Morgan's Mercenaries: Heart of Stone (28 page)

Once the blades stopped turning, Maya moved forward. She saw Dane ease out of the cockpit, climb along the fuselage and step down from the ladder. As he turned, he took off his helmet and set it on the frame of the helicopter. Running his fingers thorough his hair, he turned and opened his arms to her. Maya didn’t care who saw them. Everyone on the base knew of their love for one another, even though she’d tried to keep it a secret.

“Maya!” Dane moved forward, his arms wide. He saw the joy and the questions in her eyes as she ran to him. Not giving a damn who saw them, he laughed and took the full weight of her body as she threw herself into his embrace.

“Hi, stranger,” he greeted her with a laugh. Holding Maya, he twirled her around and finally allowed her feet to touch the ground. Her dark hair swirled around her as he pulled her against him and captured her smiling lips beneath his own. The world rocked to a halt. Dane heard Joe’s big, Texas laugh, heard people cheering and calling their names, but nothing else mattered in that moment but Maya. Her mouth was warm and eagerly welcoming. He held her against him, felt her breath coming into his starving lungs and heart. She tasted of coffee, of the natural sweetness of herself as
a woman. Her moan reverberated through him and he smiled against her mouth.

“I love the hell out of you,” Dane rasped against her wet, soft lips. He looked deep into her glistening eyes.

Maya breathed raggedly as she met and held his ice-blue, burning gaze. She felt Dane’s hands range tenderly across her waist and up to her shoulders. Smiling breathlessly, she whispered unsteadily, “Welcome home, darling. I’ve missed you so much…so much….”

Her words cascaded over him and fed his starving heart. Easing her away, Dane looked up to see the assembled women crowding around them. The expressions on their faces made him smile. He called to many of them by name and lifted his hand in greeting.

Maya heard her people shouting a welcome. She turned beneath Dane’s protective arm and looked around. The joy and delight mirrored on the faces of her crew was something to behold. They seemed to glow collectively—happy for her and Dane, she realized humbly. Managing a smile of her own, Maya thanked them and then ordered them back to the business at hand. They clapped, yelled and shouted, and then dispersed to their individual duties.

Maya gave Dane a dirty look. “You could have at least let us know you were coming.”

Chuckling indulgently, Dane released her. He took off his Nomex gloves and stuffed them in the pocket of his uniform. Joe ambled over. “Nice to see you again, Captain,” he greeted, her, shaking Maya’s hand.

“Hi, Joe. Welcome back to Black Jaguar Base.”

Joe looked around. “Is Akiva here?”

Dane traded a knowing look with Maya. Maya grinned a little.

“She’s got the flu, Joe. She’s over in the officers’ quarters, on orders to rest. But I’ll bet she’ll be happy to see you. Why don’t you go over for a visit? I’m sure she’ll feel a lot better real fast when she hears you’re here.”

Joe blushed good-naturedly and tucked his helmet under his left arm. “Thank you, Captain. I think I’ll pay her a call right now.” He hurried into the cave.

Maya stood there and gave Dane a wicked, teasing look. “Why are you back here with
another
Apache, Major?”

Dane grinned back. He took her hand. “Come on, let’s go to your office. I’ve got some things in motion that you need to approve.”

Maya sat behind her desk, her eyes wide as Dane finished explaining his plan. Before her were orders that had been cut and were awaiting her signature. She shook her head. “I don’t believe this,” she whispered, touching them tentatively.

Dane sat on the edge of her desk, relaxed and at ease. The door to her office was closed for once. He wanted this conversation conducted in private. Maya’s eyes gleamed with excitement. He felt it. And he wanted to capture that excitement within him, as well. Two weeks without her vital energy, her sense of humor, her unique perspective on the world, had carved a groove of loneliness so deep within him that he knew he could never be without Maya in his life again.

“Well? What do you think? Will it work? Will your women pilots go for it?”

Rubbing her brow, Maya said, “This is all so much,
Dane. So much! I mean, before, we were the black sheep of the army. They were more than happy to see us shoved away to South America. We were out of sight, out of mind.”

“Well,” he murmured, pleased, “that’s all changed.”

Giving him a stunned look, Maya said, “This is…wonderful…more than I dared ever hope for my people. They’re such good pilots and crews….”

