Advance to the Rear (Strike Force Book 3)

by Desiree Holt

“Close your eyes,” he told her, “and just enjoy. Forget about everything except this, right now. Us.”

  She closed her eyes and leaned her head back, the water kissing her skin. He hoped it was washing away the tension and disaster of the past two days. He poured some of her scented body wash into his palms and rubbed his hands together to create thick lather. Then, starting at her neck, he worked his way down her body, massaging each of her muscles as he did so. Shoulders. Arms. Back. Stomach. Legs.

  God! Just touching her was an incredible gift. He had no idea what stroke of luck had connected them, but she brought the first light in a long time into his life, and he wasn’t about to let it go. He wasn’t stupid enough to believe no problems would crop up. Everything else aside, they were both still unpacking a lot of emotional baggage. But whatever it was, he’d make sure they worked through it. Because they were worth it. She was worth it.

  When he slid his hands between her thighs, she gasped and opened her eyes. He looked up to see her watching him and his mouth curved in a hungry smile.

  “Eyes closed, darlin’. Tight shut.”

  She drifted them shut again and let out a sigh that he felt in every part of his body. Especially his cock, which was standing at attention with such rigidity that he worried if he bumped the shower wall, it would break off.

  Now he slid his hands up to her breasts, the hot, slippery feel of them so erotic he felt it all the way to his balls. He plumped her in his palms and squeezed with a gentle motion of his fingers. Just that simple contact pushed back the memories of the past two days and the thoughts of what was yet to come. He tucked them into a box and slammed the lid down. Nothing existed but him and this incredible woman.

  He brushed the pads of his soapy fingers across her nipples, feeling them harden at once beneath the contact. He squeezed them, gave a light pinch and was rewarded to see the increase in the beat of her pulse at the hollow of her throat. She cried out in protest when he moved his hands away.

  “Ssh,” he soothed. “There’s more to come.”

  But not yet, he wanted to say. Not until he had her so relaxed, so undone, that the pleasure would go on and on and on. He slid his mouth over hers before taking a gentle bite of her lower lip. She sighed, a sound that vibrated throughout his body, so he did it again. Then he turned her so she faced the wall and placed her palms against the tile so she could brace herself.

  Adding another dollop of the shower gel, he massaged the body wash into her shoulders, down her back, and along her spine. He ghosted his fingers over the curve of her gorgeous ass down to her legs, then knelt and nudged her thighs apart. With the same slow, leisurely movement, he stroked each leg up from ankle to thigh and down again. When he brushed the lips of her cunt with his knuckles, she moaned and pressed herself against his hand.

  Not yet, he told himself again. Not quite yet.

  Coating his fingers with more shower gel, he then slid them between the cheeks of her ass, stroking up and down, feeling the hot, puckered opening. What he wouldn’t give to plunge his cock inside her there, feel that scorching heat and those tight muscles around his shaft as he fucked them both into oblivion.

  Soon, he reminded himself. One thing at a time.

  By the time he’d attended to every inch of her, his entire body was one big hard-on, but Nikki was relaxed and limp as she leaned against the shower wall.

  He turned her to face him again, then dropped down to his knees and lifted one of her legs over his shoulder to give him complete access to her. Using this thumbs and forefingers, he opened the lips of her cunt as though he was exposing the core of a flower, took her clit between his teeth and bit down with a gentle pressure.

  Nikki moaned her pleasure and dug her heel into his back to balance herself. When her swollen bud was fully teased, he ran the tip of his tongue around her opening before thrusting it inside. She was so wet, and he knew it wasn’t just the shower. He curled his tongue to taste every bit of her inner walls, lapped at her clit again then returned to fucking her with his tongue.

  Her sexy little moans were as much of a turn-on as teasing and feeling her, so he did it again. And more. He adjusted her position so he could continue to fuck her with his mouth while he clasped the cheeks of her ass and separated them just enough that he could slide his fingers into that tempting place between them.

