Bound by Danger Page 22

  Did he believe she needed slow and sweet? She wanted to hurry things up a bit. Mainly, because she was burning up with need. She couldn’t help but worry that his partners might warn them of trouble anytime now, though she hadn’t had any visions of late.

  So she had every intention of getting down to business.

  She cupped the back of his head, holding him so she could start her own sensual assault, except she was much more demanding. He half groaned and half smiled at her aggressiveness. But he didn’t need one iota of encouragement.

  He seared her lips with an equally hot and wicked kiss, his tongue plunging inside. Concentrating on his mouth, his tongue, and his erection as he rubbed against her belly, she only now realized he’d pushed her bra lower and it was around her waist.

  God he felt good.

  His hands shifted to her breasts, molding to them, pressing, feeling, caressing, his tongue still doing a number on hers.

  She felt just as intoxicated as the night they’d shared drinks and dinner and dancing. And she knew, damn it, just like eating a dark chocolate thin mint, one would never be enough, just as one time sharing such bliss with Dave wouldn’t satisfy. She’d want more. Frequently. After work, before work, on her free days off.

  His kisses were harder and hungrier before he moved his hot mouth down her jaw, her throat, her breastbone, until he was suckling a nipple, and stripping her panties off her in a prelude of what was to come.

  She had never ached like this for a man, and she was desperate for release as his fingers plunged into her, deepening, his thumb rubbing the knotted part of her that was so sensitive to his touch she was about to come off the bed.

  Her fingers slipped through his hair as he stroked her into submission, his mouth tantalizingly hot as he kissed her belly.

  She felt the rising pleasure, the exquisite high just within reach, caught it like catching a bit of the stars and sun and moon in her grasp, cried out his name, before she fell back to earth, ripples of orgasm shuddering through her.

  She was so caught up in the sensual pleasure, she hadn’t realized he’d taken a moment to slide on a condom. Now it was his turn.

  He pressed into her, slowly at first, allowing her to expand to meet his size, then deepening until he was thrusting inside her, his body tense, his face full of concentration, his mouth capturing hers roughly, lovingly, desperate to find his own release.

  Dave nearly lost it when Deidre became the aggressor when he was trying to take it slow, to show he wasn’t some primal beast seducing her—especially when she’d shyly slid under the covers still wearing her panties and bra.

  When she had pushed him to go faster, he couldn’t hold back. Now, his blood was on fire. Every kiss, every stroke of her soft fingers against his back, her heels digging into his buttocks, made him fight to prolong the pleasure. But it wasn’t working. He was too wired, had wanted this from the day he’d seen her in hot shorts, the clingy shirt, the swimsuits, the cocktail dress, the nightgowns—hell, everything she’d worn had stirred his libido.

  Even a sweet smile, or a tender kiss, or a warm embrace, dancing, swimming, fighting the bad guys, she was hot.

  He thrust again and again into her snug, wet sheath meant only for him, he decided. She was his. She had to be his.

  And with that last thought, he claimed her, wishing he was spilling his seed in her, the image of her carrying their baby, making him groan out her name with pleasure.

  He sank down on her, wrapped his arms around her, then rolled over, carrying her with him. He held her close, tenderly, wishing they were already living together—no Josh Hendersons need apply.

  The doorbell rang.

  He groaned.

  “Hey, Boss?” Johnson yelled through the door.

  “Yeah, Johnson?”

  “The headquarters called. Said they couldn’t get hold of you. Is your beeper turned off?”

  Deidre gave him a pointed look.

  Dave threw on his jeans and left the bedroom. He opened the apartment door.

  “Sorry, Boss. I guess they thought it was important,” Johnson said.

  Deidre waved to Dave and Johnson, fully dressed, her hair mussed up enough to look like they’d been having a good tussle. “Nighty-night, boys. Early day at work tomorrow.” She closed the door to the bathroom.

  “I’ll call them,” Dave said. But unless all hell was breaking loose, he was making an early night of it, too. Only he wasn’t sleeping on her couch tonight.

