Breaking Rules (Delta Force Strong Book 2)

by Elle James

  Sunny watched in amazement as the medic worked his magic with the bodyguard. When he was finished, he started to pack up his kit.

  Sunny lowered the window. “Be sure to look at Dash’s leg wound,” she said softly.

  “You got hit?” Bull asked.

  Dash glared up at Sunny, and then turned back to Bull. “Just a nick. I can take care of it myself.”

  “Let’s see,” Bull insisted.

  Dash turned to show his teammate the leg with the blood on his trousers.

  “Either drop your drawers or let me cut them away,” Bull demanded.

  “It can wait until make the next FOB,” Dash said.

  Bull shook his head. “The longer you wait to close it, the more infected it will get.”

  “I’ll take my chances.” Dash glanced toward the hills behind them. “We need to get moving before that gang of goons decides to regroup and come back for more.”

  “You need to take care of your leg,” Sunny said.

  His lips firmed. “I’m fine. Let it go.”

  Sunny started to argue, but she could see the tension in Dash’s jaw. He was worried about another attack. “Fine. Let’s get going.”

  One of her bodyguards helped Marcus into one of the other vehicles, and the other two guards headed for Sunny’s motorhome.

  She hurried to unlock the driver’s door and scooted back as the one called David checked the engine, making sure it hadn’t taken a bullet to a critical area. When he was sure it was okay, he took the driver’s seat.

  The other bodyguard, Ray, glanced at Dash as they stood beside the coach.

  Dash lifted his chin in the direction of the front passenger seat. “You can ride shotgun. Just be ready in case those guys show up again.”

  The man nodded and slid into the seat beside the driver.

  Sunny rushed to the door leading into the living area and unlocked it.

  Dash stood at the bottom of the steps, looking up into her face. “Still want me to ride in your unit?”

  She reached out her hand. “Of course, I do. Why wouldn’t I?”

  “I’m not sure I was much help.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous,” she said. “Of course, you were. You got several of them even before your team arrived with the machine guns.”

  “We should have been better prepared for a flank attack.”

  “You couldn’t know they would be there. Even your guys in the lead didn’t know they would attack. They seemed to come out of nowhere.”

  “But they didn’t. The conditions were right for an ambush, and we didn’t take enough precautions.”

  “You did what you could. And you took over for Marcus when he couldn’t manage the steering wheel. That in itself could have been a complete disaster. If we’d crashed, those people would have been on us so fast, your guys wouldn’t have gotten there in time to keep them from taking what they wanted.”

  “You took over steering from me,” he said. “You kept us going.”

  “It was a team effort.” She held out her hand. “Come inside. Like you said, we need to get moving again.”

  His teammates climbed into their respective vehicles and went in opposite directions to get to the front and rear of the convoy.

  Dash took Sunny’s hand, walked up into the camper and pulled her into his arms. He crushed her to his chest for a long time. So long, that the driver shifted into gear and fell in behind the van in front of them. They continued their journey to the next forward operating base and a crowd of military personnel who were eager to see Sunny Daye’s performance.

  Dash backed into a wall to steady himself and her as the motorhome rumbled down the uneven road, bouncing and swaying.

  Sunny liked how solid the man was. She felt safer with him than she’d felt at any other time in her life. “I wish I could stay like this forever.”

  He brushed the hair out of her face and kissed her forehead. “We should take a seat before we’re thrown across the room.”

  She sighed and nodded. Then she took his hand and led him to the couch.

  Dash sat first and pulled her down into his lap. When he winced, Sunny leaped to her feet at the same time as they hit a dip in the road that sent her flying back into his arms.

  “Oh, Dash, I’m sorry.” She pushed against his chest and stared into his face. “You have to be hurting, and here I am sitting on you.”

  He laughed and pulled her closer. “I don’t feel the pain. But I feel something far better.”

