Collateral Damage: Silent Warrior, Book 1

by J. L. Saint

  An hour later she didn’t feel any better about the situation. They had tried to call Bob and Ray again with no results. Had something already happened to them? She and Jack checked into a motel south of Fair Play in Lavonia, Georgia. She’d given the clerk a false name and had paid cash for the room. It was as safe as she could get at the moment.

  She didn’t draw a deep breath until the room’s door closed and she slipped the security lock on. Jack glanced about but didn’t say anything about the one-room two-bed set up, and she didn’t mention it either. She wasn’t about to leave him alone after being hurt and they didn’t have connecting rooms. He set the pizza they’d collected on the mini-table, dropped his duffle bag, and sat down on the bottom of the closest bed, looking like death warmed over.

  She put the first-aid kit on the bathroom sink, the Coke by the pizza, and walked over to Jack, moving in close so she could examine his wound. “Let me see.”

  He bent his head and inhaled sharply as if the movement pained him.

  She bit her lip, gut knotted that he’d been hurt at all. But in truth, the wound didn’t look as bad as she expected. The gouging scrape started above his right ear and angled toward his forehead, slashing across the previous, vertical scar at his right temple. Once healed, he’d have a permanent cross marking his temple.

  “Come in to the bathroom and let me clean you up, then we both can relax,” she said past the emotion clogging her throat. What almost happened was still too fresh in her mind for her to be anything but overwhelmed.

  “I can do it.” He stood, coming so close to her that she had to take a step back. His nostrils flared as he inhaled sharply. He searched her gaze for a moment as if trying to assess her mood.

  “So can I, and right now I need to make sure you’re all right more than you need to be Mr. Invincible.” She marched to the bathroom and pointed to the closed commode, determined to ignore the effects of his close proximity on her senses. “Sit.”

  The corner of his mouth quirked up as he sat. “What’s next? The Terminator?”

  “Sponge Bob Square Pants,” she said briskly as she turned on the water.

  He snorted and winced. “Can we stick with Superman?”

  “Depends on how cooperative you are, Dudley Do Right.” More like Studly Do Right.

  He laughed, then groaned. “Okay. You win. Just don’t make me laugh again. No more torture.”

  She opened the first-aid kit and he reached for the Ibuprofen, downing a handful of them before pulling off his stained T-shirt. The bathroom shrank to the size of a pea pod, a very warm pea pod. And the torture had just begun because ignoring him and the effect of his chiseled in stone physique became impossible. His every muscle was perfectly defined, supple and vibrant with life. Thank God for that.

  This man had put his life on the line for their country numerous times. And he’d put everything on the line for her without question.

  Taking the wash cloth, she gently cleansed away the dried blood then dabbed some antibiotic ointment to his wound and left it open to air at his insistence. She turned her attention to cleaning his neck and chest as well, lingering more than she had a right to, but unable to stop herself from relishing every touch. A touch he was clearly far from indifferent to, a reaction that filled her even more with want, with need, with excitement. He seemingly watched her every move with his heated gaze, but then she swore he’d stared at her mouth, her breasts, her sex so long that it was a wonder she didn’t burst into flames.

  She surprised herself on how quickly she finished, then again, he had a way of warping her perception of time. It could have been five minutes, it could have been fifty, whatever it was, it wasn’t enough. She wanted more of him, needed to give more to him in so many ways.

  That bullet had shot to hell any barriers or pretensions, leaving a raw need that only he could fill. She slid her palm against his hard-edged jaw and eased his gaze up to hers. His skin had become burning hot, his pulse raced beneath her finger tips, and his respirations had quickened considerably. “Are you sure you don’t need the hospital?”

  “The hospital is the last thing I need right now.” His voice was like sandpaper, made her feel raw, vulnerable and that much more needy. He placed his hand against her hers and turned to brush his lips to the inside of her wrist. The simmering desire between them flared white hot and burned a path all the way to her core. She shivered with excitement. The connection between them was one that only a near-death incident could forge.