  ***

  Early the next morning, Deidre hurried to dress. When she walked into the lighted kitchen, she smiled to see Dave fixing omelets. “You know you’re kind of a handy guy to have around.”

  “I bet Josh doesn’t know how to cook.”

  “I wouldn’t know. I’ll ask him at the end of the week.”

  “You need to be transferred.”

  Deidre hurried to finish her breakfast. “Can’t be late first day back to the office. Are you ready to go?”

  Dave strapped his gun under his vest. “Ready.”

  When they arrived at work, he dropped her at the front door, then tried to find a parking place. Deidre hurried to her office and as she sat down, her boss walked in. “Where’s the reporter?”

  “Mr. Carter will be here shortly, sir.”

  “I’ll have to write in your Officer Evaluation Report how you’ve neglected your duties. Major Lee had to handle your jobs while you were gone. We’re running an Army operation here. We can’t have our officers coming and going as they please.”

  “I’m sorry, sir.”

  He folded his arms. “Tomorrow, you’ll be an escort officer for a couple of high-ranking civilians from the Pentagon.” He wrinkled his face in disgust.

  Deidre assumed her boss didn’t like these kinds of bureaucrats either.

  Add that to the list of female officers and enlisted personnel…kind of makes you run out of people you like, doesn’t it?

  He cleared his throat. “You can wear either your BDUs or your Class B uniform to serve as an escort officer.”

  That must have hurt to offer the choice of a uniform other than the dumpy fatigues. As soon as she arrived at Fort Hood he had considered her skirt with disdain. “We wear the BDUs here, and only the BDUs here,” he had stated.

  And that was the last chance she’d had to wear her other uniforms—her first day on the job. Would she wear her skirt tomorrow? No doubt about it, if only to wrinkle her boss’s brow further.

  Her boss turned to leave. “If Major Lee hasn’t already informed you, you’ll be representing the G-1 staff at tactical maneuvers in fifteen minutes.”

  “Yes, sir.” She didn’t mind playing Army. It was the notion that she had to always be the one solely representing the G-1 staff at training exercises that annoyed her so.

  “Colonel,” Dave said in a snappy greeting down the hall.

  Deidre sat back in her chair as Dave walked into her office. “Ready for tactical maneuvers?” She grabbed up her hat and walked toward the door.

  “What kind? I can think of a couple of maneuvers I wouldn’t mind having with you we could handle quite tactically. In fact, I’d say we had a pretty good start on it last night.”

  She grinned at him. “You know, Dave, if you keep saying such cute things, I’ll have to fake somebody’s attempt on my life, just to keep you around longer.”

  She’d been so bad. He’d promised only to sleep with her, with no hanky-panky so she’d get her rest. But twice she’d woken him for another sex-fest. Not that he’d minded at all. He looked chipper, but she was feeling a little tired, and she vowed to herself she’d behave herself better tonight or she’d never make it to the weekend.

  He sneaked a kiss to her cheek as Major Lee walked out of his office.

  “Major Lee.” Deidre shoved the door to the G-1 building open. She turned to Dave as they walked to his SUV. “If you keep doing things like that to me, I’ll surely get a really bad Officer Evaluation Report.”

  “Good,
then you can leave the service and live with me. So what exactly are we doing?”

  “I’m going to the training field to play Army for a bit. I’m sure you’ll have to stay behind enemy lines for the exercise. The Army can’t afford to have a civilian hurt.”

  “I’m not supposed to be a spectator. I’m supposed to protect you if you need it.”

  “We already saw the news report stating the manuscript had been found.”

  “I’m not taking any chances.”

  She didn’t think he had anything to worry about, but she appreciated Dave’s concern.

  When they pulled up to the training field, Deidre signed in and was handed a vest. “You’re attached to the general’s staff, Ma’am. Your personnel clerks are assembling to the left of the oak over there.”

