Reckless Pleasures (9 page)

11

LATER THAT EVENING, everyone was gathered in the command center sharing their stories of the day, catching dinner, indulging in a brew and enjoying a general atmosphere of relief and accomplishment—their efforts had finally yielded something, even though it wasn’t what they’d have liked, which was to find Finley Szymanski alive and well. But now that they’d found some solid evidence, they would be paid for their time in Florida.

And the presence of the bike indicated that they were advancing in the right direction, that they’d been correct in pushing ahead when everyone else had stopped looking.

Finley’s mother and grandparents had, indeed, verified that the bike belonged to the little girl and was the one she’d been riding at the time of her disappearance. Unfortunately Linc told them Forensics was pretty sure there would be little available by way of trace evidence, considering it had been pretty well submerged in water. And while it wasn’t impossible that the girl had walked the bike that far into the forest, she definitely hadn’t ridden it. Meaning they were leaning more toward the “red herring” line of thinking—that there was, indeed, someone else involved in her disappearance and they’d hidden her bike there purposely to throw anyone looking off the true trail.

Megan decided she didn’t want to think about that as she knocked back another good swallow of beer, watching Dari across the room where he sat talking to Linc.

He hadn’t said more than two words to her since meeting up at the evidence scene. He appeared preoccupied and in more than a little pain.

Jason appeared at her elbow. “Sheriff says he’s again acting as go-between for the Szymanskis. Guess the FBI and that slimy lawyer they hired pissed the family off.”

“Again.”

He smiled. “Again.”

Her gaze was glued to Dari’s.

“Hey, everything all right?”

She slowly looked at him. “You tell me.”

He eyed those around them, enough within hearing range not to take the conversation too far. “If you’re asking what I think you are, everything’s fine. Nothing on this end.”

She exhaled, but not fully. Something was up. She just wasn’t sure what yet.

“I think he’s in pain,” Jason said.

“Yeah, me, too. Not that he’ll cop to it.”

“Or take the pain pills I’m sure he has.”

“We both know why…”

“Yeah. We do.”

She turned toward Jason. “Do you think he’s looking at us…oddly?”

“Oddly?”

“You know…”

“No. I don’t think he’s looking at us oddly. He has no reason to.”

She nodded. “Right.”

“I think you’re letting your mind run away with you, McGowan. Reel it back in. Trust me. Everything will be okay.”

A COUPLE OF HOURS later back in her motel room, Megan tried to focus on Jason’s words, but the more she tried, the blurrier they became.

She spent as much time in the bathroom as she could possibly squeeze out. She showered, shaved, dried her hair, moisturized…and then sat down on the closed toilet trying to gather up her courage to go out in the other room where Dari waited.

She pressed her fingertips against her eyelids.

She’d pitted hope against hope that Jason was right and the passage of time would make the situation easier. Instead her guilt seemed to be getting worse. Every time she looked at Dari, the darkness in her expanded. She’d never dealt with an emotion of this nature and figured that had a lot to do with it.

What she didn’t know was what to do about it. This…pretending nothing was wrong was not working, no way, no how.

If only the incident hadn’t involved someone else close to Dari.

She increased the pressure against her eyelids until she saw stars and then moved her hands away. If the person with whom she’d been unfaithful had been a stranger, this would be so much easier.

Easy. Not a word to be used anywhere in conjunction with her life at the moment.

Still, she had to consider Jason and his friendship with Dari. If this blew up in their faces…

She pushed from the commode and paced the short length of the bathroom then back again.

A rap on the door. “Meggie? You okay in there?”

“What? Oh. Yeah. Be right out.”

She bit down hard on her bottom lip, listening for Dari to move away from the door. Then she took a deep breath and went into the other room.

He was limping toward one of the two uncomfortable chairs on either side of a small table near the open window. Like her, he didn’t care for the air conditioner, preferring to leave it off until it was time to go to bed.

Megan’s gaze drifted to the bed in question.

“Did you need the bathroom?” she asked.

He winced as he sat down. “Nah. I took a shower earlier.”

She nodded as she went about the task of putting her laundry into a bag and then stowed it back in the small closet.

“Have you taken something for that?” she asked, gesturing toward where he kneaded his leg above the cast.

He shook his head.

She went into the bathroom and collected ibuprofen along with a glass of water, then took them to him.

“Thanks.”

She sat down in the chair opposite him. It was only nine-thirty and the sun had just set, leaving enough light filtering in through the window that they didn’t need a lamp yet. The eerie, dim orange glow seemed fitting somehow; surreal.

