Trisha Telep (ed)

by The Mammoth Book of Special Ops Romance (epub)

  “Brick” Sanders had earned his nickname. The formidable black ops mercenary, former Navy SEAL, was as unmovable and as unforgiving as a fifty-foot-thick wall when he set his mind to something.

  As far as Jaymie was concerned Brick could shove his attitude right up his cinder blocks. All walls had at least one weakness and she’d find his if it was the last thing she did.

  His hard-cut, bronzed features were anything but handsome. He might not be what most women would consider especially good-looking . . . but she had to admit he had sex appeal to the max that saturated her to the bone when she was near him.

  Brick had an incredible body to go along with all of that sex appeal. When he wasn’t looking, she enjoyed watching him prepare for and execute each objective, or kick back with the rest of the team when they took a break.

  “It’s not a Dark Force mission.” Brick’s voice rumbled like rocks in a landslide. “This is personal. I decide who goes.”

  His biceps were impressive as he folded his arms, as was his well-defined chest that stretched his sleeveless T-shirt. His black fatigues were a little loose, but they couldn’t hide his powerful thighs and tight ass.

  She’d wanted him since the moment she heard his voice – even though he’d been arguing with “Thunder” Hansen that she couldn’t be on the team. Thunder, of course, won the argument and Brick had taken another long look at her before storming away. She’d smiled to herself as she’d thought about taking that man to bed.

  Jeez, she had to stop this train of thought. The desire that she felt every time he was even close to her.

  Jaymie waved in the direction of the camp that the team had set up on the beach. It was a good hundred yards from where she and Brick were having their “discussion” within the jungle’s fringe. “You gave in to all three guys when they insisted on going with you to save your nephew. There’s no reason why I can’t be on the recovery team, too.”

  When he’d opposed her being on the team, Brick had used the excuse that because she’d been a CIA agent and not former Special Forces, she’d be unable to handle the kind of ops they would be hired for. He’d argued that she’d be a liability instead of an asset.

  Over the past six months since she’d joined the team, Jaymie had hassled Brick at every opportunity, pissing him off as much as possible, just for the hell of it. She’d had no problem proving him wrong on their first two missions together, showing everyone how valuable she was to the team. Of course Brick was too much of an arrogant bastard to admit he was wrong. At least he’d stopped his rumblings about her even being there.

  Brick took one step towards her, leaving only inches between them. Jaymie almost stepped back, which would have had her pressed up against the young kapok tree behind her, and congratulated herself on keeping her position. She narrowed her gaze as she met the six foot four man’s green eyes. Even at five foot ten she had to look up to glare at him.

  “I’ve been a member of Dark Force for six months.” She clenched her hands into fists at her sides. “During both of my missions I’ve proven that I’m a valuable asset to the team.”

  Tension radiated from him, so palpable that she felt it within herself. When he spoke again, the single word was low, measured, controlled. “No.”

  Jaymie started to speak but every thought shot from her mind as Brick grabbed her wrists. In an almost violent movement, he jerked her to him and captured her mouth with his.

  There could be no other word but “capture”. Jaymie felt his hard, firm mouth pressing her softer, fuller lips against her teeth. Complete and total surprise had her opening her mouth and Brick totally dominated her by thrusting his tongue inside, exploring and tasting her before he sucked on her tongue.

  Shock immobilized Jaymie for only a moment but he’d raised her hands so fast, both of her wrists clenched in one of his big palms. He held her hands above her head and nearly slammed her up against the kapok tree. She fought against Brick’s hold but he used his large, hard body to prevent any kind of move she might make.

  Sixteen years of tae kwon do, not to mention extensive training in hand-to-hand combat, and she was pinned by this brute of a man, this immovable force.

  Brick’s kiss was hard enough to be painful. He clenched his fist in her loose blonde hair and kept her head motionless.

  Instead of fighting him, she relaxed her body, thinking that if she did she might fool him into letting down his guard. More surprise shot through her as she felt his long, thick erection pressed against her belly.

