The Midnight Hour (19 page)

Turning, she walked over to the dresser and pulled open a drawer to get out a couple of items. Her hands felt numb as she pulled out an extra large T-shirt, bra, and panties. Closing the drawer she turned around holding the items to her chest like a shield.

"I won't be long and promise to save some hot water for you," she said, her voice sounding odd even to her ears.

He stared at her intently, thoroughly, as if he could see right into her soul and knew all her secrets. There was that look in his eyes, that heated, passionate look, that signaled he was thinking sexual thoughts. The sudden softening of his mouth and the unfolding on that sexy grin of his almost took her breath away.

"That's all right," he said in a voice so sexy and low, the area between her thighs began to ache. "I think I need a cold shower right now anyway."

Swallowing hard, Tori turned and forced one foot in front of the other, determined to cross the room to the bathroom without throwing herself at him and onto the nearest bed. She almost made it to the bathroom door when he called her name. She turned reluctantly as if afraid she would turn to salt. Her nerves were stretched to the limit.

He was standing less than a couple of feet away from her. "Yes?"

"You dropped these."

Her black lacy panties dangled from his fingertips. Her breath hitched and a surge of heat flooded her body. Words caught in her throat. Tori held out her hand silently and waited for him to give them to her, but he seemed in no hurry to return them.

"Nice underwear," he said as she watched him skim his fingers across the satiny material. "Real sexy."

Tori took a deep breath, trying to force his opinion of her panties from her mind. He had seen her in underwear before. He had slowly removed them and then had made the sweetest, hottest love to her. Even now she could remember the feel of his callused fingers grazing her skin before slipping those same fingers inside the edge of her panties, seeking the very heat of her. And when those fingers had found the spot he wanted, they had slipped inside of her and begun stroking her, driving her insane, touching every sensuous passion point in her body and deep-wrenching sounds of pleasure had escaped her lips.

A door slammed next door and Tori blinked and straightened. She had to step back from the hot current passing between them and keep her mind on the situation at hand. Drake insisted on looking at her with unadulterated passion in his eyes. It was a look guaranteed to have her removing her clothes in five seconds flat.

But those times were over and she needed to accept that. She lifted her chin. "Thanks. I'll take those now," she said, ignoring the rush of heated desire consuming her.

"You're more than welcome," was his response, and he held her gaze boldly as he placed her underwear in her hand, allowing himself to touch her. The touch of his fingers on hers was deliberate and she knew it. A hot current tore through her, lighting her up from the inside out.

She took a deep breath and stepped back. She needed distance from this man and fast. She quickly turned and went into the bathroom and closed the door firmly behind her.

Tori stepped into the shower, hoping the hot water soothed her body, calmed her down. How the heck were the two of them supposed to share a hotel room while hot torrid thoughts raced through both their brains?

It wasn't fair that her feelings could still be this intense, her body filled with this much need that only Drake could satisfy. That night two months ago should have been enough to last her a lifetime. He had been pretty damn potent, she thought as she lovingly lathered her stomach, thinking of the life deeply embedded there.

She smiled when she recalled when she was Sandy Car-" roll, the few times they had talked about a life beyond the Marine Corps; a life that included marriage, children, and a beautiful home in his Tennessee Mountains where they would watch their children grow under the glow of their love. Sometimes they would lie together for hours, appreciating stolen moments even if die cot was barely big enough to hold both of them. Sometimes she would have to lie on top of him for diem to fit into the cramped space. But still, those had been special times she had cherished.

A lump rose in her throat and she fought back me tears, when she thought of how different dreams were from reality. In reality she was pregnant and on the run for her life. It wasn't her life that concerned her right now but her child's. She had to put it first and take whatever precautions she needed to keep her baby safe. Boy or girl, it didn't matter to her. All that mattered was that it was a part of her and a part of Drake, the way it was meant to be. She couldn't think of any other man she would have wanted to father her child.

