Shoot to Thrill (19 page)

“I’ll look for it again,” she said. “Lie down and do a couple of leg exercises. That should help.”

Exercise?
He’d had more than enough of that, damn it. What he needed was the SATCOM so he could call for some goddamn help. Instead of thinking about how much he wanted her to lie down with him and start all over again with the exercise.

“And maybe a couple of aspirin?” he asked. Better yet, a freaking cold shower . . . And a bottle of—No. Not that.

“I’ll see what I can do.”

Crawling deeper into the cave, as far away from her as he could get, he pulled the parachute along and sprawled onto it again with a grunt. The night was still hot, but it was cooler back there. He took off his jacket as he turned over onto his back, and tucked it under his head as a pillow, stacking his hands between.

All right, fine.
He lifted his leg with a grimace.

She snapped a small flashlight on and flicked the beam around. “Look what I found.”

“What about the SATCOM?” He lifted it again.

“Hmm.” She shook out the rest of the contents and went through them. “Tool kit, mess kit, spade, a big knife, first aid kit, looks like a roll of maps, bottle of sunblock, thank God, and . . . a space blanket.” She shook her head. “Sorry. No radio.”

Naturally
it was the wrong pack. It had just been that kind of day.

Now what? What the hell would he do with her? He
had
to get to the training camp where abu Bakr and his terrorists were preparing their attack before it was too late. He thought about Lafayette. Prayed he’d survived. Prayed harder he’d found the other pack.

He lifted his leg again. Surprisingly, the pain was gone. He was shaky as hell, his heart still felt like a locomotive at times, and the cravings were never-ending, but the actual pain had vanished as quickly as it had struck.

He could live with that.

“What will we do?” Rainie asked. She had that look on her face again, gazing up at him like he was her savior. But the hero-worship was mixed with something else. Something that had to do with him having just been inside her.

Damn.

“I’m sure Lafayette’s found the other pack.” Now they just had to find Lafayette. “Did you mention a first aid kit?”

For aspirin, for his leg cramps.
Not
the strip of condoms it was ZU protocol to keep in all their kits. How many more opportunities would that make? Six? Seven? He stifled a groan.

The flashlight snapped off and she crawled over to his side and took his hand. “Here.” Two pills dropped onto his palm.

He popped them and swigged down another gulp of water. “Thanks.”

She was sitting on her heels, her perfect, half-nude body silhouetted against the night sky, her long pale hair in tangles from the violence of their lovemaking.
So fucking gorgeous.

“It really hurts?” she asked.

“A bit achy,” he said. But it wasn’t his leg that ached. It was something deep in his chest. That had nothing to do with his drug withdrawal.

“What about . . . How are you doing with . . .” From her carefully neutral tone and eyes he knew she’d clued into his discomfort. Let her chalk it up to that. Not what it was really about.

He let out a tight sigh. The craving for the drug was still there, devouring his gut like a wolverine. But he wasn’t going to let it win. Not this time. He’d managed to function despite it all day. Even entombed in the sand, the craving hadn’t ever taken him over totally. Close. But not completely.

“I’ll be fine.”

And somehow he knew he would. About that, anyway. It was rough, but he’d make it. One day, sometimes one minute, at a time.

“I’m in awe of you, you know,” she said quietly.

Surprise jolted through him. “
Me?
Why?”

She picked at a seam on the fluttering parachute, avoiding his gaze. “Because you’re not afraid. Not of anything. And even with the withdrawal and your leg and all, you’re so damn . . . good at what you do. Here in this horrible place, I’m barely keeping it together. But you, you’re hardly even fazed.”

That he was shocked by her praise was an understatement. He was so undeserving of it. Him not afraid? She couldn’t be more mistaken. He was petrified. And he would be until he delivered her out of this place. Unharmed.

An unexpected wash of emotions seeped through his insides. Emotions so unfamiliar he couldn’t begin to decipher them.

And he sure as hell didn’t want to try.

“It’s my job,” he said more gruffly than he’d meant to.

