by Julie Rowe
“Can I help?” he asked.
Help? Con opened his mouth to tell the useless fuck to go back into his room and not come out until he’d found his balls.
Sophia put her hand on Con’s shoulder and stroked him as she asked, “Can I borrow your handcuffs, Roger?”
Con hadn’t believed anything could disarm his fury, until Sophia did it with one completely serious question.
Roger looked scandalized.
Con actually felt sorry for him.
“Ah, no,” Roger replied, rubbing his face and giving her a brief, stiff smile. “Someone borrowed them. What happened?”
“Those two guys tried to grab me,” Sophia said.
Broken Arm tried to run again. This time Sophia tripped him. It wasn’t smooth or coordinated, but it worked.
This time the guy landed on his broken arm with a crack that was very audible.
Con gave her a grim smile. Good. She hadn’t hesitated to take action.
“Looks like I’ll be busy.” Roger glanced at Con. “I’m a surgeon and that is an arm I’m going to have to put together like a puzzle.”
“He’s lucky I didn’t break his neck.”
Roger took a wary step back.
“Con,” Sophia said, staring at the guy he had pinned to the floor. “Can he breathe?”
Con glanced down and let up on the pressure a little. The guy beneath him sucked in a couple of frantic breaths before yakking away in Arabic, telling his partner to get up and get out.
Con leaned down and said in the same language, “His arm is in pieces. He’s not going anywhere. You attacked an American soldier inside an American military hotel. You’re not going anywhere either. Except prison for the rest of your worthless life.”
The guy on the floor stopped talking.
Right about then, the MPs arrived.
It took a couple of hours for Sophia to give her version of events, and Con his, for the reports to be written and signed and everyone dismissed. He never let her out of his sight the entire time. At one point, the psychologist on duty tried to talk to Sophia in private, but Con nixed that idea, pulling the I’m the bodyguard card. Sophia had backed him up, thank God, and after giving Con a searching look, the psychologist had compromised by talking with Sophia where they could be seen, but not heard.
The possibility of not being able to see her had him fighting the need to pace. If they noticed, he might be reassigned or removed from active duty. He expected the psychologist to want to talk to him privately after she talked to Sophia, but instead she allowed Sophia to remain while she questioned Con.
Con went through the takedown in an even tone, answered the shrink’s questions as succinctly as possible and said nothing more than he had to.
Max made an appearance and seemed surprised at how easily Con had taken down the two men. It was the psychologist who smiled and said that most Special Forces soldiers were quite capable of taking down several adversaries.
It was almost midnight before Con walked Sophia to her quarters. They hadn’t spoken to each other since Max scowled at them and told them to get lost.
Sophia unlocked her door and turned to look up at him. “Thanks for doing your ninja thing.”
“Ninja?” Had she watched too many movies or what?
“You came out of nowhere.”
He angled his thumb over his shoulder. “Down the hall actually.”
She didn’t follow his gesture, her gaze unfocused. “I couldn’t believe anyone would try to kidnap me in the middle of the Navy hotel.”
“If they timed it right, it would be no more difficult than taking you off the street.”
He should have never left her alone.
Maybe he shouldn’t have said it so matter-of-factly, because her face lost all its color.
“Oh.” She swallowed hard and looked at the floor. A couple of seconds later, she met his gaze wearing a pasted-on smile and the saddest eyes he’d ever seen. “Still...not very nice of them. Thanks for interrupting their plans. Good night.” She turned away, unlocked her door and slipped inside.
Oh no you don’t. Pretending it hadn’t happened wasn’t going to make things better. She needed to vent, the sooner the better. He’d learned that the hard way.
Con stuck his foot in the door before she could close it. “We need to talk.”
“Oh.” She hesitated, her gaze darting down the hall.
She was afraid and was trying to tough it out all on her own. He knew how fucking useless it would be and that was unacceptable. A soldier needed his battle buddies to get him through the shit. The loss of his had damn near killed him.
“I get it,” he said with a sigh. “You’re probably scared, angry and fifty other emotions no one likes to deal with, but you and I, we’re a team, and I need to make sure you’re okay. That includes checking your room and talking about this shit.”
She stared at him for a long moment, then backed up and let him by. “Okay.” She closed the door behind him and locked it. As soon as the door was closed she let out a huge pent-up breath and her tense shoulders came down.
Yup, she was scared. But not of him.
Something wound tight inside his chest relaxed a little. He wanted to hold her for as long as it took to get that lost expression off her face.
He made himself turn away to inspect at her quarters.
Her room was a bit bigger than his, but not by much. Where his was OCD neat, hers looked like a tornado had hit it. A tornado full of books.
Textbooks, biographies, romance novels, even some graphic novels were stacked all over the room. There had to be a few hundred books lying around.
“Sorry about the mess,” she said with a dismayed look on her face. “I tend to forget to tidy things.”
“You really hate reading, don’t you?”