“So,” he said, placing the water glass on the table next to her notes. “Linc called while you were showering. Forensics think they’ve got a partial thumbprint. And it doesn’t match the kid, mom or grandparents.”

“Good. That’s good. Did they run it through the database?”

“No match.”

She reached for the pen next to her notes and wrote down the information. “Both good and bad. Good that no known offender took her. Bad in that we don’t know who did.”

“If anyone did.”

She nodded. “Right.”

While chances might be small, they still remained that Finley had walked her bike into that forest for some godforsaken reason and had pushed forward on foot.

Dari took another sip of water. “All search teams resume tomorrow at daybreak.”

Another turn with both positive and negative consequences. Good because the more people actively looking for the girl, the greater the chances of finding her. And, ironically, bad for the same reason. The more people who looked for her, the greater the chances that the seasoned pros would be distracted by amateur searchers.

Dari cleared his throat. “Jason and I thought it might be a good idea to get a jump on the others.”

She nodded. “Send our teams out before the others get there.”

“I’m going out with Team #1.”

She squinted at him. “Are you sure you’re up for it?”

“I’m sure.”

She glanced at where he rubbed his leg again.

“At the first sign I’m holding anyone back, I’ll get out.”

“Fair enough.”

She got up and crossed to the small refrigerator in the corner, taking out a soda and popping the top. “You want one?”

“No. But I’ll take a sip of yours.”

She smiled and offered it to him before taking a sip. He smiled back and drank, nearly emptying it in one gulp.

She laughed. “Smart-ass.”

She got another soda, standing as she drank from it. It was almost unbearably hot. Despite her shower, she was again drenched in sweat. But she’d gotten used to it at some point during their time here.

“Shall I turn on the air?” Dari asked, noticing the way she wiped her forehead with the back of her hand.

She considered him quietly. “Depends.”

“On what?”

“On whether you’re ready to go to bed.”

The grin returned. “To sleep, you mean.”

“Mmm. To sleep.”

A slow burn began in her stomach and swirled outward.

“Nothing else?”

She opened her eyes innocently. “Are you accusing me of trying to seduce you, Mr. Folsom?”

“No. Just hoping you will.”

She pressed the cold soda can against her neck. “Oh, I think that’s pretty much guaranteed.”

He pushed from the chair and came to stand in front of her. He stood at least five inches taller and she tilted her chin to gaze into his handsome face awash in the fading orange light from the sunset filtering in through the window. Anyone outside wouldn’t be able to see inside. At least not yet. For the time being, they’d get the reflection of the setting sun.

He lifted a hand to the side of her face. Megan’s eyes drifted closed and she leaned into his touch, her heart beating thickly in her chest. In that one moment she felt more love for him than she’d ever believed herself capable of feeling. He rubbed his thumb across her bottom lip and then a moment later followed with his own lips. He kissed her leisurely, lingering at the corners of her mouth before making his way back to the middle.

Oh, how she’d missed being kissed by him. That was one thing that nothing could take from her…from them.

She reached up, framing his face with her fingers, probing the familiar planes and angles, reveling in the stubble on his chin, the silkiness of his brows, the rough texture of his hair against her skin.

“I love you.”

Her whispered words came straight from the heart and left an ache that lodged firmly in her chest.

Regret and guilt and love and need bled together deep within her, making her dizzy with the intensity. She stepped closer, pressing her body into his. The only time she felt a hundred percent okay was when he was inside her, forcing everything else out.

She budged her hand down his chest and stomach until she found the outline of his erection through the thick khaki of his pants.

He groaned into her mouth.

With quick movement, she opened the catch and pushed his pants down, careful not to cause him more pain as she maneuvered around his cast. Then she jerked his T-shirt up over his head, flinging it to land on the other side of the room even as he worked his fingers up under her tank, cupping her breasts in his palms.

Air hissed through her lips as he gently plucked her tight nipples and then bent to run his tongue along the length of one breast, then the other.

Desire rushed through her bloodstream and then back again, coalescing in a deep pool between her thighs.

The shadow of someone walking past the window reminded them the possibility of being seen existed. Dari leaned slightly away, stripping her of her tank before moving to close the curtains and switch on the air conditioner while she checked to make sure the door was locked as she stepped out of her own pants.

They faced each other and Megan couldn’t help thinking they weren’t merely physically naked, but emotionally as well.

