And then it happened…
Bran’s pulse kicked up. His chest expanded on a deep breath. And he stilled against her, all his muscles contracting at once. She knew what caused the change. It was the same thing that happened any time they touched. Sudden, intimate…awareness.
The smooth firmness of his skin beneath her lips tempted her to taste.She fought the need for a whole two seconds. It was two seconds she was extremely proud of, just to be clear. But then she couldn’t stand it. She opened her lips over his hammering pulse-point and flicked her tongue against his hot flesh.
Male.That was the word that flittered through her brain as Bran’s sweet, salty taste exploded on her tongue. He was all man. From top to bottom. Inside and out. And when she was touching him, kissing him, she was every bit a woman. Completely aware that she had breasts and a womb. Both ached, throbbed,yearned.
Bran sucked in a ragged breath at the second pass of her tongue. “Maddy,” he rumbled, lowering his chin until his lips moved against her ear. The arm around her waist became a wide, warm hand that crept lower, lower,loweruntil he was palming her ass, kneading and caressing and moving her against him in that age-old rhythm that rubbed her swelling sex against the seam of her shorts.
Her nipples tightened into painful buds. Her clitoris throbbed, rejoicing in the sudden friction. And his response, his inability to pretend they were just pen pals when they were together like this, emboldened her. She closed her mouth over his pulse and sucked. Bran started to quiver. A telltale sign of what would happen next. He’d snap. Suddenlyhewould be the one running the show, not her.Hewould be the one making her moan.Hewould be the one making her shiver.Hewould be the conqueror and she the conquered. And she would love every minute of it.
But before Bran had the chance to go all…Branon her, Mason cleared his throat. The sound carried from somewhere over on the opposite wall of the cistern and accomplished two things. It reminded Maddy that she and Bran weren’t alone and that they still had a very important job to do.
The girls…
Holy shit! How could she have forgotten for even a moment? But she knew. It was six-plus feet of tough-as-nails hotness that started with aBand ended with aran. Whenever she was in his arms, she forgot she even had a name.
Chapter 11
8:10 p.m.…
Regrets were like chickens. They always came home to roost. And right now, Bran’s chicken coop was full.
Hiding behind the old gunpowder magazine house inside the parade grounds in the center of the fort, he regretted not making it clear to Maddy weeks ago that he wasn’t the kind of guy she should set her cap on. He regretted letting her think there was more to their relationship than there was or ever could be. And he regretted that he was continuing to foster that belief, thathope, every damn time she got near him. Because despite his best intentions, he just couldn’t keep his stupid hands to himself.
One look from her pretty eyes, one touch of her soft hands, one taste of her sweet lips, and he was a goner. Just done.Finito. He forgot all the reasons why he shouldn’t be with her, all the reasons why hecouldn’tbe with her, because the monster inside him took over. And it had only three goals: claim, conquer, consummate.
“We better find those girls fast,” Mason murmured, interrupting Bran’s pity party. Which was just as well. It wasn’t like Bran was having a good time there anyway. “Or Bran and I are going to run out of clothes.”
Bran was aiming his weapon at the interior of the curtain wall behind them. The fort was basically a hexagonal-shaped, two-tiered wall that surrounded a patch of land called the parade grounds. The latter had been the site of the soldiers’ and officers’ quarters and a few other small buildings. From the outside, the fort looked like a two-story brick wall dotted by small embrasures. But from the inside, you could see the curtain wall was actually made up of a double tier of arched rooms called casemates.
So many places to hide behind and fire from, Bran thought, giving the line of casemates a slow, deliberate scan through his scope. A battlefield survey, it was called. A move used when everything was important, every nuance and shadow of grave concern because everything could be either threat or salvation.
The operator in him didn’t like his position, exposed on one side to all those yawning casemates. Especially since his backup was busy whipping his gray T-shirt over his head and handing it to Maddy, momentarily unable to help him keep watch.
“Sorry,” Maddy whispered. “I think I lost Bran’s tank top somewhere in the cistern.” She hooked the neck hole of Mason’s wet T-shirt over her head, effectively covering her hair.
“So what are we looking at when we step out from behind this gunpowder magazine?” Mason whispered, quickly rearming himself.
“Let me just take a quick gander and get my bearin’s,” she said, darting a fast look around the edge of the building before ducking back and flattening herself against the cool brick wall. The light of the moon and stars, when paired with the soft glow of the spotlights outside, was enough to make everything visible if not perfectly clear.
And bringing her along.That wasanotherof his regrets. Because she shouldn’t be turkey-peeking around corners in an attempt to guess where armed men might be hiding. She shouldn’t be smack-dab in the middle of a situation that could very easily go pear-shaped. She shouldn’t be seconds away from potentially finding herself staring down the wrong end of a gun.
Even though she’s probably used to it by now.
And that was another thing. Was it just him? Or did trouble seem to follow her around like a yappy little lapdog?
“So,” she whispered, unaware of his thoughts, “to our left is the cistern. We know the girls aren’t there, so no use checkin’. Directly in front of us will be the little house they used as the officers’ quarters. That’s a possibility. But there are a lot of windows and doors, which I would think means it’d be hard to defend. It wouldn’t be my first choice of hideouts. Across the parade grounds is another gunpowder magazine house. We’ll probably need to scout that. It’ll be tricky, though. It has that weird openin’ I was tellin’ y’all about. To the left of the magazine house are the ruins of the soldiers’ barracks. They wouldn’t make very good hidin’ spots. We can probably skip them.”
She took a breath from her long, impressive list. Obviously, she hadn’t been kidding when she said she’d done her due diligence before coming here.
“Honestly,” she continued, “if it were me wantin’ to find a defensible position where I could corral two teenagers, I’d choose that far north casemate. From there you can see across the parade grounds to the bridge and anyone enterin’ the fort. It’s protected on three sides by thick walls, which means the only worry is the openin’.”
“Get a load of General fuckin’ Patton here.” There was a fair bit of respect in Mason’s tone. “Noware you glad we brought her along?”
Bran opened his mouth to say,Hell no!But before he could, Maddy whispered, “Let me check one more thing.” She darted her head around the corner again. But this time, she didn’t immediately pull back. Instead, she went stock-still.
Bran chanced taking his eyes off his sights and the arched holes of the dark casemates to dart her a quick glance. “What is it,” he demanded, maybe a little too loudly. All the hairs on his body were waving around like semaphore flags, warning him of impending danger. “What’d’ya see?”
