Navy SEAL Captive (13 page)

Jenna shrugged. “Then I guess I'll call it a night.” She headed down the stairs to the lower deck.

Footsteps made her turn to see who had followed her down.

Her heart skipped several beats when she realized Sawyer was right behind her.

“You can choose whichever room you like.”

She pushed a door open to a stateroom with a full-size bed, the bright white sheets a stark contrast to the wood features stained a deep, rich mahogany. “Which one will you be in?” Jenna held her breath, wondering if he'd think she was coming on to him and half hoping he would. After all that had happened that day and evening, she didn't want to be alone. She wanted Sawyer beside her.

Hands descended on her shoulders and turned her around. “I'll be in the room you choose.”

Her heart thumping hard against her ribs, Jenna cocked her brows and tilted her chin. “Is that so?”

Sawyer bent to brush his lips across hers. “Yes. I want to be with you.”

Who was she kidding? She wanted to be with him as badly as he wanted to be with her. Jenna reached behind her and shoved the door closed. “This room will do.” Rising up on her toes, she pressed her lips to his, wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him close. She opened her mouth to him, meeting his tongue with hers, thirstily drinking in the essence of the man.

For a long moment, they shared a kiss that rocked Jenna's soul. The need to be closer drove her to drag his T-shirt over his head.

He pushed the straps of her dress over her shoulders and the garment dropped to her waist, exposing her bare breasts.

Jenna let her head drop back, allowing Sawyer to trail kisses down the long line of her throat, and lower, to capture a beaded nipple between his teeth.

A moan rose up her throat and escaped on a gasp as he sucked her breast into his mouth, pulling hard. Then he tongued the nipple, flicking the tip until a tug lower in her belly made her yearn for so much more.

Jenna reached behind her and loosened the zipper on the dress. The green fabric slipped past her hips and pooled at her bare feet. Where her rhinestone stilettoes were, she didn't know, nor did she care. She was naked, standing in front of a man who'd been a complete stranger only days before. Yet she'd never felt closer or more compelled to give herself to a man than she wanted to give herself to Sawyer. She backed away from him until her thighs bumped into the bed. “Make love to me,” she whispered.

“No regrets in the morning?”

“The only regret I have now is that I didn't meet you sooner.” As he closed the distance between them, her pulse sped and her breathing became more difficult, desire washing over her in a tidal wave of need.

Sawyer caught her face between his hands. “I'm no good at relationships.”

Her chest tightened. She wanted more, but she'd take any time she could get from him. “I'm only asking for the night.” Jenna ran her hands down his chest to the button on his jeans and flicked it open.

Sawyer kissed her, his hands sliding down her back to cup her bottom. He lifted her, settling her on the edge of the bed, nudging her knees apart with his thigh.

Gently Jenna tugged at his zipper, dragging it down. His shaft sprang free into her hand, and she caressed him, reveling in the smooth hardness.

“Keep that up and I won't be able to control myself.”

“Who said I wanted you to?” Her lips curved and she tipped her head back, thrusting her chest forward. “Maybe I want you to lose control.”

Sawyer dragged in a deep breath. He stepped back enough to kick off his shoes and shove his jeans down his legs. Stepping out of the denim, he stood in front of her, naked, his body a testament to his dedication to being physically fit, capable of performing the hardest job on the planet.

Jenna scooted back on the bed, making room for the big SEAL.

Sawyer crawled up between her legs and leaned over her. “I don't suppose you thought about protection?”

She shook her head, a chuckle rising up her throat. “No, I really wasn't thinking much at all.”

“This place is pretty well equipped. You don't suppose...” Sawyer leaned over her to reach into the nightstand anchored to the floor.

While Sawyer rummaged in the drawer, Jenna ran her hands over the hard planes of his body, loving how solid he was in every way.

“Ha!” He held up an accordion of foil packets and grinned. “I don't know who owns this boat, but he's obviously prepared for everything.”

“Let me.” Jenna took the accordion, ripped one of the packets free and tore it open.

Sawyer leaned back, giving her access to that hard, thick shaft.

Jenna shivered in anticipation as she rolled the condom over him. Then she lay back on the sheets and guided him to her entrance.

With the tip of his shaft edging into her warm, wet channel, Sawyer paused and kissed the tip of her nose. “What? No foreplay?”

“It's overrated when your body is already on fire.” She grabbed his hips and brought him home.