  She continued to make those delicious sounds that only made him hotter as she rocked forward against his mouth and back against his fingers. He could tell she was close, so he increased the pressure and speed. Then he bit down on her clit again and she exploded, pouring her juices onto his tongue, her buttocks clenching hard against his fingers. He banded one arm around her to hold her to him as spasm after spasm rocked her.

  Then, at last, the tremors subsided and her body was lax against the tiles. He rose and placed a soft kiss on her lips. Then, sliding his tongue into her mouth, he soothed her and stroked her until she was calm again.

  “Well.” Her eyes opened but they were still heavy-lidded with passion. “That was some shower.”

  He chuckled. “There’s more where that came from. Can I coax you into bed so I can slide into you and feel all that delicious wet flesh around me?”

  “Let’s dry off. Then I have a better idea. “

  He couldn’t imagine what on earth that could be, but they dried each other carefully, swipes with the towels punctuated by kisses that were hot and hungry. He was astounded that despite her orgasm just seconds ago, Nikki was aroused again. They could barely keep their hands off each other as they fell into bed, covers kicked to the foot of the mattress. But when Marc started to reach for the condoms in the nightstand drawer, she stopped him.

  “I have a better idea. You’ve been doing all the work. Now it’s my turn.”

  She caught him so off guard that when she nudged him onto his back, he just tumbled into place. Although still shaking a bit in the aftermath of her release, she prodded his legs apart, knelt between his thighs and circled his cock with her slim fingers.

  When she lowered her head, he tried to stop her.

  “Wait. Nikki. No, wait. Please. You don’t have to—”

  But she knocked his hand away and closed her mouth over him, sliding her lips from tip to root and back again.

  Oh, sweet Jesus.

  Although in their short relationship he’d done this to her several times, he’d never hinted that she should reciprocate. For one thing, he knew a lot of women didn’t like it. For another, Ria had always done that whenever they got in a fight and she wanted to get past it. Change the environment. She’d discovered early on that she could drive everything out of his mind when she closed her lips around him.

  Would those bitter memories ruin what could be special with Nikki? Could he relax and enjoy it?

  “Quit thinking.” Her words were muffled as her mouth was still closed around his shaft. “Please let me do this for you, okay?”

  His head fell back on the pillow and his arms dropped to his sides. Nikki hummed as she slid her mouth up and down his cock, pausing now and then to lick the soft skin of the head, punctuating it with brief dips of her tongue into the little slit. Heat surged through him, lighting him up like a Fourth of July firecracker and his hips automatically rose and fell with the rhythm of her mouth.

  He had already been teetering on the edge before this, but now his body was screaming for release. As if sensing it, Nikki slowed her movements, eased back and licked the warm flesh with a lazy movement of her tongue. When she went back to it in earnest, he wove his fingers through her long, thick hair, pulling it to one side so his view of her mouth was not obscured.

  The sight of those plump pink lips closed around his hot shaft, the feel of her tongue, the delicate way she sucked him yet still drew on him with force. Jesus. Whatever he’d done with Ria wasn’t even in the same ballpark as this. This—this!—was the stuff erotic dreams were made of. He closed his eyes and gave himself over to sensation.

  Need rose within him, hot
and fluid, surging through his body. He held it together until she slid her hands between his thighs, cupped his balls and gave them a gentle squeeze. At the same time she drew her teeth the length of his shaft then sucked hard.

  And he exploded.

  Fuck!

  He didn’t know if he shouted it or just heard it in his head, but his entire body convulsed and shook as spasm after spasm gripped him and his cum spurted into her mouth. She stayed with him until the end, sucking until there wasn’t a drop left in him, squeezing his balls in a rhythmic motion. And swallowing. All he could think was nothing that had come before had ever been like this. Nothing.

  It seemed forever before his body finally gave up the ghost. Every bit of energy had been sapped from him. Nikki looked at him, a knowing smile curving her lips. Despite the harrowing experiences of the past two days, there was a little spark in her eyes.

