Chapter 6
CHAPTER 6
I t was dusk. The mountains cast long shadows across the valley as Jess made sure everything was shut down for the night. She walked slowly around the truck on her own, notepad and pen out. Because she was the supervisor on the project, it was her job to ensure everything was stowed away and locked up. She heard a lot of men’s voices, Americans, in the distance, laughing. Most evenings, the Special Forces soldiers and the well drillers met at a hut, sitting down and shooting the shit while they ate the MREs that made up their dinner. Jess usually didn’t join them. Men had their thing, and she was fine allowing them that time. When a woman was around, men tended to lowkey it. She wondered where Logan and Chris were. Off and on throughout the afternoon, she’d seen the two SEALs walking the area, M4 rifles in harnesses across their chests, dressed in full combat gear. Both wore the Shinwari tribal scarves around their necks to keep the sand and grit from getting past the neck region where the thick hand-woven cloth wrapped around. She smiled a little. They were definitely sending a not-so-subtle message to those who were pro-Taliban or Hill soldiers in the village that they were around and watching. That don’t-fuck-with-me attitude was well on display.
“Jess?”
She gasped, spinning around. Logan stood casually by the hood of the truck.
“You scared the piss out of me, Logan!” she whispered, her hand going to her throat, her heart banging away with a spurt of adrenaline.
“Sorry,” he murmured, giving her an apologetic look, standing, his gaze sweeping her from head to toe. “Lieutenant Parker said I’d find you out here finishing off the duty for the day.”
She closed her eyes, dragged in a ragged breath and then stared at him. He was wearing his black baseball cap, and had his H-gear on, the H-vest pockets loaded with magazines of bullets. His M4 was across his chest, and his black shooting gloves on.
“I always make a last check on our equipment before dark,” she said, feeling his gaze follow her. At this hour, Logan didn’t have his sunglasses on. They were perched on the bill of his cap. She saw the burning quality in his blue eyes, could feel him wanting her. Looking around, Jess wanted to make sure no one was within earshot.
“Don’t worry,” Logan assured her, a slight smile tipping one corner of his mouth, “no one is nearby. They’re all chowing down right now.”
“Good,” and she pointed her chin toward the stacks of casing pipe. “Gotta go over there and count them.”
Logan followed, cutting his stride to match hers. He gave her a glance. “Your surprised I’m here?”
Jess laughed a little, her heart fluttering. “You know I am.” And then she sobered. “I never expected,” and she choked up, “…to see you again.”
Logan kept his distance, always looking around. Jess was a certifiable distraction, but he wanted to protect her, and that made it easier to keep a stranglehold on his emotions and his desire for her. “Well,” he admitted wryly, as he watched her stop and begin counting the huge stacks of pipe, “I got a helluva surprise, too, when the opportunity came up, the master chief assigned me to this mission.” He waited until Jess was done counting, watching the way she moved, the way she leaned over, thinking she had the finest ass he’d ever seen. And cammies couldn’t even hide it. This woman was sensual as hell and didn’t even realize it. He watched as Jess dutifully wrote down the amount of pipe stacked before them.
“Why do you count this?” he asked, pointing to the pipe.
“Villagers steal them,” she said with a shrug. “I don’t know why. Taking it out to irrigate their fields, maybe?”
“These people are always on the edge of starvation,” Logan agreed, walking up to her. “Are you done here?” He saw her eyes grow warm and he had a hell of a time not staring at her lips.
“Yes. Why?”
“Walk with me? And don’t give me that look. Your LT would expect you to be working with us. You’re the supervisor on this project.”
Jess nodded. “You’re right. I’m just jumpy, Logan.”
“I’ve got your back, Babe.”
His low growl moved through her as if he’d sensually stroked her with his hand. “We’ll have to be careful…” Logan gave her a feral grin as they walked along the outer perimeter of the village, heading south.
“I’ll invoke SEAL stealth. We’re black ops. No one will ever see me at your hut. Guaranteed.”
“But,” she worried, “what about Chris? He’ll know, won’t he?”
