Chill bumps raced across her back, and he soothed them away with his palm. For a long moment, she lay there, the only sound her soft breathing against his neck.
Yeah, he liked it. He’d liked it five months ago and he liked it now.
Finally she shoved herself up, and her blond hair spilled over his chin. To his surprise, she leaned down and kissed him.
It wasn’t a tentative brush but a hot, open-mouthed kiss that sent a surge of electricity through his body.
She drew away, and her pupils dilated until there was only a thin ring of blue around the black. She laid her palm over his jaw and let her thumb glide across his lips.
“Why’d you tie me up before?”
He blinked. “Huh?”
“That time in the hotel. You tied me up.”
His chest shook as laughter escaped. “I don’t know. It seemed like the thing to do at the time. Maybe I’m a kinky bastard. Did you like it?”
She seemed to think about it as she cocked her head to the side.
“Maybe.”
He leaned up and kissed her quickly on the mouth.
“Then maybe I’ll do it again sometime.”
Her eyes widened and went even darker. He smiled. Oh yeah, she’d liked it. The thing was, he didn’t really know why he’d done it. At the time he’d wanted her completely at his mercy, and the idea of her tied to his bed had been a huge turn-on. Not that he needed much encouragement around her.
“Okay, I’m really going to take a shower now,” she said.
She tried to push away, but he caught her against him and then rolled with her until he was over her, staring down into wide swirls of blue.
His cock ached like a son of a bitch, and when she squirmed, the tip brushed through swollen, damp folds. He groaned and pushed, forcing his way through tight, liquid heat. She gasped and surged upward.
“Oh fuck,” he whispered. “This is going to be quick.”
He thrust and felt his skin peel away, leaving him raw and exposed. He tried to be gentle. He needed to be gentle, now of all times, when she was still sleepy and unprepared, but her channel hugged him, had a stranglehold on his cock.
Her nails scoured his back and then dug in. He thrust and rocked, and she opened her legs wider to take him.
When she whispered his name in sweet, husky acceptance, he lost it. He came apart while she held him. Her hands, like little feathers, whispered up and down his back.
He swallowed and tried to regain his composure, but he felt shattered by this one, quick encounter. He shook almost uncontrollably and went suddenly weak.
He lowered himself to her, and she enveloped him in her embrace. He buried his face against her neck and inhaled her feminine scent.
“Sorry, baby. Sorry.”
She turned her head until her lips met the skin behind his ear. She kissed, just once, and whispered softly, “Don’t be sorry for wanting me, Sam.”
He pushed himself up. “Never that. I’m just sorry I was such an inconsiderate asshole.”
She smiled. “Come take a shower with me.”
“No soak in the tub today?”
She shook her head. “No just a quick shower and then you can feed me again. When will we have to leave?”
He checked his watch, wondering the same thing.
“You go ahead to the shower. I’ll call and check in, make sure everything’s going according to plan.”
He carefully pulled himself away and then reached a hand to help her out of bed. He watched her walk into the bathroom, mesmerized by the gentle sway of her ass.
She was one beautiful pregnant woman. He’d always thought that pregnant women were beautiful. He loved to look at them, at the swollen lushness of their bodies, the spark in their eyes, and imagine the softness of their skin. But nothing had prepared him for the reality of a woman pregnant with
his
child.
He shook himself back to awareness. The devil of it was he knew he was on a clear collision course with something he wasn’t prepared to deal with, but at the moment he didn’t care.
He only knew that somehow, someway, he had to sort all of this out. Not only was he not letting go of his child, but he wasn’t letting go of Sophie either. That was as far as he’d thought, and he wouldn’t allow himself to go any further.
SOPHIE walked out of the bathroom in bare feet, her hair still damp from the shower. She rubbed it with a towel as she glanced around for her shoes.
“Looking for these?” Sam asked as he tossed her tennis shoes onto the bed. “We need to get moving. We have a few hours on the road before we get to the safe house.”
She dropped the towel and reached for a pair of socks that Sam had placed by the shoes.
