Hard Target: Elite Ops - Book One (10 page)

The bathroom door opened with a slight creak, but he didn’t look over his shoulder.

Gavin kept talking. “I’m not getting all preachy, but I am worried for you. This afternoon you had no idea what you were going to do tomorrow, and now you’re in the middle of a kidnap rescue.”

“Point taken.” Leland lowered his voice. “But honestly, I’m not in the middle. I’m trying to back out as fast as I can.”

“Could have fooled me. Just remember that woman is damn lucky you were there. She’d be in the hospital—or worse—right now if you hadn’t been. Do you really think she’s telling the truth?”

“No. I have no idea if she’s telling the truth, but she’s not faking her son’s disappearance.”
No one’s that good an actor.

“Of course.” There was a pause, and he heard Gavin take an audible breath in the silence. Leland pictured his friend on the other end of the phone, pacing as he spoke. “Man, I’m not saying don’t feel, but don’t let it cloud your judgment. It could get you dead.”

Leland almost smiled. “I realize she’s trouble. So I’ll be careful and quick, in and out. I appreciate the help and the . . . advice.”

“The advice is worth what you paid for it. Besides I’m counting on your coming to work for me when this is all over.”

Leland laughed softly.

“Take care of yourself and call my people if you need anything before then. Nick’s good, a former SEAL. You can trust him.

“Will do. Kiss Kat for me.” Leland hung up and sat for a moment before moving back inside.

His ankle hurt like a bitch. Running down those stairs earlier had not helped. He’d sell his soul for a couple of Vicodin, but that would slow down his response time and seemed like a terrible idea with everything going on. He walked in and closed the patio door behind him.

Anna was curled in a fetal position, one very bare shoulder peeking out from under the covers. He could tell from her breathing she wasn’t asleep. Her body shuddered occasionally as she lay there.

She’d been crying. He figured she’d had the time to really think about all that had happened today when she stopped to shower and now the full implications were hitting her.

He was at a loss as to what to do or say. Patting her shoulder seemed insufficient and just plain wrong as there was so much skin showing. Yet he couldn’t stand by knowing she was hurting and do nothing. He walked into the bathroom to get her a damp washcloth and caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror.

I’m about to screw up. About to get way more involved than I ever intended.

He sat on the side of the bed and slid the Ruger out of his shoulder holster, placing it on the bedside table. Leaning forward, he dabbed at her cheek with the damp towel. She turned over to stare into his face with a pain-filled expression.

Her eyes were wet. She still wasn’t a pretty crier, but it didn’t matter. Something in her gaze caught hold of him. He swiped at her temple with the cloth and before he realized it was probably not appropriate, he’d reached out to brush a lock of hair from her forehead.

What the hell am I doing?

She reached up to touch his wrist. Surely she was going to bat his fingers away, but her devastated gaze slowly changed to something else as she put her other hand on his shoulder.

Whoa. This doesn’t seem right.

She pulled him down to her and settled that mouth he’d been trying to banish from his imagination against his lips. He immediately stopped thinking about right or wrong. And when she slid her tongue past his and pressed her body firmly against his chest, his mind completely disconnected.

It had been a helluva long time since he’d been laid. His job and the subsequent craziness of his lifestyle had conspired recently to ruin his social life. That was the only thing that could explain why he so readily slid his arms around Anna, bringing her closer still. All he could feel was her warm, bare skin. Even the scent of the cheap hotel soap was erotic on this woman.

She was kissing him, but he knew she couldn’t mean it. This behavior had to be a coping mechanism for her grief. And that was pretty much his last coherent thought as the blood rushed away from his brain.

Unfortunately, his body didn’t recognize the sensation of her chest molding against his as a form of pain management and responded in a way that left no doubt as to whether or not he was attracted to her.

She ran her hand down his back and across his ass as he tried to remember why he cared that she’d been intimate with her husband only hours ago. If he wanted to help her find Zach, this was exactly the wrong thing for him to be doing.

