by Zoe Dawson
He gripped her hips, his body nail-hard and sliding deeply. Her muscles locked and tightened, and yet she smiled, met him and thrust harder. Her whispers mingled with the mist from the shower, their secrets bared and unspoken drifting between them.
He grasped her breasts, thumbing her nipples, and the sight of him disappearing into her tormented her. She spared him nothing.
Her body rippled like the ocean breaking, battering him in sleek waves of pleasure, and she quickened, thrusting longer and harder.
“Oh, Dex,” she said, drawing his name out. She couldn’t breathe, her body beyond her control and his. She came, watching as her surrender broke him. He threw back his head and let go, pumping into her as he cried out.
He wrapped his arms around her and held her as she clung to him. In a few hours, they were going to be exposed again, go into battle unsure and in the dark. But she had changed here, and he had done something she hadn’t thought possible—shown her a different kind of passion, a deeper intimacy. She bit her lip as the guilt consumed her, and she fought against it. There wasn’t anything to feel guilty about. Despite the short time that had passed, Dex had changed her, changed her so deeply she hadn’t even begun to understand that depth. She was a different person. It also frightened her more than going into battle, more than losing her life. It scared her down to her soul, to the core of her heart where she had loved so unconditionally before she hadn’t been able to get over it. Now there was another man, a man that meant as much to her. How could she open herself to that again? How could she take it and feel completely safe that she wouldn’t go through the same kind of agony again?
She hungered for what she had found with Dex. But his profession… She couldn’t stop that fear again. It was raw and real and scored her insides—and broke her heart.
His chest heaving, he held her so tightly, as if he thought she might disappear if he let go. After a few moments, they separated, washed up and shampooed their hair. Rinsing off, he took her hand to support her as she stepped out. He turned and shut off the water.
She grabbed a fluffy white towel and started to pat at his stitches until all the moisture was absorbed and they were dry. Then a feeling of acute tenderness washed over her. She leaned down and kissed his injury from the top of the stitches all the way down to his waist. He buried his hand into her wet, short blonde hair and kneaded, his touch saying it all.
“How is your wound?”
He grinned to alleviate the thickness in the air. “All better now.”
“Dex.”
“I barely felt it,” he said, leaning down and kissing her softly.
Lieutenant Dexter Kaczewski had unraveled for her and she couldn’t get enough.
Big, bad Navy SEAL. An officer, no less, and that put him a cut above. The elite’s leader. That was so sexy, all that brilliance, combat-ready focus, intensity. He was so hooyah ready, such a tough piece of work—tempered steel. It took a lot to make steel melt. She shivered and he buried his face in her neck.
Slowly their bodies relaxed as they breathed together, still locked in each other’s arms, him smelling oh-so-good, all overheated male.
“You okay?” he asked.
“Oh, yeah. You know how to carry out some orders, Lieutenant.” She rubbed her face hard against his jaw and he grinned.
“Yeah, I got that overwhelm-and-conquer thing down.”
“Hooboy, do you ever.”
Piper attended to her hair and it felt so good to be squeaky clean, and what a way to take a shower. She highly recommended it.
Back in the bedroom, she could see Dex standing before a mirror, already dressed in the black slacks, white shirt and slim black tie that Blessing had purchased. Hot damn, the man was stone-cold gorgeous.
The garment bag was open on the bed and there were delicate, lacy navy-blue undies, an exquisite matching bra, white and navy striped short-sleeved T-shirt and a pair of navy linen pants. She’d also included a pair of flat red sandals. “Blessing has quite good taste,” Piper said as she fingered the material and gave him another appreciating glance.
He sat on the edge of the bed, his eyes trailing over her shoulders and the white terry cloth wrapped around her. He reached out and gave the towel a tug. As it slipped off her, he smiled. “You better get dressed because, from what I remember, you were quite a good taste.”
She reached for the panties and slipped them on. “You cheeky devil. Do not distract me.”
“Okay, I’ll just watch.”
