by Karen Anders
Incredibly good.
Except, right now he didn’t feel big or bad, just humbled by the courage of this five-foot-four woman wrapped around him.
Taking care of him wasn’t all she’d done. It didn’t take too much brain power to see that, because his was fried right now as he realized that she’d gone after Doc Blessing.
Goddammit!
All the way to Charikar on her own and, judging by the way she was dressed, she’d done it disguised as a man.
Son of a bitch!
His estimation of her went up a whole freaking notch, maybe two. That took some major guts and he was pissed that he couldn’t have minimized the need for that, but his wound was infected. He was feeling more lucid, but the vestiges of the fever took their toll. He knew that much and regardless of whether he liked it or not, the mission was necessary.
But knowing that didn’t stop his gut from clenching, thinking about the danger she had been in.
She mumbled something unintelligible, burrowing even deeper into him. Damn, this was not only a nice way to wake up, but he could so easily get used to this.
No, you moron. She’s not for you. This was about danger, adrenaline and fear. It wasn’t conducive to forging any kind of romantic or soft feelings, for that matter. He had to get healed up. Stay tough and move her out of here. Three days, his ass.
He groaned softly. Had she injected him or had that been Blessing? Had he actually told her to kiss it and make it better?
He felt her stir and waited. There it was. She stiffened, but didn’t move, and he couldn’t help feeling good about that. She liked where she was...maybe? She opened her eyes and he didn’t even blink. “Good morning, sunshine.”
She met his gaze and blinked, then held him transfixed, the rising sun making the flecks in her amber eyes look like pure gold. “You still feel warm, but I think your fever broke,” she murmured, moving her hand on his face, down to his neck. He had to clamp his teeth together, forcing a breath out of him, a new rush of heat sizzling through him.
She was wrong. He wasn’t warm, he was hot.
“I think I have you to thank for that.” He’d already kissed her once. He was sure of that, that he’d kissed a US senator while his brain was swamped with fever, and he couldn’t even use the excuse that it was the illness. It only allowed him to follow through on something he’d wanted to do since he’d laid eyes on her.
Startled, Piper looked up at him.
“You went all the way there to get her, didn’t you?” For the first time in his life, Dex was breathless. The anticipation of kissing her riddled his blood like a burning fuse on its way to detonation, along with anger that was just as explosive.
“You’re pissed.”
“By yourself. You went alone.”
“I knew you’d be upset.”
“Lady, you haven’t seen me upset,” he growled.
“I have caused you nothing but problems,” she murmured. “It was the least I could do for all that you’ve risked for me.” He never wanted to give her one single reason to think what he had done for her was against his will. He would do it all again in a heartbeat.
He meant to open his mouth and tell her, but she already knew. He saw the knowledge mirrored in the deep, tawny depths of her eyes that pulled at him like a vortex. She twisted him the hell up, and his anger only got worse; it was because, for the first time in his life, he felt bone-deep fear that ate him up. Hell, he was a commanding officer, and he’d just been promoted to full lieutenant. He led men into battle, engaged the enemy in hand-to-hand combat, killed without an ounce of remorse, and this woman, this freaking brave-heart woman, was breaking him down. He meant to talk, but instead he hauled her up against him.
“You are a freaking piece of work.” He pressed his forehead to hers, trying to overcome his emotions, his system overloading, his pulse heavy, his heart laboring against it. She stared at him, her eyes wide, with a sheen that made him want to put his fist through a wall.
“I was so scared.” Her voice was softer, huskier, more seductive. Seductive because she wasn’t telling him that she was afraid for herself. She’d gone into danger for him and his heart felt suddenly too big for his chest. Closing his eyes, he swallowed hard and tightened his hold, the rigidly suppressed feelings boiling up inside him. Getting close to her was the worst mistake he’d ever made.
His throat tight and his eyes burning, he took a pain-filled breath, his own voice low and rough when he said, “If something had happened to you...”
His mouth brushed hers and she made a wholly feminine yet utterly involuntary and soft sound.
“I wasn’t going to let you die or suffer needlessly,” she whispered against his lips.
He made a raw, aching sound and grasped her jaw, covering her mouth in a wet, deep, blistering kiss. Gathering her against him, working his mouth hungrily over hers, Dex couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think. She made another helpless sound against his mouth and he tightened his arm around her and dragged his lips away, his breath labored.
“This isn’t a good idea. There’s too much fever and my mind is screwed up with these drugs. I’m crazy pissed at you, but dammit, you’re one ballsy woman.”
It took everything he had to let her go, but they were in a house full of people and he was jacked up in more ways than one. Dex didn’t do well when his head wasn’t screwed on right. His judgment was definitely skewed right now. Shot to damn hell.
She brushed at her cheeks and the sight of that tore him up inside, but he was suddenly exhausted, the pain in his side breaking through. He felt like raw hamburger meat.
His throat tight and his jaw clenched, he took the tablets she handed out and made no comments when she shot him in the butt with antibiotic. Then Afsana was there with more broth, and he gritted his teeth between sips until he refused to take any more.