Remembering she had promised to leave Drake some water, she reached for the fixtures and switched them off, stopping the flow of water. Grabbing the plush towel on me rack over the stall, she began toweling herself dry.

She had fantasized about this moment when she would be with Drake again. Somehow she had to control me feelings he evoked, no matter what it took.

Drake logged off the computer when he heard the shower stop and inhaled deeply. Tori Green was something else. And it seemed the woman was destined to drive him insane. He got the feeling she was doing all she could to downplay the passionate drama unfolding between them and it wouldn't be difficult if they hadn't been lovers before. He knew firsthand how it felt to be held between the warmth of her thighs, how it felt to have her fingernails digging deep into his back while he thrust into her over and over again, gripping her hips in his hands so he could go deeper and deeper.

He took a deep breath, deciding that he needed another distraction. He had gotten on me laptop to try and find any recent news accounts on ASI but lately, news of terrorism and Iraq dominated me news. He walked across the room and picked up his cell phone to call Trevor. His friend picked up on the third ring. "Trev, this is Drake."

"Drake? Where the hell are you, man?"

"I can't give you a lot of specifics right now, but I wanted you and Ashton to know what's going down. I reached Tori just in time. There was a car chase. Someone was after her and I managed to intercede. The car crashed and the driver was killed, but was later identified as a DEA agent."

Trevor gave a long whistle. "DEA? Damn."

"Yeah, my sentiments exactly. And the kicker is that there's a possibility that he's connected to Solomon Cross." He heard Trevor swear. The words were fiery enough to even burn his ears. "Yes, Cross." Trevor and Ashton had been on mat mission with him five years ago in Haiti and knew who Solomon Cross was. They also knew the pain and heartache the man had caused him with Sandy's death.

"Cross is after Tori Green?" Trevor asked, putting two and two together.

"Yeah, it seems that way-and mainly because of her connection to me-but I plan to make sure that neither he nor his men lay a finger on her."

"How is the woman doing?"

Drake smiled. "She's fine, a real damn trouper and it shows. You know what they say, once a marine, always a marine." His face then turned serious. "I need you and Ash-ton to do me a favor. I'm in Phoenix and will be leaving out first thing in the morning. I know it might be a stretch, but I want to reach Houston by nightfall. I need a place for me and Tori to hole up, at least a day or two, to get our bearings and plan further strategies. Can we borrow that cabin you own not far from Jake Madaris's ranch?"

"Hell, yeah, you can use it and Ash and I will make sure? it's stocked when you get here. If you can think of anything else you might need, let me know."

"I could use more ammo," Drake said. He wanted to make sure he had plenty on hand.

"That's no problem. Call us when you reach die place, We want to come see you."

Drake sighed deeply. "You and Ashton may not want to get involved, Trev."

He heard Trevor laugh in the background. "Like hell we won't. If you're involved then we're involved."

"Thanks. I'll talk with you again later."

"Was that Hawk?"

Drake whirled around. He hadn't heard the bathroom door open. A stirring of desire flooded his body and the dark hairs on his arms tingled as his gaze moved over her body. A rush of body heat settled right below his belt. He was glad that he was standing behind the desk, otherwise there was no way Tori would not be able to see the huge erection he had that was pushing against the zipper of his jeans. His breath felt tight in his throat and his mouth suddenly felt dry.

She was wearing a large T-shirt that actually covered a little more of her thighs than the shorts she'd been wearing had. But it was the overall picture of her, looking utterly seductive after a recent shower that had him swallowing hard. She looked fresh, revived, and luscious. He felt the palms of his hands get warm, wet, and remembered how warm and wet she had gotten for him once and how he would love to get her that way again.

"Drake?"

When she said his name he realized that he hadn't answered her. "No, that wasn't Hawk. That was a friend of mine, Trevor Grant. He and another good friend, Ashton Sinclair, live in Houston and are two men I trust explicitly. I wanted them to know what was going down and make arrangements to stay at Trevor's cabin tomorrow night."

