Taken by Surprise (17 page)

Chapter Nine

Michael's mood went from bad to worse. "What do you mean we can't get her out of here?" Though he directed his question to FBI Agent Cameron Stone, the agent chose to study his steepled fingers and let Adrien answer via the cell phone at Michael's ear.

"Cameron's resources are spread too thin, sir." Adrien rarely called him sir. The fact that he did so now spoke of just how pissed Michael sounded. "I'm seeing what I can do on our end, but," he sighed, hesitated, "you know as well as I do that she should've stayed on that helo with the crate."

The Navy helo that dropped the SEALs, himself, and Rhonda at the LZ nearest the safe house before proceeding to the base on the East Coast, yeah, Michael knew. It would have taken Rhonda out of her way, but she could've boarded a plane that would've gotten her right into Silver Springs, right home where she belonged. After, he reminded himself, she went through countless hours of debriefing and who knew what else by the Navy, FBI, and even his own agency.

"I wanted you with her," he told Adrien, sinking into a vacated folding chair across from Stone at the rickety table. The main room of the safe house had cleared out in the time it had taken him to show Rhonda to a private room where she could call Lucas. He'd returned to find Stone the only occupant. The agent had immediately handed over his cell, and Michael discovered Adrien on the line. "She's been through enough. I wanted her on familiar ground as soon as possible. Damn it, I want her back with her son where she belongs."

"I understand that, sir," Adrien said patiently. "We all do."

"The Navy has its own agenda here." He knew he didn't need to tell Adrien or Stone that, but he said it anyway. "Team Six stayed behind, I'm guessing under new orders from the FBI." Across the table, Stone nodded in confirmation. "But that crate was the first priority for the men on that helo."

That meant the safest place for Rhonda remained right here in the middle of the Cambodian forest with him. Except, wasn't he the reason she was here to start with, the sole cause that she had ever been put into danger?

And around and round we go
.

Michael sighed, rubbed the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger. "Do what you can to get another chopper this way ASAP, Bingham."

"Yes, sir."

"With any luck, I shouldn't fall out of communication again. Fill me in on the operation there. Did the FBI send in their man to help Hutchens?" For the next ten minutes, he forced himself to concentrate on the details of the stateside operation happening in his absence. Later, he would have to figure out how he would keep Rhonda safe until they pulled out of Cambodia or another helo arrived for extraction, whichever came first. He prayed for the latter, but instinct and experience told him he wouldn't get it.

"Good job, Bingham. Sounds like you've got it under control." Not that he expected anything different out of the agent. When it came to trust, skills, and smarts, Adrien Bingham possessed it all in spades. "Keep me posted."

"Will do, sir." Michael started to hand the phone back to Stone when Adrien stopped him. "Michael, did you, uh, use that communication fall to get anything settled?"

Michael understood the question, knew what Adrien didn't want to ask point blank.
Did you finally tell Rhonda you love her, that she means more to you than your next breath, that you've been going stark-raving mad without her?

"Not exactly," he answered tersely. If anything the trek through the forest had only heightened his confusion. "I realized one thing, though. Communication is definitely the key. I think I'll go open another line for that now. Looks like yours is already open, Bingham. Why don't you try using it, too?" The audible intake of breath in his ear coupled with the race of utter shock in the sea blue eyes across the table confirmed a suspicion that had started building a long time ago.

Michael let it go at that, sliding Stone's cell phone across the table as he got to his feet.

"Cosmos." Stone recovered quick, catching Michael before he left the room. "Everyone's taking a break for a few hours before mobilizing again to figure out our next move."

Michael nodded. "I won't be long."

"I'll text you if you're not back in time." The FBI agent's lips twitched. "Just in case you get caught up in there."

Jab for jab,
Michael thought and walked down the hall without another word. He knew what Stone expected to happen once Michael shut himself in the bedroom with Rhonda alone. With their track record, he figured the agent would be sorely disappointed.

* * * *

Rhonda heard the door open behind her. She didn't turn around to see who walked inside. She didn't need to. Every instinct and sense she possessed sprang to hyperalert anytime Michael came near. She waited for him to come closer, wanted to feel his strong arms fold around her. She needed the strength she would gain from his heat. Her fingers tightened on the quiet cell phone in her grasp, waiting for an embrace that she didn't get.

"Are you okay?"

So she would get the smooth, melodious sound of his voice rather than the feel of his touch to comfort her now. It worked, mingling with the sweet, still slightly babyish glide of Lucas's voice that echoed in her mind when he asked the very same question. Her heart swelled with reassurance. Yes, the answer was yes. She was better than okay because she had talked to her boy. She knew him to be safe, knew he would be waiting for her with a great big smile and a hug when she finally made it back to him.

Tears pooled in her eyes, blurring her vision. She let them come as she turned to face Michael. "Thank you." She choked on the words as the tears spilled, but she would not look away from him. The expression that came over his handsome face couldn't be described. He closed the distance between them in two long strides and then—
thank you, gods
—she got the comfort from both his touch and his voice.

"Oh, baby, don't thank me." Michael held her so close even oxygen couldn't push between them as she fell apart in his arms.

