By Honor Bound (26 page)

“I don’t know where I’d take a nap anyway. There’s only this stool here to sit on, and not even that much ground room if I wanted to lay down for a nap.”

He laughed. “You’ve been in the Army how long? And you can’t fall asleep anywhere after all this time?”

“I’ve been in ten years, and no, I can’t fall asleep standing up. Can you?”

Mace almost told her he could do a lot of things standing up when there was a muffled thud and the lights went out.

Chapter Four

Pitch-black! She was in total and utter darkness. For a split second, Annie was transported back to her childhood when Blayne locked her in the closet and whispered warnings about the hanger monsters strangling her. A whimper clawed its way to her throat but she fought it down. She was a grown woman for crying out loud! There was no reason to lose her mind over this.

“What happened?” Annie tried to keep the panic from her voice.

“The probably took out the power supply. Fairly standard procedure if you’re trying to confine a big group of people. Cut off the electricity and the phones and they can’t call for help or communicate with each other. It also increases the hostages’ feelings of isolation and fear.”

“Oh, makes sense.” It was doing a hell of a lot to increase her fear.

“I’m going out for a recon. You stay here. Do you hear me? I don’t want you setting foot out of this room in case it’s a trap.”

Stay here? Alone? “I’ll come with you. You need backup!”

“No. If this is a trap I’ll need you to bail me out.”

“Why don’t I go look around and you stay in the closet?” Annie tried to hide the panic in her voice.

“How much do you know about electrical systems or ground operations?”

“Not much.”

“That’s why I’m going. I’ll be gone five minutes tops. If I’m longer, it means I ran into trouble.”

Five minutes. She could handle five minutes. By herself. In the closet. Before she could muster another argument Mace was out the door.

Annie tried counting the seconds off in her head. She tried saying the alphabet backwards, doing her times tables, anything that would keep her mind off the blackness engulfing her.

Surrounding her.

Suffocating her.

The walls were closing in! She couldn’t breathe! Annie’s heart was beating so fast in her chest she thought it would jump right out. Cold sweat dripped down her back, and a whimper tore out of her mouth. She was going to die in this airless coffin!

Lights danced in front of her eyes. She was going to pass out!

“Annie! It’s okay! It’s just me. You have nothing to be afraid of.” Mace’s voice may have been gruff, but it was the most beautiful sound in the world to her.

 “What did you find?” Annie was breathing as hard as if she’d run a marathon. Relief washed through her in waves making her knees weak.

“I could smell burning wires, but the emergency lights were on. I think they only got the main power supply, but left the generator backup alone.”

“That’s good, right?”

“Well, it means we’re not completely without power. It also means they plan on sticking around here long enough to want some electricity.”

“Where does that leave us then?” Annie inhaled deeply. Mace’s scent filled her nostrils with each breath.

“We need to stay put a little while. Cutting the power might just be a way to draw us out. We have to stay low so they think we escaped, then we can go after them.”

“Stay here? For how long?” Panic reared its ugly head at the thought of spending the night in the tiny room.

“Hey, don’t freak out, I’m right here with you.” Mace pulled her to him, gathering her against his solid frame.

Some parts of him were more solid than others. The steely hardness of his erection grew against her stomach, swamping the fear with waves of lust. His obvious signs of desire set off corresponding signals in her own body making her pussy lips swell and moisten.

Without thinking of anything other than the need to touch him, Annie pulled his head down and planted her lips on his. Anything to keep the darkness at bay.

He needed no further encouragement, and crushed her to his chest, attacking her lips with the voraciousness of a starving man at a feast. His hands were everywhere, kneading her behind and pulling her closer to his rock-hard cock.

Needing to touch his skin, Annie ran her hands up his bare rib cage. Ever since she’d taken off his johnny to check his wound she’d been drooling over his gorgeous body. With the lights off she couldn’t see it, but her fingers were telling her what she was missing.

The hard ridges of his abs felt like mountains under her hands, and she was ready to do a little mountain climbing. His skin was slick with sweat and her fingers slid easily over him. She wanted to see him, all of him, but it was too dark. She’d have to rely on her fingers to show her what she was missing. Cream drenched her panties and she hadn’t even gotten his pants off.

