The Princess And The Mercenary

by Victoria Paige

  Nasir Rebels had no love lost for Al Qaeda. The original argument was that the rebels were a threat to the Saudi-led coalition that allowed the U.S. access to hunt down AQAP in Yemen. It had been making sense in a roundabout way.

  Kade heaved one more time and hit that last burning crunch, then he collapsed on his back.

  “Are you crazy?” Yara came to view over his head, wearing a fucking robe. It would be so easy to peek under it.

  He straightened his neck and stared at the ceiling. “Put some clothes on.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “If you don’t want to get fucked, put some fucking clothes on.”

  She didn’t say anything, but she didn’t move either.

  Sexually charged seconds passed in the thick silence.

  “You shouldn’t have slept on the floor,” she whispered. “The bed was wide enough.”

  “Yara …”

  “You got hurt saving me, the least I could do was let you have the bed.”

  For fuck’s sake. Kade got off the floor, gritting his teeth as his back bitched at him. He towered over her, and the way she looked at him shredded his self-control. Her eyes were all raw hunger and heat.

  “I’m fine,” he growled. “Now, put some fucking clothes on.”

  She. Still. Wouldn’t. Move.

  Yara lifted her chin and stared at him.

  10

  Kade’s self-control snapped.

  His arm snaked out and yanked her by the belt of her robe. Yara’s soft body was smashed against his chest the same time he crushed her mouth against his. He palmed her tit, and, fuck, the feel of her taut nipple made him harder than he already was.

  Tearing his mouth from hers, he growled, “One time only. We fuck each other out of our systems. One and done. We clear?”

  Her eyes flashed. “Shut up and fuck me, Spear.”

  “With pleasure,” he grunted against her lips. His fingers delved behind her panties. Damp. “Why, you dirty girl, you’re already soaked for me.”

  “It’s the shower.”

  “Liar,” he growled as he thrust two fingers into her and groaned against her lips. “You’re so fucking ready.” He kissed her again, sweeping his tongue into her mouth, and she eagerly met every stroke as they explored each other. He yanked the towel from her head and watched wet curls fall around her face, then tore off her robe, stood back, his hungry gaze devouring Yara’s sinful curves. He needed inside, but first he was dying to taste her. He pushed her to the bed, falling on top of her. Her eyes flared amber and her lips were swollen from his kiss. Her skin was unreal, a milky complexion that begged to be tasted, and her tits were as perfect as he’d imagined.

  He laved each peak with his tongue, but he was desperate to get to the core of her. The smell of her arousal was driving him crazy. Trailing kisses down her torso, he pushed her legs up. His cock ached at the sight of her pink flesh, slick with her juices, his balls weighed heavy, all the pressure from the night before coming in full force.

  Kade buried his face between her thighs and Yara bucked her hips. Her thready moan fueled his lust for her taste, driving the madness with the way he licked her, sucked her, penetrated her with his tongue.

  “More, oh, god, there, there …” she whimpered, her fingers digging into his scalp, legs thrashing around in abandon.

  She screamed.

  He gave her more.

  Squeezing every shudder and every ripple until her quaking stopped.

  He crawled up her body, lowered his shorts, and freed his erection. The blunt head of his cock rimmed her pussy.

  “Condom …” Yara whispered, her eyes, wide in alarm and conflicted desire, caused him to stop cold.

  Kade was about to take her without protection.

  He shoved away from her, almost slamming into the wall as he staggered from the bed. Spinning away from her, he yanked his shorts up and leaned a hand against the wall.

  What the hell had he just done?

  “Kade?”

  He grunted.

  A wisp of nervous laughter burst from her mouth. “Um, are we having regrets?”

  He kept his back to her. “Aren’t you?”

  Yara sighed, pulled herself up to the edge of the bed and picked her robe off the floor to put it on. She had a feeling she wouldn’t want to be naked for this conversation. “Why should I? You gave me a pleasant orgasm.”

