Chapter 8
Blade knew the instant Lily fell asleep.
Her body went limp, and her head relaxed against his arm. He glanced down and for the first time, took a long, hard look at the woman he”d rescued. The anger on her face softened in the warm hues of the rosy dawn. The cresting sun illuminated her features, highlighting the gentle curve of her cheeks and the fullness of her lips, slightly parted as if…
Well, he wasn’t going to go there.
Her eyelashes, long and delicate, rested against her skin, just above the faint purple shadows underneath that spoke of the ordeal she’d undergone.
Docile, vulnerable, exhausted. Lily was an enigma. Full of fear when he’d first rescued her, then simmering with fiery indignation. She was tough, though. He’d pushed her hard, mostly because he’d wanted to get under cover before daylight hit, but also because he was mad at what she’d said about him. That he’d convinced Spade to join the unit.
He ground his jaw. No way. She’d been wrong about that. Spade had signed up on his own accord. No persuading necessary. As had Ricky and Blaster and all the other guys he knew.
He cast his mind back. It was so damn long ago he could hardly remember. He’d met Spade, or Joe as he was called back then, at a training camp. Spade was an infantryman in the Ordnance Corps, and Blade had recently returned from a tour in Iraq with the 82nd Airborne Division. Blade was older than Spade by about five years, but when you served together, age didn’t mean a thing. They became fast friends. Spade had always been bright, and he was—had been—an asset to their unit. The guy had been a genius with machinery. Anything from their patrol vehicle to a jammed anti-tank weapon, he could take apart and fix.
Blade remembered the moment he’d decided to try out for the Special Forces. His Commanding Officer had pulled him aside and told him he was a good fit. Blade had needed a change. The constant partying and mayhem while off-duty was taking its toll. He didn’t like the person he’d become. To win the respect of his buddies, he had to drink more, stay up later, and get up to more shit, and after four years, he was over it.
The decider had been when he’d met one of the Green Berets on a training operation. He’d been in the canteen when the atmosphere had changed. It suddenly buzzed with energy like an electric current had been fed through the room, and in walked a massive, tattooed man wearing a green beret with a silver emblem on it—an arrowhead and dagger.
He’d stared at the man with respect and admiration. The entire canteen had gone quiet, as if the sheer power of this one man had rendered them all speechless. This was a member of the U.S. Army Special Forces, one of the army’s most elite fighting forces.
As soon as he could, he’d gone straight to his CO and applied for the Q Course, the grueling year-long recruitment process for the Special Forces.
Perhaps his determination had rubbed off on Spade, but he was certain of one thing—his buddy wouldn”t have signed up if he hadn”t wanted to. Spade had been as driven as he was. During training, which was one of the toughest courses in the world, they”d both managed to keep it together and neither had broken.
If Spade hadn’t wanted to be there, he wouldn’t have made it through the physical endurance, jungle, escape and evasion, or interrogation trainings. He wouldn’t have coped with the hunger and thirst, intimidation tactics, or sheer exhaustion they”d experienced for days with no apparent end in sight. No one without a hundred percent commitment would have.
Blade had the utmost respect for anyone willing to put themselves through that grueling process. There was no shame in bugging out. Many good men had. Not everyone was cut out to be part of the Special Forces, but Spade wasn”t one of them.
He grimaced. Whatever Lily might think about him, she was wrong about that. Sure, he might have talked about it, but Spade had made up his own mind about joining and had been all-in from the get-go.
Finally, he reached the cabin. It was hidden away in the densest part of the forest, barely visible unless you knew it was there. Abandoned for many years, it would once have been a half-way house for bandits and rebels. Now, given its dilapidated state, it had been left to rot.
His buddy Phoenix, with whom Blade had done basic training before Phoenix had switched sides and joined the U.S. Navy, had rebuilt the front door yesterday morning after the chopper dropped them off. He”d attached new hinges and repaired the lock so it could be bolted from the inside. The windows had been boarded up, apart from a tiny slit at the very top, so not only was it pretty dark inside, but no one could enter that way unless they had a rocket propelled grenade.
Supporting Lily with one arm, he used his free hand to unlock the door then kicked it open. He knew immediately the other members of Pat’s team had been back. There were two fully stacked backpacks in the corner.
Thank you, guys.
These were definitely going to come in handy since he’d left his own pack behind in the cave.
He glanced at his watch, badly scratched by the tunnel—oh five twenty. By now, the rest of his team would have been extracted from the RV point, and the hostages would be enjoying a cold soda on their flight back home.
Mission accomplished.
All except his part.
He laid Lily gently on the floor, folded up a blanket, then placed it under her head. She stirred but didn”t wake.
He smiled when he saw a note in Pat”s barely legible scrawl on the table.
Glad you made it out. Left you some supplies. Good luck—and thank you.
It was unsigned. No clue for the enemy in case they’d found the cabin before Blade had made it back here.
