Close Quarters (10 page)

Rubbing up and down in slow strokes, her fingers not quite meeting around the circumference of his hard sex, she reveled in the heat emanating from him. “Very nice.” Her voice came out low and harsh, as if she had a cold, but she was anything but ill right now.

In fact, she'd never felt so vibrantly alive.

He just made an inarticulate sound and threw his head back as she continued to caress him. His fingers were still busy between her legs. He'd slid a second one inside her as his thumb continued ministering to her clitoris, but the jerky circles he made with it gave testament to the effect her hand on his penis had on him.

“Want to be in you,” he ground out, thrusting into her hand.

She'd been ready since their first kiss. “So, do it.”

“Yes.” He reached for the condom and donned it with practiced ease, despite the tension holding his body rigid. Then he got his forearms under each of her thighs, lifting up until her bottom rested above his knees as he knelt between her obscenely spread legs. She couldn't keep her hold on his erection in this position and she had to let it slip from her hand.

She didn't have time to lament the loss as his blunt head pressed against her core. Showing no strain in his muscles, he pulled her body to meet his, sliding her farther up his thighs. It was not a position where she could move much, but she didn't mind.

Every centimeter he slid in deeper was an excruciating parade of pleasure along her senses. Pushing inexorably forward, he continued to pull her toward him until her bottom was flush with his body. She was filled with him, surrounded by him, and nothing else could exist for her at that moment. It felt almost spiritual.

“Don't move,” she pleaded. She needed to experience this moment fully, to wallow in a sense of connection unlike anything she had ever even dreamed of.

“You're tight,” he said with a grimace.

“No.” She shook her head, looking for the necessary words. “It's right.”

His eyes closed for a long second and when they opened again, the heat in them would have burned her if she was not living, breathing flame already.

Their gazes locked and he pulled back, leaving her feeling empty, the firestorm of need inside her demanding more, demanding him. She made a sound of protest, the insistence of her need lacing her voice and bringing a wince of near pain to her face.

He understood though, that he wasn't hurting, just testing her ability to wait. That rare smile that only seemed to show up when he was planning to, or having sex, creased his features again. “Want more, Tanna?”

The sound of her African name on his lips sent shivers of delight through her.
“Yes.”

“Good.” He rocked forward again, filling her completely in one long, unbroken thrust, stretching tender flesh to capacity but bringing more pleasure than she had thought possible from this intimate act. He held her like that, seated as deeply as she could go, her insides molten lava. “Touch yourself.”

She gasped at the shock of his command. She'd never been willing to do that with other lovers, always embarrassed by the intimacy of it. But despite her shock and lack of experience, she did not hesitate to bring her middle finger into contact with her swollen clitoris.

The initial touch sent arrows of sensation zinging from her womb outward.

“Make little circles, keep the pressure light. I don't want you coming yet.”

She stared up at him and found she had no desire to argue. She did as he instructed, her breath coming out in shallow pants as he moved in and out of her while she touched the nerve-rich flesh.

“We are going to come together, sweetheart.”

“We are?” He'd better come soon then, because she felt like she was on the edge.

“Oh, yes. But not yet.”

She gave him a look that expressed the words she didn't have the breath to say. He just smiled that sexy, arrogant, carnal smile again.

Her body tensed in preparation to orgasm and he shook his head. “Stop moving, just let your finger rest against your clit.” She was sure her expression doubted his sanity, but he didn't look offended. Just very sure. “Do it.”

Against all she thought she'd be able to do, she stopped the dedicated rubbing and let her finger rest against the small, but powerful nub. Every movement of his hips caused small shifts in her hand, maintaining a light stimulation over which she had no control. It was a surprisingly erotic sensation.

“Good.” His thumbs brushed along her skin where his hands held her tightly for his thrusts.

The approving tone of his voice went through her like a touch. What was going on? She'd never thought she wanted a lover to exert so much control, much less tell her what to do. Before tonight, she would have laughed at the thought she would listen and obey. But here she was doing everything he said, letting him dictate not only the pace of their pleasure, but the depth and everything in between. Her attempts to analyze what was happening shattered at his next instruction.

“Now, use your other hand and play with your nipples.”

“No.” But her hand followed his direction without permission from her brain. She lightly touched first one nipple, then the other, circling each areola and sending tingles of pleasure from her breasts to her groin.

“Pinch them. Lightly.”

