The Hunter (28 page)

“Not yet,” he said, and his smile was so beautiful. His hand reached down again and he intimately explored her. “Slowly, Lily. I want you to feel very good. You’re so wet now, baby. I want you to lose yourself like I’m going to lose myself in you.”

Lily shut her eyes tightly. She didn’t want to lose herself. She always had them come in her and lose themselves as she rode them. They were the ones out of it; she was the one using them. Except that she hadn’t felt the same sharp pleasure that Brad was giving her now. It was the same building pressure from the other night, the one that took all her control to stop.

She was so close. She held her breath, fighting the need to pull his hand away. A sob escaped her lips.

“Yes, baby, so close.”

She felt him slide down and gasped at the first feel of his tongue where his hand had been. He pleasured her with rhythmic strokes, strong and hard, his sure fingers opening her folds wide for his tongue. She was melting, losing all thought. She fought it even as she felt herself getting wetter and closer.

No!
She couldn’t be this easy to conquer, could she? She chased after that elusive tension mounting inside her even as she fought to let go. His fingers joined his tongue. She sobbed harder. She couldn’t lose control.

His weight came back on her and she wrapped her legs eagerly around him. This she could do. She would make him come inside her, and she would watch him. Instead of plunging into her, he rubbed himself against her clitoris, over and over, until she felt her legs falling onto the bed as she helplessly squirmed.

And then, suddenly, he was inside her, filling her. She was so wet that he went all the way in, stretching her to the point of no return. And still she fought not to let go.

“It feels so good to be inside you,” Brad whispered into her ear. “I want you to come with me, Lily.”

His strokes were long and hard. She heard his breathing as he neared his climax. She gritted her teeth and clenched her insides so that he would come sooner. A few more strokes. He would be a useless soft pile of nothing in a few more…She gasped as he changed angle, jerking upward in swift, hard thrusts. He reached down and opened her again, his knuckles slithering over her most vulnerable spot. He thrust harder. His knuckles slid in time.

Lily tried to raise her legs. If she wrapped them around his waist, she could control his…Brad sat up on his haunches and plunged deep. The first wave of her orgasm hit her.

No.
She tried to stop it. She felt him pulling out slowly. Felt the long, slow stroke of him filling her all the way. The tightness started to uncoil.
No!
His finger pulled at her clitoris and her whole body quivered as everything unwound inside her. She had no control left. The pleasure was unbelievable, almost painful, every wave taking away all her fight. She heard Brad give a moan and felt him shuddering as he fell on top of her body. He was right. She was lost in him and she was falling apart. She hated herself for losing control.

Afterward, Lily stared up at the ceiling in the dark, listening to Brad’s breathing. They both fell asleep afterward. He held her close, one hand covering her breast. She had to get up soon. Find her pants. Get the hypodermic needle.

For some reason, after so many years, she had wanted to feel an orgasm with a man. So tonight she had done it successfully. It had felt wonderful and wrong. Brad had made her lose control and now she truly hated him. He deserved the needle.

Her cell phone’s muffled ringing came from somewhere near the foot of the bed. Brad stirred. “Shhh,” Lily said. “I’ll get it.”

They rested till dawn broke over the mountains, then resumed their climb down the mountain pass. It had been a while since Amber had hiked like this. She had grown up doing this with her parents, going from small village to small village, some of which were reachable only on foot. She had learned to appreciate the local culture of each country and to use the resources to make traveling easier. It wasn’t the first time she had to walk like this in the dark. There were times in Africa when her parents and she had to run off with many other villagers from advancing militia.

She looked at Hawk. She didn’t care whether he was a SEAL or not. The man was injured and any kind of strenuous exercise had to aggravate those bruised ribs and Lord knew what else. His breathing still didn’t sound right, although it didn’t seem to stop him as he kept a pace that would down most ordinary men.

But she was fast learning that Hawk McMillan wasn’t an ordinary man. She had always admired that well-sculpted body, thinking that he must work out a lot. As a SEAL, she now knew, he had undergone training in conditions that would test his spirit and endurance. She had seen television shows on SEAL training in which young men were deprived of sleep and made to train in extreme conditions in the ocean.

Sailors,
she corrected herself. She looked up at Hawk climbing above her. She recalled the way he had tested her, the sure way he had learned the city alleys. How could she not have noticed how calm he had been in the middle of a battle? Her lips twisted when she remembered how she had teased him, saying he was probably hiding in a bush. She suspected now that he had been doing a lot more. That sailor body had been sculpted to be a fighting machine. How strange that she, who had thought she would never meet someone who would understand her way of life, would meet a man like him.

Hawk looked down. “What’s the matter? Are you tired?”