The supplies were in the backpacks. Blade began to unpack them, taking an inventory. Rations and water, a first-aid kit, five pounds of Semtex including detonators, stun grenades, hand grenades, blankets, a sleeping bag, and a small gas cooker—everything an SF operative would need behind enemy lines. Unfortunately, but for obvious reasons, they’d taken the radio equipment with them. It wouldn’t do to have that falling into the wrong hands.
Blade secured the premises as best he could. He set an early warning system outside using a tiny amount of explosive, so if anyone approached the cabin, he’d hear them. Next, he bolted the door from the inside. Once satisfied with his security measures, he finally sat to eat and drink something.
The last forty-eight hours had been intense. Pat had been right to ask for his help. Blade had mobilized the guys almost immediately. No one had needed much convincing.
He’d called Phoenix first. The former Navy SEAL had left the unit earlier this year after an operation in Iran went south. Blade didn’t know all the details, but it sounded like Phoenix had gone against his instinct and followed orders, and people had died. Soldiers had died. He couldn’t carry on after that.
Boomer was also itching for action. Six months ago, in a twist of fate, he’d taken two bullets to the chest in an op that went south. In addition to spending a month in hospital coughing up blood, and another two rebuilding his strength, he’d been ordered to compulsory therapy sessions. His military career was over. To say he was pissed was an understatement. Boomer lived for the action, and as an explosives expert, was calm and steadfast, a real benefit to any team.
Then there was Viper, a former sniper, deadly, insanely accurate. He’d been out for a year already. When Blade had called about the unofficial op, he’d jumped at the chance.
Damn shame he hadn’t gotten Lily out of that cave in time to make the RV. Still, after what had happened on his last mission, he wasn’t about to risk his team getting blown to bits. Better this way.
He couldn’t add any more dead men to the ones he already carried around in his head. He would just have to get Lily out of Afghanistan alone.
Blade yawned. Christ, he was tired. He”d been awake since the flight to Afghanistan the previous night, and while he”d been through worse, that faint sense of disassociation that came with severe fatigue was setting in.
He looked at Lily curled up on the blanket. As he watched her sleep, her curvaceous form began to swim before his eyes. He needed some shut eye. Sighing, he lay down next to her then pulled the extra blanket over them both. Within seconds, he was out.
“Joe…” It was little more than a soft moan in his ear.
Must be dreaming.
Then an arm snaked over his chest, and there was no mistaking Lily’s whisper. “Joe.”
Eyes wide open, he lay stock still, heart thumping. Should he wake her? She’d been so exhausted she’d passed out a mile from the cabin. Clearly she needed the rest. They couldn’t go anywhere until it got dark anyway.
“Mmm…” She snuggled into him, her hair soft against his cheek, her hand stroking his chest. Her touch was light, tantalizing, erotic. What the hell was she doing?
His dick didn’t know either but decided to rise to the occasion, just in case.
Fuck.
Okay. Time to wake up.
He lay a hand on her shoulder and gave a gentle shake. “Lily, wake up.”
“Uh-uh,” she murmured and nuzzled some more.
Goddamn if he didn”t want to pull her into his arms. Hold her, nurture her, devour her. But he wasn’t Joe.
“Lily,” he said louder. In response, her hand moved lower, caressing his stomach. He groaned. She was killing him. “Lily, wake up.”
“I don”t want to,” she muttered, draping a leg over his.
What the hell?
Was she awake? He lifted his head and glanced down at her face. Her eyes were closed, her lips curved upwards in the beginnings of a smile. How come he”d never noticed how gorgeous she was before? He suddenly saw what Spade had seen in her, and what he”d been blinded to by her superior attitude and fast put-downs. The geeky glasses hadn”t helped either.
Her leg moved up and down, massaging his thigh.
It felt good.
Shefelt good.
He brushed a stray hair off her face, resisting the urge to kiss her. Her body was languid and warm, curving into him. A part of him didn’t want her to move. A big, rock-solid part. As much as he was enjoying this, he couldn”t let her continue. She”d be so embarrassed when she woke up. As would he.
Blade turned toward her and shook her shoulder. “Lily, come on. It”s time to wake up.”
“Kiss me…” she whispered, her hand snaking into his hair.
Whoa!
She angled her face upwards and found his lips with her own. His heartbeat escalated like the rapid exchange of gunfire. He had to put a stop to this before?—
Hell.
She was kissing him. Soft, butterfly kisses that made his gut clench and his breath catch in his throat. He mustn’t respond, yet it was so hard not to. Her lips nudged his open, then she slipped her hot tongue into his mouth.
All rational thought vanished.
He growled, a low sound in the back of his throat, and kissed her back. Long, velvety kisses. Delving into her mouth more than he meant to, holding her tighter than he wanted to, inhaling her scent more than he needed to.
He was losing himself in that kiss.
Losing it. Period.
But damn, it felt so good. She felt so good. Before he realized it, he’d hooked an arm around her waist and was crushing her against him.
Then she stopped moving. Stopped moaning. Stopped kissing.
Stopped everything.
Blade also froze. He”d pushed it too far.
Fuck.
He released her.
Slowly, she opened her eyes and stared at him with horror. “You are not Joe.”