  His kiss was relentless, powerful. Jaymie found herself breathing in his masculine scent, and involuntary electrical charges zinged from her belly button to between her thighs. In the past six months since she’d been recruited on to the team by Thunder, Brick’s musky scent had never failed to send thrills through her. She’d never been so close to him, though, never been so filled with his incredible scent, his very presence.

  She didn’t even realize she had fallen into the kiss and was kissing him back until she heard herself moan.

  Her moan encouraged Brick and his kiss became impossibly more intense. He bit her lower lip with a firm yet soft bite.

  Jaymie gave a cry into his mouth. Not of pain, but desire. Sheer, complete desire. And she was shaking with it. Shaking with the need for him to take her right there against the tree.

  “I want to fuck you.” He raised his face just enough that she could see the sexual need and frustration in his green eyes as his words echoed her thoughts. “Be inside you.” His next word was a low growl. “Now.”

  Jaymie tried to think clearly, but all she could do was imagine Brick filling her. That was what she’d wanted since she’d first met him despite his arrogance and insistence they didn’t need her on the team.

  Brick didn’t relax his hold and she could still feel his barely contained desire. She knew he wouldn’t force her, but he wanted her badly. As badly as she wanted him.

  “I like it rough, Jaymie.” He pressed his rigid cock against her belly, grinding as he did it. “And when I start I’m not stopping.”

  Jaymie tried to swallow but her throat was too dry. She met Brick’s gaze that had gone dark green in the dim jungle light. Feral, hungry – his expression deepened as he stared at her, waiting for her response. Even if he were rough, he wouldn’t hurt her. Would he?

  She needed him so badly, what other answer was there? “Yes,” she said in a hoarse whisper. “I want you.”

  Brick moved his fingers from her hair while his other hand continued to pin her wrists against the tree. She squirmed against his hard body. He ripped a vine from a tree and wrapped it around her wrists then around the trunk of the tree at her back.

  Stunned, she struggled, but she could tell he had tied the smooth vine so well her efforts were totally futile.

  The instinct to fight against her bonds was natural. “What the hell—”

  Another harsh kiss took the rest of her sentence from her. With her arms secured above her head and his body pressed to hers, she couldn’t stop him from pushing up her tank top and wrapping another vine around her waist. It was smooth against her belly. He had her tied so securely there was no way she could get loose. As he drew back and looked into her eyes, she knew he’d meant what he said. She’d said yes . . . and there was no turning back.

  But she didn’t want to turn back, didn’t want him to stop. The eroticism of what he was doing, how he had tied her to the tree, had her completely off guard – had her completely turned on.

  With one hand he yanked her green tank top up and over her breasts. He anchored his other hand in her hair again, pulling her head back so firmly it thunked against the tree. Her mind spun from the not-so-gentle thump. But then she gasped as he jerked down her bra and immediately caught one of her nipples in the warmth of his mouth.

  Her nipples had always been unusually sensitive, and the feel of him sucking one made her nearly blind with lust. When he lightly bit her nipple, it almost made her knees give out.

 
She tried to keep her moans and sounds of excitement low as he moved his mouth to her other breast so that the noises didn’t carry back to camp.

  Her scalp tingled as he released her nipple so that his hands were free to push her shorts and panties over her toned thighs to her feet, leaving her naked from the waist down. Humid jungle air brushed her skin and she grew so wet with desire she was squirming against the vines that held her.

  Brick slid his fingers into her wet folds and Jaymie choked back a cry when he flicked the taut nub. His calloused fingers felt rough against her softness and the contrast was amazingly hot.

  “Can’t wait any longer.” He had the sound of a primal animal that took its mate regardless of her own need.

  Well, this was one female whose need matched his own.

  He unfastened his fatigues and shoved them down his hips. The length and girth of his cock made desire clench her abdomen. She grew wetter with the knowledge that he would be taking her, driving his thick erection into her.

