Operation Swift Mercy (15 page)

Mercy sat back from the table and groaned. “I can’t believe I ate that much.”

“Good, huh?” Chase grinned at her.

“Good doesn’t do it justice—that was amazing,” Mercy said when Ma-de came back into the room. “Thank you very much,”

The small woman smiled and bowed her head, clearing off the table in silence.

Mercy stood to help, but she waved her back down in her seat and bustled once more from the room
.

“It’s getting late, why don’t you go and get some sleep?” Chase
suggested
when Mercy looked as though she were going to protest and follow Ma-de out into the kitchen.

She’d slept
on the plane,
but
she was still tired. It seemed that running for your life and all the added excitement that went along with it wore you out more than usual! Chase excused them both to show her where they’d be sleeping. They walked outside and down a pathway at the rear of the cottage to a small replica of the main house. “There’s only bunk beds
. I
t’s not the Hilton, but it’s pretty comfy,” Chase said, pushing open the door and letting her walk ahead of him.

Mercy looked around the room curiously. It was rather plain,
there were three sets of bunk beds placed against the walls with a doorway on the far side leading, she presumed, into a bathroom. Chase had been right—ther
e was nothing remotely resort style about it, but she couldn’t have cared less at that point, she just wanted to
lie
down and close her eyes.

“We’ll all be bunking down in here.”

“
All
of us?”

“What? You’re not used to sharing a room with a bunch of Marines or somethin
’
?” Chase asked, making fun of her surprise.

“Army maybe…but not Marines, no,” she
shot back
dryly.

He dropped her bag on the floor by the bottom bunk and straightened. Mercy found her gaze resting on his arms, the sleeves of his shirt had been rolled up and exposed thick forearms that somehow managed to make her mouth dry up.

“Well, lucky for you, I’m Navy, so I’ll be here
to protect
your virtue,” he grinned
.

“And who’s going to protect yours?”  She asked, lifting her gaze to his face, to see his grin falter slightly.

The air between them thicken
ed
and a heat sprung up inside the room
that
seemed to sink in through the pores of her skin
and
flow through her veins.
She wasn’t sure
who
stepped toward
whom
, but suddenly she was pressed tightly against his
chest,
feeling his arms clamp around her a
s
his lips devour
ed
hers, much like she’d devoured her plate of food earlier
.
She ran her hands
up and
around his neck, and though the short hair at the base of his skull
.
She wasn’t sure what had come over her
lately
—only that she needed this man to kiss her senseless
—and
she needed it
bad
.

There was nothing gentle about th
e
kiss—it was like an insatiable hunger
.
Mercy clung to him, a soft groan dragging from her chest as his tongue caressed her
s
in the most erotic
thing
she’d ever experienced in her entire life. She was so caught up in
it
,
that she didn’t even realise they’d been slowly moving backwards, until her back met the solid
wall behind her and Chase, lifted his lips from hers to lift her higher, pinning her against the wall firmly in order to have
better
access to the side of her neck where h
is lips
trailed
, sending sparks of electricity to the very core of her being,
before moving
back up to her mouth, his breathing heavy and fast—almost as fast as her own
.

She heard him
mutter a low, violent curse
and for a moment didn’t understand why he’d gone still, until she heard the sound of loud, somewhat off key whistling and immediately squirmed back down and away from Chase quickly
.

She’d at least managed to pull all her clothing back down to look passably respectable, but felt the remaining flush of arousal still touching her face and knew with one look, Tupper—
hell,
blind Freddy
, for that matter, would be able to guess what had just been happening. Mortified beyond belief, Mercy kept her eyes down and made a dash for the bottom bunk without even bothering to change into something more comfortable to sleep in.

She quickly turned on her side to face the wall, and ignored the stilted conversation between Tupper and Chase, refusing to acknowledge that Tupper was deliberately taunting Chase about hoping he hadn’t interrupted anything. She knew Chase would have preferred to ignore Tupper’s presence and pick up where they left off, but there was no way she was going to be able to look Tupper in the eye if Chase kicked him out of the hut for the night knowing that he’d be well aware of what they’d been up to. So she squeezed her eyes shut and thought of overweight, old men
in
socks and thongs to dampen her desire and fell into a restless sleep.

Chapter
Thirteen

Could Tupper’s timing have sucked
anymore
? Chase thought with a frustrated groan
as he took the bunk bed opposite Mercy
.
He swore a few more expletives under his breath.
G
etting in and out of places
silently was part of
the men’s
profession, so that whistling Dixie
performance had been deliberate, he thought bitterly.
Just once, was it too much to ask for him to have found somewhere else to bunk down? How many times had
he
had to go sleep on a beach or in the back of a car, just because Tupper had decided to bring back some bimbo from a bar
back to where they were staying
while they were on R&R someplace?

“You okay over there, Maloney?”
Tupper’s chuckle
drifted quietly across to him in the dark.

Prick.

