From Mission to Marriage

by Lyn Stone

  “Get back inside!” he commanded, pointing to their shelter. “I just got you dry and warm!”

  She opened her mouth to catch a drink. “Worrywart, I’m okay now.”

  Okay didn’t begin to cover it. Clay couldn’t help but stare. Pale copper skin, high firm breasts with nipples like juicy berries, long slender legs braced to steady her in the driving rain, she provided a vision like none he had ever seen. Her hair streamed over her shoulders and back, clinging like dark wet silk. Her lips were slightly parted now and her eyes closed as they met the continuing downpour.

  Rain goddess, that was what she was. A more beautiful sight would be impossible to imagine. Clay simply stood there and relished it while he could, knowing it was a moment that would live in his mind and heart forever.

  He didn’t realize he had moved until he was right in front of her, nearly touching.

  She opened her eyes then and smiled. “We could be the only two people in the world,” she said. “Doesn’t it feel unreal?”

  He couldn’t speak. He couldn’t even nod. He knew exactly what she meant. He had almost lost her. They were together, impervious to any outside forces, isolated from all regulations and rules, alone with the elements. Nothing else in the world mattered.

  She seemed to float as she closed the small distance that separated them. When her hand touched his face, traced the wet surface of it with her fingers, the contact erased any qualms Clay had ever had about possessing her. He slid his arms around her, lifted her gently and took her inside the cave.

  Chapter 10

  V anessa reached up for him as he knelt above her.

  “I should check on the fire,” he muttered, his mouth so close to hers, she could feel the warmth of his breath on her lips.

  “Yes…fire,” she agreed. She had felt embers glowing in her midsection even before he’d mentioned it and now they were a crackling blaze even the driving rain couldn’t quench. She met his lips and took them with a hunger she had never known with another man.

  He suddenly broke the kiss and looked down at her. “I am not making love to you here.”

  “Talking to me or yourself?” she whispered, smiling her wickedest smile.

  He smiled back. “Both. I just want to hold you.”

  “Liar,” she groaned. His resolve was obviously stronger than hers in this instance and she knew he was right. This was neither the place nor the time.

  Swiftly he pulled the blanket up around them as they lay side by side.

  As simply holding went, he was a master at it. He embraced her as if he’d never let her go. “God, I thought you were a goner,” he muttered, kissing her ear, her hair where it was plastered to her head by the rain. His lips were warm against her cheek.

  Gently, he massaged her arm, then higher, still checking for damage to her shoulder, but he did it in the guise of soothing her. She relaxed and ignored the aches and twinges of pain in her muscles.

  He had wonderful hands, a magic touch. If he wasn’t a medicine man, he should be, she thought with a smile. If only he would unbend enough to make love to her, Vanessa knew she would feel better than ever. But he seemed determined to play the gentleman.

  “Why won’t you take me at my word?” she asked, her voice lazy with contentment. “I’m not even considering COMPASS. We could���”

  “No, we can’t,” he argued softly. “You could change your mind. You should change your mind. I couldn’t be objective about my recommendation if we were lovers, you know that.”

  “You can’t be objective now,” she accused, but without the heat of anger. “What does it matter?”

  “It matters to me,” he told her gently. “I want you to have every opportunity.”

  Except the very one she wanted most right now, Vanessa thought. But she closed her eyes and relished the comfort of having him next to her. He made her feel sheltered, treasured. He did care and didn’t mind if she knew it. Maybe he wasn’t as much of a loner as he thought he was.

  “You’re a prude, you know that? A big old sanctimonious prude!”

  He sighed and nuzzled her neck. “And you’re a wanton little witch trying to goad me into something that’s not good for you.” He pressed his lips against her throat. “If I ever make love to you, I want it to be perfect, soft lights���”

  “The fire’s pretty low,” she interrupted, snuggling closer.

  “Sweet music…”

  “Crickets will do. And the wind.”

