The Protector (22 page)

“Wait,” she whispered. She ran her fingers along her carnelian bracelet, looking for the fake bead. It was big enough to hide a tiny vial. “I need water, liquid of any kind.”

Without questioning the reason, Jazz stood up and disappeared for a minute or two. “Here,” he whispered back, handing her a soggy wet cloth. “No container, sorry.”

“This is fine.” She broke the vial with a fingernail and poured the liquid and pellet into wet material. Then she placed the whole concoction over Dilaver’s mouth and nose.

“That should put him out for a while,” she observed quietly.

“Ether,” Jazz said, his voice low, recognizing the smell. “Do you carry chloroform pellets on you all the time?”

“Doesn’t everyone?” Vivi countered as she gagged the man tightly.

“Ready? I’m going to get us out of here.”

Vivi smiled in the darkness. She couldn’t believe he was here—alive and going alpha on her. She put her hand in his and allowed him to lead her into the shadows.

Jazz wanted to stop and hold Vivi in his arms. He wanted to yell at her. Then kiss the woman mindless. He had never been so angry. And fearful. It had taken all his control not to kill Dilaver. If the bastard had hurt Vivi, he would have done so without hesitation.

But they needed to get as far away as possible before the unconscious thug woke up or his men came looking for him. There was no way they could find him and Vivi, of course, even if they tried. But he wanted Vivi away from those men and their weapons. He wanted her somewhere safe where he could use his flashlight to look at her.

He tightened his hold on her hand as she followed him silently through the thick undergrowth toward the river. He paced himself, making sure he wasn’t too fast for her. As soon as possible, he would stop.

He glanced at her but she still hadn’t said anything since leaving Dilaver, moving alongside of him with a quiet grace that was both surprising and yet not. She was braver than any woman he had ever known, using herself as a distraction to get a mission completed. Her screams of fear had taken years off his life until he realized that they couldn’t be real since she wasn’t doing it in English. She was still playing a part.

When they reached the river, he stopped, looking around quickly. There were some bushes nearby, large enough to screen them for a while. He tugged at her hand and she followed.

The instant they went behind the brush, she turned and pushed him against a shrub. His lower back slapped against one of its branches. Hands moved all over his chest, as if she
was making sure he was real. Her lips forced his apart and her tongue slid into his mouth, not giving him a chance to say anything.

Heat exploded, adding fuel to his already adrenaline-filled psyche. He responded to her silent plea, kissing her back. She went wild, tearing at his clothes, trying to find flesh. He breathed in her scent, tasted her desire, and something else. Blood. He tasted blood. He had forgotten that she might be injured, she had been so quiet. He tried to lift his head but she refused to let him go.

Her hands found an opening. Slid inside. And molded his flesh. Jazz groaned into her mouth as her seeking hands went lower. She couldn’t be too injured, he thought faintly.

He broke free of her questing mouth. “Vivi—” he said, and paused as she nibbled down his neck, her hands unfastening the Velcro on his pants.

Her assault was insistent, pushing away the hindering clothing. His lower body jerked forward as her hand brushed against the hot hard length of his erection, urging it to escape its confines. He felt the coolness of the air before her hand encircled his naked flesh tightly. At the same time, she was kissing her way down the open front of his shirt, and Jazz found himself backing helplessly against the branch for support, letting her have her way with him.

The moon had gone behind the clouds and he stared up into the darkened sky with a million stars as her mouth found him. Sweet God Almighty. He was thankful for the branch’s support as his knees buckled at this new onslaught. He could feel her tongue licking the top of his penis, making him harder. He groped down and tangled his fingers in her thick hair as she took him into his mouth. She was like a woman on a quest, as if his sexual excitement proved something to her, and she refused to let up, taking him deeper and deeper into that sweet wet mouth.

Jazz stroked her hair mindlessly as he continued looking at the beauty of the sky above. He vaguely noted that his breathing sounded rapid and uneven. He resisted the urgent
need to release even as her mouth teased him to the point of intolerable madness. This was insane. Totally not the place for a…This was—the stars blinked back at him—heaven.

And he wanted to share heaven with his woman. The next time she released him, he pulled her onto her feet in spite of her muted protests.

“Vivi,” he began again.

“Shut up,” she told him in a fierce voice. “Lift me up, you idiot. Shut up.”

It wasn’t the most romantic line to say in heaven but Jazz followed orders and lifted Vivi by the waist. Her legs felt strong and sure as they curled around his waist.

She leaned down and kissed his lips and face, quick hard kisses. “I thought you were dead. I thought he blew you up.” Her words tumbled out as she reached down and took hold of his eagerly waiting erection again. “I thought you were dead.”

She was feverish, commanding, and totally irresistible. “I think you can tell I’m very alive, sweetheart,” was all Jazz could manage to say as she nudged him against her own very heated and wet flesh. When did she lose her underwear? That question got lost somewhere with a million other logic cells as she slowly took him inside her.

Heaven. She was so ready he slid in all the way.

