A Friend in Need

by Bianca D’Arc

  “We took an elite sharpshooting class together a few years back. No need to tell you, she’s one of the best shots I’ve ever known.” Carter sounded admiring rather than attracted, if she was any judge. Good.

  “Was she using a silencer? Is that why nobody heard the gunfire?” Hannah asked, not realizing until she thought about it, just now, that she hadn’t heard the shot that had taken out one of the terrorists. If a gunshot had sounded anywhere near that parade route, police and others would have come running a lot sooner.

  “Yeah, she had a silencer. Not sure why, except maybe she didn’t want to alarm the public with the sound of open gunfire, if she could help it,” Carter mused.

  “Smart lady,” Hannah stated.

  “She’s a pro,” Carter said off-handedly. “And, by the way, so are you, Sergeant.” He dipped close to place a quick kiss on her temple. “You were amazing. You’ve got moves, woman!”

  She liked the teasing and pride she heard in his voice. “Thanks, and same goes for you. I was glad to have you at my back.”

  “Me, too. I’d have you there anytime, Hannah. You’re the real deal.”

  As declarations went, it was an odd one, but she’d take it.

  They came to a sleek Harley a few moments later, and she wasn’t surprised when he reached into a back compartment and pulled out two helmets, one of which was purple with a pink stripe.

  “I borrowed this from Casey, just in case,” Carter said, offering the purple helmet to Hannah.

  She laughed and took it, yanking off the wig she was still wearing and stuffing the lumpy thing in her pocket. Her own hair probably couldn’t look much worse, so she put on the helmet, not caring that it would further squash her hair. Better safe than glamorous, she figured.

  “Are we going right back to the island?” she asked.

  “For now. I want Rick to look you over. I know you took some hard hits. It’s just a precaution. Then, I’m going to ask the captain for some time off. If you’re amenable, I’d like to spend it with you.”

  A slow grin spread over Hannah’s face. She felt breathless and exhilarated all at once, but tried to play it cool.

  “I’d like that a lot.”

  She was very much afraid she had just about purred, but Carter didn’t seem to mind. He leaned in close for a hot kiss that stole her breath, then stepped away and donned his helmet. He got on the monster bike and waited for her to do the same. It was a moment before Hannah could get her mind working properly again. She realized she finally knew what it felt like to be kissed senseless.

  She wanted to feel it again. And again. And again.

  *

  When they got to the island, Rick looked them both over, checking for internal damage from the fight. He spent a few moments healing contusions but otherwise pronounced them both fit.

  Hannah thanked him for his ministrations. She hadn’t looked forward to the sore black and blue marks she would have been sporting for a week or two without his help. As it was, he’d made it like the fight had never happened, which was still a marvel to her.

  Carter and Hannah then spent an hour briefing Hal on exactly what had taken place. When they’d reached the end of their story, Hal sent Hannah off to get some dinner but kept Carter for a while longer. When Carter failed to reappear after another hour had passed, Hannah grew concerned, but Rose kept her company and told her not to worry. Carter came into the common room a short while later, much to Hannah’s relief.

  “Sorry. I just had to discuss a few things with Hal and request that leave I mentioned earlier,” he told her when they were alone on the sofa.

  Rose left when Carter came in, smiling knowingly at them both as she walked out of the common room. A few of the other guys were across the room, playing chess, but they were engrossed in the game and weren’t paying any real attention to Carter and Hannah.

  “He’s given me time off, starting tomorrow, but he wants us both to stay on base tonight,” Carter told her. “There might be a unit meeting in the morning that I’ll have to be at. Sorry.”

  “Don’t be sorry. It’s all good,” she told him, and she meant it. Being with him wasn’t just good. It was the very best. No matter where they were.

  When they retreated to the privacy of his room later that night, they weren’t in a hurry, unlike the other times they’d been together. No, finally, they were able to savor their moments together, undressing each other with long, leisurely strokes of fingers and hands, and lips and mouths.

