Special Forces: Operation Alpha: Cowboy D-Force (Kindle Worlds Novella) (Brotherhood Protectors Book 4) (6 page)

Duke chuckled. “At first, yes. But I think I knew deep down, you weren’t the same woman from last night. For one, Lena Love would never have pulled me out of the pool. She probably would have let me drown before she called for help.”

Angel nodded, her lips twisting into a wry grin. “You’re probably right.”

“The question is, where do we go from here?”

“Nowhere,” Angel said. “I’m here for the remainder of the two weeks, making the staff nuts and being a pain in the ass to anyone and everyone with whom I come in contact.”

“I don’t like that you’re putting yourself up as the target. The bullet that hit your martini glass this evening could easily have hit you instead.”

She nodded. The thought had occurred to her, and she hadn’t been all that happy about it.

“Who has Lena pissed off enough to want to cause her a whole lot of grief and possibly even kill her?”

“Hell, who hasn’t she pissed off?” Angel sighed. “The possibilities could be too many to calculate.”

“Any rivals vying for the same parts?”

“She is up for a really big part in a movie. Phillip has been waiting on pins and needles for the call.”

“Who else is being considered for that part?”

“You’ll have to ask Phillip. He knows all of the ins and outs, and the actresses and actors who are anybody in Hollywood.” Angel sighed. “I’m just the stunt woman. Nobody of consequence in the grand scheme of the big studios.”

“Except you look like Lena Love, which has put you in the unlucky position of being the decoy to draw out a potential killer. We have to find this person before he makes good on thinning the talent pool.”

“We don’t know he’s out to kill Lena.”

“No, but that bullet today made it an entirely different game. One we want to win. If we’re serious about luring him out into the open, we need to take the game to a new level.”

Angel frowned. “And how do we do that?”

“Ever been camping in Montana?”

Her frown deepened. “No. Sounds cold and uncomfortable.”

“If we stay here at the house, you’re nothing but a sitting duck. If we lead him up into the hills, we can switch the hunted to the hunters.”

A slow grin spread across Angel’s face. “I like the way you think.”

“Yeah?” He chucked a finger beneath her chin. “I like the way your nipples poke at your T-shirt. I suggest you go to bed and get some sleep. Tomorrow we head into the mountains.”

She frowned. “Hey, you’re not supposed to be so obvious about your lascivious observations.”

“Yeah, well we’ve already established I’m no gentleman.”

“Your mother would be so proud.”

“Leave my mother out of this.”

“Leave my nipples out of this.”

She jutted out her chest, parading her pointy breasts as she headed for the door. When she reached it, she flung it open and tipped her head. “Goodnight, bodyguard.”

“Goodnight…Lena.” As he passed her, he leaned close, captured her head in the palm of his hand and whispered, “Angel fits you so much better.”

“Just so you know, my teammates called me the Angel of Death.” She shot him a challenging glance.

“I can see it. You wouldn’t be where you are today, if you were any other way.”

Angel frowned.

Duke shook his head. “I meant that in the best, strongest way.” With his hand still cupping her head, he bent and captured her lips with his. When he raised his head again, he smiled that sexy smile that turned her knees to melted butter. “Oh,” he said, his voice deep and husky. “I’m sleeping in your room, tonight.”

She had been leaning toward him, her entire body drawn to him like a moth to a flame, when his words sank in. She jerked back. “Like hell you are.”

He patted her cheek like a parent pats a child’s. “Get used to it. We’re going to be spending a lot of time together over the next couple of days. Or however long it takes to flush out your stalker.”

Her pulse thundered through her veins, and her palms grew moist, along with another place farther south. How was she going to resist this man if he insisted on being right beside her? Day and night? A normal, sexually deprived woman could only take so much before she conceded defeat and begged to join the other side.

D
uke lay
on the chaise lounge in Lena Love’s bedroom, trying not to think about the tattoo on Angel’s breast and the fact that, since she was a decoy for Lena, she really wasn’t his client. Lena was.

Which meant the separation between client and bodyguard didn’t apply to him and Angel. Why that gave him a sense of joy, he didn’t know.

He really should consider Angel off limits as well. She wasn’t his type. Nothing about her was like his age-old image of the perfect woman. She was as different from his mother as night was from day.

His mother had stayed home and raised her sons, helped with homework, sewed, cooked cleaned and made their lives better with her loving, nurturing nature.

Despite her name, Angel didn’t strike Duke as the kind of woman who could sew curtains to frame a window, or sauté onions and make a roast that would melt in his mouth. She had a smart mouth and a hard knee that hit with a wicked determination to end an attack before it got ugly. She had proven herself in her training as an elite Army Ranger and then she’d faced combat head-on. He’d never met a woman who’d willingly walked into a war-torn area, knowing she could get killed or maimed, and still function without launching herself into a fit of hysterics.

The woman probably didn’t know a saucepan from a skillet. Cook a roast? Probably not.

But he had the feeling if he handed her a rifle, she’d know how to disassemble and assemble it in under a minute. And he’d bet his favorite nine-millimeter pistol she was an expert marksman. The Army Rangers only graduated the best of the rest. They didn’t cut the women any slack to fill a quota. If anything, they had to work harder than the men to prove themselves.

