“why didn’t you tell me?”
loren felt her muscles tense. rourke was using the same low tone he’d used with
chris. moving her eyes around, she studied rourke’s face.
but he couldn’t hide the anger in his eyes. loren rolled her shoulders and tried to relax. her lips felt parched and she ran her tongue over them. rourke’s eyes immediately focused on the telltale sign of her nerves.
“there was no reason.”
“wrong.” rourke crossed the kitchen and pulled loren out of her chair. he handled her with extreme care but firmly pulled her body toward his. he had a deep need to touch her right then. feel her skin and assure himself that she was well. pulling
a deep breath into his lungs, he enjoyed her scent and the pulse it triggered in his body.
loren just couldn’t deal with that attraction right now. her mind was full of too many memories. she needed space and rourke was just going to have to give it to her.
“let me go, rourke.” loren placed a single hand onto his chest with her words. she didn’t like the fact that she wasn’t in control of the outcome of her request. if rourke decided he wasn’t releasing her, she wouldn’t be able to free herself.
he gave her exactly two feet. but he propped himself at an angle against the kitchen counter that blocked her solidly against the wall.
“did he try to kill you?”
that was a question loren had rolled around inside her head for years. sure, it sounded simple enough but it certainly wasn’t.
admitting chris had tried to kill her was also admitting that she’d made a horribly wrong choice in just who she took into her heart.
that was a mistake that could haunt a woman’s soul forever. if you were so very wrong in choosing one man, how could you ever make the decision to take another man into your bed?
loren fixed her eyes on rourke. if she admitted to being so wrong in her judgment
on chris, then her current attraction to rourke would have to be questioned too, maybe even rejected.
she cringed as she considered that idea. there was something about rourke that just felt so secure. every time she looked at the man she felt more of that pull. weakness and desire was eating away her self-discipline.
but there was definitely one thing she would not do, even for rourke campbell.
“forget it.”
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loren was too quick. rourke felt his anger tense because she’d homed in on the true reason for his question. he just needed to hear the accusation from her mouth. if loren would point the finger, he could do something. until she did that, chris was an innocent man because she had not named her attacker. the detective who had written the report had suspected it was her husband but there was no evidence without loren’s statement.
“all right.” rourke crossed his arms over his chest and considered her. he wanted
chris and he was going to get him. if loren wanted to play hardball, that would have to
be the game. but there wasn’t going to be any getaway for her bastard husband.
“since you don’t seem willing to let chris have what’s coming to him, maybe we should let him have it his way.”
a tingle crept up her spine as loren’s eyes flew to rourke’s. the expression aimed
at her made her feet itch to move back even though she had no room for retreat.
rourke unfolded his arms and felt his emotions surge. letting go of his discipline was intensely enjoyable. “chris wants to divorce you for adultery. but you’re not guilty
of that. yet.”
composure went flying right out the window. loren felt every nerve ending snap a second before she tried to dive around rourke. she didn’t make it even half a foot. the man was truly the predator she’d sensed. he pulled her out of her steps and wrapped her into a solid steel embrace against a chest that was completely unyielding.
but she wasn’t scared and that was the worst part. loren felt a moan rise out of her mouth as her body begged her to surrender.
it would all be so much simpler. chris would be gone and she wouldn’t have to worry about fear keeping her from moving on to another man. she wanted rourke in a painful manner, nothing mattered but the desire burning her alive. her body was straining toward him because they weren’t close enough. there were too many barriers between them. his shirt hid the warm male skin she craved to touch. she wanted to rip his shirt away until her hands could touch and feel the hard strength of him.
whatever her reasons, rourke didn’t care. he could feel her surrender. her breasts pressed against his chest as the nipples stabbed into him. her hips tipped forward in blatant invitation and he just didn’t give a damn anymore!
he carried her toward his room and kicked the door shut with his foot. her eyes were glassy as she stared at him. rourke took a long look in their simmering pools before he lowered his mouth to hers. passion didn’t disappoint either of them—it was searing hot in its intensity. he laid her in the center of his bed. he stood for a moment as her eyes traveled over his body. need was written across her face as he reached for the buttons on his shirt. rourke pulled his shirt off and tossed it across the room.
his hands were impossibly hot on her skin. her top didn’t last more then a few seconds as he striped the garment from her. loren watched the way he smoothed his hands over her breasts. his fingers gently rolled her nipples and sensation centered on the single point of touch.