“Thank Morgan Trayhern,” Dane told her seriously, pointing at the orders. “When I left here, I flew into Fort Rucker and got him on the phone. I shared my ideas with him.”

“And he went to bat for us.” Shaking her head in amazement, Maya whispered, “This is just incredible, Dane. I’m in shock….”

He reached out and grazed her cheek. “Good shock, I hope?”

Giving him a tender look, Maya said, “The best kind. Now you can stay down here with me. That’s what I like most about it.”

Dane grinned wolfishly. “Believe me, sweetheart, I was racking my brain as to how to have my cake and eat it, too.”

Reaching for the orders, Maya lifted them and read them again. “The army is agreeing to take some of my women pilots for I.P.—instructor pilot—duty along the Mexican border, to teach other Apache pilots night maneuvers against enemy aircraft. They’ll start interdiction of flights originating out of Mexico, headed for the U.S.A. And the army will be sending replacement pilots down here for combat training, both male and female. There’s even an opening for two of my pilots at
Fort Rucker, to instruct on the finer points of combat flying.”

“Yes. What I see happening down here, Maya, is far-reaching. Your base provides an excellent opportunity for advanced combat training for our best Apache pilots. We don’t get to train for combat except when there’s a war going on, and then it’s too late. All we do now is shoot down cardboard or wooden targets that can’t shoot back. My being down here showed me that this environment, although dangerous, is also a way to finely hone our best pilots in real combat conditions.” He laughed derisively. “Just having them fly through the Eye will make them better pilots.”

Laughing with him, Maya set the orders on her desk. “This means my officers can have a career now. They’re not at a dead end by being down here.”

“No, just the opposite. Because of their three years of combat flying, they are in a prime position to turn around and teach others, to redefine our combat training even more. All their knowledge and experience is going to be tapped, Maya. Thanks to you holding on to your vision of this place and the mission you undertook.” Dane regarded her proudly. Pulling a small box out of the pocket of his olive-green flight uniform, he said, “And here’s the army’s way of supporting you….”

Taking the box, Maya opened it. She gasped. Inside was a set of gold major’s leaves. Jerking a look up at Dane, she said, “Is this real? Am I going to be a major?”

He smiled down at her as she delicately touched the round gold oak leaves that denoted she was now a major in the army. “Yes. More than deserved,” Dane murmured. “And it should have been done a long time
ago. Your mother and father are going to fly down to Fort Rucker, where there’s going to be a ceremony for you seven days from now. Your dad is going to pin them on your shoulders. And I’m going to be there to see it happen.” His mouth curved in a proud smile.

Tears flooded into Maya’s eyes. “This is all too much, Dane…too much….” She put the box with the metal insignias aside. “The best of this is you get to stay down here and continue to train formally as an I.P.”

“Yes,” Dane said, easing off the edge of the desk and coming around to her. He pulled Maya up and into his arms. Their hips met and her arms slid around his waist as he studied her in the warm silence. “And judging from the sat intel that Morgan has picked up, it looks like the Colombian drug lord Manuel Navarro, and his Ecuadorian counterpart, Hector Osoro, are going to come in here shortly and pick up where Faro Valentino left off. Morgan’s collected proof that Navarro has just sent an order to Russia to buy more of those Kamovs we just took out a couple of weeks ago. He’s going to rebuild the fleet and challenge you again.”

Her heart squeezing in fear, Maya said, “I knew it wouldn’t last long…the peace here, I mean.” She looked up into Dane’s strong, quiet face. Her heart blossomed with such a fierce love for him.

“The peace won’t last long,” he agreed. “But Joe is here, and he’s going to be my righthand man, to help set up our advanced combat school here at the base.” He leaned down and found her lips. Kissing her softly, he whispered, “And right now, as I speak, Major Stevenson, that Bell helicopter is being readied for us to fly to Cuzco.” He lifted his head, his eyes glimmering.
“Interested in taking me up on a nice, four-day R and R in the city? I’ve got the best room at the Libertador Hotel reserved for us. The champagne is being chilled as I speak. The whirlpool is being heated. The bathrobes are being laid out for us. Fresh flowers…”

Laughing softly, Maya embraced him hard. “Yes, I am. We deserve this little break, Major York. Don’t you think?”

