Line of Fire (5 page)

This was no prissy toy-boy she could push around. A thrill of something spicy and dangerous raced down her spine.

Her gaze dropped to his mouth. His lips were generous, sensuous in shape. He’d be a great kisser. She could feel it. An errant impulse struck her to reach up and snatch the kiss hanging like a threat between them.

“Well?” he demanded.

“Well what?” she asked breathlessly.

He rolled his eyes. “Oh, for God’s sake. Don’t try those seductive female tricks on me. We’re climbing that hill if I have to drag you up it by the hair. Now, are you going to come along nicely or do I have to play hardball?”

The bubble of sensual anticipation in her stomach deflated, leaving behind an unpleasant emptiness. So much for great kissing. She glared furiously at him. “Has anybody ever told you you’re a sadistic jerk?”

He grinned wolfishly. “All the time, Miss Stanton. All the time.”

Chapter 3

T
ex tore his gaze away from the mesmerizing blaze of green leaping in her eyes. His hands itched to grab her shoulders and drag her up against him. He could all but taste the kiss she obviously wanted. Damned if he didn’t want to give her a whole lot more than just a kiss.

How could a woman who was so stubborn and so troublesome make him so hot so fast? He liked his women down-to-earth and sweet. Low maintenance. This virago looked like she’d just as soon tear his head off. And she’d already firmly established herself as a royal pain in the butt.

An exercise, indeed. What nonsense. Uncle Sam would never waste good training dollars trying to impress a spoiled brat like her. Guilt pricked him for pushing her so hard, but he’d had no choice. Somebody’d gone to a lot of trouble to kidnap her, and getting her out of this jungle was going to take all the tricks in his bag, including moving unexpectedly fast.

Once they scaled this last ridge, they’d stop and take a rest. But he wasn’t about to tell her that after her tantrum. No way was he letting her think she ran this show. She had to understand that staying alive meant taking orders from him.

He gave her his best pissed off glare. “Look, lady. I’m out here busting my butt trying to keep you safe. I don’t need any flack out of you about climbing hills or anything else.”

She scowled up at him defiantly, her green eyes snapping and her rounded chest heaving. It figured. The woman he was stuck rescuing
would
have to have a body made for sin and wear clothes that were tight in all the right places.

He growled, “Quit looking at me like I’m going grab you and kiss some sense into you.”

She blinked, startled. Her eyes widened and her pupils dilated. Her breathing accelerated even more.

Damn. His hands reached out of their own volition and wrapped around her upper arms. He watched in shock as he pulled her near. He registered vaguely that she didn’t resist him at all. She was warm and supple against him. All woman. Damn.

He sighed into her hair. “I know this is hard, Princess. But you’ve got to trust me.”

“Said the spider to the fly,” she rumbled against his chest.

“Honey, you have no idea,” he mumbled under his breath. His head dipped lower and, somehow, her mouth rose to meet his.

This wasn’t happening. He wasn’t kissing her. He knew better, and besides, she hated his guts.

But her mouth was soft and sweet and hungry beneath his. She melted against him and he pulled her close, as desperate for more as she was. Their tongues danced and clashed in erotic battle and they devoured each other, fusing bodies and mouths together voraciously. He couldn’t get enough of her, of her honey taste, of the dark, wet recesses of her mouth, of the racing electric shocks everywhere they touched.

Her arms tightened around his neck, pulling him deeper into her, allowing for no escape. Not that the thought of escape seriously crossed his mind.

He had no idea how much time passed before they came up for air. He only knew vaguely that, for some reason, he couldn’t carry her down to the ground and make love to her right now.

He stared at her. She looked as amazed and disoriented as he felt. There was something urgent that he had to remember. But all he could think about was the passion raging in her gaze, the burning need that matched his own.

Eventually his subconscious grabbed him by the short hairs and yanked. A rational thought finally pierced his addled brain.
They didn’t have time for this.
They were being chased.

He shook his head to clear it. “Uh, we need to go,” he managed to say somewhat coherently.

He watched her eyes sluggishly focus on him. “Uh, right,” she mumbled. “Up the hill.”