She snorted, but controlled her response almost immediately. “Well, yeah. I guess I really, really hate reading. I mean, almost as much as you must hate martial arts.”
“Touché.” He looked down at the pile closest to him and discovered a biography of General Pershing on top and below it one about Erwin Rommel. Was she studying military tactics and strategy? He’d never really understood how smart could be sexy until Sophia. “You’ll like the book on Rommel. He was another person who didn’t like boxes.”
“He seems interesting, not like most of Hitler’s generals.”
“I think Hitler disgusted him.”
“Do I disgust you?” she asked in a small voice.
Con’s head turned to look at her so fast whiplash might be a concern. “What?”
Her eyes and mouth drooped, but she wasn’t looking at him, she was staring at the floor again. “I didn’t do anything but stand there like a frightened little girl. They were going to take me somewhere and probably hurt me, but did I fight back? No, I froze.” She glanced at him finally, her lips pressing into a tight white line. “I promise to do better next time.”
“Whoa, stop with the self-flagellation.” She thought he was unhappy with her? “I’m disgusted with security at this place and with Max for not making sure you were properly trained in some self-defense before now, but I’m not disgusted with you.”
She frowned. “Why not me?”
“Because you did do something. You bit that guy and gave yourself a chance to yell for help.” He moved some books out of the way and sat on the edge of her bed. She sat next to him, then leaned her head on his shoulder.
Not exactly his normal method of helping a teammate decompress—usually that had involved throwing darts with Wayne or boxing with Patterson—but he could handle this. When he put his arm around her, she sighed happily and nuzzled a little closer. Her breast brushed his side and his dick started to take notice. Asshole. Hadn’t been interested in sex for months, and n
ow he was perving on his vulnerable partner.
He cleared his throat, gave her what he hoped was a friendly nudge. It was time to get off the bed and put a little space between them before he did something to fuck this up. “I’m really proud of what you did today. You took the training I gave you and used it exactly the way you were supposed to. You’re a good soldier, Doc.”
He stood, trying to inconspicuously adjust his pants as he took a few steps away from her. There. Crisis averted. No inappropriate reactions here.
“I want to have sex with you.”
He couldn’t have heard that right. His dick was trying to convince his brain of something that wasn’t possible. “What?”
She stood and stepped up close. Way too close. “I want to have sex with you.”
He sucked in a breath as heat flashed through him like a lightning strike, and suddenly the room wasn’t near big enough. “Come on, we’re going to the hospital.”
“Why?” she asked as he took her by the arm.
“Because you obviously hit your head or something.”
She resisted, trying to twist out of his hold. “I’m fine. A request for sex does not equal diminished mental capacity. Besides, I decided I wanted sex with you earlier today.”
He let go of her arm and stared at her, his brain unable to connect any fucking dots. “Why?” He couldn’t think of a thing he’d done to inspire this good girl to ask him to get dirty with her.
“Your sexual advice to Eugene sounded really good.” She blushed and stared at his mouth.
A groan came out of him at the knowledge she’d been listening in.
“Look, I’m not some kind of sex guru, I’m your teammate. We can’t...do that.”
“Why not?”
He stared at her, unable to think of one reason.
“If you’re worried about me becoming attached to you, like a girlfriend, don’t worry. I know this is just for now. No strings. Isn’t that what people say?”
“No strings?” He couldn’t believe it. He ran his hands over his face. He couldn’t fucking believe it.
“Just listen to me, please.” She closed her eyes for a moment, then looked at him with a determined expression on her face.
He’d seen that expression on her face. It meant she wasn’t going to back down.
“I’ve always been too sick, young or busy to even imagine becoming intimate with someone. But you...” She paused, obviously searching for words. “You wouldn’t laugh at me if I say or do the wrong thing. You don’t treat me like I’m so fragile you can’t touch me, and I know you won’t act like you’ve done me a favor afterward.”
She smiled and glanced at his crotch. “I’m not an idiot, I saw your erection earlier. I think you want me, too.”
“You have no idea what I want.” For a moment he wanted nothing more than to show her. Kiss her and pet her until she was drunk, then strip her bare and show her that sex wasn’t rational. It was hot, messy and uncontrolled.
The angry, wounded part of him wanted to take what she was offering, wanted to drown himself in her in the worst way.
He’d feel something other than guilt and despair.
“You’re right, I don’t know.” She threw up her hands. “But I’d really, really like to find out.” She huffed. “I’ve never felt this way about any man before. I’m so, so...”
“Horny?”
“Yes,” she barked at him, frustration a visible thing in her clenched fists and teeth.
He snatched her close and kissed her. He couldn’t stop himself.
She melted against him and moaned, and her immediate surrender gave him back a measure of control. He gentled his grip and his kiss.
“No” she muttered after a moment, pulling back to look at him. “I want everything. No holding back.”
His lips were on hers again and she let him in with a needy sigh. He eased her closer, one hand behind her head, the other on the small of her back, and tried to keep things gentle.
