Tactical Deception: Silent Warrior, Book 2 (32 page)

Mari saw the bench and sighed. “You think there’s a house.”

“Not sure. This is pretty remote. Rest a minute.”

She sat and he ran ahead, relieved to find an empty cabin with a bathroom and a fireplace they wouldn’t be able to use. But with bagged linens on the shelf, bottled water, can goods and propane-fueled appliances, it was a dream. Someone’s weekend retreat, God’s answer to the prayers he’d been saying all day, and their haven for the night. It might all be too good to be true and he might regret the stop, but they’d reached the end of their journey for the day.

He lit the gaslights and left the door open for an easy path. Owls hooted in the distance, the scent of pine and earth hung in the air, and the song of crickets hummed softy in the night. So different and peaceful from the machine-gun fire and irrational ideologies set on destroying everything to fulfill their destiny.

For an instant he wished he’d lived in an uncomplicated time when simple things like cabins and nature were everyday life and not just an occasional bump in the road, but then there’d been wars and irrational ideologies back then too—the plague of man.

Returning, he found Mari asleep with her head resting on the back of the bench. So alone. So vulnerable and yet she’d been so strong. Today had left him irrevocably changed. One of those experiences in life where there was a marked “before the event” state of mind and an “after the event” state of mind. He’d been through a few of those in his career. One of them had been Lebanon where Neil had died and he’d vowed to care for Mari. That had changed now. Whatever the future held, Mari and her unborn child weren’t just his responsibility, they were his heart.

He didn’t know how Neil’s death at his hand fit into the equation. He’d worry about that later.

She woke as he scooped her up into his arms. “I can walk.”

“I know.”

“So.”

“So let me have the pleasure of taking care of you, okay? It’s sort of been a day hasn’t it? Kidnapped, almost executed, shot. I figure you could use some pampering. Maybe some water, some food, a bandage on your shoulder, a foot rub.”

The moon hung like a cradle in the sky, just waiting to catch nighttime dreams. He stopped beneath its light, meeting her gaze. “So what do you say?”

“I’m all yours,” she whispered and smiled.

A tingle of pleasure fissured down his spine, one that spread all the way through him as he carried her across the threshold like a groom with his bride and set her in a chair.

“Water first.” He grabbed two bottles of spring water from the pantry, opened one and handed it to her. He noticed she kept her right arm cradled to her side and used her left to take the bottle from him. He needed to examine her injury closer.

She drank thirstily, downing half the bottle at one time and leaving droplets of moisture on her lips that she erased with her tongue. Hell. He downed his water, set the bottle on the table, and started rummaging around the cabin to cool off. He could handle this.

“We have a bathroom?” she asked.

“In here,” he said opening a door. Sink, toilet and shower all appeared clean and bug-free. He tried the faucet. “We’ve got running water. The hot is lukewarm, so I bet there’s a water heater around here. I’ll go turn it up.” He turned to find her already at the door.

“That would be great, but at this point I’d take anything to get cleaned up.”

He waved her in as he slipped out. The bathroom was small and a tight squeeze for two. “I’ll be right back.”

Her reply was lost as she turned on the water. He left, taking a deep breath, wondering why he felt so…awkward. That was the only word to describe his idiocy. Grabbing a lantern, he marched outside disgusted.

He knew the reason. He was stiff and out of sync because everything he felt and thought inside had yet to be put in the open between them. They needed some major honesty time and he needed to tell her about Lebanon. Once he laid everything on the line, then he’d be able to relax. With that decided he found the hot water heater in a storage area outside, noted what supplies were there, then set up an intruder alarm on the porch. Anyone trying to enter the cabin would trigger a waterfall of paint cans. Then he went back to Mari. He’d set up more alerts around the perimeter of the cabin as soon as he’d taken care of Mari.

Inside he took off his boots and socks and located a first aid kit with which to bandage her shoulder. Getting clean sheets and a blanket, he covered the bed so she’d have a place to rest, then headed for the bathroom.

“Mari, I got—” He stopped at the threshold, his jaw slack. Mari’s bloodied clothes were on the floor and she was in the shower in the dark. He set the lamp down on the toilet back.

“Roger? Is my shoulder supposed to hurt so much? The water is killing me.”

He swallowed and found his brain. “Don’t let the spray hit the wound.” He opened the med kit and found some Lanacane spray and some gauze. “Let me put this anesthetic on, okay?”

“Anything.” She slid the curtain open enough to ease her shoulder toward him. She had her other hand braced on the wall, supporting herself. Her strained expression was a bucket of ice water right where he needed it.

“You should have waited for me to help.” He gently eased her hair from the wound and doused the angry looking gouge marring the beauty of her honey-cream skin with the anesthetic. She’d either reopened the wound or it was still bleeding a little.

She winced. “I couldn’t. I just had to get clean—I am so sorry. What happened today was all my fault. I almost got you killed.” She looked devastated.

“Hey. It’s all right.” He slid his arm around her and brought her forehead to his lips, pressing a kiss there. “It’s okay. It’s both our faults. You had no idea they’d kidnap you. If I’d known the truth about the past, I’d have been a little more cautious about meeting your sister and brother, but even at that, I don’t think I could have predicted what they did. And I screwed up as well. I never should have left Bragg without backup or even telling someone where we were going. I’m the security expert here.”

“Maybe.” She trembled in the cool water, leaning heavily against the shower wall.

“Let me help you get clean, okay? Then we’ll talk.”

She nodded. He meant to wrap her in a towel and scrub her from the sink, but she moved to the corner of the shower, her back to him. “The water spray is hard.”