She moved. Oh definitely heaven.
Sur la terre comme au Ciel.
And so much more.

Jazz gave in. Desire and need swamped his senses. He kissed her roughly as she controlled the pace. Her response was equally as rough as she gave in to her own sensual pleasure.

He released one hand from her waist, slipping it where they were joined, seeking to add to her excitement. She was slick with need as she shuddered against his massaging fingers.

Vivi bit back a cry at his intimate touch. He moved his fingers in a leisurely fashion that contrasted with her urgency. She rode him hard, demanding a quick release, and he deliberately slowed down even more, driving her plea
sure into an intense need. Everything centered on what his fingers were doing to her.

“Please, Jazz,” she finally whispered against his mouth.

“
Regarde, chouchou.
Heaven. Look at the stars. It feels better if you look up.”

Confused, she did so and stared in wonder at the night sky lit up with twinkling jewels. Her hips slowed. It seemed as if the whole universe was glowing. His questing thumb continued its sensual rubbing, sliding up as she came down on him, and going slowly back down as she pulled up off his hard length. That felt…so…out of this world.

“
C’est comme ca pour moi, chouchou.
You bring heaven to me.”

Vivi trembled at the beauty of his words. He was right. The need to feel him inside, the desire to celebrate his being alive, was magnified by the silence and beauty above. This world was theirs, watching them, making them a part of it.

She had never felt so close to anyone in her life. To be connected this way, mind and body, staring up at the incredible vista above them…It was an experience she couldn’t compare to anything she had ever gone through. And she wanted it to last forever, even though each intimate stroke brought her closer to completion.

He built her pleasure to an incredible slow tight ball of nova heat, whispering sexy words as he urged her to come for him. She began to move faster again and there was no stopping the tumbling fireball about to explode inside her. She finally paused in mid-stroke, a whimper of pleasure caught in her throat.

Jazz swallowed her cries, his hips surging up eagerly and taking over, and finally, unable to hang on to his control, he pushed her down one final hard time. He pushed in as deep as he could, needing to reach inside and give all he had to this woman.

A thousand mini explosions. He had never climaxed this hard and this long. He imagined a shooting star streaking across the sky. Hell, a hundred shooting stars as his release
kept surging his hips against Vivi over and over, as if he wanted to merge with her all the way.

“Heaven,” she whispered into his ear, already sensitized by her kisses, “is finding someone you thought you’ve lost forever.”

Jazz couldn’t agree more.

Vivi looked at Jazz’s face in the dark. He was still
inside her. He was breathing hard and she could feel the rapid beating of his heart under her hand. He held her securely by her hips, hugging her tightly, arching his back as if he were still climaxing. He felt so good. He turned around and pushed her against something hard. A branch. Using that to brace himself, he let go of her, and it took her a few seconds before she realized he was fumbling with his loosened pants. His movements teased her as he kept pushing deeper while kicking his camies aside. She could only cling to him, her legs around him, loving the feel of him. The branch behind her creaked slightly at their combined weight.

When he was ready, he held her again and turned in the darkness, surefooted as a cat. He kept walking, and each stride had her gasping as she felt him growing big and hard against her womb. He refused to let her move, his hands insistent as he kept her firmly lodged. A whimper escaped her lips.

“Do you think you were the only person who thought you lost someone? God, Vivi…when I saw your blouse on the ground,
I
thought…”

Jazz didn’t finish. He found what he was looking for, a flat area where he could go on his knees, with her under him.
Vaguely, she noted that he was still wearing his shirt, but all thoughts fled as he pulled the cup of her bra to one side and began to suckle her breast.

She arched into his mouth and gasped as one hand found her other breast, pulling the cup away so his fingers could stroke her nipple. She could see the whole span of the night sky above him now, and his mouth was so hot in contrast to the cool mountain air.

He rose up above her. “Your appearance scared the daylights out of me,
chouchou. That
wasn’t the distraction I had in mind for us. What the hell were you thinking, don’t you know being in a crossfire can get you killed?” His hands traveled over her face. “Did he hurt you? Did he do anything?”

“I’m okay,” she told him, cutting into his string of questions.

He kissed her fiercely, possessively. “Do you know I lost half my life, clinging to the back of that damn trailer, wondering whether you were okay? Are you sure he didn’t touch you? Your blouse…”

The man had clung to the back of the trailer all this time, just to rescue her. Vivi’s eyes filled with tears. It hadn’t crossed her mind that anyone would ever care for her that much to risk his life like that. His lips kissed away her tears.

“He didn’t, Jazz. I wouldn’t have let it go that far,” she assured him.

“Baby, there were at least a dozen men in that truck. Not letting isn’t going to stop them.” He laid his stubbly cheek against hers. “You’re too damn independent.”

Vivi choked back a laugh. This was Jazz being his most alpha yet. “Too independent? What, I’m supposed to have your approval about my life?”

“Damn right. Too strong for your own good.”

“You’re being silly.”

He slid out of her. His lips traveled down her stomach. Lower. She tensed her stomach, waiting for his kiss, wanting it, but he teased her, nibbling at her upper thighs instead until she burned with need.