  Her mouth went dry and she searched hard for the right thing to say to him. Her heart was so full, her need so great. She met his gaze. “I don’t know that I’ve thanked you enough. For being there yesterday. Today. For keeping my sons safe. For keeping me alive.”

  He started to shake his head and she stopped him. “Let me finish. I want to thank you for what you’ve done every day, for the years that you’ve been there doing what has to be done so I can live the life I live. It means more than I can express or ever repay.”

  He exhaled. “Lauren, sometimes it’s a job, sometimes it’s more than that. It’s everything I believe. But right now it sure as hell isn’t—”

  She pressed her finger to his lips, halting his words. “That being said, I want you to know this has nothing whatsoever to do with gratitude and everything to do with what’s in my heart.” She planted her mouth on his, ready to start this kiss where their kiss last night had ended.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Jack groaned, clearly of the same mind, because he kissed her hard, his tongue taking command of hers in a deep search that plunged her into a storm of need. He jerked up the hem of her shirt, pulling it with him as he stood. Then he left her wanting lips and covered her left breast with his hot mouth, sucking on her nipple through the lace of her bra. She moaned and raised her arms up for him to ease off her shirt. Her breasts lifted higher, an offering he took.

  He kissed his way over to her right breast, slipping his tongue inside her demi-cup and lashing her pebbled nipple until she moaned and arched her back for more. When he pulled her shirt over her head, he didn’t take it all the way off, but wrapped the soft cotton around her wrists and stretched her arms higher over her head. Her heart pounded impossibly harder, for the position left her more exposed to his questing mouth, more sensitive to his sensual fire, vulnerabilities he exploited with fervor. He popped open the front clasp of her bra with deft fingers and feasted until she gasped and moaned and writhed. Even then he didn’t stop but kept pushing her. She begged, but he was relentless as he drove her to an exhilarating edge with his tongue and teeth and lips.

  She was dizzy and on fire by the time he released her arms and brought his mouth back to hers for another kiss. This time he delved deeper before dancing with her tongue in a give and take that led the way but didn’t dominate, fueling her desire to have more of him, feel more of him, take more of him.

  She shrugged off her bra and slid her hands everywhere she could reach. His shoulders, his back, his chest. His muscled body quivered to her touch. She filled her hands with his butt and pressed him tight to her sex, feeling the bulging fullness of his arousal. He groaned and thrust against her. She eased her fingers into the waistband of his jeans and boxers to brush over the hard, velvety tip of his erection and the dewy moisture beading there. He jerked in response as if an electric shock had ripped through him. She slid all the way inside and wrapped her hand around his shaft. He brought his mouth to hers and plunged his tongue into her in tandem to each thrust of his erection into her fist. He moaned deep, a guttural sound that said he too was over the edge and wanted more, demanded more.

  Breathing as heavily as she, he stepped back, forcing her to release him. “We don’t want this to be over just yet.” He brought his mouth to her neck where he feathered kisses over her shoulders, her breasts and her stomach, randomly brushing his tongue lightly to taste her, or nipping her skin before soothingly sucking until he reached the snap of her jeans.

  She clutched his sh
oulders. Her knees went weak at the thought of him loving her everywhere and she leaned heavily against the sink. It had been so long since she’d been touched or allowed herself to touch that she was both eager and hesitant.

  Jack was avid. He yanked on her zipper then pulled down her jeans and panties in one swift motion, barely helping her slip off her loafers and step from her clothes before he sank to his knees and looked up at her.

  She bit her lip. She stood naked before him, aware of every imperfection from C-section scar to pregnancy stretch marks, imperfections that he didn’t seem to see.

  “Damn, you’re crazy beautiful,” he whispered.

  She didn’t get the chance to tell him he was delusional because he slid his fingers to her sex, parted the folds and then, looking up at her, licked the exposed groove. Pleasure slammed into her. She cried out and shuddered as his tongue flicked back and forth. Then he stopped. She blinked at him, dazed and quivering. He stood up and she thought she would literally faint from her need.