  Kade chuckled darkly and turned to face her. “Pleasant? Need I remind you how loud you screamed and that you nearly scalped me?”

  Her chin lifted. “With the way you scrambled off the bed after you gave me an orgasm, you kinda negated half the pleasure.”

  He scowled at her then at the floor, or maybe he was staring at his dick which was still hard behind his shorts. Then he raised his head and looked at her, hand gesturing between them. “This should’ve never happened.”

  “I agree.” She hitched her shoulders.

  Kade held her eyes, jaw flexing. Yara didn’t waver, daring him to respond.

  He broke their stare-off and grabbed his towel. “I need to shower.”

  “You do that,” Yara mumbled, biting her bottom lip to stop her from screaming in frustration. She shouldn’t be pissed. She got hers; Kade got blue balls. Yara plopped back on the bed and stared at the ceiling. He gave her a mind-numbing orgasm, the best that she’d ever had, but pigs would fly before she told him that. His bedside manner left much to be desired. Instead of feeling the afterglow, she felt a chilling void.

  It was weird.

  Not a feeling she cared to repeat, no matter how hot and tempting a man could be.

  An inner voice called her a liar.

  Grumbling, she hauled herself off the bed and sat in front of the vanity. She didn’t need much makeup today. Her skin was flushed, and her lips looked bee-stung courtesy of the most infuriating man she’d ever met. She picked up the eyelash curler from her makeup bag and crimped her lashes, applying light mascara. Then lip gloss was all she needed.

  The freshly fucked look suited her, although technically she didn’t get fucked, but there was something primal in the way Kade tongue-fucked her, like he was starved for her taste.

  Her core pulsed, craving more, getting wet again.

  Hell no.

  What the hell was she thinking? Had she forgotten the stakes of the mission?

  The shower turned off and she stilled, listening to the way he moved in the bathroom. She needed to get dressed, otherwise, he’d think she was trying to seduce him. She accepted responsibility for tempting him, but she couldn’t help getting annoyed at Kade, at herself.

  She yanked on fresh panties, getting angrier by the second. She pulled up khaki pants and exhaled her anger by degrees. Yara was hanging on to every bit of pride she had.

  The door to the bathroom opened, and just when she hooked on her bra, Kade appeared, all sexy with his low-slung cargos and her annoyance disappeared temporarily at the sight of his lickable abs.

  Then she saw the conflict on his face and got irritated all over again.

  “You doing okay?” Kade asked quietly.

  Yara’s cheeks burned deeper in humiliation. There was nothing worse than pity. Why couldn’t he just leave it alone? “We don’t have to do this.”

  He frowned, his gaze questioning.

  “Regret.” She shrugged. “You already said your piece earlier.”

  “This shouldn’t have happened,” he repeated his earlier sentiment slowly, as if caught off-guard. “Highly unprofessional of me.”

  Yara learned early in life the more you begged a man for attention, the more they ran the other away. If a man really wanted you, nothing was gonna stop him. “Well, it did, and it’s done, right?”

  His eyes narrowed. “Right …”

  “So, we’re cool.” Yara walked to the closet and pulled out a white button-down shirt similar to the one she wore on the plane.

  “Yara.” Kade blew out a breath. “I—”

  “Ugh, you’re making this so awkward
.” She stomped her foot. “Let it go. Seriously, why are you making it such a big deal?”

  And he wouldn’t stop looking at her as if he’d kicked a puppy.

  Yara had made a couple of bad decisions in her life. Three actually. She wasn’t one to kiss and tell, but her pride demanded it. “Kade, I kinda seduced you.”

  He smiled briefly at this. “Yeah, you did.”

  “Do you think you’re the first man I’ve done that to?”

  The softness in his eyes hardened to ice. He was completely frozen.

  “I’m not a slut, but I’m not a prude either. If I like sex, I go after …”

  “I get it,” he snapped before turning away from her.

  “No, I don’t think you do,” she replied in a calm tone, watching his back stiffen. “This mission is important to me and a relationship between us, even if it was just physical, would be distracting to our jobs. I’m glad you had the sense to put a stop to it before we went too far.”

