Seized (Hostage Rescue Team Series, #7) (30 page)

Carmela was beautiful and brave and loving. He’d dreamed of this moment for months and now it was finally happening. He was finally claiming her for his own. She’d been taken hostage, pistol whipped and barely escaped the sinking ship. He loved her with everything in him and it killed him to know what she’d been through, that he could have lost her.

His heart thundered in his ears as he eased forward a little, just enough until her folds enveloped the head of his cock. Pure pleasure shot up his spine.

A ragged moan spilled free as he leaned in and gave her more of him, letting gravity do the work. His gaze slid down to where his rigid flesh disappeared into her body. He shuddered at the hot, tight perfection of being inside her. Face awash with pleasure, she whimpered and rocked her hips against him.

“So good,” she moaned, arching her neck back. He fucking loved how sensual she was, how she let him see how the pleasure affected her. She tugged at his good shoulder. “More. I want more. Stop teasing.”

Something primal flared to life inside him at her demand. Something that wanted to imprint himself on her on the deepest level. She was his woman and he wanted her to feel his claim in every cell of her body.

With a firm grip on her hip he surged deep in one thrust, burying himself completely inside her. Her answering cry echoed off the ceiling, pushing his arousal to the breaking point. Sawyer bowed his head and gasped in a breath, his muscles shaking. He was finally inside his woman and she was clearly loving every second of it.

Now that he was completely buried inside her, the wild desperation he’d felt when he’d walked in the door suddenly fell away. Everything slowed and calmed, the most primal side of him soothed by their joining.

There was no rush now, only this intimate moment to be savored. He allowed the sensation to flow through him and began to pump into her, watching her face so he knew what she liked. He kept his rhythm steady, each tender, slick stroke into her body making the pleasure flow through his veins like warm honey.

Sawyer leaned down to seal their mouths together, absorbing every breathless moan and cry she made, wishing only that he could use both arms to hold her, cradle her tight to him while he made love to her. But she didn’t seem to mind stroking herself for him and God, it was hot.

Her breathing grew shallow, her face tight as she neared her release. He kissed her slow and deep, gliding in and out of her with tender strokes while she caressed her clit. The tiny mewls she made grew louder, more desperate, then he felt her clamp down on his cock, felt the first shudders start.

“
Sawyer
.”

The way she called his name made him shudder. A growl of pure possessiveness locked in his throat. She was
his
, goddamn it, and only his. No one was ever taking her from him.

He groaned in satisfaction as she started to come and nipped at her jaw, pressed kisses to her face as she went wild beneath him, her fingernails dug into his back. Her hips moved frantically, increasing the friction along his swollen cock.

Sawyer closed his eyes and pressed his face against her temple, his thrusts harder now, forceful, taking what he needed more than he needed his next breath.

He chased hard and fast after the release hovering so close, plunging deep and locking there as it exploded. His hand clamped down on her hip as he roared his pleasure when it hit, his entire body shuddering with the force of it.

Carmela’s hands were cradling his head now, her lips raining tender kisses across his face, over his cheek to his jaw, his mouth. On a groan he turned to meet those soft lips, let himself get lost in the kiss. In her.

Gradually the pleasure faded, and his injured shoulder reminded him of its displeasure with a constant throb that now registered an eight on his one-to-ten pain scale. He pushed himself up with his good arm, wincing as his right shoulder twinged, and slowly withdrew from the warmth of her body.

Carmela sat up and reached for him, drawing him onto the bed next to her. “Lie down,” she told him, dropping a kiss on the tip of his nose. He stretched out on his back while she got up and went into the bathroom.

She came back with a warm cloth and gently washed his groin then pulled the covers over them both and curled up against his side, her cheek cradled in the hollow of his left shoulder.

Despite the pain, a wave of peace and gratitude overcame him. He’d never felt this contented. Just holding her like this filled him with joy. She was a light in his soul, filling him with a warmth he’d never known before.

Her hand trailed gently across his chest, careful to avoid bumping his right arm in the sling. “Did you take anything for the pain?” she murmured.

