Trusting Love (27 page)

“Do you think you’re going to be able to—?”

“I’m able to do most everything I set my mind to,” he said in a low voice.

It wasn’t bragging, he was already trying the door and his eyes were alert on the river and area around them. She smiled. He was able to do most everything, including survive a crash into a river while keeping her safe.

“I know you can. What will we do now? Walk?”

He glanced at her and frowned. “We walk. How far down were we? Where does Sam live?”

“Sam?” She blinked at his question then smiled. “Oh, we were not close, but not too far from his house. He’s just up the road and on this side too. We can follow the river.”

“Right, but we stay in the cover of the woods. You have more than this to keep you warm?” He indicated her jacket and hat.

She nodded. “I do. I also have a survival pack.”

At her words his blue eyes lit up as if she’d offered to give him another go at his plum, then he turned and patted Rowdy. “Damn she’s smart, huh? I think we keep her and when we get this done, she can have that massage for real.”

A real massage? What was the last one?
Heart beating crazily, she hugged him once more before she let his impatience to get moving force her to release him. “Just no more getting hurt, okay?”

He gave her a surprised look, then smiled broadly and winked. “I can do that, too.”

Rowdy barked, clearly ready to leave the Jeep and explore the river. “Is it safe? I mean, for him to get out or do you need to…?” She waved to the area and made a face. “You know, do your secret military thing?”

“Secret military thing is already working and no one is near, or we’d know it. Come on and show me what you got in that pack of yours.”

He made that sound dirty enough that she laughed, but couldn’t get her door open. He reached over her and jerked the handle, making a horrible noise of metal on metal. “Here, come out my side.” Taking her hand, he helped her over the gear shift and down out of the Jeep onto a rocky spot. He steadied her first on the slick stones then gripped her arms. “Better yet, you stay right there and I’ll look into the back. Keep Rowdy close, though.”

“Rowdy, stay,” she called and he raced back over to sit by her side.

“Damn, woman,” Robert breathed for some reason, then with one more scan of her face, that obviously was him looking for damage, he turned for the Jeep and pulled the emergency kit from the back onto the front seat. He’d torn his jacket somehow, and blood had dripped down his sideburn onto the collar, but the wound wasn’t too bad. She also knew he’d not let her bandage it with the medical supplies in the bag.

“Good, damn good. When did you last check the gear?” he asked picking out the flare gun and checking the ammo box.

“Last week, right before the storm warning. I always keep everything fresh. The batteries are new, and the flashlight has a new set too. There is a fire starter and some jerky tucked away in the inside pocket with some other dried goods, but if we head to Sam’s,” she paused when he zipped the backpack up and tugged it on, turning to face her with a serious expression. “We aren’t going to Sam’s?”

“Not now. If you have this much we can make it to the town, get a car, and go to the university from there.”

“University? You mean in Laramie?” she asked, stunned that he wanted to go there.

He nodded.

“Why there?”

“That’s where the other notes are on the drug. I need those files. If I can get into the college, I can find the computer I need where the hacker made copies.”

“The drug is a formula, right? And it’s on that flash drive?”

He adjusted the straps of the backpack, then grabbed the water bottles from the back seat. She always kept a few in the Jeep, but these were frozen solid. He tucked one inside his jacket and the others he handed to her with a silent motion to add them to the pack while he answered her. “Yeah, it is. That’s what I’m doing. Destroying it and the copies.”

“And that’s what you’re doing, going to look for any copies of this drug at the college? I mean, how can you erase something that’s been developed, and is being used?”

“I get to the computer in his dorm, find the copies and hope that’s it.”

She licked her lips and looked away from his intent blue gaze. “Computers don’t work like that, Robert. The way files are shared and sent, if this file was sent via the net, you will never be able to erase it. It never goes away. It’s always there, making a footprint you can’t erase.”

“He didn’t send it on the net. I can guarantee that.”

“How?” she demanded, meeting his eyes again. “How can you do that? If some college kid, I’m assuming kid, since you said dorm room, then you’re saying an irresponsible, young guy with more knowledge of computers than is good for him had his hands on the files. He was involved in what? Selling them?” she guessed and knew she was right when Robert’s frown grew. “And he limited that profit to one person?”