He hesitated a second, wet jeans were misery, but she needed him. It was his mission to take care of her. He briefly considered taking his jeans off, only his condition told him the barrier was essential for this operation to succeed.

Decision made, he stepped into the small shower. After a rusty twist, he turned the shower into a fine spray. Mari had yet to move.

He touched her uninjured shoulder. “Come lean against me. I’m a lot warmer than the wall. Softer too. In some places,” he added after a beat. He might have everything under control but there were just some things that were going to be no matter what. And a hard-on with her naked in the shower was one of those things.

She glanced up at him and laughed. He laughed too and he pulled her against him. Something had shifted between them because he suddenly was back to himself after being out of step for way too long. Switching positions, he was able to deflect the water spray with his shoulders, so that only a fine mist hit her. He started with her face, neck and shoulders, taking care with her injury. It was going to take a long time for him to get over the harrowing moments when her life hung in the balance and there hadn’t been a damn thing he could do to save her. It humbled him and brought home just how frail and finite life on this earth really was. People died just going out to buy a loaf of bread. There really were no guarantees.

The only thing he could control was not to waste another minute. To cherish and enjoy every second.

Mari kept her back to him, her eyes closed, and leaned heavily against him. He didn’t know about her, but he had to admit he was more than cherishing and enjoying every second at the moment.

Dear God, she was more than beautiful. More than perfect. A work of art unlike any other. Though far from reverent, he did worship her with every stroke. Her back was slender and curved to a rounded bottom. Her legs were shapely and long. The V of her sex warm with silky, dark hair. Her breasts were full, dusky erect nipples. Her cleavage deep. He eased his hands over her rounded stomach and paused to draw a deep shuddering breath as he fought the strength of his desire. It killed him inside to know what she had suffered. How she’d been abused. He considered it a miracle that she was standing with him right now. He pressed his palms against her stomach. “I’ve been worried all day, so afraid for this little one here. Is everything all right?”

She opened her eyes and slid her hands over his to press him closer. “I was worried too. But I think everything is all right.”

“Good. We’re going to keep it that way.”

She turned to face him. Her dark lashes spiked with water, her golden gaze softer, less strained.

“Pain better?”

“Yes, a little if I don’t move my right shoulder.” She reached up with her left hand and touched her fingers to his temple and his cheek. “You’ve a gash here and a bruise here and almost everywhere else too.” She slid her fingers down to his chest and touched a bruise on his shoulder, making him shudder. “Don’t they hurt?”

“A little.” He closed his eyes, sucking in air and strength.

“You’re different than many other men,” she said.

“How so,” he gasped as she moved her fingers across his chest.

“You feel things, but you control them. You are here with me like this but you haven’t…”

He snapped his eyes open. “Believe me. It’s not for a lack of want.” In fact any more of this exploration and he was either going to burst the seams of his jeans or the imprint of his zipper was going to be permanently engraved on his dick. “You know that, right?”

She kept her eyes lowered.

He eased his thumb under her chin and brought her gaze back to his. “It’s out of respect for you. For what you’ve lost. What you’re going through.” He bit back the fact that he was responsible for it all. That didn’t fit into this conversation at the moment. “You’re not afraid of me anymore, are you?”

“I was never really afraid of you.”

He arched his brow. “Could have fooled me.”

She shivered.

“Why don’t we dry off, get you bandaged and warmed up then you can explain?” Easing back from her, he grabbed towels from the rack and wrapped one around her. She stepped out. He hung his towel on the rod and shut the curtain. “I’m taking off these jeans first. I’ll be right out.”

Maybe keeping them on had been a bad idea. They were plastered to him like a second skin grown too tight. He unsnapped the top and eased the zipper down, but something went terribly wrong and pain practically unlike anything he’d known screamed from his erection. He’d pushed through the opening of his jockeys and had been flesh up against the metal zipper. Now he was flesh
in
the metal zipper.

“Oh, God.” He hopped from one foot to the next. He didn’t know whether to jerk the zipper up or down, but something major was pinched in a bad way. He lost his balance and grabbed the shower curtain to stay upright. Only that came crashing down and he fell out of the shower, landing on the floor.

Mari jumped back. His shoulders missed her but his head hit her thigh, knocking her into the bathroom corner. He lay there, sure he was dying because the zipper was not only pinching his dick, but was pulling it too as the material stretched. There was only one good thing about the situation. The lantern was still in place on the back of the toilet. If that had fallen, the cabin would have likely burned to the ground.

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Union County, Georgia

Mari leaned over and looked down at him. “What happened?”

He shut his eyes. God help him. “My zipper is caught,” he gasped.

“On what?”

He just opened his eyes and looked up at her.

“Oh.”

“Yeah. Oh.” He didn’t want to move, but he knew he was going to have to bite the bullet on this one and just do it.

“Let me help.” Mari slipped to his side and knelt down.

He shook his head and brought his hands up to cup himself. “I really don’t think you can. I’ll take care of this.”

She pushed his hands aside, grabbed his crotch and eased more material to the front of his pants. That brought some relief. He sighed and before he could blink, she snatched the zipper up then back down. He bowed up in sharp pain, but it was just as suddenly over, leaving only a minor ache behind.

“You might want to buy bigger jeans,” she said then stepped over him and exited bathroom.

He lost it then. Any restraint went right out of his hands. He gained his feet, stripped of his jeans and wet jockeys, rinsed off in the shower, and marched naked from the bathroom with a nick in his erection and a chip on his shoulder.

“I have a better idea. I’ll just go without until you help resolve my problem.” He grabbed her, still mindful of her injured shoulder and pulled her into his arms. Then he kissed her, lips, tongue, teeth, body and soul. He held nothing back.