Her Baby's Bodyguard (17 page)

With his breath warming her skin, she did feel beautiful. Desired. Loved.

No, not that. Jack didn’t do love.

But he knew how to make her body hum. He used his mouth and his hands and his voice, each caress building on the one before. The room swirled around her. She didn’t see the gray steel walls. She didn’t hear the faint clang of footsteps in the corridor or the distant throb of the ship’s engines. She didn’t think about the plane that would take Jack away tonight or the one she would board tomorrow. She didn’t even think about her baby sleeping on the other side of the room. All she was conscious of was the pleasure that followed Jack’s touch.

She slid off the desk and yanked at his shirt. He took it off more quickly than he’d gotten rid of hers. For a heartbeat she could only stare, her mouth going dry. He was magnificent. He had the build of an athlete, lean and powerfully muscled. She’d felt his strength so many times. Now she reveled in the freedom to look at him, to explore, to return the pleasure he was giving her.

The world contracted further, becoming a whirl of taste and texture and scent. With her hands and her lips, she learned the contours of the arms that had held her, the chest she’d sheltered against and the shoulders she’d leaned on while she’d slept. Time lost its meaning as sensations overwhelmed her. As naturally as breathing, she reached for the zipper of his pants.

Pleasure became urgency and then a driving, mindless need. They wasted no time ridding themselves of the rest of their clothes. Even if they could have used the bed, they wouldn’t have made it there. She curled her foot behind his calf, trying to get closer. Jack slid his hands beneath her bottom and lifted her from the floor. Locking her ankles behind his waist, she hung on as he moved her. He was long and hard and, oh, he was pressing exactly where she needed him.

Eva trembled, her lips parting in shock. It was so fast. She couldn’t possibly—

He shifted his grip and slipped one hand between her thighs.

Her climax was swift. Almost brutal. She turned her face to his neck to muffle her scream as her body convulsed. “Eva?”

She gasped. She couldn’t get enough air. The shudders tapered off to become shivers.

Jack lowered her to her feet. “Are you okay?”

She tried to reply. After what he’d so generously given her, she had to say something. But the instant her feet hit the floor, her legs buckled.

She was aware of Jack’s arms around her and the concern in his voice. Then darkness closed in, and she felt nothing at all.

Jack held Katya to his shoulder as he paced outside the examining room. So far, the baby was still sleeping, but he could feel the telltale twitches she made that meant she’d be waking up soon. He paused at the door. He could hear nothing from inside. What the hell was taking them so long?

And what the hell had he been thinking? He’d known Eva was tired. He’d meant to stop with a kiss, that’s all. But then he’d felt her response, and he couldn’t have stopped if his life had depended on it.

Damn, he was a bastard. He’d known he would end up hurting her. Just not like this.

“Hey, Jack, what’s going on? I heard you were trying to contact us.”

At Tyler’s voice, he pivoted and strode toward him. “Something’s wrong with Eva. It’s more than fatigue.”

“The major wants us on the flight deck in an hour.”

“Didn’t you hear me? Eva’s sick.”

“Yeah, I heard you. They’ve got real doctors on this tub. They’ll fix her up.”

“They’re worthless. They examined her this morning. They should have seen something was wrong, but they didn’t.” He looked past Tyler. “Where’s Major Redinger now?”

“I don’t know.”

“What do you mean, you don’t know? You just talked to him, didn’t you?”

“That was a half hour ago. He’ll meet us at the plane.”

“We’ve got to take Eva to the hospital in Ramstein. Redinger can authorize the route change.”

“If it’s that serious, the ship’s doctors will take care of the transfer. What did they say was wrong?”

“They didn’t. They don’t know anything. Someone should stuff their fancy medical degrees up their navy blue butts.”

Tyler seized his arm. “What’s the matter with you, Jack? Eva Petrova’s not our problem anymore, remember?”

“Wrong. Our mission was to get her out safely.”

“We did.”

He jerked his arm free and swung it toward the door. “She’s in there getting prodded and poked by a bunch of incompetent pill pushers. I don’t call that safe.”

At his raised voice, Katya bumped her head against his shoulder and started to cry. Jack returned his free hand to her back and jiggled her. “It’s okay, squirt,” he murmured, doing his best to sound calm. “Be good and go back to sleep.”