“He already knows.” Logan saw her eyes widen with anxiety. He wanted to kiss her, caress her cheek, but he could do neither. “Chris is my swim buddy,” he told her in a low voice. “That means he’s like my brother. He knows about us and he has our backs.”
“Is that why he also came to my side earlier today after you off loaded from the Chinook? I felt like I was bracketed by protection, like I had two SEAL bookends.” Jess saw a slow grin crawl across Logan’s mouth. She wanted to kiss him so badly she could taste it. And yet, even in the dusk, people could see them. They both had to play adult here, not give in to their intense emotions for one another.
“Yeah, he knows you’re my lady. He’d take a bullet for you, if he had to.” And then Logan added somberly, holding her gaze, “So would I.”
Groaning, Jess muttered, “Don’t talk like that! I don’t want anyone else hurt.” Especially you , but the words caught in her tightening throat. Jess gestured ahead to a tall stand of green bushes. “The kids play out here during the day a lot, Logan. Hide ’n seek. You can always hear them laughing and squealing, so don’t think it’s Taliban or Hill soldiers hiding there. Okay?” and she slanted him an amused look. She saw him studying the grove of high, lush foliage. It was over twenty feet tall and about ten feet wide.
“It’s still a prime hiding place for them,” he warned, walking toward one end of it, wanting to scope it out more closely. “If they wanted to ambush this place, they’d come in at night, wait until dawn and then attack. It would catch the southern end of the village by surprise. People would die.”
Jess followed him, feeling safe, simply because he was near her. Logan was all business as he scouted out the entire grove. At the other end, the light failing, he said, “Follow me…”
Jess turned, going back to the center of the grove. Logan moved the rifle to his right shoulder. He turned smoothly, catching her off guard, his gloved hand sliding behind the nape of her neck, drawing her lightly up against all his gear, pulling Jess as close as he could, leaning down, taking her mouth gently, tasting her, feeling her tense and then suddenly sag against him. He knew the kiss had to be quick. Hell, he wanted it to last all night. But that wouldn’t be smart or wise. Lifting his mouth from hers, Logan saw the aroused look in her green, half-closed eyes, felt her hands on his shoulders.
“I needed to kiss you,” Logan rasped, easing her away from him, holding on to her arm until he was sure she had her balance back. When Jess touched her wet lower lip, he felt intense longing, and almost groaned. Even though she wore clothing that hid her magnificent body from him, he itched to open that blouse of hers, see how her full breasts made that green t-shirt she wore stretch and curve. He reached out, caressing her hair, watching her eyes soften with longing for him.
“I needed that too,” Jess admitted huskily. “You are so damned stealthy, Logan,” and she smiled a little.
“Come on, let’s mosey out of this here stand of brush,” he suggested in a put-on cowboy drawl, dropping his hand. “It’s going to be stealthy like that from now on,” he warned her. “If you hear three soft knocks in a row at your door?”
“Yes?”
“It’s me. Let me in?”
“But… what if someone sees you?”
“What? At midnight? When everyone’s sleeping? The only people on watch will be the A-team. I’ll get their routine down and be sure to come to your hut when they can’t possibly see me.”
“I sleep on the floor, Logan.” Jess saw him grin. Saw the challenge in his eyes.
“Not a problem for me, Babe. Will it be for you?”
“No, but it’s not that German inn.”
“You’re a woman that’s flexible,” he said with assuredness, a gleam in his eyes.
Chewing on her lower lip as they rounded the brush, darkness beginning to fall over the village, Jess said, “We’ll have to be quiet…” She saw his grin deepen. “That’s not funny, Logan.”
“No, but we’ll deal with it, Jess. Okay?” More than anything, he wanted her to realize he had her back. He would always protect her. He would never let her down on that front. Nor would he ever tarnish her reputation. “We’ll work it out,” he promised, giving her a serious look. Jess looked more convinced, not so worried as before. They walked back to the drilling site and then moved down one of the wide, dusty streets toward their part of the village.