He slid inside her, his thickness filling her, stretching her. Jenna dragged in a deep breath and let it out slowly.

Sawyer leaned close, his lips touching her earlobe. “Are you all right?”

“Yes!” she cried. Then she eased him out and back in. “More than all right.”

He laughed. “Just checking.” He settled into a steady rhythm, driving in and out, increasing in speed and intensity.

Jenna brought her knees up and dug her heels into the mattress, raising her hips to meet his every thrust.

He rode her hard, and she wanted it even harder as she catapulted over the edge, the explosion of sensations rocketing through her, sending electrical shocks throughout her body.

Sawyer thrust once more, burying himself deep inside, his body rigid, his face tight. He stayed frozen for a long moment, his breath caught and held. Then he released the breath and dropped down on Jenna, rolling her with him to his side.

“You are amazing,” he said, kissing her cheek, her eyes and finally her lips.

“I was going to say the same thing.” Jenna snuggled into his body, loving that they retained their intimate connection. Her eyelids drifted closed and she yawned. “I could get used to this.”

Sawyer's arms tightened.

As Jenna slipped into a deep sleep, she thought she heard Sawyer whisper, “So could I.”

Chapter Thirteen

A light tap on the door woke Sawyer. He glanced at the clock on the nightstand. Two in the morning. He'd been asleep for less than two hours, resting comfortably with Jenna in his arms.

Another tap brought him fully alert. He slipped out of the bed, careful not to wake the beauty lying beside him.

He padded naked to the door and opened it.

Duff stood there dressed all in black, his face camouflaged black, as well. “We have intel. The sooner we move on it, the better.”

“I'm ready.”

Duff grinned, his teeth bright white in his blackened face. “You might want to put some clothes on.”

Sawyer closed the door, slipped into his black jeans and grabbed his shoes and shirt. Before he left, he bent and brushed his lips across Jenna's, wishing he could stay and wake with her in his arms.

In the lounge, he shoved his feet into his shoes. “What do you have?” he asked as he dragged his dark T-shirt over his head.

Lance brought up an image on a large monitor housed in a cabinet. “I was able to track Devita to this location.” He pointed to a position on the map. “It appears to be a remote, deserted island off the northern tip of the Yucatán Peninsula. I tapped into the CIA's satellite images. Seems they've been keeping an eye on our man Devita and have this compound tagged. He's got others, but this is the one he went to tonight.” Lance touched the mouse, and a satellite image replaced the map. In the image, a sprawling structure could be seen with a wall around the outside and several buildings within.

“From what I could deduce from the pictures and the supporting documentation, the largest structure is Devita's home. If you want to get to him, you have to breach the wall and enter through here—” with the cursor, he pointed to the front “—or here.” Lance moved the cursor to the rear of the building. “The windows are too high on the exterior walls. There is a courtyard in the center, but you'd have to get inside the structure to access it, so it will be of no use to you.”

Quentin and Montana climbed up the stairs from the lower level, carrying backpacks and submachine guns.

Natalie followed with a couple of helmets and handguns.

“I've got the fireworks.” Montana held up a handful of plastic explosives.

“I have the detonators in my backpack,” Quentin said. He snagged the packages from Montana. “I'll take those.”

Montana tossed a submachine gun at Sawyer and a vest equipped with a body-armor plate. “I can't get over the number of MP5SDs this yacht is equipped with.”

“Good. We might need the sound suppression if we want to get to Devita without alerting his entire army.” Sawyer slipped the vest over his shoulders and buckled the front. Attached to the vest were several thirty-round magazines for the MP5SD submachine gun.

Natalie had lined the coffee table with the helmets equipped with night-vision goggles. She'd also brought along several P226 handguns. “You might need something a little more personal.”

“Are you coming along?” Sawyer asked Natalie.

She shook her head. “I'm staying to help Lance keep the ladies out of trouble.”

Sawyer nodded. “Thanks.”

“I'd rather go with you, but I don't want to slow you down. You SEALs are better trained at this kind of operation than I am.”

Quentin selected one of the handguns. “I want to meet the guy who owns this yacht. He's got great taste in equipment.”

“How are we getting to Devita's compound?” Sawyer asked.

“The best way would be to go in by helicopter, but that's one piece of equipment this yacht didn't come equipped with,” Montana said.

