High Octane Heroes (16 page)

“Okay.” She nodded and crossed to the other side. Emery made a cup with her hands. She didn’t know how she would boost him up, but she’d try anything. “Like this?”

“On three. One. Two. Three.” He took one stride, the mud and water slurping around his boots and planted his foot into her grasp.

She grunted and slammed back into the wall of the pit. Her hands slipped. Matt grunted, but had a grip on something.

“I can’t get up.” He swung a little from side to side.

“Use my back.” She leaned forward and braced her hands on her knees. Matt kicked her in the ass and the heel of his boots bit into her back. “Oh god, hurry.” She groaned and tried to ignore the toe to the kidney.

Matt hoisted himself up and shimmied through a weak spot between the bamboo poles. His legs disappeared. Emery stared up in disbelief. Had he really just escaped? Rain still fell at a steady pace, making her blink rapidly. Smoke and light bathed the sky over head. Something wasn’t just on fire, it was blazing.

Someone grunted and for the longest minutes of her life, she didn’t see or hear Matt.

“Matt?” she whispered.

Still no answer. She tried and failed to find some sort of handhold, but the ground was too wet and crumbled under her grasp. What if something had happened to Matt?

“Give me your hand.”

Her head snapped up.

Matt lay on his stomach above her, his good arm extended toward her. She could have cried with relief. “I don’t know if I can jump that high.” Still, she backed up a pace.

“You can do it.”

She jumped as high as she could, and fell short of the mark.

“Try it again. Come on.”

She backed up again. “Go without me.”

“Don’t you fucking say that. I’ll crawl back in there with you before I leave you.”

Emery crouched and tried to jump straight up, but her sneakers had sunk too far into the mud, and she pitched forward onto her knees.

“Again, Emery. Now. Come on.”

“I can’t,” she sobbed. She wasn’t strong or fast like Matt. Even with one arm he could do more.

“You can. Get rid of the shoes. Jump on top of them.”

She slipped out of the waterlogged shoes and jumped again. Matt wrapped his hand around her wrist, and she dangled there for a moment. She could hear his grunting and felt his grip slip the smallest bit.

“Hold on to me,” he got out between clenched teeth.

She grasped his wrist with her other hand and slowly, inch by inch, he pulled her up. She grabbed the poles and helped him lift her. Rain still pounded them, but from ground level, it
didn’t seem so bad.

The body of a man, the one who had sneered at her, lay a few feet away, and beyond him at least a dozen people were running around a house built on stilts.

“Don’t look. Come on.” Matt urged her to her feet and half carried her. They plunged into what looked like a wild jungle.

“Where are we going?” she gasped. Her feet hurt from the cold, rocks underfoot, and god only knew what else.

“I hot-wired a truck and left it about half a mile away. Do I need to carry you?”

Yes, she needed very much to be carried far, far away.

“No,” she managed to get out between panting for breath. Any second those men were going to chase them down.

Matt stopped her in her tracks. “Look at me.”

She lifted her chin and stared into his eyes.

“Nothing bad will happen to you. I promise.”

Her breath caught in her throat. “And promises are for keeping.”

He kissed her lips so quickly it might not have happened, and then dragged her further into no-man’s-land.

 

Matt stood outside of the hotel room in the same spot he’d been in for five minutes. The last thirty-six hours were a blur. The pit. Dashing through the jungle. Stealing a boat to cross to Thailand and being caught mid-river by border patrol. There were a thousand instances where they could’ve died, and here he was, back in Thailand.

The door cracked open.

“Just wanted to make sure you’re okay,” he blurted. Had he knocked?

“You’ve been standing there forever. Come in.” Emery swung open.

He stepped over the threshold even though he knew he shouldn’t. She was safe. She didn’t need him anymore.

“Where’s Sarah?” He’d expected his sister to stick to her like glue.

Emery closed the door and flipped the locks. How badly had this episode scarred her? She hugged an old, threadbare robe around herself.

“I couldn’t take her staring at me like I was a ghost.” She glanced at the balcony doors. He hadn’t missed the chair and traveling crates stacked in front of the glass.

He opened his mouth to tell her it would pass, the nightmares would go away and she would stop looking over her shoulder, but they were lies.

“Stay with me? Please?” She stared at a point over his shoulder. The goose egg had gone down, and she’d scrubbed clean, but the real marks weren’t visible to the naked eye.

“Whatever you want.”

Emery walked straight into him and wrapped her arms around his waist. She took a deep, shuddering breath and released it. “I only feel safe when I can see you.”

A lump formed in his throat. The whole mission there and back had been dumb luck. He patted her shoulder. “I’m right here.”

They stood there for several, long moments until Emery relaxed. She peeked up at him and damn if he didn’t want to kiss her again. He’d kissed plenty of women, but no one else had ever made him want like she had. Emery made him think of home and rumpled sheets.

“I’ll sit in that chair if you want to try to sleep,” he offered. Yeah, he was a creep, but watching over her would at least make him feel useful.

Emery shook her head and stepped away. Of course she
wouldn’t need him. She was a strong woman.

“I want you in bed with me.” She untied the belt on her robe, and he almost swallowed his tongue. She wore panties and a T-shirt so thin he could see the hard tips of her breasts. Sexier than any fancy lingerie he’d ever seen.

“Emery, you don’t know what you’re saying.” He tried to close her robe, save himself from the visual he’d hoard the rest of his life, but she pushed his hand aside.

“No, I’ve been half in love with you all my life, and it’s stupid to not do anything about it.” She shoved the robe off her shoulders and reached for him, sliding her hands under his shirt and up his back. “You could have died last year. We could have died yesterday. It made me realize I don’t want to wait anymore. Especially when it comes to you.”