“Hell if I know, but I’m going to find out. This drug, Kris, it doesn’t just help a man with his healing,” Robert murmured, so serious she held her breath, not quite sure she wanted to hear the rest. “It changes a person’s DNA, creates pathways that weren’t there before in the brain and makes things that should be impossible, possible.”

“It changed your DNA? How can a drug do that?” she asked closing the distance between them to touch his hand. “But you’re the same, you’re the same,” she repeated when he shook his head.

“No, I’m not. I can think things, though, like someone spread a map down of all the choices I have and I can clearly see the right one. I can do things, endure things I shouldn’t, and I can go on, not stopping until I—”

“Pass out from loss of blood, like at my cabin,” she finished for him when he stopped, anger shifting over his features.

He nodded curtly and looked away from her, clearly wanting to stop the conversation.

“Well, I’m sorry, Rob, but that’s not entirely true. You didn’t find the best path for us on that road, and you didn’t follow the best path to getting me in bed with you by pouring out all my alcohol, either.”

His gaze jerked back to her and he suddenly backed her up to the Jeep, breathing hard and his face intense with something she couldn’t read. Fear maybe or maybe she’d pushed him in areas he didn’t want to move into. Whatever it was didn’t frighten her. He’d never frighten her. Not now. She’d been afraid of him before—she saw that so clearly now. She’d run from him because running to him would have been chancing losing him. Insane, but from a distance, she knew she’d been able to protect herself from hurt. Only hurt had found her, hadn’t it? Robert had found her too, she reminded herself. She wasn’t letting him go. Not for some crazy DNA altering drug, or some crazy mission he wanted to go on. She wasn’t losing him, now, or ever.

“You weren’t focused on what you should have been when I was on my knees this morning either, Robert. So, how is that using this superman formula?”

“I always achieve my goal, Kris. That road wasn’t going to be safe much longer. Now we’re off of it. I poured out your whisky because my goal wasn’t to get in your pants every chance I got, it was to get into your life, make it mine too, so I did what I did for one goal and that’s to have you. All of you, Kris, so that you’ve got no more room in your life for sadness, only me. Just me, got it?” he said right in her face. “And for the record, I’d sacrifice almost everything for you on your knees for me, darling.”

She narrowed her eyes and grabbed him by his backpack straps, surprising him because his eyes widened, then she kissed him, taking his mouth with the one goal of showing him that while he might fill her with him, she owned him, every inch of him belonged to her.

He let out a lusty groan and hauled her hard to his body, trying to take over the kiss with enough passion that she knew they could have burned through their clothes if she’d let them. Instead she broke away and nipped at his jaw, sucking a spot under it and rocked into the hard length of him he’d shoved against her thigh. Robert groaned like he did right before he hit the edge of his orgasm.

Didn’t matter. She didn’t stop until she’d marked him on his neck and when she was satisfied it would stay for days, she let him go and tugged his flushed face down and kissed him again before he could speak. He had hold of her butt so tightly she knew he’d leave marks. She didn’t care about that either. She was going to make her point and get through to him if she had to make love to him outside in the middle of this creek to do it. She reached between them and slid her hand past the loose waistband of his pants to take possession of his erect flesh with a possessiveness she felt deep inside.

He broke off the kiss to swear softly, but he didn’t take his eyes off her and he didn’t stop her. His expression tense, he stood, breathing hard but letting her stroke his velvet hard-on until she felt the drops of pre-cum sliding into her strokes.

“Just as long as you understand,” she told him breathlessly, squeezing the head of his cock to make her point understood, “I let you because as smart as you are, as these drugs make you, you’re not Ironman, you’re Robert McNeil and I’ve always loved you, so I know you,” she whispered fiercely when he grimaced and shifted his body like he’d move away. She tickled her fingers where she knew he had a sensitive spot and ruthlessly caressed him there. He arched his body and his eyes lightened to a brilliant blue.

“Don’t tell me I don’t either, I know who you are, who you were and you’re still that man. DNA drugs and all that stuff don’t change a man, they change his ability, but not the man.”