  Dave poked his cowboy boot into the dirt. “Are you certain, Sergeant, I can’t participate in the exercise? I’m supposed to be reporting on the captain’s activities for the week.”

  “Sorry, sir, but we’d have to have an official release form signed, and we don’t have anything like that here. You’d have to get it from the commander’s office, and it most likely wouldn’t be approved anyway.”

  “Can you hold up things a bit while I get the release?”

  “Sorry, sir. Everything’s ready to go.” The sergeant waved for the teams to move out.

  Dave joined Deidre. “I’ll be joining you as soon as I can.” He gave her hand a squeeze in reassurance.

  She returned the touch even though she wanted to kiss him as much as kissing in uniform wasn’t allowed while on duty. “See you in a bit, Dave.” Deidre shoved a clip of dummy ammunition into her M-16 rifle. She motioned for her team to move.

  For twenty minutes, they trudged through the rocky terrain dotted with junipers, live oak and thorny mesquite trees. They still had three miles to go before they reached the rallying point for the headquarters’ staff when sporadic gunfire shattered the air. The sound of their boots crunching on the dry-crusted soil immediately ceased as everyone dropped to the ground. Deidre closed her eyes as the pounding in her temple gave way to a new vision. One of the enemy team fired live rounds.

  It was bad enough she had to deal with the menace, but her heart beat rapidly to think her team members were instantly placed in peril also. Her mind raced as to what options were available to her.

  Her leadership skills had taught her many things, but finding out the strength or unique abilities of each of her team members focused utmost in her mind. “Has anyone here been through a real conflict?” Deidre called out to her staff.

  “Afghanistan, Ma’am,” one of the specialists responded.

  “Did you see any action?”

  “No, Ma’am, I’m just a personnel tech. Typed up awards and promotions. That’s all.”

  Deidre rubbed her head. “Somebody out there is firing live rounds.”

  One of the specialists chuckled. “They’re firing duds, Ma’am.”

  “Somebody’s mixed up the ammo. It’s happened before. Just after I completed training at Fort Riley, Kansas, live rounds injured three basic trainees. It happens sometimes.” Deidre knew the other case was found to have been an act of revenge. Now she wondered if the disk in her mail was the manuscript after all. Was Red firing the rounds at her?

  Somehow she had to lead the men to safety. Whoever was shooting at them would more than likely hurt someone else in the process to divert suspicion from their attempts to kill her.

  She motioned to the private closest to her. “You, head in that direction. Circle around and when you reach the headquarters’ staff, tell them someone out here is firing live rounds.” She twisted her mouth in thought. “And tell them, Dave Carter, who’s getting a pass at headquarters to join us, must be informed at once of our predicament.”

  “Aren’t we supposed to stick together?”

  “We’re going to have to break up a bit.” She glanced over at the other men and said to another private, “You, go with him, but be sure and travel as far west as you can. He’s firing from the east. Be sure to crawl on your bellies. Don’t rise above that until you’re well out of range.”

  “Yes, Ma’am.”

  The two men crawled off as Deidre slung her weapon over her shoulder. She wanted to send all of the men in that direction out of harm’s way, but she knew not all of the men would leave her alone. She was the senior ranking service member. She was supposed to lead them.

  The sergeant in the group crawled up to join her. “Ma’am, I suggest we continue to head along the path leading directly to the encampment. A fair amount of trees will cover us.”

  She considered the green and brown marks camouflaging his black face. She couldn’t tell if he believed her or not. But she was the boss. It was her call.

  He tugged at her rifle. “You should at least hold your weapon at the ready.”

  He didn’t believe her. Her heart sank at hearing his words, then she shook her head. “It doesn’t have live ammunition. If it did, it would be ready for him all right.”

  She took a deep breath, trying to calm her raw nerves. With determination, spurred on by anger, she had every intention of getting as many of her men out of there alive. “I want everyone to move forward to the next stand of mesquite. Once we get there, stop. If anyone is wounded on the way there, we drag them with us to that location.”