She pushed his shirt up and gave him a little glare.

Matt lifted his eyes to the ceiling, damning himself for being weak, and then pulled it off. She was already tabbing his jeans open and shoving the last of his clothing off. He kicked out of his shoes and stood there, naked as the day he was born.

Emery stepped back, her eyes flicking over the scars and burn marks from the IED shrapnel that had taken his arm. He had other prosthetics in his room, but he’d come to her without even one. Just him. But was that enough? She deserved to be swept off her feet. He couldn’t give her everything, but he could give her this.

Matt wrapped his arm around her waist and she hopped up, wrapping her legs around his hips and clinging to him. She pressed her mouth to his, suckling his lower lip between hers. He thrust his tongue into her mouth, hungry for more.

He laid her down on the bed and rolled them until she was on top.

Emery sat up and smiled at him. It was the simplest gesture, but it stole his breath. She was so damn gorgeous. Slowly, she stripped her shirt off, revealing inch by slow inch of smooth creamy skin. He’d wondered what color her nipples would be, and now he knew they were pink like cotton candy.

Candy he wanted to taste.

He sat up and pulled her closer, dipping his head to take one of her tight peaks into his mouth. Her nails dug tracks into his shoulder. He wanted another hand to touch her, but all he had was a damn stump.

Her hand trailed down his mangled arm, over the ugly scars and back up. He held still, waiting for her to wake up and realize her mistake.

“You’re the strongest man I know.” Her gaze bored into his.

The reverent awe smacked him in the gut.

“I’m no one special. Just another Captain Hook.”

That made her lips quirk up. “You’re more than that.”

Emery pushed his shoulders back. He didn’t want to give her space, he wanted to hold on to her for as long as she’d let him, but in the end he lay back on the mattress.

“I’ve thought about this a lot.” Her cheeks sported a rosy blush.

“Me too.” And reality was better than any dream.

Her gaze dropped to his cock, and she licked her lips. She lowered to her elbows and peeked through her lashes as she grasped his hard length and kissed the mushroom cap. She opened her mouth and fuck all if it wasn’t better than his fantasies. Her hair brushed his thighs as she sucked his cock, slowly working him in and out of her mouth.

It felt so good. He lifted his hips, silently begging for more, and she gave it to him as selflessly as she did everything.

He didn’t deserve this, but he wanted it. He wanted her and everything she’d give him.

Emery sat back on her knees and pushed her panties off.

“Matt, I want you now.” Could he see how much she wanted him?

She crawled up his body, hungry for him. Maybe it was intensified because of what they’d been through together, but she’d wanted him since before he was the war hero, since before he’d been the high-school football star.

He rolled them again until he was on top, pressing her down into the mattress.

She reached between them and ran her hand up his hard length, squeezing just enough to make him groan. She guided him to her entrance and he thrust. She gasped as he stretched her; it’d been so long since she’d been intimate with anyone. He thrust again, and her eyes rolled back. She lifted her hips. “Matt,” she moaned and arched her back.

He thrust again, and she could feel all of him, the way he filled her, how he held her exactly where he wanted her. She lifted up for a kiss and he gave it to her, branding her with the heat boiling between them. He withdrew and thrust. Again and again. She was mesmerized by the look of sheer pleasure on his face, the way his head tilted back just a little as he watched her. She felt as though he could see straight to her soul.

“You’re so fucking beautiful.”

She reached between them, caressing the ladder of muscles crawling down his stomach and lower. Her fingers brushed his cock as he pumped in and out. She flicked her fingers over her clit, and her lips parted on a long moan. Her inner muscles clamped down, as he continued to piston in and out. Her spine arched, and she dug her fingers into his back and squeezed her thighs around his waist.

Emery wanted to tell Matt how much she loved him, but
it was too soon. Instead she bit her lip as ripples of pleasure coursed through her body, and held his gaze.

He groaned and his cock pulsed inside of her, spilling his seed until he was spent. It might have been her imagination, but she felt in tune with him. Could he love her in return?

Matt sagged, and she hugged him closer, not ready to let go. Dampness bathed her thighs. Of course, they hadn’t remembered to use protection. The idea didn’t send her into panic. If they had a child, would it have his eyes and her hair? Her heart skipped a beat at the thought of starting the family she’d always wanted with him.

He rolled to his side, taking her with him and flipping the comforter over them.

Emery snuggled close to Matt, unwilling to leave the warm cocoon of blankets. She never wanted to be cold again.

“Fuck.” Matt sat straight up.

“I think that’s your favorite word.” She pried one eye open.

Matt turned toward her, his gaze wild with a different kind of panic.

“What’s wrong?” She glanced at the door and the patio.

“We didn’t use a condom. Could you get pregnant?” he asked, rubbing the side of his face.

She sat up and leaned on her knees. “Maybe. If I am, so what? I’ve always wanted kids. I don’t want to wait anymore. If you don’t want kids and I am pregnant, I’ll work it out.”

He turned to her, his gaze fierce. “I would never leave one of my own. I would never leave you.”

She tugged him back down to the mattress, warmth and hope twining together in her chest. “I lied when I said I was half in love with you. I’m madly, head over heels for you.”

Pain flashed across his face before he hid it behind that stony mask he’d gotten so good at showing people. “You should have
someone able-bodied.”

“Able-bodied?” She peeked under the blanket. “I think your body is able enough.”

“That’s not what I meant.” He twirled a lock of her hair around his finger. The lines around his mouth and across his brow relaxed. “Kids, huh?”