen Otis, which means he’s probably at the cabin with Kelly, keeping her out of the way.”

  “I don’t like the idea of Kelly being alone with someone who works as Ricky Hedges’s loyal bodyguard,” Tessa said. “Let alone the man who probably ran down Ed.”

  “I felt the same way, so I talked to Jerry about it. He told me something that I think will ease your mind just a little.”

  “What?”

  “Otis is gay. Ricky found him at a bodybuilding competition a couple of years ago, so he’s a big strapping guy. But not interested in women—which is probably why Ricky sent him ahead with Kelly. Apparently, Ricky was worried about sweet Kelly manipulating men into letting down their guard, as she did when she tried to sneak the note out with one of the girls.”

  “She’s a smart kid,” Tessa said, with a half smile.

  Luke removed his hands from around Tessa and stretched. “It’s just before midnight. We’ve got about eight hours before our next meeting, so I’m going to take a shower and crash. You should try to get some sleep.”

  “I think I’ll watch TV in bed for a while. I’m too keyed up to sleep. I wish we’d had time to grab some things before running to the airport—like a good book.”

  “There will be time tomorrow to get some ski gear, warm clothes, and any other supplies we’ll need. The hotel brought a bunch of toiletries up, so grab whatever you need.” Luke gestured to several bags of items on the console by the suite’s front door.

  “At over five thousand dollars a night for this suite, we’ve paid for whatever’s in there,” Tessa grumbled.

  “I know it was expensive, but we need the extra bedroom and living space. And this is Ricky’s favorite club, so being here will help keep an eye on him. We just have to stay out of sight unless we know exactly where Ricky is.” Luke absently kissed her forehead, then went into the bathroom. The thundering sound of water soon came through the closed door, accompanied by a cheerful tune.

  Apparently Luke was a whistler in the shower. Who knew? Tessa shook her head as she considered that there were a lot of things about him that she didn’t know.

  But so far, discovering them had been kind of fun.

  Refusing to examine the matter any more deeply than that, Tessa turned on the TV and selected a news channel. With the sound turned low, she went over to the bags of toiletries and rifled through them. In the last bag, she found a small cardboard box with the picture of a couple embracing on a sunlit beach.

  Ribbed for her pleasure. With raised eyebrows, Tessa tapped the box against her palm and wondered how to slip the bellboy a twenty without either one of them dying of embarrassment.

  She heard the water shut off in the bathroom and hurriedly set the box of condoms on the table in plain view. With a barely suppressed grin, she waited for Luke to come out of the steamy room.

  He strode out with wet hair and moisture condensed on his broad torso. Tessa visually followed the arrow of hair from the pads of his muscled chest down to the knotted white towel around his waist. The widely scattered, puckered scars left from his encounter with a shotgun blast never failed to jolt her—not because they were ugly, but because he’d somehow survived such a grisly injury.

  Luke caught her staring. “What?”

  “Nothing,” she mumbled, with a sudden burst of shyness.

  It was one thing to contemplate jumping the man by surprise. It was another thing entirely to actually do it.

  Tessa escaped to the bathroom for a little pep talk while she brushed her teeth.

  You are a mature and attractive woman. What’s more, he’s not going to say no. So get to it!

  She fluffed her pale hair around her face and held a cool cloth to her burning cheeks, telling herself it was time for her to make some moves. She couldn’t sit back and let him do everything in this relationship.

  Or whatever this thing between the two of them could be called. Luke was so generous with himself—he deserved to know that he wasn’t alone in terms of feeling the pull between them.

  With a deep breath, she yanked the bathroom door open and went into the suite’s bedroom. Luke was wearing one of the other robes from the closet and was pulling on a pair of dark socks in the chilly air of the hotel room.

  No! Not the socks!

  Tessa grinned as she contemplated how to incorporate everyday issues like cold toes into the seduction she had in mind. Somehow, it was just easier in the movies, where no doubt the air on the sets was heated to an agreeable seventy-four degrees.

  Done with the socks, Luke leaned against the high-backed upholstered chair and rested his head with his eyes closed for a moment. He had no idea that he was being stalked.

  “Tired?” Tessa asked softly.

  Luke’s eyes popped open and widened when he saw her standing right in front of him, close enough to touch. But it wasn’t her proximity that made his nostrils flare, it was the heated look in her eyes, which were positively navy in the subdued light of the room.

  And even more than her eyes, it was the warm blush on her cheeks and the way her lips parted to compensate for her altered breathing that brought him to attention.

  “Yes and no. What did you have in mind?” Luke asked. He took both of her hands in his, stroking gently around the edges of her cast. Surprised to feel a slight tremor, he realized she was nervous.

  With his heartbeat kicking up in anticipation, Luke leaned back in the chair and continued to stroke his thumbs over her captive fingers.