Tyler crossed his arms and leaned one shoulder against a bulkhead, waiting until the baby had quieted. “How come you’ve got the kid anyway, Jack? I thought Eva was with the government spooks.”

“I was the only one there when she collapsed.”

“Where?”

“In her quarters. I called it in as a medical emergency, and they brought her down here. I couldn’t leave the kid alone, so I took her with me. They won’t let us in. They’re not telling me anything, either.”

“What were you doing in her quarters, Jack?”

“Returning the kid’s mittens.”

“Sure, you were.”

Jack gritted his teeth. He’d told the doctors the truth about what had happened before Eva had lost consciousness because it might make a difference to their ability to come up with a diagnosis. He didn’t want word of what he’d done to spread any further. “I’d found them in my coat pocket.”

“Tell that to someone who doesn’t know you, Jack. It’s my guess what you were really doing had more to do with what was in your pants.”

He jammed his forearm across Tyler’s windpipe, clanging his head back against the bulkhead. “Careful, junior.”

Tyler didn’t blink. He could have easily countered the move. Jack had seen him in action, and he was larger and faster than Jack was. He wasn’t hampered by the need to hang on to a baby with one arm, either. Instead, he slowly raised his palms.

Jack dropped his arm and stepped back.

Tyler rubbed his throat. “What the hell’s wrong with you?”

“I don’t want you talking about Eva like that. She deserves our respect.”

“It’s you I was talking about, not her.”

Jack grunted. In the reasonable part of his brain, he realized his anger should have been directed at himself instead of his friend. But he’d been running on instinct from the time Eva had passed out, and he was feeling less reasonable by the second. “I’m worried about her, that’s all.”

“I can see that.”

“She’s a special woman. One in a million. She’s made the most of everything that life’s thrown at her and never gives up. She’s a good mother, too. You’ve seen how she dotes on this kid. She deserves to be happy.”

“You’ll get no argument from me or any of the guys about that. She proved more than once that she’s one brave lady.”

“Not many people have her kind of courage.”

“I could tell on the flight here that you two seemed pretty close.”

“She relied on me. She counted on me.”

“She’s also a good-looking woman.”

Jack shot him a warning glance.

“Just stating a fact, doc. I could see that you noticed.”

“So?”

“So what you do on your downtime is your business, but you’d better get your head on straight in the next—” he glanced at his watch “—fifty-one minutes. The major won’t wait.”

Katya whimpered. Jack shifted her to a football carry and rocked her back and forth. “Tell Redinger I’m not going anywhere until I know Eva’s all right.”

Tyler scowled. “Think about this before you get carried away. Your head’s still in the mission. You’re confusing your sense of responsibility with genuine attraction. Eva’s being taken care of. She doesn’t need you.”

“Don’t quote the psych lectures to me, junior. I’ve heard them all. I’ve been going on missions since before you started to shave. Oh, I forgot. You’re still not old enough to shave.”

“Jack, I’m serious.”

“So am I.”

Tyler hesitated. “You can’t mean that. You’ve only known her for a few days.”

Jack raked his free hand through his hair and then squeezed the back of his neck. Was he mistaking adrenaline-induced desire for something more? He didn’t think so. From the start, he’d been drawn to Eva on a level that went deeper than sex. The amount of time they’d had together didn’t seem to matter—they’d connected as if they’d already recognized each other.

But he wasn’t going to try explaining his feelings to Tyler. He wasn’t sure he understood them himself.

The door to the examining room opened. A middle-aged doctor wearing wire-rimmed glasses and a set of scrubs that stretched over a weight lifter’s build stepped out. He peered over his glasses first at Tyler and then at Jack. “Sergeant Norton?”

Jack didn’t know him. He wasn’t one of the doctors who had been on duty when they’d brought Eva here. How many physicians did she need? How bad was this? He stepped forward. “I’m Norton. How is she?”

“Dr. Petrova’s awake and alert.”

He exhaled hard. Had he overreacted? “Did you find out what’s wrong?”

“We’re not sure. We’re waiting for some blood work.”

“I need to see her,” he said, starting past.

“Hold on, Sergeant. You can’t do that.”

Jack didn’t slow down. “This is her daughter. Eva’s probably been asking for her.”