“I’ll get the rest of the stuff out of the bathroom and then we’ll head out. I’ve already got everything else.”
She nodded and slipped on her shoes, quickly tying the laces. She was brimming with curiosity over this safe house. How long did Sam plan for them to stay? Did he intend to leave her there while he went after her uncle?
He hadn’t told her anything, but she wasn’t an idiot. In his shoes, she’d do the same thing. She wouldn’t be sad to see the rest of her father’s network taken down. Tomas was crippled because he didn’t have the key that Sophie had stolen. His resources would be stretched, and he’d just become more and more desperate.
“I’m ready,” she said as she stood to her full height again.
Sam ushered her out of the hotel, his gaze scanning the night around them. His body was tense and alert as he put her into the SUV. He even buckled her in before walking around to the driver’s side. She smiled and shook her head. The man was conscientious. She’d give him that much. He didn’t do anything half-ass.
He was intensely loyal to the people he loved. His family. His friends. If he gave even half that loyalty to their child, she’d grow up the luckiest of little girls. But Sophie knew Sam would give his all. There would be no one more important to him than his child.
Her chest ached with sadness. What would it be like to have that kind of love and loyalty? She only hoped she could give what she’d never been given. She hoped she knew how.
It didn’t really matter whether nature prevailed over nurture or vice versa. She was fucked both ways.
“It’ll be light soon,” he said. “Maybe an hour. We’ll roll in midmorning. Just in time for breakfast. I know you said you were hungry, but do you think you can wait a few hours?”
“I was teasing you,” she said with a grin. “I ate so much before that I don’t think I’ll be hungry for a week.”
He glanced over at her belly. “Uh-huh. I’ve heard that it’s never wise to believe a pregnant woman when she says she’ll never be hungry again.”
She laughed and enjoyed the sensation of feeling so light. It was absurd and incongruous given how they’d come to be here and how tenuous her grip on the situation was. It had been too long since she’d felt safe enough to enjoy a stolen moment where she didn’t have to worry that taking joy in something meant its death or removal.
She looked away, embarrassed by the fact that she could so easily forget what was at stake here. She cleared her throat as if that somehow would make the feeling go away.
The sky turned lavender, and only one star hung stubbornly in it, bright like a diamond against velvet. Her gaze was fixed on the star, and she was unable to look away. Stars had always fascinated her. She’d spent countless hours wishing on them as a child.
She’d learned young that wishing was an exercise in futility, and that the only useful trait was self-reliance. She’d spent years trying to make the wistful little girl inside disappear. At first she’d been bent on protecting her, and then she’d tried to ruthlessly drive her from existence.
The woman who’d shot her father and felt no remorse was a long way from the child who’d only ever wished for love and a family—a real family.
“What are you thinking about over there? You’re about to chew your bottom lip off.”
She immediately relaxed her mouth and managed a faint smile. “Nothing important. Tell me about KGI. How did you get it started and why do you do what you do? It seems an odd career choice.”
He cast a sideways look at her and shrugged. “It pays well.”
She arched an eyebrow. “That’s it? It pays well?”
“I suppose you could say it’s in the blood. My entire family is military. Never a time we weren’t. My father, his father, his father’s father. Uncles, cousins—you name it, we served.”
“But you’re not still enlisted right? I mean KGI is private.”
There was only a brief flicker in his eyes, and if she hadn’t been watching she would have missed his hands tightening just a bit on the steering wheel.
“Your father didn’t tell you about us? You said he knew what we were.”
Her lips thinned. “My father only told me what he thought I needed to know in order to get close to you. He didn’t give me your life story or anything.”
He glanced back to the road. “No, I’m not enlisted. I was an army man. Garrett and Donovan both joined the Marines. There’s also Ethan, Nathan and Joe who you haven’t met. Ethan was a Navy SEAL.”
“Was? So none of you are still in the military then?”
“Nathan and Joe are still active duty. Army.”
“And does Ethan work with you?”
