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No. He slammed the door on that thought and instead enjoyed the soft heat of her flesh. She was pushing up against him, whispering his name.
His head lifted. He stared at her and told her the simple truth, “You are the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”
Her lips curled in a smile.
Take.
He yanked open his jeans, pushed his body deeper between her thighs. Waited right there at the entrance to her body. This was the moment. No going back. No—
She arched toward him, and he sank inside her.
The pleasure was so incredible that he had to clench his teeth together to hold back a groan. Nothing, nothing, had ever felt so good.
Or so right.
He began to thrust. Withdrawing slowly, then plunging back inside her. She was paradise to him, the best dream he’d ever had, and he kissed as much of her body as he could.
Her nipples were tight, pink, and when he licked one, she tensed beneath him.
Gunner felt the pleasure rock through her.
Her legs lifted, locked around his hips. Then she started pushing up with her hips.
He couldn’t hold back. His own thrusts became even harder. He caught her hands and laced his fingers with hers.
He stared into her eyes.
Saw her climax. Her green gaze went wide, then wild as the pleasure crested through her.
His release swept him away on a wave so intense that he shuddered and pushed deeper into her. The release shook his whole body. Seemed to gut him and never end.
I don’t want it to end.
He wanted to keep holding her to make the perfect moment last as long as possible.
He kissed her again because he needed to taste her pleasure, to taste all of her.
And he swore that before the night was done, he would.
Chapter Two
The ringing of her phone woke Sydney. Her hand flew out automatically, reaching for her nightstand—for the phone. But instead of scooping up her phone, her fingers collided with warm, strong flesh.
Not a dream.
Her eyes snapped open, and she found herself staring straight into Gunner’s dark gaze. There was no sleepiness in that gaze, just a deep hunger.
For her.
Then he reached out and grabbed the ringing phone from her nightstand. Silently, he handed it to her.
“S-Sydney Sloan.” Her fingers tightened around the phone. Gunner’s tanned fingers were sliding down her arm.
Goose bumps rose on her flesh as she remembered the night before. The things he’d done to her. What she’d done to him.
More, please.
“Sydney?” Logan barked. “Sydney, are you okay?”
She shot up in bed, clutching the sheet to her chest. “I’m fine. Just…sleeping.” Gunner didn’t stop stroking her. He raised himself, and his lips brushed over her shoulder.
She shivered.
“Look, I know you were due to have a few weeks off, but we’ve got a case that we can’t refuse. I’ve got you booked on a jet to Peru at three today.”
Peru.
“I’m going to call Gunner and Cale. They’ll be meeting up with you there.”
I can tell Gunner. He’s right here kissing me, lying naked next to me. She cleared her throat. “What’s the case?” She hadn’t been back to Peru in two years. Not since Slade had died in that jungle, and the place had nearly become her own grave, too.
“An American is being held hostage by a group of rebels.”
Hostage rescue. That was what their team did best.
“He needs us,” Logan said. “So be on that plane.”
“I’ll be there,” she whispered, and then, because Logan would figure the situation out when he had to make reservations for Gunner—and those flight reservations had Gunner leaving from Baton Rouge, Sydney said, “Now hold on, and I’ll get Gunner for you.”
Gunner’s gaze rose to hers. She knew that her cheeks flushed; she could feel the burn. But this wasn’t the time for secrets. They had a case to work. And when a civilian’s life was on the line, there wasn’t room for embarrassment.
Gunner took the phone from her but didn’t look away from her eyes. “Gunner.”
There was a beat of silence. Then Sydney rolled away from Gunner and climbed from the bed before she could overhear Logan’s response to the discovery that Gunner was so close she could just, ahem, hand him her phone first thing in the morning.
She grabbed for a robe. Her body ached in a way that felt so good, and she hated that their time together was already ending.
No, not ending. They were just beginning. They’d turned a corner last night, and there would be no going back for them.
“I’ll be there,” she heard Gunner say, and she looked up as he ended the call.
No man should look as sexy as he did. His hair was a little tousled. A line of stubble coated his square jaw, and his eyes blazed as they raked over her.
“We have at least six hours,” Gunner told her.
Six hours.
She nodded.
“I want you.”
Her fingers clenched around the belt of the robe. “Again?”
“Always.”
She dropped the robe and climbed back in bed with him. Six hours.
This was perfect. What she’d hoped for.
And this time, things would end well for her in Peru. She wouldn’t lose Gunner. Not the way that she’d lost Slade.