She had the bra half on when she felt his warm fingers on her back, then him hooking the clasps. “I thought you said you were only going to watch.”
“I couldn’t keep my hands to myself,” he murmured, sliding his fingers down her back.
She stepped away and finished dressing. Sitting down next to him, she slipped on the sandals.
“Could you tie my shoes?” he asked. “It hurts to bend over.”
“You didn’t seem to have a problem in the shower.”
“I was crouching in the shower. This is a little different…oh,” he said when he saw the gleam in her eyes. “You’re teasing me.”
“A little.” She moved off the bed and in front of him. Taking the shiny black oxfords, she slipped the shoe on one foot and tied it, then the other.
He slid his hands under her arms and dragged her up, kissed her and let her go. “One more thing I need help with.” He fished the leather gun harness out of the backpack and she took it out of his hands. He spun around and she fitted the straps up his arms and over his broad shoulders. She moved around him and, with unsteady fingers, fastened the buckle.
“Thank you,” he said as she smoothed her hands over his shirt.
She moved behind him and picked up the jacket, setting it so he could easily slip his arms into the sleeves and adjust the collar.
He dumped out the contents of the backpack and picked up the wallet, gun, badge and passport, pocketing everything. The last thing he reached for were the dark shades. He put them on.
Her purse was ruined, but Blessing had provided her with a pretty navy clutch.
She walked over to the tumble of clothes on the floor and fished out the headscarf Afsana had given her. The print was beautiful, the cloth finely woven. She smoothed her hand over it.
“Are those my bars?”
“Yes, I kept them safe. Do you want them…?”
“No, Piper, you keep them for now.”
She shook the keffiyeh out and folded it neatly. This had protected her and saved Dex’s life. She wanted it.
She tucked it into the small black suitcase, nestling it along with the gorgeous lacy black nightwear, a change of underwear and a pair of gray cotton men’s shorts.
“She really is very thoughtful.”
He nodded. “A gem.”
He threw the now-empty backpack in the waste bin with the discarded Afghani clothes.
Without looking back, they left the room.
They hailed a cab at the curb and Dex said something in Pashto. The cabbie eyed her in the rearview, and she kept her eyes straight ahead, putting on her professional face. Her palms still got moist, but she was probably reacting to the fact that someone wanted her dead.
He put the cab in gear, and they navigated the congested streets of Kabul. At the checkpoint, Dex flashed his DS badge and they got through. Dex spoke again, and the cabbie took them to the commercial charter area of the airport. Dex grabbed the bag and they exited the vehicle, paying with money that Blessing had provided.
There was some delay in getting Dex approved because he was carrying a firearm, but once they saw his DS badge and her senatorial identification, they boarded with no issue.
Once inside, they settled in the posh, cream leather seats and buckled up.
They were headed back to DC, and now Piper was even more nervous. At least here she knew her enemy. But now Hatch and Markam were dead, and the other men with Markam also eliminated by Dex’s brute force and the skills her brother taught her.<
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But at home her enemy was unknown, and the city felt just a tad more dangerous than Afghanistan.
Chapter Eleven
City Jail, Kabul, Parwan Province, Afghanistan
“Kai Talbot.”
“Boss.”
The supervisory special agent in charge and Austin’s superior might be as gorgeous as a runway model, but her no-nonsense tone told Austin that she was one top-notch agent, which he’d seen firsthand. He had great respect for her.
“What have you got for me, Beck?” she asked, and it sounded like she was outside.
“Two suspects and news on Lieutenant Kaczewski and Senator Jones.” Their coup in Safid Darreh had netted them a wealth of information and one shocker of a secret.
“Excellent. I’m listening.” The muffled sound of her car door opening and closing came through the receiver. Then it was much quieter on the other end of the line.
Austin leaned against the wall in the small room. “They’re both alive, as far as we can tell. We tracked them to a village about ten miles from Bagram, where they were holed up for three days. Kaczewski had his stitches pulled out and got a fever. The senator walked all the way to Charikar dressed as a man to get him antibiotics.”