  “We’re good,” he threw over his shoulder. “Get ready. You’re gonna be late.”

  Yara let out a long sigh and walked to the dresser mirror, picking up a clip, and twisted her hair into a tight bun, all the while stealing glances at Kade. He was pissed because she might have injured his pride with this after-sex talk. It wasn’t even full-on sex, maybe a quarter. They did the right thing by not carrying things too far. So why was there a pang of regret holding her heart in a vise?

  11

  Kade had trouble concentrating at the briefing with his men. Warren Brody and Zeke Russo joined their eight-man crew that morning. Fortunately, Max was leading the checklist with the guys, because a certain chestnut-haired, golden-eyed siren was fucking with his head. And he was pissed that it was affecting him in a way that he wanted to hunt down every last one of her ex-lovers and kill them.

  So, she liked sex. She wasn’t a slut, but she wasn’t a prude either.

  What the hell did that mean?

  “Roarke, did you go over our armory with Brody this morning?” Max asked.

  “Yes. I’ve forwarded it to Yara, so she can get us clearance with Yemeni customs.”

  “You had the info before we left for Ankara,” Kade said. “Why don’t we have the paperwork filed yet?”

  Max and Roarke frowned at Kade’s tone and he knew it was not warranted. But at that moment, he was looking at the other guy as Yara’s potential next lover. Over his dead body was Roarke going to touch her.

  “Because we have additions to our armory from Brody that hadn’t gotten in until this morning,” Roarke replied evenly. “Chill, Spear. I’ve got this.”

  Kade snapped his mouth shut and nodded for Max to continue, and leaned against the wall and resumed brooding. He was going to spend another hellish night with Yara.

  Pursuing her would be a huge complication.

  He snorted derisively. It wasn’t even an option.

  A feeling he suspected was jealousy scalded through his veins like an insidious drip of battery acid. Kade never had a problem when other women used him for dick. He welcomed it, and preferred zero emotional involvement, but somehow that setup chafed when it came to Yara and thinking of her one-night stands.

  She liked sex.

  He remembered the taste of her on his tongue and he got hard again.

  In the middle of a mission briefing.

  Goddammit.

  She had him all twisted inside.

  When Max finally wrapped up his spiel, Kade couldn’t wait to exit the room. The air was saturated with his conflict and he needed fresh oxygen.

  “Spear,” Max called behind him.

  He gripped the door handle for a beat before releasing it to face his friend. Max jerked his chin to a corner of the room to allow the other men on their team to leave. Roarke glanced at them curiously.

  “Everything cool, man?” Max asked.

  “Yes.”

  “Then can I ask why you nearly bit Roarke’s head off?”

  “He should have dealt with those permits sooner.”

  “Nothing wrong with last minute on this one, Spear. Saudi coalition is pulling the strings. It’s a mere formality.”

  Kade didn’t say anything.

  “So, what’s the real problem?”

  “I fucked up,” he admitted. As much as he wanted to tell Max to mind his own business, SSRR was his friend’s company too and he deserved to know anything that could jeopardize their operation.

  “How …” Realization flashed through Max’s face. “Jesus … you didn’t.” His partner turned away from him, dragged fingers through his hair before shooting him a glare. “What the fuck were you thinking?”

  “We didn’t have sex,” Kade gritted. “I stopped before it went too far.”

  “Great! You left her hanging,” Max stated incredulously. “I don’t know which one is worse.”

  “She was cool about it.”

  Max raised a brow. “And you’re pissed because …?”

  “I’m not. Thought I should tell you,” Kade grumbled. “We done here?”

  “Should we switch Roarke on her then?”

  “Do you like your teeth where they are?” he shot back.

  Max grinned and shook his head. “Nah. Be interesting to see you flounder for a change.”

  He cursed Max again and stalked out of the room.

