Wild Ways

by Tina Wainscott

  He grinned. “Music to my ears.” How many positions could they cover in one night, maybe into the early morning? After rolling on the condom, he pulled her to her feet and led her toward the dresser. “You can experience the real thing this time.”

  She planted her hands on the edge, bending to the perfect height. He ran his hands over that sweet ass, remembering how tempting it had been in that grungy bathroom. Now he could indulge in more than pretend. He anchored his hands on her hips and drove into her wet heat. It felt like coming home after months of fighting in the deserts and sleeping on the ground. Like finally eating the foods he loved after going without. She felt … right.

  He slowed down, leaning over to kiss down her spine as he caressed her ass. “Let’s change it up. We have a nice, soft bed. We should use it.” He gently withdrew.

  She stood and turned in his arms, rubbing up against him. “That was much more interesting than in the bathroom.”

  He chuckled. “I sure hope so.”

  He picked her up, and she automatically wrapped her legs around his waist. He walked to the bed and laid her down, then settled her ankles on his shoulders. Diving into her was another round of sweet heaven. She slid her hands across his chest as they moved together, her fingers clutching him with every thrust deep into her center. Her breaths came faster, and she closed her eyes and seemed to sink into the pleasure for a few minutes.

  He rolled onto his back and let her drive for a while. She set a rapid pace with a body that moved in a whole new way. Undulating. Hips thrusting easily. Her hair fell like a curtain over them as she leaned down to brace her hands on either side of his face. Their mouths connected, hungry for more. Her breaths came in gasps as she moved up and down in a faster and faster rhythm. Then she sat back up again and braced herself on his chest.

  Hold on until she goes, he ordered himself. Because he could go so easily. Almost had, more than once.

  She arched, her head thrown back, and released a sound of pure pleasure. All it took was her throbbing canal around his cock to shoot him off into space. He gripped her hips hard, and his whole body spasmed with his own pleasure. He let loose all of those words that wanted to explode, ending with her name. She collapsed on top of him, catching her breath.

  He stroked her back and whispered, “Oh, querida, I can’t get enough of you.”

  She buried her face in his neck. “Julian, I …” She held back the rest of her words, curling her fingers into the hair at the nape of his neck. But the way she’d uttered his name, he heard so much emotion. And so much fear.

  * * *

  I can’t get enough of you.

  Julian’s words echoed in Mollie’s mind as she nestled into the heat and strength of his body. She had never slept so well, so deeply. Except for the time he’d left the bed during the night. Panic had electrified her when he stepped out of the room, and she thought he was sneaking out and leaving the mess of her behind. Ten minutes later he’d returned, breathing heavily.

  “Did you have a bad dream?” she’d mumbled as he slipped back into bed and wrapped his body around hers.

  “No, just one of my prowlings. I jogged up and down the hallway.”

  She’d nodded, burrowing into the confines of his body, and slid right back into sleep.

  She couldn’t get enough of him either. Was that a content smile stretching across her face? Impossible. She must still be dreaming, because she felt so damned good here. Safe. Protected. Cherished.

  “I want to stay here forever,” she murmured, snuggling even closer.

  She felt fingers brush hair from her cheek. “I can arrange that.”

  His sleepy-hoarse voice caressed her as much as his fingers did. His mouth brushed her jaw, a soft, gentle kiss.

  “I think I love you,” she whispered, the words rolling out of her mouth even when she hadn’t been thinking them. Her eyes snapped open and she turned to find him watching her with amused surprise. “Oh, gawd, did I say that out loud?”

  “I think you were still dreaming.”

  He was letting her off the hook. That’s how he was, how he’d been from the beginning. Giving her space when she was breaking down in front of him and his friend Rath. But she had uttered those words, which meant they were lurking inside her, hiding from her fear and self-protection. And where had the protection been last night when she’d been doing a striptease just for him? When she’d asked for his touch in the woods?

  She sat up, pulling the sheet with her. Which pulled it away from him, leaving him beautifully naked in the morning light. She shifted her gaze away, running her hand over her hair. “What am I doing?” she whispered, more to herself.