“God! I wish I could see your body,” she murmured against his neck as she nipped down his throat to kiss his chest. She barely had to bend at all to lick at his tight nipples.

“Not half as much as I want to see yours.” Mace pulled the shirt off her arms and yanked the bra over her head.

Her breasts sprang free and she felt the heat of his hands on them, his thumb teased her aching nipples. She dug her fingers into his back, holding on to sanity by the thinnest of threads.

 “We shouldn’t be doing this, I barely know you.” Sanity tried to assert itself.

“It’s the situation; extreme stress produces extreme emotions and need.” Mace pulled her head back and licked his way down to her breast, drawing her nipple into his mouth.

“Works for me.” She’d worry about later when she knew there was going to be a later.

Trailing her fingers down his chest she skirted his wound and went straight for the laces on his pajama pants. She couldn’t believe how hard his muscles felt. There wasn’t an ounce of spare flesh on his body.

Wrapping her hand around his shaft, Annie felt the velvety smooth texture of his skin covering the steely hardness of his cock. He was definitely rock-solid all over. Her fingers played over his length, making him groan into her ear as he nibbled on her neck.

Annie was so busy exploring every inch of his length, she didn’t even realize Mace had unbuttoned her pants until she felt his fingers probing her pussy lips. Even his fingers were thick! Her muscles clenched around him and spasmed at his touch. He was stretching her, filling her, and this was only his finger!

“You’re so hot for me, so wet. I want to be in you.”

“I’m in-line with that plan,” Annie gasped as his knuckle rubbed up against her clitoris, sending shockwaves through her system.

“I don’t have any protection. Hell, I don’t even have any pockets.” Mace’s voice was close to a whimper.

“I’m on the pill, and I’m clean as a whistle.” Annie struggled to get her pants down her legs and kick off her shoes without letting go of Mace. Dear God, if he stopped now she would die!

“Me too.”

Maybe the military’s regular blood tests were a good thing after all.

Mace lifted her onto the stool and she balanced on the edge, waiting to feel him inside her.

“Hurry, hurry!” Annie had never wanted anyone so badly before in her life. The wait to feel him inside her was excruciating. Her core was throbbing, and she could feel her juices sliding down her spread thighs. Her legs quivered in anticipation, aching to have him fill her.

“Yes, ma’am!” Mace drove into her, pushing past walls that hadn’t felt a man for months.

Annie felt stretched to the limit. She couldn’t see Mace, but she could feel every inch of him inside her, filling her to the hilt.

“Good God you’re big!” Annie tried to relax her muscles to make room for him.

“Good God you’re tight. And hot. And feel so good.” Mace peppered his words with kisses to her face and neck.

A volcano of feeling was bubbling under the surface of Annie’s body, wanting to erupt. The sensations were flooding her mind, washing away any thoughts but how wonderful Mace’s body felt inside hers. When he nipped her shoulder then licked the spot, Annie felt the volcano bubble higher.

“Come for me,” he growled in her ear.

“I-I don’t know what to do.” Her embarrassment was no match against the feelings Mace was creating inside her.

“Just let go, I’ll take care of the rest.”

Let go? Who was holding on? Annie’s body had long since taken control and she was following along for the ride. She was tempted to ask him what he meant when she felt his finger stroke her clit.

Instantly the volcano erupted, shooting wave after wave of pleasure through her body. Hips bucking, Annie held on to Mace’s shoulders with all her might. Every infinitesimal quiver of her pussy touched his length and pulled him closer inside her, and even then it wasn’t enough. She wanted this feeling to go on and on.

“That’s how you do it.” Mace pulled a nipple into his mouth, and the pressure set off a new bevy of quivers inside her.

“I guess so.” Grabbing his arms for better leverage, Annie thrust her hips up and squeezed her inner muscles at the same time.

The initial explosion was gone, but the aftershocks were still powerful enough to keep her off balance.

