“Should we barricade the doors downstairs?” she asked.
“It’s too risky. Too many windows for sniper fire.”
“You can’t see the first-floor windows from the cabana.”
“No, but no military-trained sniper would stay in a location that’s been discovered. He’s on the move. We don’t know where he is now.”
She dropped her chin to her chest, and he reached for her as if he did so every day. “Come here.” She wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her face against him. “We’re going to get you out of here.”
“Promise?”
He knew what they were up against, the men just as trained as he and just as dedicated to their mission. But he would fight for Jackie and Selena with everything he had, right up to the death if that was what it took to save them. “I promise.”
He rested his head on top of hers, inhaling her scent. Jackie. Sweet, beautiful Jackie. She drew him in, every movement of her body a siren call to his own. What would she feel like in his arms, beneath his body as he came into her?
So much adrenaline needing a release, energy searching for an outlet. He needed to put some distance between himself and this woman. Maybe then he could stop wanting to touch her face, to tell her it was going to be all right. Stop wondering what it would feel like to pin her between his greedy hips and a brick wall.
Jesus.
He had to stop thinking with his dick. SVX was waiting to make their move, and it would be soon, he could feel it. They weren’t going to wait five hours for HERO Force to get here, and Razorback needed to be ready. Discovering the sniper’s lair had set something in motion, the ticking of a clock counting down to the inevitable confrontation.
He could practically hear it.
Jackie lifted her head, her fingers sliding along the sensitive back of his neck. He froze. The slightest movement toward her would set fire to the combustible attraction that had been rubbing together since she first opened the door to him, a gun in her hand and a gasp on her lips. He wanted to hear her make that noise again in an entirely different context, longed to act on the impulse that was beating in his cock, but he didn’t move.
“Ian…” she whispered. It was a question, a plea that required his response, but still he hesitated. Her fingers curled, her nails lightly scraping his skin.
It was his undoing. Her name was a growl deep in his throat, a hunger refusing to be ignored. “Jackie.” He bent his head and kissed her, their mouths meeting with a desperate urgency that left him dazed and wanting more.
He hauled her against him, the sinew of her torso forming soft curves against his body, her hands skimming every exposed inch of his flesh and driving him higher. There was no time for this now, it wasn’t the place, yet he couldn’t have pulled himself away from her if he’d tried.
She kissed down his neck, his desire growing more intense, insistent. The bed was behind her and he longed to spread her out and follow her down, nestling his hardness in the valley between her legs.
The absurdity of doing so now—with SVX outside and Sloan and Selena next door—was what finally snapped him out of his lustful delirium. He lifted his mouth from hers and threaded his fingers through her hair, holding her forehead against his as their breathing slowed.
His heartbeat returned to normal and he reluctantly let her go, noting the high color in her cheeks and wishing he could have seen it all over her body.
She covered her face with her forearms. “Whoa.”
“Yeah.”
“Okay, I can’t think about that right now.” She walked to the gun safe and back again, giggling.
“What’s so funny?”
“Oh, nothing.” She giggled again. “I just can’t believe the first time I kiss a guy in eight years is while there are hired assassins parked outside my house, waiting to kill me.”
“You haven’t kissed anyone in this whole time?”
She paced. “And there’s nothing we can do about the assassin people, so hell—I guess necking is as good as Scrabble or painting our toenails to pass the time. But still, it’s really odd. Don’t you find that strange?”
What he really found strange was her current monologue. Strange and oddly endearing. He was smiling as he watched her, and it occurred to him that between his interactions with Selena and Jackie, he hadn’t smiled this much in a long time. “I do.”
She stopped in front of him. “I’m not good at waiting.”
“I can see that.” He took her hand and squeezed it. “You’re safe with me, Jackie. Remember that.” He let her go and picked up the weapons, thinking of the SEAL who’d owned them and wishing the older man was alive to lend a hand in their hour of need. “Did Bill have a nickname in the military?”
She smiled. “Peaches. He was a baby-faced redhead from Georgia when he enlisted.”
