by Cathryn Fox
Two hours later, he pulled his bike into the base and found the others already there. With the early morning sun beating down on him, Cole parked his motorcycle beside Jack’s. He took off his leather jacket and unhooked Charlie from his side cart. Charlie sauntered off to explore as he shut the gate behind him and made his way over to the table saw where Josh was running wood through the blade.
Charlie disappeared from his sight. With the compound surrounded by a chain-link fence, Cole wasn’t worried about his dog’s safety. Inside the protective barrier, the base still had a few buildings standing and miles and miles of grassland that would be perfect for simulating real training in the field.
“Where should I start?” he asked Josh, who stopped to take a swig of coffee.
“Jack and Garrett are out back pounding boxes together. Why don’t you start cutting circular holes in the ones they’ve assembled already.”
Cole made his way around back to where the others had found a spot in the shade. Both Jack and Garrett gestured with a nod and Cole grabbed the jigsaw to get to work. For the next few hours they all worked, talking quietly about nothing and everything. Soon the sun grew higher in the sky and Cole brushed the moisture from his forehead with the back of his hand.
“It will be quitting time soon,” Jack said, raking his fingers through his hair. “I need to get back and get the shop opened. Plus, I’m damn near starved to death.”
Cole’s stomach took that moment to grumble. He set down his jigsaw and balanced his foot on one of the boxes he’d finished cutting. “I can finish up here if you guys want to take off.” Losing himself in the monotony of woodworking would help keep his mind off Gemma, but he thought it best to keep that to himself.
Soft footsteps sounded and the hairs on the back of his neck tingled, every nerve in his body alive. He didn’t need to turn around to know Gemma was close. Her warm, familiar scent caught on a breeze and when it wafted before his nose, he drew it deep into his lungs. He shifted, uncomfortable as his cock thickened in heated response, eager to push through his zipper and catch a glimpse of the woman who’d rocked his world last night.
“Hey, guys,” she greeted, her tone bright and cheery.
Cole turned around and found her gaze scanning the boxes he was cutting.
“Gemma,” he greeted in return. “What are you doing here?”
She held her picnic basket out and smiled at both Jack and Garrett. “I thought you guys could use some refreshments. It’s pretty hot out here today.”
“You didn’t have to do that,” Cole said as he bent to give an excited Stallone a pat.
“Sure she did,” Garrett returned. He gave her one of his infamous grins, the same grin that had a plethora of women around town eagerly shedding their panties for him. Garrett sauntered over to Gemma to snoop in the basket and Cole had the sudden urge to step between them.
Gemma laughed and the sensual sound traveled down his spine. He cleared his throat to prevent himself from moaning out loud. Without conscious thought he ran his hands over the scratch marks on his neck. Realizing how visible they were to anyone who cared to look, he tugged on his T-shirt to conceal the evidence of a well-fucked man.
Gemma watched the action and the two exchanged a private, knowing look before she said to the others, “After what you guys are all doing to help me, it’s the least I could do, don’t you think?” She pulled out a plastic-wrapped sub and handed it to Jack.
“The least.” Jack gave her a wink as he peeled back the wrap and hungrily bit into the fresh roll like a man who’d been eating field rations for too long.
Josh came around the corner. “I smell food.”
“There’s plenty here.” She handed out sandwiches and drinks, then bent to unleash Stallone.
Cole couldn’t help but note the way her cotton sundress fell over the soft curve of her ass. As his thoughts careened in a sexual direction, he became fully aware of the way Garrett was staring at her. Cole cleared his throat to draw his friend’s attention. He cast a warning glare, letting him know she was off limits.
Garrett shrugged and dug into his sandwich as Cole cracked his soda and took a long pull to wet his parched throat. When Stallone wandered off, he whistled for Charlie, who’d been inside one of the buildings sleeping the morning away. A moment later he came out. When he caught sight of Stallone he rushed over.