She surprised him again by lying down next to him. Her body felt warm. Silky soft. So different from the hardness all around. From the hardness of his life. From . . . him.

“Besides, you’ve got it all wrong,” he said, giving in to the desire to gather her in his arms. “You, Lorraine Martin, are the bravest person I’ve ever met. And I really hate myself for getting you into this mess.”

“The biggest
coward
, you mean,” she countered. “And if I don’t hate you, you aren’t allowed to.”

“But you’ve got to hate me. If it weren’t for me—”

She put her hand on his chest. “I just made love with you, didn’t I?”

He gave her a wry smile. “Not what I would call it.”

She poked him in the ribs.

“Besides,” he said, “relief sex doesn’t count. And you’ve made it pretty clear you don’t want anything to do with me after we get back.” Hell, that sounded petulant, even to him.
Great.

“Not because of you,” she said softly.

“That’s not what you said back at your apartment. And again after I woke up from the detox.” God, was he
whining
?

“That was before I understood what you were up against.”

The weight of her hand on his chest was like a brand. Under it, his heart squeezed. She
still
didn’t understand, didn’t know what he really was. If she knew the real truth about him, how could she not hate him?

Better to put some distance between them. Remind her of what he’d done to her. “So you’re saying you’ve forgiven me for trying to use you that first night?”

She toyed with a curl of his chest hair. And shocked him even more. “To be perfectly fair,” she said, “I’d intended to use you, too, you know.”

He raised an incredulous brow. “Is that so.”

“For sex,” she said. Even in the darkness he could see her naughty smile.

He laughed out loud. “Oh, yeah. And I would have given in kicking and screaming, let me tell you.”

She poked him again.

Yeah, he knew that was why she’d been at that speed dating event. For sex. As soon as he’d spotted her across the crowded ballroom, he’d known instinctively what she was looking for. He also knew she’d singled him out as her desired partner the first moment she’d laid eyes on him. She’d wanted sex with
him
. No one else.

Talk about a turn-on.

“There’s something I don’t understand,” he said, going onto his side so he could breathe in the scent of her, soak up the sight of her tempting body.

“What’s that?”

He reached out to touch her hair, wound an errant lock around his finger. “Why would a smart, beautiful woman like you need to use a stranger like me for sex? You must have men lining up to ask you out. Rich doctors and such.”

She pushed out a warm breath. Her fingers traced over his chest, slowly sketching circles down his abdomen. His cock thickened and reached up for her.

“I suppose I have . . . issues,” she said with a self-conscious shrug. “I’m not really interested in a relationship. I was only there because my friend Gina talked me into it.”

“To get you some.”

The corner of her mouth curved up, almost shyly. “Her idea. Not mine. She said I should find someone safe, have a good time in a safe place.”

“And look how well
that
turned out.”

She let out a wry laugh. “Yeah.”

Their eyes collided and held. He thought about her not wanting a relationship. That was huge. On one level it bothered him like crazy. She was so attractive in so many ways, any guy would be lucky to have her all to himself. On the other hand, that guy would never be him, so he was selfishly pleased no other man would get the chance.

His body was even more pleased. He was hard as the ground they were lying on. God, he was twisted.

And ravenous.

Why fight it?

He brushed his lips over hers. Burning.

“But you didn’t want it safe,” he murmured in a sudden flash of insight. “You like the danger, don’t you, Rainie?”

At her protest, he pulled her into his arms and her mouth parted on an intake of breath as he slid his hand over her breast. He painted his tongue across her bottom lip. Tasted her, and let out a rumble of need.

God, how had he not understood that before? She was terrified of cars and planes and guns and violence, but she had chosen the only truly dangerous man that had shown up at the speed dating, and had practically seduced him after he’d kidnapped her at gunpoint. And now, after surviving this unholy day, in this god-awful place, she’d given him the hottest sex he’d ever had in his life.

Terrified or no, the danger turned her on.

And that turned
him
on.

“Safe isn’t really an option here, Rainie,” he murmured, unbuttoning his DCUs again. “Not here. Not with me.” He rolled his body over hers. “So how about going for another round of danger?”

