HOT SEAL Lover (HOT SEAL Team - Book 2) (7 page)

T
he ride was monotonous
. At some point Christina fell asleep. She didn’t intend to, but she must have dozed off on Remy’s shoulder.

She dreamed. Not of the desert. Not of sand and heat and danger. But of liquid heat, pleasure, veils. Freaking veils, like this was a tale out of
One Thousand and One Nights
.

She pictured veils and Remy. His masculine face contorted in pleasure as she sank onto his cock again and again. His face as he came, the beautiful lines and furrowed brow. The intensity.

She woke with a start, hot and achy and disappointed. Because it wasn’t real. Because she smelled gas fumes, heat, horror. The desperation that people emanated because they were afraid.

She hadn’t forgotten where she was. She knew precisely what was happening. She looked across the aisle, her gaze landing on the redhead. The woman stared back at her, her eyes wide and afraid. Her mascara was smeared and her hair frizzed from the humidity. She looked wild. Afraid.

“Where are we?” Christina asked of no one in particular.

Cash spared her a glance. “On the road to Merak.”

That wasn’t necessarily complete information, but she wasn’t going to press him. Just then an explosion sounded in the distance and the redhead gasped.

Paul jerked from his dozing and blinked. And Remy… wait, where was Remy?

Christina’s heart tumbled as she snapped upright, searching the vehicle. And then she nearly wilted as she realized he was sitting with his back to the two men up front, talking to them over his shoulder. He’d moved to the floor, his gun cradled in his lap, his head turned as he spoke.

“It’s behind us,” Cash said. “In the city. It just sounds closer than it is. We’re safe.”

The woman beside him didn’t seem appeased.

“What’s your name?” Christina asked.

Remy turned his head at the sound of her voice this time, but she didn’t make eye contact with him. She was focused on the woman.

“Penny,” the woman said softly.

Christina leaned forward and reached across the aisle. “Hi, Penny. I’m Christina.”

Penny shook her offered hand with a moist one.

“Look, I know this is scary,” Christina said. “But these guys are the best there is. Believe me.”

“You know them?”

As if that was in doubt after her conversation with Remy earlier, but maybe Penny hadn’t been paying attention.

“Yes. I know them all. Fantastic guys to have at your back in a fight.”

Penny’s eyes widened even more, if that was possible, and Christina regretted mentioning fights.

“Or in general,” she added. “They’ll get us out of here safely.”

Penny twisted her hands together. “I didn’t want to be here at all, but my boss—Mr. Davis—said it was safe. I have a six-year-old at home.”

Her voice broke then, and Christina couldn’t help what she did next. She crossed the aisle and sank onto the seat beside Penny. Then she put her arms around the other woman’s shoulders.

“You’ll get back to your child. Isn’t that right, Cash?”

The handsome SEAL next to Penny nodded. “That’s right, ma’am. We’ll get you home. It might be loud and scary sometimes, but we know what we’re doing. Promise.”

Penny’s smile was shaky. “Thank you.”

Christina could feel the other woman trembling. “It’s okay, sweetie. You’d be crazy not to be scared.”

Penny sniffed. “You aren’t.”

Christina blinked. “I am. But I trust these guys.”

Her gaze tangled with Remy’s. His dark eyes were intense, glittering, his sexy, sensual mouth set in a hard line. She didn’t know how long their gazes locked—it seemed like forever, but then the van lurched to a stop and her heart sped up again.

She heard a window power down and then voices. Remy turned and got involved in the conversation. A few moments later, he got to his feet.

“Stopping for a few minutes, kids,” he said, shifting his weapon before opening the van door and jumping down into the night.

A second later he was back.

“Traffic’s at a standstill. No idea what the holdup is, but we’re stuck for a while. Everybody out for a few minutes. Stretch your legs while you can, but stay near the vans.”

Christina got to her feet with the others, her bones creaking from so long in one position. When she stepped down from the van, Remy was there, his hands spanning her waist as he lifted her and set her on the sand. He let her go as if she’d burned him. She stumbled sideways but recovered.