Duff pointed to the map. “We're going as far as we can up a river by boat. From there, we'll go on foot. It's about a mile from the river to the compound. Shouldn't take more than thirty minutes.”

“If the jungle isn't too thick,” Quentin added. “And we don't run into any guards along the way.”

“When do we leave?” Sawyer asked.

Duff slipped into his vest, slid a P226 into the holster at his hip and grabbed one of the helmets. “Now.”

They climbed down from the yacht and loaded into the boat they'd taken to Playa del Sol.

“Would be nice if we had one of our SEAL team's riverboats,” Quentin groused.

“We're lucky to have this one,” Duff said.

“Okay.” Quentin waved at Duff. “I get it. Be grateful for what we have.”

Natalie stood on the dock, handing over weapons. “Don't do anything stupid.”

Duff was last to get in. He paused as he stood beside Natalie. “I'll be back.”

“I'm counting on it. We still have another week of vacation to kill before going back to our real lives. I'd like to spend it with you.” She cupped his blackened face. “You look good in makeup.” She kissed him, and Duff crushed her to his chest for a brief moment. Then he climbed aboard.

Sawyer's insides tightened. What he wouldn't give to have one last kiss, one last hug from Jenna before he left for a mission he wasn't certain he'd come out of alive. It was better to let her sleep through their departure than to make promises he wasn't sure he could keep. All the more reason not to get too involved with a woman.

He couldn't get over Duff being as optimistic as he was with Natalie. But then, she knew better than anyone the risks of the job. She was a secret agent and ran covert operations that could lead to her own early demise.

Jenna was an accountant. Until she'd run into him, she hadn't known the dangers involved in the life of a navy SEAL.

Quentin untied the line and pushed the small boat out into the channel leaving the Puerto Cancún marina.

They'd follow the coastline north and then cut across the open water, swinging wide of the island. The plan was to land on the northwest side and then go the rest of the way on foot. If they were lucky, they'd get in, obtain the information they wanted from Devita and leave before his men had any idea they'd been attacked.

Duff manned the helm, steering the small craft past the city of Cancún, lit up by street, garden and security lights on the corners of resort hotels and scattered over the campuses. The idea was to give the tourists a sense of safety, no matter how thinly veiled. Despite the beauty of the tall buildings and the highly lit yards and gardens, there was still something decidedly unsettling about the beach resort.

“Been thinking,” Quentin said from his seat behind Sawyer.

“That's a dangerous pastime for you, Quent.”

Quentin grinned good-naturedly. “I know. But a man does that when he starts to get older.”

“What were you on your last birthday? Twenty-nine?” Montana asked.

“Thirty,” Quentin responded.

Duff shot a glance in Quentin's direction. “With all that thinking, what conclusions have you come to?”

“It might be time to do something else besides be a navy frogman.”

“What?” Sawyer feigned surprise. Quentin had made similar comments over the past year. “I thought you liked your brothers in arms.”

Quentin raised a hand as if he was a courtroom witness swearing to tell the truth. “Oh, I do. I'd take a bullet for any one of you.”

Duff rubbed his shoulder. “You could have done that earlier and I wouldn't be aching now.”

“That's just it.” Quentin stared out at the ocean, illuminated by starlight. “Our bodies will eventually be too battered to do this job properly. We have to make way for the younger SEALs to make their mark.”

Montana puffed up his chest. “I don't know about you, but this body is in prime shape.”

“Until you take a bullet or shrapnel once too often. Traumatic brain injury, torn ligaments, hearing loss. You name it. It could happen to you in training or in the field. What then? Have you made any plans for your transition out of the military, into civilian life?”

Duff scratched his chin. “I could always go to work for SOS with Natalie.”

Sawyer frowned at his friend. “Have you really been thinking about giving up the SEALs?”

Duff shrugged. “It's crossed my mind lately.”

“Anything to do with one sexy, kick-ass blonde?” Quentin asked.

With a nod, Duff answered, “Some. It's hard to have a relationship when the parts of the whole aren't in the same state, much less the same country.”

“You barely know Natalie,” Montana observed.

Duff's lips curled. “I know enough. And I'd like to get to know her even better.”

An image flashed through Sawyer's mind of Jenna sleeping peacefully back in the stateroom aboard the yacht. He'd like to get to know her better, too, but part of him held back, wondering why he should bother. She was an accountant. That kept her in one place. He was a SEAL who could be called to duty at a moment's notice. A relationship between them was doomed to fail.