ELEVEN

“WE
should get going.”

Kick’s body was spooned over Rainie’s back, his arms around her from behind, heavy in that way a man’s weight could be that made a woman not only endure it but wish he would linger forever. She loved the feel of him on her. Over her. In her. And she’d finally stopped shaking with fear. Stopped even thinking about anything outside the confines of their cozy hideaway.

So his out-of-the-blue statement was like a dash of chilly water. She blinked in alarm.

“Going? Why?” Surely, he didn’t intend for them to leave the relative safety of the cave? “Where?”

“We have to find Lafayette and that other field pack, and be long gone before dawn.”

He placed a kiss below her ear, his breath spilling warm and moist over her skin. He was still a little winded from their last explosive bout of lovemaking. Or sex. Or whatever you wanted to call it.

Lord have
mercy
.
The second time he’d done her so hard they’d left a long, hollow groove in the sand under the parachute. Then he’d flipped her over and done her even harder.

She’d enjoyed every rough, erotic moment. But honestly, she didn’t think she could walk, let alone hike out of here without risking collapse.

“How long until dawn?” she asked. Maybe if she got some sleep . . .

He turned his head to glance out at the night sky. “Not for several hours. Maybe three before we need to get going in earnest. We want to be a good distance away before the tangos return.”

She turned to follow the direction of his gaze.

The night was dark. Relentlessly dark. She’d thought she’d seen nighttime back in the city, but she’d been wrong. She had never seen a night so completely, indelibly black as the one that hovered outside the cave. She didn’t know what made her shiver more: the thought of being captured by those men, or the thought of going out there in that unremitting darkness.

“How will we find our way?” she asked, anxiety starting to creep through her already weakened limbs.

“Moon’s up,” Kick said matter-of-factly, “and look at all those stars. Perfect conditions for recon work.”

Recon?
Didn’t that mean to search, and thus be able to see? She frowned and looked outside again. Okay, maybe there were a lot of stars piercing the inkiness of the sky. About a billion of them. She hadn’t noticed that before. But—“I don’t see the moon.”

“Look at the opposite cliff. See how it almost glows?”

She hadn’t noticed that, either. The burnt orange of the rock face popped out against the black sky above as though lit by muted klieg lights. And the yellow tops of the serpentine ridges of the dunes below snaked along the floor of the wide riverbed in stark relief against the black, hollow void all around.

It was actually . . . incredibly lovely.

Or maybe her senses were biased to the positive by the amazing pleasure she’d just experienced. Anything would look good in the endorphin rush of a mind-altering orgasm like Kick had just given her.

Let alone three.

He kissed her again and lifted up off her back, slapping her on the tush. “Better put on some clothes. I don’t want Lafayette getting ideas.”

The reminder of the STORM agent sent another harsh dose of reality coursing through her. How could they possibly find him in the dark?

But they had to find him. With any luck he had the radio. And they could finally call someone to come rescue them. The faster she got out of this godforsaken desert, the better.

Not to mention away from the man pulling on his clothes. Lord help her. Again, the incredible sex was clouding her judgment. It was unacceptable how he was already invading her mind. Influencing her emotions. Making her think about his awesome ability to reduce her to a limp puddle of pleasure instead of how to escape this horrible situation and get back to her safe, secure life at home.

No doubt about it, Kick Jackson was walking, talking dangerous. Everything about him spelled danger. He was the last man on earth to fit into that safe, careful life she had carved for herself from the chaos and violence of New York City. Great sex or not.

“How will they rescue us, do you think?” she asked, to get her mind off it. Off
him
.

“Helicopter, probably. Either that or they’ll contact the DFP refugee camp to send out a vehicle. Though that could be dicey with the tangos chasing us.”

Mild shock made her glance up from putting on her sneakers. “The DFP camp? As in Doctors for Peace?”

“Yup.”

“As in the DFP refugee camp
Nathan Daneby
started?”

“That’s the one.”

Okay, this was too weird. She could almost hear the theme from the
Twilight Zone
wafting down from outer space.