He helped Penny down as well, so Christina couldn’t say he’d stayed to help her specifically. Yet her body had responded to his touch, the same as it always did. Her nipples tightened and her core ached. Ridiculous, considering where they were. What was happening.

She trudged a few steps in the sand, then stopped and stared back in the direction they’d come. The city of Baq was a beacon in the night. But not for the reason it should be. The skyline glowed. She knew instinctively the glow came from fires, not from city lights.

She wrapped her arms around herself and shivered. Qu’rim might be a desert nation, but the desert was cold at night, and she hadn’t packed a jacket. You didn’t need a jacket when you never ventured out into the night. She’d had a wrap for chilly meeting rooms, but it was still in her bag in the hotel. She hadn’t thought to grab it.

She stared at the road behind them. Then she turned and looked at the road ahead. It was literally jammed with traffic in both directions as people fled the capital. And that traffic was at a complete standstill. She didn’t know if that was good or bad, but people seemed to take it for granted that they weren’t going any farther tonight. They were setting up camp at the side of the road, starting cooking fires, lingering around vehicles that weren’t moving.

She turned back to the van and searched for Remy’s dark form. He looked just like the other SEALs, but there was something about the way he moved—or maybe it was the way she responded to him—that meant she knew which one was him.

He helped Penny take a few steps on shaky legs, then Paul jumped from the van and Cash followed. The others climbed from the van in front of theirs. The SEALs didn’t relax, however. They were alert, watchful, hands on weapons as they surveyed the area.

She didn’t know what they were waiting for, but she shivered again at the chill in the air and the intensity of the situation.

Viking—she knew the big blond SEAL from Matt and Evie’s house, Buddy’s, and also it was hard not to associate him with a Viking once you heard his team name—came over to her.

“How you doing, Ms. Girard?” he asked, his voice so serious and formal.

“I’m great, thanks. You?”

He grinned then, and she felt a little wave of relief flood her that he could be so friendly during a—what? Siege? Refugee crisis?

“Considering we got all of you out of Baq, fantastic.”

She smiled. “Bullshit. You’re an adrenaline junkie. Like my brother. All of you are. This stuff trips your trigger.”

His grin got bigger. “A bit.” And then he sobered. “But seriously, the most important thing is getting you out of here and on a plane back to the States. Which we will do, don’t worry.”

“I’m not worried,” she said.

“Good.” His gaze strayed over her head, and then he touched his helmet as if he were tipping his cap before turning and walking away.

She felt Remy’s approach rather than heard it. When she turned, he was there, looking gruff and unapproachable.

“Don’t stray,” he ordered. “We don’t know what’s out there yet.”

Her throat ached as she looked at him standing there. He was tall and tough. Strong. She felt safe when he was near. And yet she’d run away six months ago and kept running until he’d stopped calling her.

For a moment, she regretted that more than she could say. But then she remembered the utter devastation she’d felt at Ben’s betrayal and knew she’d done the right thing. Men lied. They cheated. She knew it better than most.

She also knew that you could never tell who would hurt you. How could she explain it to him though?

“I’m not straying. And I’m not stupid, contrary to what you might think.”

“Never said that.”

“Didn’t you?”

His jaw flexed. “Not directly, no.”

He’d implied it during his tirade in the van earlier though. He knew it as well as she did.

“As if Cash couldn’t figure out what you meant when you went off on me. He’s not stupid either.”

“You may not be stupid, Christina—but you did something pretty oblivious when you came to Qu’rim.”

“It was a meeting. In and out and done.”

“But it didn’t work out that way, did it?”

She sighed and rubbed a hand up and down her forearm. “Look, I get that you’re pissed at me. And I get why…” She bit the inside of her lip. And then she decided to go for it. “I really am sorry for… for everything.”