Guilt punched him hard. He was the navy SEAL. He was supposed to protect her. Probably sensing the tension between them, eyeing both Dex and Piper, Afsana left.
He closed his eyes and stewed and fumed, but with the meds and the fever he was still fighting, he fell asleep.
When he woke up, Afsana was there with his broth and water. She raised a brow. “How are you feeling?”
He shifted and growled, his voice sleep-roughened. “Where’s Piper? Out saving the freaking world?”
“No. That’s your job,” she said wryly. “She’s outside milking our goats and weeding our garden.”
His grunted, and amusement at Piper milking a goat almost overrode his grumpiness.
“I think you’re being unfair and you’re angrier at yourself than you are at her.”
“I’m hungry,” he said to try to get her to stop talking about Piper. He had one more thing to be mad about. He’d stepped over the buddy line, big-time. He felt the reprimand from his brother more than seven thousand miles away. How could he have forgotten that Piper was Ty’s sister? Yeah, right, you were thinking with the wrong head.
He’d put his heart on the line two times before when he’d thought the woman in his arms was his match, but he’d been disappointed twice. How could he trust that Piper wouldn’t get sick of him being gone, sick of his deployments and the danger, and leave him? He didn’t think he could handle that again.
Experiencing an acid rush in his belly, he shifted his arm and stared at the ceiling, his head fuzzy, feeling disconnected and hating it. He wasn’t going to get sucked into old crap—not now when he needed every brain cell to get them out of this.
Before he realized it, he was waking up again and it was dark in the room. He shifted and swore softly as pain rushed at him. A soft light flooded the room and then Piper’s gentle hand took his wrist and put the tablets in them. She handed him a bottle of water. He closed his fist over the pain meds and her mouth tightened.
Aware
he was heading back onto dangerous ground, he made himself disconnect from those thoughts.
He somehow had to get them both out of this without doing any more damage. Taking a minute to get a grip, he didn’t say anything.
“I can get Afsana...”
“No,” he said, his voice gravelly. He caught her wrist and stopped her. Feeling burned, he immediately let her go. “Don’t. I need to talk to you and I want to be lucid when I do.”
She went still, then her eyes widened, and there was an instant when he saw incomprehension on her face. Then he saw the flash of uncertainty, of apprehension, and it hit him that she wasn’t sure what kind of reception to expect from him.
Despite all the reservations he had, despite knowing this had been one big mistake as far as he was concerned, he couldn’t let her think this was meaningless. If nothing else, she had saved his life, and he owed her for that. Experiencing a sharp, clenching pain in his chest, he said, “I’m sorry. It was a knee-jerk reaction to you being in danger. I wasn’t really pissed at you. I was more pissed because I couldn’t handle the situation. Typical alpha behavior.”
“I’d say,” she responded, and seemed to relax some. “I’m sure a navy SEAL hates it when he’s not in control.”
“Bingo. But that’s not all.”
“No? What more is there?”
“Ty is my best friend, and I don’t want to jeopardize my friendship with him by romancing his sister, especially in the kind of situation we’re in.”
She huffed out a laugh. “Yeah, this isn’t the most romantic setting.”
There was another long pause before Dex released a heavy sigh and spoke. “I don’t want you to think I’m not taking this seriously. I am. There is attraction here, I can’t deny that. I think you’re beautiful, strong and competent. We should keep our eyes on the ball. Getting back to DC and figuring out who’s threatening you needs to be our priority.”
Her face was so open and vulnerable his heart pulsed hard. “I have my own reservations, Dex. I know that it’s not a betrayal because my husband is dead, but I’m just not ready for anything like this. I can’t handle it.”
Her honesty made his heart roll over and his chest clog up. Feeling as if he might turn inside out at any minute, he hadn’t expected this attraction; that, he was honest about. “I think you can handle anything,” he said huskily, feeling like a first-class bastard. Inhaling heavily, he said, “But we’ll figure this out together. Deal?”
She nodded and met his gaze with so much gratitude in her eyes it nearly broke his heart. “I’d rather work with you than have you pissed at me. It’s not a good look on you.”
“I thought I explained that. I wasn’t pissed at you.”
“Felt that way, but I get it. I understand.”
“Let’s move on. We can agree on that?”
“Yes. We can.”
“Hoo-rah, that’s something. Now why don’t you tell me who could be behind the attempt on your life? Who would go to these lengths to try to kill you?”
“I can’t imagine I’m that important enough to send a hit squad after me.”
“Are you sure there’s nothing that comes to mind? Anything, even if it’s small.”
“Other than my terrible car accident, I am trying to get a bill passed. It could be damaging to corporations... Wait, I had a break-in after Brad died. A window was broken.”
“Was anything missing?”
“No, not that I could find?”
“You have opposition on this bill?”
“Yes, Senator Robert Mullins from New York and he’s been pushing me, then threatening me, not to go through with the legislation. It’s the only business I have to complete for Brad. My term ends in three months. It takes a lot of effort to get a bill through the Senate and then through Congress, especially one like this, but I’m close to victory.”