  Hannah was panting by the time Carter had done away with the last item of clothing separating them. Her knees were so weak that she was glad when he picked her up and carried her over to the bed. She wasn’t exactly sure if she would have made it on her own.

  He started by laying her down on the bed and kissing her all over. All over. Hannah squirmed under his ministrations, biting her tongue to keep from screaming in pleasure at various points in the seductive torture of his hands and tongue. He questioned her throughout, with words and body language, learning what she liked, what she loved, and what made her giddy in the best possible way.

  But she wasn’t going to let him do all the work. When she’d come down from a small climax that made her see stars, she pushed at his shoulders until he rolled over in supplication. Flat on his back, his long legs draped over the side of the bed, she gave him the same treatment, starting with her hands and ending with her tongue, kissing and nibbling on any, and every, part of his muscular body that struck her fancy.

  He remained stoic throughout, growling low in his throat but not allowing any louder sound to make it past his lips. He didn’t want them to become the talk of the barracks. It was fun, in a way, to have to hold back on the noise. It made the interlude somehow naughtier. More of a secret shared between the two of them, though she had little doubt in her rational mind that everyone knew they were a couple now. Still, being together, on base, still held a hint of the forbidden, because on any regular base, fraternization like this would have been strictly verboten.

  She was enjoying herself, licking him like a popsicle, when he seemed to snap out of it. He rose, and with strong, competent hands, he lifted her into place, putting her exactly where he wanted her. In this case, she ended up on her hands and knees in the middle of the bed, her ass up in the air as he took up a position behind her. He took his time, gathering her loose hair in one hand and placing nibbling, exciting love bites on her neck before he did anything else.

  “You okay with this?” he asked, his voice a growl near her ear, which he promptly nibbled on, in turn.

  “Okay?” She could barely find the breath to reply. Her senses were spinning, and Carter was a grand master at keeping her on the edge of stupefied wonder. “I’m okay,” she gasped, wanting him to get on with it already. “Do it now,” she begged. “Please.”

  Boy, did she sound pitiful, or what? Next time, she’d turn the tables on him, but for now, she was too busy enjoying being in this very compromising position with the man of her dreams.

  Mercifully, Carter didn’t make her wait. His rumbling chuckle sounded as he took up his position behind her and pushed home. Thus began a long, languid rocking motion that drove her higher and higher still, all the while withholding the final prize. The ultimate dream. The brilliant star he was pushing her toward.

  She was so close to screaming out her feelings toward him, but that wouldn’t be romantic at all. Plus, she kind of wanted to hear more about his feelings before she blurted out her own. Besides, who could think when she was so close to nirvana?

  So, instead of telling him how much she loved every last thing about him, she just grit her teeth and begged him to go faster, harder, deeper…anything that would end this intense longing for completion. Anything that would give her the deep satisfaction and luminous pleasure she had only ever found with him. Carter. Her knight in shining armor who let her be her own woman in a way few men ever had.

  She admired him. She enjoyed being with him. Most of all, she liked who sh
e was when she was with him. Who he encouraged her to be. Everything that was inside of her. All the things she’d been afraid to show others. She let it all come out with Carter, and he hadn’t run in the other direction. Far from it.

  He’d given her encouragement and approval. Praise and, oh, so much pleasure. He’d protected her—more than once—but he’d also let her be who she was and respected that she could do many things and didn’t always need, or want, to be the damsel in distress.

  The times he’d protected her, he’d done so without making a big deal of it. He’d done it quietly, before she even became aware of it. He’d shown himself to be a man of honor who respected her on every level. She loved that about him, and so much more.

  She reached back blindly, urging him on, and he gave her what she wanted. Her throat was raw with holding back the shrieks of passion as he drove her higher and higher still, until finally, they crested the wave together and surfed the sensations that shot them both to the stars…and beyond.