His face hardened, his eyes glittering hot. He knew what she meant, and he wasn’t buying it. “You aren’t, babe. If you were, you would have answered your phone any one of the hundred times I called you. You’re only sorry that we’re here, like this, and you feel uncomfortable. I get it—and you got nothing to worry about. I’m not hung up on you. I’m not harboring hurt feelings or crushing on you like a lovesick teenager. It was never about that—it was about how good it felt with you and how I wanted more of the same before we called it quits. But I’m over it now, so don’t worry your pretty head that I’m nursing a broken heart, okay? It’s awkward, but we’ll get through it. Once we hit Merak and put you on a plane, you never have to see me again.”

For some reason, that thought didn’t give her the comfort it once would. Or had it ever? Honestly, since the morning he’d left her place and she’d felt so utterly devastated by everything that had happened between them, there’d been no comfort in avoiding him. She’d pretended it was for the best, but seeing him again only ripped the bandage off the wound.

“I was scared,” she said, her throat tight.

His expression didn’t change, but she thought maybe he softened a little. Maybe.

“Running away never fixed anything for anybody,
cher
. I think you know that as well as I do.”

Before she could speak, several of the SEALs materialized out of the darkness. “Got a big problem up there,” someone said. “Tractor-trailer jackknifed on the bridge over a wadi. Nobody’s going anywhere on this road tonight.”

T
he sound
of babies crying woke Evie from sleep. Blearily, she pushed upright, but her husband spoke in the darkness.

“I’ll get them, Evie. You sleep.”

“I can do it,” she said.

“No,
cher
. You were up all last night. Let me take care of them… and you.”

“M’kay,” she said sleepily, sagging back into the mattress and thanking God that Matt was home to help out. He worked a lot and was gone a lot, but he’d been home for a few weeks now, and that made her happy.

Sometime later, Evie jerked awake. The house was quiet. She turned to Matt’s side of the bed, but he wasn’t there. She pushed the covers back and slipped into her robe before padding down the hall and into the twins’ room. Her boys were sleeping and Matt wasn’t there, so she pulled the door shut and crept down the stairs.

She found Matt in the darkened kitchen. He was sitting at the table, laptop open, the blue light bathing his face. She knew what he was doing—or she suspected, anyway.

“Honey,” she said, and his head snapped up. His eyes were bloodshot, but she knew he could get by on little to no sleep. It’s what a Special Operator did. What her badass husband did.

She knew more than she should about his job, but it had taken time to learn these things. He hadn’t told her, but he hadn’t needed to. She’d figured it out. Well, most of it, she thought. He’d tell her if he could, but that was the nature of the military—some things were secret and had to stay that way.

She knew he was an operator—not operative, like in the movies, but operator. That was the correct term. And she knew he went to war zones and did things there that were necessary to the safety of the nation.

And she knew that, right now, he was dying inside because Christina was over there and he wasn’t. She suspected that Colonel Mendez had sent someone, but she was grateful that someone wasn’t Matt. Not right now. Not when she needed him here.

“You should be asleep.”

She walked over to the table and pulled out a chair. “I woke up. You weren’t there.”

He shoved a hand through his hair and leaned back in his seat. “Couldn’t sleep. Christian and Alex went down quickly, so I decided to look at the news. Qu’rim is in bad shape right now.”

She reached for him and gripped his hand. “She’ll be okay, Matt. I know she will.”

“She shouldn’t be there. Fucking old man and the business.”

Evie’s heart pinched like it always did when she thought of Matt and his father. She knew more than she’d ever known when they were growing up. She knew how mentally abusive his father had been and how much Matt still despised him. She also knew that his father wasn’t the same man he used to be, just like they weren’t the same people they’d been as kids. People evolved. It was simply the nature of life, which was much more complex than platitudes would have you believe.

Good men could become evil. Evil men could become good.

But she was on Matt’s side first and foremost. Always.

“I don’t think anyone forced your sister to go, honey. Christina’s been… not quite the same since what happened with Ben.”

Matt curled his fingers into a fist. She didn’t think he knew he’d done it. “Motherfucker,” he growled. “He didn’t deserve her.”

“No, he definitely didn’t. But it happened, and Chris has been running ever since. I don’t think your father had much to do with her decision to go to Qu’rim.”