  Brick grabbed her by her ass with his large hands. His fingers dug into her flesh as he raised her. She wrapped her legs around his hips and his ass, his body firm between her thighs.

  His feral, dark-green gaze focused on hers as he positioned his cock to enter her. Jaymie caught her breath, her heart pounding, body trembling, as she waited for him to do what they both wanted, needed.

  He gave an animalistic rumble in his chest just before he thrust inside her.

  An involuntary cry came from Jaymie’s lips as she took him deep. Vaguely she was aware of the fact that the other guys of Dark Force might hear her, but right then she wasn’t quite sure she cared.

  “I’ve wanted to fuck you since the day you joined the team.” Brick pounded into her almost relentlessly as he spoke. “I knew you’d be a distraction and we couldn’t afford distractions. I couldn’t afford it.”

  Jaymie couldn’t speak as he pulled her hair harder, jerking her head back so her breasts jutted out. He ran his stubbled cheeks over the column of her throat.

  “Brick.” His name seemed to come from nowhere as he fucked her harder than she’d ever been fucked before. “Please—” She stopped, not even knowing what she was begging for. Maybe it was for the orgasm that was starting to build inside her, already beginning low in her belly.

  She could feel his hips bruising the insides of her thighs from the power of his thrusts. Being restrained – his hold on her hair almost painful – made everything feel somehow more exciting.

  Her orgasm spiralled inside her, eliminating her ability to think clearly. She fell into every sensation she was experiencing. Her wrists restrained above her, the vine tethering her waist to the tree, Brick’s T-shirt rasping against her nipples, his stubble like sandpaper against her throat, and his cock driving in and out of her so powerfully she felt it deeply enough to cry out with every thrust.

  When Brick clenched his fingers around her ass, Jaymie nearly screamed as she came. Her entire body jerked then shuddered from the intensity, the power of her orgasm. It seemed to go on and on, Brick drawing her climax out as she spasmed around his cock.

  “I can’t have you driving me out of my mind like you do.” Brick bit her ear as he spoke in a low, almost menacing tone, and she shuddered as she tried to come back to herself. “When I finish fucking you, you’ll be out of my system. I won’t think about putting my cock inside you every time I see your blue eyes. Every time I look at you.”

  Through the haze in her mind, Jaymie tried to make sense of his words.

  Then Brick slammed into her a few more times and growled as he came inside her. Within her now sensitized channel, she felt him throbbing. His face was a grimace as his orgasm clenched his body.

  When he looked like he was in control of himself, he gripped her shoulders and slid out. She stared at him in confusion as she lowered her legs from around his waist.

  Jaymie widened her eyes when he drew out his dagger. Then he reached up and sliced through the vines securing her wrists. He did the same to the vines at her waist and caught her before she would have fallen, due to the wobbly feeling that surged throughout her body.

  He kept his gaze on her as he sheathed his knife, tugged up his fatigues and fastened them. She dressed as well, slipping into her shorts and pulling her tank top and bra down over her aching breasts.

  Her body went from hot and excited to cool and distant as she stared at him, processing each and every word he’d just said.

  “You fucked me because you think that will make you stop wanting me.” Her tone was like ice. She took a step towards him.

  Brick shrugged and started to turn away from her, towards camp.

  Jaymie moved in front of him and slugged him.

  Then she rammed her knee as hard as she could into his balls.

  Brick dropped to his knees with a pained shout.

  Jaymie smiled with the smallest amount of satisfaction, turned, and headed back towards camp.

  Two

  Adrenaline heightened Jaymie Taylor’s senses as she slipped silently through the dark jungle and gripped the stock of her Barrett 82A1 .50 cal high-capacity semi-automatic rifle. A kidnapped twelve-year-old kid’s life was at stake.

  And his son of a bitch of an uncle, Brick, was somewhere in the jungle, unaware of her presence.

  Despite Brick’s order that she wasn’t to accompany the rest of the team, Jaymie left not long after they did, following the men into the jungle.

