Wanna Play (Ghost Unit, Book Three)

by Faulkner, Gail

  Jas let the lovely bubble burst. Their relationship was superficial at best. They were strangers. They might enjoy each other but that was it. His agenda was still an unknown. He and Barry appeared close and natural with each other. It looked as if they were exactly what they said they were and it’d be nice if Barry was the only reason Blaster was here. However hanging on to fairy tales and rosy endings was not Jas’ weakness. She expected the worst. Anything else was a pleasant surprise. This time it made her a little sad. The fairy tale might have been nice. Her fairy tale wouldn’t be all sappy and filled with twittering birds either.

  As he finished shaving and rinsed, Jas stepped into the little toilet room beside him. There was no real privacy but she didn’t care. He’d parked himself in her room. He could deal with it. Jas came out and grabbed panties and a bra while he brushed his teeth. Back in the cubicle, she showered quickly. Out to brush her teeth in her underwear, he already had his clothes on. She ignored him.

  Blaster was stomping into his boots when she sat on the end of the bed to apply lotion to legs, arms, midriff, neck and chest. He was in the little chair off to the side. She noticed he didn’t seem to be moving.

  “Something wrong?” Jas didn’t glance at him as she completed the morning grooming.

  “Besides my tongue hanging out? No.” His deep voice was a rumble. “I was considering the danger of offering to help you with that.”

  “Deal with it. Was your idea to invade my room.” She got up to do her hair in front of the mirror.

  “Can I get you some coffee? Or are you just a cranky bitch in the mornings normally?”

  He was amused, she realized. No sharp retort, no snarly comment about her prancing around in underwear and what did she expect? He wasn’t making excuses or defending his right to have the hard-on he was sporting as he leaned back in the chair. Stacking his hands behind his head, the man grinned and watched her.

  Jas lifted an eyebrow. “Are you offering to go up to the office and get me a coffee?”

  “Yep. Want it?”

  “Yes. Make it sweet and white.”

  He got up but bypassed the door, coming up behind her as she watched him in the mirror. His head dropped to flick his tongue over her shoulder for a brief lick then whispered in her ear, “I like mine hot and black. I’ll be right back.” Then he was out the door.

  Jas frowned into the mirror as she finished fluffing gel through her short curls. Her hair was cropped in a skull-hugging cut. It was saved from being masculine because her hair curled riotously but not tightly.

  From anyone else that comment would have been offensive. Between them it wasn’t. Between them it was a compliment and she damn well liked it. He did “tempting” like nothing she’d ever seen before. Sexy bastard! He pushed the edges of their relationship and did it in a way that felt right, natural. Even when she was on guard with him, it didn’t make a difference. How did he manage that?

  He came back with two cups of coffee just as she was strapping on holsters. They drank and finished dressing. For both of them that involved weapons.

  There was no rehearsal today and they went straight up to the site and grabbed a bagel from the crew tent for breakfast. Jas was tense. The intimate casualness of him nearby felt way too comfortable. She was beginning to feel defensive because it felt so comfortable. Okay, she knew that was a female contradiction, but there it was. Touching him was natural and sexy and dangerous and she liked it too much. Who wouldn’t get irritated with that?

  It was midway through the morning when the script called for an intense kiss. Hero and heroine were in the middle of a battle and uncertain if they’d survive. The kiss was supposed to convey an emotional commitment regardless of what was to follow. They were on the seventeenth take when right after Barry called “cut”, Blaster politely asked the actor to move aside and stood in front of her.

  “Quit sticking your tongue in his mouth and kiss him, damn it!” Blaster’s face was a tightly drawn mask.

  “I am kissing him. What are you doing here?” She was more than irritated and the criticism of her kissing wasn’t helping. She knew it sucked. There were seventeen takes to prove it.

  “I’m doing what it takes to get you through this scene.” There was nothing civilized in his face, the mask was gone. In its place was a primal snarl. “I want you, Jas. I want you so bad my balls ache every time I move. Do not mistake patience for disinterest. Every male on this set wants you. That one gets to lay lips on you one more time, woman. Kiss him as if his life depends on this last taste of paradise because it does.”

  Then he swooped down and took her mouth. Rough and demanding, he forced her lips open and speared his tongue into her. Eating her with a rumbling growl vibrating up his chest, he jerked her against him. It was hot and fast, a carnal face-fuck that flashed her right into intense heat as her body exploded in response to the base demands his body was making. Abruptly he let her go and stepped back a pace. “Do it right.”

  Blaster turned and walked away.

  Barry immediately yelled, “Places!” The scene rolled.

  Her eyes barely focused and they were in the middle of action. By the time the kiss came, she was mad as hell at Blaster’s arrogant ass. The kiss she gave her costar embodied every bit of her anger and frustration as she took it out on the man in her arms. The intensity of her mood was what the camera saw. The take was good.

  Looking up, she found Blaster at the far edge of the set, way behind the equipment. He was standing with his back to the set, hands on hips, gazing off. He wasn’t relaxed, smug or anything else she expected from the guy who’d drawn that much emotion out of her. He was mad. There was no outward sign except he didn’t move.

