Mighty Men with Weapons (2 page)

Mighty Men With Weapons

11

Donovan once requested a reassignment because of men like the one seated next to him. This time, a granted transfer was out of the question. Warned before he left Honolulu, he knew this job stuck.

The door slammed behind him, and a hard tap against the roof alerted the driver. Within seconds, they traveled away from the airstrip.

“I’m Donovan,” he said, extending his hand.

“Nate,” the other man growled, ignoring the hand offered.

“I was told there were three on this mission,” Donovan said.

Nate turned to face him. “I don’t care if I fly solo or have an army behind me. I’m here to do a job, and I’m one of the best in the business. Now if you want company, that’s all fine and dandy—

maybe the admiral made adjustments for your special needs—but I ain’t your guy.”

Donovan studied the man next to him and gave him a good gawking, a real once-over before he looked outside the window. He caught a glimpse of the beach, but the cluster of palm trees along the road prevented an unobstructed view.

Ah hell, he thought, avoiding the temptation to steal another glance at the man seated next to him. Another one just like the last operative he left behind. He could almost feel the guy’s dick swelling against his ass now.

Yeah, it was safe to assume Nate was most definitely his guy.

Time would tell, but time always had a way of shining a light in his favor.

* * * *

Nate didn’t like the set up. The bungalows, while located on the beach, were anything but private. The Polynesian-style huts formed clusters in four groups of five straight across the oceanfront. The island resort sported waterfront activities. Kayaks and sun lounges Ebook piracy is stealing. It is a federal offense.

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12

Addison Avery

were scattered across the sand, and a large sign directed tourists to snorkeling rentals.

Stepping onto the tiny porch of their scantily appointed accommodations, Nate ducked his head and walked inside. “How quaint,” he grumbled, looking around the area.

“I’ve stayed in worse,” Donovan said.

Nate walked into the bedroom. There, he found a king-size bed located directly under an oval window. He’d noticed a single day bed in the living room and a full service kitchen off to the left. Turning to the right, he eyed the dressing area and full bathroom complete with an oversized walk-in shower.

“We could ask for another cabana. I’m sure they have huts with two bedrooms.”

“There’s a convertible bed in the living room,” Nate reminded him. “I hope it’s comfortable.”

“I’ll just check with guest services,” Donovan persisted, walking over to the bright red phone on the nightstand.

His finger touched the first number, and Nate pressed down on the necessary buttons to disconnect the call. “We’re not here on our honeymoon, sweetheart. We stay where Shoemaker books. There’s a reason he wants us in this bungalow.”

Donovan shrugged. “Suit yourself. I’m taking the bed.”

Nate didn’t argue. Instead, he slung his bag on the mattress and unzipped the canvass. Pulling out his weapons first, he had one of his guns loaded and locked within a few seconds, taking time to adjust the sights. If Donovan was smart, he would understand the obvious.

The bed was taken and the room belonged to him.

Nate felt the hairs standing up on the back of his neck and turned around. “What the hell are you doing? Waiting for instructions?”

“I don’t take orders from you,” Donovan reported.

“Then don’t just stand there looking like you might need them.

Get your gear unpacked. Go outside and look around. This is a small island, but I’m not familiar with this particular resort. We need to Ebook piracy is stealing. It is a federal offense.

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Mighty Men With Weapons

13

know how many employees are here at all times. When the shifts change, when the housekeeping staff arrives and when they leave, when guests check in and check out, arrivals and departures to and from the airport, and of course, we will want to familiarize ourselves with the guests already here. We should have our orders by the time our third leg shows up.”

At this point, the best Nate could hope for was a soldier who looked more like Rambo than George Clooney. He wouldn’t bank on a miracle.

Nate returned to his work. Unpacking another gun and a few grenades, he opened a drawer in the bedside table and casually tossed the weapons inside. A few seconds later, he heard his sidekick leave the room.