“I’m fine. Do you need to stop for a rest?” She grinned at his snort. He didn’t even bother to answer her. “You keep forging ahead like you know where you’re going.”

“I wanted to make sure there’s nothing over this ridge, that’s all. You’re back to point man once you get up here.”

She grinned up at him and resumed her climb. He had been teaching her all these military terms as they hiked through the night. “Point man” was the one walking point, looking for wires and bombs as he led the way.

“I kind of like checking out your cute ass from behind,” she told him.

Hawk frowned down as he offered a helping hand to pull her up. “That’s not very professional,” he said. “You’re supposed to be looking around you to make sure we don’t come under attack.”

She had been doing that, but she wished he hadn’t taken off his jacket. His soaked T-shirt molded his pumped body like a second skin and it was distracting. She had better change the subject before she showed him how unprofessional she could get.

“There’s a farm a short way from here,” she told him. “We’ll try to hitch a ride. That will give us more rest time.”

“Won’t the farmer think it odd to have two strangers drop in like that?”

She shook her head. “No, this area is full of foreigners, refugees, and aid workers. During the height of the war, refugees were pouring in from Kosovo and Macedonia, so strangers are nothing new to the locals around here. It’s the Albanian authorities we have to worry about. We’ll tell the farmer we’re heading for Tirana. It’s one of the oldest cities, with famous castles, and we can have them drop us near there. And if nothing else, money talks around here.”

“Tirana. That’s one of the cities near the weapons.”

Amber nodded. “It’s roughly fifty kilometers between Tirana and Elbasan. Let’s hope your coordinates are correct, because that’s a lot of area to go looking for a hidden cache.”

“Jed told me that they had all the coordinates for the UAVs as they flew over the various drop points. The problem from his end was to distinguish between regular food aid and weapons that are being illegally smuggled into the theater.”

Amber coughed. “Umm…UAV? Theater?” He had definitely reverted to military mode, with all this talk. “Can we talk English?”

His lips quirked. “Unmanned Aerial Vehicle. “Theater” means the battle zone.”

She chuckled quietly. “You guys. How about stopping for some TQL from the WHD?” She pointed to their pack. “You know, thirst-quenching liquid. Water-holding device?”

Hawk pulled her close to give her a quick kiss, his stubble rubbing her face. “ILY,” he said quietly into her ear.

She looked up at him, the morning sun just breaking into a tiny red streak in the sky. Standing on a mountain. Heaven above and mere men below. Her parents would certainly approve. She smiled joyously.

“ILY, too,” she said, and it felt so right.

Everything seemed to fall according to plan after that. They didn’t see any border authorities or roaming mercenaries. The farmhouse. A curious but helpful farmer and his family. American dollars bought them some breakfast, the use of the facilities, a new change of shirts and some straw hats, and a ride toward Tirana. They took turns napping as they sat in the back of the little truck, bouncing uncomfortably, though still it was, Amber noted with satisfaction, much better than spending the next two days hoofing it. It was a risk, but time wasn’t on their side anymore. Dilaver had transportation, and sooner or later he would catch up.

She watched Hawk give the farmer another tip when he dropped them off, frowning as she noticed Hawk limping. “How’re the ribs holding up?” Like he was going to tell her truth. “I know, I know, you’re a SEAL, blah, blah, blah, but you’re a limping SEAL right now.”

Hawk surveyed the dusty path. “We have to get off the main road, if you can call this one. Do we go to the left or the right of it?”

He had changed the subject, so he was in pain. Amber frowned. His eyes were a little red and there were lines bracketing his mouth. She probably looked just as rough, but she didn’t have to deal with bruised ribs. They probably had another ten kilometers to cover and then they still had to conduct a search of the area. “Hawk?” she prompted.

“I’ll make it, sweetheart,” he said. “The thing is to keep moving. It’s the resting that’s killing me.”

She stared at him for a moment, then shook her head. “Is that what they teach you in SEAL school?” she asked incredulously.

He grinned. “We have a saying. The only hard day is yesterday, baby. Come on, I’ll race you.”

To prove his point, he took off running. Amber stared after him. “I’m in love with a madman,” she muttered.

The morning sun broke through the canopy of trees, dappling the path with speckled patterns. They made their way through the woods, then a clearing, and then another patch of rocky woods.

“According to the coordinates, the drop zone should be east of here,” Amber said. “I need a quick break before we get out into the open again.”

“All right. I’ll stand guard right here.” Hawk looked around. “Don’t go too far. There might be ugly bears or something.”

“There aren’t any bears in Albania,” she said. “Are there?”

Hawk nodded solemnly. “Albanian bears are noted for their stench.”

