Dangerously Hot (A Hostile Operations Team Novel)(#4) (20 page)

“We have to get out of here,” he said.
 

“Definitely. Iceman and Knight Rider?”

Hawk looked fierce. “Waiting for the go signal.”

Kev looked around at the scene. The destruction wasn’t anything he hadn’t seen before, but it rattled him in a different way now that he had Lucky to take care of. This wasn’t the life she’d signed up for, and it pissed him off that she had to be exposed to it. That she was in danger because of it.

Sirens wailed in the distance, and people yelled and cried. He blocked it all out and focused on the woman in front of him.

“Then let’s go,” he said.

“We have to help.” Lucky grabbed his arm when he started to stand.
 

“We have to go,” Kev told her. “We have no idea if there are more bombs, and we need to get back to the hotel. You’re the asset, and we have to protect you.”

Panic was a bubble in the bottom of his throat, trying to claw its way up and out. And all because of her. Because she was in danger and he had to protect her.

She stuck her chin out and stared at him and Hawk both. “We can’t leave these people here. Some are hurt, and the two of you have medical training. So do Garrett and Sam. You can’t walk away. It’s not right.”

Hawk met his gaze and frowned. Kev knew that Hawk was on the same page with him, but she looked so hopeful and determined.

“It’s too much of a risk.” But Kev knew when he said it that she wasn’t buying into it at all. This was the part of the job that was hard—knowing when you had to leave a situation, and knowing that people were suffering. Lucky wasn’t accustomed to that, and she wasn’t going to be anytime soon.

She grabbed his hands and held them hard. “What if it were Marco lying there? Or Jim? You guys wouldn’t have left them, would you?”

Kev’s jaw ached with how tightly he clenched it.
I will never leave a fallen comrade.
It was part of the warrior ethos and she knew it. “No.”

Her gaze slid to Hawk, who looked equally uncomfortable. “We have to help,” she said. “At least until the ambulances get here.”

Kev closed his eyes and swore.
Goddammit.
“We’ll stay as long as we can, but I can’t promise you it will be long.”
 

She shuddered with relief, and he wanted to yank her into his arms and hold her tight just because she was still breathing. Instead, he reached out and wiped the blood off her cheek. “Leave my side for an instant, fail to obey me, and we’re going. No second chances, Lucky.”

“Copy,” she said, her eyes on his, sucking him in.
Goddamn.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Lucky was hot and tired by the time they got back to the hotel. Her abaya was sweat- and blood-stained and torn, and her joints ached. She knew why Kev had thrown her to the ground, but that didn’t change the fact it had hurt. She could still see the taxi driver slumped over the wheel, and tears threatened to spill down her cheeks.

She still didn’t know how she’d managed to talk Kev into it, but they’d helped the people who had been hurt. The guys staunched wounds, splinted limbs, and managed to keep the area from disintegrating before the authorities arrived.

The blast site wasn’t far from the embassy, and it went into lockdown right away. Lucky knew that Kev had been right to worry about a second device, or a third or fourth, but she’d heard the people’s cries, the screams, the pleas for mercy from God, and she couldn’t walk away from all that suffering.

She’d been lucky—
they’d
been lucky—to escape with scrapes and aches. Now, she went into the bathroom and stripped off the abaya. Her eyes were bloodshot, and her skin was streaked with dirt and blood. The silken hijab was ruined and she tore that off too. Her hair was matted to her head with sweat.

She turned on the water in the sink and splashed her face. Her hands were shaking when she turned it off again. She needed a shower. A long, hot, mind-melting shower.

And a surfboard, an ocean breeze, and no cares in the world. God what she wouldn’t give for those days, which now seemed so far away.

It’s not true about no cares in the world.

She glared at herself in the mirror. No, it wasn’t true. She’d had plenty of cares in Hawaii. She’d thought about Marco, about all that had gone wrong in their marriage, about her mother and sisters, her stepdad, the Army, Al Ahmad—and Kev. Oh yes, she’d thought about him a lot. Wondered where he was and if he was still banging trashy waitresses or if maybe, just maybe, he missed her a little bit.
 

She’d thought he might since he’d called so often. She’d wanted to answer the phone, but she’d refused to do it. She’d worried about the flood of emotion it might open if she did. So she’d sat there and listened to his voice on the answering machine asking her if she was all right and telling her to call if she needed anything.

But how could she call him? How could she ever, ever call him? Her life had been a mess, and that wasn’t something Kev really wanted to be a part of.

Lucky bit back a sob. She clenched her hands into fists and stared at herself in the mirror. What the fuck? Was she going to fall apart now? Was she going to melt down just because of a few destroyed cars, a few destroyed lives?

She dropped her head into her hands and let the tears flow. And then she felt hands on her, turning her, yanking her against the solid weight of a male body.
 

Kev.
 

His hand was on her hair, her nose was against his chest, and she clutched her fingers into his shirt and held on.

“It’s okay, Lucky. It’s all right. Cry if you want. No one will stop you. No one will blame you. Let it out.” He rubbed her back. “Let it out.”

She held on to him, because she could do nothing else, and sobbed her heart out. Her body shook like the last fall leaf clinging desperately to a branch, and her heart ached as if it were breaking anew with every tear she shed. Her throat hurt.

Kev held her close and didn’t say a word, didn’t try to stop her or tell her she was being silly. He just let her cry. And then, when she felt her tears subsiding a bit, when she thought she might survive this crying jag after all, he pulled her with him until he could reach the shower. He turned on the water. It took a few moments, but steam began to fill the cubicle.

“Think you can do this?” he asked her, still holding her close, his arms around her, buoying her up.