Thank God, he thought. Nate closed his eyes and shook his head.

He couldn’t get started on this one. Oh, hell no. The last time he mixed business with pleasure, he almost lost his life. A sexy Marine with too much family money and political pull had been left for dead in a deserted POW camp in Afghanistan. He was sent in to save him when no one else even acknowledged he was still alive.

He saved him, all right. Then, he fucked the hell out of him for two weeks while they lived like animals and fought like wild men to cross over the rough terrain and weather the worst of droughts—by far one of the poorest climate conditions he remembered. Regardless of the natural heat, he kept things burning one degree hotter between him and a man he later affectionately called his little soldier boy.

No, he didn’t want a replacement for what he shared with some twenty-two-year-old overgrown kid. What he experienced in Afghanistan and the weeks following his assignment held as a once in a lifetime deal, one he took a pass on just to save his soul. He didn’t think he could survive another relationship that almost was, let alone a good hard fuck with someone who looked like Donovan.

Walking over to the doorway, Nate narrowed his focus when he spotted the other operative rummaging through his luggage. He honed Ebook piracy is stealing. It is a federal offense.

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14

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in on Donovan the man, not Donovan the killer, just a few feet away.

He studied him carefully as he unpacked his rig, placing each weapon in a meticulous line straight across the exotic wood bar lining the living room wall.

Donovan had dark hair, a little salt and pepper in his circle beard, one he kept clean-cut and perhaps only grew for an assignment. Most of the men who fought beside him in the past kept clean-shaven whenever possible. Too many days in the field left many ISOs viewing razors as a luxury item.

“Did you say you’ve been here before?” Donovan asked, snapping a clip into the butt of his gun.

Jolted by the sound and the fact that he allowed himself a brief moment of indulgence, Nate walked by Donovan. “It’s been a long time,” he snapped over his shoulder. “I’ll be back.”

Before he heard a reply, Nate stepped into the sand and walked toward the ocean. He took maybe twenty steps when his nostrils flared, allowing him the opportunity to inhale the sea air. The palm trees whispered in the background. The waves gently lapped forward, and the grace of nature tempted him. He rolled up his pants, removed his designer shoes, and tossed them behind him.

Nate had always been mesmerized by the beauty found in the South Pacific. In the late evenings, the blue water turned a dark turquoise and crystallized enough to entice the naked eye and capture a man’s soul. The clear water was an attraction for swimmers and divers. Nate enjoyed the advantages the sea provided even though there were obvious disadvantages.

A man couldn’t hide under these waters, but he’d certainly know where he stood and what swam around him. Right then, the ocean held more appeal than the mission set to begin.

Damn it all. Nate wished the calm sea intrigued him as much as the man waiting to fight beside him. “Fuck me,” he said, kicking a spray of water and stumping his big toe on a clump of tiny pebbles.

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Mighty Men With Weapons

15

Yes, indeed, there were few doubts about where he was headed. This particular job would likely get downright messy.

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16

Addison Avery

Donovan relaxed in the hammock and watched Nate pace. Nate was over six feet of nothing more than sexual frustration and hard core anxiety. Donovan knew something about stress, especially when he added to the mechanisms causing another man’s uneasiness.

He locked his fingers and stretched his arms forward, watching his muscles flex. He snickered. He hadn’t been called out as a beautiful man for nothing.

Most women swooned at his feet and cried their share of tears when they discovered his sexual orientation. Hell, it was the most amusing part of his job. When women were targets, he enjoyed taking them to bed and watching their dismay, never mind their discomfort, when they discovered the truth.

Sometimes he was really quite twisted. He got off on telling a woman he fucked that the reason he could only take her in the ass was the obvious. He liked riding in the backseat. It was the only way to drive.

“Dinner is served buffet style,” Nate barked, a raspy catch to his voice. “Personnel,” he pointed to a man digging up beach umbrellas,

“claims it’s covered with our stay.”