She first pressed one hard, swollen nub between her thumb and forefinger, and then the other, and felt the intense sensation travel straight to her vaginal core, causing it to contract around him and bringing her another wave of unexpected pleasure. She wasn't going to survive this, it was too much….

“So good,” he praised. “So beautiful.”

She licked her lips, gasping with delight at the overwhelming sensations. He made love to her with powerful thrusts and it was only his hold on her legs that kept her from sliding up the blanket. Even though she knew it was her own hands on her body, it felt like he was touching her breasts and clitoris too, because he was dictating every movement, from the duration of the touches to the intensity of them.

Her climax started spiraling toward its inevitable conclusion again, but this time, instead of having her back off, he told her to pinch her nipples harder, to rub her clitoris and then do it faster, and faster until she screamed herself hoarse through an orgasm more powerful than anything she had ever felt. Her body wracked with muscle contractions that seemed like they were never going to end.

His own shout of triumph mingled with her cries and she could feel his penis swell and pulse as he released inside the condom.

He panted above her, his arms bulging as he held her in place while the last vestiges of their orgasms shuddered through them. After what felt like an eternity of floating afterglow that could have been seconds, minutes, or hours, he gently lowered her legs and pulled his still semi-erect sex from her body. She collapsed into a boneless heap as he tied off the condom.

Afterward, he didn't let her go down completely, but seemed intent on kissing, licking and nibbling every single inch of her skin. He paid particular homage to her large nipples, tasting them for long sensation-filled minutes before moving to lick the line of her collar bone and eventually turning her over.

He started at the bottom of her feet and made his way upward, pulling a slow-burn response from her body that got hotter and hotter the higher he went. He kissed each curve of her backside before gently biting her right cheek, making her squirm.

“Mine,” he growled against her flesh.

She had no thought to deny him. Tonight, she was his. “Yours.”

He moved up to the small of her back, licking and teasing flesh she'd never known was so erogenous.

When he reached the almost invisible scar on her shoulder blade, he stopped. “What's this?”

“Not supposed to say.” Sympa-Med preferred that the extra security measures they took on behalf of their traveling workers did not become public knowledge.

He leaned down and kissed the spot. “Tell me.”

“Why?”

“It's part of you. I want to know.”

“Sympa-Med.” She never even considered denying him. He might not be staying in her life, but she trusted him while he was there.

She gasped as his lips traveled to her nape and settled on the top vertebrae of her spine.

“What about Sympa-Med?” he asked against her skin.

“They put GPS chips in us.”

He sat back, the loss of heat from his body making her feel cold, even in the warm African night. “What?”

She rolled onto her back and smiled up at him, amused by what she read as shock in his eyes. “They don't want us lost to human trafficking.”

“So, they embed a GPS chip in you?”

“Yes.”

“Do you all have one?”

“Only the ones who work the traveling clinic.” She frowned and sighed, admitting something that had always really bothered her. “Only the medical personnel actually.”

“Does the chip have a storage capacity?”

Her brows drew together. “How did you know?” She didn't ask why he wanted to know. That was just Roman. Tonight she was his and everything related to her was his. “They keep our medical information on it.”

She'd really never seen the benefit of that since most Western hospitals weren't equipped to retrieve the information, much less African ones.

He said something that sounded suspiciously like an act that was anatomically impossible, no matter how big his dick was.

“Roman?”

It was if he turned off one light and turned on another. All the tension and what had seemed like anger left as if it had never been there. He gave her that sexy grin of his again and leaned down, covering her mouth with his, cutting off any question she wanted to ask and sending her into another sensual haze from which she was in no rush to return.

They did use all the condoms and stayed in their private grotto until the stars had come out and then started to fade from the sky again. He walked her back to the compound, an arm around her waist supporting her tired body.

She didn't care if she was exhausted the next day; the night had been worth it. She'd never been so consumed by a lover, not that she'd had a lot of them. But she had been in love with Quinton. Or at least she'd believed she was.

Now, she wasn't so sure. Because the feelings growing in her heart for Roman felt deeper and way more permanent. That knowledge terrified her. In a few days, weeks maximum, he was walking out of her life and she didn't know when she would see him again. If ever. The man was an active super-soldier of some kind, which in her world meant a dangerous, life-threatening job.

