Danger Close (The Echo Platoon Series, Book 1) (24 page)

And then his lips seemed to be everywhere at once—on her mouth, her neck, her breasts, back to her mouth—inciting a craving to be utterly consumed by him. She touched him, in turn, filling her hands with his dense muscle, his smooth skin.

A scar pinched the muscle under his left arm, another slashed his forearm. Envisioning the type of injuries he'd sustained to cause them only increased her gratitude for this life-affirming moment. They had both survived perils in order to arrive at this place in time, a connection that might possibly alter the course of both their lives.

He slid his hand down the plane of her belly between her hips, pressing the heel of his palm into the valley between her pelvic bones. She arched in welcome, inviting his fingers to furrow through her honey-colored hair into the moist cleft below.

Her soft cry of encouragement urged him to repeat the caress, centering his attention on the swollen nubbin there, so sensitive that each glide of his fingers threatened to send her toppling off a cliff.

"Please," she implored, not wanting to take that plunge alone. She caught his tumescence in her hand, stroking him, marveling at the flagrant masculinity of his form, encouraging him with wanton words to take her now, to take all of her.

He shot her a scalding look that promised that and more, spread her legs with his knees, and settled himself between her thighs. The head of his sex nudged her opening and retreated. Maddy gasped, bracing herself for his possession, for the torrid pleasure she sensed about to consume her. He encroached again, studying her face in the lamplight as he slowly and intently filled her.

Yes. Oh, God
. She fought to keep her eyelids from drifting shut as ecstasy stormed her senses.
This moment,
she thought, committing it to her memory forever,
will sustain me no matter what the future holds.

* * *

Sam had never seen anything so sexy in his life—Maddy's gaze unfocused, her moist lips parted so enticingly that he longed to kiss her, but then he wouldn't be able to watch her response to his possession.

She yielded in a way that enthralled him, their bodies moving in perfect sync, in a dance as old as time. Breaths mingled in a duet of delicious discovery, muscles tightened in a relentless compulsion to pursue this insatiable wanting to its ultimate destination.

"Sam," she breathed. A sheen of sweat glinted between her swaying breasts. She coiled her legs around his back, using them to pull him harder, deeper into her.

"Yes, baby?"

"I always knew this was going to happen."

He gave a pained laugh. He'd been terrified something bad would happen to her to prevent it. Gratitude overwhelmed him suddenly, compelling him to bow his head and catch that kiss he'd been craving.

His senses immediately overloaded. The dance of their tongues in tandem with the sinuous movements of her body hurtled him toward climax. He tried to hold it off, to bring Maddy to release first, but then he realized that her keening cry and the pulsing of her inner muscles signaled her timely arrival at the finish.

With a loud groan he relinquished control, panicking for a split second at the realization that he wasn't wearing a condom—hadn't even given it a thought. He tried to pull out, but it was a little too late. He had spent most of himself inside of her. Christ, he'd better not do that again.

He collapsed onto his side, pulling her over to rest against him. Their chests rose and fell together, their heart rates slowly subsiding. Sam adjusted the pillow under his head and looked down. A secret smile, so utterly feminine in its form, curved the lines of Maddy's mouth.

"I was afraid you'd get yourself killed before I got the chance," he said, picking up the conversation where they'd left off.

She arched an eyebrow at him. "Is that why you didn't want me heading overseas? Afraid you'd never get me into bed?"

"Something like that," he admitted. Actually, his fears went way beyond that, but why bring up a sore subject? Only, he couldn't avoid it. "Maddy, I'm not going to be here much longer. Now that the threat to the oil wells has been pretty much eliminated, we're going to write our reports and head home. The CO wants us gone before the media finds us."

A troubled expression crossed her face.

"Did you... have plans?" he asked, keeping his question vague for fear of offending her and ruining this blissful moment.

Her gaze slid off to one side and he just knew he wasn't going to like what he was about to hear. "I think I'll hang out in McLean for a while," she said, surprising and relieving his fears. "But first I have to run a few more tests." His momentary relief gave way to nagging concern.

"Why?" he asked as gently as possible. "Can't GEF find someone else to take your place?"

"I can't trust GEF to take samples from the right area." She explained her suspicions that someone—Scott Oil, perhaps, or the U.S. government itself had influenced GEF to avoid sampling the area of El Chaco where Salim had taken his photos.

Earlier in the Humvee that transported them from the terrorists' house back to the military facility, she'd told Sam how Salim and his brother Nasrallah weren't members of Hezbollah. They were leaders of the National Liberation Army, Paraguayan patriots who had fought to keep El Chaco free from exploitation, to keep Scott Oil from profiting off the natural resources that belonged strictly to their adopted country.

The truth hit Sam like a sledgehammer: She wanted to prove Salim's allegations and then insure that Scott Oil kept its promises to Paraguay by making restitution for the damage done.

"Maddy, your dad's not the CEO anymore," he pointed out.

She frowned intently. "I know that. But just because my uncle's the CEO, that doesn't mean he doesn't still have a say in the company."

"Van Slyke is your uncle?" He pulled his head back to regard her in surprise. No wonder the man's eyes had reminded him of Maddy's.

"On my mother's side," she affirmed with a quizzical expression. "You make it sound like you know him."

"Yeah, I met him the other night. He's living in the big house on the hill."