He told himself she was fragile. She was hurting. Then she whispered one word in his ear. “Please.”

After that his body didn’t care about her vulnerability anymore. His dick had no conscience, but
he
should. He knew he should.

He started to pull away and she murmured, “Help me.”

He froze as she kissed him again, taking it deeper this time with a kind of desperation that he knew had absolutely nothing to do with him and everything to do with finding her son. Still, when she tugged his bottom lip into her mouth and pressed herself against his erection, his objections melted like ice cubes on a hot July sidewalk. All he could concentrate on was how good she felt underneath him and how good he was going to make them both feel, if he could just get his mind to turn off and not wonder how they were both going to react when the fireworks were over.

He swept his tongue against her lips and pulled back to look in her eyes. “Are you sure about this?” he asked.

She didn’t reply. Her eyes were closed as she raked her fingernails lightly up his back again.

“Anna, I don’t think . . .”

He touched her chin, and she stopped, opening her eyes to stare straight at him. “Don’t think. Just make love to me.”

His body tightened and he held her gaze as she started unbuttoning his shirt. His hands were on either side of her head as he continued to study her face. Her eyes were no longer filled with grief, but rather a look that he mistook for longing until she got his shirt all the way untucked.

Ripping the final buttons off in her haste, she tugged on her bottom lip again with her teeth. If he hadn’t been staring into her face he would have missed it. The small cut from earlier started bleeding again as her hands went to his belt. And like a bucket of ice water over his head, that stopped him cold.

“Hang on,” he kissed her injured mouth softly, trying to take her aggressive frenzy down a notch.

But she was done with patience and done with talking. She reached up and pulled her camisole off, revealing a black lacy bra that made Leland’s throat go dry. Her breasts pushed at the top of the cups. He longed to run a finger across the slope of her chest, but he sat back on one knee instead and balanced his booted foot on the ground—straddling her and looking his fill at her fantasy-inducing figure before he put a stop to this insanity.

She shuddered under his gaze and he almost ignored the niggling doubts. It would be so easy to reach forward, undo the bra clasp, and finish what they’d started. He knew in his gut it was wrong. Her gaze was unmistakable now that he recognized it. It wasn’t lustful passion he was seeing reflected in her eyes, it was . . . resignation.

Running his palms over the tops of her fingers, he pressed the backs of her hands down into the mattress to hold her still. She was gorgeous, lush, and giving a pretty good impression that she wanted to be screwed.

But the expression on her face was a fairly obvious clue that it wasn’t because she
wanted
him. She
needed
him to help her get Zach back. This was payment for his services to be rendered at a later date.

From her actions earlier he knew she’d do anything to get her son back. Just like she’d done with Max earlier today. She’d been backed into a corner then, and she must feel backed into a corner now. That unpleasant thought took hold, and the knowledge should have cooled his passion right away, but his blood was still pumping south and his body hadn’t caught up to his brain yet.

This was how she would make sure Leland stayed with her to get the job done. The devil on his shoulder shouted that he could ignore her ulterior motive. Take what she was offering and not concern himself with
why
she was offering. Hell, she was expecting him to fuck her. She’d practically begged him to.

He could probably even make her forget about her wretched circumstances for a little while. But he knew she’d regret lowering herself to this afterward, and on top of everything else the woman was facing he couldn’t let her deal with that kind of self-loathing, too. Particularly as he was still trying to figure out how to leave her with Gavin’s people tomorrow and let them handle it. Having sex with her under those circumstances would make him an incredible asshole.

“Anna.” He tamped down the bitterness in his tone, frustrated with himself on several levels and disappointed that she thought sleeping with him was necessary to secure his help. “There’s nothing I want more at this moment than to make love to you.”

He pressed himself into her so there could be no doubt about that statement and heard only regret in his own voice. Obviously she heard it too. Her expression transformed from grim determination to extreme embarrassment.