Which meant that as much as she wanted what her brother had with Elle, Tanya had to accept that chances were
she
would never have it. It wasn't as if she hadn't already reached much that same conclusion before Roman had come to Zimbabwe. It just seemed that she and the life she led were not compatible with the fairytale ending. She needed to accept that the best she could do for herself was to experience everything Roman was willing to give her to the utmost until life took him away just as it had Quinton.

 

Ben tucked a now sleeping Fleur into her bed without waking her. She'd cried herself into an exhausted, deep slumber. Because he'd wanted to, because she'd seemed so at peace while he did, he'd held her close to his body until his inner clock told him dawn was coming.

He had to get back to his own bed. He would not allow her to become the topic of speculation among her fellow Sympa-Med workers. It would hurt her and he could not stand the thought of the beautiful African woman being hurt again.

She'd suffered enough in her life.

The sound of soft footfalls approaching the chalet had Ben hanging back in the shadows as two people came into view. The man was walking with his arm possessively around the woman's waist. Ben could tell it was Roman and Tanya, despite the lack of light from an already set moon. Roman was a head taller than any of the African men in the compound and none of his fellow soldiers would risk his wrath to pursue Tanya.

He knew it was Tanya because she had not yet returned that night. Even in the fading starlight, he could see her skin tone, which was paler than the other women's in the compound.

Roman's hold on her surprised Ben. He'd assumed the soldier had taken advantage of the attraction between the two of them to further his objective, whatever that was. This act of affection didn't fit, nor did the tender way Roman kissed Tanya before she slipped inside the hut.

As Roman drew even with Ben, he asked, “Enjoy the show?”

“F
ound it interesting anyway,” Ben said in a soft voice as he moved to join the other man, unsurprised that Roman had realized he was there. “I'm glad Tanya made it back to the compound without having an accident.”

The reality that Roman could have taken that evening as an opportunity to get rid of Tanya, if he was indeed on an assassination team, hit Ben and he cursed himself. He'd been so preoccupied by Fleur, he hadn't thought to stop the other man from going for a walk with Tanya. He'd actually been amused by the growing attraction between them. To give himself credit, his instincts had told him that Roman would not harm her tonight, but that did not make him feel any better.

Remembering the way Tanya had looked at the taller man before going inside, Ben reminded himself that there was more than one way to hurt someone.

“What do you mean by that, Vincent?” Roman demanded as they started walking back toward their temporary abode.

“I notice that you and your three colleagues don't wear identifying insignia.”

“Our names are on our uniforms.” But Roman's tone said he knew Ben was going somewhere with this.

“But not the branch of military you serve.”

“We serve our country, not the military.”

“Point taken, but it's one I don't think your average soldier would make.”

“No one said we're average.”

“Nor are you military precisely, I think.”

“What are you saying, Vincent? Spit it out.”

“I'm saying that the two Marine privates watching me are probably my real security team and the other four of you are here for another reason entirely.”

“You think so?”

“I'm sure of it.” As good as Roman might be at his job, he wasn't better than Ben.

“And what do you think that reason is?”

Crunch time, but Ben had made his decision about how much to share already. “There's been a disturbing pattern of military technology leaks the past few years.”

“You are TGP.”

Ben jolted in true shock for the first time in longer than he could recall, until he remembered who Roman's sister was. “So, Elle finally told her family.”

“Not until that bastard you work for fired her.”

“He didn't fire her; he offered her a desk job when her cover was hopelessly compromised.” Not that anyone in TGP had expected her to take it. Elle did not have the makings of a desk jockey, even one charged with the nation's security.

“Hopelessly, my ass.”

“We operate in total secret.”

“So do we, but we don't dump our agents when someone figures out they aren't who they say they are.”

“And who are your agents?” Whoever Roman worked for did an even better job of maintaining a no-profile in Washington than TGP.

They weren't simply Special Forces, because as secret as some of their assignments might be, their existence wasn't.

The silence that met Ben's question didn't surprise him. “Tanya is not the leak,” he said.

“She is.” Roman's tone was absolutely sure.

Even so, Ben argued, “No, she's not. It doesn't fit.”

“It does if she doesn't know she's the carrier.”

Ben swore.

“Yeah,” Roman agreed.

 

Roman had refused to say any more until they returned to their quarters. Unsurprisingly, Kadin was waiting for him in the main room. His brows rose when Roman and Ben came in together.

Roman didn't bother explaining, just said, “Get Drew and Niel. We've got a problem.”

“You saw them too?” Kadin asked.