“Yeah. It’s not helping much though.”

She made a sympathetic sound and kept stroking him, her touch light and soothing. “What did Schroder say?”

“He thinks it’s bursitis with a second degree tear of one of the rotator cuff tendons, probably some ligament damage too.”

“Will you need surgery?”

“Hoping not, but we’ll see. I’m gonna need some time off to see if it settles down and then go from there. But I don’t want to talk about my shoulder right now.” All he cared about was being here, having her naked body up against his.

With his good arm he pulled her closer, bent to nuzzle the side of her neck with his nose. “I just want to lie here and hold you and never let you go.”

She hummed in agreement and snuggled even closer, draping one thigh over his. “I’m down with that plan.”

He meant it literally that he never wanted to let her go, though he didn’t say it. It was too soon. But he’d come so close to losing her forever yesterday and it scared the hell out of him. He couldn’t seem to shake the fear, kept remembering the way the ship had listed as it rolled onto its side and how he’d wondered if she was trapped under the water somewhere.

Yeah, he was going to have nightmares about that for a while. He squeezed her tight. “What do you need right now, baby?”

“Just this. Just you. I feel safe with your arms around me.”

He raised his head to kiss her temple, gently, in deference to the swollen lump close by. “Good, because you are safe now.” He already knew it was going to be hard to let her out of his sight after this, at least for the next while. Which sucked, since she lived a thousands miles away from him. “Think you’re up to a few days away with me when you get home?”

“Yes. I thought about it when I was trying to find a lifeboat. I kept thinking of you and the chance to start a life with you...” Her voice thickened, slicing him inside as she detailed what had happened on board the ship. The terrorist leader singling her out for execution made his blood run cold and he tightened his arm around her.

“I kept thinking I couldn’t die because I had you there waiting for me but then the ship started to slide and I didn’t know if we’d get free, I thought we might have to jump into the water like the others.”

Sawyer closed his eyes and cradled her as her tears dampened his skin, his own eyes stinging. “But we both got out. And now we’ve got each other.”

She let out a quiet sob, her shoulders shaking with the force of it. He didn’t try to quiet her, just held her tight as he could with one arm, absorbing her warmth while she vented her pain and fear. His heart broke for what she’d gone through. But his lady was strong. She had survived and she would get through this, with him at her side.

After a few minutes she finally quieted, a weary sigh leaving her. She seemed to melt against him then, clearly exhausted.

“I love you so much,” she told him quietly.

He’d never ever get tired of hearing those words from her. “I know, baby. I love you too.” There was no way he could ever live without her now. She’d already been his family, but now she was his reason for breathing.

“Did you ever get the chance to talk to Ethan about us?”

“Yeah. He saw the half-naked picture you sent me.”

She let out a shocked gasp and raised her head to stare down at him, her expression full of horror as she wiped the traces of tears from her face. “No,” she breathed.

He cracked a grin at her appalled tone. “It was tense there for a while after he found out,” he said.
That being an understatement.
“But after all this and the way you and I reacted when we finally saw each other this morning, he told me he’s okay with it. Does your mom know?”

“Are you kidding? She was trying to pull strings behind the scenes from the day we arrived in Seattle. She’s thrilled.”

Sawyer smiled, but it quickly faded as reality intruded. He’d finally gotten everything he’d ever wanted: Carmela and her entire family. But after their short getaway together he’d be returning to his life in Quantico and she’d be staying in Miami.

How the hell was he going to live that far away from her now? He wanted to fall asleep beside her each night he could and wake up next to her every morning, come home to her at night.

“After our trip, what are we going to do about us?” he asked her.

She settled her head back on his shoulder. “I don’t know, what do you want to happen?”

“I don’t want you to stay in Miami. I want you to move in with me.”

He felt her still in surprise, her fingers pausing on his chest. “You sure?”

He frowned at the hesitance in her voice. “Hell yeah, I’m sure. You’re my baby. There’s no way I can handle being that far away from you all the time.”

