Deadly Descent (16 page)

Fuck
.

He pulled back, breathing hard, and stared down into her flushed face.
Her eyes were dilated, lips swollen, her fingers digging into his shoulders.
She moved her hips against his, a throaty moan escaping as another shiver rippled through her taut body.
“Don’t stop,” she whispered.

Cam shook his head, jaw clenched so hard it ached.
“No.”

She stilled and stared up at him, eyes searching his.
“W-what?”

He released the back of her neck and settled his hands on her hips to hold her still.
“No,” he repeated, dying with the need to push into her.
Inches from losing control.
“I’m not taking you out here against a fucking wall, Devon.” Not here where anyone might walk in on them, where anyone could hear her cries of release.
And not with only a twenty minute window to work with.
She deserved a hell of a lot better than that.
“Look at me.”

He waited until her dazed eyes focused on his before continuing.
“When I take you it’ll be in a big, soft bed with no time limit and enough privacy so I can take my time touching and tasting every inch of you.
Got that?”

Devon shuddered at his words, blinking fast as though fighting tears.
Tears of frustration, because she was hurting as badly from the need for release as he was.
“But I don’t…How?
When?”

He wrapped himself around her and held her close, absorbing the tremors running through her muscles.
“Soon.” He’d damned well find a way to make it happen if it killed him, but right now he was pissed off at himself for letting things get out of hand.

Her breathing was still choppy.
“I don’t…I can’t wait that long.”

“Baby,” he whispered, cuddling her close, cradling the back of her head as she buried her face in his neck.
He should be shot for tormenting her when he’d known from the outset he could never finish this.
He could at least give her some relief before walking away.
He could slide his hands into her pants, ease his fingers into the wet folds between her thighs and make her come to relieve the desperate trembling of her body.
Dropping a tender kiss on the side of her neck, he smoothed a hand over the curve of her bottom and ruthlessly ignored how badly he hurt as he prepared to take the sharp edge off for her.

Devon bit her lip when his fingers slid beneath the hem of her shirt to stroke across the velvety skin of her belly, then closed her eyes on a gasp when he caressed beneath her waistband.
She was so warm.
He couldn’t wait to cup her in his palm.
“Cam, please…”

“It’s all right, baby, I’ll take care of you.”

“But what about y—”

“Shh,” he whispered against her lips, stealing inside while his fingers played over her soft skin.
He’d just undone the button at the top of her fly when voices brought his head up.
At least three men, coming toward the hut.
Their footsteps got louder with each passing second.
Shit
.

Devon made a rough sound and hid her face against his shoulder, and he automatically turned her, shielding her from view with his body in case anyone opened the door.
He gathered her up into a tight hug, passing a hand over the crown of her head so the embrace didn’t appear sexual, and the men walked past.
The moment they turned the corner and kept going, another group approached, and Cam knew their brief interlude had come to an end.
He sighed in regret and kissed her temple.
“Damn, I’m sorry, Dev.”

She took a deep breath and let it out slowly, nuzzling her cheek against his chest.
“Me too.
I thought we might have enough time, but…”

He could feel her unfulfilled need in the heat rising from her skin and the unnatural tension in her body.
Setting her away from him finally as the other people walked up, he gave her a rueful grin.
“Think of this as the best foreplay you’ve ever had.”

Snickering, she pushed at his shoulder and stepped back to run a hand over her face.
“God, I’ve never felt this frustrated in my whole life.”

“I’ll make it up to you.”

Her answering smile turned his heart over.
“You’d better.
And soon.”

“Very soon,” he agreed.
“I promise I’ll be worth the wait.” Cupping her petal-soft cheek in one hand, he kissed her tenderly.
The hunger wouldn’t let go, and he couldn’t stop himself from giving her something else to think about after he walked away.
“When you touch yourself later,” he whispered, “imagine me going down on you.”

She flushed, floundering for a moment, then narrowed her eyes at him.
“Yeah?
Then next time you’re taking care of business in the shower you have to imagine me doing the same to you.”

