by Vicki Tharp
This time he didn’t stop her. She took him in her mouth, teasing the tip of him with her tongue, tasting the salt, the essence of him. One of his hands rested on her upturned ass, the other slid to the back of her head, fisting in her hair, keeping her there as he surged up. She relaxed her throat, taking him in.
“That’s…Tess—” She pulled back and glanced up at him, his eyes dark with primal need. She licked his slit, then retook him. He groaned. “Fuuck.”
There was a faint thud as the back of his head smacked the steel deck, but it didn’t faze him. He took his hand off her ass and fumbled with the button of her jeans. “Off.”
She sat up and stripped. Boots and socks going one way, her jeans and underwear landing somewhere else. When she turned back to him, his hands were clasped behind his head, his eyes bold and brash, raking her body as intimately as if it were his hands that were touching her. She felt no shame, no embarrassment, no self-consciousness even though the men in her unit had teased her about her tomboy-esque body.
She may not have the tits of an exotic dancer or the hips of Marilyn Monroe, but the way he took all of her in, made her feel perfect, even if she was only perfect for him.
On her hands and knees, she crawled back to him, the cold steel biting into her knees until she reached the blanket. His hand skimmed down her side and over her hip, but instead of looking rapt, he shook his head and blew out a resigned sigh.
“What’s the matter?” she asked.
“I don’t have any condoms.”
She thought for a moment, then couldn’t help but smile when she remembered a conversation she’d had with Quinn on a late flight back to the airport one night. “Hang tight, I’ve got you covered.”
She rummaged around at the back of the helo and found the thin box of condoms Quinn had stashed there. She tore the box open and tossed one to Gil.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” he said, though he didn’t waste any time ripping the foil packet and sheathing himself.
Tessa went back, re-straddling his hips. Her hands landed by his shoulders, her long hair curtaining them. “Looks like we’re not the only ones who want to have hot helo sex.”
“Thank God.”
“No. Thank Quinn.”
Gil grinned and slid his hands up her waist until his thumbs hooked on the underside of her breasts. Squeezing the mounds of flesh, he rose up and sucked first one and then the other into his mouth. His tongue flicked and licked until she thought she might come from his mouth alone. But that wasn’t what she wanted.
She reached down, taking him in her hand and placing him into position as the first chug of a single-engine plane sputtered to life. They didn’t have much time. But before she could plunge down on him, he stilled her hips with his hands.
She stifled a groan. “What now? Is this where you tell me this is my last chance to stop you?”
A look of confusion crossed his face. “What? No. It’s never too late to say no. I’m a grown ass man. You say stop, we stop. No questions. No repercussions. No—”
“No whining?”
He grinned at that. “No promises. It’s just—”
She pressed a finger to his lips to shut him the hell up. This was happening, and unless he was the one who was going to say no, there was little else that would stop her. She sat back and sheathed him as the sun popped up over the distant plains, bathing her in heat and light. It took a moment for her body to adjust. Gil was bigger than her ex in breadth and length, and there was that whole not having sex for way, way too long going on.
He lay still beneath her, his body tense and tight, his breathing slow and controlled as if it was taking everything he had not to go all caveman on her. She liked that. She liked that very much. She braced her hands on his chest, her eyes going to his, checking back in with him.
The tension eased from his face, and he smiled as he slid his hands up her thighs and gripped her hips, the tips of his fingers pressing into her flesh anchoring her to him. To the present. “You good?”
Fantastic. Spectacular. Orgasmic. She’d scare him off if she admitted all that. “I’m good.”
He raised her up, then with a slow, steady slide, plunged back in. She leaned back, catching her arms around his knees, taking him as deep as he could go. When was the last time sex had ever felt that good? Had it ever felt that good?
She didn’t have time to contemplate that question. Gil amped up the speed and the intensity, until he had her breasts bouncing, her breath catching, her orgasm growing. Goosebumps rippled across her flesh as she met him brutal stroke for brutal stroke.