As the two canines got acquainted, Gemma turned to Cole. Her sundress flared around her long, silky legs, ones he’d personally climbed between last night and ached to spread wide once again.
“How are things going?” she asked breezily.
He finished off his sub in record time, surprised he could even swallow as memories of last night bombarded him. “Slow but steady,” he said. “We should be able to examine the dogs by tomorrow to see which ones will be suited for the exercises.”
“Why don’t you give me the run down?” she suggested, an air of professionalism about her as she examined the wood boxes. “Tell me how this all works.”
Cole unplugged his jigsaw and noted the serious look on her face. There was no sign of the seductive bad girl from last night, which suited him fine. If she wanted to pretend nothing happened, he could play it cool too. In fact, putting the whole thing behind them and acting as if it had never happened was exactly what he wanted to do.
“Sure, come with me.”
She gripped her picnic basket and he stole a sideways glance at her as he led her toward one of the old hangars. When she caught him looking she offered him a warm smile that had a tremor racing through him. Okay, if he was so damn happy that she’d had a change of heart and no longer seemed interested in exploring a brief affair, why did he have a lump the size of Texas pushing into his throat? Shit.
Her voice pulled his thoughts back. “When will you be ready to start training your first dog?”
Cole slid the hangar door open. “Hopefully in a couple of days. We’ll bring a handful of dogs out here and it won’t take us long to figure out which ones have the right personality for the job.”
She frowned, and when her teeth worried her lower lip, he took in her contemplative mood.
“What?” he asked.
“I really hope this works out. The benefit didn’t go as well as I’d hoped.”
“Is there anything else you can do?”
“I spoke to my event planner. She and my mother have been urging me to have an event in Dallas.”
“Dallas?”
She nodded. “Mom is originally from Dallas and she still has lots of family, connections and influence there. She’ll be able to rally benefactors up for a benefit, and with the right motivational speech, hopefully they’ll open their wallets to help. I told my planner to run with it, and see if it was feasible before I committed.”
Cole took that moment to think about what Gemma had said to him the other day. While he’d like to be a poster boy for her cause, he preferred to work behind the scenes. Unlike Gemma he hated the spotlight and would rather face a firing squad than a room full of benefactors trying to decide whether he and his working dogs were worthy enough for them to invest in. He wasn’t the guy she needed at the podium. Contrary to what she thought, he belonged at the podium about as much as she belonged in the field. Just like her brother had never belonged in the field. He’d only chosen the army after Cole had enlisted.
“I can only hope the next benefit pushes me over the top and I can acquire the funding. Otherwise…”
“Otherwise you have to ask your folks for a handout and that’s something you don’t want to do, right?”
“If I do I’ll never be able to alter their image of me and they’ll never see me as professional, one who can take care of herself.”
“But you would if you had to, right? To protect the animals?”
Determination passed over her eyes and he could tell she no longer wanted to talk about it when she said, “It’s important to me that I do this on my own.”
Topic forgotten, they stepped fa
rther into the building. Her eyes lit with curiosity when she noticed a sheet of plywood lining one wall, numerous round holes cut into it.
She put her picnic basket down on one of the old tables and walked up to the wall. She traced her fingers over the wood and poked her hands into the cubbyholes. “What is this for?”
“There are boxes behind the holes. We hide things like smokeless powder, detonation cords and other devices and compounds used in bomb making. We teach the dogs to identify the smells and when they do, they get rewarded.”
“With a treat?”
“Something like that.” He tapped his leg and called for Charlie. A moment later his loyal Lab came sauntering into the building. Cole grabbed one of the leashes draped over the plywood and snapped it to Charlie’s collar. Then he grabbed his trigger and stuck it in his pocket. “Watch,” he said.
He guided Charlie along the wall, pointing to each opening in the wood. When he found the box containing the explosive evidence, Charlie barked and sat on the floor, his tail wagging wildly. As Gemma watched on, delight written all over her face, Cole pressed the trigger and a tennis ball went flying across the room. He let go of Charlie’s leash, and the dog went running after it.