  People were milling around in the hallway. Butler must have called a break since a couple of aid workers were at the refreshments table. Aside from the workers from ERAF, aid-staff from the UN and other NGO’s joined the workshop. Kade overheard some chatter of major aid mobilization to Yemen after the Manhattan Globe published an exposé of the dire conditions in the war-torn country.

  Yara should have the updated information.

  He spotted her in the corner flipping through her phone. As if sensing him watching her, she looked up then walked away. There was something in her eyes that told him something was wrong. Kade followed her and caught up with her near an empty meeting room. Her lips were trembling, and her eyes were red.

  “What happened?” He stepped in front of her.

  “Not now, Spear.” She shook her head and tried to go around him.

  He moved to her side and grasped her arm to slow her down. “Talk to me, Tink.”

  She stopped, eyes brimming with tears and the devastation on her face made him want to hunt down the fucker who made her look like that.

  “Leaves,” she croaked.

  He frowned. “What?”

  Her hands gestured wildly, trying to articulate her words. “Leaves.”

  A distraught Yara was more than he could bear. All resentment he’d harbored toward her since this morning evaporated like water hitting hot pavement. He gently grasped her shoulders. “Hey,” he said gently, guiding her to a corner. “You’re not making sense.”

  “They’re eating leaves!” she blurted out. “The village in Jutab. They have nothing to eat. They’re boiling leaves from trees. Women and children are dying of severe malnourishment!”

  “We’re getting them help, Tink.”

  “What if we’re too late for thousands of them,” she cried. “The Saudis. Our own government. It’s all their fault.”

  Kade glanced around them, noticing Max and others in his team watching them with interest.

  “Come on.” He guided her to the elevator.

  “Where are we going?”

  “To our room,” he said as they stepped into the car. Thankfully, they were the only ones in it. “You can’t criticize Saudi Arabia any time you please, especially when we get to Yemen.”

  “I know that. I just got the numbers from the UN this morning. It’s much worse than we thought. Four hundred thousand children are fighting for their lives, Kade. It’s just …” She inhaled sharply. “I should’ve been prepared for the worst.” Her head nodded vigorously, her lips pinching together as if psyching herself with renewed determination.

  He’d never seen such fire in Yara’s eyes. It reminded him of a liones
s fighting for her cubs. Kade wasn’t sure if her tears were from anger or anguish, maybe a combination of both, but there was no doubt she was exploding with a passion of someone who’d fight for the oppressed and the less fortunate.

  The elevator doors slid open and Kade wrapped his arms around her as he guided her out.

  “We’ll make sure the aid gets there.”

  She emitted a frustrated sound. “It’s not just the Saudis. The Nasir Rebels are a pain in the butt as well. The aid’s not getting to those in need because the local authorities are manipulating its distribution.”

  They reached their room and Kade slid his card in the keycard lock. Opening the door, he inserted his card on the utility-control slot, turning on the lights.

  “How did you get this information?” He waved her through ahead of him.

  “Elliot told me.”

  His jaw clenched. Elliot Denton was a well-known American journalist critical of the Saudi royal family and the foreign aid community in general. “When?”

  “He called me earlier. He wanted to be embedded in our mission, but the last thing I want is to make this a media circus. Besides, he wrote that scathing piece on ERAF a few years ago.”

  “Why are you talking to him now?”

  “He emailed me some pictures. Some of them were too controversial to publish with his article in the Manhattan Globe that ran today. He said he was holding off the rest until I get back stateside. Didn’t want to get me into trouble.”

  “What pictures?”

  “One truckload of oxygen was stopped by Nasir Rebels from getting to a hospital.” Yara spoke with growing anger. “I don’t know if Tariq knows about this.”

  “And others?”

  “He said he had these pictures of a Saudi general …” Yara was so lost in her upheaval she didn’t notice him freeze. “But he wasn’t sure if he should send them to me.”

  “Dammit, Yara!” Kade exploded, turning away, squeezing his jaw between his hand as though preventing him from going off on her. The compulsion to bundle her into a plane and fly her back to the U.S. was a wild desperation he’d never felt before.