Amber glared at him over her shoulder before disappearing behind a clump of shrubs. He was such a tease sometimes. Looking around, she relieved herself quickly in a shady area. As she readjusted her clothing, the sound of crushed twigs behind her gave her warning that she was no longer alone. She turned and ducked at the same time, lunging forward and using her weight as an element of surprise.

She knew Hawk had been setting her up with that stupid bear story. Her “assailant” toppled onto his back with a grunt. She climbed astride, careful to avoid the rib cage. Leaning forward, she gripped his hips with her thighs. Strong hands came up to hold her waist.

“Ha! What do you think of th—You’re not Hawk!” She sat up, too startled to attack. But she could have sworn it was—

“No, ma’am,” the stranger said, amusement in his voice.

“What the hell are you doing, straddling my husband?” a woman’s voice cut in.

Amber had barely registered the similarity between the stranger and Hawk before the woman charged at her. No time to think. Rolling off, she kicked out at the new assailant.

“Hawk!” she called out.

Hawk heard the thumps first, then the
voices. He limped over to the clump of vegetation that screened his view. He was in no hurry. He had known for some time that they were being watched.

Pushing through a leafy shrub, he came upon a sight that brought a grin to his lips. Hell, who would have thunk it? He approached the man standing nearby. The man didn’t turn. Both of them watched the two women going at it for a few seconds.

“Mine’s going to win for sure,” the man said.

“Sorry, Kisser. I have the winner. Why do you think I let you attack her? I knew she could take you down.”

They finally exchanged glances. The other man looked him up and down.

“Sorry, cuz,” he drawled. “She had other things on her mind when she jumped me. That’s why Lena is a bit…ah…mad. Your companion was overly enthusiastic about straddling me.”

Hawk narrowed his eyes. Amber on top of Steve, he could take. Amber being amorous with him was a different matter altogether. “Did she tongue you?” he asked, remembering a certain incident when Marlena, Steve’s wife, had mistaken Hawk for Steve and had been rather amorous herself.

“She was about to,” Steve said, a corner of his mouth lifting.

Marlena must have stopped her just in time. Good thing. Steve would have gotten revenge, even at the risk of being beaten up by both his wife and cousin. Hawk’s grin widened. “Well, then, I still win,” he mocked. “M. will never let you near Amber now.”

A small branch flew over Steve’s shoulder. “That’s the way to do it, babe,” he called out approvingly. “Ohhh. Nice move there. Trust you to end up with a woman in the middle of the woods, Hawk.”

“She’s my guide,” Hawk said. Among other things.

Steve glanced at him briefly. “Since when have guides in Albania lost their bad breath and facial hair? Did she do that number on your pretty face, by the way?”

Hawk grinned. “Why, you afraid my woman’s gonna do the same to your wife?”

Steve gave a snort and looked back at the two fighting women. “Lena will kick my ass if I jump in there and stop her in the middle of a cat fight.
Your
woman, huh?”

Hawk crossed his arms and leaned back against a tree trunk. “Yes.” And it felt good saying that. He had seen the possessive looks his cousin had given Marlena the first time he had met her in D.C. and had wondered at what made a man feel like that about a woman. Now he knew. He looked at Amber, busy dodging Marlena’s kicks, and felt a rush of masculine satisfaction knowing that they belonged together and there was no doubt in his mind that he had every right to call her his woman. He wanted to be with her more than anything else. And if it meant staying in Macedonian hell awhile after this was over to convince her, he would do it. The decision was made just like that.

He straightened from his pose. “Come on, shark bait,” he said to his cousin. “We’ll be brave SEALs and go in there together.”

“But Lena’s winning,” Steve protested as they walked into the fray.

Both of them parted the women. Steve wrapped his arms around Marlena from behind; Hawk blocked one of Amber’s punches and swung her over his shoulder. Both women immediately turned their attention to their captors.

“Put me down right now,” Amber said, her voice breathless from exertion.

“Can’t have you girls making all that noise, babe,” Hawk said. “Now, now, you don’t want to kick my injured ribs, do you?”

She gave a rude snort but stayed still, letting him stride a few steps away from the other couple. He had to smile. She really didn’t want to hurt him.

He looked over at his cousin, who seemed to be having a more difficult time placating Marlena. “But Lena,” he heard Steve say, amusement in his voice, “she attacked me.”

“You didn’t have to enjoy it so much when she was on top of you trying to lick you off.”

Hawk slid Amber off him and brushed twigs from her hair. “Lick?” he murmured. “You licked another man in front of me?”

“I did not lick him! And I thought…never mind what I thought. Who are those two?”