This was one place she didn’t have to pretend. She loved Dari. With all her heart. She had from the first moment their eyes met. And she loved him even more now.

She allowed that to show as she gazed at him in the dim light.

She wasn’t aware he had moved until she felt the back of his knuckles graze against her sex.

She gasped, automatically spreading her thighs to allow him better access.

He didn’t disappoint. He turned his hand around, stroking the length of her swollen flesh with his fingertips before dipping one into her slick opening and then rubbing her own juices over her throbbing clit.

“Yes,” she whispered, dropping her head back and losing herself in sheer emotion….

12

THERE WERE TIMES when Dari touched Megan that he thought he might spontaneously combust. On her face, he witnessed such naked emotion he felt compelled to look away, but couldn’t. Never had he shared such a connection with another human being before. And during those few violent moments in the Afghan mountains, he was afraid he never would again.

That she was standing before him now, stripped of clothes and pretense…he knew he was the luckiest man on the face of the earth. Not just because he was with her physically, but because she opened to him in a way that set off a series of emotions he couldn’t begin to identify but which took him to a place he sometimes wished he never had to leave.

She bore down against his hand where he stroked her wetness. She was always so ready for him it was often difficult to suppress the desire to thrust into her to the hilt, forgoing foreplay altogether. But he loved to watch her face when he took his time with her.

Speaking of which…

He leaned back and with his free hand, switched on the lamp, sending her shadowy form into soft relief.

She blinked and turned her head away. “Do we need that?”

He squinted. She’d never objected before. In fact, she was more often the one to reach for the light.

“I want to see you,” he said.

He watched her swallow and tilted her chin toward him even as he removed his fingers from between her legs. Still, she refused to meet his gaze.

He knew a moment of fear. An alarm not much different from the one that had shot through him right before the translator stepped on that IED.

Then she raised her eyes to his and he instantly relaxed. “You always were a perv,” she whispered.

He smiled and then kissed her deeply, not stopping until she melted against him, her nipples pressed against the wall of his chest, her hips swaying against his.

Before he met Megan, he’d thought he knew what love was. He’d been in three long-term relationships and nearly married his high-school sweetheart. But what he’d found with Meg…well, everything that came before paled horribly by comparison. She made him feel as if he’d sprouted wings and could fly.

But he’d sensed a distance in her since his return.

He had several Marine buddies who had suffered the ultimate in separation: the death of love. In many cases, absence didn’t make the heart grow fonder, it made it grow cold.

He’d seen it happen on both sides.

Then there’s what went down when an injury was involved…

No matter how serious, often the very real possibility of death sometimes caused a loved one to react in self-defense.

He’d never seen any of it happening to him and Megan. They were both veterans of some of the most hellish military actions. They’d forged their relationship during one of them. Witnessed what happened to others. And as such, could safeguard themselves, their relationship, from suffering the same fate.

But there were times since his return he swore she was avoiding him. Then they’d be alone and he knew he still had her heart.

Her fingers snaked around his erection, causing his breath to hiss between his teeth. Did she have any idea how profoundly she affected him? He used to think she did. Before he left. Now…he wasn’t so sure. It was as if she held everything that was him in her capable, probing palm—to nurture…or destroy.

“How’s your leg?” she whispered.

He swallowed hard, barely capable of thought when she touched him like that. “What leg?”

She smiled.

Dari groaned and grasped her hips, lifting her to lie across the bed where he followed. She spread her thighs wide and he fit perfectly there, his pulsing length cradled in her slick folds. But he resisted the desire to breach her threshold, no matter how much she wriggled and tried to encourage penetration.

Instead, he kissed her deeply, stroking her hair back from her beautiful face, then ran his lips along the line of her brow, down over the curve of her cheek, tracing the outline of her collarbone, then dipped lower to draw a taut nipple into his mouth…

Megan immediately let her approval be known, bucking her hips off the mattress and renewing her search for a deeper meeting.

Dari grasped her hips, holding her still while he dropped wet kisses along her trembling stomach until he was where he’d planned to be all along….

Her sweet, musky scent filled his senses as he used his thumbs to part her swollen folds, revealing the pink, delicate flesh just beneath. He fastened his lips to the tight nub of her clit, and flicked his tongue back and forth. She moaned and twisted the bedsheets in her fists, coming almost immediately.

Rather than abandoning her, he laved her leisurely, prolonging her crisis, reveling in the shivers that continued to ripple through her muscles. Only when she was completely relaxed again did he lick his way back up to kiss her.