She swallowed, her throat aching. She didn’t want to be alone with her thoughts and the images in her head. “Don’t leave me. Please don’t leave me.”

He set her gently away from him until he could meet her gaze. The pain in his eyes sent a sharp ache plunging into her heart.

“I can’t stay. If I stay…”

It was the first time since the night in his bed that she’d gotten the idea he might not be unaffected after all. That he might, possibly, truly want her again. That he wasn’t teasing her to make her laugh. Her heart thumped as she sucked in a breath and ran a shaky hand over his hard chest. “I want you to stay. I want to be with you.”

He closed his eyes for a moment. “Mendez ordered me not to have sex with you. The night before we deployed.”

Anger burned in her belly. So Mendez knew something about the two of them. Or suspected anyway. And he’d gone to Kev instead of her. Just like a man. She might be a part of this team, but she was still a woman. And women needed a man to make decisions for them. Or so a man like the colonel believed.

“Mendez doesn’t run my life. He doesn’t get to say who I care about or what I do.” She cupped his jaw in her palm. Her fingers trembled. “He’s not here, and I know why he said it, but Jesus, Kev, we could have died out there. We still could.”

He kissed her palm. “You have no idea how that thought tears me up inside. How it gets inside my head and makes me crazy. When I think of anything happening to you…”

“You won’t let it,” she said softly. “I know you won’t.”

He looked so lost and fierce in that moment that she stepped into him and pulled his head down to hers. He didn’t try to stop her. When their lips met, it was a soft, tentative kiss that quickly turned hot and intense.

“We shouldn’t,” he said, tearing his mouth from hers. Yet he slid his hands beneath her dress and yanked it up and over her head. “But damned if I’m capable of walking away.”

Joy blossomed in her soul as their mouths fused again. They kissed hard and long, and then he divested her of her bra and panties while she fumbled with his belt buckle. Her fingers were clumsy, and she made a noise of frustration.

“Wait a minute,” he said, setting her away from him and disappearing into the bedroom. She thought he might have changed his mind, and she wondered what she would do if so—but he was back a moment later with a condom package. Relief threatened to make her knees weak.

He gave her the package while he stripped off his shirt and pants. His body made her mouth water. It was hard and perfect, with rippling abs and tight muscle that flexed and bunched with every movement. She couldn’t help but run her hands over him, learning his shape by touch.
 

He growled as he shoved his pants off, and she wrapped her hand around his hard cock.
 

“Lucky.”

“I’ve dreamed of this for days now. Dreamed of you.”

He backed her into the shower, his body in her personal space, his hands sliding over her hips, her waist. Hot water pummeled her back, plastered her hair to her head, and washed away the dirt and blood from the afternoon.

Kev reached for the shampoo at the same time she stroked him. His flesh was so hot it burned. His breath hitched.

“You seriously want to kill me, don’t you?”

“I just want you.” She felt achy and needy and so very alive when she was with him. It was as if she’d swallowed sunshine and it burned her from the inside out.
 

She didn’t care about anything but getting him inside her. If he was inside her, he wouldn’t spend much time looking at her skin, noticing her imperfections.

“First things first.” He poured shampoo in his hand, and even though she ached with need, a surge of tenderness warmed the darkest reaches of her soul.

He turned her until her back was to him and lathered her hair. When she reached behind her and cupped his balls, he took her arms and put her hands over her head, palms against the wall.

“Move your hands again and I’ll spank you,” he growled in her ear.

A shiver tripped down her spine. “You wouldn’t dare.”

He nipped her earlobe, and an arrow of longing went straight to her clit and made it throb. Oh, she loved that he didn’t treat her with kid gloves. Not this time.

“Try me.”

She stood with her palms flat against the wall while he washed her hair. He used a cup sitting on a ledge to rinse her hair instead of letting her turn and duck under the spray again. Another bottle popped open and she wondered what he was doing—but then his soapy hands moved over her and she wanted to scream. His palms slid against her wet flesh so erotically, so teasingly. His fingers explored, dancing over her skin, and all her fears about her scars fled.

He pinched her nipples softly and repeatedly until her body was a bundle of nerve endings waiting to explode. She dropped her forehead against the wall and tried to breathe normally.

It didn’t work.

“Kev, please…”

“Please what?”

She grabbed his hand and slid it between her legs. The slight stinging slap on her ass made her jerk, but in a good way. It was a shock, yes, but it was also erotic as hell. Especially when he touched her where she wanted. His fingers glided between her folds, found her clit. Lucky whimpered with the rightness of it.

“I told you I’d spank you.” His voice was a sensual rasp in her ear.

“And I’ll pay you back for it.” She gasped. “Later.”

“I’ll look forward to it.”

He made her part her legs a bit more, and then he began to roll her clit between his thumb and forefinger while she pressed her palms to the wall and thrust her hips back toward him.

“You’re so hot,” he said. “So beautiful. I want you to come, Lucky. Come hard. Scream my name.”

His mouth was on her neck, her shoulder, his fingers working their magic as the tension built higher and higher. And then it was simply too much and she shattered with a sharp cry. Her orgasm ripped through her, scouring her body and soul with its power. With the power of all the things she felt for this man.

Confusing things. Hot, needy things. Forbidden things.

He turned her in his arms and pressed the condom package into her hand. She’d forgotten all about it, but he’d taken it from her and set it on the ledge when they’d entered the shower. Now she ripped it open and sheathed him with trembling fingers.
 

He was a hard male animal, completely focused as he pushed her back against the wall and lifted her up high. He hesitated just a moment, their gazes tangling.

“Tell me you want me.”

As if he didn’t know. But she sensed it was important to him somehow, that it went deep and soothed something inside him that she didn’t know existed. It made her long to know him, but she wasn’t certain she ever would.