After a while, he heard the breathing of the other two
,
smooth out in sleep and wished he could follow their lead, but he had too much on his mind.
He’d feel better once he had Mercy on the island. At least there no one could sneak up on them and they had the means to protect themselves a lot better than in a crowded city.

The island had once been their safe house to lay low a few years back when they’d been in a bit of tricky situation. It had served them well
. B
ack then they’d also had the help of old Sparkie. C
h
ase couldn’t help the twitch of his lips that followed the thought of his old friend. A somewhat eccentric old coot—the men had once saved Sparkie
’
s neck in a shore leave
tryst
many years ago. They hadn’t been aware at the time just how crucial Sparkie would become to their lives. H
e’d returned the favour tenfold
. He’d owned Los Cavern
a
s, and God only knew what else—a grumpy, hillbilly looking, multi
-millionaire who preferred to live like a hermit
.

His passing a short while back had been a sad blow to the men, but in typical Sparkie behaviour he’d gone out with a bang, in his beloved Piper Cherokee and surprisingly, left not only the island to the four friends, but also a substantial income in investments around the world.

Tate and Del had chosen not to re-up and had decided to move to the island and run the resort the four of them had agreed to invest in. The offer was open for Tupper and himself to join them, but Maloney was still in two minds about it all. He just couldn’t imagine his life without being part of force recon. It was his life—he loved his job
.

Shaking his thoughts back to
his
present
predicament
, he was thankful that the resort wasn’
t open yet
. It
would be easier to contain the situation without civilians wandering around the place. Not that they were planning a massive resort, far from it—they were catering for small numbers of guests—each with their own beach and plenty of space to move. But still, any extra bodies hanging around would make their job more difficult.

With his thoughts still on everything they’d have to do before they reached the island, Maloney was awake long into the night.

****

Mercy opened her eyes to find the room cast in a soft pre-dawn glow. She moved her head to look across at the
opposite
bunks and found them empty. For a brief moment panic seized her and she sat up in bed, her gaze searching the room for evidence the other two men hadn’t abandoned her through the night. With a rush of relief, she heard movement outside and saw Chase duck in through the door of the hut
holding
a mug of something that steamed invitingly
, the smell of caffeine teasing her senses with its promise of instant euphoria.

“Morning,” he said softly, crouching beside her at the head of the bed
and passing her the mug of coffee
. “I was just about to come and wake you up.
It’s time to get moving.”

“Thank you,” she murmured as she took the first sip of fragrant coffee before throwing the bedspread back and swinging her legs to the side of the bunk. “Do I have time to get changed and freshen up?”
S
he asked, leaning over to drag her bag closer and dig through the contents to find her toiletries
kit
. She needed to brush her teeth at the very
least;
although what she longed for was a long hot shower so she could wash her hair…she looked at Chase, already dressed and ready and sighed. Time to use her hair straightener was obviously going to be out of the question, she decided.

“Yeah, there’s time to freshen up, but I’m afraid you’ll have to wait till we get to the island to have a shower—we have a
rendezvous
we need to make in half an hour.”

“
Half an hour?”
S
he
shrieked
,
sculling
the contents of the mug and handing it back to him as she slid from the bed and raced for the bathroom.

“You
do
have half an hour,” he called after her seemingly baffled that she was in such a hu
rry when he thought she had plenty of time.

“Exactly!” she called back before closing the door.
Honestly! Men!
Maybe they could be dressed and ready to go in three minutes flat, but she had more to maintain than them.

She managed to brush her teeth, do her hair and even add a bit of makeup as well as change her t-shirt. She hoped this island had a washing machine—she hadn’t had time to pack much—just the bare essentials and they were quickly coming to an end.

She followed
the path from the hut back to the main house and found the two men chatting to Pete beside an open top jeep.

Chase came forward to take her bag and tossed into the back, giving her a smile which she returned,
feeling
grateful
that she had this man on her side.

Pete climbed into the
driver’s
seat and threw her a cheery good
morning as they piled into the vehicle. Once again, Tupper took the front seat and Chase squeezed into the back with her. Not that she was complaining,
but
his long legs were not designed for this seating, and his thigh pressed firmly against her own, the heat sending a memory of their heated make out session that had ended all too briefly the night before.

She felt his gaze on her face, but once again, couldn’t bring herself to look at him. This thing between them was so confusing. Her libido was in over drive around the man, but there was no ignoring the fact that she was in deep trouble—and had also dragged him into it with her. Falling for a guy like Chase was not a good idea. They had no future—he was in the military for goodness sake—had he forgotten all that? At some point he’d have to report back for duty
, and then what? Where did that leave her?

No, there was no future in this, and
really
,
w
as a brief fling something she wanted to get tangled up in? It wasn’t as though it was a one night stand where they’d part ways and never see each other again
. F
or a while at least,
they were stuck with each other 24/7 and that complicated things. It was, of course too late
not
to get involved with the man—they’d already slept together and thinking back to that momentarily shook her resolve, it had been oh so good. She mentally shook herself,
snap out of it!