Hadn't his father taught him that? His mother divorced his father because she didn't like being alone more than they were together. As a child, Sawyer saw more of his nanny than he did either of his parents. What little time his father was home, he spent glued to his desk, shuffling papers or talking to someone on the phone. “Relationships are hard when you're never together.”

“My point exactly.” Duff tipped his head toward the bow. “We're coming up on the island.
Gear up. We're going in.”

Sawyer plunked his helmet on his head and secured the strap, pushing all other thoughts to the back of his mind. They had a mission to accomplish, and he couldn't be distracted by something he could never have.

* * *

J
ENNA
WOKE
TO
the sound of a small engine revving beside the little porthole of the stateroom. She sat up with a start and looked to the empty pillow next to her.

The engine revved again and settled into a rumbling hum, slowly fading.

She knelt in the bed and pushed aside the curtain to see a small motorboat pulling away from the yacht with four dark shadows of men hunkered low in the seats.

Sawyer was gone.

Throwing aside the sheet, she climbed out of the bed and rummaged through the drawers, finding a men's extra-large soft blue T-shirt and a pair of men's swim shorts with a drawstring. She slipped into the shorts, pulled the drawstring tight and knotted the T-shirt at her waist to keep it from dragging around her knees. Then she started up the stairs to the lounge area.

Before she reached the top, the yacht's engines fired up, and the vessel shimmied. Jenna stopped halfway up the stairs and held on to the railing. They were moving.

She sprinted to the top and strode into the lounge, where Natalie hovered around the computer monitor. The image displayed was a map of the Yucatán Peninsula with two blinking dots. One was moving across the blue patch of ocean. The other was on a small island off the northern tip of the peninsula.

Jenna pointed to the moving dot. “Is that the guys?”

Natalie nodded. “They should be there in approximately thirty minutes.”

“And we're going, too?” she asked.

“We're going part of the way.” Natalie stared at the monitor, her brows puckered. “We won't be involved in the actual event.”

“Are we moving?” Carly staggered up the stairs, yawning.

“Yes,” Jenna said, staring out the window as they drifted by the lights of Puerto Cancún.

Carly yawned again and stretched. She wore a men's pajama top and nothing else. Dropping her arms to her sides, she stared around the lounge. “Where are the guys?”

“Going after Devita.” Jenna returned to the monitor and watched for a while, her stomach knotted, her insides jumpy. “I feel so useless. Isn't there anything we can do to help them?”

Natalie shook her head. “They have to get in and out on their own. They will have the ability to contact us on the two-way radio, but there isn't much we can do from the yacht.”

“If they get in a tight spot, could we get close enough to the island to extract them?” Carly asked.

“It would be risky, and they'd have to meet us in the water. The only dock on the island will be heavily guarded. We do, however, have a small dinghy, if we need to go get them.” Natalie tapped her fingers on the desk.

“Are they terribly outnumbered?” Jenna questioned, her voice weak, fear for Sawyer making her shiver in the air-conditioned lounge.

“We can only guess.” Natalie continued to stare at the blinking dot on the monitor. She appeared as worried as Jenna felt.

“Are you and Duff serious?” Jenna asked. “You don't have to tell me, if you don't want to.”

Natalie shot a glance her way and then returned her attention to the monitor. “I just met the man less than a week ago.”

Jenna smiled. “Do you believe in love at first sight?”

“Not really. But I believe Duff and I have a connection that neither of us can ignore.” She gave Jenna a weak smile. “I don't know where it will go or how long it will last.”

“But you're willing to give it a shot?”

Natalie's smile widened. “Yeah. I guess I am. He's an amazingly strong but sensitive man. He's a trained killer, but he's the gentlest soul I've ever encountered. He gets me.” She shook her head, staring at the monitor again. “I think I could fall in love with him.” She glanced at Jenna, her eyes shining bright, the truth written in the happiness on her face. “If I haven't already.”

Jenna's heart tightened. How did someone fall in love in a matter of days, maybe only hours? Was it possible? Did love at first sight exist?

She remembered Sawyer standing behind her on the zip-line platform. His laughing eyes and concern over plummeting to his death on a thin cable had melted her heart from the very first moment her gaze met his. Love at first sight? Maybe not, but admiration and attraction...you bet your life.

Now he was on his way to infiltrate Devita's secret compound. If he didn't come back...