  Her cheeks heated. She could feel the evidence of his desire pressing against where her bottom met his lap. “As tempting as that sounds, I’d feel terrible if you bled out on me because I was too selfish to check your injury.”

  “I told you. I’m fine. It’s just a flesh wound.” He tried to pull her back into his arms.

  Sunny pushed away and stood, holding onto the wall beside her. “If it’s really just a flesh wound, why is it still bleeding?” Sunny gave Dash a narrow-eyed glance.

  “Think of it as pushing all the impurities out of my body.”

  Sunny snorted, reached into a drawer and pulled out a pair of scissors. “Now, you can either drop your pants or let me cut away the fabric so I can see what we have…”

  “I knew you couldn’t resist seeing me naked.” Dash winked and reached for the button on his camouflage trousers.

  Sunny wanted to tell him she wasn’t that interested in his naked body as she much as she wanted to make sure he wasn’t grievously injured. But that would be the truth and a lie. She wanted both. The thought of seeing his magnificent body without a thread of clothing made her weak in the knees.

  “Just drop your drawers unless you want me to cut away your trousers with you in them.” Sunny held up the scissors with a maniacal look in her eyes.

  “I kinda of need my pants,” Dash said. “I don’t have a spare anywhere near this convoy.”

  “Then I suggest you drop them.”

  Dash glanced toward the guys up front.

  “If you want some privacy, we can take you back to the bedroom,” she said.

  “That would be better,” he said.

  “I would think you couldn’t be shy around other men. Not in the Army. Don’t you all shower in the same shower tent or barracks?”

  “We do,” he admitted. “But we don’t normally have a woman in the mix. That changes the whole dynamic.”

  “You’re stalling and those pants aren’t down.” She leaned toward him with the scissors.

  “Okay, okay,” he said, holding up his hands. “In the bedroom.”

  “Go on back. I’ll bring the first aid kit,” Sunny said.

  As Dash hurried into her bedroom, Sunny reached under a cabinet for the first aid kit. With the emergency medical supplies in hand and anticipation filling her body, she made her way carefully to the back bedroom.

  Dash wasn’t in the bedroom. Sunny found him in the bathroom sitting on the closed toilet, his trousers down below his knees.

  Anyone else would have looked silly. But Dash was anything but silly. Thick thighs peeked out from beneath his uniform jacket.

  Sunny’s core tightened.

  “Do you have a wash rag you don’t mind getting all bloody?” he asked.

  His request spurred her into action. She found a clean washcloth in a cabinet, wet it in the sink and applied it to the bullet wound. Dabbing gently. “You really need to shower and let the water wash over that hole. It would be better than a rag, pushing the germs deeper into the injured area.”

  “Seriously, it’ll be all right until we can get to the next stop. I can shower then and seek medical attention if I need it…after your concert.” He winked.

  “Before my concert,” she narrowed her eyes, “or I’ll refuse to sing until you get it taken care of.”

  “You have a mean streak, don’t you?” he groused.

  She laughed. “Only when it counts. I’d hate for our country to lose a perfectly good Delta Force operative because he was too stubborn to seek
help when he needed it.”

  “Fine. If we get to the FOB in time, I’ll shower and seek medical attention for my booboo.” He cocked an eyebrow. “Satisfied?”

  “Not quite. For now, I need to apply a dressing to your booboo and wrap it up.” After she’d washed it as best she could, she applied a folded gauze pad to the area and taped it in place with white medical tape. When she was done, she wrapped it with a bandage to hold everything in place.

  “You’re pretty good at that. Are you sure you weren’t a nurse in a former life?” Dash asked as he drew his trousers up over his boxers.

  She shook her head, memories of her childhood rushing back to haunt her. “No.” Sunny turned away before he could see the tears well in her eyes.

  Dash caught her arm and turned her around. “Hey. Was it something I said?”

  Sunny brushed away a tear. “No. Sometimes, I just get emotional.”

  He frowned, drew her close and tipped her chin up so that she was forced to expose the tears. “Seriously, what’s wrong?”