“Okay,” she admitted, making sure there was the right amount of space between him and her. “I’m just jumpy, I guess.”
“I understand,” he said. “Trust me?”
She gave him a fervent look. “With my life….”
“Come join Chris and me for dinner? Our hut? We’ll eat outside where everyone can see us. And it will be cooler outside, rather than inside those huts.”
Jess smiled a little. Logan’s face was deeply shadowed, bringing out the strength of it. “That would be nice.”
“And maybe later, we can amble over for a cup of your coffee before we hit the rack?”
“Sounds like a plan, Randall. You’re quite the plotter.” She saw amusement in his eyes, but he said nothing as they walked deeper into the village proper.
It took Jess a few minutes before she got over to the SEALs’ hut. They were both sitting outside the hut on the large, flat rocks someone had placed there long ago. The perfect natural stools. Jess saw a third rock nearby. It was almost dark. She didn’t need NVGs, though, because she knew the way fairly well. There were no lights anywhere. Electricity did not exist here except for their one dedicated generator. Just kerosene lamps and candles. Both SEALs immediately stood when she appeared. Flustered, Jess said, “Sit down, please?”
They only sat after she had. SEALs were throwbacks to another era to a time when being a gentleman counted. Jess found it heartwarming that they continued that tradition. Yes, warriors from another era . It fit. She pulled open her MRE packets. “Have you two gotten a feel for the village yet?” she asked them.
Chris spoke up. “Well,” he drawled, “this village is pretty much like all the rest: laid out in a rectangle. There’re no walls around it, which means Taliban could come and go as they pleased.”
“It’s not a very defensible position,” Logan agreed.
“And how will you guys work around that, as snipers?” she wondered.
“The highest place in the vill is the chief’s house. It’s a decent enough place to set up an overwatch. Not the best but, other than climbing into a tree, it’s all that’s available,” Chris said.
“The chief wasn’t too happy to hear we’d chosen his roof,” Logan said, amusement in his low voice. “What we’ll do, Jess, is set up a tent. Nothing large or obvious, but just enough to shade us from the overhead sun. We have to lay up there for hours at a time.”
“That sounds like torture,” she said, giving them both a worried look.
“Better than rocks cutting into you for hours or days at a time,” Chris deadpanned.
“What kind of schedule will you have?”
Logan finished his MRE, dropping the empty pouches at his feet for now. “We’ll spell each other every three hours from the time you start your day until you quit. The fact you have a military-trained dog and he’s close to where we are? At night, we don’t need to stand watch. Anything that dog hears? He’ll be barking and wake everyone up. The daylight hours have been assigned to us. Our job is to be on the lookout for enemy coming our way, whether it’s on a motorcycle, the bed of a truck, horseback or on foot.”
“And if we see anything,” Chris assured her, “we’ll be on the radio simultaneously not only to you, but to your LT and the A-team.”
“We spent late afternoon with the Special Forces guys,” Logan told her. “We wanted a combined QRF, quick reaction force, if Chris or I spot Taliban or we THINK it’s a threat coming our way, they will immediately group with whatever we need to do. We’ll be a force to contend with that way and most Taliban and Hill tribes don’t like meeting head on with us. They’d rather sneak up, attack, and run and disappear into the trees or the night.”
“Sounds like a good plan, but really intense,” Jess murmured. “I’m sorry you guys have to bake up on that roof, though. That sounds horrible ever for three-hour stretches.”
“We’re used to it, Jess. Don’t worry about us, okay? We’ve been sent here to keep you and your crew safe,” Chris assured her.
Jess wanted to reach out and grip Logan’s hand. He was about two feet away. “Well, just know I’m indebted to both of you.”
Chris chuckled. “You can pay us back in coffee.”
She smiled in the darkness, liking his soft drawl more and more every time she heard it. “It’s the least I can do,” she told him, meaning it.
Logan became serious. “Listen, we wanted to talk to you in private, anyway. Your LT and the Spec Force boys know about this area. We didn’t necessarily want your crew to be concerned.”
“About what?”
