Personal Target: An Elite Ops Novel (22 page)

There was no way Nick would want to stay at the Paleo-Niger Project with her for months on end. What she’d begun to hope was that he’d stay at the dig site a few days, then get some information on his fancy SAT phone that would send him off to another corner of the globe. For sanity’s sake, she needed him to leave her, to go away and allow her to deal with this “new start” alone.

She glanced at her watch again and felt her heart rate bump up in anticipation. They should be arriving at the project site any moment. Nick had let her use the SAT phone to call Teddy and tell him that they were on their way. She hadn’t told him about her adventure at the airport or the hotel. She’d do that in person.

Teddy was going to be devastated and feel so responsible. A gentle soul, her mentor was strictly an academic, lost in the world of paleontology. Hearing about the events of the past two days would be just as foreign to him as they had been to her.

Bill slowed the truck. They’d been riding up and down the gentle slope of dunes for several hours. The sun hung low in the sky. Lights in the distance grew steadily brighter. They were almost there. If the smoke was any indication, dinner was cooking.

Jennifer wet her lips and leaned forward in the seat to get a better view of the camp. The scraggly acacia trees were more dead than alive in this area but rose like sentinels beside the road. She was ready to be there now.

Nick made a final call on the SAT phone as they topped the last dune. It sounded as if he was leaving a message. “Hey, it’s me. We’re here at the Paleo-Niger site. Bryan’s still in Niamey but should be joining us soon. I’ll touch base with you tomorrow.”

He disconnected. The project site was spread out before them. The sun was about to dip below the horizon. The red-tinged light would fade quickly. Around the actual camp were several pop-up shelters to shade workers from the blazing heat during the day.

At the perimeter, armed guards from the Nigerien military stopped the truck for confirmation that Bill, Jennifer, and Nick truly belonged here. Jennifer could tell Nick was surprised by that and felt a small spurt of pride. On behalf of the Russ Foundation, she’d exchanged countless emails and several phone calls with Niger’s Minister of Culture and Tourism, who in turn had negotiated with the local tribesmen arranging security here at the dig site. In years past, the Foundation had employed freelance paramilitary guards, and it had not worked well at all. She could already tell that this was a more secure system.

Bill drove into the middle of the camp and parked beside what she assumed was the cooking tent, the largest of all the others. As workers and students gathered around the truck, she glanced at Nick before they climbed out.

“You ready?” she asked him.

“Yeah. Remember my cover?”

Her throat narrowed, but she nodded anyway. He’d asked her not to tell her colleagues exactly why he was with her. Since everyone here from Dallas had already been on the way to Africa when her house blew up, she hadn’t told Teddy anything about it when they spoke on Sunday. She hadn’t told him about her misadventures in Mexico either. She preferred to do that all in person, if the topic ever came up.

Given the circumstances, the easiest cover was obvious.

Nick touched her hips and pulled her to him on the seat, lingering longer than was necessary with his fingers practically inside her shorts pocket. She didn’t look down at his hands but instead focused on his eyes. He kissed her with a possessiveness she wished was real, but in her heart she knew she’d be safer assuming this was all for show.

As far as the camp was concerned, Nick was an old boyfriend from college with whom she’d just reconnected. They’d been unwilling to spend the holidays apart with Jennifer’s last-minute addition to the project, so he’d come to be with her. Naturally, they would be sleeping in the same tent.

She tried not to think about that as they climbed out of the truck, and she introduced Nick to people she knew from the last time she’d been here on the dig. Though professors of paleontology and archaeology were from all over the world, it truly was a very small community. Many of them had received the same birth announcement from Collin and his “baby mama” last week that she had. If there were raised eyebrows at this latest development in her personal life, no one commented.

In addition to the professionals that Jennifer had known for years, there were grad students and some local tribesmen hired to work in the camp. There was a distinctly festive atmosphere. She counted in her head and realized with a shock that Christmas Eve was less than two days away. She’d been so caught up in everything that she’d lost track of time.