  *

  The next morning, Carter and Hannah made their escape from the island for a few days off. They stopped at a grocery and a hardware store before going to her place. She put the groceries away and cleared out the fridge of anything that had gotten too old while she’d been busy elsewhere, while he tackled the bugs and cameras that the enemy had put in place.

  Carter felt great satisfaction in ripping out the surveillance. He also carefully removed her system and put it aside for later discussion. He wanted her to have security in her home, but maybe not cameras pointing inside, just in case the WiFi feed got hijacked in future. There were other ways, and other bits of equipment he’d rather see in place, but he’d talk it all over with Hannah first. It was her home, after all.

  Although, if things went the way he hoped they would, he might be spending a lot more time with her. Today was the day. He was going to tell her how he felt and find out if she felt even a glimmer of the same way about him. He was more than a little nervous about it, if he was being honest with himself.

  He may have spent a little more time than was absolutely necessary taking down the cameras and microphones. By the time he was done, Hannah had lunch on the table, waiting for him.

  “I’m not usually this domestic,” she explained when he walked into the kitchen and found her waiting with food on the table. “This is just a thank you for taking care of my little bug problem.”

  Carter hefted the cardboard box full of equipment he’d removed from all over her home. “Not so little, as it turned out.”

  Her eyes widened. “All that was in my house?”

  “Yeah. This is in addition to the system you bought. I left those pieces in the living room,” he told her. “I wanted to discuss redeployment of those pieces in a more effective pattern.”

  “You didn’t just do it?” She seemed surprised.

  “I wouldn’t put a system in place without your input. It’s your home, Hannah. I want you to feel safe here.”

  Her expression softened as he spoke, and he knew he’d made the right decision. For about two seconds after he took out the first component, he thought about just reinstalling it in a better location, but he’d decided rather quickly that wasn’t the way to go. In this case, his instincts had been right.

  “Thanks,” she said, moving forward to put her arms around his waist and hug him close.

  She’d been through so much lately, it felt good to just stop for a moment and share the closeness of each other’s presence.

  “You know…” He spoke in a low voice, near her ear. “You took a few years off my life by running away from the island and smack into danger.”

  “I’m sorry. I was just so frustrated that nobody was doing anything,” she replied, nestling her head into his shoulder.

  “Honey, you should have trusted me. Trusted the unit. We would never have let anything really bad happen, if we could stop it. In fact, it was Rose and Jeff that told me I had to let you go so that the threat could be completely dealt with,” he revealed.

  “They did?” She lifted her head to meet his gaze.

  “Give me some credit. I knew you were leaving almost before you did. Jeff held me back while Rose helped you go. It nearly killed me, but I listened and let it happen.” He took a deep breath and went on, taking a massive risk. “I love you, but don’t ever do that to me again, okay?”

  Hannah felt her heart skip a beat. Had he really said what she’d thought he said?

  “You love me?” Hope made her dizzy. Good thing she had him to cling to for support.

  Carter nodded. “I do. I have for a while, but I wasn’t sure how you’d react if I told you about my feelings. Are you okay with it?”

  “Okay?” She wasn’t sure what to say. Words nearly failed her. “I’m… I’m floored.”

  “In a good way, I hope?” He seemed unsure so she raised one hand to cup his cheek, hoping to make herself understood.

  “In the best possible way,” she told him. “I can’t believe how fast I’ve fallen in love with you,” she went on, finding words, though it was still hard. “Or how hard I fell. I desperately want to see where this all leads. With you.”

  “That’s good,” Carter told her, a grin spreading across his handsome face. “Because I have some very definite ideas about sharing happily ever after with you, Hannah. In fact, I already asked Hal to put in a request, seeing if maybe we could get you reassigned to the island base, so we can be together and work together.”

  “Fraternization?” She gave him a teasing smile. “I don’t believe that’s allowed, Sergeant.”