  “Being easy.”

  “Didn’t that panic you when I said those words? We’ve known each other two days.” She shook her head. “To even be dreaming words like that …”

  “We’ve been through about a year’s worth of drama. And nothing panics me. You were having a nice dream, the words slipped out. Forget about it, okay?”

  “I was dreaming about you. Thinking …” How she wanted him in her life. Forever. She’d said that, too. “We have gone through a lot together. You’ve been my knight—”

  “Don’t say it.” He held his hand out.

  “But you have. And I’m getting attached, getting used to you being here. Needing you. I can’t let that happen. You’ll leave and I …” She’d be shattered. It wouldn’t be like when Jimmie had broken things off. She hadn’t needed him, hadn’t let him past her armor. As much as she’d tried, Julian had not only slipped past it, he’d stripped it away.

  “You’ll what, Mollie?” he prodded.

  Because that’s how he was, too, unwilling to let her turn away or shut out the truth. She pulled the sheets tighter. I’ll be devastated. She couldn’t let him know how deep she’d fallen.

  He tugged the sheets from around her, a sort of armor in itself, leaving them both naked. “You don’t know me well enough to lump me in with your father, your sister, any of those needy guys you’ve dated, or Brick.”

  She slid off the bed and grabbed clothes from her duffel bag. “You’re right, I don’t. Here’s what I do know. You cut off contact with your family. You’re a damned good shot. And … you might be a rogue who was kicked out of the SEALs for killing innocent people.” The words tumbled out from the subconscious place that wanted to protect her.

  She walked to the bathroom, but before she could close the door, his hand stopped it.

  His expression was hard. “What do you mean by that?”

  Relief poured through her. This was much more comfortable than lying in his arms dreaming of forever like an idiot. Never mind that the price of that relief was a tearing at the edges of her heart. “I know you were kicked out of the military. But did I hear it from you? No, because while you’re happy to lecture me about my self-protective measures, you were holding a secret of your own.” She turned on the water.

  “I didn’t tell you because I’m bound by confidentiality. How did you find out?”

  She pulled up the rod, activating the shower. Then she stepped in, even though it wasn’t warm yet. “It doesn’t matter.”

  “The hell it doesn’t.” He stepped right in along with her. “Someone’s trying to scare you away from me. Wait, it was that detective, wasn’t it?” Julian filled the space with his body and bristling energy. “You don’t get to throw that wall between us just because you’re afraid to feel something.” Droplets of water dripped down his hair and face as he stared her down.

  He was right, of course.

  She stepped behind the flow of water, to put some distance between them. “Yes, Boyd said he’d asked his cousin, who’s also a SEAL. He couldn’t say a lot about it, only that your team was suddenly discharged. Boyd put together what little he knew and found out your team stormed a compound in Mexico. Shot innocent people, including women and children.”

  “Do you believe I killed innocents?”

  She searched his eyes, seeing that th
e answer mattered. She knew deep inside that a man who’d done the things he’d done for her wasn’t a cold-blooded killer. “No. Not on purpose, anyway.”

  He gave her a grateful nod. “I don’t suppose you would have cuddled in my arms and said you thought you loved me if you suspected I was some bloodthirsty psycho.”

  “I was asleep!”

  He chucked her chin, a knowing half smile on his face. “Yeah, you let yourself believe that.”

  “You’re infuriating.”

  He nodded in agreement. “Among other things.”

  She met his gaze through the flow of the shower. Damn, she couldn’t do this. “But not a reckless killer.”

  He released a long breath. “Now I see why Risk told Addie about the mission.”

  “What? Who?”