  She looked back at the men. A mixture of concern and disbelief stretched across their faces. She nodded and began the low crawl.

  When she’d trained as a cadet at camp she’d had to maneuver under barbed wire, never figuring she’d have to squirm along the dirt again like a snake wriggling across the valley. The dust filled her nostrils, choking her, and she marked up another reason for not liking her assignment here.

  As soon as they moved beyond the cover of the junipers, shots rang out.

  “Damn!” one of the men said as the bullet hit the dirt next to him sending a spray of earth flying. “They’re firing live rounds!”

  Chapter 19

  Dave paced across the headquarters floor as he waited for the paperwork to be approved so that he could join Deidre. “Government bureaucracy,” he mumbled under his breath as he furrowed a brow at the specialist. One government agency could never work with another no matter what the cost.

  Yet he knew if he didn’t get the proper authority, he could jeopardize his being with Deidre for the rest of the time he served on the case, especially since the case was over, as far as his headquarters was concerned.

  He took a deep breath trying to settle the impatience churning in his stomach like a storm broiling at sea.

  “Can’t you hurry this up?”

  “Sir, we haven’t gotten confirmation yet.”

  Dave waved for him to get on with it. More than anything in the world, he hated bureaucracy.

  ***

  Deidre wrinkled her brow at the soldier. “That’s what I said. The bullets are live rounds.”

  When everyone reached the mesquite trees, she turned to them. “Everyone all right, so far?”

  The sergeant shook his head. “Being in the personnel business, I never thought I’d get killed in the Army on a training exercise.”

  Deidre calmed her ragged breath and pointed to two more men. “I want you to pull off your blue vests. They’re too easy to spot. Both of you are to do the same as the privates did earlier. The rest of us will continue on ahead as before.”

  This time the two who were to leave the party showed relief as the anxiety drained out of their faces when she picked them.

  “When you get far enough out of range, I want you to run like hell to headquarters. Don’t let anyone stop you. If the ‘enemy’ attempts to capture you, tell them what’s happening here.” Then she thought of Josh Henderson. He was somewhere in the field this week, too. If she could only get word to him, he’d certainly know the truth of the matter.

  “Yes, Ma’am.”

  “Ma’am.”

  The two men slithered west. Dei
dre considered her dwindling party of six. The sergeant said, “Why don’t we all head that way, Captain? This idiot apparently doesn’t know he’s firing live rounds—”

  “Okay, we’re a team, right?”

  The men all nodded.

  “This is the situation. This man is trying to kill me. Unfortunately, he will also hit some of you to make it look like the whole thing was accidental. If I can get some of you away from our main party to safety, that’s what I’m going to do. If we all head west at the same time, he’s going to come after all of us.”

  “That’s crazy,” the sergeant said. “Why in the world would someone want you dead?”

  “I’ve been under the FBI’s protection. They thought the whole thing was over. Apparently it isn’t. He still wants me dead, and he won’t deviate from our path if we go straight. This gives the others a chance to make it to safety. Do you all understand?”

  The men exchanged glances, concern etched into their dusty faces. She leaned her right elbow forward and motioned to a juniper several yards away. “The juniper.”

  A specialist spoke up, “Why don’t we let him come for us? Then we could jump him.”

  “I believe he’d walk toward us firing. How many would he injure or kill before we could stop him?”

  She moved forward. A bullet hit the top of her helmet sending a chill of fright through her body. She ducked her head instinctively, temporarily immobilized. Gathering her courage again, she snaked forward until they arrived at the tree. Five of the men gathered beside her. One of the men had stayed behind.

  She looked back as he waved for them to go on. She motioned for him to join them. He shook his head.

  “What do you think, Sergeant Washington?” she asked, as he wiped the sweat from his brow.

  “Maybe we ought to leave another of the men at this tree, and we’ll continue on.”

  “All right.” She picked another of the men to stay behind, then said to the other two, “You’ll head west now. Hopefully the cavalry will arrive soon.”