  “Satin sheets…”

  She kissed him back. “Two out of three…”

  “Hush. I am not making love to you in the wild. Stop tempting me.”

  She cradled his face in her hands. “I want you, Clay. More than anything I’ve ever wanted in my life. In the wild. Right here, right now.”

  His mouth covered hers, devoured her with a passion she had only guessed at before. With nothing held back, he consumed her whole and left her breathless and wanting when he pulled away.

  She expected him to protest again, but instead, he slid his hand up her rib cage and over her breast, his caress gentle yet possessive. His palm felt cold against her warmth, but heated her even more with the contrast. She ached for him. Burned.

  “I wish I could see you,” he whispered, breathing into her ear, exciting her to fever pitch. “All of you.”

  His wickedly talented hands ran over her body as if memorizing every inch of her skin. She relished the sounds he made in his throat, deep growls of pleasure mixed with frustration. His shadow loomed above her, a dark silhouette that she welcomed, wanted to become part of. He brushed her mouth with his and kissed her again, deeply and thoroughly, his tongue mating with hers, demanding and giving, even as she knew his body would.

  She rose to meet each powerful thrust, gloriously lost in their kiss. They melded into one with a sharp rush of satisfaction, a culmination that should have been only the beginning. Her body shuddered and contracted against and around him, drawing a deep satisfied groan from him that she echoed with one of her own.

  He smiled against her face. “Satisfied now?”

  “If I had breath to purr, I would. What do you think?” she gasped.

  “Short and incredibly sweet,” he whispered. “You owe me time.”

  She liked it that he didn’t apologize. No reason to since he hadn’t jumped the gun. She had.

  “Next time, my way,” he promised.

  “What way is that?” she managed to ask, her breath still coming in fits and starts.

  “Slowly and in a more romantic setting. Like a bed.”

  She laughed and pinched his behind where her hand was resting. “Candy-ass.”

  He held her for a while longer, their bodies still joined. When he withdrew, Vanessa was half-asleep, her entire being as warm as melted butter. She gave a sigh and let her palm slide down his arm. He took her hand, interlaced their fingers and she drifted off, replete.

  Clay stirred the fire and added a few sticks he had located near the back of the cave. He should be cursing himself for wrecking her chances at the COMPASS job. Maybe he hadn’t. Mercier might understand and assign someone else to evaluate her.

  Clay didn’t even consider lying to his supervisor about taking advantage of Vanessa. His feelings for her were probably branded on his forehead like a big scarlet V. He had a feeling she had marked him for life.

  Now he needed to think about damage control. Surely when she succeeded in capturing or killing Hightower, that would work in her favor, no matter what his report about her said. The proof was in the pudding, so to speak. Her op would succeed.

  One thing he knew for certain: sex with Vanessa was definitely not enough to assuage whatever it was he felt for her. Even if their interlude had lasted all night long, it wouldn’t have been enough.

  He wanted more. He wanted her there when he woke every morning and when he retired every night. He wanted her laughter, her tears, her love, her children. God, he was hooked on her, pure and simple.

  He only pray
ed he hadn’t messed up her career. She would say she didn’t care about that right now, but he knew better. When her blood cooled in the cold light of day, she would hold this against him.

  Vanessa had made it very clear she wasn’t looking for a long-term relationship, much less marriage. She was a career woman through and through, as elusive and difficult to capture as quicksilver.

  She had wanted him and he had given in. AH pride aside, he would give in again before he left her if she would have him.

  With that in mind, he left the fire and went back to their little nest to hold her while he could.

  When she woke, she seemed reluctant to talk about what had happened. Clay decided not to push it. Maybe she just wanted to forget it had happened. No question that it shouldn’t have, but he was damned if he would apologize for something he would repeat if given half a chance.

  “Thanks for saving me,” she murmured. “Hope it doesn’t have to become a habit. I’m not usually such a klutz.”