“That’s their treat,” Cole explained. “A game of retrieval.”
Gemma released the top button on her dress. He was about to say something, but the creamy sight of her cleavage derailed his ability to concentrate. He cursed under his breath and fisted his hands at his sides as his libido roared to life.
Gemma waved her hand in front of her face, and her familiar scent filled the room. “I’m impressed.”
He gave a shake of his head to clear it. “Dogs are impressive animals.”
She stepped up to him and poked her finger into his chest. “Actually, I think you’re impressive.” She waved her hand around. “Most men throw money at my cause, but I like that you’re a man of action.”
There was something very sexual, very suggestive in the way she said action. It had him wondering if he’d misread her. Perhaps she wasn’t quite ready to put last night behind her.
When Charlie came rushing back with the ball, Cole pulled it from his mouth and diligently worked to ignore the heat rising in him—a heat that had nothing to do with the hot afternoon sun. He tossed the ball outside. Charlie went after it, never to return.
“It’s simple repetition and association,” he went on to explain, needing to think about something other than the reactions she was pulling from him. “We just need to do it over and over again until they get it right.” As soon as the words left his mouth, and he realized how sexual they sounded, he fought to get them back.
Her laugh was edgy, sensual when she walked over to her picnic basket and said, “Well, you know the old saying, practice makes perfect.”
As he thought about what he’d like to practice over and over again with her, despite the fact that they’d gotten it perfect the first time, Jack poked his head in. “Cole,” he called out. “I have to head back to the shop and the guys are running to town for a few supplies. Do you need anything?”
“I’m good,” he called out, his voice sounding like a strange, strangled whisper as his double-crossing cock tightened with need.
Jack’s warrior features softened as he looked at Gemma. “Thanks for lunch, Gemma. I’ll see you soon.”
“See you, Jack.” She waved good-bye and toyed with the next button on her dress.
They listened to Jack’s bike as well as Josh’s truck rev to life. The sound of gravel crunching beneath their tires echoed in the spacious hangar as the trio disappeared through the gate and down the long dirt road.
Gemma reached into the basket and pulled out a plastic container full of strawberries. She popped one into her mouth and made a sexy noise as she chewed. She held the container out to him. “Would you like a chilled strawberry? It might help combat the heat in this place.”
He gave a quick shake of his head and gestured with a nod to the outdoors. He was about to suggest they step outside, but was instantly distracted when she released the second button lining her dress. Cole watched in mute fascination as she trailed her hand over her flesh, her strawberry-soaked fingers dipping terribly close to her cleavage.
His cock grew an inch and he shifted to alleviate the physical discomfort. “What are you doing?” he grunted between clenched teeth.
“Trying to cool off a bit.” She gave him an innocent look, but there was a promise of something far more intimate in her tone.
“What we did last night. We agreed it was a one-time thing, right?”
She set down the container and the gleam in her eyes turned wicked. “Wow, I just came to bring you guys some lunch and look at you, wanting to change the terms of our agreement.”
He gave a frustrated growl. “Gemma, last night you were the one…wait, you know that’s not what…” he began, but his words of protest were lost on a moan when she pressed against him. Unable to fight the natural inclination to touch her as her heat gave him a raging hard-on, his hands circled her waist.
Torn between duty and pleasure, he looked at the woman in his arms. What the fuck was he doing? Christ, he needed to flee as much as he needed to stay. But when she swayed against him, her soft, coaxing body moving against his, and he caught the sexy, needy look on her face, he could feel his resolve melting around the edges.
Her fingers went to the third button and blood pounded through his veins. “I really only know of one way to battle the heat,” she murmured, her voice giving way to soft persuasion, “and that’s by getting undressed.”
Cole briefly closed his eyes in distress, but her sweet, strawberry-scented breath was so hot, so damn enticing on his neck he feared the situation was escalating beyond his power to stop it.