“Are you asleep,” her voice said in the dark.

“No,” he answered.

“I’ve laid on that lounge. It’s not very comfortable.”

“No. It’s not.” He rolled onto his back and nearly fell off the narrow chaise that was barely big enough to hold him.

A long pause stretched between them.

“It’s ridiculous for you to sleep there when this bed is sufficiently large enough for two people. We would never touch each other.”

That’s where she might be wrong. If Duke slept in that bed with her, he wouldn’t have the ability to resist touching her. “I’ll sleep here.”

Silence stretched between them.

“Seriously, you should take the other side of this bed. I’ll feel bad if you don’t get any rest when we’re about to go days without sleep.”

“I’m not likely to get any sleep if you keep talking,” he said into the darkness.

She snorted. “See if I try to be nice again.”

“I know it’s a stretch.”

“Damn right it is.”

“Geez woman, if I move to the bed, I can’t guarantee I won’t touch you.” There, if she didn’t already know he was attracted to her in a big way, she did now.

“I said we wouldn’t
have
to touch.” Her little pause lengthened. “Unless we wanted to,” she said, her voice fading into the shadows.

“Don’t ask, unless you really mean it. Once I’ve tasted the honey, I won’t be able leave the hive.”

Angel burst out laughing. “You didn’t just liken my lady parts to a beehive, did you?”

A smile played at Duke’s lips. “I did.” He pushed to his feet and crossed the room to where she lay in Lena’s big bed, covered in that damned cotton-candy-pink comforter.

“I’m sorry, but that’s about the most unromantic thing a man has ever said to me.”

“Scoot.”

She moved over to make it easy for him to slide onto the mattress.

“How’s this.” He lay on his side and leaned up on one elbow. “Your lips are as soft as my dog’s belly.”

“Not even close,” she said, staring up at him in the little bit of moonlight streaming through the window.

“No?” He pushed a strand of her hair back behind her ear. “I really loved my dog.”

“You’re going to have to do better if you want to stay with me tonight.”

“Mmm, I know just what to say.”

She shook her head. “I’m almost afraid to ask, but here goes. What would you say?”

“I knew there was something different about you this morning. In many ways, you look very much like Lena, but you’re not like her at all. I couldn’t put my finger on it until just now. Where Lena is all about Lena, you care about others.” He tapped her chest. “You have a heart. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have saved me from drowning and you wouldn’t have agreed to be the bait to draw out her stalker.”

“What else have I got to do in my life?” she asked, her voice not much more than a whisper. “I’m not married. I don’t have kids. I don’t even have an impressive career.”

“You have all of your life to live the way you want. And you deserve to make it happy.”

“Life’s not the same when you have no one to share it.” She touched her fingers to his bare chest.

“You need to stop living Lena’s life and make one of your own.”

“Now, that’s pretty romantic,” she said, cupping his cheek. She leaned close and pressed her lips to one of his little, hard brown nipples. “I think you might have potential.”

“For what?”

“Well, not as a gentleman, but then I never stated a preference for gentlemen. I kind of like my men to be a little more rugged.”

“I can be rugged,” he leaned over her and nibbled on her earlobe, nipping just a little harder to make his point.

“Ow.” She raised her hand to her ear and laughed. “But gentle when he needs to be.”

He slipped his hand along her arm and down to her waist, stopping to balance on her hip. “How am I doing?”

“I don’t know. There appears to be too much getting in the way of this lesson in what this lady wants and what you have to offer.”

“Like?”

She slid her hand into the waistband of his boxer shorts and snapped the elastic. “Getting the idea, cowboy?”

“I think so. I might be a grunt, but I can be taught.” He slipped her T-shirt over her head and tossed it to the floor.

She helped shove his boxers down over his hips and thighs, her fingers trailing across his skin, making him crazy with need. This slow, steady, getting-to-know-you dance they had started couldn’t get moving fast enough. He longed to take her, to slide into her warm, slick wetness. But first, he wanted her to reach the level of insanity she was inspiring in him.

He slid a finger along the smooth line of her jaw and down the long, slender column of her neck. Moving lower, he skimmed the rounded swell of her breasts, stopping to tweak the nipple and circle the tattoo. “What does the tattoo stand for?”

“The kind of love that brings two people together for the rest of their lives. The kind of love my parents have for each other.”

“That’s beautiful.” He kissed the bead of her nipple, and then flicked it with the tip of his tongue. “Like you.”

“Wow,” she said, her words catching on her indrawn breath. “Now, you’re getting the idea.”

“I told you, I can be taught. But it’s easy when the recipient inspires me.” He circled her nipple several times before sucking it into his mouth and pulling hard.

He was quickly falling into her, without a care as to how to disengage and walk away when the two weeks were up, or the stalker was found and carted off to jail.

Duke had no intention of leaving Montana any time soon. Living in LA was not even a consideration. But then, he and Angel had only just met. They’d known each other for such a short amount of time. Dreaming of a future with her would be insane.