“New York, huh?” Dex rubbed his hand over his stubble. “That means Wall Street. Could he be simply protecting his constituents, or does he have a shady deal going?”
“I have no clue. I don’t really know that much about him and his business or his dealings. Really, like I said, I’m a lame-duck senator with no pull. I think most people just feel sorry for me because I lost Brad and my baby.”
“He’s going to the top of our list. We need to figure out how to get back to DC.”
“I think I have a plan for that.”
“Okay, shoot.” He was starting to feel uncomfortable, but resisted taking the meds until they were finished talking about these important issues.
“I still have my purse and all my IDs, including my credit cards and passport. Blessing is going to be here tomorrow to take us to Kabul and I can charter us a jet home. You have Agent Hatch’s ID, but you shouldn’t need it. All my personnel have already been cleared. It should be just a matter of getting on the plane and flying back.”
“That will work.”
“Don’t you think you should contact your commanding officer at least? Let him know you’re safe and you’re helping me?”
Afsana came into the room carrying two dishes, interrupting them. “Let’s try some solid food, Dex, if you think you’re up to it.”
He realized he was starving and took the plate. She was serving them mantu—dumplings filled with onion and lamb—steamed and topped with a tomato-based sauce, and qoroot, a dip that was a mixture of yogurt, garlic and split chickpeas. It smelled heavenly. He forked up a dumpling and savored the bite, rolling his eyes. “Delicious, Afsana. You are an excellent cook.”
“I agree. Could I get the recipe for these and for the kebab you made the other day and that...qor?”
“Qorma Lawand?”
“Yes, that’s it. It was to die for, Dex.”
“I’ve had it. Onion-based with yogurt, turmeric and cilantro and chicken.”
“I’ll let you get back to your discussion. I’ll be back for the plates. I’m so glad to see you looking better than when you arrived, Dexter.”
“Thank you for your hospitality again, Afsana. You and Raffi are our saviors.”
“It is our pleasure. Raffi wouldn’t even be here if it wasn’t for you, Dex. He and I must go to our cousin’s tonight like we planned, for the celebration of the birth of his second child, so we will say our goodbyes before we leave. I am so glad that you are both all right. If there is any way you could get word to us that you are safe in DC, we would be so grateful. Enjoy.”
Dexter picked up on the thread of the conversation. “No. I’m not risking a call to my commanding officer.”
“You don’t trust him?”
“It’s better to keep him and anyone out of the loop until we’re sure you’re safe. That means finding out who’s behind this. Do you know anything about Agent Hatch?”
“No. I don’t even know his first name. Hatch and Markam were assigned to me by DS and took me to the airport. I was told they had military training and could better protect me in Afghanistan. I didn’t think anything of it. I’ve always trusted the DS.”
“Why wouldn’t you? They’re sworn to take a bullet for you, not to put one in you.”
“This is all so distressing. Edward must be going out of his mind with worry.”
“Speaking of that. Do you trust him? He knew you were going to Afghanistan.”
“Edward? Why would he want me dead?”
“Any family fortune issues, disagreements over property...anything like that?”
“No, nothing. We all got a fair share of the estate. Edward inherited the house, but I didn’t want it and neither did Ty. He was more interested in becoming a SEAL and really didn’t want the responsibility. It’s a big mansion and it’s drafty and costs a fortune to upkeep. I already have the home I bought with Brad, so no interest in that.”
“All right, so we elimina
te Edward, and we have Senator Mullins and your potentially damaging legislation. Babe, people have killed for less.”
“It’s hard to believe that he would jeopardize his standing that way and the fact that he’s making a bid on the White House. He actually had the nerve to ask me for an introduction to one of Brad’s hugest campaign contributors, Stephen Montgomery.”
“Montgomery? Not the billion-dollar tech mogul, CEO of the Montgomery Group?”
“That’s him. I know he’s famous, but I’ve known him since I was a child. He’s an old family friend.”
“You do run in some rich circles.”
“Oh, Dex. I am rich, filthy rich. Brad had a fortune he left to me. I have more money than I know what to do with. Someday I’m going to figure out how I can use it to help people.”
This woman had a way of blindsiding him. She rattled off that she was rich and no way would he have ever guessed from the way she handled herself that she was a blue blood. But it was clear from the way Ty had described his family that they were wealthy.
“So, Blessing said she’d be back tomorrow. We should get some sleep and be ready to travel.”
“How is your wound and your fever?” Instead of waiting for him to answer, she pressed her palm against his forehead, displacing his hair, then slid all that softness down his temple over his rough cheek. “Oh, that is much better.”
He was doing everything in his power to keep his hands off her and here she was touching him. Unable to move, feeling as if someone had dropped a boulder on his chest, he tipped his head back and swallowed hard. He knew he would relive all these moments with her thousands of times in his mind. If he lived to be a hundred, he would never forget her.
His jaw locked and she stiffened, realizing what she had done. She went to pull away and he grabbed her wrist.
“I know what we agreed. But you are still sleeping right here with me.”
Hell, that would cost him. He’d really need those pain pills tonight.
Chapter 8
Kabul,
Parwan Province, Afghanistan