Kai whistled low. “Wow, the senator’s got moxie.”
Exactly what Austin thought. She was brave as hell.
“We got two live ones at the village. One of them is the co-owner of Outcast, Ted White. They’re up to their eyeballs in trouble. The other guy, Aaron Patrick, works for them off the books, if you know what I mean. And so did Martin Carter.”
There was silence on the other end of the line. “Martin Carter, the dead merc the SEALs retrieved from Kaczewski’s op. Those Marines were used to lure the SEALs into an ambush. The director and SECNAV are going to be pissed.” The sounds of her getting out of the car and the closing of elevator doors were audible. “Kaczewski was the target?”
Austin shifted. “No. Tyler Prescott.”
“The plot thickens.”
“It gets more interesting. No wonder Kaczewski is keeping Senator Jones off the radar. He’s not sure who he can trust, and Talbot, neither am I. Someone high up had to have worked the deal.”
She huffed out a breath. “Do we have any names?”
“Unfortunately, no. White and Kruger don’t know, so they say. They are pointing fingers at Markam. But Kaczewski killed him in Safid Darreh.”
It frustrated Austin to no end, but there was no way to get any information out of a dead guy. “Markam apparently recruited DS Agent Hatch. Markam, who met Kruger when he was working in Kabul during deployment as a Marine, was the one who came to Outcast with five mil. And get this, the client apparently changed the deal to include the senator after they bungled the mission and Tyler survived. They upped it to another five mil for her death. Two targets with one stone.”
Austin rubbed his tired eyes. “I don’t like unanswered questions.” He couldn’t remember the last time he’d slept. He stretched his back, watching Derrick through the interrogation window as he grilled Kruger, who kept shaking his head. Jesus, that man could look scary—deadly when he wanted to…and relentless. They’d been going at these guys for two days. Finally, the flunky, Patrick, had broken, implicating both White and Kruger. After that, it was just a matter of who could talk the fastest.
“Anything else?” She sounded impatient.
Derrick’s a dad. But that wasn’t the kind of information you spilled on your fellow agent to your boss. It was personal. Obviously. Austin still was processing this information. Whatever Austin thought he’d known about Derrick “007” Gunn, it was deeper and darker than he could have guessed, a huge secret he was harboring. He’d fathered a child with a beautiful Afghani woman who was, uh, married…oh, about eight years ago, when he couldn’t have been very wet behind the ears. But as they loaded up the three dead bodies into the back of the Jeep and shoved the revived Patrick into the backseat with White, Derrick gave Austin the type of look that said: If you ask, I will kick your ass and you’ll be bruised and sore without me telling you a damn thing because it’s none of your damn business.
Austin did not ask.
“I’m getting ready to drive to Charikar and speak to Dr. Blessing Contee. She’s the WHO doctor who Afsana Jamal told us stitched up Kaczewski and drove him and the senator to Kabul. Hopefully we can get a location on them.”
Kai lowered her voice. “When you do find them, keep that under wraps.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“In the meantime, I will start the extradition of Kruger, White and Patrick. Nationalities?”
“Kruger is South African, and White is Australian. Patrick is American. I’ll send a team over to Outcast and go over their files and computers with a fine-tooth comb and get it all shipped back to San Diego.”
“Roger that,” she said. “Austin, good job, and watch your back.”
“Thank you, and yes, ma’am.”
Hours later after he’d spoken to a closed-mouthed and apparently clueless Dr. Contee, he called Talbot back.
“She says she doesn’t know where they went,” he said, hearing his own irritation blowing back at him. “But on the drive back, I figure the senator has some pull. Maybe she chartered a jet. So I drove over to the airport and, sure enough, she has a jet company on retainer. They took off twenty-three hours ago for DC. Looks like she’s going home to work out this problem.”
“Resourceful. Which means they’ve already landed in DC.”
