Close Quarters (12 page)

Her lips curved in a smirk, but she didn't make him wait too long, sliding the cotton pants down her legs and stepping out of them to reveal she hadn't worn anything underneath.

Her pretty brown curls were a shade darker than the hair on her head, but still had a golden tone he hadn't seen in the deepening twilight last night.

“I could look at you for hours.” As he said the words, words meant to seduce, the truth of them slammed into him like an armor-piercing bullet. Shit.

“Maybe later. Right now I want to have my way with you.” She approached the bed, her hips swaying with unconscious feminine allure.

If he didn't get a handle on his need, he was never going to last. The slightest brush against his cock was going to have him exploding like a teenager seeing his first naked woman.

She stopped at the end of the bed and dropped gracefully to her knees. “I really did mean I want to touch you all over.”

“I don't know if I'll survive it.” And the scary part was, he wasn't kidding. The sight of her on her knees rocked through him like a mortar blast.

And the thought of never seeing her like this again made that cold spot inside him grow until he felt hollow.

“Trust me, you'll survive. I have plans for after.” Her tone was filled with sultry promise.

“You'd better get started then.”

And she did.

She spent what felt like hours, but was probably only minutes, on his legs, caressing, kissing each spot that she discovered was sensitive. She whispered things against his skin he could not understand, but still managed to drive him wild. When her lips pressed to his inner thigh, her rapidly drying hair brushed against his balls and pre-cum leaked onto his stomach. She seemed to sense the effect she'd had because she turned to kiss his scrotum, licking and gently tugging on his sack with her lips.

He groaned, holding on to the sheets with white-knuckle intensity to stop himself from reaching out and forcefully guiding her mouth to his cock.

Damn, for a woman who didn't do casual often, which implied long bouts of celibacy, Tanya was incredibly good at this.

“Vidsokchy mih khuj,”
he ground out.

She looked up at him, her eyes heavy lidded, her lips swollen from kissing his flesh with just the right amount of suction. “English, Roman. If you want me to do something, you've got to tell me in a language I understand.”

How the hell was she speaking so clearly when he'd reverted to guttural Ukrainian? It was a defense mechanism all the Chernichenko kids had learned early in life. Doing so had kept them from getting in trouble at school more than once.

“‘Suck me.' Put my cock in your mouth,” he demanded, even as he continued to force his hands to stay by his sides, his fingers curved into fists around the sheets.

He would not try to direct her head where he wanted, but if she didn't do something soon, he was going to have her under him.

Only, damned if he didn't want to feel the wet heat of her mouth on him.

“I'm not done tasting the rest of your body.” She said it like they had all the time in the world.

“Later,” he ground out between clenched teeth as his hands cramped with the need to reach out and guide.

Her smile was as sensual as an incubus's. “Okay.” Then she leaned forward and licked him from the bottom of his dick right up to the head, where she tasted his pre-cum. She licked her lips. “Sweet.”

“I drink lots of juice.” It was a good source of electrolytes, but it was common knowledge that the side benefit was less bitter ejaculate.

“Lucky me.” She licked his head like a lollipop, over and over again.

“No…” he groaned out.
“Lucky me.”

“Pre-cum is sweeter than ejaculate in most men,” she whispered seductively, her breath blowing over his now spit-slick penis tip.

“Can honestly say I didn't know that.” And wasn't sure he cared.

“No one's told you before?”

Shit. Did she really want to have this conversation right now? “Doesn't usually come up.”

“Hmmm…” She hummed as she took him into her mouth until he pressed against the back of her throat.

Oh, damn. Shit…he didn't want to say anything. He so didn't, but he wasn't an asshole. “Condom. Should probably use a condom.”

She slowly released his aching hard-on and met his gaze with moist lips, her expression fully carnal. “Are you clean?”

He was going to cream before she even got him back in her mouth. “On my last test,” he managed to grind out.

“Which was?”

“A month ago.”

“Anything to put you at risk since then?”

“No.”

“Are you worried about me?” She gave him this look from beneath her lashes that would have killed a lesser man with an overdose of lust.