Her arms encircled him, her hands pressing against him, and she raised herself on tiptoe to kiss him harder.
She might not know what she was doing, but her eagerness was contagious.
One of her hands slid down his back. A second later, she was cupping his cock through his pants.
Oh holy fuck. He pushed her up against the wall, trapping her there with the weight of his body. Her curves pressed against his body, and the tits he’d admired felt fucking awesome against his chest. He wanted them in his hands and under his tongue.
Her lips parted under his assault and his tongue fucked her mouth, while one hand slid down to learn the perfect curve of her ass and the other cupped one of those gorgeous breasts.
She moaned and clutched him tighter, following his lead, tangling her tongue with his. Her hands were busy everywhere, stroking his shoulders, chest and cock. She couldn’t seem to stop stroking his fucking cock.
She lit him up with raw electricity. Her untutored touches and moans robbed him of all his civilized veneer. He couldn’t remember ever feeling this scorching hot for any woman ever. He groaned and dropped all pretense of restraint, taking her mouth the way he wanted to take her body. Her under him in a full-on, no-holds-barred possession.
She followed his lead without hesitation, adding fuel to his fire. She wanted him as much as he wanted her. He slid his hand up her body to cup her other breast. And her response was to try to climb his body. She got as far as riding his thigh, then couldn’t seem to make herself move any further.
Hot damn, she liked that.
When he caught her nipple between his thumb and index finger, pinching and rolling it through her clothes, she pulled her head away.
She stared at him, not hiding her lust or frustration in any way, her chest heaving with breaths that couldn’t seem to find enough air. “I want...”
“What?” he asked, rubbing his thumb over her nipple again.
Her teeth clenched together. “An orgasm, one I don’t give myself.” She ground herself down on his thigh.
He grinned and leaned down to suck at her earlobe, then whispered in her ear. “How do you do it? Do you fuck yourself with your fingers or do you have a toy?”
“Both,” she hissed as she rubbed herself against his thigh. “But it’s not enough. I want you, but I don’t have any condoms.”
He wanted her—fuck, he craved her—but if he took her, could he let her go? He couldn’t just take her and then leave. She trusted him. He had to draw the line somewhere, no matter how much it was going to kill him. He gave her breast more attention and she arched into his hand. “You don’t need to have intercourse to have an orgasm.”
She frowned at him. “I really want...penetration.”
That one word had him ready to show her how it was done, but he couldn’t do it, not when he was lying to her about why he really wanted on her team. He was an asshole, but he wasn’t a complete douche. He could still give her what she wanted, though maybe not the way she expected. He turned them so it was his back against the wall, then he spun her around so her back was plastered his front. He played with one breast, molding it and teasing the nipple. “Rock your ass back and give my cock a taste of you.”
She didn’t answer with words, just followed his order and moaned as that beautiful, plump ass pressed and stroked against the biggest boner he’d ever had in his life.
“Open your pants,” he whispered in her ear.
As she did it, he kept teasing her breasts, first one, then the other, while his other hand spanned her lower belly. “Are you sure you want this?”
“Yes,” she moaned, rubbing her ass over his erection. Her hands reached behind her to touch him. There was no finesse, just fingers seeking him out, her palms massaging his hips.
“Hold on.” He stopped her as she went for
his dick, even though he seriously didn’t want to. “Let’s focus on you for right now.”
“I don’t want to stop.” Her voice shook and she rocked back harder. “Please. Tell me what to do.”
She was killing him. He was going to die, right here. He ground his dick against her ass one last time before putting his palm over her mound and stroking her through her underwear until she whimpered and pushed back. He dropped another kiss on her neck before whispering, “Put my hand down your panties.”
Chapter Seven
Sophia couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think, couldn’t do anything but imagine what he might do. Her whole body shivered and if he hadn’t been holding her up, she’d have collapsed at his feet. His order incited an explicit fantasy in her head and she had to know if this could be as good as what she was imagining. She took him by the wrist and pulled his hand downward.
She tugged his hand down until his fingers grazed her clitoris. His touch triggered a cascade of sensation, pleasure like she’d never known and a need that continued to build.
He took over, exploring her. His fingers slipped between the folds of her sex easily, and she jumped when he circled her clitoris with one finger.
Wow.
She bucked and writhed against him. Oh so good.
He rocked his hips against her ass and kept circling the stiff nub, winding something deep in her core tighter and tighter.
“Con?” She’d meant to order, but his name came out as a plea. She was going to come apart at the seams if he didn’t do something soon.
Maybe she could speed things up.
She reached back, found his erection and, using her hands and her ass, stroked him through his clothing.
“Holy shit,” he muttered, his fingers moving faster, surer over her clit. His hips ground his long, hard penis into her hands and butt. “Harder, sweetheart,” he growled into her ear.
She did as commanded and was rewarded with him thrusting one finger up into her.
He tilted her head back so he could kiss her, then added another finger, fucking her with them both.