"Seriously?" She had no idea her uncle was even in Paraguay. That might make her objective easier. She could convince him in person to open his doors to foreign investors, taking steps to undo the damage the wells had caused.

"Maybe you should stay with him," Sam proposed, warming to the idea. "Especially if you're still here after we pull out. I don't like the thought of you living alone."

"I'm not alone. Ricardo should be out of the hospital soon. Besides, I'm not staying long, maybe a week at the most."

He didn't know what else to say. Persuading Maddy to abandon a task she'd set her heart on was impossible—he already knew that. "When you get back to Virginia, we can get together," he proposed, confident that she'd say yes.

Her answering smile was nothing short of radiant. "I'm counting on it."

"Good." He knew he was grinning like an idiot.

She sat up a bit, propping her chin on her elbow. "I kind of like you, Sam Sasseville." The declaration ended on a great big yawn.

Christ, she was adorable. "I kind of like you, too, Maddy Scott," he admitted. "And I could probably make love again right now, but you need to rest."

A spark of interest lit her drooping eyes. "I'm not that tired."

"Yes, you are. Come on. I'll tuck you in."

"You can't stay with me?"

The fear lacing her voice had him rushing to reassure her. "I'll stay until dawn," he promised. "Like I said, we'll be busy tomorrow tying up loose ends." And he'd get maybe two hours of sleep, but who cared? He would gladly stay awake the rest of his life if it meant he could watch over Maddy.

He helped to situate them both under the covers. Maddy snuggled closer, releasing an exhausted but content sigh.

I'm in paradise
, Sam reflected closing his eyes and savoring the silky length of her body tucked against him.
Paradise in El Chaco Boreal
. He supposed it was fitting. And if Maddy managed to hold Scott Oil Corporation accountable for the waste it was spilling into the soil, it might just remain a paradise forever.

Chapter 13

"Maddy!" Sam waited for a car to streak past him before darting across the street to where she was helping Ricardo step out of the Jeep. She swiveled toward his call, her smile putting the sub-equatorial sun beating down on his head to shame. It flooded him with giddy warmth.

"Hey, you're still here!" she exclaimed.

"We're on our way out," he admitted, and her sunny smile immediately faltered. He felt the same ambivalence about his leaving. Sensing someone watching their exchange, he turned his head to find Ricardo using the door of the Jeep to hold himself upright. "Need a hand?" he offered.

Ricardo waved him off.

"You know, I never did hear how you two know each other," Maddy stated, her eyebrows pulling together in a frown of confusion.

Lucía saved Sam from having to answer as she rushed out of the house to assist her husband. Sam turned his attention to Maddy. "Can we talk?" he added, gesturing toward her front stoop.

"Of course. I'm so glad I got to see you again."

The roof's eave cast a blessedly cool shadow over them. Maddy visibly struggled to keep her smile pinned in place as she took both his hands in hers, squeezed them, and looked up at him. They said nothing for a moment, just gazed into each other's eyes. Sam thought of everything he'd been through with her and how damn lucky she was to be alive.

"Have you gone out and run your tests yet?" he finally asked.

"Not yet. I need Ricardo's help to talk to the Guaraní. They're the ones who can lead us to the right place. He's handy with a gun, too." She wet her lips with a little glide of her tongue that jolted his pulse and fueled his libido.

"Good. I didn't like the thought of you doing it alone," he admitted. Her scare with the terrorists had apparently left her with a modicum of common sense, thank God.

She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear in a careless-looking gesture. "So, you're leaving—like, right now?" Her plaintiff tone betrayed her actual disappointment.

He felt a little better hearing that she was as dismayed to let him go as he was to leave. "Yeah," he admitted. "In a couple of hours."

"It seems like you just got here."

To Sam, it had felt like an eternity—especially those three days in which Maddy had been held hostage.

"Do you have time to come in?" she asked earnestly.

He cast an assessing glance at the facility across the street. It was impossible to tell through the thick brick walls and narrow windows how frantically the SEALs were packing up their equipment, preparing to go wheels up before the press arrived looking for answers. He looked again into her lovely face.

"My CO wants me to ask you to abstain from talking to the press if they request an interview," he said.

"Okay." She gave a visible shudder. "I'd rather not relive that experience anyway."

"Thanks." He stole a peek at his watch. He was supposed to come right back. But Bronco and Bullfrog would cover for him for at least another ten minutes. "I guess I could come in. I've got a couple of minutes, at least."

Brightening, she pulled her keys out of her pocket and unlocked the door for them.

As the door swung open, he swept her into the cool entryway, shut the door behind them and pressed her up against it, not wasting a second. Catching her sweet lips beneath his, he kissed her with all the desperate hunger that burned inside of him. He couldn't get enough of her, certainly not in the short amount of time they had.

Luckily for him, she seemed to feel the same way. Delving both hands under his T-shirt, she lightly scraped and kneaded his chest, arousing him so thoroughly that the bedroom seemed impossibly far away. He hauled his T-shirt over his head and divested her of her tank top. To his gratification she wasn't wearing a bra. He didn't have the patience or the time to deal with tricky little latches.

Gathering her beautiful breasts in his hands, he bent his head to feast on the firm, velvety buds. She slid her fingers through his hair, guiding his mouth from one nipple to the other, arching with visible pleasure. "Oh, Sam."