Hell, he felt ready to have a heart attack right now.

“No.”

“Then we'll save the condoms for intercourse.” In her mouth the word
intercourse
sounded as dirty as slang did in another woman's.

“Okay,” he agreed, even as he knew he should take her to task for trusting his word. He wasn't lying, but she had no way of knowing that.

It was only his gut-level certainty that she wouldn't be so trusting with another man that kept Roman silent.

She shook her head, a smile playing at her lips. “You look like you're arguing with yourself about lecturing me on acceptable risk.”

“I am.”

She laughed, the sensual sound going straight to his dick. “Even if you don't think I have reason to trust you on this level, you have to admit you're not an idiot.”

“No, I'm not.”

“Nor are you an asshole.”

“How can you know that?”

“I know your family.” She shook her head when he opened his mouth to speak. “If you were stupid, you might risk giving me something, knowing I would tell my brother and he would tell your
baba
before hunting your ass down and trying to kick it.”

“He's no wimp.”

“Nope.” She ran her hand up and down his rigid dick. “Now, can I get back to what I was doing?”

“Oh, yeah.”

This time when she took him in her mouth, he closed his eyes and concentrated on the sensation of soft lips stretched around his shaft, and her wet tongue caressing him.

It was apparent she enjoyed what she was doing and she kept at it until he felt on the brink of coming.

“Stop,” he ordered.

She took a last suck and swipe with her tongue that damn near sent him over the edge before complying. A question in her eyes, she looked up at him without taking her mouth completely off his aching hard-on.

“I'm going to come.”

She pulled back and gave him a Cheshire grin that made his cock jump. “Want to find out if that juice sweetens your ejaculate too?”

Was he a eunuch? Of course he did. “The question is, do you?”

Her answer was to put her mouth back on him. Oh, hell. He didn't have a chance. He let her take him over the edge, knowing it would make it easier for him to stay hard later. He clenched his jaw to stop from shouting when he came down her throat.

She took it all and licked him completely clean after. That was such a turn-on, his cock barely softened, maintaining enough erection that he could have ridden her right then, but he had other plans.

She took a drink from the bottled water on the table by the bed. “I don't have a lot to compare it to—Quinton wasn't big on oral—but you were just a little salty.”

He knew enough about chemistry to know his juice drinking wasn't the only reason his come wasn't as bitter and salty as it could have been. He limited his red meat intake for health reasons, but that would affect it too, as well as the amount of water he drank and his exercise routine.

The human body was governed by a series of complex chemical reactions and he probably understood that better than most men. Even scientists, because Roman had an earthy bent to his thoughts that had always instigated curiosity in areas others dismissed as unimportant.

Okay, no matter how fine that blowjob had been, it was time to do his thing.

He sat up in one fluid movement. “Your turn.”

She took another drink of water, clearly rinsing her mouth before trading places with him on the bed. He arranged her so the chip embedded in her back was closest to where he'd tucked the hand-held scanner under the pillow. He slid his hand forward and unobtrusively turned it on. Then he kissed her, not minding the telltale taste of his pleasure that remained in her mouth.

It was an earthy intimacy that worked for him. He'd never wanted to share it with another woman though, but everything with her was good. He touched her body as they kissed, caressing the pleasure spots he'd discovered during their hours of play the night before and looking for more.

She made the sexy little sounds that he'd learned drove him to distraction, and he wanted more. Keeping her in place was secondary as he sought more and more proof of her pleasure. He moved down her body, paying homage to the sweet little curves tipped by such luscious nipples. The night before, he'd been delighted to discover that she was ultra-sensitive there and he made full use of that knowledge now.

She whimpered and moaned as he suckled and nibbled, and then pinched and rolled the tender buds between his fingertips. Before long, she was thrashing under him, biting her lip to keep from crying out.

He kept it up until she started begging him. “
Please
, Roman. Make love to me. I want you inside.” Her hips arched upward, her thighs spread in blatant invitation.

But he held back. “Not yet,
moyá liúba
.”

“Please. I'm so close.”

“The longer I keep you there, the better it will be when I take you over the edge.”