Sam grimaced. “Some. Probably more in the future. He and his wife have had a rough time. His focus is her right now.”
“Oh. I mean that’s good.”
“Yeah, they need the time. They’ll be fine though. Rachel’s tough. She’s a fighter.”
Sophie looked at him curiously. A warm glint had entered his eyes when he spoke of his sister-in-law, and it made Sophie curious to know the story lurking behind those enigmatic words.
“So you formed KGI when you left the military? That seems like such a daunting undertaking. I can’t even imagine.”
Sam smiled. “Not so much. I had a lot of good contacts. I saved an upper-level CIA operative’s ass during an incident at one of the U.S. embassies. He told me if he could ever return the favor to call him. So I did. Call him. It’s through him that a lot of our jobs are done, but we take jobs in the private sector as well.”
“Like?”
She couldn’t imagine normal, everyday people needing a military operation. Her father yes, but then he was as far from normal as one could get.
“Most of our hostage recovery missions are contracted through governments and not always our own. We’ve been hired by smaller countries without the military might of a more developed nation.
“In the private sector we’ve taken jobs to recover kidnap victims and we’ve also done fugitive recovery.”
Her eyes widened. “You mean like prison escapees?”
He smiled. “No, not quite. More like criminals who haven’t been apprehended yet or are on the run before they’ve been tried for their crimes. The job is a lot of things, but predictable and boring it’s not.”
“It sounds very dangerous,” she murmured.
“It can be, but we’re good at what we do. We hire and train the best.”
She grinned cheekily. “You sound like a commercial now.”
He reached over and chucked her on the chin. “No one likes a smart-ass.”
She caught his hand and kissed the tip of one finger. His eyes went molten, and for a moment he swerved as he took his attention from the road.
“You’re a menace,” he muttered.
Her eyes widened innocently. “What?”
He shook his head and chuckled but faced the road and returned both hands to the wheel.
CHAPTER 18
“I’M in position,” P.J. said into her receiver.
Out of habit, she took a wide, slow sweep from left to right with her scope and took in any potential problem areas.
“There’s a weak area to the west of the house. Three large trees connected by a mass of honeysuckle so thick you can’t see through it. Someone could hide in there and never be seen.”
“Should I break out the chain saw?” Cole drawled.
P.J. rolled her eyes. “You probably couldn’t handle that much power.”
“I’ll show you power,” he muttered.
“Children,” Dolphin reprimanded.
P.J. grinned and mentally counted to three. Yep, Steele broke in with his dry, no-sense-of-humor voice.
“Cut it, you two. We have a job to do here. I’ll take a look at your problem spot, P.J.,” Steele said. “You and Cole stay in position. Sam will be rolling in soon.”
P.J. pulled her field glasses up and watched, curious as to whether she’d actually be able to see Steele in the area. She knew she wouldn’t, but it was a game she never tired of. The man couldn’t always be that good, could he?
After several long minutes, Cole chuckled in her ear. “You won’t find him, P.J.”
She frowned. “How the hell do you know what I’m doing? I know damn well you can’t see me.”
“I could mess with you and say I can, but you’re predictable. I knew you’d be looking.”
Prompted by his needling to take him down a peg or two, she raised her rifle and did a meticulous sweep of the area where he’d taken position. She’d find his ass and nail it to the wall. Then he wouldn’t be so smug.
It took several sweeps and intense concentration, her eyes nearly crossing as she looked for any pattern that didn’t fit. She would have missed it if she’d so much as blinked, but there it was. A shoelace. Just the end between two leaves.
“Gotcha,” she whispered.
“Who you shooting now?” Cole asked in amusement.
“You. Just found you.”
Dolphin’s laughter broke in.
“Bullshit,” Cole said in a terse voice.
But there was a pause, and then the shoelace disappeared, and the foliage surrounding it shifted slightly as if blown by a breeze.
She laughed. “Nice move, but I’d have already nailed you. You gotta watch those huge feet of yours, Cole.”
“Son of a bitch,” Cole muttered.
“Is it true what they say about men with big feet?”