  “Besides being chased by a crazy man bent on trying to sell me to the highest bidder, being shot at by men on motorcycles and being held by a man who’s breaking all my carefully constructed rules…I don’t know. You tell me.”

  An errant tear slipped from the corner of her eye and trailed down her cheek.

  “You were fine until I said something about being a nurse in a former life.” Dash brushed his thumb across her cheek, wiping away the tear. “It had to be a former life if you started your singing career when you were only thirteen.”

  Sunny looked over his shoulder. Anywhere but into his eyes. “I never was a nurse. But I did dress wounds.”

  “I don’t understand,” Dash said.

  “I was raised by my grandparents. My folks weren’t capable of taking care of a little girl. They were too strung out on drugs to give a damn about me.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that,” Dash said. “It must have been hard for you.”

  Sunny shrugged. “I didn’t know anything different. I was only three when I moved in permanently with my grandparents. They were my world, the parents my own mom and dad could never be.”

  “What does that have to do with being a nurse? Was your grandmother a nurse?”

  “No. My grandfather was diabetic. If he scraped or cut himself, the wounds never seemed to heal, or healed so slowly I had to dress them daily to have any hope of them healing. The alternative was worse. He could get gangrene and have the limb amputated.”

  “So, you became very good at dressing wounds by doing it daily for your grandfather.” Again, he brushed the hair back from her forehead. “You have a good heart, Sunny Daye.”

  Sunny swallowed hard and fought back the tears. “I loved my grandfather so much. He was a kind and gentle soul. His love of music inspired me to sing. He and my grandmother were with me at every concert up, until I turned twenty. By then, my grandfather’s health got too bad for him to travel. I was twenty-two when he passed away. My grandmother was so sad, her health declined. She passed a year later.”

  “I’m sorry.” He drew her into his arms and held her for a long time.

  She leaned into him. It was nice to have someone hold her when she was sad. Ray had never been good at dealing with her emotions. She’d had to suck it up and keep moving forward. Why had she stayed with him for so long?

  Sunny leaned into Dash, pressing her cheek to his bulletproof vest, wishing she could feel his skin against hers.

  A bump in the road sent them flying.

  Dash caught her around the waist and sat on the bed, pulling her down with him. She landed in his lap.

  When she started to move away, his arms wrapped around her. “You don’t have to move if you don’t want to,” he whispered against her ear and then pressed his lips to the sensitive skin below her lobe.

  Her breath caught in her throat. “I might disturb your wound,” she said, leaning her head back to give him better access to her neck.

  “I’m feeling no pain,” he assured her, his mouth moving down the length of her neck in a slow, steady flow of kisses.

  She wanted him to keep going, to capture one of her breasts between his lips, but there were two men up front, driving. They were probably wondering what was taking them so long in the back. They might even come to their own conclusions. Conclusions Sunny wished were true.

  Another bump sent them flying into the air. They knocked heads as the they came down on the mattress.

  Dash laughed, rubbing his head. “I don’t know what you find disconcerting about riding back here.”

  She rubbed a hand over her head where she’d hit his. “It’s not safe, for one. And it’s not conducive to sleeping.”

  “You have a point. But if you were a kid, this would be where it’s at.” He winked and pushed to his feet.

  She chuckled. “You’re right. A child would find it as much fun as a carnival ride.”

  Holding onto the wall, Dash reached for her hand, drawing her up into his arms. “I would have liked to continue our…conversation…but I don’t want to give you a concussion. Your fans are expecting you to deliver a concert tonight.”

  Sunny wrapped her arms around his waist. “You’re not much of a rule follower, are you?”

  “I find it doesn’t get you anywhere. If you want something, and you’re not going to hurt anyone in the process of getting it, you should go for it.”

  “My grandfather felt the same way. People criticized my grandparents for encouraging me to go into the entertainment industry so young. But he always told me that, if I wanted something, I should go for it. I shouldn’t let anyone get in my way or tell me I was doing it wrong.” She looked up into his eyes.