Gunner’s lips pressed to hers, and she shoved away the fear that wanted to rise within her.
Peru. The last time she’d been to Peru, her lover had died there.
It won’t happen this time. She’d finally gotten her chance with Gunner. It wouldn’t slip through her fingers.
LOGAN STARED DOWN at the phone in his hand. Gunner was with Sydney.
He’d seen the sexual awareness between the two of them. Had known that Gunner wanted Sydney, and that the sniper had held back with her. He had clung so tightly to his control and his rule that Sydney was off-limits.
But it looked as if Gunner had broken his rule.
Logan tossed aside the phone and stared at the photographs in front of him. The tip he’d received could be wrong. He shouldn’t want it to be wrong, but he did.
Because Gunner was his friend. Gunner had been through hell. The man deserved some happiness.
But if the intel was right—and this intel had come right down from Bruce Mercer, the man who’d formed the EOD—then Gunner’s life was about to be ripped apart.
“Enjoy her while you can,” Logan whispered. Because Gunner would need some good memories to hold tight to in the darkness that was coming.
PERU WAS JUST as hot and beautiful and wild as Sydney remembered. When the plane touched down, and she headed out on the tarmac, the heat was the first thing to hit her.
Cale was inside the airport, waiting for them. Gunner walked right beside Sydney, his hand lightly pressing at the base of her back.
To any onlookers, they probably looked like a vacationing couple.
That was their cover, after all. Lovers. A cover they’d used before.
Only this time, they weren’t pretending.
When they entered the airport, Cale approached them with a broad grin. Again, another cover. The reuniting friends. He slapped Gunner on the back and hugged Sydney.
“Ready?” he asked quietly, keeping his smile in place.
She always was.
They went outside together and tossed their bags into the back of Cale’s jeep.
Sydney climbed into the front seat next to Cale, while Gunner jumped in the back. In moments, Cale was driving them away from the airport.
“Where’s Logan?” Gunner asked, his voice rising over the growl of the engine. “I thought he was meeting us down here.”
“He’s doing recon,” Cale said, keeping his eyes on the road. Cale was an ex–Army Ranger, one who’d actually been targeted by the EOD for takedown.
He’d been framed for the murders of three EOD agents. He’d proven his innocence and earned his way onto their team.
“Have you seen a picture of the target?” Sydney asked. She was trying hard not to glance back at Gunner, but she was so aware of him. She was hyperaware of every single move that he made.
Had they really spent the night together? She’d wanted him for so long that part of her wondered if it had all just been a wonderful dream.
An erotic dream.
She couldn’t help herself—she glanced back at him.
And found Gunner’s dark eyes locked on her.
There was such heat in that gaze. She swallowed and forced her eyes away from him as Cale said—
“No, I haven’t seen any visuals on him yet. I just know that the order for extraction came down from the top.”
She caught the brief grin that flashed over Cale’s face.
“Seems Mr. Mercer thinks this rescue is priority, and he wanted only the Shadow Agents to take point on this one.”
The Shadow Agents. Sure, there were other teams in the EOD, but their team had earned the moniker of Shadow Agents because of the way they handled their missions. They went in soundlessly and attacked before their enemies even realized they were there. Then they vanished, disappearing like shadows.
Gunner was especially good at being a shadow. If Gunner didn’t want you to know he was there, you wouldn’t.
Sydney knew Gunner’s grandfather had been the one to first train him to track and hunt on a reservation. Gunner was the best hunter she’d ever seen, even better than Slade.
Slade’s body was in Peru. That knowledge was sitting heavily on her now that she was back in the area.
The EOD had tried to recover his remains again and again, but the rebels they’d fought that day had taken his body away from the scene. Despite the EOD’s efforts, they hadn’t been able to bring him home.
Slade had a grave, an empty one, one that honored him as the soldier he’d been. But he’d actually never made it back home.
“Logan told me that you and Gunner had been in Peru before,” Cale said.
She cleared her throat. “A…few times.”
“Logan has set us up in a resort near the beach. You and Gunner are supposed to look like honeymooners.”
Because sometimes it wasn’t about hiding in a hut or sliding through the jungle. Blending in plain sight could work so much better. The EOD knew this well.
“And I’m your single friend, enjoying some R & R myself.” The road was bumpy and the jeep bounced. Once, twice. “Sure is a long way from Texas,” he murmured, and she heard the faint drawl in his voice.
Cale’s home was in Texas, and the EOD agent he’d replaced—Jasper—was currently living in Texas with Cale’s sister.