She draped her arms around his waist, pulling him close. “What you do to me…”

He pulled back slightly. “If it’s a fraction of what you do to me, then it’s impressive, indeed.”

She smiled and kissed his neck, shifting her hips so that his almost painful erection was cradled in her dampness.

“Are you sure you’re ready?” he asked.

“Baby, for you, I’m always ready.”

That’s all the incentive he needed.

Grabbing a condom from the nightstand, he sheathed himself and positioned the head of his shaft against her tight portal. She bore upward, taking in an inch. He gladly sank slowly up to the hilt.

Sweet angels, she felt so damn good. Tight and wet and responsive. There was no place on earth he felt this way, nowhere else he’d rather be than right here, her soft muscles contracting around his thick hardness. He withdrew and sank down again, pain forgotten, doubt erased, leaving nothing but pure, hot sensation in its wake.

Megan crossed her legs behind his back and tilted her hips forward, taking him in deeper still.

“Yes…”

The whispered word coming from her lips sent his blood pressure soaring. He increased the rhythm of his strokes, not wanting to rush it, but unable to help himself.

She ran her fingernails down his back and cupped his backside, hungrily meeting him thrust for thrust, her breasts swaying with each move. He leaned down to kiss her and paused, counting backward from ten to ward off his crisis. But when she ground upward against him, he groaned, holding her still as he thrust into her again…and again…

“Oh, yes, baby, yes,” she whispered, shuddering around him.

Dari strained to keep up the rhythm as the force of his own climax hit him hard, threatening to paralyze his movements. Somehow he managed to keep up, riding the billowing waves, continuing even after she’d gone still, and his own shuddering subsided.

“I love you,” he murmured.

Her arms tightened around him. “I love you more.”

That’s when the moment he’d been waiting for presented itself. He’d thought about it nonstop since the ability to think at all was nearly stolen from him.

Reaching for his pants, he took out the velvet pouch in his pocket, wishing he could have gotten the box he’d wanted first, but not willing to wait another moment.

She watched him through the fringe of her lashes. “What are you doing?”

“Hush and give me a minute.”

He awkwardly got down on one knee next to the bed. By now she was curious enough that she moved to a sitting position, staring at him quizzically.

“Dari?”

“Not yet.”

He closed his eyes, summoning the words he’d imagined he’d say. But he found them hard to come by.

He smiled and gazed into her shocked face as he raised the velvet pouch. “From the moment that IED exploded, all I could think of was you, Megan,” he said quietly. “And the fact that I’d never told you how I felt.” He chuckled. “Okay, maybe I mean I’ve never showed you.” He took the three-carat diamond solitaire from the pouch. “Never officially asked you to be my wife.”

She looked so surprised he wondered if she’d heard a single word he’d said.

Then she launched herself into his arms.

After a few moments, he pulled back so he could kiss her and was startled to find her cheeks damp.

She was crying.

He knew a moment of fear so profound he didn’t know quite what to do with it.

“Megan? Are you okay?”

SHE WAS OVERWHELMED…

Megan crawled back up into the bed and rolled onto her side, curling up into a semi-fetal position, laid completely bare by Dari’s lovemaking—
and
his impromptu proposal. All barriers tumbled down. She was unable to hide from him anymore. Especially when she saw the pained expression on his handsome face, the tenderness and concern in his eyes.

It was ironic somehow that the very elements that had brought them together two and a half years ago were now what threatened to pull them apart. In the swirling chaos of violence, Dari had emerged a rock to which she could cling. He’d grounded her when she was afraid she might rocket away from all that made her human. Reminded her what it was like to touch, taught her what it meant to love.

Introduced her to a feminine, nurturing part of herself she had never known existed much less explored.

A wartime romance with a modern twist. An intense fling. That’s what she’d tried to label their time together overseas. She certainly hadn’t expected it to last beyond a return stateside.

Not only had they lasted, they’d bonded even further, becoming a true couple in every sense of the word. She’d often felt that where he left off, she began. Instantly related to every corny word of every love song she’d once taken great pleasure at scoffing.

Understood why her father had loved her mother so completely, even long after her death—at the expense of having any meaningful relationship with his only child, his daughter.

And here she had gone and destroyed it…

“What is it? What’s the matter?”

She shook her head, incapable of words.

He curved against her back, holding her close. She held tightly on to where his arms were wrapped around her, wishing they could stay like that forever…

Afraid that she didn’t have long before they were gone altogether…