  “Good?” She licked her lips, a slow, easy swipe of her tongue.

  He could not believe that his very limp shaft began to harden again.

  “Are you kidding? Good isn’t even close to describing it.” He reached up and pulled her down to him, cradling her against his chest. “When this is all over, darlin’, we are definitely discussing our future. I know we both have unpleasant histories but I think we can build something good together.”

  “Okay.”

  But what did it mean that she took so long to get that word out? A feeling of unease threaded through him, pricking at the happiness he was finding despite the situation they were all involved in.

  He wasn’t going to worry about it now. They had a crisis to get through first. But he for sure wasn’t walking away from this. And he wouldn’t let her, either.

  Tugging her forward until she lay across his chest, he put his arms around her and kissed her forehead. When she snuggled against him, the tight feeling in his chest eased a little. Whatever this was, he’d find the answer so they could move ahead together. For the first time in forever he was actually looking forward to the future.

  * * * *

  Jamal put the final touches on the suicide vest, closed the flaps and set it inside a box. Across from him, Kasim did the same. In an hour a friend of Rafiq’s would be here to pick up all the explosives, including the vests, and secure them in a hidden compartment in his food truck.

  “This is where the truck that we are looking for will be parked.” Rafiq marked a red X on the big map. “Tomorrow the two of you and Salman will attend the rodeo like any other citizens. We have tickets for you. Salman will give you the guided tour, show you how to retrieve the explosives from the truck and plan out their route for the placement of the bombs. You will know exactly where everything is and how to get to it.”

  Jamal frowned. Is it just this simple? “Won’t someone question us being around there?”

  Rafiq gave him a look of disgust. “Do you not believe we have thought of everything here? It will be mass chaos there. When you return the day after opening, you will arrive as workers for this vendor. No one will be wondering about a couple of men getting supplies from a truck. The man helping us has a false back in his truck, concealing a locked cupboard that looks like a solid piece of metal. And the spicy aroma of the food will be enough to disguise any lingering odors of the explosives.”

  Salman had walked into the dining room as Rafiq finished his explanation. He nodded at the other man’s words.

  “Tomorrow we will be just average people going to the rodeo. We will check out all the buildings, buy some food and look at trinkets. Check out both the Freeman Coliseum and the AT&T Center. We will even take pictures, like tourists. Pictures that we can look at back here and memorize again.”

  Rafiq looked at each of the men, fervor hot in his eyes. “It is important that you not fuck this up. Instead of heaven you will be cast into hell, and your families will suffer.”

  Jamal was too familiar with the suffering inflicted on the families of those who failed their missions. From the time he’d been a child, he had seen ISIS teams march to the homes of people he knew, drag families out into the street and behead them or shoot them down. Often the person accused was forced to watch members of his family whipped and tortured in other ways before everyone was killed.

  To some, this might have been a reason to try escaping. To Jamal and his friends, it meant a purification, as they’d been taught from an early age. His heart was committed to ISIS as the one path to being blessed by Allah and achieving the highest state in heaven. Killing infidels would bring him and Kasim a great reward. Rather than fearing his death, he embraced it, as did his friend. He was only sad that Malik and Farid would not be joining them, but he would pray for their souls.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Marc and Nikki arrived at the rodeo grounds at eleven-thirty the next morning, thirty minutes before the gates opened. Everyone was already there, gathered outside the operations manager’s office

  Steven Hofler gathered everyone inside the office before they started out for the day. “First thing,” he told the group, “is we got an identification on the dead body about an hour ago. His name is Farid Abadi.”

  “Any history on him?” Slade asked. “Or word about the guys with him?”

  “Unfortunately, not yet, but I promise you, they are all over it.”

  “Is he part of a group?” Joe Trainor asked. “Do we know who his friends are? Who the other three guys in that cottage with him were?” He glanced at Nikki. “The ones who captured Miss Alvarez?”

  Marc felt rather than saw Nikki tense at the words.