Her eyes went wide and then narrowed. “You are evil.”

“No. I am a man who knows how to please a woman into oblivion.”

“So, take me there, already.”

“I will,” he promised and went down her body with his mouth, keeping his hands busy with her lovely breasts.

She keened; she moaned; she said “please” over and over again. He nearly lost track of time in her amazing response. He'd never been with a woman who made him feel so much more than a mere man. He felt like a sex god, and he'd never been a slouch as a lover. But she reacted with so much intensity, he wanted to give her more and more pleasure. Hell, he just wanted to give her more, period.

He dismissed the thought and concentrated on taking her where he wanted her to go.

W
hen his lips found her mound, she sobbed out her pleasure. He delved between her lips with his tongue, finding the swollen nerve-centric bud and flicking it with short little strokes.

Her whole body bucked under him and she squirmed against the bed sheets. Then her cries were muffled and his head jerked up.

She'd grabbed the pillow, not even noticing the small scanner so close to her shoulder.

Shit. He surged up and yanked the pillow away as he covered her mouth with his own.

While their tongues battled for dominance, he readjusted the pillow under her head and once again covered the scanner. He scrabbled through his clothes beside the bed until his hand landed on the camouflage bandana he carried in his pocket for times he needed to cover his head in the field. It was clean.

One-handed, he twisted it into a makeshift gag. Then he leaned back and showed it to her. “Better than suffocating yourself with a pillow.”

She blushed, her breath sawing in and out. “The huts are not exactly soundproof.”

“I understand.” He cupped her face and then indicated the twisted bandana. “You okay with this?”

Her pupils expanded and her mouth opened and closed without sound, but there was no doubt her reaction was one of desire rather than rejection. She had a kinky bone to rub alongside his.

Damn, he'd never been with a woman so perfectly matched to him. And he probably never would be again, the small voice inside him taunted.

She nodded, without speaking and helped him tie the bandana in place. “Now you can scream all you need to without having anyone showing up ready to do emergency CPR, yeah?”

She nodded, her smile easy to see despite the gag.

He went back to the apex of her thighs, his tongue quickly returning to its easy torment of her most sensitive flesh. He continued to play with her breasts with one hand, but used the other to finger her.

Every time she started to contract around his fingers in preparation to climax, he backed off the intensity. He kept it up for the full half hour that might be needed to transfer the files before he finally let her tip over into orgasmic pleasure.

Her entire body convulsed in wave after wave of pleasure and he continued ministering with his tongue all through them. When her stifled cries turned to sharp whimpers, he backed off, not wanting to overstimulate her super-sensitized flesh.

He took the makeshift gag from her mouth, untwisted it and used it to wipe the wetness from his face. “You ready for me?”

The only indication she'd heard him was a small flicker of one eyelid.

He smiled. “Don't worry, sweetheart, we'll take it slow and easy.”

“I know,” she croaked out.

He didn't ask how she knew. Her sexual trust was something that touched him in places he didn't want to think about.

He was careful to inch inside her with slow and careful movements and he held his body back so nothing stimulated her clitoris. He kept up a steady, gentle thrusting for long, pleasure-filled minutes before she fluttered her eyes open and smiled at him.

“You're a master.”

“You're amazingly responsive.”

“Only with you.”

Part of him did not want to hear that, but another part swelled with pride and possessive satisfaction at her words. “You liked the gag.”

“Yes.” Her body clutched around him in involuntary response to whatever she was thinking.

He grinned. “Me too.”

“You like to get bossy too.”

“You enjoy it when I do.”

“Yes,” she affirmed without hesitation.

“I think people would call us kinky.”

“What we do in our moments of privacy isn't anyone else's business.”

“No, sweetheart, you are right. It's not.”

Her face twisted in pleasure. “Oh, do that again.”

“What? This?” he asked as he adjusted the roll of his hips.

“Yes, that.”

The pleasure and his pace built slowly until he was pounding into her and she was kissing him to stifle more screams of delight. She went over first, but he was only nanoseconds behind her as their kiss swallowed feminine and masculine shouts of satisfaction.