  Tessa looked into his eyes and saw nothing but acceptance of her, along with frankly lustful eagerness. That supplied the extra confidence for her to shift down until she was sitting in Luke’s lap and facing him, practically nose to nose. A mere second later, they were lip to lip as she slowly pressed her mouth to his in a series of soft kisses. The tip of her tongue slid along Luke’s mouth, she realized he was smiling, and she was lost. The tone of the kiss changed to hunger and passion and shared greed.

  He dropped her hands and wrapped his arms around her, bringing her into gasping contact with his body from groin to mouth. The only thing keeping them apart was the plush cotton of their robes.

  Tessa opened her mouth more fully on Luke’s and reached behind her with her right arm to grab one of his hands as her tongue dueled with his. Breathing rapidly against his mouth, she guided his captive hand inside her robe and pressed it against a silken breast.

  Luke took it from there.

  His hand was warm against her, and the heat spread from where he touched to the rest of her body. Rubbing his thumb gently around her taut pink nipple, Luke gently kneaded and massaged the delicate weight of her breast with his fingers. He brought his other hand into play and used it to untie her robe, pushing the lapels back so that her upper body was exposed. Another tug and some shifting of her weight, and the robe was on the floor. Then Luke used both palms on her, shaping and fondling and caressing her goose-bumped flesh.

 
She was so delicate, Luke thought. So pretty. Confident in her work, yet sometimes shy as a woman. Tough, persistent, stubborn, softhearted. She intrigued him.

  Tessa rocked unconsciously against him in a move that incited both of them. She freed his mouth and tugged on his head, while at the same time arching backward. She felt Luke lean down and take as much of her breast into his mouth as he could, using teeth and tongue and breath in an erotic combination that had her thighs clenching tight around his hips in response.

  As he moved to her other breast and treated it to the same tender-rough caresses, Luke enjoyed the flush of red that was climbing from Tessa’s chest toward her neck. She squirmed against his straining erection again, and he couldn’t control the almost pained sound of anticipation that came from his throat.

  “What do you want me to do, baby?” Luke pressed her breasts tightly together and breathed the question against the resulting cleavage, then rubbed his face back and forth on her soft skin. “Say it.”

  Tessa could only moan and press more tightly against him as she rocked into his hardness. She just wanted to hold him, wrap her arms around him and squeeze against him with all her strength. Sure that she was going to combust, she grabbed at one of his hands. With more desperation than seductive precision, she plunged it into the moist, heated space between their lower bodies.

  In hushed silence, his fingers gently sifted through dark blond curls to trace soft, slick folds. The edges of Tessa’s vision dimmed to gray for a moment until she remembered to breathe. Despite his need, he was tender and loving with her body—just as he was with her outside of the bedroom. The thought made her throat tighten for a moment before she swallowed the lump and ran her lips over his face in a series of fluttering caresses.

  The chair creaked ominously beneath them as Luke readjusted her feet high around him, spreading them so they ran along the arms of the chair and opened her to him fully. Then he hooked the sturdy ottoman closer with his feet and used it to brace his own legs, groaning when the motion shifted her against his aching cock. Finally, he gently pushed her away from him so he could see her without restrictions. Before she knew it, Tessa was spread wide and reclining back against Luke’s hair-roughened thighs.

  Really, the man seemed to delight in putting her in the most exposed of positions when they made love. He gave her a charming smile before she could think to protest.

  But that thought flew from her head when Luke used one hand to slowly, possessively stroke her from neck to stomach, then back up again. Muscles trembling faintly with anticipation, he shifted and pulled the bottom half of his robe apart, so it no longer acted as a barrier between them. Tessa lay back against his legs and watched from under heavy lids as Luke’s erection thrust up between them, its pulsing heat mere inches from her body.

  Saying her name softly, he brought a hand to her mouth and ran the sensitive pads of his first two fingers around her lips. Obeying the heated request in his hazel eyes, she opened her mouth to kiss and lick his fingers.

  He groaned when she took his fingers into her mouth to lave and suck them. Hard. His cock twitched visibly in response, and Tessa’s eyes widened in anticipation. Then they closed in delight when Luke pulled his wet fingers from her mouth and slid them straight down to the entrance of her body.

  Though her lids were closed, she knew he watched himself stroking her, dipping into her wet heat, then sliding up to circle her clitoris before dropping back down again. The sensation of being consumed and explored at the same time was unbearably intimate. Tessa’s breath hitched in, then came out in a long, low cry when Luke finally slid his fingers deep inside her.

  “So tell me about this famous G-spot,” Luke teasingly whispered as he stroked. “Where is that puppy?”

  “God!” Tessa cried out in response to his touch. “No idea. Look for it. There,” she moaned brokenly, and arched against him.

  “You sure?” He returned to circle the area again.

  “Mmmmm,” she said, rocking against his hand and fingers, no longer capable of speaking.

  The sweet, slippery teasing continued until she lay arched and panting in his lap, feeling her muscles pull taut in anticipation of the climax he’d carefully built up.

  “Come, baby. I want to feel you come right now.” Luke’s teeth were clenched and his forehead was covered with sweat as he concentrated on the woman spread before him in complete abandon.