  He brushed his palm down her arm and back up to her face and caressed it. “Klutz? You climbed that cliff like a little mountain goat. Some would have given up, but not you.”

  “I lost half our ammo,” she reminded him. “Also half our supplies.” No way could she have climbed up with that extra weight on her and he had known that. Disentangling the straps and pulling it up first might have sent her tumbling to the bottom of the gorge.

  “I was the one who cut it loose,” he reminded her. “We’ll make do with what we’ve got. I have a feeling Hightower’s not that far ahead and he has no reason to hurry unless he’s spotted us following him.”

  “Which is not impossible. I probably made enough racket when I fell to alert him. He could be waiting out there for us in the morning and pick us off as we go outside.”

  Clay released her and sat up, propping on one arm as he looked into the fire. “Then I’ll need to go after him tonight.”

  “And how will you find him? He grew up around here and knows this area like the back of his hand, Clay. The only way we’re going to get James is to either corner him somewhere or lure him to us.”

  “You think he would bite?”

  Vanessa shrugged with her uninjured shoulder. “I expect he wants my hide badly enough to take the time. And he has two days to kill before the festival if that’s what he’s waiting for.”

  “Let’s try it the other way first. I’d rather approach him out in the open than get cornered in here.” Clay knee-walked over to the fire and stoked it a little with a stick. He had placed some of the wet wood from the old fire pit around it to dry out. Now he added the smaller bits that were dry enough to burn. “We’ll leave here before daybreak.”

  “I’ll take the first watch,” Vanessa offered. “I’m not sleepy.”

  To her surprise, he let her. She checked her weapon and positioned herself near the mouth of the cave to stand sentinel.

  Clay might be a little overprotective, but he did trust her and knew she was capable. Her self-confidence badly needed the boost after her slip on the cliff and she knew he had somehow sensed that.

  In the hours that followed, she would be protecting him.

  Hightower had seen the two on his trail. He had to stay hidden until the festival the day after tomorrow and it came time to detonate, but he couldn’t let himself be captured even then. He could either avoid Vanessa and the fed she had with her, or get rid of them. This was a good place to do that.

  He would die before going back to prison and he sensed Vanessa might find a way of proving his guilt if he let her live long enough. Besides, he had already decided that she should die for what she’d done. And that federal lapdog was sticking to her like glue so she must have convinced him of her theories. As long as the bodies weren’t found, he’d be okay.

  So his first order of business was to eliminate these two chasing him and have his revenge on the woman responsible for his losing everything. He would lay a track anyone with half sense could follow and set his trap.

  When it was all over, he would convince Lisa Yellowhorse to furnish him with an ironclad alibi. After pointing the finger at him the way she had, she owed him. Now everyone was primed to believe her when she admitted how she had tried to set him up because of a lover’s spat. He might even let her live. Or not.

  Yeah, he had all the bases covered.

  Clay and Vanessa left the cave just before first light and trekked upward on Killbird Mountain. They had been at it for less than an hour when they found the first real clue to Hightower’s presence.

  “Look at this,” Clay said, pointing out a broken branch about waist high. “And there.” He motioned at the clear outline of a boot print on the ground.

  After several more blatant clues, he commented, “I don’t like it.”

  They continued, finding more prints and signs. “A clear trail,” she agreed. “He knows we’re after him and he’s setting us up.”

  Clay stopped and rested his hands on his hips. “I want you to go back and wait at the cave.”

  “Like hell. We’ve already had this argument,” she said pushing past him.

  “Wait.” He slid his hand around her elbow and stopped her. “With that shoulder injury, you won’t be in top form during a confrontation. I’d rather you sat this one out. Be reasonable, Vanessa.”

  “I am. You can see I’m fine.” She rotated her shoulder to show him she could. Clay noted the beads of sweat that broke out on her upper lip and the wince she was hiding behind suddenly firm lips.

  “The ability to follow orders is just as important as how you function on an assignment. Surely I don’t need to tell you that.”