His rhythm faltered, and she knew he was getting close. He wrapped his arms around her, pulling her on top of him, their bodies melding and melting, slick with sweat and piping-hot passion.
He hooked his hands over her shoulders, plunging harder, deeper until her nerves pinged, and her body trembled as together they chased their climax. She squeezed her eyes tight, shutting out the past, wanting only what was here and now.
He brushed her hair aside, framing her face with his hands. “Look at me.”
She opened her eyes.
He slowed, exchanging the fast, hard strokes for almost painfully tender ones. “There you are.” His voice was soft and full of wonder. “Good Lord, if you only knew what you were doing to me.” The way he said it, made her think he wasn’t talking about the physical.
She was close, so close. And those eyes… the way he looked at her like she was the only thing that mattered, that she was what made the earth spin, the tides ebb, and his heart beat. Her eyes stung, and her chest got tight.
“Come with me,” he said.
She did.
Somewhere behind them came the rumble and grumble of one of the fuel trucks as the airport woke to a new day. They needed to go. They were spent, tired, and hungry, but Gil wasn’t ready for their time together to end.
Tessa lay on top of him as they caught their breath. He tightened his arms around her. Even though the morning air was crisp, his sweat-dampened hair lay plastered to his head. With the tips of his fingers, he traced light circles at the small of her back, liking the way goosebumps erupted on her skin and her body shuddered with the aftershocks of her climax.
The engine of another single-prop plane revved, and they listened as the throaty whine receded into the distance as the plane took off down the runway. They really needed to get up before someone found them wrapped together, naked and sweaty and sated.
“We should get going,” he said, hating that he had to be the one to break up this…this…whatever this was. He didn’t have a name for it. A one-night stand wasn’t accurate because, if he had anything to say about it, this wasn’t a one and done thing. On the other hand, it wasn’t like they had a relationship. Yet. “We both need showers. Spinks will want reports ASAP, and I’m pretty sure we’re all due for an ass chewing. Besides, I want to call the hospital, check on Lang and Rivera. But first, I need to take care of this condom before it’s too late.”
“Mmm,” she mumbled, turning her head and pressing a kiss to the center of his sternum. “One more minute.”
He could give her that. He was going soft, but that didn’t make being inside her feel any less incredible. “Okay, one more minute.” He kissed the top of her head.
Fifteen seconds into their minute, one of the security guards flashed by in one of the utility vehicles, the strobe light on top flashing blue and white. What the? A second utility vehicle sped by, a bullhorn in the driver’s hand. “You. Get away from the fence. This is a restricted area.”
Tessa popped up and rolled off him, scrambling for her clothes. He tied off the condom and tossed it into the empty food bags, making a mental note to come back for them as soon as they found out what the hell was going on.
By the time they climbed out of the helo, security was at the far end of the fence, a cloud of dust choking the air on the far side of the razor wire, the retreating vehicle already out of sight behind a gentle rise.
“Kids, more than likely,” the first guard said. The name on his name tag said ‘Haggerty’. He had a bald head and a weapon wedged against his overabundant belly. “They come out on Saturday night. Smoke. Drink. Have sex. You know. Kid stuff.”
“Shouldn’t you go after them?” Tessa asked.
The second guard in the far vehicle said, “The only way through the fence is by the hanger. By the time we can get around, they’re always long gone.”
“What about security cameras?”
Haggarty shrugged. “I don’t know what kind of security you two are used to, but this isn’t Fort Knox. All the cameras along the fence face inward, and those on the outside of the hanger are too far away to be any good. Trust me, we’ve checked.”
That all too familiar itch between Gil’s shoulder blades was back. Some people had gut feelings. Gil had the itch. Or maybe it was that he and Tessa had been that close to getting caught naked in the helo that had him all out of sorts. Could be it. But Gil wasn’t convinced. “Something doesn’t feel right.”
