Romancing the Alpha: An Action-Adventure Romance Boxed Set (103 page)

Kent’s hand captured her neck, holding her in place. Silly man. She had no intention of running anymore. She was owed this. For too long, the universe had taken. Now it was her turn.

She crawled back into the folded-down seat. “One night.”

“Promise me more than that, Elena.”

The shift hadn’t been immediate, but it had now grown impossible to ignore. The question between them danced like players on a field. She could keep the man a secret for as long as it took to get the job and settle in. They’d hide it.

Why not?
She was smart. He was too. They were adults. If it didn’t work, fine. But she had to try. “Yes.”

“Yes, Elena? No reservations?”

“Not anymore.” She twisted into the fabric at her cheek and covered her face. “Maybe a little, but not about this. Or you.”

Still, he didn’t come to her. “What if the inimitable Dragon finds out? What will you say then?”

“The truth. I do think we should keep it—whatever this is—private for a while, but I won’t deny you. I was married to my job once. It nearly killed me and almost destroyed who I was. You’ve shown me that I can be so much more. I won’t cheat myself out of that. Try not to look so satisfied with yourself. I might drop you in a week.”

Sinuous as a panther, Kent crawled on top of her, stopping with one knee between her legs. “Then I’ll work hard to make sure you don’t.”

Kent rotated his knee against the heat of her sex. She boiled through their layers of clothing –wet for him, just the way he dreamed she’d be. Elena moaned, and he couldn’t bite back the chuckle that escaped. “Save your breath, dear. You’ll go hoarse in an hour.”

They removed each other’s clothes in a silence broken only by appreciative huffs of air. Elena was silk in his hands, moving and bending at his word. His touch. And he meant to take his time with her. Taste every inch of her.

Her breasts were beautiful, tanned globes in his hands. He bent for a taste—sweet, her natural flavor, but also the tang of salt from their exertions. The nub in his mouth peaked as he tugged, dragging his teeth along her sugary skin. “I want to fuck you properly in bed they way you deserve.”

He sucked in air when she grabbed a fistful of his hair. “I’ll kill you if you stop.”

“I’d deserve it.” Elena’s skin set fire to his fingertips. He moved them down the valley of her breasts, the dip of her stomach, down to the tuff of hair between her legs. “Open for me.”

His dick jumped against his thigh like an eager dog, desperate to be where his fingers moved. He slid one inside her, then two, never taking his eyes off her face. Elena’s eyelids slammed shut. And fuck everything, but there was nothing better in the world than watching a woman bite into her lip and knowing he caused it.

Tight. Warm. Wet.

His whole body would find peace once his cock was locked tight within her. But he had to do this right. He had to fuck her so thoroughly that even when he pissed her off, she couldn’t drag herself out of bed to walk away.

Surrounded by the darkness of the night and their cover of foliage, he moved by feel and sound. What touches made her gasp? Which ones made her moan? Which ones had her clasping her legs together, even as she scooted up to take his fingers in deeper?

He was drunk off the smell of her sex, long before he withdrew his fingers and brought her juices to his tongue.
Good god.
Elena was a drug, the kind that hooked you on the first hit. He longed to taste directly from the source, but the car was unwilling to accommodate.

Fine. Later.

For now, he contented himself pinning her knees apart and ramming his cock deep inside her until he heard her heart sing. She clenched and bucked, wrapping her legs around his back and locking him in the sweet prison of her body. Heaven lived inside of her, and he took his share of it stroke by stroke.

“Yes, Kent! Yes!”

His name on her lips was a shot of ambrosia to the heart. “You will scream my name over and over again,” he commanded by her ear, punctuating each word with a thrust of his hips.

And yes, she screamed his name. And yes, he screamed hers, until they collapsed together, in a tangled, breathless, smiling heap.

Warmth enveloped Elena as she beat back the fog of sleep. She was wrapped in Kent’s
gho
as much as his embrace. After last night’s lovemaking, she’d fallen dead asleep, only waking once or twice when Kent turned on the motor for some heat.

Elena hadn’t felt the chill at all. She ached from their night, sweet and deep inside her body, a good pain, one that reminded her that she was alive again in every sense of the word.