“No, but he didn’t stop her either.”

Evie squeezed his hand. “Do you really think anyone could stop her from doing whatever she wanted to do? Christina is fierce, Matt. Fiercer than any of us realized. She’s a dynamo, and she won’t take no for an answer. Just like someone else I know.”

He blinked. “You mean me?”

She couldn’t help but smile. “Of course I mean you. Fierce, proud Girards. You don’t quit. If your father had told her not to go, she’d have cussed him out and gone anyway.”

His smile was soft and weary at once. “Yeah, maybe. But damn, did she have to go to Qu’rim now of all fucking times? If she’d told me what she’d planned, I’d have stopped her.”

“Which is probably why she didn’t tell you. Look, I know you can’t discuss it, but I’m going to guess that she’s in good hands over there. If I know Mendez, and I think I know a little about him after everything that’s happened, he’s sending in the cavalry. If they’re anything like you, she’s going to be just fine.”

He tugged her hand until she had to sit in his lap. Which she did not mind at all. Matt was big and solid, and she loved how protected she felt when he held her. How loved.

His hands roamed over her hips, up her sides. He didn’t touch her breasts, and she sighed.

“You can touch me, Matt. It’s okay.”

“You haven’t been getting enough rest.”

“Then make me come and I’ll fall asleep so fast your head will spin.”

She felt the response happening beneath her as he grew hard at a rapid rate. “Evie, Jesus, I want that. But the twins take so much out of you. You need to take care of yourself first. I’ll be fine.”

She wanted to bop him over the head. Since she’d had the babies two months ago, he hadn’t tried to have sex with her even once. At first she’d been pretty grateful for that. Now she was growing frustrated.

She cupped his head in her hands and forced him to look at her. “Look, this
is
taking care of myself. Because if you don’t get back to providing me with sex on a regular basis, I’m going to be forced to buy a vibrator and replace your fine ass with a piece of rubber or latex or whatever they’re made out of. I need you, Matt. Unless you’re too upset about Christina, in which case I understand. But when she gets back home safely, I’m going to expect some performances in the bedroom or there will be dire consequences.”

He was gaping at her, but his cock hadn’t grown soft. If anything, it was harder now. “What kind of dire consequences?”

“I already mentioned Tank.”

“Tank?”

“What I’m going to name my vibrator. It’s going to be the biggest, hardest, best thing in the catalog—”

He dragged her down and took her mouth with his. That was the end of the conversation—and the beginning of several orgasms that left her weak in the knees and very, very satisfied.

* * *

C
hristina couldn’t get
comfortable in the van. After the SEALs had returned with news of the roadblock, they’d decided it was time to leave by a different route. But one of the vans wouldn’t start, so they’d gotten to work on the engine while the civilians climbed back into the vans to wait. Christina dozed as the minutes stretched by, waking with a start at the sound of explosions in the distance. She didn’t know how far they’d gotten from Baq, but it wasn’t far enough because the RPGs and gunfire still sounded so close.

Christina pushed herself up from where she’d tried to sack out on a bench seat and yawned. The interior of the van was dark and stifling. Across from her, Penny snored softly. On the floor, Paul stretched out on his back, eyes closed, arms crossed over his chest, totally quiet. He reminded her of a vampire, quite honestly.

Her eyes were gritty and there seemed to be sand in everything, even inside. She brushed it off as best she could and then stumbled carefully on numb legs toward the door. She needed air, and she unfortunately needed to pee.

The two SEALs on guard turned around as she emerged.

“You need to stay inside, Christina.”

It was Remy’s voice. She didn’t know if that was a good thing or a bad thing, really. Someone else she could talk to dispassionately. But Remy? Jeez, it was all she could do to form complete sentences at this point.

“I have to pee. And don’t tell me I can’t, because I’ll pee in the van—which probably isn’t a good thing for any of us.”

She took a step—and then gasped as she got a look at the skyline behind the convoy of stopped vehicles. She’d known it was on fire earlier, but it seemed to have spread. The entire sky glowed.