“If you keep that up, this won’t last very long.”

“Oh, I think you’ve got long enough well covered.”

Something he demonstrated by hammering her almost to her womb. Squeezing him even tighter, Annie held on while Mace grabbed her hips and slammed into her again and again. Her world was focused on feeling him between her legs. The hair on his legs rubbed against her inner thighs, sending her nerve endings into overdrive. He was hard, and hot, and felt so good inside her, she never wanted it to end.

His hands tightened on her behind, pulling her harder against him, and he let out a muffled shout before lowering her back against the stool. His cock pulsed inside of her, matching the beat of her racing heart. Before Annie could fully recover from the roller-coaster ride her libido had been on, Mace pulled out of her.

“Shh, I hear something.” He covered her mouth with his hand and held her next to him. His body was tense in anticipation.

Mace lifted her off the stool and placed her gently on the floor, pushing on her shoulder in a silent signal to crouch down. Annie curled into a ball, and reached out for some clothing. One minute she was recovering from the first orgasm of her life, the next she was trying to find something to cover herself in case gun-toting lunatics barge through the door. Talk about a buzz kill.

A ray of light from the hallway emergency lights shined weakly through the door as Mace opened it a crack. The light gave Annie a glimpse of Mace as he searched for danger. The part of her mind not absorbed with trying to cover her nakedness marveled at the sheer masculine beauty of the man in front of her.

Broad shoulders she’d only just clung to like her life depended on it were covered in mounds of muscles. She could see his six-pack abs leading to narrow hips and ropey thighs. The shadows hid the package between his legs, and Annie shook herself out of the urge to crane her neck to get a better look.

Arrows of pure lust shot straight to her pussy, singeing her with need. She’d only just had the first real orgasm of her life and already the heat was spreading through her at the sight of him. At this rate she was more in danger of becoming a sex-starved maniac than getting shot by the lunatics patrolling the halls.

“It’s nothing. Must have just heard something through the vents.” Mace shut the door, cutting off her study of his attributes.

“So what do we do now?” Annie found her bra waded up near her pants, but her shirt was nowhere to be found. She’d have to wait until the power came back on to find it.

“We’ll listen to the scanner again. Maybe the news has something to report.”

Annie could hear the sounds of him pulling on his pants. If they lived through this, she was going to get a better look at all of him. A nice long look.

Fumbling around on the shelves, Annie found the scanner and turned it on. All she got was static.

“Damn, I must have moved the dial when I grabbed it. Hold on, I’ll try to find the right channel.” Her hands shook as she turned the knob slowly. Trying to find a frequency in pitch darkness wasn’t the easiest thing to do.

“All charges are in place and patients evacuated.”

“Stop there!” Mace ordered.

Annie’s hand froze on the dial. They must have intercepted the terrorists’ radio transmissions.

“Have you separated the civilian employees from the military?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Good. Find one soldier to make an example for the press, then we’ll deliver our demands.”

“Yes, sir. And if they aren’t met?”

“Then the hospital is blown sky-high in the morning.”

* * * * *

His gut clenched at the coldness in the voice on the radio. Mace had no idea what their demands were, but he knew the government wouldn’t meet them. Giving into hostage demands only encouraged wackos to keep trying. They had a few hours until daylight to get out and save all the people in the building.

Hell, he couldn’t even save himself and Annie, how was he going to save the hospital?

“Do you want me to try to find the news station or keep it here?”

“Leave it there, we don’t want to take the chance of losing it.”

“That’s what I thought. What are we going to do?” Her voice quivered a bit.

Mace resisted the urge to pull her into his arms and comfort her. That’s what he’d meant to do when the power went out; instead, he screwed her brains out in a janitor’s closet. Prince Charming had nothing on him.

“I’m going to take another look at that bomb.”

“What do you think you’re going to find out this time?”

“It seems to me if they are dumb enough to talk on radios that can get picked up by a cheap police scanner, I might have given them more credit than they deserve when it comes to the bomb.”

“What exactly does that mean?”

“It means I want another look at the bomb. I think some of those wires are decoys.”