“But I can’t. I’ll hold you and stay up with you all night, but I won’t let you use sex as some kind of bargaining tool. If I did, I wouldn’t be able to help you later. You’d be regretting what’s happened here and distance yourself from me. If we’re going to get Zach back, I need all of you on my side.”

He knew he was right in stopping this insanity when the first thing she said was, “You’ll stay and . . . help me?”

He nodded.
We.
He’d said it.
If we’re going to get Zach back.

Her blue eyes filled, but she didn’t deny his earlier accusation as she worried that lower lip that had worked on him so earlier. He swallowed his chagrin.

After all that had happened tonight, he couldn’t believe that she thought so little of him. But, of course, she didn’t really know him. She didn’t realize how her low and apparently correct opinion of him burned.

He’d like to think she was completely off-base. But realizing what he’d been thinking moments earlier about leaving her with Gavin’s people, she had cause to be concerned. This had been about her trying to secure his help. Sex would have bound him to her. Would have obligated him to help her. To not leave until she’d gotten Zach back.

If she only knew. The promise of sex wasn’t what had convinced him to help. The reality that she’d been willing to do anything to save her son had been what flipped him. She’d been willing to have sex with a virtual stranger.

She was desperate to save her boy. He could forgive her that. He took one last long look and kissed her forehead before raising himself up off her.

His actions would have been a noble thing if he hadn’t just caught himself in a huge lie. He didn’t want her to rely on him, to need him.

He didn’t want anyone doing that.

He didn’t want Zach’s kidnapping to have anything to do with him because part of him still longed to walk away as soon as he deposited her with AEGIS. But that wasn’t happening now, he was here for the duration. Even so, the knowledge didn’t stop the wanting.

The only solution was to disconnect his emotion from the situation. And that didn’t make him noble, it made him a pragmatist.

Still, he hadn’t been lying to her when he’d said making love to her like this would ensure that he’d be no help as she tried to find her son. As it stood, once he got up from the bed she’d be pushing him so far away, he was going to need a bus ticket to get back to where they were now. But he couldn’t help that. They’d deal with the consequences of the failed seduction later.

“I’m sorry,” she said, crossing her hands over her chest. He stood, hiding a grimace of pain from his ankle, and turned his back to let her rearrange her clothing. He buttoned his own shirt as best he could, leaving it untucked since the front was hopelessly wrinkled anyway.

“I was wrong to throw myself at you.”

He shook his head, and stood up, stumbling a bit over his boot. “There’s nothing to apologize for. Grief and fear are overpowering emotions.”

She stared at him, profound sadness filling those deep blue eyes.

It wasn’t that I didn’t enjoy it.
But he didn’t say that out loud. He didn’t say anything that he really wanted to: what had been in his heart before he sat down at her bedside.

I was going to stay and help you regardless. I wasn’t leaving. You didn’t have to do this.

No. Saying that would only make her feel worse and he’d said enough already. It was probably best to leave her alone and get himself another shirt from the room next door.

Despite his many misgivings, he was staying. And she would most likely think he was a son of a bitch before this was all over, once she figured out Zach’s kidnapping could have been because of Leland’s involvement with the cartels.

Still, he was sticking. They’d go to the AEGIS office and he would help until the boy was back with his mother or they’d found Zach’s body. Whether or not he’d survive the latter after his experience with the Coltons scared the hell out of him, but he was sticking anyway.

“I’ll be back in a few minutes,” he said, pulling the door closed behind him.

Leland walked next door cussing himself six ways to Sunday. Had there been a way he could have stopped things from going so far?

Maybe. If someone had poured ice water down his pants.

But he wasn’t a saint by any stretch of the imagination, and sex hadn’t been on his agenda in longer than he cared to contemplate. He’d stopped things with Anna as soon as he was able, but that didn’t prevent him from feeling crappy about the circumstances.

He opened his room, planning to grab his clothes and take them next door. Not knowing the situation, he couldn’t leave Anna alone for long. The door swung open and he stopped at the threshold. The room was dark and he’d left a light on. The hair on the back of his neck rose as he reached for his gun. His fingers touched an empty holster.