“Normally I’d thank a woman for the lovely evening and send her on her way.”

“I won’t go,” she mumbled against the inside of his arm.

“I won’t let you go. Whatever happens with this mission and work, we’re going to try.” The wink that turned her heart to mush and curled her toes appeared once more.

“We’re in agreement. I think—” His body turned to a pillar of stone. “Do you hear that?”

The rumbling tearing alongside the mountain was too loud to be anything other than a truck. “Yeah, and if that’s what I think it is, the drop’s happening early.”

“Move out.”

No time for soft words or playful redressing. They threw on their clothes and guns, planning as they shoved on pant legs and shoes.

“You’re going to drive the motorcycle,” Kent said. “I’ll ride behind you and jump off.”

“Don’t be ridiculous.”

“We’re out of options and running out of time. We need to take that truck, contents and all.

“Don’t you dare wink at me, Kent Avery. What you’re planning is—”

“Dangerous?”

“Stupid.”

He grabbed his backpack and tossed her an earpiece. “We’ll be in contact the whole time. Don’t look at me like that. Think of it this way: we complete this mission, and there’s no damned way my brother would want to keep us apart.”

“What the devil does your brother have to do with anything?”

As soon as he winked, she knew she was in trouble. “Well, he’s the Dragon, so, yeah. Kinda everything.”

*****

He had to be lying. Kent would have said anything to get her moving again, but it worked. Here they were barreling down the side of a mountain at breakneck speed to catch a truck and attempt to jump on it.

“You made that up back there, right?”

He chuckled into the earpiece, his arms pulsing around her body. “Nope. I told you. He loves me. But I couldn’t have you think you’d get the job because of me. I’ll keep my mouth shut until you hear news of your new employment yourself. Heads up.”

More, she couldn’t ask. The truck had just come into view. It moved like a lumbering sloth, too huge to do anything other than ride in sixth gear and stick at a solid thirty miles per hour. It wasn’t a semi as they’d expected, but a large cargo truck, with a massive gray canvas, tied around the ends by fraying bamboo rope.

She drove up near the driver’s window. “Two people. I think. Plus two or three in the back.”

“You don’t know that. Stop making stuff up. I’ll be fine.”

“You’d better. Your brother will kill me if anything happens to you.”

“Nah, given any number of people in the room, I’m generally the one whose fault it is.”

“What is?”

“Everything, dear. Now, hold her steady for me, Elena. I’m going.”

She wanted to scream at him to stay put, but she didn’t dare lose her focus on the road. One slip, one bump, and his brain would fertilize the gulley.

Oh, keep him safe,
she prayed to anyone listening.

Someone heard. Kent didn’t jump, thank goodness, but pulled, heaving himself up by the bamboo rope. Her stomach churned at the thought of his hands, ripping and tearing as he hauled himself up one agonizing inch at a time, his legs dangling by rolling wheels, Biceps popped as he climbed in under the tarp. Then shots rang out behind her.

“Elena!”

“I’ve got this. I’ll catch up.” She wasted precious seconds looking back until he and the truck disappeared around the curve.

She ditched the bike in the road and ran for the gulley alongside it, ducking as the car passed and shooting the tires right from underneath it. The car skidded and swerved.

Kent called her name in the earpiece. She didn’t have time to answer.

Three men poured out of the fishtailing car. The first two drew guns on her. She dropped them both. A third came out with his hands in the air. A long ponytail flickered in the wind. “Xiàng.”

He nodded and responded in crisp Dzongkha. “I don’t think we’ve met. Is there a reason you’ve killed my men?”

“Them shooting at me isn’t sufficient enough a reason?”

His laughter was like cracked glass, and a sliver of fear ran down her spine. “You are not from this place,” he said in English.

“Neither are you.”

“You have honor. I see it in your eyes.”

“Stay back.”

“But I only want to see you up close, Missus?”

Elena fired a warning shot just over his shoulder. “That’s close enough.”

“See, you do have honor. You won’t shoot an unarmed man.”

“Says who?”

While the two men laughed up front, Kent cracked open one of the crates. There, beneath mountains of packing were the golden yellows and reds of the amber-decorated wall panels, beautiful and now going into the right hands because of him and his Elena.

