4
She weighedno more than his parachute, and was as soft as one on top of that. Mack stood there a minute longer than necessary, marveling in her surprisingly womanly curves against his chest. The flight suit contained more than he’d realized.
And she smelled good, too, like fresh daisies on a sunny day.
He could get used to this.
Until she started struggling, attempting to very violently wriggle from his grip, reminding him that women weren’t all soft petals, they had sharp thorns, too.
Mack let her drop, but he grabbed her arms when she nearly flopped on her butt at his feet. She rewarded him with a glare. “I told you, I don’t need your help.”
Her dark brown hair had escaped her ponytail and now hung in wild tangles around her shoulders. Her dark blue flight suit was torn down the left arm and blood stained the sleeve; the rest of her uniform wrinkled and covered in dirt. She reminded him more of a misbehaving teenager than a cool and collected Air Force pilot.
“You’ve made that abundantly clear.” He didn’t have any more time to waste contemplating her hidden curves or silky hair. Jack Mankel had just taken down their plane. Mack had to find the rest of his men, figure out how Mankel had found out about their flight, and get them all the hell out of Dodge.
The added disturbance of a semi-freaked-out female would only slow him down.
Mack crossed his arms and lifted his shoulders up and back, a measured stance that had an equally measured effect of intimidating anyone who dared to speak back to him. “Riser is a medic; he will attend your wound.”
His intimidation tactic failed. Marley lifted her chin and crossed her arms, mimicking his stance with precision he found both alarming and amusing.
“I don’t need him to clean up a scratch.” While talking, she uncrossed her arms and reached down into the large Velcro-shut pocket on her right thigh. She pulled out a small black kit he recognized as an emergency field medical kit. “I’ve been disinfecting my own wounds since I was three years old, thank you.”
She spun and made it exactly one step before she nearly stumbled over the lifeless snake right behind her. Marley let out a shriek, flailed her arms in the air, and he grabbed the back of her suit to yank her back, pleasure turning up his lips into a smile. “I’d say that’s the third time I saved your ass today. Not such a good rate for self-sufficiency.”
His words had hit their target. She stiffened straight as a two-by-four and jerked from his grip. “Anacondas and giant jungle trees are more extreme conditions than I’m accustomed to.” She gave him a once over. “Obviously they’re not so far removed from your Neanderthal roots.”
Mack’s amusement vanished and he glared at her. Was this the thanks he got for sticking his neck out for her? He’d had to practically shove her out of the airplane, which was strange enough. She was a pilot in the U.S. Air Force. It was part of their training to learn how to parachute out for safety. Yet Marley had clearly been terrified.
And up there in the tree, she’d gone completely still like she’d been frozen with fright.
It’s not possible.
Pilots simply weren’t afraid of heights. And yet her dilated pupils and pale face said otherwise. Dammit. He couldn’t just throw her over his shoulder and haul her around like he would one of his own men. No matter how sturdy or capable, she looked to be about five seconds from going into shock.
“Guess it’s a good thing you’re with me then, huh?” Instead of scowling at her, he winked, trying to put her at ease with some light joking.
His attempt had the exact opposite effect, however. He’d never seen a woman go from scared out of her mind to straight-up furious in such a short amount of time.
“I’ll have you know I’ve been through survival training and passed at the top of my class. So no, in response to your statement, it’s not necessarily a good thing—” she threw up her fingers and did air quotation marks, “—that I’m stuck in the middle of the Congo with you.”
Riser chuckled at this fascinating conundrum of a woman before them, and Mack snapped out, “What is so funny?”
Riser’s grin disappeared instantly and he backed up. “Absolutely nothing, Sir.”
Marley spoke up. “Don’t snap at him for your irrational behavior.”
Her pale cheeks had flushed a deep rose that he found completely alluring. They now matched the color of her plush lips, and suddenly his mind was focused on an altogether different plan. What would her lips taste like? How would she respond?
Wait—she’d just insulted him.
“Irrational behavior?” Maybe she’d hit her head on one of the tree branches on the way down. The only irrational thing he’d done, in his opinion, was to save her ass.
She crossed her arms and let out a huff.
“Sir, should we go look for the rest of the men?” Even though Riser’s question was an obvious ploy to distract him from the cute little pilot, Mack went for it. He really didn’t have any time for a distraction—least of all in the form of a woman he’d only met a few hours ago. For all he knew, she was working for Jack Mankel, too.
“Fine. Let’s go.” Mack walked off, randomly choosing a direction. Once he located his crew, he’d have Ethan use his communication system to radio their situation to base. Ethan would also have their GPS, so he could pinpoint their location and map a trek to the nearest safe house.