  She yanked her aim out of his grasp. “Don’t patronize me, Clay! Mark it against me in your little assessment book if it makes you feel better, but I’m not bowing out of this. I don’t care about your appraisal or about the COMPASS job. Got it? I plan to stay on this and do what I do. This is my assignment. You’re only here to assist me or did you conveniently forget that?”

  He huffed. “Give it up, Vanessa. You’re not going any farther up this mountain if I have to tie you to a damn tree.”

  For a long moment, she glared angrily. Then she looked away, glancing up, then back down the way they had come. She chewed her bottom lip for a minute then shook her finger thoughtfully. “You know, neither of us should. He’s expecting that. I think we ought to set a little trap of our own and make him come to us.”

  Clay considered her suggestion. “What if he ignores us, stays up there and detonates as planned?”

  She shook her head, then leaned against a nearby tree, crossing her arms over her chest. “He needs to get rid of us, me in particular. Say he goes through with his plans and decimates everything below. How’s he planning to get back down the mountain and get away if we’re waiting for him. And whether those bombs go off or not, he knows we’ 11 be waiting.”

  “What do you have in mind?” Clay asked. So far, she had thought everything through very carefully, but this was an off-the-cuff impulse. It would be interesting to see how swiftly she could devise a workable scheme. He felt very proud of how neatly she had let go of her anger and suggested an alternate plan of action.

  “The cave’s a good place to stage it, I think,” she said. “James couldn’t have seen what happened to me on the cliff because of the low visibility. You and I could barely see each other.”

  “True. What’s your plan? If the visibility’s good when he returns, there’s no place to hide but in the cave.”

  She grinned. “We stage another accident. This time you will be the one who’s out of commission. Or better yet, out of the picture altogether. Then when he comes in to finish me off, we’ll grab him.”

  Clay saw several flaws in the plan. “What if he keeps his distance and picks you off?”

  She shook her head. “No. I know him. He’ll want to gloat a little, up close and personal.”

  “Maybe you’re right. He’s not a great shot. According to his service record
, he didn’t even make expert on the range.”

  “So it’s a pretty good assumption that he’ll come in close. But I don’t think he would risk that unless you weren’t a threat. You’re the unknown quantity for him.”

  “What about you? Surely he’s aware of how capable you are. You don’t get through FBI training unless you have top-notch skills. You took him down once.”

  She smiled. “He would never admit that had anything to do with skill, even to himself. James believes females are subhuman.”

  Clay pursed his lips and thought about it. “What about little Dilly? He obviously feels differently about his daughter. He wanted to see her.”

  “Ha! Don’t bet on that,” she said with a bitter chuckle. “He’s decided he has some use for her. Or maybe he was just curious to see if she looked anything like him. He constantly accused Brenda of having affairs, which she never did. I wish she had. I wish, by some stroke of luck, James really wasn’t Delinda’s father. If he ever got his hands on her, I shudder to think what her life would be like. After the way he treated Brenda…” She shook her head and shivered, rubbing her arms briskly with her palms.

  “Don’t worry about that,” Clay said, stepping closer, trying to reassure her. “He’ll never get near her. We’ll see to it, right?”

  She nodded, then took a deep breath and smiled. “Absolutely. Now, we need to get back to the cave and decide how to set up something that will boost James’s confidence and get him in close.”

  She moved around Clay, careful not to brush against him, and started walking back the way they’d come.

  They were both being so cautious today, trying to prevent the current that arced between them each time they drew near one another. Avoidance wasn’t working. Being so close and not touching only made him want her more. He would never get over this. He’d never get over her.

  She marched swiftly now on her downhill path, all business. “I’m thinking we should stage something similar to what happened to me. Only you wouldn’t appear to be as lucky as I was. What do you think?”

  “You want me to go over the edge? That’s pretty risky. What if I can’t get back up fast enough?”