Fifteen people had already gathered around the truck when Teddy arrived to wrap Jennifer in a hug. She introduced him to Nick, and if no one else’s eyebrows had risen earlier, Teddy’s did now. He knew exactly who Nick was, or rather who he had been to her.

Her former professor, who had made sure Jennifer got a spot on the China dig after her miscarriage, had even taken the chance of asking her if she was sure about marrying Collin in a foreign country so soon after all the upheaval in her life. He’d also been instrumental in helping her find a new job at SMU when she’d left Collin and her old position in Austin at the University of Texas to file for divorce last summer.

Jennifer didn’t address any of that history with the others. She simply explained that she and Nick had known each other years before and had just reconnected. During the introductions, Nick slid his arm possessively around her waist, pulling her close. He was taking their cover story quite seriously.

Teddy gave him a hard stare as Nick deliberately took her hand and threaded his fingers through hers. She shot a sideways glance at Nick, but he didn’t seem to notice. They walked through the camp on a small tour before moving into the dining tent.

Bill had unloaded the truck and parked it back on the outskirts of the camp before joining the group for dinner. All during the meal Nick played the dutiful, entranced boyfriend, touching Jennifer every chance he got.

Her colleagues were just settling in and recovering from their own jet lag, so work on the latest phase of the dig hadn’t started in earnest yet. Things would get cranked up in the next couple of days. Throughout the meal there was talk of papers, projects, and publications, all having to do with this new Jobaria find. Jennifer felt a tangible, bubbling excitement at the prospect of getting into the field again.

Nick listened politely, not participating much. All too soon it was time for bed. They would be sleeping in the same tent, and she had no idea how she was going to handle that. His touches all through dinner had seemed so personal, so real.

“Sleep well,” said Teddy, pointing them to their quarters. Her friend hadn’t mentioned it, but she was certain it had complicated things to show up with Nick and no warning. Still, she didn’t acknowledge the inconvenience. She was becoming quite good at ignoring things that were too difficult to face.

“Thank you, Teddy.” Nick shook his hand, never letting go of hers, as they said their good nights. “I appreciate your welcoming me on such short notice.”

Nick was still touching her as they made their way through the darkness to their tent, but he was no longer talking. Had all that affection been for show?

Sleeping with him again would be pure insanity. But with each step closer to the tent, Jennifer realized that was exactly what she was about to do, against her better judgment.

N
ICK HELD
J
ENNY’S
hand until they reached the tent. There’d been no reason to drop it until they stood at the canvas door. He unzipped the flap and put his hand on her lower back, guiding her inside.

She was driving him completely crazy. He’d barely survived the multi-hour ride in the truck pressed against her, then dinner—sitting beside her with her fingers wrapped around his. If he touched her one more time tonight, he’d be taking her clothes off. He was drowning in her, and he worried about being able to protect her like this.

A lantern burned brightly on a table beside a double-size foam mattress.
Good God.
He wasn’t sure if he should be grateful or running from the tent like a scalded dog. He clenched his jaw in frustration. There was nowhere else to sleep but the sand.

Teddy had explained that they’d hired two of the local tribesmen to work as housekeepers for the camp. That kept other locals from showing up and begging for work. It had been a problem in the past. The housemen did everyone’s laundry and kept the tents in order, or as orderly as they could with sand floors and limited electricity from their generators.

Nick and Jenny’s packs were beside the bed on a small carpet that looked like it had been woven by the Tuaregs. He was standing behind her, sizing up the rug for what kind of mattress it would make, when he saw the bottle of red wine. It was beside the lantern, along with two plastic cups and a note addressed to Jenny.

He stood reading silently over her shoulder and tried to get a grip on himself before he forgot all the reasons why he should sleep on the floor alone instead of pulling her down to that mattress.

Merry Christmas, Jennifer (if a bit early). Sorry this is not a finer vintage. It’s good to see you happy. Fondest wishes, Tedford

He blew out a deep breath. So their cover had worked. And why wouldn’t it? Much of the story was true. Nick
was
a boyfriend from the past who couldn’t stand to be away from Jenny over the holiday. If he liked touching her more than he should, that just made the story look better.