Then why was he thinking about how many more times he’d like to make love to this woman? That implied a future that couldn’t be.

A
ngel closed her eyes
, pretending she and Duke weren’t in Lena Love’s bed but on some tropical island in the middle of the ocean, away from everything that could get in the way of this moment. She ran her hand across his rock-hard shoulder and down over his chest. “What about you?”

He brushed the tip of her nose with his lips and then took her mouth in a long, soul-tugging kiss that left her breathing hard and wanting so much more.

“What about me?” he asked, his fingers feathering over her hip and sliding down to the tuft of hair over her sex.

“What made—” her words caught in her lungs as he parted her folds and flicked the nubbin between, “—you want to be Delta-Force.” There, she’d gotten it out, now she could draw in another breath.

He flicked her again, and her insides tensed, squeezing her lungs, her core, her senses. She couldn’t think past what he was doing to her down there.

“I love my country. I like being all I can be, and Delta Force was that.”

“Were you processed out for medical reasons, too?” He hit the right spot, and she gasped. “There. Oh, sweet Jesus. There!” She arched her back off the bed.

Duke’s hand followed, cupping her sex until she settled, and then he resumed teasing that bundle of nerves to a fever of excitement.

“Yes. Medically retired.”

“Leg?” She managed to push the word from her lungs as another wave of sensations rocked her. Angel drew her knees up and let them fall to the side.

“Leg.”

“Does it keep you from…” God, he flicked her there again. She was so close to a full-on orgasm she couldn’t finish her sentence. Hell, she couldn’t remember what she had been saying.

“Keep me from making love to you?” He chuckled. “Oh, hell no.”

“Good. Because I want you.”

“Then show me how much.” He parted her legs and lay down between them, skimming a trail of kisses and nips down her abdomen to the place that was already so sensitized she was almost afraid she’d come apart into a million pieces if he touched her there with his tongue.

And then he did.

Angel rocketed to the heavens, her body exploding with sensations, until she couldn’t remember what was earth and what was sky. She rode the wave through to the very end, her hips pumping, her hands buried in his hair, fingers flexing into his scalp.

When she came back to the earth long enough to breathe, she tugged on a handful of his hair. “Now. Inside me. Hurry.”

He crawled up her body and pressed his cock to her entrance, and then stopped.

“Holy crap, Duke,” she wailed. “Why are you stopping now?”

He grinned, though his mouth appeared strained as if he could barely hold back. “Protection?”

“Fuck!” She slammed her fist against the mattress. They couldn’t get to the door and not go in. Then she thought about Lena. “She has got to have a stock of condoms. Check the nightstand.”

Duke leaned over, pulled open the top drawer of the nightstand and laughed. “You were right. She’s got everything. A year’s supply of condoms, sex toys, lubricant and even several varieties of whips.”

“Stop talking. Am I the only one turned on here?”

He selected a condom, his face splitting into a grin. “Impatient much?”

“Fuck you.” She snatched the package from his hand, tore it open and rolled the item over his rock-hard cock. “Now, get busy. I’m riding an orgasm I don’t ever want to stop.”

“Mmm.” He bent to take her mouth with his, sucking her bottom lip between his teeth where he bit down softly before releasing it. “You’re so romantic when you curse like a sailor.”

“Like a Ranger. Get it right.” She clasped his ass in her hands, done with the chatter and ready to take him all the way home.

Once again, he positioned himself at her entrance and gently dipped in.

Her muscles contracted, as if to pull him deeper inside her channel. Past patience, and so hot she could spontaneously combust, Angel grabbed his ass and slammed him home.

“Oh, sweet Jesus. Now we’re headed in the right direction.”

Duke slid out, the movement excruciatingly slow.

Angel wrapped her legs around his waist and dug her heels into his buttocks, wanting him inside again, filling her to full and fucking her like there was no tomorrow.

Finally getting the hint, Duke moved in an out, increasing the pace and the intensity until he was pounding, hard and fast.

“Yes!” Angel yelled.

She dropped her heels to the mattress and dug in, lifting her hips to meet him thrust for thrust.

His body tensed, his jaw hardened and he slammed into her one last time, driving deep and holding there, his cock pulsing against the walls of her channel.

Angel came, her sex convulsing around his, her body shaking with the power of her release.

A minute passed, maybe two, before Duke lay down on her, wrapped his arms around her and rolled her and him onto their sides without disturbing their intimate connection.

Angel lay spent, her heartbeat slowly returning to normal. “Wow,” she said when she could get enough breath to form a word.

“Wow, yourself,” Duke managed. “I didn’t expect sex with Lena Love could rock my world so completely.” He winked.

“Hey. Lena’s got nothing on me.”

“Damn right. You’re one in a million.”

“Remember that.”

“I’m not likely to forget for a very long time.” He cupped her cheek and stared deep into her eyes.

Angel’s thoughts clarified in that instant and shook her even more than the most incredible orgasm she’d ever experienced.

Her gut bunched into a tight knot.

I could fall for this guy. I mean, really fall.

Hard
.