"You took care of my boy, made sure Phay couldn't touch him." Rhonda hid her face in his T-shirt as she tried to gain control of the racking sobs tearing out of her chest. She had thanked him once already for taking the steps to ensure Lucas's protection. The gratitude she expressed then paled in comparison to the enormity of what she felt now that she had actually talked to her son, heard his voice. Alive. Safe.

She still held Michael's cell phone in one hand, wound that arm around his neck. She held on to his shoulder with her other hand, absorbing that strength, that heat she longed for merely moments ago.

"Jesus, Rhonda, I would've done what I did for any kid." Michael's lips moved lightly in the hairs on the top of her head as he spoke, the warmth of his breath sending slivers of awareness raining through her body. "How could you not know I would do it for Lucas, for
you
?"

"He asked about you." She reined in her tears, blinking and swallowing until she felt calmer, steadier. She smiled as she lifted her head, tipped it back to meet Michael's gaze. His exotic eyes danced in a glimmer of moisture that tore at her heart. "He's been worried about you, too. He can't wait to see you."

Michael closed those exotic eyes, no doubt catching that glimmer of moisture before it turned to more. At the same time, he brought down a shutter on the question she caught shooting through their depths. She recognized it as the same question he'd asked in the forest, the one she didn't answer, the one she still couldn't answer.

"I can't wait to see you either." His eyes opened to slits that exhibited first confusion and then surprise as she glided her hand from his shoulder, down his front. She didn't stop until she reached the waistband of his BDUs. She had done a lot of thinking since his heartfelt question in the forest.

"Is there any room for me in this new, solitary life you've built?"

The simple answer was yes. Now that she understood, or at least thought she understood, his reasons for leaving her in the lurch, she could forgive him. Now that she had found, or at least thought she had found, the strength to stand on her own, the happiness within herself to be alone even while hoping to someday be with him, she could hold on tight and not let go.

Rhonda had found where she belonged, right here in Michael's arms, but that didn't mean she could accept things the way they were. Nothing with her and Michael had ever been simple. Her carefully worded answer to his question when she decided to give it wouldn't be either. And his response? After all this, she realized he might be the one to finally let go.

"I want to see you." She shoved his cell phone into his front pocket as she brought her other hand down to his waistband. If she would risk losing him in her determination to hold on to all that she learned about herself, built for herself, then she would at least make another memory to cherish first. She had denied herself this man for so long. If she didn't take at least once, she knew she would regret it forever.

"I want to feel you." There wasn't a tie on the BDUs he wore, but buttons that strained over his already stiffening erection. Nerves and anticipation coalesced in her hands, caused them to shake as she worked the buttons free. Hunger and need blended in her mouth, making it water as she reached beneath the material of his pants and briefs, curled her fingers around his shaft for the first time.

"Ah, God."

Rhonda sank gracefully to her knees, smiling at the archaic-sounding curse her stroking coaxed out of him. The girth of his cock filled her hand, the length making her dizzy with wonder as she took a tentative taste. She caught the beaded drop of pre-cum already forming in the slit on the bulbous head with the tip of her tongue.

"Fuck!" He growled. He didn't touch her. His hands balled into fists at his sides, knuckles turning white as it seemed to take every ounce of control he possessed to keep them there. A ferocious shudder that seemed to run bone deep accompanied the next swipe of her tongue. She didn't need any more encouragement than that.

Rhonda closed her lips around the bulging crest of his cock and filled her mouth with his iron-hard shaft. She took as much of his length as she could, feeling the bulbous head bump against the back of her throat and struggling with her gag reflex as she flattened her tongue to swallow just a little more. She couldn't take every inch, though she desperately wanted to. Instead, she settled for making a tight circle with her fingers around the base of his cock. She applied enough pressure to offer heightened sensations as she started to feast on the rest of his stiff rod.

She pulled back slowly, tightening her lips and caressing the head of his cock before drawing his length back inside and slightly down her throat in a move that made her groan in pleasure. He tasted magnificent, the wonder of his thick cock rigidly accepting and eager for her mouth better than she ever dreamed.

His hips bucked, pushing his cock a fraction deeper down her throat. She pulled back quick, easing the pressure his seeking thrust put on her esophagus and further spiraling her hunger to swallow, to be filled by him, with him. Her nipples ached beneath the too large T-shirt. Her pussy wept, drenching the seam of her BDUs in her own cream. Still, she wouldn't seek her own satisfaction until she pleasured herself and him by drinking his come. She wanted to feel his thick, salty-sweet ejaculation glide down her throat, wanted to hear what primal sounds he made when he reached his climax.

She wanted, but he wouldn't let her take it.

"No, God, woman." He seized her upper arms and pulled her to her feet. His eyes burned her like twin lasers of tortured desire. "I can't take anymore. What are you trying to do to me?" He didn't give her the chance to answer. He slammed his mouth to hers in a punishing kiss that started her head spinning. Her body reacted in kind, whirling with as much protest as need until she could no longer be certain of her original intention.

"Michael, please." She didn't know what she begged for. She only knew she felt as if she might implode from wanting him.