He smiled against her lips and kissed her one last time.
“I always do, sweetheart.”

Shifting around to get comfortable on her bunk, Devon squinted at the fabric in her hand and pushed the tip of the needle through a tiny square in the Pararescue angel’s wings.
The compact reading light attached to her bed frame barely gave enough light to let her see what she was doing, but the cross stitching relaxed her and gave her something else to do besides worry about Cam.
She wasn’t going to be able to sleep with him going out on this sort of a mission, and besides, she was on call.

The metallic gold thread glimmered in the light.
Her mind wouldn’t shut off even with the methodical stitching.
She kept shifting around, thinking of what Cam had said.
She’d told him she was falling in love with him, but who was she kidding?
If she was honest she’d given her heart to him a long time ago.
And the feel of his hands on her body…God, she was still so revved up it drove her insane.

The glowing hands on her watch read a few minutes after midnight.
The briefing must have finished long ago.
Was he waiting for word on whether the op was a go?
She imagined him sitting around with all his gear packed and stowed away, rifle at the ready, his fingers thoughtfully toying with Ty’s quarter.
With a sigh she set aside her work and switched off the useless light, but soon realized what a mistake it was.
All the darkness did was make the memory of Cam’s touch more vivid.

After another half hour of lying there she gave up any hope of sleeping and grabbed her heavy jacket from the end of her bed.
Tiptoeing out of the barracks, she walked across to the service buildings and hitched a ride over to the Special Ops area of the airstrip.
The driver let her out at a vantage point near the runway.
Huddling deep into the warm folds of her coat, she stood by the chain-link fence and watched as a crew—maybe Liam’s—fired up a Chinook.
The twin rotors began to turn, slowly at first, then speeding up until they were a blur against the airstrip lights.

The building door opened, and a line of big, heavily equipped men came out.
She stepped closer to the fence, twining her fingers through it.
She couldn’t tell at this distance what branch they were, but when only eight men came out, she assumed they were a SEAL squad, or maybe Delta.
Then three more soldiers came out.
Devon peered harder at the last two.
Her breath caught.
She instantly recognized Cam’s silhouette and easy stride, and Ryan following him.
Cam’s name crowded her throat, but she didn’t bother calling out because he’d never hear her at this distance.

Her friends disappeared up the tail ramp with the others, then the engines powered up for taxi clearance.
The thought that Liam might be at the controls eased her, but a lingering apprehension nagged at her.

She tightened her fingers around the cold chain link while the wind and rotor wash beat at her face.
Right now she was more worried for Cam than Ryan, though they were going on the same mission.
It should console her to know they had each other out there, but it didn’t.
The tail ramp began to close.
“I love you,” she murmured under the roar of the rotors.
“Be safe out there.”

Cam ditched his heavy ruck and sat against the starboard side of the Chinook next to Ryan.
The helo vibrated as the pitch of the engines rose, and the pilots began to close the tail ramp.

“Hey, we’ve got an audience out there,” one of the SEALs remarked.

At this hour?
Cam craned his neck with Ryan, looking toward the fence.
Someone was standing there in the freezing cold, he guessed to watch them take off.
Why in hell anyone would want to do that was beyond him, especially when it was so cold out.

Ryan tensed and came part way out of his seat.
“It’s Spike,” he said incredulously.

“What?” Before he realized what he was doing, Cam stood up and peered past him out the closing ramp.
Shit, it
was
Devon.
She had to be goddamn freezing, because he was feeling the cold already despite all his layers and gear.
He lifted a hand and she didn’t react, but then, he was standing in shadow inside the aircraft.
The ramp shut and he sat back down with a sigh.

The SEAL squad leader looked at him and arched a caustic brow in the midst of his camouflaged face.
“That your girlfriend?”

Cam met his questioning stare for a moment, but didn’t answer.

“Pretty dedicated chick, standing out there at this time of the morning in the cold.”

