Chapter 9
Chapter Nine
Every nerve ending in her body blazed to life. She stiffened but he made a noise in his throat, reminding her this was a performance. For whoever was stomping through the woods toward them.
Big hands cupped her jaw more gently than she’d have thought him capable of being.
Diana put her hands on his wrists, her heart hammering as his mouth slid across hers.
She tried to stay aware of her surroundings, but she’d been plunged into the middle of a forbidden fantasy come true and it was almost impossible.
Alex Bishop was kissing her. She’d imagined it more often than she cared to admit. In every single dream, he took control and kissed her with the kind of fire she’d thought was probably a lie. Just one of those things romance novelists exaggerated but did not truly exist.
It was not a lie. His mouth on hers was perfection.
His lips teased and tormented, gliding over hers.
When he sucked her lower lip, an answering tug bloomed in her center.
She was wet immediately, her body melting like wax against his as he held her and stroked his tongue across the seam of her lips.
She opened to him without thought, and he slipped inside, a groan in his throat. Flames licked her from the inside out. She wanted to throw a leg around him, rub herself against that burgeoning hardness pressing into her. The fact he was affected too? Made her wetter.
“There you are—shit man, sorry,” somebody said.
Alex’s entire body stiffened for a moment, and then he broke the kiss and took her hand firmly in his. Did he think she was going somewhere? She was too dizzy to walk.
“Hey, Brent, sorry ’bout that.”
A chill rolled through her. Brent?
“Damn, man, don’t blame you. Haven’t seen this hottie before or I might have beat you to it.”
Brent Gannon, former US Air Force colonel, leered. She wanted to glare at him but she managed to keep her expression as vacant as he expected it to be. Blond hair was handy sometimes.
Alex wrapped an arm around her. “Sorry, dude, but we have history. On again, off again kind of thing. Ain’t that right, baby?”
If she kneed him in the nuts right now, would she regret it? Probably.
So she smiled and wrapped her arms around his waist, pinching his side for good measure. Not that it was easy to get any flesh. The man was hard-muscled and gorgeous.
“That’s right, sugar britches. I just can’t resist scratching this itch even though you piss me the hell off.”
Gannon laughed. Alex squeezed her—a warning?—and chuckled too. Gannon held out a hand and Diana accepted. His grip was sweaty and soft. She wanted to wipe her hand on her jeans, but she kept a smile fixed on her face.
“Brent,” he said, winking. “You get tired of this lame old stud, you can come see me, baby girl. I’ll take care of you right.”
“You’re too kind,” she said, while secretly wishing she had an excuse to shoot him. He was such a douchebag he didn’t even bother to ask her name before he dropped her hand and looked at Alex.
“Came to find you because we’ve got some people here want to meet you.”
He’d dismissed her as arm candy at best. Fucker.
“Sounds good, brother.”
Alex tugged her along as they started to walk toward the field. Brent didn’t say a word to her, just talked to Alex about the men who wanted to meet him. Two guys from Europe. That was the only useful thing she got. The rest was about guns and his grievances with the Air Force.
Thankfully, she’d never interviewed Gannon during her investigation because she’d had no cause. She’d wanted to catch him in the act, but that got blown all to hell by the man currently holding her hand.
She’d suspected Gannon was the missing buyer when Jackson O’Malley tried to sell Stinger missiles a few months ago, but she had no proof.
The meeting never took place because Jackson was a loose cannon who’d taken a hostage and tried to hurt Daphne.
Alex and his team had burst into the warehouse and put an end to it before the buyer arrived, and that particular line of inquiry dried up like a drop of rain in a drought.
They made their way toward a knot of men standing at the center of the line of shooters. Their target was the middle and farthest one. Someone moved and Diana got a good look at the gun they’d set up. A Barrett M82A1 50 cal rifle sat on a bipod.
Great.
A powerful semi-automatic sniper rifle with a wicked range, used to take out enemy materiel at long distances.
The bullets fired from this puppy could pierce parked aircraft and vehicles.
Not a weapon to be fired casually, hence the fortified berm at the end of the field.
She hoped it was good enough because a bullet fired from that monster could go right through it and keep on trucking.
Alex called to Brent that he’d be right there before he stopped and turned her to face him. “Go get some food for us, baby,” he told her. “While I meet these guys.”
She thought she’d crack a tooth she gritted her teeth so hard. “Now why would I do that, baby? Can’t I meet your friends, too?”
“Best if you don’t,” he said, his voice low and growly. He dragged her against him again, kissed her like he owned her, and dammit if her body didn’t start to soften.
His mouth brushed her ear. “I’m begging you, Diana. Let me do this. Alone. I’ll share the information if I get anything good.”
She dropped a hand to his ass, snorted softly at the way he jumped. “I really, really fucking hate you right now.”
“I know. But trust me on this, okay? I’ll explain later.”
She wanted to tell him to go to hell. But what if she went with him and ruined the meet somehow?
However he’d gotten here, he’d done it with far more success than she had.
She was still tiptoeing around the rim of this thing while he’d plunged in with both feet.
Brent Gannon called him Alex and wanted to introduce him to people.
She was still trying to make Teddy understand they weren’t dating and talking about getting laid with Tessa.
“Fine. But you will explain. Or I’ll knee you in the nuts when you aren’t paying attention.”
He nipped her earlobe and she gasped. “Heard and understood. Don’t go anywhere alone.”
“I know that, Fred. Do you really want food or was that an excuse?”
He stepped back and grinned. “I’ll take a burger. Mustard, no mayo. None of that fucking iceberg lettuce shit either.”
She cocked a hip, put a hand there. “Anything else, your reverence?”
His gaze dropped to her breasts before sliding back to her face. If anyone else had done that, she’d be annoyed. Instead, a thrill tingled to life beneath her skin.
“You, baby. On a platter, naked and spread wide for me. But that can wait until later.” He gripped her chin in his fingers and kissed her again. “Smile, Diana. Look like you like me. People are watching.”
She smiled as he let her go, her heart thumping at the vision he’d put in her head. “You got it, dumpling. I’ll just go get your burger. Should I bring it to you or wait for you to come get it?”
“Wait for me like a good girl. Be about fifteen minutes or so.”
Oh, she was going to kill him. As soon as she got over the way her body responded to those two words coming out of his mouth.
She’d been called a good girl before, and it was always patronizing.
This? It was like he had a direct line to the pleasure centers in her brain because they were firing like crazy, sending sparks to her pussy, her nipples, making her long for him to say those words again—while they were naked.
Gah, what was wrong with her? She liked beta males. Nice, biddable, apologetic. Not an alpha who made her body clench greedily with nothing more than a heated look and some dirty words.
She stalked to the closest ice chest, reaching in to grab a cold bottle of water. She wouldn’t go so far as to roll it over her cheeks and neck so she could cool the heat he’d stoked. But it was a thought.