“Silly, huh?” he murmured. She shook her head restlessly
as she waited. “I want you weak for me. I want you to think about what you’d do to me if you get hurt. I want you to depend on me enough,
chouchou
, so you feel you have to come back to me safely. That should stop you from putting yourself in danger like that. What’s so silly about that?”

Finally, to make his point, his hot tongue touched Vivi where she wanted it most. She had plenty to say about those macho lines he’d just thrown at her, but right now…all she could do was writhe under his onslaught. The surrounding darkness of the shrubs and the inky night sky, the hidden moon with its sliver of light that allowed Vivi to catch glimpses of the man making love to her, the scent of their bonding, the insistent pressure of his clever tongue—if there was such a thing as the edge of consciousness in the throes of pleasure, Vivi knew this must be it. She could only lie there, floating and tumbling through a swirl of sensation, as she relinquished ownership of her body.

He was different. It was as if the soldier in him had disappeared and those compartmentalized emotions he had held within were freed. All his rage and fear. The part of him that was under control while he was getting things done was shoved aside. In its place was a determined male, needing reassurance that he had what he was after, wanting to punish her for making him so angry, so afraid.

His tongue was exactly that. Punishing. Taking. Uncompromisingly insistent on her giving in to him. He knew how to weaken her. Not with words. He weakened her with desire, with the need for him to continue staking a claim with his mouth. She could hardly breathe as he stoked her desire to a peak and kept her there, his tongue holding her independence a willing prisoner. Then she felt his fingers. Another punishing weapon of desire. Sliding inside her willing flesh and mounting pressure upon more pressure.

She bit down on her lower lip to stop a moan. There was something very earthy and sexy about letting a man take a woman on a journey like this in the wilderness. He was totally in charge in this setting. Man claiming woman as his
own, using his natural-born magic to make her his. He didn’t have to utter a word or beat his chest. He kissed her where it was the most intimate, where her essence primed her for his taking. And his fingers kept her very primed, stroking her until she shook from pleasure.

Vivi understood his mood. She had been desperate in her need for reassurance that Jazz was really there. She had taken him; now it was his turn. She understood that he was doing the same. And she wanted him.

He was tortuously thorough, driving her mad as he found and paid attention to the hidden nub over and over. He didn’t tease. He went after what he wanted—her capitulation, her desire, her acknowledgment…everything. She trembled helplessly as he built dark pleasure stroke by silken stroke, as he stoked that sensual fire into another nova about to explode. All the while, she played with his hair with restless hands. Desire was a sensuous flow of white-hot need, slowly taking over every part of her body, until she was weak from it. Just the way Jazz wanted her. She needed. She wanted. Depended on him to give her back her strength. She whimpered in protest when he stopped.

Climbing on top, he slowly entered her again. She sighed. Oh God, that felt so good. Her legs eagerly curled around him, and she pushed him with the back of her legs, but this time it was he who set the pace. He pushed deep into her and stayed there, unmoving.

Vivi used her thighs and calves to urge him to move. Instead, he kissed her ear and whispered, “Do you need me now? Do you want me to continue?”

Of course she did. He was buried deep and his pubic bone rubbed against her clitoris as he flexed. “Move, Jazz,” she whispered back. “It feels so good when you move.”

He flexed and she could feel the flanks of his buttocks tightening against her thighs and the tension grew fiercer as he pushed even deeper. She could feel him rubbing inside.

“Clench around me,
chouchou
,” he ordered. “Hold me tightly.”

She did so, flexing her internal muscles to give him that extra incentive to move. But Jazz had other ideas. He flexed with her, his hips moving, even though he didn’t come out of her. She shuddered again as a wave of pleasure hit her unexpectedly. Testing, she tightened the walls of her vagina again, holding him, and he rewarded her with the same upward plunge, flexing deep, yet not moving. The sensation was even stronger as she clenched longer the second time.

She loosened and he relaxed. She tightened and he flexed. And then he started to pull out with deliberate care the next time she let go. It felt as if he controlled her pleasure. Her orgasm gushed out in one long release, as he unplugged the sexual tension by withdrawing ever so slowly, and she jerked uncontrollably, her contractions ferocious and prolonged, as he began to move in and out of her in measured strokes. Every slide in had her wanting more. Every slide out made her even wetter.

Trying not to scream enhanced the pleasure even further. She gasped, taking in deep breaths, as she clung to Jazz. He was in a world of his own, his whole concentration on her body and its reaction to his taking. He listened to her body the way only a musician would, fine-tuning her pleasure to please himself, playing with her need until he created what he wanted. And he wanted her. And he wanted her pleasure.

Vivi gave him both willingly. Here, in the most unexpected of places, unplanned and in danger of discovery, in a country with which she had always associated pain and loss of innocence, she found the most unexpected, most unplanned, and most dangerous thing of all—a man who seemed intent on replacing the sense of loss that had always lingered inside her. And if she let him in, was she ready to let go of the past?