“Yeah, she’s got that SEAL with her.” That much Contee would cough up. Her husband, Pierre, a mountain of a man, was quite intimidating. “I called Kaczewski’s commanding officer and he’s not heard one word, but I didn’t give him any information because I’m not sure who we can trust. It’s not good if the guys gunning for her hear she’s back on home turf.” The SEAL had kept her safe this long. Maybe it was better for them to follow up leads and try to find out why Tyler Prescott had been targeted.
“Agreed. Extradition orders came through for Kruger and White. You and Gunn get back here and then you’re on the next military transport to DC.”
He’d better get his z’s on the plane; he sure wasn’t going to get an opportunity in the next couple of days for a deep bed rest. Hell, REM sleep was overrated.
Washington, DC
As soon as Piper and Dex breezed through the charter airport security, he changed into jeans and a T-shirt, ditching the suit into the waste bin, while Piper changed into a pair of black capri pants and a multicolored crop top along with a baseball cap and dark glasses. She refused to throw away the gorgeous outfit she was wearing and stuffed everything into the suitcase. She pulled her hair into a short ponytail and it peeked out of the back of the cap. She looked like a teenaged tourist. Dex bought them two burner phones.
Piper called her car service, relieved to be home, but she still felt like she had a target on her back. Until they discovered who was trying to kill her, she wasn’t exactly safe just yet. They waited inside the airport until the car pulled up. They got inside and she told the driver to take her home. As soon as they were in the stop-and-go of downtown DC, they slipped out of the car and escaped into the subway, traveling to the Cleveland Park Public Library.
Dex went to the desk and asked to use one of their private reading rooms, and with a smile the woman nodded and directed him down the hall.
They entered the room and closed the door. Dex called his dad and pushed the speakerphone button.
“Admiral Kaczewski.”
“Dad.”
“Dex!” He pulled in a hard breath and let it out. “Son, it’s good to hear your voice. Where are you?”
“In DC.”
“What?” he said sharply, then lowered his voice. “Where?”
His father’s response made his chest a bit tight. “I can’t tell you. It’s safer if I keep Piper with me and only I know where she is.”
His father sighed. Using his best admiral voice, he said, “I’ve b
een getting updates from NCIS. Let them handle this.” It was his father’s way to mitigate the situation but turning Piper over to NCIS was like condemning her to death. He wouldn’t, not even for his father.
“No, I can’t,” he said firmly, needing his father to understand how much she meant to him without actually voicing it. Piper was standing there listening to everything he said. “If something happened to her because I walked away, I couldn’t live with that. We don’t know how far this goes and NCIS isn’t immune. Somebody with deep pockets and a lot of pull is trying to kill her.” Her face went white and he wasn’t sure if it was because his father wanted him to walk away or the fact that she was in so much danger. He didn’t care. He wasn’t going to turn her over to anyone.
There was silence and then his father’s resigned voice. “I see your point.”
“You just don’t like that I’m in harm’s way.” Dex tried to lighten the tense situation, but his father would find nothing amusing about Dex with a target on his back.
Surprisingly, his father chuckled as if he knew his own kid too well. “Son, I know you’re always in harm’s way, but I understand that you feel responsible for this woman.”
Dex clenched his jaw. He felt way more than just responsible for her. Their eyes met and he smiled encouragingly. He knew her, knew she was churning inside, knew her in a way that went beyond carnal knowledge to some other place that defied rational thought or logic. He was utterly himself with her, in a way he’d never been with Melissa or Suzy. No walls, no guarded moments. He was realistic and understood that he would walk away when this was over. But he wasn’t sure he could handle losing Piper, having her reject him and what he did for a living. Most women would.
Right now, he simply said what was true. “I’m all she has. All she can trust right now. I can’t abandon her.” He reached out and brushed his fingers over her downy cheek. “She saved my life,” he said simply, with heartfelt emotion tingeing his words.
His father’s voice was subdued. “All right. Then I’m on board. What are you going to do?”