  “Come on. I can make it the ten feet to do this right. Just barely though.” He led her to the first bed, pulled down the covers and urged her back. She tugged on the waistband of his jeans and watched as he stripped then went to his duffle bag and pulled out a box of condoms. He frowned at the box. “I hope these things don’t have an expiration date. It’s been a while.”

  “Join the club,” she murmured, her heart squeezing. Then she laughed at her own desperation because she wanted to yell at him to hurry. “I have an expiration date,” she said. “I am going to spontaneously combust if you don’t come finish what you started.”

  He arched a brow as he moved toward her and she melted even more. “Interesting. Just how long do I have before this said event?” He tossed an open condom on the bed, then the box of them as he looked down at her.

  “Not long.”

  “Long enough to do this?” He knelt at the bottom of the bed and lifted her foot to gently scrape his nail along her instep.

  “Oh my God,” Lauren gasped as her hips lifted involuntarily to the wild shock that hit the very center of her sex. She had no idea the places were connected.

  He gave her a knowing smile and followed the scrape with his tongue, riding her leg all the way up to the back of her knee before he released her. He did the same to her other leg then grasped her knees and spread her legs as wide as he could.

  “Do I have long enough to do this?” He snatched a thick pillow, folded it in half and urged her hips up. He slid the pillow beneath her, leaving the very heart of her splayed open to him. He nipped and licked the insides of her thighs until she thought she’d go crazy.

  “No,” she gasped, trying to urge his mouth to move the two inches to where her every cell burned for release. “You don’t have time for that.”

  “How about time for this?” He breathed hot air over her exposed sex and slid a finger inside her, circling her opening with teasing strokes.

  “Maybe,” she gasped, her hips undulating to the rhythm he set. As good as it all felt, it wasn’t the totally mind-blowing pleasure he’d sent slamming into her brain before. “Maybe not. Jack, I, oh, I so need—”

  He lowered his head and thoroughly kissed the hardened center of her desire and she shuddered in a mini-release that he took control of and revved higher. He sucked and stroked and nipped and licked, fueling her need into a full throttle that sent her on a rocket path toward a scorching orgasm. She convulsed and saw stars waver before her visionless eyes and thought she’d attained the peak of heaven until he slid up and thrust himself inside her, filling her past the point of completion. Yet she wanted more of him. He caressed the taut peaks of her breasts and kissed her as he began pumping hard and fast into her.

  She spiraled higher and wrapped her legs around his hips. She met his frenzied thrusts in an explosion of male to female. His need, his desperation, his shuddering shout of fulfillment catapulted her into an uncharted sea of pleasure.

  Unable to move, unable to breathe, unable to see, Lauren was sure she had either passed out or had died and went to heaven. Jack’s full weight was on her and it was wonderful.

  “Damn,” Jack whispered, breathless. He tried to lift up from the lush heaven of Lauren’s softness, but his arms shook too badly and he dropped back down. He laughed. “I think I expired. Spontaneously combusted.”

  Lauren had yet to move. Suddenly worried, he gave up on his muscles and rolled to his side, bringing her with him. She was alive at least. Her baby blues were staring at him. She looked dazed and deliciously sated and he unbelievably had the strong urge to do her over and over again. He was still inside her, condom secure on his semi-aroused dick, allowing him to enjoy the taut glove of her sex a few minutes longer. He couldn’t follow through with his urge to have her again at the moment, but the strength of it still coiled inside him.

  She suddenly sucked in air as if she hadn’t breathed in forever and then laughed too. “Ditto.” She sighed as if totally replete.

  He brushed a curl from her cheek and kissed her, wondering what in the hell he was doing and wondering what in the hell he should do next. As much as his guilt urged him to be honest with her, telling her the truth about Bill right now didn’t seem right. It would taint what he sensed was a once-in-a-lifetime-like experience for both of them. He couldn’t do it.