  “Never mind, it’s irrelevant to the conversation at hand.” He braced his hands on her shoulders. “I won’t let you use that as a wall. So I’m going to tell you information you must promise to keep to yourself.” When she nodded, he went on. “It was a sanctioned attack. The targets were supposedly double-crossing us, and we were assigned to take them out. Our intel assured us that there would be no women and children at the compound. But we were misled, and not only were innocent people on-site, someone tried to take us out. They killed our mission leader, which is how we were identified. We smelled a setup, maybe to expose our relationship with the violent organization the U.S. had been in bed with. Or to turn them against us. We don’t know. We did not shoot any women or children, but the target made it look that way. They threatened retaliation on American tourists, so my team took the fall to prevent collateral damage.”

  “That’s not fair.”

  “No, it wasn’t.” His expression shadowed. “But no one said life was fair, did they?”

  She laughed, though it came out with a bitter tinge. “No kidding.” She took him in, with the water dotting his eyelashes. “But sometimes very fair things come out of the blue. Like you. I’m not sure why you took on my case, but I appreciate it very much.”

  “Your situation tugged at my need for purpose, to do something right and just. The same reason I joined The Justiss Alliance.”

  “And maybe I’m your way of making up for whatever happened at that compound.”

  “I don’t have anything to make up for. Something about you drew me in. Is that so hard for you to comprehend?”

  She didn’t want this to be about her. Too personal.

  He stepped into the water and braced his hands on her face. “My poor Mollie, so brave and yet so afraid to open her heart and trust.”

  She pushed him away. “I don’t need your pity. Now please leave so I can shower.”

  “You know what you do need?” He stepped out. “You need to find out who you are. Not ‘Mollie saving Di.’ Not ‘Mollie trying to protect herself from being hurt again.’ I liked the Mollie who did the striptease for me, and who asked for what she needed. I like that Mollie a lot. I bet you do, too.”

  She threw one of the little bottles of shampoo at the door as he closed it. Then she sagged against the tile wall, taking deep breaths. Damn him.

  Julian was like no other man she’d ever encountered. She didn’t know how to relate to him, to handle him. He didn’t need help, didn’t need her. But he wanted her.

  She shivered. Yes, she did like that Mollie who had emerged under his coaxing … and prodding. She was a tender bud, a beautiful rose about to bloom. And so terribly vulnerable, that cutting it off at the stem was the only way to keep it from being crushed.

  * * *

  As Julian rinsed the shampoo from his hair a short while later, he could hear his abuelo’s voice: Run as fast as you can, JuJu. This one’s going to break your heart.

  Not on purpose. Mollie would never hurt someone intentionally. She would be the one running in order to protect herself. The problem was that Julian could not give up on her yet. He dried off, wrapped a towel around his waist, and stepped out of the steamy room. The hotel was nice, one of the upscale chains. After everything she’d been through, he’d wanted Mollie to have a nice place to sleep. She’d had nice dreams, if her smile and pre-awakening words were any indication. His cousin had listened to eighties music well into the nineties, and Julian could remember a song by the Romantics about hearing his lover’s secrets when she talked in her sleep.

  Mollie sat on the bed, one leg bent, her foot tucked against the other. She was checking her mail on her phone. “Your phone dinged, a text alert.”

  “Who was it?”

  She gave him an indignant look. “I didn’t check.” A second passed, and her mouth twisted in a sheepish smile. “Risk.”

  He held back his chuckle. He loved her smart-assed remark back when he’d called her on checking his texts the first time they’d shared a room. He should have known she’d be trouble then. “What did he say?”

  “I didn’t read the text. I just wanted to see who it was. I was hoping it was Chase with news about Brick.”

  Julian had updated Chase on what they’d learned when they’d checked into the hotel. They had also sent their dirty laundry to be cleaned. Julian dug through his duffel bag and pulled out the last of his clean clothes. He yanked the towel away, balled it up, and tossed it right into the sink. In his peripheral vision, he could see her watching as he dressed. I woke her, his ego crowed. Me, only me. Ah, if only his ego was the sole part of him involved here. But he’d been feeling deep shifts inside his soul, like the plates of inner earth moving beneath the surface. She’d woken some part of him, too.

  She had spirit, his Mollie. Even though she wasn’t technically his, she was his responsibility for the time being, so he was claiming her as his own. He’d seen a deep wanting in her eyes when he’d told her they had to perpetuate the illusion that she was his as they’d prepared to go into the Tulsa bar. He’d seen it a few times since then.