“She has, but until we know what we’re dealing with, for the child’s sake you should keep her away from her mother. We’ve moved Dr. Petrova into full isolation.”

That stopped him in his tracks. He turned to face the doctor. “What the hell does that mean?”

“As I said, we’re running some further blood tests.”

“You know she’s a nursing mother, right? And she’s been through a traumatic experience. The bullet wound in her side was cleansed, but—”

“Sergeant, I’m fully aware of Dr. Petrova’s history. I’ve also been told of the circumstances that preceded her collapse,” he added.

Jack met his regard levelly. “Good. Then you should understand that I’m not going to be placated with generalities. I’m going to stay in your face until you give me some real answers.”

“Right now, all we know is there’s something unusual in her blood.”

“Is it an infection?”

“It appears to be some kind of virus, but so far we haven’t been able to identify it. It’s not like anything we’ve seen before.”

A
virus?

No. It wasn’t possible. Eva worked at a computer, in an office. She didn’t work in the complex’s lab. She was too smart to have accidentally infected herself. Because of the baby, she would have been cautious to the point of paranoia.

Jack glanced past the doctor to where Tyler still stood in the corridor. He could see by the look on his face that his thoughts had followed the same path as Jack’s.

Katya kicked her feet against his side. Jack moved her to his shoulder again and brushed his lips over her hair. Hair so like her mother’s. Silky and fine. With a scent like honey. He held her tighter.

No!
It had to be something else.

“As a precaution,” the doctor continued, “I’ve been authorized to quarantine everyone who has come into contact with Dr. Petrova. Until we have some answers, no one is leaving this ship.”

Chapter 10

T
he thick sheets of plastic that curtained Eva’s hospital bed distorted the rest of the room into a colorless blur. Like the other rooms she’d seen on the ship, there were no windows. The hours crawled by with no distinction between day or night, only the steady beat of the heart monitor behind her to keep time. Beyond the door she could hear voices and the sound of people and equipment being moved, but the booming thud of the catapult on the flight deck had been silent from the time she’d woken up here more than two days ago.

She hadn’t wanted Jack to leave, and he hadn’t. She’d wished he could have stayed, and he had.

But she hadn’t wanted him to stay because of this. Dear God, she’d thought the worst was over.

It was only beginning.

The signs had been there and growing worse since she’d left the complex—the fatigue, the dizziness, her inability to keep awake. The Chameleon Virus was beginning its assault on her body, but she hadn’t wanted to admit it. She’d made excuses. She’d seen only what she’d wanted to see.

She’d done that with Burian and her research, too. She’d ignored the warning signs and had deceived herself into believing everything was fine, but she’d been wrong. And now because of her blindness she could have condemned Katya and Jack to death….

The room blurred. Eva forced herself to take deep breaths until her head cleared.

No! She wouldn’t think like that. If it really was the Chameleon Virus that was causing her weakness, then Katya and Jack had to be all right. Burian had designed the virus to be stable when it was dormant—that was one of the aspects that made it such an easily deployed weapon. It adapted to an individual’s DNA the moment it got into the host’s body. Eva couldn’t have passed it on to either of them.

At least, that’s what she kept telling herself. She had to believe she wasn’t mistaken about this. Otherwise, she would go insane.

The nurse who was drawing the latest blood sample patted Eva’s arm. “All done.” The lower half of her face was hidden behind a mask, but her brown eyes were filled with sympathy. She capped the vial and placed it in the rack she’d left on the tray table. “You should try to get some rest, Eva. Let this new medication do its job.”

She pushed herself up on her elbows. The tube that snaked from her arm to the IV stand beside the bed rattled against the bed rail, along with the wire from the lead on her chest. She brushed them aside and sat up. “I can’t rest. Where’s my daughter now?”

“She’s still in quarantine. She’s being well looked after.”

Eva glanced down at her breasts. They were hard, swollen globes under the hospital gown. Her body was demanding that she nurse Katya, but she wouldn’t dream of endangering her child. During the last forty-eight hours, the doctors had pushed a cocktail of drugs into her system in an attempt to slow down the virus. She didn’t want the drugs to filter through to Katya. And for all she knew, her milk could be poison. She could have been passing this horror to her daughter for days, just as her kiss had passed it to Jack….