With a low sound in his throat he kissed her so passionately her body blossomed with tingles, racing up her womb and circling her nipples to hard, aching points within a heartbeat.

Wildly, as if he couldn’t control himself, he shoved repeatedly into her hand and drove his hand down between her thighs to cup her there perfectly. The edge of her jeans hit her clit, just like it had their first time and she neared a climax just like then too.

“You’re a man, Robert, feel it, know it, no matter what else, this proves it,” she said, meeting his quickening hips with her own desperate need. “I prove it,” she whispered.

His other hand tightened on her butt, sliding down to rub right against her entrance there, too.

“Mine,” was all he said, suddenly taking her mouth in a kiss, more to keep his shout of release in than to kiss her, she thought.

She tightened her fist on him as he spurted warm cum in rough, forceful shudders. She burst within seconds of him, crying softly in his mouth as she did. Robert released her lips when she did and their eyes met. She didn’t look away but showed him the power they shared. His passionate grimace deepened and with a low groan, he arched his hips and shuddered through the rest of his climax, his gaze fixed on her. It was amazing, so deeply intimate, she felt like he could read her every secret.

“Kris,” he whispered suddenly and bent to take her mouth again. His body lost some of that hard as rock tension when he did, and with a soft sigh her climax sweetened into a blissful little bubble of happiness.

“We have to stop having sex outside,” he told her breathlessly minutes later.

She kissed him behind his ear and sighed again when his penis jerked in her hand. “If I keep finding spots to turn you into a wild man, how can I help it?”

He laughed softly and shivered. “I can’t say I want you to.”

“Good, because I’m not going to,” she said, lifting her head to focus on his flushed face. He looked more relaxed, even if his body was still erect. “But you’re going to have to save this for me,” she whispered sliding up the hot flesh once more. “Until we get somewhere less exposed.”

He reached down and pulled her hand from his pants with a gusty sigh of regret, she thought. “You know, a man shouldn’t come in his jeans, darling.”

She laughed, watching his handsome face while bent to kiss her lips. He always made her feel so good after they were naughty. No matter how hot they got, he kissed her so tenderly, with such feeling, she thought when he said ‘mine’ it was his way of saying he cared for her, loved her, even. She wanted to hear him say those three little words, though.

But only when he was ready. He’d shown her, repeatedly, that he did. Now she just wanted to hear him say it and feel for the first time that someone loved her when they said they did. Maybe he’d hear it often enough to believe it, then he’d know he could say it too. Maybe that’s what held him back.

“I need to clean off, or I’m going to be sticky and I’ll have a hard-on thinking about it for the rest of the day,” he finally said, kissing her right after when she opened her mouth to laugh. “Not funny, darling. You’re a bit wet too, mmm?”

She did laugh then, and hugged him tight. “I am. Drenched.”

He groaned and tugged her arms free with a quick glance around. “I’ll see about helping you with that later. Now, we move.” He reached in and opened her glovebox, finding napkins in there and another flashlight. He pocketed the flashlight, took out the rifle and ammo and grinned. “Gonna help me clean up, or just get a free peek?”

“I’ll help, but if I do we won’t merely clean you up, you know that.”

He sighed gustily and handed her the rifle and ammo. “Fine. Hold these and I’ll clean my big guy up.”

“Big guy?” she laughed and set the rifle down on the Jeep. She watched him unzip and reach down to pull his hard penis free. “Here, let me help out.” She poured some of the water from their bottle on a napkin and warmed it with her hands, then kissed him. He sighed in what sounded like relief at her warm hands and she tried not to get hot all over again. “Damn you’re a smart woman, you know that? I wasn’t looking forward to a freezing dip on my dick.”

“Robert!”

“What? What man would, ah, Kris, that’s good, darling, anymore and I’m going to have a hard-on all day.”

She swabbed his lower stomach and smiled at the way his erection swayed heavy and still full from his hips. “Just what does it take to make you soft?”

“Maybe we could find out?” he suggested looking like he’d been waiting for her to ask. “Later, though,” he muttered, tucking himself away with a grimace that she could understand. “Right now, we get moving to town.”