“He’s my cousin and she’s his wife. She was just mad to see you licking her husband, so I don’t blame her.” He cupped Amber’s face. “Am I not enough for you, that you have to attack some other woman’s husband?”

Amber stuck a tongue out at him childishly. “He looked like you,” she said, and cast a glance at the squabbling couple a few feet away. “Well, in these shadows he did.”

Hawk and Steve had been mistaken for each other since they were kids, so he couldn’t blame her. His cousin was more like a brother to him, and they had both had their share of pranks blamed on each other through their childhood. “He’s uglier,” he told her.

Steve glanced over. “I heard that, Rocky Balboa. You’re the one with cuts all over your face.”

Lena turned to look at Hawk, too. “Are you injured, Hawk?” She sounded surprised, her anger gone. “Who hurt you?”

“Good question,” Steve said, and released his wife now that she was no longer trying to hurt him.

“But why would you suddenly bump into your cousin in the middle of the woods in Albania?” Amber asked.

“That’s another good question,” Hawk said, looking at his cousin. “Strange coincidence.”

“It’s part of our honeymoon,” Marlena said, smiling, as she and Steve walked over. “We thought since you didn’t show up for our wedding, we’d come see you for our honeymoon.”

Marlena Maxwell—Marlena McMillan now, he supposed—was one of GEM’s premier covert operatives. She was known in the underworld as the world’s most glamorous assassin. When Hawk had first met her, they were in the middle of a gun battle. Steve had asked him for help to save her, but from the way she had coolly picked off the enemy, she seemed able to take care of herself quite well. Hawk liked her. She was definitely a good match for his cousin.

“Well, then, I’d better make some friendly introductions,” Hawk said. “This is Amber, Marlena. Amber, this is Marlena, and Steve, my cousin.”

Marlena’s smile dimmed a little as she studied Amber. Hawk noticed Amber was doing the same thing to the other woman.

“Nice form,” Marlena said.

“You’re okay, too,” Amber said, eyes narrowing just a fraction. “Are you always so impetuous about starting a fight?”

Marlena deliberated for a second, then her face broke into a smile. “Yes,” she drawled, “but only with the worthy ones.”

Amber blinked, then laughed. “Good to know I’m one of them.”

“I’ll have to teach you other ways to get rid of the flies,” Marlena said.

“Flies?”

Marlena’s expression was mischievous as she looked at Hawk. “Don’t tell me you don’t know how delicious the McMillans can be,” she drawled, and comfortably leaned against Steve when he wrapped his arms around her. “Trust me. You’ll need to talk to me about the flies.”

Hawk grinned back at Marlena. “You haven’t changed a bit since I last saw you.” Always teasing. Never boring.

“Darling, you have.” The other woman looked critically at him. “Now tell me who beat you up like that so I can take care of them for you.”

Hawk felt Amber nudging his side. “I can take care of him,” she cut in smoothly.

He grinned at Steve and shrugged. “What are you good for these days, Kisser?” he asked.

Steve shrugged back. “If I tell you, you’ll be deathly afraid,” he deadpanned.

It was definitely great to see familiar faces from his real life. However, it also reminded him of why he and Amber were there. “So, seriously, you two didn’t just appear in this no-man’s-land to honeymoon,
and
happen to bump into me. Tell me.”

“It
is
our honeymoon, just a bit late. We decided to do a little side trip, that’s all. Remember Harden, my old OC from the CIA?”

Hawk recalled that Rick Harden was the operations chief of a CIA task force Steve had been sent to infiltrate a while back. He was the one who had almost had Marlena killed. “Yeah. He causing you trouble again?”

“No, he’s actually turned out to be a hero of sorts back in D.C. Admiral Madison likes him.” Steve shifted and pointed south, toward where Hawk and Amber had been heading earlier. His expression sobered. “We’re here on a side mission for ourselves and Harden. Cam and Patty have been missing for a few months now, and after looking through all the possible avenues, we’ve concluded that they or their bodies were dumped out of the planes.”

Hawk frowned. “Cam? It’s that mouthy dude in your task force, right?” Steve and Marlena nodded. “Why would he and his girl be dumped out of a plane in Macedonia?”

“Long story. They were tracing hidden illegal air shipments and weapon dropoffs by certain elements in the CIA that were supposed to be relief aid. There were multiple shipments going out when they disappeared, so the difficult part was trying to pinpoint which was legit. Harden and I traced one of the moles who disappeared and managed to find her background connecting to the old German system and the KLA. She was the connecting piece to all the moles, giving orders on what went where. Some sort of double-agent handler.” Steve looked at his surroundings. “Hard to believe old Greta would be walking around in this place, running weapons. Anyway, Lena and I are only concerned about Cam and Patty, so that’s why we’re doing this on our own. Needle in a haystack, but we’re close.”