Tori nodded as she walked over to her luggage to pull out a small plastic bag and placed the clothes she had taken off in it. Of course, Trevor and Ashton. They had been close friends of hers like they had been friends of Drake and were two men that she had trusted as well. They were known to other marines as the "Fearless Four." They had gone through basic training together and had done a number of missions together before that fateful day in Haiti. She had been surprised as well as glad to see Ashton that tight in Drake's hospital room. It had made her feel good to know their friendship was still as tight as it had always been.

Deciding that talking would be a way to ward off the sexual currents in the room, she decided to ask him about their two friends. "Are Trevor and Ashton CIA agents?" she asked, knowing they weren't.

Drake leaned against the desk. "No, they're former Marines, Recons. We use to do a lot of top-secret missions together."

"Are they still in the marines?" she asked as she sat down on the edge of the bed she would be sleeping in. Alone.

"Ashton is. He's made it up the ranks to colonel. Trevof got out of the marines, but is in the reserves, so he still gets to see some action every once in a while."

She nodded. "Are they married?" Back when she knew them, they swore they would remain bachelors forever. She watched as Drake pulled out a chair from behind the desk and sat in it and rebooted the laptop. She also watched as he placed his pistol on the desk in front of him, within close range. She had placed her gun in the nightstand that separated their beds.

A smile touched Drake's features. "Yes, Ashton and Trevor are both married to some pretty feisty women who manage to keep them on their toes. Trevor's wife is Corinthians and Ashton's wife is Netherland, but we call her Nettie."

Tori smiled. "Corinthians and Netherland. Those are un-1 usual names."

"Yes, but then it takes unusual and very strong women to deal with Trevor and Ashton."

"Any children?"

"Yes, and I happen to be the godfather to their four children collectively."

Tori raised a brow. "Four?"

Drake chuckled. "Yes, four. Trevor has a little boy who celebrated his first birthday a week ago and Ashton has triplets, all boys."

"Triplets? I bet they keep her busy."

He chuckled. "They do and they're only four months old."

Tori nodded. She wondered if Nettie was breast-feeding and if so, how on earth she was managing. Tori had decided to go the breast-feeding route and couldn't wait. She was definitely looking forward to motherhood.

Then the room got quiet and she noticed Drake staring at her. "What do their wives do? Does either work outside the home?"

"Yes. Nettie owns a big restaurant called Sisters and although Ashton goes out on assignment, the military allows him to spend the majority of his time at the marines office there. He just so happened to be in Iraq when I got shot a few months back."

Tori could only assume that Drake was talking so freely about what had happened to him in Iraq since practically everyone at the Agency had known about it. So there was no reason to pretend otherwise. "In that case you were blessed."

Drake gazed at her and slowly nodded in agreement. "Yes, I was."

Silence covered the room as they stared at each other and for a moment time seemed to drift away. She tried not to concentrate on the broadness of his shoulders and how his muscular chest tapered to a flat, firm stomach. She recalled the many times that same stomach had been naked and pressed up against hers while he'd made love to her over and over again, and the feel of his chest hair when she ran her fingers through it.

Tori began to feel hot, turned on. She also felt panicky, like she was slowly losing control. She felt her defenses lowering as her world began tilting and for a brief moment, when sanity flowed from her brain, she was Sandy Carroll and the man across the room looking at her like he wanted to eat her alive was Drake Warren, the man she loved and would always love. He was the man who'd wanted to marry her, give her his children and take her to live with him forever on his family homestead in Tennessee-Warren Mountains.

"Drake," she said, her voice sounding hoarse. She wanted to tell him about the elaborate, state-of-the-art plastic surgery that had been performed on her face and other parts of her body that had changed her face but not her heart. She wanted to tell him about the baby, their baby and how much this pregnancy meant to her.

She also wanted him to know how the memories of what they had once shared had sustained her over the past five years, and how she would often go to bed at night with an ache for him so intense she would cry herself to sleep to get rid of it, but the feeling never totally went away.