“Saw who?” Damn it, no matter how incredible sex with Tanya had been, Roman had kept his senses alert for threats. He hadn't seen or heard anyone.

Kadin shook his head. “I'll tell you when we get Spazz and Face out here.”

When all five men had crowded around the table in the communal area, Roman said, “Trigger, you said you saw someone tonight?” An immediate threat took precedence over his news.

“When I was walking the perimeter, after nightfall. I saw the reflection of binoculars in the moonlight.”

“You track whoever it was?”

Kadin shook his head. “They were gone by the time I made it to the spot. The savannah does not lend itself to tracking in the dark, even with night vision goggles.”

Roman nodded in acknowledgment, but he still taunted, “You getting old? Your eyesight's going.”

Kadin just flipped him off.

“Special Forces?” Roman asked.

“I don't know, but someone is casing the compound. Could be S.F. Whoever it was didn't leave anything but bent grass behind them.”

Roman summed it up succinctly. “Shit.”

“Agreed,” Ben said, looking every bit annoyed as Roman.

Roman gave him a glare.

“What? I came here aware I might not be the only person interested in the probable espionage happening. That doesn't mean I have to like it when more uninvited guests show up to my party.”

“Define espionage,” Neil said.

Ben outlined a pattern of information leakage well beyond what the file compiled by the military held. “My agency sent me to determine if the leaks were in fact espionage.”

“As opposed to?”

“Someone in the military thinking they were being smart, trading military technology in exchange for access to petroleum or minerals.”

“It wouldn't be the first time,” Roman admitted. In fact, the JCAT being in Africa at all was the result of something pretty much just like that.

“No, it wouldn't.” Ben gave Roman and his team measured looks. “So, you're here to stop the leak.”

“Before a high-level JCAT ends up in enemy hands.”

“How do they know the software has been stolen?”

“The security protocol on the computer holding it was compromised, but the culprit was not caught.”

Ben's face turned grim. “There's chatter, really quiet, but there nonetheless, about a JCAT program going to auction. I discovered it just before leaving the States, but wasn't sure I was interpreting the identified key words correctly.”

Roman ran his hand down his face. “You were right.”

“Where is the software?”

“On Tanya.”

“No way in hell,” Kadin exploded.

Neil and Drew looked just as shocked, but remained silent. Ben merely watched him with an unreadable expression, clearly waiting for more.

Roman sighed, suddenly tired. “She doesn't know it's there.”

“How in the hell—” Kadin started to ask.

“An embedded chip,” Neil and Ben said at the same time.

“It's in her back, at the bottom of her right shoulder blade. Sympa-Med has GPS chips put in all their traveling medical personnel. The chips have storage capacity because she's been told hers holds her personal medical information.”

Kadin said an ugly word that Drew echoed. This time, both Neil and Ben remained silent, lost in contemplation of the technological ramifications of what Roman had revealed.

“Right. She's got no clue they've been using her.” The thought of the risk she'd been in all this time, not even counting the fact that the Army wanted him and his team to eliminate her, sent a rare shiver of fear right down Roman's spine. “And I'm guessing whoever was supposed to retrieve the JCAT had one of those scanner things at that village she missed on her last traveling clinic circuit.”

“Probably something a lot more sophisticated than the hand-held one you found on the soldiers at the roadblock,” Neil mused.

Ben asked, “You found a hand-held scanner?”

Roman nodded, but left it to Neil to fill in his fellow techno-geek on the details.

“So, you think Sympa-Med is involved?” Kadin asked when the other men fell silent.

Roman nodded. “What I don't know is whether anyone local is in on it too.”

Ben gave an almost not there flinch and grimace.

Roman sighed again. “Right. Dr. Andikan might be the local contact.”

He waited for Ben to refute him, but the other man just tightened his jaw.

“What do you think?” Roman asked him, pushing for an answer.

“I think she's been through hell and back and would do almost anything to ensure stability and safety for her adopted daughter, Johari.”

“That's the way I read it too.” Unfortunately. Tanya considered the doctor her friend.

“So, what do we do?” Kadin asked, always more interested in action than talking.

Roman met his gaze squarely. “We find out who the hell is casing the compound.”

“Those U.S. soldiers in the roadblock yesterday worry me,” Drew said with a frown.

Roman agreed and it pissed him off no end. “Me too. Colonel Idiot may have decided to handle his problem in-house after all.” If that had happened, Roman would deal with the man when he got back Stateside. No one messed with his operation, not even the men who ordered it into existence.

