Bound by Danger (27 page)

Dave laughed, then he frowned. “Don’t tell me Josh saw you—”

“I visited Galveston Island with Charlie. There’d been a tropical storm, and the Gulf was pretty churned up. The current was really rough. One of the waves dunked me hard and when I came up for air, I had a one-piece. Charlie thought it was hilarious. I had quite a struggle getting him to retrieve my beach towel for me. Luckily, the water there’s muddy. You can’t see hardly a thing in it. After that, I’ve only worn strictly one-piece suits.”

She imagined the way Dave looked at her figure he was trying to visualize how she’d look in a string bikini. She shoved the bag of popcorn into his chest. “I’ll get some sodas.”

Halfway through the movie, Dave lay on the couch with his legs wrapped around hers as she snuggled her back against him. He stroked her hair, making her wish they could be close like this on a regular basis. “You don’t happen to have a photo of you in that bikini, do you?”

She chuckled. “Why? So that you could post it on your wall at your home office?”

He kissed the top of her head. “Just doesn’t seem fair Josh got to see you in it and I don’t.”

“I didn’t look that great in it. It was just a fad.”

“I can’t imagine anything that you would wear that you wouldn’t look great in. I didn’t think you’d ever wear a string bikini. I had no idea—”

“I got the suit on a dare. Charlie bet me I wouldn’t wear one on a date with a guy. I wore it to the pool once with Josh. I had a devil of a time taking off my cover-up. Of course, Josh never realized how embarrassed I was, but Charlie now, his grin could’ve stretched to the sun and back. Later, he bet me I wouldn’t wear it again. So I did—one last time at Galveston. I have a weakness when it comes to bets with Charlie.”

“The guys really ribbed me about Josh. Bill said he’d never seen me lock horns with another male over a woman before. You didn’t think I was that aggressive, did you?”

“Bringing up our date at the lake?”

“Couldn’t help myself. At least I didn’t tell him about our frolic in the sand.”

“Yeah, well you didn’t mess up my chances with him. He’s a pretty persistent guy, if he wants to be. And I believe he was slightly jealous of you, even if you’re only just an FBI man.”

She closed her eyes as Dave pulled her hair back and nibbled on her ear. “I guess I should have been more aggressive.”

He turned her to face him and kissed her smiling lips. His touch was light, and she kissed him harder in return. He grinned and pulled her underneath him. But then he said, “Come on. Let’s take this to someplace more…private.”

And she let him. She couldn’t allow Dave to go without knowing what it would be like with him. What if it was as beautiful as she imagined it would be? What if the magic they shared was so special, she changed her mind about a long-distance relationship?

He climbed off her, held out his hand to her, waiting for her consensus, and when she slipped his hand into his, he pulled her into his arms. Startling her, he lifted her, carrying her to her bedroom in a rush, as if afraid she would change her mind, or his partners would change it for him.

After setting her on the bed, he closed the door, then yanked off his shirt.

“What about the other guys?” she asked, still worried they might barge in on them and ruin the moment.

“I told them not to bother us unless there’s an imminent invasion.”

She smiled and started to unbutton her blouse. His eyes darkened to near midnight, his mouth curving sensually as he tossed his shirt to the floor. She removed hers and set it on the bedside table.

Already his nipples were hard pebbles, his skin gorgeously muscled and bronzed. “I wondered about you being a reporter.”

He showcased a beautiful smile as he worked on his belt buckle. Tingles of trepidation filled her. She never just went to bed with a guy. Though she had to admit she’d spent a lot of time with this one under some really unusual circumstances. And he’d been willing to show her just how hot she’d made him feel, yet he’d been gentle and caring with consideration for the way she felt.

She tugged off her shorts and slipped under the covers. His smile broadened.

She felt her cheeks warm. She wasn’t all that outgoing. She might not be horribly shy, but just baring all wasn’t something she wanted to do either for the first and only time they’d probably have sex.

He jerked off his jeans. She could see the outline of his erection pushing against his boxers, fully cocked and ready.

He didn’t have a shy bone in his body and stripped down to his bare skin. His beautiful body, exquisite in every way.

His skin was golden, all except for the area that had been covered by his swimsuit and there he was white. The only other color, his dark brown nest of curls surrounding his rigid cock.

He moved toward her then, his eyes on her, looking like a veritable predator on the prowl. She meant to slide over so he could get into bed with her, but he pulled the covers aside and climbed on top of her, his powerful body covering hers as he’d done on the couch. But this time he wasn’t stopping.

She felt his hard erection stirring between them, her mouth meeting his with light, sensual kisses. She enjoyed the feel of his hands skimming her arms, drawing her bra straps down.

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.”