Ignited (Titanium Security Series) (20 page)

He nodded, searched her eyes. “Think you can sleep now with me here?”

It shouldn’t have mattered, but knowing he’d changed his mind about wanting her hurt more than she cared to admit. “I’ll try.” She reached over to switch off the bedside lamp, lay down and closed her eyes, trying to ignore his nearness and the persistent ache in her chest. “Thanks for everything, Hunter,” she said quietly, knowing it was a ridiculously inadequate thing to say to someone who’d saved her life twice in the past two days.

“Nothing to thank me for. I’d do it all again in a heartbeat.”

All of it? His choice of wording made her want to groan, because right then she was dying for more of the pleasure he’d shown her. She curled up onto her side and pulled the covers up beneath her chin, fighting the sting of tears. She told herself it was just simple exhaustion. “G’night.”

“G’night.” 

Sleep wouldn’t come. She’d known it wouldn’t. Not with images of the bombings and the girls’ frightened faces flickering through her head. Hunter’s quiet breathing reassured her she at least wasn’t alone, yet somehow she felt lonelier with him stretched out on that couch across the room. She turned from one side to the other, even pulled the pillow over her head to block out the tiny bit of light coming from the bathroom. No matter what she did she couldn’t relax.

“That mattress have lumps in it or something?” Hunter asked finally after an unknown amount of time had passed.

She rolled to her back with a sigh. “Sorry. Am I keeping you awake?”

He gave a half chuckle. “No. I’m not much of a sleeper these days.”

“I used to be up until a few weeks ago. I miss it.”

In the dim light from the bathroom, she watched Hunter sit up and set his elbows on his knees. “I’m not gonna lie to you, sweetheart.”

The endearment caught her off guard and warmed her at the same time.

“Going through what you have, seeing the things you have, it’s not gonna be easy. You can’t just shut it off when you want to. It’ll take time for you to figure out how to cope with everything that’s happened, and that’s normal. And you should definitely talk to someone when you get home.”

“Oh yeah, my therapist and I will be spending lots of quality time together once I get back,” she assured him. “I started seeing her right after my dad was killed.” Even saying it still made her throat constrict. “You, on the other hand, handle everything so well. I wish I knew your secret.”

He went still for a moment, an almost haunted expression flickering over his face. “No secret. Trust me, I’ve got my own demons to deal with.”

She wanted to ask what that mysterious comment meant but thought better of it, not wanting to ruin the fragile bond they’d established. “Here. You come take the bed and I’ll sleep on the couch,” she offered, throwing off the blankets and swinging her legs over the side. Tomorrow she’d have lots of time to sleep on the plane. Hunter would most likely be working all day again.

“I’ve got a better idea.”

Her head snapped up when he rose suddenly and approached the bed. In the thin slice of light revealed by the open bathroom door she could see the broad silhouette of his shoulders, the shadowed planes of his face as he advanced on her. The breath backed up in her lungs as all the oxygen seemed to get sucked out of the room. She shifted around while he rounded the bed to climb on the other side and laid down facing her, head propped in one hand so their faces were less than a foot apart.

Before she could ask what he was doing he reached out a hand and brushed a curl away from her cheek. “You look scared to death,” he said softly, amusement coloring his deep voice.

She flushed, though he probably couldn’t tell in the dimness. “I just don’t know how to read you. I thought you’d changed your mind about…earlier.”

“No, but I like catching you off guard,” he admitted. “And I bet I can help you fall asleep.”

The way he said it, the words laced with such sensual heat and promise, made her nipples harden and her abdomen clench. Oh yeah, she wanted him. She was leaving tomorrow; this was her only chance. “What have you got in mind?” she whispered, heart pounding in anticipation.

In answer he curved his hand around her nape and eased her head closer until she could feel the warmth of his breath on her face. “I’ll show you. But you have to close your eyes first.”

She searched his eyes in the dimness, found nothing but arousal and a frank male hunger that made her toes curl. As soon as she allowed her lids to fall he began trailing kisses across her forehead and down the bridge of her nose. The unexpected tenderness surprised her.

Needing to touch him, she slid her hands down his chest to the hem of his T-shirt and under it to the naked flesh beneath. Oh God, the feel of him, all hot, hard male in prime condition. She stroked her palms over his skin, across the firm, sculpted planes of his chest and abdomen. He let her explore, seeming content to cover her face with kisses so sweet she found herself tilting her head back in a silent request for more.

“Lie down,” he whispered against her lips, feathering across their edges. She allowed him to turn her fully onto her side, facing him. “Keep your eyes closed.”

More heavenly kisses feathered over her jaw, teasing her lips, then finally centered there. She opened instantly, sighed in satisfaction at the feel of his tongue sliding inside to tease and caress hers. During the previous kiss she’d felt the urgent lust raging through him, but this one was slow and seductive. Need drove her closer to his body and she felt the thick ridge of his erection press against her pelvis. One rock of her hips and she was rewarded by a low groan, a hard hand sliding from her hair to the small of her back and lower to grip the curve of her hip. He squeezed, his long fingers kneading her flesh in a rhythm that made her want to purr.

Khalia stroked his tongue with hers and ran her hands over him, luxuriating in all that male power at her fingertips. When his palm slid up from her hip to cradle her breast she gasped into his mouth, the puckered nipple gathering even tighter against his palm. Tingles radiated out from his touch, heat pooling low in her belly. The thin cotton of her sleep shirt prevented her from feeling his hand on her bare skin. She wanted it gone.