“Yeah.” Over the intercom the pilots received clearance for takeoff.
When the bird lifted off the tarmac, he swiveled in his seat to get a better look out the small window behind him.
She was still there, her jaw-length hair whipping in the rotor wash as she stared up at the aircraft.
Ah, honey, go inside and get warm
.
He hated the thought of her being cold and uncomfortable, standing outside at this time of the morning to see him off.
How long had she been waiting there?
She could be called out at any time for a medevac run.
She should be sleeping.
His heart twisted when she wrapped her arms around her body and huddled deeper into her coat.
“Ah, hell, Dev, you’re killing me.
Go in.”

Ryan pressed a hand to the wall and peered out with him.
“She won’t.
You know how she is.”

Yeah.
She was the most incredible woman he’d ever met, and she’d admitted she was falling in love with him.
He could hardly keep from grinning like the lucky bastard he was.
He felt like he’d just won the biggest lottery prize in history.
And yet an unsettling disquiet wouldn’t let him enjoy it completely.

“Don’t worry about her,” Ryan said.
“We’ll be gone in no time, and then she’ll go in.”

“I
am
worried about her.”

“Why, what’s up?”

“She’s still torn up over what happened to Ty.
It’s going to make her push the envelope on the next risky call she gets, no matter how dangerous it is.”

Ryan snorted.
“Come on.
Spike?”

“I’m serious.
Maybe it’s not completely obvious to everyone else, but it’s there.” Before Ty’s death she’d been ultra cautious.
Cautious about keeping her relationship with him a secret, and cautious with her aircraft and crew.
But she’d changed.
More and more he could see her pushing through the boundaries that used to hold her in check.
Like tonight.
Her telling him she was falling in love with him and kissing him in front of anyone that happened to walk by.
Then later in the storage hut.
If he hadn’t stopped them, she would have let him take her there against the wall and not care about the consequences.
He’d loved every second of it, but that kind of behavior wasn’t the Devon he knew.

It seemed like she was becoming more daring every day, and now she almost bordered on the edge of reckless.
It scared the hell out of him that she might take risks on a mission she wouldn’t have before.

“She’ll be okay,” Ryan said, settling back for the ride.
“She’s got to work through her stuff in her own way, that’s all.
Don’t worry, man.
She’s got a good head on her shoulders, and she can take care of herself.”

They began cruising forward.
Cam lost sight of her but knew without a doubt she would stand against the fence until she couldn’t see them anymore and the noise of the rotors faded into stillness.

Ryan slapped him on the back a couple of times.
“Look at the bright side.
Guess this clears up how she feels about you.”

Letting his unease go, a smile tugged at his mouth.
“Maybe.
But she might have come to see both of us off.”

“True.
I am better looking and more charismatic than you.
But don’t worry—I’ll try to remember to tone it down around Dev so she won’t be tempted to go after me.”

Grinning, Cam laid his head back against the wall and closed his eyes, thinking of Devon’s soft weight pressing against him with her tongue in his mouth.
He couldn’t wait for this mission to be over.
Once he got back to base, he intended to make her his once and for all.

They cruised out toward the mountains through the thickening fog and were only a few minutes away from the base when the pilot’s voice came through the headsets.
“We’ve got an A-team member down about nineteen miles from our target LZ with what appears to be appendicitis.
The area’s not hot at this time, and he needs transport back to base.
Any takers back there, PJs?”

Cam exchanged a look with Jackson.
“I’ll take care of it.” He was PJ leader for this mission anyhow.

“I’ll go with you.”

He felt better having a partner with him, just in case.
“We’ll both handle it,” Cam told the pilot.

The SEAL leader leaned forward.
“We’re not going to wait around for you guys.
You’ll both have to infil afterward and link back up with us on your own.” He made it clear he wouldn’t be heartbroken if they didn’t rejoin them.

Cam didn’t resent the guy’s attitude.
He didn’t expect any preferential treatment, and he was looking forward to proving how valuable PJs were on a joint mission.
“Yep, that’s the plan.”

“Uh-huh.
Let us know when you’re in position.” The SEAL’s dry tone and expression said they both knew most well-laid plans went to shit out in the field.