A light chuckle shook her, full of what he hoped was relief. “Then I guess I’ll be putting in for a permanent transfer to Virginia as soon as I get home.”

At her words something deep inside him seemed to break free, as if a weight he’d been carrying around had suddenly vanished. “Thank God,” he said, and rolled partially on top of her, covering her with his body, putting himself between her and the rest of the world.

****

A
lex Rycroft woke from a deep sleep when his cell rang. He rolled over, snatched it from the nightstand without turning on the light. He knew that ringtone. Zahra. His right hand woman, one of the best cryptologists he’d ever seen in all his years with the NSA, and the closest thing he had to a daughter.

Alex could use the sound of a friendly voice right now. “Hey, Zahr. What’s up?”

“Sorry to wake you. I know you’ve had a long night.”

It’d been a
hell
of a long night. He and his team had spent it interviewing survivors and examining the bodies of the dead terrorists. More than three hundred civilians had been killed in the attack, and hundreds of others were wounded or missing. In short, it was a fucking nightmare, not to mention the headache of trying to coordinate multiple government agencies for the investigation. The only useful thing they’d learned was the identity of the man leading the attack—Wira Tejda, the head of security, from Java.

May the bastard rot in hell.

“It’s okay,” Alex said.

“I would have let you get some more sleep but I thought you’d want to know what we just uncovered.”

He slid one arm behind his head. “Okay, shoot.”

“Did Aziz start talking yet?”

“Nope. Sealed up tighter than a drum of the oil that made him such a rich asshole. He denies knowing anyone involved with the attack, says he didn’t know any of the attackers.” And maybe he hadn’t, at least on a personal basis. “But he was definitely bankrolling it and providing material support.” Which made him equally as guilty for the massacre.

“Well, doesn’t much matter anymore. We know who the
Mawla
is.”

At that he sat bolt upright, a sense of urgency and excitement building in his gut. “What? How?” They’d been investigating every angle and come up with nothing so far.

“Because we’re amazing,” she said with a laugh, referring to her team of analysts working back at Fort Meade.

“So are you going to make me guess? Because I’m all out of guesses.”

“Are you sitting down?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay, well, the
Mawla
, as it turns out, is...”

An Indonesian. Had to be. Every call they’d traced going to and from Aziz in the last three days prior to his arrest had been from in or around Jakarta or Surabaya.

“Wira Tejda’s mother.”

Alex’s mouth fell open. It wasn’t often he was surprised anymore, but he definitely was this time. “What?” The
Mawla
was a woman? How the hell had that worked with a hardened terror cell full of hardcore Islamist males? How could she possibly have pulled that off without any intelligence agency picking up on it? Maybe some of the cell members hadn’t known they were swearing allegiance to a woman, but Wira must have known his mother was the
Mawla
. It would have made him even more determined to carry out the mission.

“Yes, I know, but when we started putting the pieces together it all made sense. It turns out she had a son before Wira, with a different man. Leo Chandra.”

He sucked in a breath. “The guy the manifesto claims was taken prisoner by us and put into a secret CIA facility in Vilnius.” Another jihadi captured in Syria last year. Had they really hidden him in Lithuania?

“Well, it looks like they may be right about that part. Sealed records show he was captured in a raid last year by our SOF members. We’re investigating several leads right now.”

“I’ll contact my sources and get on it right away.” A lot of high-power people in Washington owed him favors. It was time to start cashing them in. “Now I get the connection with Wira and why he wanted to carry out the attack. He wanted to tell the world about his brother, have the Russians help him locate Leo.”

“And set him free.”

Right. “Have you alerted a team in Jakarta yet?”

“Yes, but there may be an issue with the arrest.”

He frowned. “Why?”

“Because Mrs. Tejda has just been diagnosed with terminal ovarian cancer and was moved to palliative care in Surabaya three days ago. She’s not expected to survive more than a few days.”

Alex rubbed at his forehead. “Is she responsive?”

“Not at this time, no.”

He pursed his lips. “Thanks for the intel. I’ll get on this.”