Twisting up, she reached down to drag the shirt off. He stopped her, catching her hands in one of his and again brushed his thumb across her throbbing nipple. Shards of fire swept through her, centering in her core, making her wet and ready for him. A shiver rippled through her. Hunter kissed her deeper, letting her feel more of his need before he took the hard point between his thumb and forefinger and squeezed gently. Her back arched of its own volition and a high-pitched gasp escaped from her tight throat. She was melting, drowning in pleasure and she never wanted it to end.

Before she could plead for more than he was giving her, he pulled the hem of her shirt up just far enough to expose her breasts. Cool air caressed her naked skin as he leaned in. The scrape of stubble against her tender skin was erotic as hell and when he cupped the weight of her in his hand and dragged his tongue across the sensitive center, she couldn’t hold back a soft cry. Grabbing his head, Khalia arched her back and pulled him closer. He obliged with a low sound of satisfaction and took her into his mouth. Her eyes fell closed under the lash of pleasure.

Hot. Wet. Unbelievably sexy. He sucked at her with slow pulls of his mouth, letting his tongue flick over the sensitive tip. In the space of a few heartbeats the pulse between her legs morphed into an all consuming pressure, demanding release. She writhed against his mouth and fought the restraining hold he had on her hip, scissoring her legs in a useless effort to press her mound against him and find some sort of relief.

A loud chiming made her jerk and her eyes fly open. Hunter stilled against her, her nipple still in his mouth. It took a second for her to realize it was her phone ringing. As much as she loved her family, she didn’t want to talk to anyone right now. “Probably just my brother,” she panted, muscles tight with strain, feeling like she’d die if he stopped what he was doing. “Just ignore it.”

Hunter obliged her and did something devastating with his tongue. Her delighted sigh was just melting into silence when another phone in the room began to ring. His.

This time Hunter cursed and released her so fast she landed on her back. By the time she sat up and pulled the shirt down over her breasts, he was across the room and answering his phone.

“What? Are you sure?” she heard him ask, and a ripple of unease went through her at the tension in his voice. With a feeling of dread she picked up her phone to check the call display. Tom. When he hadn’t reached her he’d obviously called Hunter right away. And that had to mean more bad news.

With her arousal extinguished under a bucket of ice water, she hurriedly straightened her clothes and watched Hunter. He was pacing beside the bed, ran a hand through his hair. “Jesus. Yeah, hang on.” He raised his head to look at her. “Pull up your e-mail.”

Grabbing her phone, she did, fighting back the fear slithering inside her.

Someone pounded on the door. She scrambled to her knees, wondering what the hell was happening. Hunter flipped on the light, checked the peephole and pulled it open to let Gage in.

He strode in, his gaze connecting with hers. The worry she saw there made her gut shrivel. “Did you get it?” he gestured to the phone in her hand while Hunter continued to speak to Tom.

“No, I’m just checking my e-mail now,” she said shakily. What the hell was going on now? It seemed to take hours for the program to load. By the time her messages came through, Hunter and Gage were flanking her, looking over her shoulder at the illuminated screen.

“Click on the one from Titanium and open the attachment,” Hunter told her.

“Okay.” Her heart thudded against her sternum. She enlarged the image and stared at it, realizing it was some sort of map. Everyone seemed worried as hell about it. “What is it?”

Face grim, Hunter set his phone down between them and put Tom on speaker. “Tom?”

“It’s addressed to you, Khalia,” Tom answered, “and we need you to figure out what it means, fast.”

“Why, what’s going on?” It scared her even more when Hunter reached out to take her hand and squeezed it.

“It’s part of a ransom note,” Tom said. “A Taliban spokesperson is claiming they’ve taken a family from the school hostage.”

No!
As horror swamped her she could barely feel the pressure of Hunter’s fingers around hers. And Tom kept talking.

“Whatever this diagram means will lead us to their location, and they want only you and one person from your security team to go there. They’ve threatened to kill the hostages if you don’t show up there in the next three hours.”

Chapter Twelve

Oh, fuck him, this was the last thing they needed.

Hunter gauged Khalia’s reaction to the news. With everything that had happened he kept waiting for her to crack under the strain, and so far she’d hung in there better than he ever could have expected. Even so, he couldn’t help but feel like this was the tipping point and he couldn’t stand the thought of watching her break. And with this new strain he was very afraid she might.

Her mouth was pinched, her forehead creased with an anxious frown as she stared at her phone. She squeezed his hand so tight her fingers were white. The room was deathly silent in the wake of Tom’s announcement.

“Is it Aisha?” she demanded, a quaver in her voice.

“We don’t know yet,” Tom answered.

A muscle jumped in her jaw, her gaze still on the phone’s screen, then she gave a sharp shake of her head. “I can’t tell anything from that picture, it’s too small. Give me my laptop.” She reached an arm toward where it lay beside the sofa Hunter had tried to sleep on earlier. Gage lunged over to grab it and set it on the bed before her. Both he and Hunter gathered closer while she booted up the computer and pulled up Tom’s e-mail.

The image on screen was definitely a map of some kind, drawn with what looked like pencil. Even on the laptop’s larger screen it was still too small for them to make out the writing or symbols all over it. She enlarged it again. “Now it’s blurry. But if I shrink it any more than this I can’t see much of anything.”