“Here. Take my hand. Let me help you.”

When she complied, he smiled. This flash of cooperation wouldn’t last, of course. Still, he relished the feel of her soft, slender hand resting trustingly in his. Resolutely he pulled her forward, ignoring his body’s primitive and powerful demand to make this woman his. Now.

It was all he could do to fight off the urge to make love to her. His thoughts darted about in alarm. He had to think about something else! “Watch your footing,” he murmured. “A misstep now could land you with a broken ankle.”

“You’d better hope not,” she retorted, back to her usual piss-and-vinegar self. “If you guys hurt me in this stupid war game of yours, I’ll sue you into the last century.”

He grinned to himself, but replied deadpan, “You signed a legal release before the firing demonstration yesterday clearing the military of any liability. I imagine it still applies.”

“Oooh!” She glared daggers at him.

Man, she was sexy when she was mad. He tore his mind away from bedding all that passion and forced himself to think about where his feet went next. The last thing they needed was for him to get hurt out here.

But his brain betrayed him, circling back to the question of what in the hell had just happened between them. No woman knocked him off his rocker like that! He
never
let women inside his guard. He’d learned that one the hard way years ago. Kimberly Stanton, of all people, most certainly couldn’t have wormed her way past his defenses.

Her dislike of the military was well known within the Special Forces. She’d made it clear to him from the get-go that she intended to take apart his own unit, Charlie Squad. After he’d sworn off women, his team had become his life. He couldn’t imagine doing anything else but spending as many years as his health held out on the squad.

The last thing he needed was a high-maintenance princess with attitude to spare. Especially one who couldn’t hack it when the chips were down. Kimberly Stanton was
so
not his type. His attraction to her must come from the remnants of the drugs in his system. Lord knew, he’d been off his game from the beginning of this fiasco.

He stopped twice on the way up the valley rim when her breathing became labored. The last bit of the climb was harsh, requiring them to scramble on their hands and knees, searching for footholds and handholds among the tangled roots of giant trees. He dropped back behind her to catch her if she fell.

Patiently he guided her through the remaining climb. He touched her ankle when it was time to move a foot, and sometimes moved up behind her, his belly pressing against her back, to guide her hand to the next hold.

He caught snatches of the steady stream of muttering she kept up. “…will see all you lunatics put away…make sure none of you procreate and raise any miniature psychopaths to replace yourselves…have you all neutered as a public service…”

He hid his grin and climbed silently behind her.

Every time he touched her, a sexy little hitch caught in her breathing. It just about drove him to do something drastic.
Business first,
he reminded himself sharply.

Twice he had to put his hand under her firm, shapely tush to hoist her up over a rough patch. Even he was sucking wind by the time the ground leveled out. He glanced back at the brutal hillside they’d just scaled.
Not bad for a woman. Not bad at all.

Kimberly halted beside him, bent over at the waist, breathing hard. “If any of your imaginary bad guys want me bad enough to follow us up that hill, they can have me,” she panted.

Tex snorted. “Nobody’s catching you on my watch.”

She looked him in the eye briefly before her gaze skittered away. “Thanks,” she mumbled.

What was this? Gratitude from the princess? “For what?”

“For helping me up that hill. I can do without this whole Outward Bound experience, but if you’re under orders to drag me through it, I appreciate the assistance.”

Surprise coursed through him. He’d pegged her as the kind of woman who took such things as her due. “No need to thank me,” he replied gruffly. “It’s my job.”

She continued to talk to his feet, refusing to look up at him. “Nonetheless, thanks for the help.”

Fair enough. He asked, “Does this mean you’ll do what I tell you to from here on out?”

She straightened until she looked directly up at him. A spark of humor lit her eyes. The sight of it made his gut clench with need. “If you ask me nicely, and you explain why I need to cooperate, I expect I’ll be generally helpful.”

He grinned in genuine amusement. “A politician’s answer if I ever heard one.”

“My father trained me well,” she answered, her voice light and bitter.

His eyebrows shot up at her tone. What was
that
all about? She said that like she hated her old man’s guts.