And that carpet was too damn short.

Jenny glanced at him over her shoulder. Her face was partially shadowed in the lantern light. He could smell the hotel shampoo she’d used at the Grand Hotel du Niger along with the wood smoke from the cooking fire they’d just left, plus something else that had him longing to reach for her. She turned back to the table to unscrew the top on the bottle of wine.

“Want some cabernet?” Her voice held a slight tremor.

Was she affected by this scenario as much as he was? He needed to understand what was happening here, what was happening inside him. He had to touch her. Without thinking beyond the next moment, he put his hands on her again, turning her in his arms.

She was shaking her head
no
even as she looked up at him.

“I can’t do this, Nick. I don’t understand what you want—”

Interrupting her protest, he leaned down and kissed her because he couldn’t stand not to anymore. It had been so long since he’d felt anything. When he pressed his lips to hers, she tasted like no other woman ever had. She tasted like . . . home. That thought had his own voice shaking as he pulled back.

Still, he surprised himself when he whispered, “I just want you.”

He did want
only
her—despite what she’d told him earlier, despite the betrayal he still felt about their history. Despite the hurt the past had inflicted on both of them, he wanted her. Here. Now.

But more than anything he wanted her safe.

He ran his hands up and down her arms, pulling her to him as his body hardened. Her hands moved behind his neck and her fingers teased the ends of his hair, like he remembered from that long-ago summer.

She kissed him back, and when he slid his hands to her ass, she made a tiny noise in her throat that completely undid him. It was obvious, but he said it again anyway. “I want you. Today, tomorrow, all the time.”

“How—” She pulled away with a wrinkle between her brows.

“Jenny, I’ve always wanted you.”

She smiled, but her eyes were wet.

And damn, if he didn’t feel like crying, too. “That summer wasn’t some fluke. I wanted you from the moment I met you. I never stopped.”

Tears rolled down her cheeks, but he didn’t stop talking, knowing he’d never tell her if he didn’t do it now. “I still do.”

“Even after . . .”

“Yes, even after.” He swiped at her tears with his thumb. “I know it’s a helluva thing. The choices we made ten years ago haven’t stopped me from wanting you, from—”

She interrupted him this time with a kiss, and it was a good thing. He’d been about to say something that couldn’t be taken back. Something he wasn’t sure he felt yet.

I forgive you. I want to start again.

Did he? Was he there yet? He wasn’t sure, but he wanted to be.

He steered her to the bed, sliding her shirt over her head with one hand as he reached for the zipper on her cargo shorts with the other. His fingers ached to touch all of her bare skin.

Is it always going to be like this?

He couldn’t get her clothes off fast enough. She pulled at his T-shirt as he went for the clasp on her bra. Soon they were both naked. The night air was cool on his back. The hair lifted along his arms, but he didn’t know if it was from the temperature or from wanting her.

She stifled a squeal when he gripped her waist with cool fingers and gently pushed her to the mattress. Following her down to the bed, he pulled a loose blanket up over the top of them. Under the covers he reached for her again, and this time, if his hands weren’t steady, at least they were warm.

She touched his face when he stroked his fingers from her throat down the middle of her chest to her stomach and lower. There was a vulnerability in her gaze that hadn’t been there yesterday afternoon in the bungalow in Niamey. He wanted her to know it was okay.

She was safe. No matter what happened. No matter how things ended between them in the days to come.

He moved on top of her and sank into her heat, engulfed in the sensation. She closed her eyes as he skimmed his fingertips along her cheek.

“I need to see you,” he murmured, balancing his weight on his elbows, careful not to crush her.

J
ENNY SMILED AND
opened her eyes to find herself locked in a laser-like gaze that she wouldn’t have been able to tear herself away from unless the tent was on fire. Nick kissed her, and the sensation of it all—his being inside her, the cool air on their feet because the blanket had slipped off, the rasp of his whiskered cheek on her face—had her catching her breath in a deep gulp of air.