rourke moved his hands to cup each breast entirely before 47
moving back toward her nipples once again. the bed moved as he climbed onto it and knelt over her. his knees spread right in front of her, teasing her with the thick bulge of
his pants.
there was such heat in the touch, but there was infinitely more. rourke wanted to love her. it went so much beyond sex. this wasn’t some groping frenzy that would crescendo in a frantic pounding of genitals.
it could be so deeply right. but it wasn’t. not this way.
while he cradled her breasts, loren cupped the sides of his face and raised it to hers. his eyes burned with passion but that didn’t hide the sheer enjoyment he was experiencing. the man wanted to touch her. it burned out of his eyes as she held his face. it lacked the stark selfishness of lust. instead the need blossomed up in full three-dimensional colors.
rourke absorbed the last few seconds of sensation before he pulled his hands away from temptation. he wanted her intensely, but she was right. sitting back onto his knees he considered her as she lay in his bed. the globes of her breasts gleamed against the navy blue of his sheets. her nipples were beaded into hard little nubs that his mouth was watering to taste.
and he was going to get that taste. “one way or another, loren. right here in this bed, i will have you. soon.”
* * * * *
“no self-pity” was definitely one of her rules, but loren didn’t think it applied to contemplating her temptations. twenty-four hours later she was still thinking about it. well, him. them. loren just didn’t know anymore. it was just possible she was one of the stupidest humans on the planet.
rather ironic when you coupled that with toby’s intelligence level.
at thirty years of age, you’d think she’d have managed to gain some level of comfort with her own sexuality. all loren felt was the awkwardness of inexperience. her breasts were still sensitive. of course that might just be due to the fact that all she’d done all night long was dream about rourke and the way he’d run his hands over her.
her head was killing her and there was only so much help that a girl could expect from coffee. loren rubbed her forehead but headed back to the kitchen for another cup
of coffee anyway.
her cell phone rang, piercing the silence. loren reached for it happily.
maybe her real problem was boredom. four days on this mountain was getting old. there was a limit to the amount of e-mail she received. even the spam ads were looking interesting this morning.
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nothing but static came through the phone. loren jabbed the off button and went toward the kitchen. most of her calls came through as static. the military element surrounding her seemed to cut the satellite signal on her civilian cell phone. she was even in the mood to listen to her mother tell her how wrong she was.
pouring the steaming coffee into her mug, loren smiled as she caught the rich aroma. rourke campbell sure did know the value of good coffee. his kitchen didn’t stock the bargain stuff, no sir.
it was pure columbian roast. there were about fifty firefighters in los angeles who thought lousy coffee was a test of manhood.
stepping onto the porch, loren considered her son. toby was still infatuated with the panthers. that wasn’t something to worry about just yet. in fact, loren found herself rather grateful for the aircraft. when toby got bored, it was best to run for cover.
all manner of interesting things tended to happen when her son was searching for something interesting. things like, the fbi showing up on your doorstep. toby had hacked into too many top-secret files to count, and he was rarely caught. it had been a relief when dr. jasper caught her son. the nasa scientist had a lot in common with her son. the man had given toby direction.
movement caught her eye and loren turned toward two of the rangers who were standing guard. a third was slowly moving toward her. he walked with the heavy steps of a dying man. loren knew the walk instantly. it was a shuffle and pull, like the person was trying to wrench his body away from the ground.
his face was chalk-white. he had every piece of gear strapped onto his back and his eyes stared forward. he shuffled again as his fellow rangers noticed him but they didn’t break through the man’s shock.
“don’t touch him.” loren issued her command as she stepped out of the man’s path. bright red blood ran down his checks just like tears.
his teeth were stained red. he stumbled forward again and stopped directly in front of the house. his arm moved
up and cut a perfect salute toward the front door before he dropped to the ground in a boneless pile.
the rangers moved forward and loren launched herself at them. surprise gave her the ability to shove both men off their feet. but that same fall took her down with them. one solid fist hit her jaw and her head snapped back with the blow.