He used his hold on her arms to spin her around, effectively dislodging his cock from her grasp. She still felt it, deliciously long, stupendously thick, and pulsing between them as he yanked her back until she stood flush with his front. It took him far less time to free the fastenings of her BDUs. In a nanosecond, he delved a hand inside, palmed her flaming pussy and drove two fingers into her sodden channel.

Rhonda melted even as a loud cry of shocked pleasure escaped her lungs.

"Shh," he breathed in her ear, nuzzling his chin on her shoulder, then nipping at her earlobe with his teeth. "They'll hear you in the main room. We aren't alone in the house."

At that moment, she didn't care if Veng Kim Phay himself heard her. Acute, sensational ecstasy shot through her system. It rendered her mindless of anything but Michael's touch, of the unrelenting pumping of his fingers into her soaked vagina. His other hand closed over her breast, squeezed, and began a pressured massage that matched his probing fingers.

"No bra. No panties." He sounded feral, almost incensed by the discovery. "You're trying to kill me, drive me insane. Do you have any idea how many times I've dreamed of you doing that?"

"Doing what?" She scarcely realized she managed to put voice to the question. All her strength, all her concentration centered on his hands, on the unyielding caresses he showed her pussy and breast.

"Sinking to your knees in front of me like you just did, sucking my cock. Christ, Rhonda, having your mouth on my dick, ahh."

She had never heard Michael speak like this before, so blunt, almost crude. It shocked her only because it came from him, a man usually so collected, so aware of his choice of words. She remembered then what she had set out to do by sinking to her knees in the first place.

"You didn't let me finish." The words came out labored, harsh. Inside, her system reeled with the rapidly approaching orgasm. His fingers wiggled, stroked, found spots inside her that made her rise to her tiptoes as the sensations turned to an electric current of sexual need in her bloodstream. His other hand pushed beneath her T-shirt to close once more on her breast, this time skin to skin, fingers catching her nipple and rolling it to a screaming peak.

"Give me your hand."

Had he heard her or just chosen to ignore her complaint? And what did he want with her hand?

Both questions stuck like sharp pins on her tongue as he pulled his fingers free of her pussy. He put his hand on the back of hers and guided it into her pants.

"I love finding you this wet for me," he whispered, tracing her earlobe with his tongue as he urged her hand between her legs. "Touch yourself for me. Feel how wet you are. Just like last night. If my face were down there right now, I would be drowning in your cream." Their fingers locked together, he pushed her middle finger into her channel, his going inside with hers.

Rhonda had never felt anything more erotic than Michael's finger working her own inside her body. His larger, wider finger twisted with her smaller, more slender one and dominated the thrusts, the pleasure.

"I couldn't let you finish. I couldn't take anymore."

It took her a moment to gather her scruples enough to realize he'd finally acknowledged her complaint. "You shouldn't have stopped me. I wanted…" But what she wanted got lost on her tongue when he gave her nipple a particularly pressured pinch that sent a bolt of pleasured pain straight to their joined fingers in her pussy.

"What is it you wanted?" he asked her roughly.

"I wanted…" Rhonda tried again, but again he prevented the desire from leaving her mouth. This time his thumb reached around her hand. The pad found her swollen clit, added to the pressure already pulsing there.

"Tell me what you wanted, Rhonda." He nipped her jaw, ran his tongue down the side of her neck, all the while fingering and stroking her until her mind swam and her body screamed in pleasured agony.

"I wanted to make you lose control." She forced the words out on a rush before she lost them again.

The guttural growl he made spoke of a man so tortured, so on the edge she might just be able to achieve her feat if only she could find the command over her own limbs to touch him. With one hand held captive by his between her legs and the other numbly clutching the side of his thigh, she didn't stand a chance. She could wriggle and delight in the quick intakes of breath the movements caused as she gyrated against his cock pressed at her back. It wasn't enough, nowhere near enough.

"I can't afford to lose control right now." The certainty in his tone sent a chill racing through her even as her blood heated past the boiling point. "Everything is riding on me maintaining control. But you can, Rhonda. You can let go for me. Do it now, baby." His thrusts and caresses urged her to follow his command. "Lose control for me. Let me feel you come apart in my arms again."

She couldn't deny him. Despite her original intentions, he claimed the moment and dictated the rules. She came undone as his fingers and hers delivered spectacular thrusts to her pussy. He pulled his hand free of her shirt, catching her head and turning it to smash his mouth to hers. The kiss he gave her muffled her cries as the orgasm tore through her. His tongue possessed her as fervently as his finger, his body acting as an unmovable wall for her to collapse against as the waves of the climax washed through her, over her, stole her breath and her sanity.

Rhonda passed out in his arms. That had never happened to her before. One second she felt her eyes closing as the pleasure swamped her, and the next she found herself being lowered to the bed.

"Sleep for a while," Michael whispered. "You're exhausted. You're safe here."

"Stay with me." Did she say the words aloud? She meant to. When he answered, she figured she must have.

"I can't, but I'll be in the main room if you need me."

She wanted to protest, to demand he not leave her again. Instead, she did exactly as he bid and gave in to sleep.