  She moved her fingers over the tiny keypad on the screen, then set her phone down. “Aren’t you going to find out what Risk said?”

  He dropped down onto the queen bed, making her phone pop up in the air. He caught it, handed it to her, and then grabbed up his own. Risk’s message: Hey, buddy. Ping me when you can.

  Julian did, and a few seconds later the video chat app rang. Risk’s mug filled the screen. “Hey, Salsa. How’s it hanging?” Risk was sitting in a car outside an apartment building.

  Mollie mouthed the word “Salsa?” Julian shook his head and shifted the phone toward her. “Mollie, meet Risk. Risk, Mollie.”

  Risk, the son of a bitch, started full-out laughing. “Oh, buddy.” He didn’t even have to say the rest of it, which was probably something like you are so going to fall for that beautiful woman you’re helping. Julian knew Risk had had his hands full on his first assignment, too. And now he was a hooked man. A happy, hooked man.

  “Skip the commentary and fill me in,” Julian grumbled.

  “Hmm, Mr. Grumpy hasn’t had his morning walk yet, eh?”

  That was code for getting laid. “Raining,” Julian said, prompting Mollie to frown as she glanced at the sun streaming in through the window. “Whatcha got?”

  The image on the phone skipped to a row of modest homes across the street. Then to a hot babe in tight shorts bending over the open hood of her car and pointing out something in the engine to the man standing next to her. Even from that distance, her cleavage was clear to see.

  Julian rolled his eyes. “Really? You’re on surveillance and that’s what you’re paying attention to?”

  Risk chuckled. “That tasty specimen is one of the J-men. And yeah, she’s okay with being considered a J-man. Probably because there is no doubt she’s a woman. Not that I’m interested. I thought you might be, but …”

  Not willing to let him elaborate on why Julian might not be interested now that Risk had seen Mollie, he asked, “Is the guy Brick?”

  Mollie pressed up against Julian for a better view of the screen. “It looks like him,” she said “but it’s hard t
o tell.” Then he stepped into the light, and she amended, “Yes, it’s definitely him.”

  “Vivi, our J-not-even-close-to-a-man, is playing at the helpless woman with a broken-down car. Dude came out to help her, but he’s jumpy, keeps looking around. Vivi unhooked some cable, so we’ll see how long it takes the twinkie to figure out what the problem is. Then she’s going to ask him if he’d like to come with her to her boss’s jet, which is at the local private airport. You know, in case the car stalls again.” He pitched his voice higher. “So I’ll have a strong, able man to help me.” In his normal voice, he said, “They’ll have the plane all to themselves, wink-wink, nudge-nudge. I think the guy’ll go for it.”

  Mollie was now pressed so close that her cheek brushed against his. “What a bicho.”

  Risk blinked at hearing that word. “Are you Puerto Rican, Mollie?”

  “No, I’ve just been corrupted by one.” She seemed to try hard not to look his way.

  Julian hoped, for the sake of the investigation, that Brick went with this Vivi. He hoped, for Mollie’s sake, that he didn’t and proved that, in some way, he loved Diana. That all men weren’t unreliable jerks.

  Brick leaned down and fiddled with something in the engine. Vivi walked around to the driver’s side and started the engine. She hugged him, and he winced and set her back, then lifted his shirt to show her the meat on his chest. They talked for another couple of minutes, and by damn, he appeared to be demurring her invitation for hot thank-you sex. He appeared all apologetic but was shaking his head.

  Go, Brick.

  Risk’s face filled the screen. “He’s passing. I can’t believe it.”

  “Wouldn’t you?” Julian asked.

  “Well, of course. Now I would.”

  “Maybe the dude flies the other flag. Why don’t you go proposition him?” Julian suggested.

  Risk gave him the finger. “We’ll have to go to Plan B. Which is not that. Stay tuned.” The screen went black.

  “He’s probably too sore to have sex with her,” Mollie said.