Dismissing the sensation of guilt the action caused, he slid the scanner from beneath the pillow and into the pocket of his fatigues as they wallowed in post-coital bliss.

 

After giving Tanya a sponge bath that made her both sigh and giggle, Roman left her at the medical hut before returning to quarters.

He was unsurprised to find Neil in the common area.

“Kadin checking in on time?” Roman asked.

“So far, so good. I take it the plan worked out better in her quarters than here.”

Roman nodded, fishing the scanner from his pocket. “Check it out.”

“Will do.”

“Leave your radio with me. I'll track Kadin's check-ins.”

“Sounds good, chief.”

An hour later, Kadin had checked in twice and was due for his third when Neil came out of the bedroom. “It worked.”

“She's got the JCAT on her chip?”

Neil nodded.

“We've got to get it out of her and destroy it before someone else with a scanner gets near her.”

“Agreed.”

“You think Face is right—we should ask Dr. Andikan to do the honors?”

“Yeah. She might be connected, she might not, but if she had access to a scanner she would have figured out a better way to get the JCAT than sending Tanya toward a roadblock.”

“She didn't send Tanya, she just didn't insist Tanya go back to Tikikima. Not that I blame her. Tanya is stubborn,” Roman said.

“Good match for you then, huh?”

“Tanya may not be the guilty one, but that just makes her an asset, not something else.” Not his match.

“If you say so.”

Roman did say so. He didn't have a match. He'd known that was the way it had to be for a long time. He'd seen too many good relationships destroyed by the separations required by a soldier's life. Being a member of the Atrati just made it that much worse.

And he never forgot that every separation might be permanent. Death was a reasonable outcome on too many assignments for Roman to dismiss that risk. If a man loved a woman, he didn't put her through the turmoil of wondering if this was the time her boyfriend, lover, or husband was not going to come home. It wasn't fair. And it made women do things they wouldn't otherwise do. Like trying to seduce their husband's best friend.

Old memories had no place in the current discussion, so Roman shoved them deep into the recesses of his mind and heart where they belonged.

“You're starting to sound like Kadin.”

Neil put his hand over his heart. “Say it ain't so. I'm no grunt.”

“Neither is he.”

“No, we're both Atrati and I'm usually really proud of that.”

“But not now?”

Neil frowned. “Tanya is a nice woman. She deserves better than to be used.”

“Hell, if it'll make you feel better, the truth is, she and I would have had sex even if Dr. Andikan had been the mark.” It had just worked out better this way.

The shock on Neil's face would have been funny if it weren't so annoying. “You never fool around on a job.”

“No, I don't.”

“She really gets to you, doesn't she?”

“Yes,” Roman answered in a clipped voice.

“You think that's bad, but maybe it's not.”

“Don't start with that sentimental shit. You know as well as I do that there isn't room for long-term in an Atrati agent's life.” Why did he have to keep explaining that to his men?

“That doesn't mean you can't enjoy what you've got as long as you've got it.”

“On that, we are agreed.”

Neil nodded, his eyes knowing, his expression tinged with both resignation and something that almost looked like unhappiness.

Both men dropped the conversation and turned to discussing where they needed to go with the assignment.

 

Kadin returned an hour later. “I found evidence of where our watchers have been, but not where they are now,” he announced without preamble. “There was a Hummer parked five clicks northwest.”

“Our guys then?”

“The tire tracks weren't clear enough to tell if they were military issued.”

Roman nodded. “I've got a call in to Corbin. Maybe he can find out if orders have been issued.”

The sound of a jeep entering the compound shocked all of them and Roman double-timed it to the front door. The others weren't due back for another hour or more and Mabu had told them the compound rarely got visitors in vehicles. Roman swung the door open in time to see Ben and one of the Marine privates helping the other one, clearly injured, into the clinic.

Muttering a Ukrainian curse as he went, he jogged to the clinic. “What's going on?” he demanded.

Face came around the jeep to Roman. “Someone took shots at them after we left the mine. A sniper, but not a good one. They got the grunt sitting next to Ben in the back.”

“How bad?”