“It’s kids, man,” the second guard reiterated.
“Look.” Haggarty lowered his voice and leaned toward Gil and Tessa as if he were the director of the CIA about to impart pearls of wisdom on the peon recruits. “I know you two had a terrible night last night, it was all over the scanners. Shit like that can make you paranoid. This…” He spread his arms meaning the airport in general. “This is a small-time muni airport, in the foothills of Wyoming. Nothing happens here. Trust me.”
“You won’t mind me having a look around.” Gil didn’t pose it as a question, because it wasn’t one.
“Suit yourself.” Haggarty gave them a mock salute and pressed his foot down on the accelerator, leaving him and Tessa on the black tarmac.
“What do you think?” she asked.
“I think I’ll see what I can find out. You coming?”
“Go ahead,” she said. “I’ll close up the helo, and I probably should find my bra before Quinn does.”
Gil glanced down and smiled, liking the way her bare nipples pressed against her T-shirt. “Good idea.” He started heading toward the gate, and over his shoulder he said, “I’ll meet you back at your Jeep.”
They parted ways, and Gil strode around the perimeter of the fence, the sun climbing higher and higher, a reminder that the day was getting away from him. He wouldn’t have time for that nap after all. The shower, though, was non-negotiable.
Past the far corner of the fence where the guards had stopped their chase, and out of sight of the airport, Gil came across a set of vehicle tracks. A mid-sized pickup maybe, from the axle width. The tires thick with nobbies. The tires had spun out and dug deep. The vehicle would have needed four-wheel drive to make it out of there without getting stuck.
The dust had already settled on the twisty dirt road. Gil walked up the road a short way. Not far from the car tracks, he found a set of footprints that tracked parallel to the fence line. He followed. The ground rose and fell, and for the most part, no one on the tarmac would be able to see him walking there. The boot prints were almost as big as his. This was no kid looking to party.
The tracks stopped at a narrow ravine. The ground trampled, with divots in the side of a sand dune as if someone had climbed up and knelt there. Who was this guy and what did he want with the airport?
Gil climbed up the dune, hand over hand, his feet sliding back in the loose sand. At the top where the divots were most prominent, Gil stood. A chill shimmied up his spine, drenching that itch between his shoulder blades with a cold sweat.
In his direct line of vision was Tessa in the open door of the Blackhawk. Fucking hell. He wasn’t sure what it meant. Maybe nothing. But he didn’t really believe that.
Had he and Tessa been seen?
If they had, who had seen them and what were the possible repercussions? Spinks wasn’t too strict on inter-personal relationships between the team members. If everyone kept it professional at work and weren’t in each other’s direct line of command, Spinks let it slide.
Besides, Gil wasn’t planning on staying in the task force long term. He was going to get the bastards who left his partner paralyzed and then he’d be out.
After dropping Gil off at the ranch, Tessa headed home, calling Evie along the way because, after all that had happened, she needed to talk to her son and hear his voice. Evie picked up on the third ring.
“Hey Tessie,” Evie said. “Are you on your way?”
“Aah… About that.” Tessa turned down Main Street in Murdock, driving past the tourist shops, the mom-and-pop restaurants, the hardware store with the front window plastered in tool advertisements. “Look we had this thing go down last night—”
“You mean the gun raid?”
“How did you hear about that?”
“We had an early breakfast down at the diner,” Evie said. “You know how news travels around here. Everyone okay?”
Not by a long shot. But Tessa wasn’t in the mood to get into all that now. She turned off Main Street and down the long road heading to her house.
The lightning speed with which good and bad news traveled around her town was even worse than the Army. “More or less,” she said. “I’ve got a crazy day ahead of me. Is there any way Jack could stay with you guys until this evening?”
“Whatever you need. Family is always here for you. Don’t you forget that.”