  Eventually he turned around to watch them finish the morning’s scenes but he didn’t return to the set. At lunch he was roaming the surrounding undergrowth. Jas realized she knew exactly where he was, what he was doing. Something connecting them had shifted. Awareness was snapping between them that rippled with tension.

  At lunch it came to her. First, she missed him not being there as he had been yesterday and second, he sucked as an actor. What he gave her was the real thing. He was staying away because it wasn’t finished between them. He’d meant every word and all the things that’d swirled between them in that kiss. Looking around, she spotted him on the far side of the clearing, leaning against a tree, one knee cocked as his foot rested on the trunk. His arms were crossed.

  At least a football field away, their eyes met. Neither smiled. Distance didn’t matter, she could feel the coiled tension radiating off him. He wasn’t over it. She wasn’t exactly sure what “it” was, but the man needed something he wasn’t getting. It was more than sexual friction that zipped back and forth. He was vibrating with something much more basic. Jas sat back and consciously relaxed her body as her head tilted slightly. Her look softened into a feminine question. What did he need?

  Blaster’s cheek jerked as his eyes locked with hers. He nodded curtly at her and disappeared into the forest.

  For once, Jas was at a loss as to what had passed between them. The nod seemed totally unconnected to the exchange. His disappearing left her feeling a little abandoned. As if he’d agreed to take care of the problem without her.

  Then it dawned on her… Without her? What! Oh no he didn’t! That damn bastard was doing just that! Here she was hot and frustrated while he took care of his balls’ problem. Jas abruptly found she was done with lunch.

  Ohhh the boy was gonna learn that had been a mistake. If she had to suffer lust-induced wanting, he had no right to go get all “relaxed”! He was gonna supply some satisfaction on her terms before she was done with him today. But she could wait. No need to warn him she was pissed.

  She knew being pissed was totally illogical. She had no rights to what he did when he needed to relax. Knowing she was being unreasonable didn’t matter apparently. He brought out the primitive woman in her and that bitch did not appreciate his going off at all.

  Fil
ming was going extraordinarily well and the day passed without an incident that could be blamed on an outside influence. At four they’d completed all the outside shots and Barry called the day done.

  Jas was in a hurry to get off the mountain. Ignoring the costume change since all the scenes in this sequence were completed, she threw on her weapons and silk jacket and headed straight for Blaster. His eyes ate her as she approached.

  “Damn good thing no bad guys were around today, Huck,” Jas murmured as she grabbed his hand, turning him with the momentum of her stride and dragging him to the truck. “If it wasn’t printed on my ass, you didn’t see it. Come on, we’re in a hurry.”

  “What’s your rush?” They slid into the pickup’s cab and Blaster glanced at the unbelievable creature lounging beside him as they pulled away from the set. “I did recon and no one was up there with us. My reward for being such a scary guy and driving them off was ogling you all day. Where are we going?”

  Jas snorted at that. “Not your only reward, I’m thinking. We need to get to Whyrl and Wash. It closes at five-thirty. I have to do some laundry and this is the first time we’ve finished early when I could get to it this week. If we don’t hurry, the rest of the crew will be there and it’ll be too late. Does this thing go any faster? You’re driving like an old lady.”

  “We’re only hitting the tops of the ruts in the road, woman. Any faster and we would need bat wings. And it’s a compliment that I can’t stop looking at you.”

  He frowned at the winding two-lane road. “You’re the star. Don’t you have someone to do this sort of thing for you? An assistant or something?”

  Jas glanced back but only the cloud of dust was visible behind them. “When I’m a star, I’ll get one of those. Right now I’m just an actress. My boyfriend is the only one who fetches for me.” Jas smiled smugly at Blaster’s raised brow.

  “Yeah? Your boyfriend?” A slow grin spread across his face.

  They pulled into the motel and Jas sprinted to her door. She was coming out with the bag of laundry and box of soap before Blaster could make it in.

  “Hey. I’m the damn boyfriend. Let me do my job,” he grumbled, and took both items out of her hands to deposit them in the truck bed. “And from now on I go in the room first. Just because it was a quiet day doesn’t mean your new friends are gone.”

  “You’re Mississippi-mud slow, Huckleberry. I’ll get old waiting for you.” Jas swung into the cab.

  “I’m careful. You have no idea what’s out of place in the parking lot, do you?” Blaster backed out of the parking space and headed out again.

  Jas didn’t even glance around. “Three cars are missing and there’s a new Blazer at the office.”

  “Okay, so you do know. Well,” he paused to look both ways before pulling onto the town’s main street, “I also like watching you bounce around.”

  “I don’t bounce. I stride.” Her superior sniff made him laugh.

  Pulling into the Whyrl and Wash parking lot, Blaster started cursing under his breath. The only other vehicle in the lot as a huge black Harley Dyna motorcycle. Blaster glared at it as he parked.

  Jas eyed the cursing man beside her. “A problem?” Her head cocked toward the bike.