  With a throaty sound of ecstasy, she let go and felt the waves of orgasm crash over her like a hot downpour of tropical rain, washing her away. Her body shuddered again and again, and the hidden warmth between her legs contracted around Luke’s fingers in a way that nearly undid him.

  For a moment, there was nothing but the sound of rapid breathing and the hotel room’s heater kicking in. Then Tessa heard a door close and the murmured voices of MacBeth and Stone through the connecting door.

  The door that was about five feet away from where she was performing sexual acrobatics in a chair with Luke.

  In a heartbeat, he felt all of her muscles tense, and she looked at him with such an expression of horror that he chuckled out loud. She was so tightly wrapped sometimes—a trait which he delighted in loving her out of—that Luke knew she’d be hesitant about continuing in their current location.

  “Don’t worry, they’ll probably just think we’re watching hotel room porn,” Luke whispered.

  Tessa’s gave him the Look even as she bit her lips to keep from grinning. She knew when she was being teased, and he was letting her have it for being uptight. Okay, so maybe it did take her a while to unwind about having sex with him. But she did eventually get there, or else she wouldn’t be in her current position.

  Actually, it was kind of fun letting loose with Luke now that she finally trusted him enough to do so. Too bad he didn’t realize what he’d unleashed when he’d coaxed her sexpot genie out of the bottle. He would, though.

  She smiled and laughed in a way that told Luke he was in serious trouble. Suddenly, her fingers began to move down from his shoulders to stroke his stomach. Then she latched gently on to the jutting flesh that still pulsed between their bodies. Before he could say anything, she had wrapped both hands tenderly around him, careful to keep the edge of the cast away from his skin. She made several quick, pumping movements that wrung a loud groan of pleasure out of his throat before he remembered his employees next door.

  There was a stunned silence through the connecting door, which was broken when Tessa bent down to wrap her lips around the head of his cock. He gasped out loud and locked his hands in her hair to pull her away. But she wouldn’t move, except for her tongue and lips an d…He groaned again, quietly this time. She laughed low in her throat, and the feel of that vibration against his painfully sensitive flesh undid him.

  With a hissing sound, he shifted and scooped up a now-giggling Tessa. He flung her over his shoulder and secured her with a proprietary hand on her bare bottom, then headed to the far end of the suite—away from the connecting door. He paused to turn up the sound of the TV to cover her breathless laughs, then made his way to the oversized shower for the second time that evening. He barely remembered to grab the box of condoms and a plastic bag to cover her wrist before he shut the bathroom door and locked it behind them.

  He turned on the water, peeled off his socks, and muscled her inside the stall. Soon, Tessa was no longer laughing. In fact, she was the one clenching her teeth and biting Luke’s shoulder to stop the sounds of ecstasy from traveling any farther than the warm, foggy confines of the luxury bathroom.

  Chapter 45

  Reno, Nevada

  Thursday evening, March 18

  The planning phase of Novak International’s extraction operation continued into the next day. They would be moving to rescue Kelly within a few hours, and yet Tessa wasn’t sure if she could stand another minute of the anticipation.

  She sat alone in the suite, laying out the clothes she would wear that night. Four times. With a sigh, she went into the livin
g room and turned on the TV. But she didn’t find anything to hold her attention and resumed pacing.

  Since she couldn’t take her angst out on Luke at the moment—in ways that were both new and addictive as far as she was concerned—she decided to take a turn around the casino floor. She picked up her cell phone to call Luke and let him know what she was planning.

  “We’re sorry, but your phone does not have roaming privileges in this service provider’s area. If you would like to place a call, please enter a credit card number now, then press pound.”

  Tessa looked at her ultrathin, very expensive cell phone in disgust. Apparently, CalCell didn’t have an agreement with the local wireless company to allow her automatic out-of-area rights in Reno. So what good did it do her to have this wafer-thin piece of electronics, if she couldn’t use it when she needed to?

  Looking around, she decided there was no way she was going to pay bloated roaming rates when a local phone call was only a quarter from the room phone. Better yet, she could call Luke’s cell number for free if she used her long-distance calling card.

  Muttering under her breath, Tessa picked up the hotel phone and dug around in her purse for her seldom-used telephone card.

  “Hey, it’s me. I was thinking of going downstairs and buying some long underwear before we leave. If I have to sit in the car like the damn family dog, I want to be warm while I’m doing it,” Tessa said.

  “I thought we were done arguing about this.” Luke sighed.

  “Huh,” she said. She was still smarting about Luke’s decision to allow her only as far as a few miles from Ricky Hedges’s cabin. Tessa would be waiting in the weather-proofed Suburban they’d rented, like some kind of flunky getaway driver who couldn’t be trusted to carry off the heist. The rest of the team would go forward on foot to the cabin to effect Kelly’s rescue.

  While it was only logical that she should be the one to stay behind, since she had no SWAT or hostage-rescue training, it still irked her. And she wasn’t above letting Luke know it, even if logic had led her to agree to the indignity of waiting in the car while everyone else did the real work.