Mission Made For Two (23 page)

Jake’s hands cradled her face, his thumbs stroking beneath her eyes.  He didn’t reply to her taunt, instead his mouth lowered to hers
.  His tongue worked a wicked magic as he traced her lips, before exploring her mouth.

An infusion of liquid heat made her entire body tingle. 

Jake lifted enough to grab the bottom of her shirt and pull it over her head.  She tried to help him with his, but he
pushed her hands down and yanked
the scrap of cotton off, slinging it to the floor. 

Careful of her side, he kissed his way down her neck
, his beard stubble adding to the sensations
.

“You’re salty,” he murmured as he pushed aside her bra.

“Running around the forest will do that.”
  The words came out as a gasp.  His mouth had latched onto her nipple.

The rest of their clothes fell
away and Jake pulled her over
him.  “You’re on top this time,” he said.

She wasn’t sure of his motives.  She had the feeling he was afraid of hurting her, rather than wanting to give up control of the situation.

It didn’t matter, though. She was going to love being in charge and planned to take full advantage.

First, she indulged herself by kissing and touching him from neck to navel.  She found his nipple was as sensitive as hers.  He groaned when she bit it softly.

By
the time she straddled him
and he slipped i
nside her, both of them were panting.

Jake deserved to be tortured.  And torture she did.  Moving with precision, she worked him up, then slowed things down.

“You’re going to pay for this,” Jake whispered on a low groan, when she
gripped
his shoulders and increased her pace

She was tormenting herself as much as Jake. 

But what sweet agony.

Jake
’s
patience
ran out
.  He clutched her hips, his fingers biting into her flesh. 
He made her move
faster
, taking him to the hilt with each stroke.

Sierra couldn’t hold on
any longer.  Her head thrown back, she came undone, her entire body shaking with the powerful release.

Jake stiffened beneath her
as he found his own climax
.

She collapsed against his damp chest.  His heart beat heavy beneath her ear and she smiled.  Jake’s fingers traced her spine, up and down. 

“That was probably a bad idea,” Sierra murmured.  “If Diaz’s men showed up right now, I wouldn’t be able to move.”

“If you weren’t such a tease, you wouldn’t be so worn out.”

Sierra propped herself on her elbows so she could look into his face
and grinned
.  “
You left me no choice, Harding.  I had to try to break that famous control of yours.”

“Honey, you broke
that months
ago.”

Warmth spread through her chest at his admission.  Laughing, she rolled off him.  “As much as I hate it, I guess we better get dressed.”

Jake put his hands behind his head and watched her gather her clothes and lay them on the bed.  “What?” she
asked,
when he just stared at her.

“Even with a bullet
hole
in your side, you’re beautiful.”

That still
ed
Sierra’s movements.  “You’re getting sappy, Jake.”

“Didn’t you know I’m a closet sap?”

Sierra liked this side of him.  She put her knee on the bed and leaned down, kissing Jake squarely on the mouth, nipping his bottom lip as she pulled away.  “I think you just like to keep me off balance.”

“Is it working?”

“Yep,” she said and slipped into her panties.  “One minute I want to kill you and the next rip your clothes off.  I’d call that off balance.”

He chuckled and finally pushed up from the bed.  “I need to change that bandage and check your wound, so hold off on putting your shirt on.”

Jake slid off the bed and quickly dressed.  She hated to see him cover up all that hard, delectable muscle.  He left to retrieve the backpack from the other room.

She put h
er shoes on and
sat on the bed to wait for him.  When he came back he had not only the pack, but a wet cloth.  He knelt in front of her and gently removed the
b
andage.  She sucked in a breath when the cool cloth touched her side.

“Sorry, I should have waited for the warm water.”

“It’s fine.  Actually it feels good.  It’s just that first touch. 
Like jumping into a cold pool on a hot day.”

“The wound looks pretty good, considering.”

She looked down.  “I’m going to have a nasty scar.”

He laid the cloth down and looked at her. “Does that bother you?”

She shrugged.  “Does it bother you?”

His eyes didn’t register any surprise at her question.  He smiled.  “Not in the least.”

He dug through the bag and pulled out the antibiotic cream and bandages. 

“Were you a college boy, Jake?” 

He paused a moment and looked at her.  “
Bachelor’s in
c
riminal
justice from Virginia Tech.”

“I bet your parents were proud of you.”

He unscrewed the antibiotic ointment, a wistful look coming over his face.  “Yeah, they were.”

“You became a Marine because of your dad, didn’t you?”

He nodded and smeared some ointment on her side.

“How long were you in?”

“Six years.  When my parents were killed, I got out so I could be closer to my younger brother. He’d just starte
d at the Air Force Academy
.
 
Went on a full football scholarship.
”

The tone in his voice as he talked about his brother, unlocked that tiny part she’d buried deep inside a long time ago that had once wished for a family.  “I used to be fascinated with families. You know, a mom, a dad,
rowdy
children running around.”

Jake put the ointment down and looked at her.  “None of th
e families you stayed with ever
wanted to adopt you?”