  “And what do you want now?” Dash asked.

  She hesitated, drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I want you.”

  His eyes flared, and his arms tightened around her. “I feel there’s a but in there somewhere.”

  She nodded. “But, there are all these rules you have to follow. You’re not supposed to fraternize in a war zone. I had a few of my own rules where my bodyguards are concerned. We can’t just ignore everything.” Her heart skipped several beats at the hunger in Dash’s eyes. “Can we?” she whispered.

  “To hell with the rules,” Dash said and crushed her to him, claiming her lips.

  They didn’t come up for air until the coach hit another bump in the road.

  “You’re going to end up hurt if we don’t move forward in this tank,” Dash said. “Come on. We can continue this discussion when we make our next stop.”

  He led her out of the bedroom and into the living area. The two men up front were deep in a conversation about sports. They weren’t aware of what had happened between Dash and Sunny.

  At least, Sunny hoped they weren’t. She didn’t want to get Dash in trouble for kissing her. She wondered just how much trouble he could get into for kissing her…?

  If it wasn’t much, she’d like him to do it again.

  To hell with the rules.

  Chapter 7

  Dash settled Sunny on the couch, fetched a pillow for her and insisted on fastening her seatbelt. She laid her head on the pillow and closed her eyes. To avoid further temptation, Dash sat across from her, watching her chest rise and fall as she slept. She was a beauty, her golden hair pilling around her shoulders, her eyelashes making dark crescents on her cheeks and her very kissable lips were a natural rosy pink.

  His groin tightened. God, he wanted the woman. Rather than continue to torture himself by staring at what he couldn’t have, he rose from his seat and joined the men up front.

  “How’s it going?” he asked, leaning through the gap between the seats to stare out at the road ahead.

  Paul dipped his head toward a device in the dash. “From what I can tell, by the GPS, we should arrive at our destination within the next twenty minutes.”

  “That close?” Dash glanced out at the flat, barren surroundings and wondered
why the people who lived here fought for this dried-up land.

  He supposed that if it was all you knew, and your entire family and all the generations of your family before them had lived their lives there, it was home.

  Even Killeen, Texas had more vegetation to offer than the terrain they were passing through.

  Soon, the buildings and tents of the forward operating base appeared ahead.

  Dash glanced back at Sunny. She sat up and rubbed the sleep from her eyes. “Are we there yet?” she asked and yawned.

  “Almost.”

  “Good. I’d like to get out and stretch my legs. I haven’t worked out in a couple days, and I’m feeling it.” She stretched her arms in the air, pulling her shirt tight over her breasts.

  Dash swallowed a groan. He shouldn’t be thinking about what he’d like to do with her beautiful body, when she was the target of someone who wanted to take her and, possibly, sell her to some lowlife pimp or a sheik with a harem full of stolen women.

  He turned to the view ahead. “Hopefully, they have sufficient room inside the wire for you to take a leisurely stroll.”

  She yawned. “One way or another, I need a walk before I get on stage.”

  “You mean you don’t get enough exercise during your performance?”

  “It’s a different kind of exercise,” she said. “I come away exhausted. A walk before clears my mind and calms me before I have to be on.”

  “I’ll see what we can manage. I don’t want you too close to the outside fence in case someone tries to take a shot at whoever is moving inside the wire.”

  She nodded. “That’s the reason I haven’t walked since I landed in Afghanistan. I was warned not to. But I need the exercise and the chance to clear my mind.”

  “Then I’ll be by your side with my bulletproof vest on. For that matter, we’ll outfit you with a Kevlar helmet and a vest of your own.”

  Sunny smiled. “Thank you. I look forward to our walk.”

  The motorhome pulled to a stop behind the other vehicles in the convoy while the guards at the gate made sure the vans, trucks and motorhomes were free of enemy combatants and bombs.