Logan rubbed his jaw. “There’s a Hill Tribe warlord by the name of Qader Khogani. He’s the twenty-nine-year-old leader of the tribe up in the Hindu Kush mountains. He’s Taliban all the way. Satellite intel has been following him and his men for the last three years. He’s got about two-hundred soldiers on horseback and they’re well equipped and have good weapons. Intelligence believes it was one of his groups that swept down and attacked your crew.”
Grimacing, Jess said, “Where are they now?”
“Khogani has broken up his main force into roving bands of about twenty men each on horseback, now,” Logan told her. “Those steeper hills a mile away from here?”
“Yes?”
“His men; satellite intel says he gathers them higher up in the mountains, above those hills, hiding between the forest and snow line at nine-thousand feet of elevation.”
“And,” Chris added, “they’d probably like to attack any of these five villages if they could. The Hill people have had a thousand-year-old feud with these Pashtun valley tribes. There’s no love loss between them at all.”
“So,” Jesse said, finishing off her MRE, “they could be here to attack because of the feud?”
Logan settled his elbows on his thighs, hands clasped. “The last time they hit, Jess, they hit your crew. Not the villagers.”
His words sent a chill down her spine. “But… why us? Because we’re Americans? Don’t they realize fresh water saves lives?”
“You’re a woman,” Chris reminded her. “They could have you targeted. We just don’t know their reasons yet.”
“You’re getting daily satellite intel, Logan?” Jess asked, feeling more and more like a target.
“Yes. I’ve got a laptop with me, and I receive a twenty-four-hour feed. It will help us keep tabs on them. But they hide in the hundreds of limestone caves up there near the snowline, too, starting at eight thousand feet, all the way up to twelve thousand. We lose sight and track of them for days at a time. They know those cave systems and we don’t. Some caves are linked together by tunnels, or some are like a string of pearls. They could ride for a day or more in one of those systems and they’d never show up on our satellite photos feed.”
“I see,” Jess said in a low tone.
“I’m glad we’re here,” Logan told her. “We’re another layer of protection for you, Jess. Plus, we’re snipers and trackers. If anyone is going to see that Hill group up in the area, it will probably be us, and not a satellite.” He reached out, squeezing her arm to reassure her. “Come on, I think Chris and I would like to take you up on that fresh coffee right about now.”
She tucked the empty MRE pouches into her cammo pocket and stood. “Sure, come on over.
“You two go ahead,” Chris drawled. “So long as you promise to bring me back a hot cup of coffee, Randall?”
Jess felt her face go hot. She was grateful for the dark.
“You’ve got it, Bro,” Logan promised. “Stay put for a moment, Jess. I need to collect my gear and the cups for our coffee.”
“That was nice of Chris,” Jess murmured as she shut the door to her hut behind Logan. She lit a small candle on the wobbly table where her coffee pot sat. Walking across the small, hard-packed dirt floor, she pushed one of the two cushions she had into the small window nook to block any light from showing outside.
Logan put his gear in the corner, watching the candlelight caress her shadowed face. He saw Jess was exhausted. Taking off his Kevlar vest, he placed it next to his rifle, leaned down to untuck his work shirt made from wicking fabric, with long sleeves to protect his arms. He came over, walking up behind her, settling his hands on her shoulders.
“The coffee can wait,” he murmured, pressing a kiss against her neck, feeling her gasp a little, her hands stilling over the pot.
“Really?”
Logan moved her ponytail aside, then kissed her again on the sensitive nape of her neck. He felt her tremble and slowly lean back against him, trusting him, as had quickly and mysteriously become the norm for her. Holding her weight, Logan laid his head against her shoulder and jaw, his arms going around her waist, gently holding her. “You smell so damn good… like flowers,” he growled, nuzzling her jaw, feeling her react, hearing that soft intake of her breath. Her fingers came around his arms, moving across his hands.