She chuckled.  “Come on, Jake. You know how I am now. Imagine me twenty years ago.  I was a hellion.  I was so angry.”  She sighed. “There was one family I thought might actually adopt me when I was fourteen.”

“What happened?”

“Several things.
  First, she got pregnant and second, I let a group of kids taunt me into jacking a car.  They called me chicken.”

“Oh no.
I can just imagine how you took to that.”

“I stole it alright.  To make it worse, it was the police chief’s car.  I got sent to Juvie for two months and by then the couple who’d had me was just ready to move on.”

Jake touched her cheek. “I’m sorry, Sierra.”

She shrugged. “
It was what it was, Jake.  I was fascinated by families, the fact that other parents didn’t seem ready to get rid of their children when they were bad. But as I got older, I understood a little better.”

“No child should grow up like you did, Sierra.”

“But they do.”  She shrugged again.
The look on his face was so tender, her heart twisted. 
“Where are we going with this, Jake?”  She hadn’t meant to
ask him that, but suddenly she wanted to know
. 

She’d never really had a relationship before. Yeah, there had been a man here and there she’d enjoyed spending time with.
But nothing serious.
Nothing that made her heart rate speed up the way it did around Jake
.
  There’d never been a man in her life who’d gotten under her skin or matched her
both physically and verbally the way Jake did.   With Jake she could let her guard down, at least a little. Not that she liked admitting weakness, but she
finally believe
d
he
wouldn’t use hers against her. 

He didn’t look at her at first, in
stead concentrated
on placing the last piece of tape on her bandage
.  He stopped an
d gazed at her.  “I’m not sure.  I’m me and you’re you.”

“What does that mean?”

H
e sighed.
  “It means that even though I know you’re a competent agent, I can’t stop myself from wanting to keep you out of danger.”

“So i
f you and I
are
…t
ogether, you don’t want me to be an agent?”

“You want honesty?”  He met her stare.  “I don’t know what I want.”

His words weren’t what she expected.

He went on.  “Asking you to get out of USOI wouldn’t be fair.  Letting you go off on assignment with some other partner…”

“Besides you?” she interrupted.

He nodded.
“Would probably drive me nuts.”

“Judging by your tone, I take it that you don’t want to be my partner.”

Jake sighed and stood, done with bandaging her side.  She tugged her shirt over her head and waited for him to respond.

“
Sierra.
  It’s not that simple.”  He ran a hand through his hair, then over his face.  “Being emotionally involved with someone in this business makes you lose your edge.
I have firsthand knowledge of that.  And I can’t say that even now with you I can react the way I normally would.
”

She wished she didn’t understand what he meant, but she did. 
When Jake had left her to find Flores, she’d worried.
Probably more so than she would have otherwise.
 
Daniel’s death had hit her hard.  Thinking of being in
that situation with Jake
tore her heart out.

Standing, she nodded her agreement.  “So, we get through this mission and…we part ways.”  She brushed past Jake.  “I need to find a bathroom.”

Jake clasped her arm and stopped her at the door.  “We’ll talk about this when we get home,” he said quietly.

She nodded and walked into the hall.  The bathroom wasn’t difficult to locate and she closed herself inside and locked the door.  There really wasn’t anything to talk about.  He’d said it all.
And he was right, of course.
They’d both be better off going back to the way things had been before she’d rescued Jake from that warehouse.  He’d go his way, and she’d go hers.

And she’d keep telling herself that until she believed it.

After she returned from the bathroom, Sierra and Jake settled on the sofa out front.  They didn’t talk, both absorbed in their own thoughts. 
A commoti
on out front had them on
their fe
et
, though
.  Flores burst inside.  “We need to move.  Another chopper landed outside town.  I think it’s your help, but we counted at least two dozen
of Diaz’s men searching the area
.”

Jake retrieved his bag and they slid out into the darkness. 

“We head for the new chopper,
”
Jake said.  “If it’s our guys, they’ll be latched onto our signal.”

“If they start shooting at us, we’ll know it’s not them,” Sierra murmured.

Jake glanced at her, his expression
bland and she smiled.  She’d never let him know how much their discussion from earlier bothered her.

Jake and Sierra
loaded into Flores’
s Range Rover, along with him and his br
other.  Three other men
hopped
into a beat up pick-u
p and took off in front of them. 

The
re were
guns in the back.
She and Jake each grabbed one
.

They were half-
way to their rendezvous, about four
mile
s
outside the town
,
when
the
truck in front of them
exploded.  Right behind it, the
road
in front of their SUV blew up
in a shower of concrete and dirt.

Flores swore in Spanish
as he veered. 
He l
ost control.   The Rover flipped.
 
Jake landed
against her.
Sierra’s shoulder sla
mmed into the side door.  White-
hot pain radiated all the way down her arm.

The SUV ended up on it
s side.  Metal scraping concrete rent the air with a horrible sound.  Her head banged glass as the Rover jolted against something hard and halted.