  Hofler shook his head. “Not yet, but we’re still working on it. They’d be the ones he would have been sent to Mexico with.” He paused. “We should all keep in mind the chaos and death we’ll be facing if we can’t find these men in time.”

  “I’m sure you don’t need me to tell you,” the operations manager commented. “We’d sure appreciate it if you caught these guys before we get into any of the evening hours.”

  “Believe me when I tell you we want to catch these guys as fast as possible ourselves,” Steven Hofler all but snapped at him.

  “I’m just sayin’,” the manager told him.

  Marc realized the man had the entire facility as well as all the employees and volunteers to be concerned about, but he thought the manager should be damn glad they’d caught the news about this before anything could happen. And that they had a full-out plan they were implementing to shortstop disaster.

  He was convinced that Day One of what he was calling the Rodeo Bomb Tour would be busy but uneventful. The consensus was that the terrorists would spend that day scoping out the site and making their plans.

  “We don’t open until noon today,” the manager reiterated. “After that it’s eight o’clock every day. We’re open the first three nights until ten. After that we close at nine.”

  “They’ll be marking spots to conceal the bombs for optimum effect,” Hofler reminded them. “They won’t want to place them just willy nilly. And they’ll be dressed to blend in with everyone else, so even with the sketches, it will be difficult to identify them.”

  “Everyone has those sketches, right?” Slade asked, looking at the group.

  They all nodded.

  “Okay. The regular security force will be visible at all times.” He pointed to a man standing close to Trainor. “Sheriff Andy Morrell heads that group and shift captains report to him. They will all be visible, wearing uniforms and many also with Stetsons on their heads. Our guys will want to avoid them at all costs, so if you happen to spot anyone in the overwhelming crowd that looks like the deputies make them nervous, keep a sharp eye on them.”

  “You’ve all got your assignments.” Hofler looked at the group. “Let’s get some coffee and get started.”

  Slade was standing by the cart Marc and Nikki sat in, one arm leaning on the top.

  “Hold on until everyone else is gone,” he told them in a low voice.

  The group dispersed, Hofler going off to the elec
tronics office so he could track everything with the on-site personnel. Then it was just Marc’s team and Nikki.

  “What’s up?” Trey asked.

  Slade looked at Trey and Beau.

  “Yesterday we couldn’t seem to agree on the best vantage point for the two of you. Beau, you’re liable to be the point of last resort. We’ll have the dogs sniffing all day for bombs, which we hope will make things difficult for these guys. We’ll even have them in the Freeman Coliseum and the AT&T Center. But these insane fanatics could decide any statement is better than no statement at all and try to place them outside.”

  Beau nodded. “Trey and I talked about that after the meeting yesterday. We had the same thought.” He pulled out a copy of the map they’d all memorized. “If Plan A fails for them, this looks like the optimum place for them to place their stuff.”

  With the tip of his finger he drew a line through the area in front of the Freeman Coliseum, indicating the cluster of shows, food places and family activities. Just off to the left but still within the danger zone was the big carnival setup.

  “Yesterday we talked about us getting up on the roof of Expo Hall, but the Freeman gives us a wider range,” Trey pointed out. “Get us up there with radios so we’re in touch at all times and we’ll be good to go.”

  Marc felt Nikki’s hand on his arm.

  “Yeah, sugar?”

  “Marc, it’s broiling in the sun up there. I’d hate for them to get dehydrated or burned alive.”

  “Good thing we have a nurse along,” he teased. “I promise you it’s way hotter than this over in the sandbox. And Slade will be sure they have plenty of water. No worries.”

  He could tell she was still bothered, and he loved the fact that she was concerned about his teammates. Again he wondered if he should stash her away in the electronics room until the end of the day. Who knows what these nut jobs might do, especially if they recognize her?

  As if she knew what was running through his brain, she shook her head.

  “You need me out here, Marc. I’m the only one who’s spent enough time with them to recognize them. And I don’t look anything like myself, right?”