“My shampoo,” she said, her voice unsteady, feeling heat pooling in her belly. Her nipples going hard. Wanting. This man was so sensual, all he had to do was barely touch her and she was feeling her knees starting to go weak. His breath was warm and moist against her neck. She closed her eyes, absorbing his strength, his hands across her belly, his lips wreaking havoc on her neck, her flesh skittering with heat and pleasure.
“You just smell good,” Logan told her, taking her, cupping her breasts. “You feel good, Jess, I missed you so damn much…”
Jess moaned as his large palms cupped her breasts. Even with her thick cammos and her cotton bra on, she felt his warmth, the way his thumbs caressed the hidden nipples that sizzled with shocks of fire as he languidly teased them. Wet between her thighs, she sagged against Logan, her head resting against his shoulder. “That… feels so good, Logan,” and she quivered as he slowly released her breasts. Her breath was growing uneven and she was beginning to ache. She felt the thick hardness of his erection against her lower back. He was wanting her as badly as she wanted him.
“I’ve got to stop,” he muttered, apologetic. “It’s not fair to you, either, if I can’t please you all the way.” He eased her away from him and then turned her around, seeing the arousal in her slumberous green eyes. Groaning, Logan took her mouth tenderly, appreciating its softness, the way it moved in concert with his own. Framing her face, he inhaled her scent; a mix of shampoo, sweat, dust and her own sweet fragrance which drove him crazy. He was aching and it was killing him. “I can’t stay tonight. I’m sorry, Babe. I really am…”
She held him close, savoring the strength of his mouth against her own. “It’s all right… I know we’re in a dangerous situation… this is enough… just getting to kiss you,” and Jess leaned up, breasts against his chest, devouring his mouth, making no apologies for how she felt about him. It made Logan groan, and his hands slid to her hips, holding her hard against his erection. She was starting to melt in his hands, beneath his hungry, primal mouth, the sweep of his tongue making her shudder with hunger for more of him. Their breaths came ragged and rough, their mouths clashing against one another, hearts pounding.
Logan tore his mouth from hers, breathing heavily, his hands tight on her arms, staring down into her softly candlelit face. If there was EVER a time when he’d wanted to make love to this woman, it was right friggin’ now. He caressed her face, saw the burning desire in her shadowed eyes. “We have to stop.” He watched her swollen, wet lips pull faintly into a smile as she held his gaze.
“I’m aching. You have to be, too.”
“Yeah,” he muttered. Shaking his head, Logan said, “When we get together, fireworks start between us.”
“Wild women are like that,” Jess teased throatily. She tried to still her body, stop her hips rubbing against his erection. The agony in Logan’s eyes was real. “Are you sure? You can’t stay for just a little bit? Time enough to… well… love each other?” She saw Logan hesitate, his dark brows moving downward, his hands automatically smoothing the fabric along her shoulders.
“I planned on being able to come over late and staying the night with you, Jess. Leaving near dawn.” Torn, Logan searched her eyes. “I don’t want you thinking I’m here just to get sex from you. What we have is a helluva lot more than that. I was hoping… hell, hoping against hope, that we could have nights together at least once or twice a week. Time to lay with you, talk with you, find out everything about you.”
Jess felt her heart swell with warmth for Logan. “I don’t see you as the kind of man who has sex and then leaves afterward. Remember?” and she slid her fingers across his stubbled jaw, “I was with you that night? And in the morning, you came back with breakfast? You’re not a runner, Logan. It’s not your style. I KNOW that,” and she held his narrowed gaze. “You’re a man of honor. And what we have… well… I’m open to an hour as much as twenty-four hours with you.” Jess licked her lips, holding his gaze, feeling his indecision. “When is Chris expecting you back?”
Grimacing, he muttered, “Probably an hour. We have to clean our weapons still. And I’ve got to make a final check-in with Bagram.”
She smiled and slid her hands over his shoulders. “Okay, we have forty minutes. I want you, Logan. ALL of you.” She saw the moment he made his decision, a feral look coming to his eyes. Jess smiled, drowning in that heated look that made her even wetter between her thighs. “Come on,” she whispered, grazing his cheek with her fingers, “my bed is over there… on the floor…”