  Her body armour and utility belt were heavy but comforting as she moved forwards. Her dagger, Sig Sauer handgun, a small flashlight and extra ammo weighted her belt along with two IEDs – improvised explosive devices. Secured in her left boot was a small but deadly knife and in her right was a second Sig, a model that was more easily concealed than her larger handgun.

  Occasionally Jaymie heard the men checking in with Brick, the obvious team leader on this mission, by giving their statuses in low voices. Miniscule earpieces were secured firmly just outside each operative’s ear canal, including her own. The individual high-tech earpieces were programmed to transmit only its operative’s voice, keeping background noise to a minimum.

  It was possible lives would be lost tonight – it was almost a given in a situation where their team would be storming a compound like this. But no way could she allow that kid or anyone on the team to be among the casualties.

  She was one of the best of the best at what she did, as were the four men ahead of her. She never allowed doubt to enter her thoughts. Doubt could get you killed.

  Through her night vision goggles, everything glowed green-yellow. The eyewear assisted her in slipping among the dense foliage, through complete darkness. She easily blended with the night in her black fatigues, her blonde hair stuffed under a cap, black paint streaking her face.

  Jaymie eased under a rubber plant’s thick, low hanging leaves, her booted feet silent on the sodden jungle floor as she made her way towards their target.

  Somewhere not too far ahead of her, Brick moved as easily and quietly as she did despite his almost intimidating size. She was so angry with him that her blood felt like lava in her veins. And she was so furious at herself because she was still unbelievably aware of the potent sexuality of his presence even though she couldn’t see him, couldn’t hear him – he was probably a good 200 yards ahead of her.

  Despite the distance, Jaymie could almost swear she felt his magnetism beside her. She imagined catching his scent and her belly flipped as she remembered the way he’d felt inside her.

  The conflicting emotions were driving her out of her mind. She’d driven him out of his mind enough to fuck her up against a tree to get her “out of his system”. She wondered if he’d succeeded. Unfortunately he wasn’t out of hers.

  She elbowed vines aside while she held back a smirk at the fact that Brick, the asshole, now had a black eye and had walked with a limp for the rest of the day. He seemed fine now, which was a good thing considering they were on a mission.

  The jun
gle’s humidity caused perspiration to break out on Jaymie’s skin and droplets of sweat rolled down the sides of her face.

  At the last moment, she avoided stepping into a depression in the rich earth beside a banana tree and her heart bounced in her chest. Damn. She caught her breath and gritted her teeth. What the hell was the matter with her? What was she doing thinking about Brick when her focus on the mission needed to be complete? She would get herself or someone else killed if she didn’t get it together.

  Jaymie shook her head then easily brought her thoughts back to where they needed to be – part of the liquid machinery of the black ops team.

  Lights winked in and out of the foliage in the distance. “Compound in sight,” came Brick’s voice in her earpiece.

  “In view,” Jaymie almost said but managed to bite her tongue. She checked the GPS-enabled watch on her arm as the others reported their positions.

  Within moments Thunder, Casper and Spit gave their coordinates. Casper would do his thing and take out the generators, enabling the team to take over the compound more easily in what would soon, likely, be chaos.

  The recon the team had engaged in for the past couple of days would help make this op go like clockwork. The guys hadn’t even been aware that she’d followed them each day.

  When she reached the fringe of the jungle, Jaymie crouched behind a cover of cecropia trees. The compound’s lights became too bright and she had to push her night vision goggles up on top of her head.

  Surrounded by twenty-foot-high fencing, several buildings stood in the middle of a massive clearing. Stars winked above the area devoid of jungle vegetation. One of the buildings was huge, the main house where they were sure the kid was being held.

  Jaymie gritted her teeth. The child could be a needle in a haystack. Over the comm, she’d learned a couple of days ago that Brick was certain he’d spotted the kid through a window on the northern side of the building. Jaymie had thought she caught a glimpse of blond hair through the same window on that day, too.