  “You may have noticed, we sort of make up our own rules since the desert, and for the most part, the Army lets us. It’s definitely an odd situation, so we should take full advantage of it while it lasts.” His gaze narrowed. “That’s assuming my instincts are right, and you want to be back in the Army and back on active duty. Did I get that part right?”

  “You did. I didn’t like the way my career almost ended. I want to go out—if I leave the service anytime soon—on my own terms. Not because of a disability. For now, I’d be honored to work with your unit, if they’ll have me.” She couldn’t believe what he had already arranged.

  “They all think it’s great. I sort of asked them about it last night,” he admitted.

  “You did?” This just got better and better.

  “There’s just one more thing I want to ask you about,” he said, his voice dropping low as he stepped back, releasing her from his embrace but keeping hold of her hands.

  He dropped to one knee, and her mouth went dry with shock. He looked up at her, and she really thought she could see their future unfolding before her, in the intense blue of his eyes.

  “Will you do me the honor of becoming my wife?” He asked her the words she had never quite believed she’d hear from him.

  She squeezed his hands as a tear rolled down her face. A tear of pure, distilled joy.

  There was only one answer she could give as her heart opened and filled with the wonder of this moment and all the years they could have together. She searched her heart and found the answer, giving it to him with a single word…

  “Yes.”

  EPILOGUE

  Meanwhile on Plum Island…

  Lina was shown into Commander Kinkaid’s office by some kind of sea-based shifter she had never encountered before. She’d scented a few werewolves manning the guard post, but other than them, this place smelled like a lot of big cats. Really big cats.

  She’d met jaguars before, but never lions. And the Kinkaid Clan was reputed to be chock full of lions and selkies. If this commander was part of the Kinkaid Clan—and chances were astoundingly good that he was—then it made sense that he might just be one of those fierce lion shifters that most Others both feared and envied.

  The man behind the desk stood and offered a hand when she walked in. He had sandy blond hair and piercing blue eyes that seemed to see right through her. Lina marshalled her courage and took the man’
s hand, returning the very human gesture of greeting.

  “Thank you for accepting my invitation to visit the base,” he said, smiling. “I’m Lester Kinkaid.” It went without saying that he was the Alpha in charge of every shifter on this island. Dominance came off the guy in waves.

  “Lina Goodwell, as you know,” she replied, keeping her tone friendly. They were both feeling each other out.

  “I’ve heard good things about you from Sergeant Carter, and you should know, I’ve read your file. The classified one,” he told her. “Very impressive, even for one of our kind.”

  “Thank you, Alpha,” she replied, giving him the respect of one shifter for a more dominant leader.

  “The only thing the classified file doesn’t tell me—and something I thought I might be able to discern by meeting you but haven’t figured out yet—is exactly what kind of shifter you are.” He tilted his head to the side, as if in slight embarrassment. “Forgive the rude question, but if we’re going to work together, I’d like to know. If it helps, I’m a lion, as you’ve probably guessed from my last name.”

  “I suspected,” Lina replied, playing for time. “I assume you’re in the line of succession to the lion throne?”

  Kinkaid started and shook his head. “No, not me. I’m the king’s uncle, but I don’t carry the marker to be king. I’m not a white lion.”

  “Forgive me. I didn’t know your folk had the same sort of system as the tigers, where the Goddess marks those fit to rule with white fur.” She was intrigued by the thought. “My kind follow the Lords. We don’t have monarchs within our own species.” She cleared her throat. “Uh, I’m a lynx, sir.”

  Kinkaid smiled with genuine warmth. “A cat. That’s great. I hate to say it, but the few wolves on this base confound me. I really don’t understand their Pack instincts, but please don’t tell anyone I said so. They’re good men and women. The fault isn’t with them, but with my limited understanding of their inner beasts.”

  And it took a big man to admit that, Lina realized. She could definitely work with this lion. She’d been afraid he’d be an unreasonable fellow, but this man reminded her a lot of her own father. Smart, steady, and strong in dominance, but not a jerk about it. She smiled at him.