  Nor could he think about all of the crap they’d been through since he’d knocked on her door yesterday afternoon. A lifetime of training failed him. Rather than eating up the road and the satellite lines trying to dig deeper into the web of death spreading out from Collins’s deceit, the only thing Jack was capable of at the moment was wrapping his arms around Lauren, the wife of the man he’d killed, and breathing a soul-felt sigh of relief despite that dark cloud.

  When they’d reached the motel just a little while ago, he’d been completely done in. It wasn’t because of the bullet graze; he’d fought under worse circumstances for longer periods of time. It was because he’d failed her and because of what could have happened to her. That it was also because of what he felt for her, what he shouldn’t feel for her, he ignored. He didn’t want to acknowledge it because it couldn’t be real and he knew without a doubt that anything beyond the here and now with her was an impossible dream.

  He turned his mind back to what he needed to be thinking about. Somehow he should have put two and two together at Gardner’s place and come up with a ten. That he hadn’t and she’d almost paid the price for it had wiped him out and left him shaken to the very core of his being. She didn’t know it, but they’d reached the end of the line for her active involvement in solving this mystery surrounding Collins. Another thing he wasn’t going to tell her about now.

  So what could he say? She’d sent him off his sexual charts. He’d thought he’d reached his sexual peak in his early twenties, had hot memories of hot sex, but nothing could hold a candle to the orgasm he just had. He couldn’t say anything because it wasn’t something meant to last. It was a dream that he could only hold for a moment.

  His stomach rumbled, protesting its starved state.

  “Sounds as if you’re still hungry.” She smiled.

  “I am. In more ways than one.” He slid his hand to her breast and rubbed his thumb over her coral nipple, his mouth watering again for the feel and taste of her.

  Her gaze widened. “Seriously?” She sounded intrigued, which turned him on even more.

  “You bet.” His semi arousal inched closer to attention. “Even Kryptonited. Superman has a reputation to uphold.”

  The room phone rang. She froze and he tensed. The outside world and all that they’d been through spewed into the room like tear gas grenade.

  “Any reason for the clerk to call?” Gory from the bullet graze, he’d sat in the car while she’d checked them in.

  “Not that I know of.”

  Flipping their position, he slid away from and regrettably out of Lauren to answer the phone. Having his hot moment turned cold and being forced to clutch a w
et condom in his fist, left him sorely irritated. Not to mention the fact that it ripped away his sense of anonymity. Had they been discovered? “What is it?”

  “Uhhum. This is the front desk.”

  “And?”

  “Your wife forgot to sign the registration paper.”

  “Later,” Jack said. “We’re busy right now if you understand what I mean.” He hung up the phone amid Lauren’s shocked cry. She’d snatched the sheet up to cover herself and sat, glaring at him. He forced a grin. Had it been anyone else on the phone, a wrong number, or even no one, Jack would have had Lauren out of there in heartbeat. Needing a guest to sign in sounded legit, so they’d stay the night.

  “You all but told him that we were having sex.” The blush on her cheeks was refreshing.

  He leaned over and cupped her chin with his free hand. “Making love.” He kissed her. “Having sex doesn’t quite cover it in my book.” Letting her go, he headed to the bathroom, wondering what in the hell possessed him to say that to her. It was a truth that didn’t need to be told. He directed the conversation back to the clerk. “The man could have waited for you to check out to sign the paper. You paid cash, so it’s not like he needed the signature to process a payment. Besides it’s not like he doesn’t already imagine every couple is getting it on while he sits lonely at the desk. In fact, he probably looks for any excuse to call just so he can interrupt. I just made him squirm for his jolly.”

  Lauren’s voice followed him. “That’s so paranoid and jaded and…and probably true. You’re so bad.”

  He laughed and canned the condom. A glance in the mirror made him realize it was a total miracle that Lauren had even kissed him. He looked like a zombie from Elm Street waiting on Freddy. He popped his head back out to look at her, just to make sure he hadn’t just dreamed it all. She’d scooted to the edge of the bed, her golden hair a wild sexy mess, her lips kiss-swollen, and her delectable body barely covered with a sheet.