“His shoulder. He was wearing his vest, but the sniper was using a Dragonuv, or the equivalent, with armor-piercing rounds. The other private has his evasive driving maneuvers down. He managed to get out of there with only damage to the jeep. They radioed me to pick them up, but he kept the jeep moving on two blown tires until they reached me.”

Roman made a mental note to commend the soldier for his effectiveness under fire later. “You seem to think the snipers were locals.” When guessing the identity of the sniper's rifle, Drew had mentioned the Dragonuv, which was an older Soviet weapon.

“We found indisputable evidence of human rights violations at the mine. The overseer tried to buy Ben off. When that didn't work, he threatened Ben and then any Americans in the area, including Tanya. That's when Vincent sent the guy whimpering to his knees.”

Roman wasn't surprised. Elle had told him how broad the training for TGP agents was. Bennet Vincent might look like a bean counter from the State Department, but he could probably kill with his bare hands without breaking a sweat.

“So, they called in a sniper?” Roman guessed.

“That's what it looks like. Lucky for our people, not a good one.”

“Right.” Roman didn't even try to stifle his growl of irritaton as he took the steps up to the clinic in one leap.

 

Roman didn't exactly storm into the exam room, but the fury rolling off him in waves was almost palpable.

Tanya was assisting Fleur in prepping the soldier for surgery, but she couldn't miss his entrance. The bullet had pierced the Marine's vest and made it into his shoulder, but without enough velocity to exit the other side. The wound was a mess of blood and torn tissue.

Roman didn't demand status or in any way try to distract Tanya and Fleur's attention from their task. And for that Tanya was grateful. He seemed to realize the only way Fleur would allow him to remain in the room was if he stayed out of the way and silent.

For her part, Fleur appeared to be equally aware it wasn't worth her energy to try to kick the commanding officer out. He stayed clear, didn't touch anything, but his eyes were everywhere, assessing each minute movement of both Tanya and Fleur's gloved hands.

Tanya did not relish arbitrating things between them, so she was very glad neither pushed it.

They worked on the soldier for two hours and shot him full of antibiotics when they were done.

“He shouldn't be moved for twenty-four hours, but then I recommend transporting him to a U.S. military hospital,” Fleur said as she peeled off her gloves and tossed them in the container for items that had touched bodily fluids.

Roman nodded. “He going to regain full mobility?”

“He was pretty torn up.” Fleur gave the noncommittal shrug that said she just didn't know. “I did what I could, but this may well earn him a medical discharge.”

The sound of the other Marine private swearing in the other room showed that he had heard the exchange.

Roman nodded and left to speak to the other soldier. He didn't come back, but Tanya didn't mind. She didn't need the distraction while she and Fleur sanitized the space around their patient, changing his bedding with practiced movements while he remained sedated.

He started to wake, moaning as they finished. Fleur administered pain medication as the other Marine hovered in the doorway.

“Can I stay with him?” the man asked.

“Don't tire him,” Fleur warned.

“I won't.”

“Come get us in the office if he shows any signs of taking a negative turn.”

The young soldier nodded, looking perfectly capable of watching over his buddy.

“Good.” Tanya gave him a reassuring smile. “One of the interns will be in to watch over him as soon as they finish the wellness clinic, but I can stay in here now if you're worried.”

“You wouldn't leave if he wasn't stable, would you?”

“Absolutely not. The fact we had to sedate rather than put him under general anesthesia, which he would have gotten in a hospital, means his recovery will have fewer potential complications.” The potential for complications mid-procedure had been exponentially higher, but there was no reason to share that information with the Marine now.

“Go ahead, Doc,” the man in the bed said. “Tommy has my back.”

Tommy nodded firmly.

“Okay then. Our office is the room in the southwest corner of the chalet.”

“I'll yell loud enough for you to hear me in the latrine if he needs you.”

“Sounds good.”

She left and went to join Fleur in the office. The compound's doctor was already writing up the paperwork for the procedure they'd just done, but she looked upset.

“Are you okay?” Tanya asked, leaning back on Fleur's desk rather than sitting at her own.

Fleur looked up with haunted eyes. “They were shooting at Ben.”