Tessa pinched her nose to stave off the sting in her eyes. She never expected this kind of support when she moved to Murdock. After all, before she’d moved to Wyoming, Evie had only been someone to whom her mother had sent Christmas cards. A branch of her father’s family tree that had pulled up their New England stakes and rooted themselves near the base of the Rockies.
The years of going it alone had been tough, and it was such a relief knowing someone had her and Jack’s back. She heard Jack’s voice over the phone. “Mind if I talk to him?”
“Here he is,” Evie said. “Don’t worry about a thing. We’ll see you tonight.”
“Hey, Mommy.” Jack sounded his usual bright and chipper self. All she wanted to do was drive to Evie’s and scooped up her son and hold him tight and never let go. But that wasn’t in the cards for today.
“Hey, baby. I’ve got to work today. You’re going to stay with Evie and Massey and I’ll pick you up tonight. Sound okay?”
“Yea! That means I can ride horses again. You should see me, Mom. I can go super-fast,” Jack said, making super and fast sound like one word as if saying it faster helped her understand. “Massey says I’ll be a cowboy in no time.”
“That’s terrific, baby. Hey, I’m almost at the house. I want to hear all about it when I pick you up tonight. Sound good?”
“Okay. Bye.”
Tessa clicked End on her phone and pulled into her driveway. Bone weary, from the horseback riding, the late-night…
The sex.
She smiled thinking about Gil. He hadn’t as much rocked her world, as much as he’d introduced her to a whole new universe. He was a man unlike any other that she’d ever been with. Not that he was perfect. Nobody was. But there was something about the way they… the way that they fit, that made her wonder if maybe he was the perfect man for her.
That was crazy talk. She shook her head as she unlocked her front door. She was looking for a distraction. A little something-something to combat the loneliness. She would have plenty of time for romance, for relationships, when Jack was grown and out of the house.
She pushed the door open, but it stopped midway. What the? She pushed harder, but the door wouldn’t budge. She put her shoulder into it, and she managed to open it enough to squeeze through.
Holy hell. Tessa stared at the destruction that used to be her living room. The couch lay on its back, the cushions sliced open and the stuffing str
ewn everywhere. Her TV lay on the floor, the screen smashed and spider-webbed. Her stomach fell, dragging her heart down with it.
She tried to take in a deep breath, but her lungs seized, and she sputtered. Bradley. It had to be. The rat bastard. First her tire this morning. Then her house broken into, vandalized. No, she didn’t live in a Manhattan high-rise, but she didn’t live on the streets either. Stuff happened, but two incidents this close together reeked of her ex’s vindictiveness.
Instead of getting scared, she got pissed. What was Bradley after? What did he want with her?
He was the one who’d left them.
He was the one who’d wanted no contact.
Him.
If this was what it meant to have him living the next county over and back in their life again, she wasn’t having any of it. She would rather quit her job and move halfway around the world if it meant getting distance from him.
Could she tear her son away from family? He liked it in Murdock. For once, he had friends. He wasn’t the lonely little boy on the playground that nobody knew and nobody wanted to play with. No. She couldn’t do that to Jack. She would find a way to make this better. She had to.
First, she needed a shower. She needed food. She needed to get back to the station. The break-in wasn’t an emergency. She’d file a report when she got back. Besides, the mess wasn’t going anywhere.
The rest of the house hadn’t fared any better. Her mattress had been upended and thrown against the wall, her dresser drawers pulled out and dumped, the sheetrock scraped and dinged. Her clothes lay strewn on the floor.
As she showered, her frustration built. As she dressed, her anger simmered. As she tried to wedge the back door against its shattered frame, her determination cemented. Somehow, someway, she would get Bradley out of their lives. The cautionary tale that had been her life with her ex had to stop.
End of story.
In the kitchen, she stepped over the broken plates, the smashed glasses, the food smeared on the floor, and grabbed a box of crackers out of the pantry and a drink out of the fridge. It wasn’t much. But it would do for now.