Ben's mouth curved with dry amusement as he asked, “Colonel Idiot?”

“The Army brass that requested our presence,” Kadin clarified. “He wanted us to kill Tanya.”

All amusement drained from Ben's expression. “I was afraid of that.”

Roman was impressed with the other man's ability to read the situation as well as he had. He'd make a good Atrati agent. Of course, he didn't know if he could handle more than one Spazz on his team.

“But our actual directive is to plug the leak,” Neil reminded everyone.

“Which killing her would only do in the short term,” Roman said.

Kadin glared at him, while Neil just shook his head. Ben gave Roman a probing look, but it held no judgment. Drew sat there blinking as if he was still taking everything in. Roman knew it was just a front. The man was no doubt plotting at light-speed times ten. He thrived in complicated situations like this one, which made him good for the Atrati. Roman had yet to be on a simple mission.

“We need to get the JCAT software off the chip, if it's there,” Neil said, giving a sop to the remote possibility they were on the wrong track. But the expression on his face and everyone else's said that they were as convinced as Roman that Tanya had been made an unwitting mule. “We can use the hand-held scanner you took from the soldiers and see if it works.”

“Right.” Ben frowned. “Unfortunately, we can't assume the data transfer will erase the chip.”

Which meant that until the chip was destroyed, the JCAT was at risk. “So, we have to get the chip out of her.”

Roman gave Face a pointed look. Face's Ph.D. was in psychology, but he'd trained in emergency field medicine and could dig out a bullet or administer an I.V. when the need arose. Their team's usual field medic had not been assigned to this operation. She'd been on leave and Roman hadn't thought he needed to recall her.

Face shrugged. “I'll do it if I have to, Geronimo, but I've got a better idea.”

“What?”

“We want to know if the lovely Dr. Andikan is in on the espionage, right?”

“It would help my case, yes,” Ben said mildly enough, but irritation had flashed when Drew called the doctor
lovely
.

Roman said, “If she's part of the leak, she's under our purview as well.”

“Right.” Drew smiled that smile he got which
should
put fear in grown men, but usually just put others at ease. “We ask her to remove it.”

Roman tried to figure it out but, not for the first time, he had no idea where Drew was going with this idea. “On what grounds?”

“We tell her the truth.” Drew spoke as if that should be the most obvious conclusion to draw.

“And tip our hand if she is in on it?” Kadin demanded, not even pretending to think it was a good idea.

“Watching her afterward will tell us all we need to know about her,” Drew assured them. “We're good at that, spying on people who don't suspect us. She'll assume we don't suspect her because we took her into our confidence. She'll act accordingly.”

“Sometimes, I think you overmanipulate, Face.”

Drew shook his head. “Nah, this is
my
specialty. I've been watching everyone, including the beautiful doctor, since we arrived. This plan will work.”

Ben went still at Drew's second compliment to Dr. Andikan's looks. The quality of that stillness was similar to that of a predator waiting to strike. Drew should recognize it. Roman didn't know if his friend was deliberately egging the other man on, or had not yet recognized the danger to himself. He had a hard time believing either, no matter how many times he'd seen Drew skirt the line of death in the past.

“And if she's innocent?” Ben asked, his voice showing no sign of the predatory danger now lurking inside him.

“She's going to suspect Sympa-Med,” Drew postulated.

“Then what?”

“She'll start looking for a way out of the program.” Drew met Ben's gaze with assurance. “You said her driving motivation is to keep her daughter safe. She'll want to get out before Sympa-Med goes down.”

“So, she won't tell us of her suspicions?” Roman asked.

“The woman is more than passin' smart, chief. She'll have figured out we suspect them already.”

Okay. Drew's plan was starting to make sense, but Roman required proof the JCAT was on the chip before putting it into action. “First things first. We get the scanner near Tanya's chip.”

“Another sex-for-the-job moment?” Kadin sneered.

“It's the job, damn it. Besides, she knows I'm going to be gone soon. She's not looking for commitment or love everlasting,” Roman ground out between clenched teeth.

“Yeah, well maybe you should be.”

Ah, shit, not this again. “Drop it.”

“Consider it dropped.” Yeah, like Roman believed him. Kadin was nothing if not stubborn.

Damn it.

Drew was looking at them both speculatively. Roman scowled at him. “You got something to say?”