“And I’ll bet you aren’t the kind of guy to spend money out of pocket when something has already been taken care of for you, huh?”

“I don’t spend my dough,” Nate informed him. “Now if you were looking for a quiet romantic dinner in, I’m sure I can swing for candlelight.”

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He didn’t smile. He didn’t act sincere. He was all fuck and no foreplay. Donovan didn’t need a man like Nate to screw up his day, or maybe later, his orders.

Donovan let Nate's snide remark slide. “I hear the island spreads are pretty good.”

“If you like pineapple,” Nate complained.

“And I take it you don’t?”

“I don’t like much of anything I can’t lock one hand around.”

“You can’t fist a pineapple?” Donovan asked, grinning.

Apparently, Nate didn’t find him amusing. He stalked inside and a few minutes later reappeared in khaki shorts and a bright pink Polo.

Donovan sat sideways in the hammock. “Well, don’t you look...”

Good enough to suck, sip, or swallow
. He went with, “Obvious.”

“Obvious?” Nate arched a brow.

“Trying to look like you fit in as a tourist?”

“Something wrong with what I’m wearing?”

Everything. “Nothing.”

A forced smile curved Nate’s mouth, and his lips shaped into a completely devilish grin. “I’m ready to go when you are. If I look good enough to tempt, why don’t you go ahead and dig in?”

Donovan stood, started to pass, and changed his mind. Why the hell not? Since their first introduction, Nate and Donovan shared an unspoken understanding. They were of like minds through and through. Potential lovers, even if they never acted on desires, often connected within seconds of an initial meeting.

He gave Nate a firm pat on the cheek and stared directly into the man’s eyes. “You know what’s wrong with you?” He didn’t wait for a reply, but he did pause. “You’ve had blue balls for so damn long, you’ll fuck just about anything without a cause or a meaning behind each and every thrust. That’s what these missions do to men like me and you.”

Nate’s jaw set, and before Donovan prepared for retaliation, Nate kicked the door closed and pinned him to the floor. Sitting across his Ebook piracy is stealing. It is a federal offense.

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chest, the angry beast unleashed in a powerful form, and his neck veins pulsed with fury.

“You think you wanna take me?” Nate asked, gripping his wrists.

Donovan allowed his body to relax under Nate’s weight. Then he said, “I could give you good fight, soldier. But I’d hate to mess up that pretty pastel covering your body.”

Nate drew back.

“Go ahead,” Donovan invited. “It’s not gonna help matters. A thrown punch certainly won’t change things.”

Nate swallowed hard, stared harder, and probably grew stiffer.

“You gonna take that swing or let me up so I can shower and change for dinner?”

Nate took a deep breath, one he barely concealed. There was a peculiar yellowish tint covering his brown eyes with a thick gloss.

Those were the eyes set and controlled by his killer instinct.

The woman at the airport was wrong when she compared Nate to a mountain lion. Donovan believed he was staring into the hungry eyes of a true tiger, one who possessed guts and claimed plenty of personal glory from mere survival. He gawked anyway. Donovan wasn’t the kind of man to look away first, turn the other cheek, and avoid a good fight.

After a few minutes passed, Nate released him, and Donovan sighed when he stood on his feet again. Most men who tried something so stupid would’ve been decked, but Donovan refused to hit a man who already had his back against the ground.

They stared at one another for a lingering moment. Then Nate walked outside. Donovan headed for the shower. Once there, he locked his left hand firmly around his cock and tugged his dick through a closed fist. Squeezing his eyes shut, he captured the recent image of the man he’d soon have nearby for assistance.

* * * *

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Mighty Men With Weapons

19

Colby Carrington watched Donovan Collier and Nate Francisco from a safe distance. He refocused his field glasses a few times as they moved through the serving line. Finally, they were directed to a table right smack dab in the middle of the restaurant. He bet his friend Nate loved every minute of the wide-open exposure.