His laughter joined hers. Maya drowned in the joy she found in his eyes—joy that they were going to be together. Somehow, Dane had made it happen. As she kissed him hard and swiftly on his smiling mouth, Maya wanted nothing more than that precious time alone with him. They had more than earned it.

“Strawberries, chocolate and champagne,” Maya sighed as she languished in the hot, bubbling water of the whirlpool in their suite at the hotel. “This is heaven….” Sipping the golden liquid, she felt Dane’s arm around her. Both naked, they allowed the heat of the water to draw out the tiredness of the last few months and reinvigorate them. He lifted a strawberry that had been dipped in chocolate to her mouth.

The look in his eyes was feral, one of a hunter, as Maya took the tidbit in her mouth and then sipped her champagne. Outside the window was the city of Cuzco. The afternoon sun slanted against the barren brown mountains that surrounded the second largest city in Peru. The drapes, gold brocade, swathed the huge window so that it looked like a guilt-framed picture of the city she loved so much.

Moving away, Dane drank the rest of his champagne and set the glass on the dark blue carpet that surrounded the octagonal whirlpool. Their room was
sumptuous, with gilded furniture from the period of the Sun King. The bed was huge, with a flowing canopy of gold brocade, plus midnight blue and gauzy white veils of fabric flowing from each of the four white-and-gold carved posts.

He saw Maya smiling at him as he turned and stood up. Her eyes were half-closed with desire in their depths—for him. It made him feel good and strong as he offered his hand to her. As her fingers slid into his, he surprised her and lifted her into his arms. The water splashed around them as she gasped and threw her arms around his slick, wet shoulders.

“Dane!”

Laughing deeply, he carried her up out of the bubbling tub of hot water to the bed. Maya didn’t have enough playfulness in her life, he’d discovered long ago. Well, that was going to change with him around. Her laughter was music to his ears. If he wasn’t good at much else, he did know how to play. And he was going to teach her. Depositing her wet body on the brocade bedspread, he slid down beside her and pinned her hands just above her head. Her laughter dissolved as he leaned over and caressed her smiling lips. Moaning, she pressed her body urgently against his. Moving his hand down her sleek, firm waist and hip, he brought her fully against him.

“We’re getting everything wet,” Maya whispered as she placed kiss after kiss along his jaw and the column of his neck.

“So what? We’re paying enough for it.” Dane eased his knee between her thighs. Her body was strong and warm and sleek against his. They were like two warriors of equal power and skill. Relishing her womanly
strength, her boldness and inventiveness as she ran her tongue along his collarbone, Dane closed his eyes.

Giggling, Maya arched as his hand moved around her hip and she felt him press himself against the juncture of her thighs. “You’re so cavalier, Major….” she whispered, easing her head back as she felt him press insistently against her dampness. Oh, how long she’d looked forward to this intimacy, this playfulness with Dane. He made her laugh. He made her feel so free, like a child again in many ways. Sliding her fingers along the sculpted muscles of his arms and shoulders, she sighed raggedly. Opening her thighs to him, she felt him thrust deeply into her.

The pleasure shimmered hotly within her belly. An arc of heat throbbed upward. Surrendering to him, Maya lay on her back with him moving commandingly above her. With a smile on her lips and her eyes closed, she arched, sliding her hands down his narrow hips. The moment his lips brushed the tip of her hardened nipple, her mind exploded. She could no longer think, only feel, and then feel some more.

The world and all its troubles vanished, dissolving in the heat of their mutual desire. As he caught and captured her lips with a growl, Maya drank hungrily from his own. The droplets of water helped them move slickly against each other as he thrust deeply and rhythmically into her. Each throbbing pulse created a lavalike heat that pooled through her. She tasted the strawberries on his lips, inhaled the male odor that was his alone, and thrilled to the way his hard, muscled body moved in such joyful rhythm with hers. Where he was hard, she was soft. And where she was pressed wantonly against him, there was such a smooth give and take that Maya felt they had been made for one another,
like lost puzzle pieces finally fitted together to complete a beautiful picture.

As her body exploded with the gift of his love, she arched and moaned. His arms came around her shoulders and he gripped her to him, thrusting deeply to prolong the wonderful, sunlit sensations that rippled like waves from the core of her body outward. Seconds later, Maya felt him tense. His growl was male. Dominating. He gripped her even tighter and she clung to him, her face pressed against the column of his neck, lost in the sweet, hot haze of their mutual love for one another.