“he’s infected.” both men looked at their comrade before they began cussing. they gained their feet in a split second before moving away from the fallen man. loren was yanked off the ground by her forearms and sent after the retreating rangers. she didn’t have to turn around to know just who was tossing her around.
rourke stood looking at his fallen man. his stance was stiff as his face fell into the granite mask military men adopted to deal with death.
loren moved back, because there was a certain level of common respect you gave to a commander when they were losing one of their own men.
cal worth was dead. the horrible reality of the disease hit loren as she looked at the body. it was eighty percent fatal. the worst part was how little was really known
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about ebola tai forest. the best doctors on the globe thought it had to be spread by fluid contact with an infected person. but that was based on limited data.
loren wasn’t interested in becoming some of that needed data. her eyes looked down at the bunkhouse the men used. it sat three hundred feet from the main house. the front door was open and loren could see the blood smeared on it from cal’s hands. no one had been watching the ranger and he’d gone back into the familiar building in the last hours of his life despite the fact that he’d been sleeping in a smaller bunkhouse on the north side of the compound. with no solid evidence of infection, everyone had fallen into a false sense of ease over the past couple of days.
her eyes flew toward the ground and searched for any drop of that same blood. the forest floor didn’t display any but the man had been bleeding out and his contaminated blood could be anywhere.
“burn it.” her words were ignored by the rangers. loren looked at rourke and caught the harsh glitter of his emerald stare. “burn everything. anything he touched.” that was the only way the africans said the disease could be stopped. entire villages were torched to control ebola tai forest. rourke considered her before nodding his head with agreement.
“pendergast, which bird was worth in?” authority radiated from rourke as he took charge. his men fell into absolute obedience.
“sandy.” the female name didn’t surprise loren. pilots had an unspoken need to name their aircrafts after women.
“strip the live ammo and get the other two off the ground. toby, close up and get out of that helo.”
“yes, sir.”
loren was surprised to hear her son snap to attention but his timing was impeccable. this was a race for their survival.
either everyone on the mountain worked together or they might very well all die together. toby’s youth wouldn’t protect him.
“loren, go up to the house.” protest sprang up instantly.
rourke’s eyes caught it and issued a clear warning. “you’re bleeding.” her hand flew to her face and caught the wet slide of blood. the ranger who had
hit her began cussing again. he was inspecting his hand with intense scrutiny. loren pulled her hand away and let the blood flow. if there were any germs on her face the last thing she wanted to do was press them into the torn tissue that was bleeding.
“put a cork in it, wenton. the lady saved your hide by knocking you over.” ranger wenton snapped his mouth shut and took a long look at loren. his eyes lost their cutting edge before he dropped his hand and gave his complete attention to his commanding officer.
loren turned toward the house. there had to be obedience now. if not, suspicion could have everyone at each other’s throats long before the disease could kill any of them. the very fact that this was a unit of army rangers made that threat all too real.
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every man here had more than just one gun. the horrible possibilities that panic could produce turned her blood cold.
her cell phone buzzed again and loren reached for it out of habit.
“loren?” her feet stopped in their tracks because she was afraid of losing the satellite signal. her father’s voice was just barely making it through the static.
“dad? i’m here.” and she desperately wanted to hear her father’s voice.
there was
a harsh reality that it might be the last time they spoke.
“is there any proof of the disease?” loren felt a hollow laugh rise out of her chest. her dad could gather more information than anyone she knew. it was amazing how he knew stuff the second it happened. her silence was all the confirmation he needed. she heard the curse he didn’t try to muffle.
“hang tight.” the line went dead and loren turned the phone off with a frown. that was her dad for you. it was all business, all the time. she marched into the house and toward the bathroom.
the mirror showed her a split lip. loren reached for hydrogen peroxide and didn’t wince from the sting. instead she welcomed the sharp pain. the sting gave her some small assurance that germs were being killed.
smoke drifted in from the open door but that didn’t give her the same confidence. instead the harsh smell only deepened her concern. they could burn the disease out of the worldly belongings but they couldn’t stop any infection that was already moving through any of their bodies.
cal worth was now the main source of concern. any man who had been in the same helicopter with him could be infected. any one of them could have infected any of the others.
and if chris had become infected, her husband could have infected toby.
loren stepped toward the open door and watched rourke command his men. her stomach twisted as she watched him walk over ground that could be laced with infected blood. he didn’t flinch. instead he stepped forward and loaded another pair of fuel cans into the one panther that was still sitting in the front driveway.
he looked over the interior of the aircraft before he turned away. he stopped thirty feet away and pulled his gun out of its holster. he leveled the black pistol at the fuel cans.
“fire in the hole.” the sharp pop of the gun hit her ears a second before the fuel cans exploded. orange flames shot out and ripped the helicopter apart.
watching the million-dollar machine burn should have made her mourn for the tax dollars that went up with it. instead loren was worried that they’d waited too long to sterilize any potential threat it might have posed.
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