Sexual tension hung heavy and her voice was a low velvet seduction when she asked, “You wouldn’t want me to get heat stroke, would you?”
His fingers splayed over her back as her heat bombarded him. While he wanted to walk away, he hadn’t finished with her just yet, hadn’t even begun to get her out of his system. With need driving his actions, he crushed her against him. A low groan sounded in his throat. Okay, this wasn’t what Brandon and Audrey had in mind when they asked him to watch over her. But since he didn’t like or trust Douglas, being with Gemma this way was simply keeping her out of the hands of assholes like him, right? So really, in some twisted way he was protecting her.
Jesus Christ, how was that for logical reasoning at its worst?
“The guys,” he said, lust and need rising to the surface even though he was playing with fire. “They’ll be back.”
Undaunted she said, “Then we’d better hurry.”
Christ he didn’t want to hurry with her. He wanted to lay her out like a buffet and spend hours feasting on her. What he’d give to take his sweet time, to taste every inch of her body and savor every delicious crevice as he brought her to orgasm again and again. She shimmied against him and he sucked in a sharp breath, understanding when it came to her, he might be fighting a losing battle.
He grabbed her by the waist and backed her up, needing to answer the pull in his groin. With little finesse he spun her around and pressed her against the wall. Grabbing both her small hands in one of his, he pinned her arms above her head. His other hand went to her ass. An excited gasp rushed from her lips when he gave her a hard slap.
He whacked her again and when she angled her head to see him, he spotted lust in her eyes. “Cole,” she cried out, her voice sounding breathless. A tremor moved through her body as she called out his name, but from the way her cheeks were flushing to the way her hips were swaying, he knew it was from excitement, not fear.
He stroked her ass to soothe the sting left behind. That’s when he made a discovery that just about dropped him to his knees. “Jesus, you’re not wearing any panties.”
“That’s because you ripped them off last night, remember?”
His heart raced—okay, galloped—as he pi
ctured her sweet pussy beneath that dress, waiting for his touch, his tongue, his cock. “You only have one pair?”
Her laugh was edgy, breathy as she blew a wispy bang from her forehead. “No, but they were my favorite.”
With his mouth close to her ear, he whispered, “I’ll replace them.” He gripped the hem of her dress and lifted it until her silky legs were exposed. He ran his hand along her inner thigh before driving his knee between her legs to spread them wider.
She moved urgently against his knee, grinding herself on him. Knowing he was hanging on by a frayed leash as it was, he slapped her ass again. “Stop it.”
Her loud moan echoed in the building as small beads of moisture broke out on her body. Cole pulled her hair off one shoulder and, as he kissed the crook of her neck, he breathed in her erotic fragrance.
“Is this why you came here today?” He pushed his cock against her ass, the depth of his desire for this woman more frightening than a field of land mines. “Is this what you wanted?”
“Oh, God.” She shivered under his invasive touch.
He trailed his hand up her thigh, until he could feel the heat of her sex. He pulled in a breath as desire twisted inside him. “Tell me, Gems. Tell me why you came here,” he demanded, needing in the most desperate ways to hear her say it.
“I came here because I wanted to feel you inside me again.”
Her sex fluttered against his finger and the lethal softness of her pussy had his body jerking with need. He brushed his finger over her clit, testing her, preparing her.
“So good,” she cried out, her hips moving, riding his finger.
Sensual overload fried his brain cells, knowing she was ready for him long before ever stepping foot in this hangar. He ripped open his pants and freed his cock. “Do you need it bad?”
“Real bad,” she murmured.
Even though having sex in the hangar was risky, inappropriate, he turned her around and hoisted her onto his hips. “Put your legs around me.” When her eyes met his, his heart lurched and his body trembled almost uncontrollably. Jesus, he’d never experienced such a bone-deep want before. The tang of her arousal reached his nostrils and suddenly the need to lose himself in her became so intense it was almost painful.