  “Yeah,” Blaster muttered.

  “Something you wanna share before we go in there, Huck?”

  Blaster shut off the engine and didn’t move for a moment as he frowned at the bike. “I should have run over it.”

  Jas looked at him for a few more seconds then snorted, “I don’t have time for this. Make up your mind and get outta the truck.” Jas hopped down and was reaching for her laundry and soap.

  Blaster’s hand was there first from the other side of the truck bed. Jas blinked in surprise.

  “I’m the boyfriend. I get to do this.” Blaster sounded defensive.

  “Hey, I was kidding, Huck. I don’t seriously expect you to wait on me.”

  “Too late.” He hoisted the items and rounded his truck with a frown as he headed for the door. Jas kept up and was bemused when he shouldered the door open for her, waiting for her to pass.

  The laundry was a long, narrow space. Down the center of the painted cement floor there was a row of eight washing machines in varied shades of olive, yellow and dingy white. Along the wall facing the door were eight dryers. None of the equipment was standard industrial. They were simply large home washers and dryers altered with coin slots. In the back corner a twenty-inch television sat on a wall mount. It was so far up the picture was difficult to see.

  There was a row of nearly vintage molded plastic chairs on a pipe set up with backs to the long window front. The glass front had been tinted with stick-on film to cut the heat from the sun in the already hot interior, preventing them from seeing the lone customer until they’d entered.

  He lounged against the wall under the television. His chin seemed to be resting on his chest as if he might be sleeping on his feet. The tilt of his head made it difficult to make out features, only the top of his dark head and wide shoulders stretching a dark blue T-shirt. His arms were folded across his chest emphasizing the bulges in both chest and biceps. Dark gray jeans rode low on lean hips and seemingly endless legs were casually crossed at the large, booted feet. He was the biker. Everything about him said he’d stepped off the big horses out front.

  Blaster didn’t even glance at the man as he tossed the laundry bag up on the fourth washer with its butt pointed at the biker. Flipping up the first three washing machine lids, he started sorting laundry into colors, delicates and whites. Jas watched him swiftly and expertly load her wardrobe into the washers, measure soap and feed coins into the slots. Only after all the lids were closed did he turn to the biker and glare. The relaxed, calm Southerner was gone.

  “This is what they call deep cover in Montana? Staking out the local laundry and copping a peek at a lady’s personals?” Blaster’s voice sounded calm but even with this short exposure to him, Jas heard rumbling threat in it that’d never been there before. “And how the hell did you know we’d be here? Had a little look around, did you? I don’t recollect inviting you into her room. Last I knew, deep cover meant far, far away from the primary client. Invisible is also a common phrase used to describe it. Those points escape your notice?”

  The tall biker’s head came up and he grinned, flashing straight white teeth. Jas almost gasped. The man was beautiful. Amused hazel eyes were surrounded by sooty lashes. Lean cheeks creased with his grin. A straight, regal nose. Biker also sported a Kirk Douglas chin, deep cleft and all. Chestnut hair flipped over his forehead, the long cut was deceptively ragged. It was naturally wavy and as perfectly male beautiful as the rest of him.

  “It would have been deep cover if your rooster feathers weren’t all in a twist.” The biker-god-person replied calmly.

  Outside two other cars pulled into the parking lot and movie people were piling out with laundry bags.

  Blaster glanced out at their fast-disappearing privacy. “You’ve had eyes on. Now go do your damn job.”

  “Town is clean. Your boys are long gone,” Biker relayed calmly. “They had a camp two miles out and it’s cold.”

  Jas’ eyes were suddenly drawn to the television above Biker. It’d been a casual glance at first but now her attention was trapped in horrified disbelief. “Wilt-Wanna-Be, turn up the TV,” she ordered sharply into the men’s conversation.

  Blaster glanced at her and immediately followed her gaze to the television. One look at her face and the tall biker reached up to punch up the sound.

  They all watched the network news person sadly inform them that, “Homeland Security has taken over the investigation of a chartered airplane that crashed in the Everglades last night. No survivors have been found so far. The plane carried the president’s special prosecutor and his senior staff in the…” Jas didn’t hear any more.

  Jas’ gaze flashed out the wall of windows and she stepped around the washers, sinking to the floor with her back to a washer as she dial
ed her cell phone with shaking fingers. The movie people were coming in the door talking loudly. Blaster’s hands moved in a signal to the biker but it wasn’t necessary as he sank to his haunches in front of Jas. Biker hadn’t moved away from the wall but he was on full alert, scanning both the noisy crowd entering the laundry and the street outside.

  “No, no, no…” Jas moaned softly as the phone in her hands rang endlessly. Her eyes were squeezed shut.

  “What? Baby, what happened?” Blaster’s hands were on her drawn-up knees as she sat on the floor clutching the phone to her ear.

  Ignoring him, Jas dialed another number. This time there was an answer on the first ring.

  “Hello? Liana is that you?” a woman worriedly asked.

  “Hello, Mrs. Allacosta. This is Jasmina. I’m looking for Liana.”