There was one thing that caught Hawk’s attention. “Greta?” he mouthed quietly.

Amber turned to him. “She has to be the same Greta.”

“What, you’ve seen her? Where?”

“About this tall, brown hair, stylish. She’s supposedly a relative of Dilaver’s,” Hawk said.

Steve frowned. “Don’t think we’re talking about the same person. The Greta I’m talking about was Harden’s secretary, and had been working as one for over a decade. And she had white hair. Kind of old-ladyish in the way she talked and walked.”

“Darling, appearances can be deceptive,” Marlena chipped in, canting an eyebrow.

“I saw her in and out of that office for a year and never thought of her as more than a secretary,” Steve said.

“And it’s positive that she’s a double agent?” Hawk asked.

“A handler,” Steve corrected.

“What’s the difference?” Amber asked.

“A double agent is an asset. A handler makes sure an asset remains one,” Marlena explained.

“Thank God I’m in the contracting business, then,” Amber said with a wry expression.

“Oh, me, too,” Marlena said. “What do you do?”

“I collect info and sell it for money,” Amber replied sweetly. “And you?”

Marlena cocked her head. “I cancel people. Sometimes for money.”

“And other times?”

“Other times I do it when they’re straddling something that doesn’t belong to them.” Her blue eyes were challenging.

Hawk cleared his throat. He didn’t have to be standing where Steve was to know that Amber’s eyes would have that dangerous sparkle in them that meant she was thinking of some form of revenge. He could tell Marlena was in her GEM operative mode, testing Amber, and he didn’t particularly want to have to explain about her agency and its ways to Amber right now.

“It’s a high probability that it’s the same Greta,” he said, smoothly segueing into using GEM’s love for percentages. “Dilaver’s always talking about drop shipments from D.C. that are disguised as relief aid. Then there’s an Aunt Greta who’s a handler who knows about these shipments, or at least some things in them. She seems to be waiting for someone else to show up, though, because she doesn’t know what the weapon I’m looking for looks like.”

“I bet it’s the missing CIA director from the Directorate of Administration. Remember, Lena? Harden told us the director from Administration had disappeared along with Greta,” Steve said, then turned to Hawk and explained, “Administration is a department at the Agency that distributed weaponry among its many functions.”

Hawk nodded thoughtfully. “Makes sense to have a mole in that department, then, distributing weapons under the guise of relief aid. No one would check too closely if the director was also involved. I have a bunch of coordinates of each hidden cache for the KLA and there’s one around here, between Tirana and Elbasan. Amber’s very knowledgeable about this area, but the concern is we’ll get to the cache too late.”

“We know where it is,” Marlena said, affecting a yawn. “If I’d known you were after something in there, I’d have taken care of it while we were looking for Cam and Patty.”

“You know the location?” Hawk asked. He looked at Steve. “Why didn’t you contact the admiral? Or GEM?”

“Like we said, we’re officially on our honeymoon. Except for Harden, nobody knows we’re here,” Steve said, a corner of his mouth lifting. “Nobody told us you guys were after weapons caches. We didn’t even know what was in the crates. Most of them had ‘U.S. Relief Aid’ in bright blue and red on them. We planned on reporting this, but we found things that we think belonged to Cam and Patty and we’re heading off to Tirana for more clues.”

“Then they’re alive,” Hawk said.

“We don’t know,” Steve said, concern creeping into his voice. “We do know they were in one of those crates. I wish I knew for sure, Hawk. I can’t let it go when I don’t know what’d happened to them. Anyway, we’ll take you two back there. It’ll be faster.”

Hawk tapped Steve’s shoulder. “Sorry about Cam,” he said. Cam had been Steve’s closest friend when he was alone, a fish out of water, in D.C. “You guys can go ahead to Tirana. Just give Amber and me the directions. Tracking is tracking, after all.”

Marlena gave an exaggerated sigh. “Get the job done and follow us back to Tirana. Why would anyone track on foot when they can rent a Land Rover?”

Hawk grinned. He couldn’t imagine Marlena tracking up a mountain, either. “We had to cross a border without papers, for one thing. And then for some reason there weren’t big signs saying ‘Land Rover Rentals’ up in the mountain villages. Can’t figure out why.”

“Keep my cell number with you, darling. Call me whenever and I’ll arrange to pick you up one way or another.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Hawk promised, and didn’t blink when Amber bumped into his painful ribs. He’d have to teach her not to take Marlena’s baiting so easily. “Give me a few minutes to talk to my partner.”