Tex sat down on a big root and gestured—politely—for her to sit beside him. He was pleased when she did. “Didn’t Senator Stanton fight in Nam?” he asked casually.

“Oh, yes. He had a rip-roaring good old time over there.”

Tex rolled his eyes. That was one war he didn’t joke about.

Kimberly waxed serious. “He was a big war hero. Decorated six times for bravery on the field of battle. Multiple purple hearts, presidential citations, bronze stars, a silver star, the works. Made the covers of
Time
and
Newsweek.
That’s what launched his political career.”

Her rote answer sounded faintly resentful. He threw up a cautious trial balloon. “You don’t sound too thrilled about being a senator’s daughter.”

Wariness leapt into her gaze. “Let’s just say the senator and I have agreed to disagree on certain subjects.”

The senator? Not “my father”? Tex frowned. Kimberly Stanton was famous for her clashes on Capitol Hill with her old man. But Tex had always thought they remained close outside the political arena. Certainly the press painted the Stanton family that way. But from her tone, he got the distinct impression their differences went much deeper than politics.

He changed subjects. “Any idea why someone would want to kidnap you?”

“You tell me. It’s your stupid training scenario.”

He exhaled in frustration. “I’m not kidding. This isn’t an exercise. Can you think of any reason why someone would want to kidnap you?”

She glared at him. “Are you always this stubborn?”

His eyebrows shot up.
She
was calling
him
stubborn? “Aw, come on. Play along for fun. Can you think of anything?”

“Nope. Not a thing.”

What was so special about her or her family that made Gavronese rebels kidnap her? He asked, “Do you know much about what your father’s working on politically these days?”

Her eyes narrowed, giving them a distinctly feline look. She answered coolly, “My father doesn’t scratch his nose in Congress without me knowing about it.”

He almost felt sorry for the elder Stanton. He sure as hell wouldn’t want to have to face her across a Senate chamber. “Can you think of any legislation your father’s involved with, any committees, any investigations, that might be of interest to the Gavronese rebels?”

Her gaze turned thoughtful. “Is this exercise based on some threat you’ve received from these rebels against my father?”

“Hello. Earth to dense blonde. Come in. This is
not
an exercise!”

She just shook her head.

He had never met anyone who could so ignore the evidence staring them right in the face. She was sitting in the middle of a jungle, for God’s sake!

She laughed without humor. “Maybe you should pretend to kidnap me for money. My parents are rolling in it. But I wish your hypothetical bad guys luck in prying any of it out of my father’s tight fists.”

Wow. So much for the cheery, All-American image the Stanton family projected to the public. He sighed. “I suppose it doesn’t really matter why the rebels kidnapped you at this point. The goal now is to get you home safely.”

Speaking of which, they needed to get moving. He stood up and shouldered the two rifles. He turned to head out but was forestalled when Kimberly put a hand on his forearm. Her fingers were cool against his skin, but they might as well have been branding irons the way they burned his flesh.

“Why don’t we just cut to the chase and save ourselves a lot of grief, here? You do the big, fancy, save-the-girl firing demonstration you’re supposed to do. I’ll act suitably impressed and then we can both get out of here. If we hurry, we can be home in time for supper.”

“Darlin’, has anyone ever told you you’re more stubborn than a constipated mule?”

She laughed, her eyes sparkling merrily. “All the time, Mr. Monroe. All the time.”

“I’m a captain, not a mister. But call me Tex. I don’t like titles much either way.”

“Okay, Tex. And please, call me Kimberly.”

Their gazes met candidly for a moment. The touch of her gaze upon him was nearly as tangible as a physical caress. The swirling currents between them began to build again and heaviness built low in his gut. Tex looked away hastily.

He cleared his throat. “I’d like to follow this ridgeline for a couple more hours. But no more climbing today, I promise. An hour or so before dark, we’ll stop to hunt for food and water. Then we’ll set up camp for the night. Okay with you?”

She grimaced in distaste. “Camp? Sorry. I can’t stick around for a whole night of this hilarity. I’ve got a dinner meeting this evening with Senator Norwood. I’m afraid I’m going to have to insist that you take me home now.”