Remy’s expression was grim. His hands rested on the weapon slung over his chest. He looked as if there was nothing much going on, but she suspected he could change in a heartbeat if the situation required it.

“How did it happen so fast?” she breathed. “They weren’t supposed to be able to take the capital.” That’s what all the news reports had been saying for days. Clearly, they were wrong. Tragically, horribly wrong.

“Priorities change,
cher
. Someone somewhere decided they no longer cared if Baq resisted or fell.”

She turned to him, her heart throbbing. “You mean America stopped caring, don’t you?”

“It’s an unpopular war. We aren’t the only ones who want out.”

She gazed at the long line of vehicles, her throat tight. It was a mess. A humanitarian crisis. “Where will they all go?”

“Anywhere they can. They’ll spill over the borders, some won’t get out at all, and some will die in the fighting.”

Nearby, a baby started to cry. That was the worst part of all—that children were caught up in this. Whole families were fleeing the only lives they’d ever known, desperate to get away from the conflict between the government and rebels.

“Who’s going to win?”

“Hard to say. The king still has the advantage monetarily. And he has a disciplined army. But the rebels fight like they have nothing to lose—they fight dirty and hard, and that’s not easy to overcome.”

She tried to process that.

“What happens if the traffic doesn’t start to move soon?”

“That’s not our problem,
cher
.” He motioned toward the other side of the convoy. “You have to pee or what?”

“Yes.” She hated the idea of these people being stuck here with a war behind them. But what could nine SEALs do? Nothing at all, unfortunately.

“Then do it in the shadow of the vehicles. I’ll keep watch.”

“Um…”

“What?”

“Paper? Is that possible?”

He reached into the van and handed her a glob of what turned out to be tissue. Christina picked her way around the side of the van and found a spot. When she was done, she went to where Remy stood guard with his back to her. He turned at her approach, his gaze slipping over her for a second.

“Thanks,” she said, her skin heating with the intensity of that look.

He waited for her to walk past him before he followed. She stopped and spun around before she reached the van door. He frowned.

“Can I just stay out here for a little while? I can’t sleep, Penny’s snoring, and the explosions don’t help.”

He pulled in a breath before snorting it out again. She was certain he would tell her no.

“Twenty minutes, Christina. And you don’t move outside the perimeter we’ve set up.”

Which was all of about ten feet, but whatever. It was still freedom. “Okay.”

She ran her hands up and down her arms, shivering.

Remy frowned. “You’re cold.”

It was partly adrenaline, partly the night air, but she nodded. “A little bit.”

“Then you should definitely get back inside.”

“I was cold in there too.”

He went over to the van and pulled out his pack. Then he rifled through it and handed her a shirt. The camouflage material was warm, and she wrapped it around her body, hugging herself. The tail was almost to her knees. If she had a belt, she could make a dress.

When she looked up, Remy was watching her with a hard expression. Her heart skipped a beat at the possessive look in his eyes. Fire kindled in her belly at that look. She remembered what it was like to be possessed by him—again and again, until she was languid and spent and so satisfied she could barely lift her head off the pillow.

Why had she put an end to that again?

Because he’s a man. Because you don’t want to get hurt. Because getting hurt is inevitable.

“You look at me like I kicked your puppy,” he growled, and her heart pinched tight.

“I’m sorry.”

“Fucking hell, stop with the apologies. I get that you feel guilty. I get that you don’t know what to say to me. Just pretend like it never happened, all right?”

“All right.” Her throat ached and her eyes stung, but dammit, that’s what she’d wanted him to say, wasn’t it? Pretend like nothing ever happened. It was a one-night stand, over and done with. Time to act normal.

A shout split the night, making her jump like a frightened rabbit. Remy caught her as she careened into him. His arms around her were steady. The gun at his chest felt awkward between them, its cool metal bulk unforgiving against her midsection.

She was in the process of taking a step backward, trying to put distance between them, when a bright light arced into the sky. A second later, a deafening kaboom shattered the air and kicked her in the chest.