Kent climbed over the boxes until the back of the driver’s head was within view. There wasn’t a sliding window, just an old fashioned one. He’d have to get into the cab area the hard way.

He “knocked” with two rounds in one window and out the other. Ideally, both men would have stopped the truck and gotten out. Instead, the passenger reached for a gun in the dash.

“Don’t be stupid.” Kent pulled a wad of cash from his pocket and threw it on the front seat. “Take it and have a good morning.”

The passenger looked, swiped the whole of it and did a rolling tuck out of the door, cash in hand.
Good man.

The driver yelled and reached for the loose gun.

“Well, we can’t have that. You should have gone for the money.” Kent punched away the rest of the window and climbed through, kicking the gun away as he slid into the cabin.

The driver pulled out a knife, swinging wildly with one hand and driving haphazardly with the other. Kent’s knowledge of South Asia languages was limited to, well, zero, but he’d been willing to negotiate until the sounds of a struggle came to life in his ear.
Elena!

Kent pointed his gun at the driver’s temple. “Stop the damned car.”

Certain things didn’t require much translation. Brakes squealed and the driver pulled into a cutoff. Kent waved toward the door with his gun. The smuggler scampered away.

As he reached to close the door, a searing pain careened through his shoulder like a hot poker. Blood warmed his chest. He ducked, grabbed his gun, and fired out the window toward the man who’d shot him.

No return fire.

Kent peered around the side of the truck to discover the man retreating up the mountain. And up to Elena.

Dizzy with pain and worry, Kent damn near fell out of the vehicle. Despite the searing wound, he summoned the strength of his brother and ran to save his Elena.

*****

Elena tried calling for Kent again, but Xiàng’s heavy boot to her chest knocked the wind out of her. She was on all fours, struggling to stand on her feet. The trafficker’s fist knocked her down. Again.

She should have shot him when she had a chance, but one of the bodyguards had thrown a bullet her way before dying. She’d shot the man to speed up his death, unfortunately giving Xiàng that one second to get the jump on her.

“I should keep you. Make good money with a one-eyed whore.”

She rolled on her back, narrowly avoiding another hit.

Kent’s voice flickered in her ear. “Talk to me, Elena. Say something. I can’t ask you out again if you’re dead.”

She tried to reassure him, but her mouth was full of blood, and only moans squeaked past her swollen lips. “Help...”

“Help?” Xiàng’s cruel laughter knotted her stomach like sour milk. He took a gun off one of his dead employees. “Sell you? Or just kill you now for costing me money? Shall I keep you for collateral until—”

Xiàng fell to the ground, screaming and writhing in pain a second before she saw the cause of it.

Kent came up the mountain, shirt stained with blood and a trail of smoke curling from the silencer on his gun. Half crawling, half slithering, she made her way toward him. All her training went to hell when he crashed to the ground a few feet away. “Kent!”

He slammed his eyes shut and punched the ground. “Just my arm. Fuckload of pain though. The bullet’s preventing more blood loss I think...”

“Shh.” With newfound energy, she scrambled to her bag and the first aid kit inside. She treated him with Celox to stop as much blood flow as possible before binding him with mountains of bandages.

“Your face. Oh, baby. What did he do to you?” Kent scrambled to his feet, even as she tried to sit him back down. “I’ll kill him.”

“You already have. See?”

Kent rubbed his eyes and winced. “I didn’t. Hell, he’s gone. C’mon Elena. We need to get out of here. Now.”

Arm in arm, they hobbled down, looking back every few feet and praying for a break. Nothing made her happier than seeing that old raggedy truck, even if she had to step over a couple of corpses along the way.

Kent sucked in air as he launched into the vehicle, but when he winked at her from the passenger’s seat, she knew they’d be okay. “We did it.”

“Oh, shit.”

“Not again.” The roar of skidding car wheels and screeching motors howled behind them. Given the steep descent, she couldn’t exactly floor it out of there.

Though it surely caused him agonizing pain to do it, Kent turned around every few seconds to peek out the window. “They’re here.”

Shots ripped around them on all sides. “Got that.”

His hand slapped the dashboard. “My extra ammo’s in the back with the crates. I’ve got five or six rounds left. You?”